Humankind, the historical 4X strategy from Amplitude Studios, launched for PC and Stadia this week. The new title represents a rare addition to the turn-based historical strategy genre, dominated by the Civilization series. Like in Civilization, Humankind players guide a nation from prehistory to the modern age, developing, expanding, and founding new cities.
While expansion is good, an empire in Humankind that grows too large will struggle to support itself. This is represented in-game by Humankind's city cap, preventing players from having too many cities scattered across the map. Players can stay under this cap in a few different ways, but one of the main ones is by Merging cities.
Cities and Outposts in Humankind
Each randomly-generated Humankind map is divided into Territories, irregular blobs of land, and sea. To claim one of these Territories, players will need to build an Outpost on it with any of Humankind's land units. These Outposts can later be upgraded to cities, at which point they can start building structures, districts, and units.
Early on, it's a good strategy to claim as many Territories as possible with Outposts, particularly those with good resources or in good strategic locations. Once a Territory has been claimed, other players will need to destroy the Outpost before taking it. However, converting too many of these Outposts into cities will lead players into trouble with the city cap. This is where attaching outposts and merging cities becomes so important.
Merging Cities in Humankind
Once players reach the Medieval Era, they'll be able to research the Military Architecture technology. This gives the ability to merge two cities. To do this, click on the main city, and an icon will appear beside any city that can be merged with it. Merging two cities will combine their populations and incomes, but it costs Humankind's Influence resource and comes with a Stability penalty. More importantly, however, it allows players to build an extra city somewhere else without going over the city cap.
Rather than merging too many cities, it's sometimes better to just attach them while they're still Outposts. Outposts must be in adjacent Territories to be attached, but doing so will provide the core city with access to the Outpost's resources. This process can be reversed, but once an Outpost has been converted into a city, players will only be able to combine it with another city through Merging in the Medieval Era.
Humankind is available now for PC and Stadia.