Scientific

Fez

Suzerain and envoy bonuses summarised in our own words from the game data.

Suzerain bonus

The first time you convert a city with a religious unit, gain 20 Science per Population of that city (standard speed).

Game data traceMINOR_CIV_FEZ_UNIQUE_INFLUENCE_BONUS

Strategy guide

Each first-time conversion of a city pays Science equal to 20 per citizen there, so aim missionaries at big foreign cities you have never converted. A deliberate conversion tour through a pop-10+ empire is worth several completed techs — science paid for with faith.

Best civs & plans

Spain's mission kit and any faith-rich civ convert this into a real science engine; it also gives religious civs a path to keep pace in science without extra Campuses.

Envoy plan

Fez pays per event rather than per turn, so the envoys should arrive just before a planned conversion tour, not the moment you meet it. Three envoys placed as your first batch of Missionaries or Apostles finishes is the ideal window. Its scientific ladder adds Science in Libraries and Universities, which a faith-heavy civ often lacks, making the one- and three-envoy tiers a pleasant side benefit even without suzerainty. Six is rarely worth it here because the suzerain effect does not scale with envoy count and religious civs seldom build Research Labs early. Competition comes from science leaders who want the ladder, not the effect, so an AI may sit on it stubbornly; Amani's double weight is the cheapest counter. Envoys from Mysticism and from Fez's own quests, which often ask for a religious unit, are the supply to earmark.

Value by era

The payout is population times a fixed amount, so it grows with city size, which grows with the game. In the classical era a conversion of a size-five city returns roughly the cost of an early tech — nice, but Missionaries are scarce then and are usually needed to secure your own cities first. The medieval and Renaissance eras are the peak: AI capitals reach twelve or fifteen citizens, Apostles with the Proselytizer promotion flip them in a single charge, and one Faith-funded tour through a neighbour's core returns several techs' worth of Science at a point when techs still cost little. By the industrial era every city has been touched once, and the remaining unconverted targets are far away or already following a hostile religion. Fez is one to hit hard in the mid-game and then let go.

Pitfalls and how to protect it

Only the first conversion of each city ever counts, so spreading to a city that your religion already reached by passive pressure or by an earlier unit wastes the Science; check the religion lens before spending a charge. Conversions require the unit to actually flip the majority, which means a Missionary's single spread into a large city with an entrenched faith may fail to convert and pay nothing — send Apostles or stack charges. AI civs with a religion of their own treat conversion of their cities as a grievance and may declare war, so mind any Geneva-style peace bonus you hold elsewhere. If suzerainty lapses mid-tour, the remaining conversions pay nothing; place a spare envoy before the tour starts. Should Fez be captured, there is no ongoing value to protect; liberate only as part of a broader campaign.

Envoy bonuses

  • 1 envoy+1 Science in your capital and in each Library you own.
  • 3 envoys+2 Science in each University and each Consulate you own.
  • 6 envoys+3 Science in each Research Lab and each Chancery you own.

Envoy bonuses are shared by every city-state of the same type.

Plan your districts in the adjacency calculator →

Other Scientific city-states

Related guides

Last reviewed: 2026-10-03