Corporations post 1.13?

[frenzyfol]

The last time I really explored corporations was pre 1.13 patch.. Basically my assessment was

a) Maintenance was too high/broken.
b) Don't spread them in all your cities or your economy will collapse.
c) Food Coprs in GP cities, Mining corps in Mining cities (i.e. more specialization)
d) Spread the more useless corps in enemy cities to crush their economy due to upkeep.

Now that corporations have been patched, what's working for everyone? Do you still have to be selective about where you spread them within your civilisation? Does spreading them to the enemy still cripple the enemy?

Id like to know because I rarely get to that far in the game / haven't had enough time to get that far yet

[Kuciwalker]

Do you mean 3.13? I'm not even going to try playing until they fix the huge bugs remaining...

[Jaybe]

With Bhruic's the corps. work fine.
Do you still want to be selective? You bet, because they have different effects (unlike religions).

I'll use Sid's & Creative if going for a cultural victory. Creative is less a gold drain. Mining is great for hammers but is expensive (and yes, I'm referring to per-turn payments) so might be a small loss even with it founded in your Wall Street city. Remember, the strengths of the different corporations depend on how many resources you have. Actually, the CiviPedia has a breakdown per resource.

[frenzyfol]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Do you mean 3.13? I'm not even going to try playing until they fix the huge bugs remaining...

yeah 3.13 soz..

Would Bhruic's work with a multiplayer game?

[Jaybe]

Bhruic's works in MP as long as everyone has it installed.

[fed1943]

Played a game with two corporations in all my cities (I know, it was
Zulus) and real expenses were very low.

(Patch 3.13, no mods)

Best regards,

[TriMiro]

In 3.13 you can be less selective. Some Corps can be bad. Don't spread the food corp in a city that does not have the happy faces to accommodate the extra people. Careful with Aluminum and Ethanol, they change the resources available. Creative Cons gives only a few hammers and lots of culture, however, it usually costs money (even with Wall Street), don't spread Creative Cons to interior cities unless going for a cultural victory.

My favorite one is the Jewelry one, it gives cultural benefit and actually generates money. I always try to get it and spread it to all my cities.

Except for the above case, spreading corps to all your cities is good. I go for one of the food ones, Creative Cons and Jewelry. If the AI is not too powerful, I can conquer one of his cities and with the bonuses really crush his culture. I have had newly conquered cities that generate 100 and over culture per turn.

Spreading a corporation to other civs IMHO is not a very good idea. That would put little drag on their economy and they will get bonuses. I once spread Creative Cons and shot myself in the foot, the AI went for cultural victory and I helped. You can spread Mining Inc with less fear I think, but you are better off keeping your corporation to yourself.

[Shalkai]

I had good luck in a "builder" style game using corporations, representation, and free market. FM meant the maint costs were low, so I could spread them widely. Rep wasn't really required, but 4 to 8 specialists per big city x 3 beakers each? Eh, let's skip US for once. I was playing around trying to learn the ins and outs of corps and ended up founding Mining, Sids Sushi, then later decided to go hog-wild and added AlumCo and CreativeJewels.

Sushi was awesome, since I had seafood all over and then conquered more. By the end, it was worth about +12 food, +24 cult, avg~ -9 gold. Offset the gold cost by the +5 gold it was making back in CorpHQ, figure out all the stuff the extra specialists the city would eventually produce, and it was very worthwhile. This got spread to EVERY city. The Corporate HQ, which was also a double-holy city, turned into a gold machine.

For production cities, MiningInc was also awesome. About +14 raw hammers after I got done importing every extra mineral the AIs had. Big maint cost, ~ -12 to 15 gold, but great for interior production cities.

I was doing "cold wars" with culture, and there is where corporations really shine. On my borders and in new conquests, I'd plop in Sids/MinInc, or later Sids/Alum/CrJew. With free specialist for Statue of Liberty, extra culture for something (Sistine?) from all specs, and MASSIVE base culture from corporations, my borders were overwhelming. Conquered cities were pumping out 150cpt a few turns after unrest ended. You can found corp offices while cities are still in unrest, too, so on the first turn they're productive - BLAM - tons of f/h/cp. Really nice for cities deep in enemy culture or with lots of sad faces.

I tried a switch to Environmentalism after a savegame, then reloaded, just to see what it would do to the maintenance costs per corp. It was pretty impressive, in a negative way. Cost per corp per city almost doubled, plus I lost a trade route in each city. Net result was -20 or -30gpt in each city, just to increase the pop limit a bit. Free Market is definitely the ticket for lots of corporations.

Corporations are good, but not always. First thing to look at is having lots of whatever resource they want. Note the competing corporations, and the benefits each one gives. See if they're going to help, or distract, you from the victory you're going for. There's not much reason to found Standard Ethanol if you've got 2 grain in your whole empire, and you're swimming in oil. If you love State Property, shred the business proposals and send the corporate execs off to the gulag.

In the future, I'll be looking to use corps at times. Creative Constructions looks like it might be better overall than Mining Inc (have to wait longer for it, though). Sushi or Cereal can add several to the pop of every one of your cities if you have the resources. If you want culture, check out the possible combos.

[snoopy369]

Hopefully your wall street+grocer+marketplace+bank was making that 5gpt a bit bigger...

[joncnunn]

Basically with Corporations, you need to consider which corporation(s) you want that don't compete with each other, a good time to start thinking on the back end is after your done with the peaceful expansion and know sufficent resource locations to make it worthwhile.

In my previous game it was quite clear that Mining Inc would by a huge margin be the best single corporation for my empire with all the extra resources within my empire using them. That in turn ruled out it's competors and it was also clear that Ethanol would be far better that either food one. (I strongly suspect that my map was a bit unusal in that regards.) So I founded both in my Holy Shrine City (which has Wall Street and the other gold boosters) and spread them via executes to all cities within my empire. Long before then I had spread courthouses. I did note though that Mining Inc was cash negative under Enviormentalism while Ethanol was slightly cash postive. But still Mining Inc hammer bonsus was sufficent that the economy was better off with it spread than without. Now when I changed to Free Market right after buildling Christo Redemer, my per turn cash income went up 200 gold per turn!
That was with 313 and Buric's first or second patch.

[CerberusIV]

Just won a culture victory, partly by founding Sid's, Creative Constructions and Civilized Jewellers. The real benefit of corporations though is those tundra/desert fishing villages or any captured cities - they turn something marginal into a productive monster overnight.

I'd echo Jon's coments - corporations under Environmentalism are roughly break even or slightly profitable but under Free Market they are a licence to print money.

Creative Constructions doesn't give the hammers Mining Inc does but it also doesn't compete with with Aluminium or Jewellers which Mining does. Creative Cons is also less expensive.