Preslav (Civ6)

Preslav
Militaristic City-state
Introduced in Civilization VI
Color	Red
Envoy bonuses
1 Envoy	+2 Production in the Capital when producing units.
3 Envoys	+2 Production in every Encampment district when producing units. +2 Production in every city with a Barracks or Stable building when producing units.
6 Envoys	+4 Production in every Encampment district when producing units. +2 Production in every city with an Armory building when producing units.
Suzerain bonus	Your light and heavy cavalry units have +5 Strength when fighting on Hills tiles. You receive +2 Loyalty per turn in cities for each Encampment district building.

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Preslav is a militaristic city-state in Civilization VI.

Strategy

Under the vanilla ruleset, the Suzerain of Preslav gains 5 Combat Strength for their light and heavy cavalry units when fighting on Hills tiles. A bonus cannot get any more conditional than that. Considering in Civilization VI, the site of the battle is where the defender stands, your cavalry units basically gain a net Combat Strength of 2 when attacking into Hills tiles (since the defender will gain 3 Combat Strength from the terrain modifier). Of course, this bonus makes your cavalry units a bit sturdier when they defend on Hills, but all the enemy needs to do is to avoid attacking these unit classes when they end their turn on Hills tiles. Overall, no one should go through troubles to vie for the Suzerainty of this city-state to receive a bonus that will be nullified if the enemy uses common sense.

Considering how inconsequential Preslav's bonus is in vanilla, it is quite unbelievable that somehow Rise and Fall manages to rework it to be even worse. The only time you'll notice Loyalty bonuses being useful is when your cities are in danger of revolting, so you won't go out of your way to build Encampments just to increase your Loyalty per turn. Also, if you really need the extra Loyalty, the turns needed to build and develop an Encampment in that city will likely be more than the turns until it revolts. Therefore, whether this bonus becomes useful in conquest depends on whether your enemies build Encampments with buildings in their cities, not whether you do.

No matter what ruleset you're playing under, Preslav competes for one of the worst Suzerain bonuses of any city-state. It is recommended to avoid sending Envoys to it (unless it's the only city-state you can get for Era Score, visibility, levying units, or other strategic reasons). While Mogadishu, another city-state known to be almost useless, has some value on certain water-heavy maps, the only amazing thing about Preslav is how it can stay consistently trivial across every game setting and ruleset despite a major overhaul to its bonus and many changes to the landscape of the game over the years.

Civilopedia entry

Until it was fortified in the early 9th Century AD, Preslav was just a sleepy little Slavic settlement. But by the time of the coronation of Boris I, with his capital in nearby Pliska, it was an important strategic center and the seat of the Bulgar 'Ichirgu-boil,' commander of the capital’s garrison and de facto head of the kingdom’s military. The town also became a religious center when the Bulgars converted to Christianity in 864 and built a number of churches there.

But Preslav’s primary business was war. Once a pagan revolt was finally defeated in 892 and Boris appointed Simeon I as his successor, the decision was made to move the capital from Pliska to the much-more Christian Preslav. For the next 80 years, not only did the new capital become the political and military center of Bulgaria, but its cultural, artistic, and religious center as well. The walls were expanded and reinforced, and its barracks became the training ground for Bulgar delusions of grandeur.

Until, that is, the Bulgars were defeated by the Kievan prince Sviatoslav Igorevich and Preslav occupied. The ensuing war between Byzantium and Kiev left the city ravaged and nigh razed by the liberating Byzantine armies. A lesson in being beware of one’s allies. The Byzantines carried off the Bulgarian treasury, the royal jewels and regalia, and most of the royal library.

Preslav recovered some of its military importance in the first decades of the “Second Bulgarian Empire,” c. 1185. Indeed, it was – along with the fortress at Tarnovgrad – one of the joint seats of the kingdom under the co-rulers. But the strategic defensive position of Tarnovgrad proved better able to withstand outside threats. The Tartar raids of the 1270s drove off what citizens in Preslav survived; they built a new village of the same name a couple miles away, plundering the once-mighty walls for building materials.

Trivia

• Preslav's symbol is most likely based on the Pliska rosette.

See also

• Preslav (Civ6)/Vikings, Traders, and Raiders!
• Preslav in other games