reddishrecue
Some dude on civfans
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2009
- Messages
- 6,221
Big ben and commerce purchases are so cheap that its great..
The problem with protectionism is that you pay for that power, in turns waiting to get it. It's the mandatory 5th policy in commerce and the merchant bonus feels like dead weight for a while.
That said, I still like the tree, along with autocracy it's the best sustained conquest tree for sure. I've had games with terrible unhappiness from ideological pressure (36 unhappiness) but commerce/autocracy overpowered it and I had close to 20 happiness on 20+ cities.
For SV games I think rationalism is still much better, because you're usually more science capped than anything else and the ability to get more science *and* faith buy great scientists really pushes rationalism up as a priority pick in SV games. When you're looking to end the game with something like arty or anything before, however, commerce is stronger outright IMO. The big ben + commerce + auto synergy is crazy.
The problem with protectionism is that you pay for that power, in turns waiting to get it. It's the mandatory 5th policy in commerce and the merchant bonus feels like dead weight for a while.
yeah but it also potentially leaves their cap open for a decapitation strike
I think the net cost is the delay to one or two Autocracy policies. You pick up a couple policies waiting on Rationalism to unlock, so instead of being spare, those are two picks in a core tree. Then Ideologies take a bit to unlock too, so that could be two or even three more picks. The Level 1 happy tenets from Autocracy are not that strong, but protectionism is crazy strong, so it seems like a no-compromise choice.
It also depends whether you're first to autocracy. If you get two freebies then you have that strong bonus from barracks line buildings as a tier 2 tenet available.
Yeah, depending on where you are culturally you may or may not finish commerce in a timely fashion pre-ideology, but finishing it is still very attractive.
Is there ever a time where Merchants are useful? Or is the policy that enhances trade missions purely a wasted policy?
Is there ever a time where Merchants are useful? Or is the policy that enhances trade missions purely a wasted policy?
That is good observation.
I was thinking about this more. In my typical play, I have a couple sub-optimal picks waiting for Rationalism, and then at least the right-hand-side of Rationalism before being able to concentrate on Ideology tenets. So that is five picks -- and Protectionism only needs six. Plus, again in my typical play, I really want to eventually fill out all of Rationalism -- but the opportunity cost for that is fewer Ideology tenets.
So I an thinking maybe I should adopt Commerce every game? I plan to experiment with that and see how it goes. Skipping Rationalism scares me, but Protectionism every game? And more Ideology tenets to boot? Seems very compelling! It could be the case that all civs are best suited for adopting Commerce all the time!