Civ 7: Barbarians, Independent Powers & City-States, Explained

screenrant.com:

The concept of Barbarians in past games has been updated in and merged with the concept of City-States into a new system focused on statehood. This system utilizes Influence, a new currency for Civilization 7 that enables diplomatic actions with opponents and Independent Powers. Villages discovered in the Antiquity Age can be upgraded to statehood with influence and the use of specific actions to convert them. These villages are known as Independent Powers and are strategic necessities no matter what leader or civilization the player chooses.

Independent Powers are a new concept to , though they will be familiar to players of previous games in many ways. Hostile powers are reminiscent of Barbarians from past games, and City-States functioned very similarly, providing bonuses based on category type (i.e. Science, Military, etc.). The Independent Powers system has distinct differences, however, and it's worth paying attention to how it can be utilized throughout the Ages, since Independent Powers reset at the beginning of each Age. Here's a look at Independent Powers and City-States in and how they replace Barbarians.

Barbarians have been a part of the franchise from the start, evolving with each iteration of the game. In earlier games, these are rudimentary raiding units that are automatically hostile, with varying degrees of aggression toward major civilizations in the game. In there is an actual Barbarian Civilization with Barbarian Cities that can spawn units based on the same principles that a normal city would, but this concept shifts in and places Barbarians in Encampments that spawn randomly based on difficulty level. In, Barbarians more or less follow this same formula.

Sid Meier's Civilization 7 evolves the defining 4x series with both elegant additions and imperfect changes, but the end results are still glorious.

Barbarian units — and all Barbarians for that matter — act somewhat aggressively to invade and pillage cities. Typically, these need to be dealt