Civics

[tenbrvc]

I'm confused by all the civics. With Civ 1-3, I only have to think about whether to switch to monarchy, republic or democracy etc., but in civ 4, I have government civics, legal civics, labor civics, economy civics and religious civics. How do I decide what is best, and in which combinations, and when?

I'm not too interested in conquest. I tend to choose civilizations with industrial, financial, philosophical traits.

Thanks.

[phlucas]

Most civics have their uses, so it is hard to give a comprehensive account in a single post. I try to give a few hints. I am certain that better players will chip in and correct and expand on these remarks.

The hardest choices are in the first two sections, Government/Legal Civis. Some early strategies unlock certain civics prematurely. The most obvious one is to build the Pyramids to get Representation, but Hereditary Rule (available via Monarchy) is also a very good choice in the ancient era. A more useful strategy is to go for Civil Service by Great Persons or by a well-timed Oracle, as Bureaucracy can fuel your economy and research for a long time.

For a cottage heavy empire, Universal Suffrage/Free Speech is brilliant. Nationhood may be better for you than Vassalage, for the ability to quickly draft a few units per turn may be worth more than the additional XP. All in all, nearly all civics in these two sections can be useful at nearly any point in time, they do not necessarily become obsolete.

In the Labor Civics section, Slavery is an extremely important early civic. Many players do not switch from Slavery until Emancipation, if ever. In particular, I never have found a use for Serfdom, and I think I am not alone in this regard. With food specials, whipping can give you the best possible production in the ancient era.

For the Economy Civis, chosing between Mercantilism and Free Market depends largely on your relations with foreign civs. State Property is extremely useful in large empires, but not much otherwise, IMO (there is a current thread on that).

If you are not interested in conquest, Free Religion is absolutely the best choice in the Religion Civics department, as it does not require a state religion, and therefore you do not piss off anyone. If you play with a PHI civ, you might try to get to Philosophy early with a Great Prophet and build a specialist economy. Even as a builder, you probably will give up on the building bonus of Organized Religion as soon as Free Religion is available and you have built enough monasteries, and Theocracy is right out (preventing spread of non-state religions limits your ability to build monasteries and to prepare for Free Religion).

It might be obvious, but I want to point out some synergies between civics: Representation/Caste System/Mercantilism is cool for a specialist heavy civ (possibly with the Statue of Liberty), [Hereditary Rule/Police State]/Theocracy/[Vassalage/Nationhood] for war times.

[JackRudd]

Another useful synergy: Universal Suffrage/Free Speech/Emancipation - for getting towns quickly and getting the most out of them when you get them. Only problem with that one is that most of your towns are likely to be up already when Emancipation comes on board.

[Zahathustra]

1- To focus on Military: Vassalage and/OR Theocracy.

2-To focus on Commerce: Free Speech/Bureaucracy and Free Market.

3- To focus on Science: (ideal com is)Representation -Freespeech/Bureaucracy - Free Market - Free Religion.

4- To focus on Great people: Representation together with Caste System - Pacifism.

5- To focus on Production: (ideal comb is)Universal Suffrage(mostly useful when you have a lot of cottages near your cities)- Bureaucracy - Organized Religion.

6- Adopting Slavery early in the game specially when in Wonder Race with other civilization will be useful.

7- Hereditary Rule helps alot in controlling the Unhappiness rate among your citizens specially in populous cities. Also dont forget Emancipation in this regard. Representation also helps to maintain Happiness in your 5 most Developed cities.

8- Who said Serfdom is not useful? when you have too many undeveloped tiles including some precious resources to gain or you have just ended a war and with enemy leaving you with lots of tiles being pillaged or destryed or when you just discovered an important technology like Replaceable Parts when you need to quickly build Lumbermilles all across your land ! never forget Serfdom in these situataions.

9- I rarely adopt Environmentalism, Nationhood and Mercantilism. They are not much frequently needed.

10- State Propert will be helpful specially when you have recently conquered a lot of cities from your enemy and added them to your mighty empire but still you have not thought about maintaining their High costs. Adopt State Property, you won't be unhappy about that.

11- Police State is good when you are engaged in protracted war with you enemy (or enemies) and obviously you dont want to make peace soon so this way's the easiest to end the War unhappiness in your cities specially when you have missed the time to build Jails in your cities. this also not often happens to me.

[couerdelion]

One thing to be careful with Free Religion

The science bonus is nice as is the diplomatic bonus. But if you do this would will lose any benefits you get from State Religion from some buildings. Among them are

1) Cathedrals and the like lose their +2 happiness
2) Spiral Minaret and University of Sankore lose their gold/science bonuses
3) Sometimes you might be the same religion as key allies so the bonus from "brothers of the faith" will be lost.

You might find that if you have either of the two wonders mentioned then the loss of science/gold might outweigh any gain from the +10% bonus.

The most important civic in the game is Slavery. Get this early and you can run a powerful slave-driven empire in the early game.

Next on the list depends on your route and their are four main routes

1) Sling to Civil Service - if your capital is well developed and you have the resources to grow, Bureaucracy will be very useful
2) Sling to Philosophy - running Pacifism with a few wonders or with a steady GP farm will boost early game GPs
3) Monotheism for Organised Religion - good for builders but needs a religion to work
4) Theology for Theocracy - to allow you to build 5 XP units early in the game

[tenbrvc]

Thanks for all the help and advice! It's certainly a lot to think about, and I'll feel more sure of what I'm doing.

Btw, what does XP mean?

[JackRudd]

XP = experience points, those things units need to get promotions.