Zanzibar

Strategy guide

Cinnamon and Cloves — luxuries that exist nowhere else — arrive with 6 Amenities each. Twelve amenities from a single suzerainty is the largest happiness injection in the game, effectively freeing several cities from ever worrying about Entertainment Complexes.

Best civs & plans

Everyone wants it; wide empires and warmongers drowning in war weariness want it most. Often the most-contested trade city-state on the map.

Envoy plan

Expect the hardest envoy race on the map: the AI values Zanzibar highly and will keep adding envoys through the game, so three is a starting line rather than a finish. Commit early and plan to hold a cushion of two or three, because the loss of twelve amenities in a single turn is a crisis, not an inconvenience. The trade-type rewards make the envoys worthwhile regardless: gold in the capital and every Market or Lighthouse at one, in Banks and Shipyards at three, in Stock Exchanges and Seaports at six, so a coastal commercial empire that goes to six loses nothing. Amani belongs here for most of the game, and the double-counted Diplomatic League envoy is best spent on Zanzibar before anywhere else.

Value by era

In the ancient era the amenities are mostly unused — small cities are content with one luxury — so an early suzerainty is about securing the title before the AI's envoy count runs away, not about immediate yield. Value climbs steadily from the medieval era as cities pass the sizes where a single luxury no longer covers them, and it peaks from the Renaissance onward for wide empires and for anyone at war, when war weariness stacks on top of ordinary demand and two luxuries carrying six amenities each hold whole regions out of unrest. The bonus is instant, so a late suzerainty is always worth taking if the race can still be won; in practice the late race is usually the problem, not the payout.

Pitfalls and how to protect it

The tempting mistake is selling Cinnamon or Cloves to an AI that offers a fortune for a luxury it cannot get elsewhere — the gold is real, but the amenities leave with the resource, and a suzerainty-sourced luxury is fragile enough that the deal can collapse if the title changes hands. Never build the empire's happiness around Zanzibar without a fallback: keep at least one Entertainment Complex or Water Park in the largest cluster, so a lost race costs comfort rather than a wave of revolts. Read the envoy screen every few turns during the mid-game; the AI adds envoys silently. Zanzibar is a coastal city with ordinary defences, and an AI that captures it takes the luxuries with it, which is one of the few cases where a liberation war pays for itself in avoided unrest.

Envoy bonuses

• 1 envoy+2 Gold in your capital and in each Market or Lighthouse you own.
• 3 envoys+4 Gold in each Bank, Shipyard and Consulate you own.
• 6 envoys+6 Gold in each Stock Exchange, Seaport and Chancery you own.

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

Other Trade city-states

• Venice
• Cahokia
• Hunza
• Jakarta
• Mogadishu
• Muscat
• Samarkand

Related guides

• City-States and Envoys: Where Your Influence Should GoWhere envoys come from, how to spend the first handful, which city-state types match each victory plan, how to win and keep suzerainty against the AI, and when conquering a city-state is the right call.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Diplomatic Victory: Earning and Spending FavorA working plan for the Gathering Storm diplomatic victory: where Diplomatic Favor actually comes from, how World Congress sessions and votes turn into victory points, which emergencies, competitions and wonders matter, how to keep alliances alive, and when to spend favor versus hold it against a rival's lead.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Early District Planning: The First 100 TurnsHow to read city sites for future adjacency, decide between settling for yields now or reserving tile clusters, and know when a planned layout should be abandoned.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03