What is your single favorite civic?

[Brundlefly]

I'm a builder, so I love the Organized Religion civic. There is always something to build in this game. I cant see a reason to leave O.R. for the entire game unless I go to war and need Theocracy for the duration of the war.. I have contemplated pacifism to generate more Greats and Free Religion to give myself a morale boost with the other civs (I hate the -4 'you are a heathen' penalty) but none seem as valuable as O.R. Does anyone disagree? And, as a side topic, can someone tell me how to make happy other civs that wont convert to my religion without having 'Free Religion' ..

[MikeH]

Slavery. Harnessing the power of the whip has massively improved my game.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by MikeH
Slavery. Harnessing the power of the whip has massively improved my game.

Do you ride that the whole game or do you switch to others at times?

[MikeH]

Pretty much, I'll beeline for it very early because Bronze Working is such a useful tech and stay there as long as possible. Once I get Democracy I might change to Emancipation/Universal suffrage to rush build with cash if I decide that I need to go space race. But I tend to go to war and go for early domination wins if possible so Police State/Slavery is fine.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by MikeH
Pretty much, I'll beeline for it very early because Bronze Working is such a useful tech and stay there as long as possible. Once I get Democracy I might change to Emancipation/Universal suffrage to rush build with cash if I decide that I need to go space race. But I tend to go to war and go for early domination wins if possible so Police State/Slavery is fine.

Do you only rush certain buildings? What amount of population is an acceptable sacrifice? I dont imagine you can do it too often to the same city because of happiness and growth concerns.

[MikeH]

Depends what I need, in the early game I rush most things. Units, settlers, workers, buildings, the last turns of wonders to ensure the AI doesn't get them.

A city with high food and a granary can easily withstand being whipped every 10 turns when the unhappiness from the previous whip runs out. On Monarch I don't think I'd be able to cope with the early barbarian hordes, let alone expand without bolstering early production with very extensive use of the whip.

Later on I'll whip emergency units if I get surprise attacked or a war stalls or occasionally I'll whip buildings in low hammer cities if I need to. My other reason for staying in slavery is the other choices don't appeal. By the time I get serfdom I normally have enough idle workers that I can just double team them to speed improvements on captured cities and I'm too lazy to micromanage a specialist economy so Caste System just seems like a lot of work.

[MikeH]

Blake has a few guides to whipping around here. He explains (and understands) a lot better than me so I'll try and find some...

Here you go:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=157333

[Brundlefly]

Yeah, Caste System is kind of useless. I value growth and production too much to have too many specialists. Rarely do I have more than 2 in a city..

[MikeH]

They certainly have their uses, generating great people is one that can be extremely useful and when you combine them with certain wonders/civics they can give you huge benefits. Extra culture, science etc. Representation gives you +3 beakers per specialist which can make a specialist a lot more useful than many tiles you can work.

I just don't tend to play that way because it's too much micromanagement and I like fighting.

[Brundlefly]

So I imagine, as a fighter, you stay in vassalage and theocracy a lot. Is there a limit on how many extra XP a newly created unit can be given through civics and buildings? I swear, I was running those fighting civics once along with barracks, stable, etc.. and I was getting cheated out of some extra XP when I would make a new unit.

[rah]

You should check if on the units you thought you were getting cheated on if that city had the state religion. I'll usually have one or two cities that aren't and feel cheated when a new unit is created until I realize why.

[rah]

favorite civic
1 Slavery, I get there and stay there unless the UN says otherwise. I hate the UN
2. bureaucracy, the cap gets such a nice boost
3. Representation. Early happiness help (if you get it early using pyramids) and the science boost can catapult you into a tech lead.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by rah
favorite civic
1 Slavery, I get there and stay there unless the UN says otherwise. I hate the UN
2. bureaucracy, the cap gets such a nice boost
3. Representation. Early happiness help (if you get it early using pyramids) and the science boost can catapult you into a tech lead.

I can see the benefit of slavery, but I prefer serfdom. I usually have less cities than the largest civs so I try to keep them growing and I try to develop them to the hilt.

If you were about to start a peacetime Golden Age and had all civics available, would these three be your choice for the GA period?

[Dis]

Originally posted by MikeH
Slavery. Harnessing the power of the whip has massively improved my game.

perhaps I'm not whipping enough. But it seems to me, when you reduce your population you reduce your produciton (along with commerce) because you have one less worker.

[rah]

Depending on specifics in the game, probably. and toss in pacisism/ or free religion if the GP generation neede is over 3000 gppoints and then either the financial one that gives you the free specialist. or state property later in the game if my empire is sprawling.

I like to run a specialist mode at the upper levels generating lots of GP to settle in my capital. There's nothing like kicking out 500-1000 beakers from one city.