Best Civs/Strategies for an Autocracy Game

Hello All,

I've found myself always picking Freedom or Order in my BNW games. Perhaps because I tend to go with Diplomacy and Cultural victories, but I really do want to try out Autocracy, so I was wondering which civs, new and old, have the most synergy with this ideology.

Also, if you have any strategies for this Ideology I'm all ears.

Thanks,
jaldaen

If you want to go Domination, the Shoshone and Venice are strong picks. Comanche Riders upgrade into tanks with an additional movement point and no regards for ZOC. Venice can just rush buy units to victory, with Big Ben (easy to get even on higher difficulties because the AI doesn't like commerce), Mercantilism, and Mobilization unit rush buy costs are hilariously low. It isn't hard to get to the point where you can buy a Bomber every turn.

Diplomacy I guess the best choice to use the diplo tenants would be Germany since they can afford to have a huge military sitting around and threatening city-states but diplo is so easy you should just go with someone that has a lot of gold (Portugal, Venice).

Culture is a bit trickier. I'd only ever go Autocracy for a culture victory if I'm lagging behind towards the end of the game because Industrial Espionage is so freaking good. In order to win culturally you're going to want to keep track of who the AI hates; look at the culture runaways and try to get into their wars to exploit Cult of Personality. You don't even need to fire a shot to get that 50% tourism bonus. There aren't any civs that have notable synergy with an autocratic culture victory (like I said, it's best when you're losing and that's really the only factor that comes into the equation) though you could go Brazil to take advantage of their Pracinhas.

Thanks Arachnofiend! I hadn't thought of the Comanche Riders turning into tanks with no ZOC restrictions, but that's a great point.

Arabia is a great civ for Autocracy (and also in general). Camel Archers will carry your midgame wars, and the double oil will ensure you can field plenty of bombers, battleships, and tanks. And the extra gold and lux from bazaars will help your self-sufficiency. Persia could also be fun for the Golden Age military bonuses stacking with Lightning Warfare and Clausewitz's Legacy. As Arachnofiend points out, Mobilization can be stacked with other cost reducers to make buying units dirt cheap; combine this with Total War, and you can have a large army of 3 promotion units very quickly. This can be an interesting option for any civ that gets a great UU that doesn't upgrade very well (Keshiks, Camel Archers, Winged Hussars, etc.) as you can quickly replace them with a fit fighting force once they're obsolete.

For Diplomacy, Sweden is an intriguing option (I'm about to start a game trying them with Autocracy). You can gift Great Generals/Admirals to Militant city-states to get them as allies, start a war to get faster unit gifts with United Front, and use your swelling army to leverage Gunboat Diplomacy while generating still more GG/GA with your wars to win over more city-states.

On the Culture side, as Arachnofiend says, mainly you just have to jump in wars with the right rival civs, but if you want to have some fun with it, go with Brazil for the aforementioned Pracinhas, Sweden again for the opportunity to generate more Generals/Admirals, or Aztecs to milk that culture bonus for all its worth. If you go that route, you'll probably want to refrain from conquering cities to avoid the warmonger penalty, which makes Ethiopia or India interesting possibilities.

Bismark is a surprisingly good Autocracy candidate. His 25% reduce maintenance cost stacks with Autocracy tenet, giving you a really cheap way to maintain a large army. Combine with Commerce, Big Ben, and Mobilization, you can buy the newest army and keep paying for it easily. This all synergies with Gunboat Diplomacy, which allow you to ally every single CS, bully them every 10 turns, and free units from military CS every 17 turns.

Thanks everyone for your insights, I'll have to try out some of these tactics and see what happens. If anyone else has other suggestions, feel free to post.

Shaka must be a good leader for autocracy and domination victory, due your military trait.

My advice for civs to pair up with Autocracy:

Japan: Military UA, and Samurai to get early free promo for upgrading later once you have Autocracy. Just make sure you don't pick Elite Forces for a tenet (as the UA already negates all wounded penalties anyways).

Germany: If you don't plan to use Panzers, Autocracy is probably the way to go. If you want to use Panzers, or simply have a lot of oil to build many of them, you might be better off with Order and building the Kremlin.

Denmark: Military UA and focus.

Songhai: Military UA.

Ethiopia: On higher levels, it's common to have a fair number of AIs that have more cities than you. Combining the UA bonus along with Clausewitz's Legacy makes it possible to quickly take down that first big AI without breaking a sweat; of course, assuming you don't raze every city you take, this will only really be overpowering against that first civ and maybe a second (since you will start having more cities than most civs after you take one out of the game).

Thanks for the suggestions.

ahawk said:

My advice for civs to pair up with Autocracy:

Japan: Military UA, and Samurai to get early free promo for upgrading later once you have Autocracy. Just make sure you don't pick Elite Forces for a tenet (as the UA already negates all wounded penalties anyways).

Germany: If you don't plan to use Panzers, Autocracy is probably the way to go. If you want to use Panzers, or simply have a lot of oil to build many of them, you might be better off with Order and building the Kremlin.

Denmark: Military UA and focus.

Songhai: Military UA.

Ethiopia: On higher levels, it's common to have a fair number of AIs that have more cities than you. Combining the UA bonus along with Clausewitz's Legacy makes it possible to quickly take down that first big AI without breaking a sweat; of course, assuming you don't raze every city you take, this will only really be overpowering against that first civ and maybe a second (since you will start having more cities than most civs after you take one out of the game).

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Don't forget that Autocracy has lightning warfare though! Perfect for those panzers!

I prefer autocracy for culture victories and domination victories. Often times I do a hybrid of the two and in the end either cap everything or influence all of them.

Arachnofiend said:

If you want to go Domination, the Shoshone and Venice are strong picks.

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I second that Venice's the gold is a fantastic combination with autocracy, and I think it's a great combination for science and diplomatic victories as well. The link in my signature is a Venice Autocracy game (Science Victory, Deity). For diplomacy, Venice's extra gold has fantastic synergy with Gunboat Diplomacy. I would argue that Venice can support an even larger army than Germany and still have gold leftover to bribe some recalcitrant City-States with as well.