Cottage econemy

[Addled Platypus]

explain it to me one more time Krill

[TriMiro]

I used to play cottage economy, but now I am switching to specialists. Faster expansion and more GP.

I drive a prius, but I would not try prius economy. There are specific civics for every economy type. Specialists run Rep, Caste system, Pacif, merc. Cottage economy runs, free speech (must have), universal suff, free market, anything but pacifism.

To get a good cottage economy, you need several cities that would have a couple of mines each and the rest should be cottaged. I run with no specialists until relatively late. You need to build markets and banks and have hammers to build them fast enough. Also court houses.

Large idle army would also be a problem (it is OK to have a large army as long as you are using it).

Cottage not just the river tiles, cottage EVERYTHING. Basically build mines, cottages and just enough farms to keep enough people working on all the tiles. You do not need specialists. As an exception you may leave occasional forest for the health bonus (limbermill those).

Get Calendar early, to run cottage economy you need large cities fast. Cottages need to be worked all the time in order to grow. HR is also a good idea, but I tend to ignore all religion related civics until later.

DarklordJoseph, if you post a savegame for more specific suggestions.

Every civ strategy involves combinations of civics, resources, techs, military, religion and many more. Generic advices are usually either vague or inaccurate.

[Supr49er]

BTW, I must be dyslexic because I always initially read this thread as Eco Enemy.

[Krill]

Originally posted by Addled Platypus
explain it to me one more time Krill

Do you really want me to explain it?

[The Priest]

I've done both, and I think they are quite location and situation specific. e.g. if you are financial, there is a real advantage in going cottages, because of the extra commerce from the trait. If health and happiness is a problem, then cottage tends to be better. (Because the basic calculation is farm+spec compared to cottage. But the former involves 2 people, the latter 1, so the former hits a low hapiness cap earlier,)

A particular situational think is pyramids. Do the people who like SE normally/always get pryamids? In my experience that is a big deciding factor. If you have pryamids (and so can run representation and get the extra 3 science per specialist) then a SE works well, without it, I think cottage will normally outperform.

[Quillan]

I'd have to say yes, but it's because of synergy. Pyramids is available with Masonry, allowing you to run Representation far earlier and thus get the research bonus for each specialist far earlier. It's certainly possible to run a specialist economy without Pyramids or Representation, it just works a lot better if you have it. It doubles the effectiveness of science specialists and allows all other specialists to give research equal to the base of a scientist; that's a rather large bonus I think you must admit.

[j0b]

I think also that a cottage economy is far more attractive if you are FIN

[TriMiro]

I am not sure about the FIN benefit. You only get one extra commerce. Cottages give 4 + 1 for PPress + 2 for Free Speech = 7. FIN would give only 1/7 improvement to this number.

I like Creative + Imperialistic for cottage economy. Gives a lot of land that required for cottages. (play Chatherina)

[Solomwi]

TriMiro,

The attractiveness of FIN cottages isn't their final state. It's that third commerce that kicks in either when the cottage is built (riverside or otherwise with one extra commerce to start) or as soon as it becomes a hamlet. Essentially, you get to village stage in 15 turns (normal speed), rather than 45, as with non-FIN civs. Long before Printing Press and Free Speech, the bonus has done its primary job, which is to significantly boost commerce early, when it matters most. By the time it's diluted to 1/7, it's just a nice bit of gravy on the strong empire you built with your early extra commerce.

[wodan11]

There are other options as well that are usually hybrids but nevertheless include a strong component which is worth considering as viable options.

For example, the so-called "Trade Economy" which focuses on large cities, lots of coastal cities, good relations with lots of AIs, many intercontinental trades.

There's also the coastal water economy, which works best as FIN, esp. with Colossus. If most cities have food resources then it's also often a good idea to supplement with 2 scientists per city, which makes this a hybrid SE. Yes, a SE with Fin.

There are many other types of SE, as well: the caste verion which is what most people think about, the 2-scientist per city (even production cities... anywhere there's enough food) version which allows slavery synergy, etc.

I guess that people tend to throw out "CE" and "SE" as labels but there's really a whole gamut of possibilities under either of those labels.

Wodan

[DarklordJoseph]

I think im having trouble because I over expand too fast.
I play on a standard contienents map with 7 civs
and I usually grab 6 or 7 citys.

I dont have trouble when i run a GP econ. But with a cottage econ, I lose the tech race by alot.

[Vampgelus]

I really don't have trouble understanding why pyramids are great for SE. But, as it has been told, CE needs to get big citys fast, and there is nothing like the +3 for your 6 big ones.

Next thing is SE for early expansion... on marathon speed, it really takes a long time to get either caste system or marketplaces, so you have trouble getting gold for your upkeep. By running cottages like hell, you quickly get a great amount of raw commerce which, true, is almost completely spent for the upkeep, but keeps growing even if you reached happy-cap, so there is a moment where you get into trouble and have a science rate of something like 10 beakers a turn, but this phase is over even before you get close to running caste system (which i run when i get it to be honest, just for cranking out some GP).
In addition, by running SE with small cities, you slow down growth or production, which is IMO, fatal in early game.

Last thing. Calendar is important for CE because of the happy-cap, yes. But regardless the ressources you have on your territory, would you seriously run a full-SE without the mausoleum ?

[wodan11]

Originally posted by Vampgelus
would you seriously run a full-SE without the mausoleum ?

Depends on what you plan to do with your GP. Golden Ages are strong, but so are other uses. Actually, in my opinion Golden Ages are stronger with a CE than a SE.

Wodan

[joncnunn]

I would agree with Wodan: GA boosts tiles not specalists.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by joncnunn
I would agree with Wodan: GA boosts tiles not specalists.

With BtS they changed it so that GA gives each specialist double GPP, but IMO that's a sinecure. Useful, for sure, especially if you're able to leverage it early in the game and also especially if you're able to get GP that you use for things other than a GA.

But, given that each GA costs a factorial progression of GP, and that you'll be able to run more specialists later in the game (because you have a higher health and happy limit) and thus that's when the double GPP is maximized, using the mausoleum to make more GP simply to make more GAs and get more GP is a no-win situation. It's a cycle that does nothing but feed itself.

Now, using GAs late game to feed off a CE with massive Town spamming nets you +1 commerce +1 hammer per tile. That's huge, especially going for a space win.

Wodan