Theocracy

[GoldenJim]

Granted, I'm newer, but could someone list the advantages of theocracy? Outside of the extra +2XP for soldiers, I really don't see why anyone would want to use it.

I understand that perhaps one might want to choke his opponents from gaining money but it seems to me that the extra religions in a city would afford the player a chance to increase happiness, from building temples, and research, from building monasteries, merely by allowing others to spread their religion.

This is especially useful in the later game when populations start demanding emancipation. I, for one, don't like to use emancipation so I find the extra religion very useful.

Anyway, because I always use the spiritual trait and always go for religion, I find it strange that I have such a disdain for theocracy. I must be missing something. Perhaps all of its traits aren't listed?

Thanks

[Refar]

Most of the time Theocracy is used because of those +2XP.

I.E. beeing spiritual means that you almost has to switch to Theo+Vassalage when building lots of troops.

There are rare occasions where i use it to restrain religion - usually to prevent the AP religion from spreading to me.

[Roman Caesar]

Theocracy has a place in the game when the majority (or all) of your cities are manufacturing units. It gives you the obvious benefit of +2 experience and has cheaper upkeep than Organized Religion. It is also available earlier in the game than Pacifism and Free Religion, therefore provides the only alternative to Organized Religion for many turns.

If you pair Theocracy with Vassalage you will end up with +4 experience per unit. This extra +2 from Theocracy could be critical in gaining an extra promotion, depending on other experience modifiers (such as barracks, stables, drydocks, great generals, charismatic trait...etc...). This extra promotion could make a signifcant difference for war and even if you don't make the promotion, you are always +2 exp closer to another one. That future promotion could happen at a critical stage in the war, also providing the immediate healing benefits that come with it.

Another small consideration is the effects of inflation on civic upkeep costs so the further into the game you venture, the more gold per turn you will save from Theocracy VS Organised Religion. Obviously the other civics have less upkeep.

Your point on non-state spread of religion is valid. However, I find there are plenty of other ways to control happiness and that most of the religions will spread to my cities early or late in the game when I have open borders with the Civilizations that founded the religions and am not using Theocracy.

I think Theocracy exists not as a long term civic but one that you switch to whenever you are preparing for war.

[Monkeyfinger]

The thing is, religious civics are mutually exclusive with their benefits. If you want to spread religion or build buildings, do OR. If you need an army, switch to Theocracy. Need a quick great person? Pacifism. Happiness, Free religion.

If you're spiritual (or maybe even if not) don't be constantly letting out a small trickle of troops. Choose a time to have most of your empire building an army. Run Theocracy during that entire time period. Once you have built enough troops for whatever purpose you want them, go back to OR/Pacifism and build peacefully.

I suppose you could accomplish the same thing with vassalage except for the fact that you must give up Bureaucracy or Free Speech to do that. Bureaucracy gives you a big boost to your empire no matter what its current focus is, and if you're using a cottage based economy, Free Speech gives an even larger ever-present boost than Bureaucracy. You'd rather not give those civics up. Ever. Even if you are spiritual, the only smart move is to go bureaucracy, stick to it until liberalism, and switch to free speech if and only if you have some towns, in which case you make that switch permanent for the rest of the game.

[CivDude86]

In vanilla vassalage+theocracy+pentagon=lvl3 out of the barracks
You need charisma to do it in the expansions.

[Larklight]

It's ironic how spiritual leaders, and those who love to use religion, turn out to be the least likely to engulf their land in theocratic government.

[kristopherb]

Originally Posted by Monkeyfinger

The thing is, religious civics are mutually exclusive with their benefits. If you want to spread religion or build buildings, do OR. If you need an army, switch to Theocracy. Need a quick great person? Pacifism. Happiness, Free religion.

If you go on that strategy the added effect of no non religion spread is pointless.

[PibbZ]

Im trying NOT to use it in every game i play. I usually stick with it for the entire game, due to the +2 xp. Will concider dropping it for Free Religion this game if i can push out enough great generals to keep the unitpbuilding cities the way i want them