Best Civics for a Napoleonic Empire?

I am playing as Cordoba and it is the early 1700s. I have not completed a single HUV and they all passed like 600 years ago. So what I am going to do instead is try to go all-out and conquer Western Europe. I have conquered all of Spain already and I have an army sitting outside my capital with 150+ units and some other 10+ sized armies sitting around. What civics should I have to ensure stability as I conquer the world? I'm playing beta 11.

Cordoba won't get far with a massive empire. To go Napoleonic, play as the French - their UP allows them to expand much further into unstable territory than other civs. Otherwise, play as Russia or the Ottomans, since each gets HUGE tracts of land that are safe for them to expand into.

Limited Monarchy + Common Law + Apprenticeship + Guilds seems to be the most stabile civic combo and Imperialism is an absolute must if taking cities beyond your historical bounds. If you can build or capture Paco di Ribiera, then switching between Militarism when conquering and Imperialism when building is a great way to go.

Don't expect much from Cordoba, though - for a true Napoleonic empire, play as France - their UP makes expanding into unsafe land less troublesome (I peace-vassalised Cordoba, Portugal and Engalnd, and capped Spain - Germany offered peace-vassalage, but I declined since I desired the Frankish reunification, I wanted their lands de jure, not defacto) - I went on to settle Ireland, Iceland, and the whole of the Levant, had 30+ stability when I won (with plenty more nightwatches, castles and courts to build), 20% of land and 35% of population - getting the last 5% for a domination victory wouldn't have been much of a push.

Russia and the Ottomans are great for huge empries, since they hae so much land availabe to them to expand into penalty-free (I was dangerously close to a domination victory as Muscovy when I seized Carigrad for the UHV). Any civs besides these 3 is going to be tough to dominate large tracts of the map without major imperial deterioration.

You can build a massively awesome empire as a lot of states. I've built empires with everything from Portugal to Poland and Hungary as France, Spain, England, and Germany. Also as Hungary and Bulgaria and empire of the Balkans going from Constantinople to Amsterdam.

With Imperialism, you just have to continue to build up your economy to stay good. You can usually keep yourself upwards of 20-30 stability even with a hilariously large empire. Especially after you finish teching and can drop money in to buying every single building in a city and have them "fully operational" within 20 turns of being captured.

So if I want to conquer everything, what is better: militarism or imperialism?

Militarism gives points upon conquest. Imperialism gives points for holding cities outside the core area. While you are expanding, you should use Militarism. After the expansion, you should use Imperialism to help you keep the territory together.

I collapsed in my file but I shall try again using this advice.

Also, one wonder which is nearly essential is Paço da Ribiera. With huge empires, I often run Merchant Republic to build up huge stacks of cash then switch over to Limited Monarchy to go on a massive spending binge. Buying wonders on the turn you discover a tech is mega. This wonder is also great for switching between Imperialism for peace-time building and Militarism for annexation.

As Mekajiki said, a stong economy really helps your stability.

The Rennaisance Art Wonders are indespensible to a large empire as well (Chateau de Fountainbleu and Palacio del Escorial).

rock_star said:

With huge empires, I often run Merchant Republic to build up huge stacks of cash

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I thought Merchant Republic wasn't compatible with empires of 6+ cities? Can you please explain how you survive the stability hit?

Science Rules said:

I thought Merchant Republic wasn't compatible with empires of 6+ cities? Can you please explain how you survive the stability hit?

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Merchant Republic will cause you a hit of a few points, but it will hardly cause your empire to suddenly collapse when switching to it. The proof is in the pics:

Republic of Spain - Tuscany & Aquilia conquered; working on Sicily & Malta (why aren't these at least OK for Spain?); Portugal & Azores annexed, Netherlands ganked at spawn and Ireland settled to serve as launching point for the Protestant purge in Britain:



Republic of France (More than double the points of my next rival in score; Frankish reconquest - Empire extends from Madrid to Poland, with Cordoba, Spain, Portugal and England as vassals - Holy Land and Iceland under my thumb - I got bored and tried to create a united Celtic nation by controlling Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Man and Lesser Britain - England still has Cornwall, though, but I have York as compensation - if not for my ridiculous British cities settled out to boredom, my stability would be higher):



Republic of Germany (history as Louis the German would have it - France, Burgundy and Germany united under one holy emperor; Lithuania & Hungary as vassals):



Anytime I'm playing an imperial Catholic civ, I build a church ASAP and run a priest to ensure a Prophet appears, at which point I found a knight order; after that I try to pop a Merchant or two to ensure a corporation later on (the Hanseads for coast and Medicis for interior are the best combo in my opinion, given the abundance of Fish, Salt, Fur and Sheep, plus Medicis produce pure gold while the others provides hammers or espionage - not as useful to stability).

Edit: I just realized I was running Limited Monarchy as Germany, not MR. All the wealth is due to Golden Age & running wealth in all my cities (I wanted to see how much I could produce in a turn - before the GA I was up to +2400 while still building buildings and units, but then Britain DOW'ed, costing me some Medici Resources - seriously, if you found a corp, trade for EVERY profitable resource from every civ you can and watch your wealth surge).