An example of a city resistance modifier.
City resistance is a national mechanic that determines a city's defense against enemy capture during war. It affects the length of the capture time during an enemy siege and inflicts additional attrition on attacking enemy units. This mechanic can be upgraded through various means, including research, fortifications, policies, military operations, formable modifiers, and political leaders. Resistance does not provide attack or defense bonuses to the entrenched unit(s) on the city.
City Resistance Charts[]
Modifiers[]
There are various methods to increase city resistance during enemy sieges.
| City Resistance Modifiers Chart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Technology
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Policies
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Military Operations
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Formable Modifiers
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Extra Modifiers
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Testing Chart[]
Losses gained when 10,000 standard infantry (-25% starting military experience) attempts to capture a city with only 0.1k population.
| Losses Gained | Resistance Amount |
|---|---|
| 1,300 (1.3k) | +0% |
| 1,800 (1.8k) | +20% |
| 2,500 (2.5k) | +45% |
| 3,900 (3.9k) | +85% |
| 6,400 (6.4k) | +145% |
| 10,000 (10K) | +245% |
Controversy[]
Overpowered City Resistance in the Late Game[]
Many individuals across the community have suggested that the power of city resistance needs to be significantly reduced, particularly by completely removing or reducing the effectiveness of city resistance technology and fortifications. They argue that city resistance is extremely overpowered in the late game, where moderately or highly populated cities are almost uncapturable even with tens of millions of troops. Such losses when capturing highly defended cities can significantly spike war exhaustion, which could hurt your country as a whole. Even when using attackers, bombers, and artillery, these units may prove futile if the enemy is loaded with the same units (including fighters and anti aircraft) especially if they have maximized military technology and are led by effective political and military leaders with powerful traits.
Limited Offensive Options[]
This ultimately leaves tanks or nukes as the only viable options to invade or collapse the enemy, as tanks are more efficient for capturing cities compared to infantry, and nukes cannot be intercepted when launched. However, tanks can be destroyed, especially if invading territories with harsh terrain and biomes, such as Mountainous and Jungle areas, and facing entrenched anti-tank infantry and artillery equipped with powerful modifiers, such as technology. Nukes could be the plausible option in these types of situations, but Communist nations could withstand a considerable amount of nuclear attacks, as they inherently begin with massive war exhaustion mitigation, which can be further increased with more ideology power.
The 06/10/2024 Update: Rising Controversy[]
When the 06/10/2024 Minor Update was released, controversy and outrage towards city resistance only heightened and intensified, as the limitation for constructing fortifications every three cities was removed. This update allowed users to spam fortifications across all their cities simultaneously, further increasing the absurdity of city resistance.
Criticism of Static Lines Doctrine[]
The movement to reduce the effectiveness of city resistance is also part of a broader campaign to significantly rework the concept of defense, as the Static Lines doctrine, known for its massive defense capabilities, has received backlash for not only being a overpowered doctrine, but also easing the ability to expand resistance because of its fortification benefits. In response to the movement, Hyperant, the sole developer of the game, has negatively criticized a video titled, "The Current Rise of Nations Meta (And Why It Will Kill the Game)", published by Politicized Gaming, a prominent Rise of Nations YouTuber, aimed to spread awareness against city resistance. This initially indicated that Hyperant disapproved the movement and had no plans to rework city resistance or defense as a whole.[1][2]
The 07/12/2024 Update: A Path To Rework[]
However, the belief that Hyperant would not reduce the power of city resistance and fortifications turned out to be wrong. In the 07/12/2024 Minor Update (July 12, 2024), city resistance was weakened (especially when a city has high unrest) and fortifications now require 15 units of 
Steel in addition to money for construction. Attackers also became a bit more effective against anti aircraft and artillery, which is useful against defensive players who are capitalizing on anti aircraft and artillery to protect the airspace and the ground. While this update did not present significant changes that completely resolved or reformed city resistance or the entire concept of defense, it still mitigated some of the absurd issues when launching offensives against a fully-defended nation during war, marking a significant milestone for the movement that called to reduce the power of defense. Nevertheless, there was still backlash and criticism in response to the update, but it generally received more support, effectively outweighing the dislikes.[3]