Every time I try to move from Hereditary Rule to something else (Universal Suffrage), I always run into huge happiness problems. Do other people have this problem as well?

It depends on the extent you rely on HR. Units are cheap :), yes, but if you don't build theaters/temples/etc, you can't use the other civics as easily.

Often through warring I find I capture enough resources to overcome the HR happiness. This is especially true for resources that are boosted by the market, forge, or theater.

If you're running into this problem you're either over-relying on units at the expense of the more expensive but versatile :) buildings, or you need to trade/capture more resources.

That's funny. I always have this problem when I switch from Representation to Universal Suffrage.

During the period of Hereditary Rule, you should do your best to claim all the resources and very importantly use all those fun +1 boosters. Seriously. They rock, especially if you have that building cheap.

I tend to be a builder, so I usually have all of the + :) buildings. I'll be on the lookout for more resources next game.

Free religion helps too. It's not so expensive to put two or three religions into your biggest cities.

When you're low in score early on with the opponents having a huge advantage, your happiness tends to be low. But with the right moves, you slowly creep back, then as your score increases past your opponents', you tend to accumulate happiness late game.

My apologies for spamming.

If you have theaters and coloseums built, run your cultural slider at 20% or more to rake in the extra happiness. This should help to offset the hit you take from switching off Hereditary Rule.

I used to rely on HR a lot. Lately I have been building the Pyramids or rushing for the appropriate tech (Nationalism?) to run Representation. The extra +3 science from each specialist stacks up really fast, especially with modifier buildings (Library et al).

I recently probably lost a game because of this, my land was without happiness resources, no one traded me any and buildings were not sufficient to keep my cities happy. Shaka flew to AC while my people were unhappy. :(

Just don't switch? US isn't all that fantastic of a civic.

I've been starting to think that HR's great drawback is the fact that you become dependent on it. I try not to use it, but it's got beautiful synergy with Slavery.

Hum, don't understand why you absolutely need to switch to US. May understand it if you swim in cash and wants to rush buildings/units, but... Anyways, warmonger during middleages, steal some resource cities, build happiness buildings, spend money on culture and of course, get one or more religions in your cities. Shouldn't be much of a problem acctually. I usually have about 25 - 30 in happiness in my cities before I get to the Industrial age :)

Just don't switch? US isn't all that fantastic of a civic.

QFT.


Seriously, if I ever switch, it's because Police state is more effective at handling :mad: (obiously, when I'm at war).

Other methods of happiness could be:
Nationhood: Barracks' +2,
Forest Preserves (If your city can only work 10 tiles due to :mad:, better make some of the unused tiles :) than waste them entirely),
Free religion.

Try to beat the AI to wonders like Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower, and play a charismatic leader (obviously not each game, but until you get the hang of the othet things).

... or play as the americans. Their UB is absolutely wacko in that regard ;)

About HR vs US : I normally only switch when I start the SS builds ( and sometimes not even then.... ). Every hammer count when we are making 1200 :hammers: builds. But before that I normally don't see any reason to switch: $ rush can be apealing, but normally is not that strong and US is more expensive that HR in terms of civic spending. And having unlimited :) for some hammers and some military maintenance normally pays up.

... or play as the americans. Their UB is absolutely wacko in that regard ;)

About HR vs US : I normally only switch when I start the SS builds ( and sometimes not even then.... ). Every hammer count when we are making 1200 :hammers: builds. But before that I normally don't see any reason to switch: $ rush can be apealing, but normally is not that strong and US is more expensive that HR in terms of civic spending. And having unlimited :) for some hammers and some military maintenance normally pays up.

Super cottage spammers will find the rush buy incredibly useful. Actually with the Kremlin it's hard to match that production...probably only police state caste workshops under state property can do it. The gold multipliers are available earlier than the hammer multipliers (guilds and banking are all the techs you need for +100% gold). I'm pretty sure the only thing that can compete with a town under these conditions is the aforementioned civics using a workshop or watermill, and they don't beat it by much.

I'm not saying that US should be switched to, often I wind up in HR most/all of the game (unless heavy warring drives me to Police State), but I can't stand seeing $ buy as "not that strong" :p. Set up properly you can get staggering forces very quickly after a key military tech...if you had a mix of production and commerce cities they can all instantly be converted to :hammers: cities at the switch of a civic, and the commerce cities become just as good for production with the slider off! Doing this can end or functionally end games FAST.

$rush is strong , but requires lots of cash to be useful ( isn't it? :p ). That normally ( not always ) imply a strong % of cash, thus making research go to a halt. This means that $rush has the efficiency peak when you have low research, a thing that rarely is useful ( except when you don't want to research more..... ). That is why I said "normally it is not that strong". If you're running the stereotyped 60% research $rush is pretty much useless.....

Just don't switch? US isn't all that fantastic of a civic.

Depends how many towns you have in your empire. Building happiness infrastructure with those hammers helps.

The thing i dont understand about Representation is this-- you get 3 happiness.....thats it......three......normally i get heridetary rule to make my cities which have effectively become capped at around 5-6population, burst upwards to population size 15-16 plus...yes the military costs are there....at the same time, im trying to have a decent military in any case because i dont want my power rating to dip too far below the AIs...so i dont really see how one can substitute 3happies for an unlimited number depending on capacity...oh and another thing.....the BTS AI's these days are tooo stingy with their resources...if i aint getting resources to multiply the usuage of the buildings, its not exactly worth it to switch
but yes i do switch to representation once i have it and i've checked my cities can handle it....

oh and representation kicks ass over universal suffrage i agree....i'd get US if i had a whole heap of towns for the production boost...but that would have to be a considerable boost...corporations like mining and railroads (which are contemperaneous with universal suffrage civic becoming available) do much more to add to production

Possible routes towards happiness, from most effective to least effective.

Resources.
Religion. You can get +2 from each religion, +1 for each religion from free religion, and +1 from each temple. Or without free religion +1 from main religion and +1 with each temple.
Buildings. This is somewhat limited without resources. Colosseum, and Notre Dam, basically. Although a good amount of civs have unique buildings that provide at least 2 happiness.

Population control! If unhappiness is only a problem in a small amount of your cities, start to reduce those populations when you are about to switch. Working more specialists can come hand in hand with reducing population, so with representation you may not even really make much sacrifice with reducing population. Furthermore, once you get factories and power, your population tends to decrease, so you really only losing some of that population.

If none of these solutions work, then this means that having hereditary rule brings you more science and hammers anyways, because of the extra population it allows. Hereditary rule is also lower upkeep than Rep or US.

The thing i dont understand about Representation is this-- you get 3 happiness.....thats it......three......normally i get heridetary rule to make my cities which have effectively become capped at around 5-6population, burst upwards to population size 15-16 plus...yes the military costs are there....at the same time, im trying to have a decent military in any case because i dont want my power rating to dip too far below the AIs...so i dont really see how one can substitute 3happies for an unlimited number depending on capacity...oh and another thing.....the BTS AI's these days are tooo stingy with their resources...if i aint getting resources to multiply the usuage of the buildings, its not exactly worth it to switch
but yes i do switch to representation once i have it and i've checked my cities can handle it....

SharpMango,

I don't switch to Representation for happiness. The happiness is a bonus.