Civ4's new civics instead of 1 big government thingy seems to give lots of choices, unlike in Civ3 where the decision is plain and simple - democracy for peace and facism for war
But then, with more choices bring more confusion ~~~ :cry: :cry: oh the conflicting nature of humanity
Yet I would assume that, even with that much combo I would believed that there will always be a more standout combo
Which combos are the best, in your opinion, under the following 3 goals:
1. Culture i.e. Empire building
2. Warmongering
3. Money making

The best Civics are generally Universal Sufferage, Free Speech, Emancipation, State Property and Free Religion.

Exceptions:
You may want to do Free Trade instead of State Property depending on the size of your Civ. Organized Religion can be better than Free Religion at some points, also you will lose your religious 'spys' if you convert to Free Religion.

vassalge + theoracy + barracks + pentagon = 10 xp units + aggressive = your mech infantry and marines will own :p

i like the system, changing goverment civics can be so costly, one game i stuck with hereditary rule because if i left it all my huge cities would miss the +10 happiness from my ancient armies :(

Well it very much depends on what tech level you have, nation size and wonders.

A lot has already been said in other forums too.

In my experience these seem to be the best combos.
I really like democracy if i have established cottages and have the Kremlin. Just buy those armies and go on the war path.

If you run quite a high GP strategy then using Representation, Cast system, and merchantism can net you a ton of science and GP's.

If you find that your civ size is really getting away and costing you a ton of cash then go to state property.

For war i try to hold on to Democracy as long as possible and rush buy units. Probably worth running Theocracy and vassalage as well if you need the xp points. If you don't think you need the extra 2xp from vassalage grab beaurcracy for your capital.

There are a lot of optimums, depending upon what you're doing and how far along you are in the game. At some point in almost all games I wind up using the combo DarkSchneider listed above.

Representation/Mercantilism/Pacifism is a powerful combo for generating Science and Great People at the same time, since Mercantilism gives a free specialist and then Representation gives that specialists +3 beakers and Pacificism gives them +100% GPP.

Organized religion is a really powerful civic for empire building after a lot of conquest, as it lets you build missionaries without monasteries and then spread them to conquered cities to gain a +25% bonus on new buildings.

For warmongering, it's hard to beat Police State/Vassalage/Theocracy for its +25% unit building and +4 exp.

For money making, use the combo DS listed above most of the time. In some cases where your empire isn't too large or your palaces and Versailles are really well placed, you may make more money from Free Market.

Which combos are the best, in your opinion, under the following 3 goals:
1. Culture i.e. Empire building
2. Warmongering
3. Money making

1. Culture: Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, Caste System, Free Market ( if ya need money) or Environmentalism, Free Religion.

2. Warmongering: Police State, Vassalage(if you need experienced units quickly), or Nationhood, Emancipation, State Property, and Theocracy.

3. Money Making: Universal Suffrage, Bureaucracy, or Free Speech depending on your sitiuation, Emancipation, Free Market, Free Religion.


Note: These are just what I use, you have to experiment with combos to see what works for you in a particular game, since no 2 games are ever the same. :) Also you have to build the right wonders to go with these 3 situations in order to get the full effect of these civics.

If you have the pentagon and/or west point, you don't necessarily have to use the vassalage + theocracy combo for war mongoring. In one instance, i used vassalage and free religion for war mongoring. Not only did this help my science out, it also kept the other civs from attacking my "heathen" self while I focused on just one victim.

Well im a smallish empire (14 cities large map) going for science / GP
for a peacefull win

For me Univ Suff, free speech, emancipation, freemarket, pacifism

seems to be a good combo as i have lots of towns.

Which combos are the best, in your opinion, under the following 3 goals:
1. Culture i.e. Empire building
2. Warmongering
3. Money making

1)Universal Sufferage, Free Speech, Emancipation, State Property and any of organized religion, free religion or pacifism depending on your religious situation.

2)Police State, Vassalage, Emancipation, State Property, Theocracy

3)Universal Sufferage, Free Speech (very occasionally Bureaucracy is better if you have a really strong capital and few towns), Emancipation, State Property (Free market sometimes is better if you have a small, compact empire), Free Religion

Most of the Civics are of some use some of the time, but for peacetime you are almost always best off with all of the bottom row civics except Enviromentalism. State Property is usually better in that column, as is Free Market. One other point I'd make is to be very careful with using Mercantilism, as it can frequently do more harm than good. If you're running Representation and Pacifism as well it can be a decent civic until the early industrial age, but it isn't advisable beyond that as it cripples all of your trade routes. I've seen plenty of games where people are wasting a fortune for a handful of specialists in the later stages. I regard Mercantilism as a dubious choice after Free Market is available, and a crippling error after State Property is invented. The only exception is if you are at war with literally everyone, when Mercantilism is probably still your best option. I highlight this because this is one of only two civics which can actively damage your empire. (Pacifism if you have a strong military is the other, but this is far more obvious).