absimiliard
Warlord
Hello folks,
MadScientist prompted this, so blame him not me, with a post in his RPC thread. He was talking about the various types of economies he would allow or disallow for his new game with Peter. Anyhow his listing caused me to wonder if I've got all the types of economy down.
So I'd like to list the economies I'm aware of and then ask folks to add in any other sorts they're aware of that I've missed. If people have links to threads that do a good job of describing how a given economy works I'd appreciate it if they'd post those too. That way any new players can have a good reference of the types of economies they can use and some pointers to guides for how to run them.
That said, let me move on to the list.
1. CE: Perhaps the most common economy to run. A Cottage Economy, or possibly Commerce Economy, relies on mass Cottage-Cheese to produce the commerce that drives your research. Late game it probably has the most research power, but it limits your use of the slider for things like culture somewhat.
2. SE: Probably the second most common type of economy. A Specialist Economy, sometimes called a Farm Economy (FE), emphasizes the use of high-food cities to run loads of specialists. The specialists produce research, and the Great People they also produce are typically used to bulb technology for trading. The SE is complex and requires a lot more micro-management than a CE but allows pretty radical uses of the slider for both culture and gold. SE's also benefit highly from the Pyramids allowing early Representation, although they don't require it, you should try for the 'mids.
3. EE: The Espionage Economy is fairly new, since spies didn't exist prior to BTS. In an EE the slider moves from research to espionage fairly soon after alphabet and most techs are stolen from neighbors or traded for. The EE allows for many late-game buildings that provide multipliers to espionage points, more multipliers than there are for beakers. An EE could probably run either via high-food cities running spies or cottage-cheese that is focussed via the slider on espionage.
4. WE (or SSE): Blame the brilliant, and quite unconventional, Obsolete for this strategy. Although other people may have been doing it Obsolete is the person who pointed out that settling all of your specialists in a high-production capitol that pumps out wonders can produce monstrous research and production capacity. This is a Bureaucracy-friendly strategy since the capitol drives the economy. It does require some combination of Industrious or stone/marble, and generally is really only suited to a high-production capitol.
5. TE: A Trade Economy typically focusses on the coastlines. It generates commerce to fuel research primarily through use of trade-routes. As such it practically requires the Great Lighthouse, and requires fairly good diplomacy skills. It has a big advantage in that you can practically REX to your heart's content, however islands tend to be low-production so it's not without some possibly downsides.
6. RE: The last economy produces gold aplenty. A Religious Economy uses Great Prophets and Shrines to produce all the gold you could wish for. How it produces research is mostly left up to the player in my opinion. You could use cottages, specialists, spies, whatever works. The research focus is on religious techs and you should try to found several religions. RE's produce fairly big cities early on, due to the high happy limit temples and religions offer. It seems a bit weak to me late-game though, when Free Religion can shut down a lot of your advantages.
So there, those are the six types of economies I can think of. If you can think of any others please put them up. If you know of a good link that shows how to run one of the economies please post those as well.
-abs
MadScientist prompted this, so blame him not me, with a post in his RPC thread. He was talking about the various types of economies he would allow or disallow for his new game with Peter. Anyhow his listing caused me to wonder if I've got all the types of economy down.
So I'd like to list the economies I'm aware of and then ask folks to add in any other sorts they're aware of that I've missed. If people have links to threads that do a good job of describing how a given economy works I'd appreciate it if they'd post those too. That way any new players can have a good reference of the types of economies they can use and some pointers to guides for how to run them.
That said, let me move on to the list.
1. CE: Perhaps the most common economy to run. A Cottage Economy, or possibly Commerce Economy, relies on mass Cottage-Cheese to produce the commerce that drives your research. Late game it probably has the most research power, but it limits your use of the slider for things like culture somewhat.
2. SE: Probably the second most common type of economy. A Specialist Economy, sometimes called a Farm Economy (FE), emphasizes the use of high-food cities to run loads of specialists. The specialists produce research, and the Great People they also produce are typically used to bulb technology for trading. The SE is complex and requires a lot more micro-management than a CE but allows pretty radical uses of the slider for both culture and gold. SE's also benefit highly from the Pyramids allowing early Representation, although they don't require it, you should try for the 'mids.
3. EE: The Espionage Economy is fairly new, since spies didn't exist prior to BTS. In an EE the slider moves from research to espionage fairly soon after alphabet and most techs are stolen from neighbors or traded for. The EE allows for many late-game buildings that provide multipliers to espionage points, more multipliers than there are for beakers. An EE could probably run either via high-food cities running spies or cottage-cheese that is focussed via the slider on espionage.
4. WE (or SSE): Blame the brilliant, and quite unconventional, Obsolete for this strategy. Although other people may have been doing it Obsolete is the person who pointed out that settling all of your specialists in a high-production capitol that pumps out wonders can produce monstrous research and production capacity. This is a Bureaucracy-friendly strategy since the capitol drives the economy. It does require some combination of Industrious or stone/marble, and generally is really only suited to a high-production capitol.
5. TE: A Trade Economy typically focusses on the coastlines. It generates commerce to fuel research primarily through use of trade-routes. As such it practically requires the Great Lighthouse, and requires fairly good diplomacy skills. It has a big advantage in that you can practically REX to your heart's content, however islands tend to be low-production so it's not without some possibly downsides.
6. RE: The last economy produces gold aplenty. A Religious Economy uses Great Prophets and Shrines to produce all the gold you could wish for. How it produces research is mostly left up to the player in my opinion. You could use cottages, specialists, spies, whatever works. The research focus is on religious techs and you should try to found several religions. RE's produce fairly big cities early on, due to the high happy limit temples and religions offer. It seems a bit weak to me late-game though, when Free Religion can shut down a lot of your advantages.
So there, those are the six types of economies I can think of. If you can think of any others please put them up. If you know of a good link that shows how to run one of the economies please post those as well.
-abs
