I've yet to finish a game without having to switch Ideologies.

As the title says, I've been forced to switch Ideologies every time I've played into the late game. The Unhappiness bomb is so sudden and empire-crippling I've no choice but to switch immediately. I've only been playing the game three for weeks, so I'm still learning a bit of everything. But since this particular mechanic doesn't show its face until very late in the game, my exposure to it is more limited than to the other elements of the game.

In my last game I had a ton of Happiness from Luxury resources, supplemented with a hefty sum from buildings and Social Policies. I suspect I grew my cities too large, as the population of my five cities eventually dragged the Happiness down to low double digits. What Culture I had came from the Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, and other lower-tier Culture buildings and from alliances with City States (I was allied with all of them for the vast majority of the game). I was the first to choose an Ideology and went with Freedom. Three of the other five Civs (playing on a small map) had Order.

I kept my borders closed the entire time and traded with the City States for most of the game since I was going for a Diplomatic Victory, but evidently my Culture wasn't strong enough to hold off outside influence. And obviously my Happiness buffer just wasn't enough. Luckily the vote for World Leader was four turns away and I had all the votes I needed to win squared away, so it didn't wreck my plans like it could have. But I'd like to get a better grip on this particular mechanic, so I'd be grateful for any tips or insights you guys can share. Thanks.

My first few BNW games were like that, and I still switch some games. Mostly it is about picking up happiness SP. You mentioned Freedom, so get the half unhappiness from specialists ASAP. Also, try riding it out until you are at -20 and about to loose a city. Tall cities are not generally the problem, but over expansion is.

Why are you so scared of switching ideologies? If you need to switch then just do it and you won't lose a city and you'll keep the happiness. Don't worry much about losing so much social policies in ideologies.

It sucks hard having to switch late game when you've adopted lots of policies in your chosen ideology and it's a thing that can creep up on you.
I wouldn't trust these points completely but it should help keep you from having to switch:

- Identify the civs which may try to go hard into culture and tourism early on ie France

- Keep an eye on everyone's cultural influence over you, if it gets too high and they're of a different ideology then take action, close open borders and stop trade routes as quickly as possible and bolster culture, it may seem drastic but the influence piles up over time

- Keep people with the same ideology as you close, open borders with them or if you don't trust them at least trade with them

- The previous point also brings me to religion, share your religion with other people to exert your ideological dominance over them

- An often forgotten fact is that diplomats also exert a tourism bonus on to the civ they're placed in

- And as always a little offence is always the best defence, try to convert other civs to your ideology to minimise the number of other civs that could try to convert yours

I hate ideologies, personally.

I never had to switch ideologies, that's strange.. What difficulty are you on?

Try the following:
- ally some cultural City States early
- (if on difficulty < Emperor) build a few wonders that give you culture
- build the Artist Guild and get some Golden Ages
- don't neglect the other guilds and build some great works
- if you are having happiness problems, consider going order. It gives you tons of happiness

It also is a good idea to identiy the culture leader (you can see it in the tourism screen) and wipe him out. This will also give you some great cultural wonders from their capital in most cases.

Remember that ideology resistance depends both on your own culture AND on your tourism output. Don't neglect great works or cultural wonders.

try to get Exotic level vs culture leader(s)
it will help alot.
if you're Unknown to them you'll get a Revolutionary Wave or even worse.
60+ unhappiness penalty in my current game...
luckily i'm close to destroy the Freedom lair to make my people obedient and happy again

As the Austrailians, current game, I got real lucky by getting Order first, then 5 turns later, the Chinooks (culture leader) also took Order; so I think I'm safe there ... however, Artillery tech comes on-line in 12 turns, with lots of cavalry, and lots of cannon to upgrade ... guess who's next target ?

Too bad that Chinook got GWall 3 turns before I could .

There's not that much about it... accumulating culture faster and strongly is the way to go.
Allying CSs, making the guilds earlier, winning the world fair.

Then at least one level of pressure should be expected (around -10 to -15 happiness) so getting happy policies from the ideology is essential. Getting better culture will help you get those policies.

darkace77450 said:

but evidently my Culture wasn't strong enough to hold off outside influence.

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As mentioned, your Tourism also matters. If they're 12% influential over you and you're 8% influential over them...you get hit with a penalty. The breakpoints are 10/30/60/100. If you can manage to get >10% with everyone and everyone is <30% with you, I believe you'll either get no penalty or, worst case, the smallest one.

If you didn't switch ideologies like that, I'm really proud of you. Good job.

LordBalkoth said:

As mentioned, your Tourism also matters. If they're 12% influential over you and you're 8% influential over them...you get hit with a penalty. The breakpoints are 10/30/60/100. If you can manage to get >10% with everyone and everyone is <30% with you, I believe you'll either get no penalty or, worst case, the smallest one.

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Yes that's how it works. You're only influenced by civs having a higher influence on you than you on them.

Acken said:

Yes that's how it works. You're only influenced by civs having a higher influence on you than you on them.

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How do you get to generate that much more influence though ? By generating more tourism per turn?

Yes. Influence threshold are a % of their total culture.

I personally don't really care about tourism though. My games are too fast for it to matter. Simply getting as much culture as you can should get you up to T250 without much problems... on Deity.

buy open borders and send diplomats, thats +50% tourism

AIs have difficulties opening borders with you when they notice that you have a threatening amount of tourism per turn. Diplomatic penalties also prevent other civilizations from opening borders with you.

reddishrecue said:

AIs have difficulties opening borders with you when they notice that you have a threatening amount of tourism per turn.

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That's so not true, AI will only deny you OB if they hate your guts

stormtrooper412 said:

That's so not true, AI will only deny you OB if they hate your guts

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That's exactly what I said. The idea is the same but the words are different. Ais that make less tourism per turn won't OB with you that easily. If an AI makes more tourism than you then yes of course it will OB with you.

I'm saying the reasons are not cultural, but diplomatic. Civs that are friendly (or faking it) will grant open borders regardless of how much tourism you have