SoI Favourite Civics Combo?

[azander12]

I love Aristocracy, Religious Law, Free Labour, Market Economy, and either Theocracy or Organized Religion, depending on the civ. You get huge income, and tons of Great Saints, which are my favourite GPs. I nearly got a Domination victory with the Ayyubids with that combo.

[MessageMan]

I like running Agrarianism and building farms for a specialist economy.

I don't know if Free Labor is worth it because of the high upkeep. I don't find myself building a lot of cottages in the first place and if you have a big empire upkeep costs are very high. I end up using the first civic in that column that has no effect.

For small mid-game civs I like using Slavery.

[youtien]

Aristocracy + Religious Law + Caste system for Ajmer and Hindu civs. For we can get mega cities easily, get 100-150 tech points at 0% research rate.

[azander12]

Originally Posted by MessageMan

I like running Agrarianism and building farms for a specialist economy.

I don't know if Free Labor is worth it because of the high upkeep. I don't find myself building a lot of cottages in the first place and if you have a big empire upkeep costs are very high. I end up using the first civic in that column that has no effect.

For small mid-game civs I like using Slavery.

I've started using Serfdom instead of Free Labour, its working much better. I tend to rush for Paved Roads (I like moving fast :P) and Serfdom helps build them up faster.

[jammerculture]

I have always thought that their is a natural civic that is missing from this mod. Some sort of nomadic pastoral civic which would give a benefit to mounted units or increase some form of resource from camps and pastures, or affect movement somehow. It would be a natural civic choice for the Seljuks, for example, and a natural alternative for agrarianism.

Edead if you ever decide to change anything about your civics maybe this is something to think about.

[azander12]

Originally Posted by jammerculture

I have always thought that their is a natural civic that is missing from this mod. Some sort of nomadic pastoral civic which would give a benefit to mounted units or increase some form of resource from camps and pastures, or affect movement somehow. It would be a natural civic choice for the Seljuks, for example, and a natural alternative for agrarianism.

Edead if you ever decide to change anything about your civics maybe this is something to think about.

It would make sense, it could replace the basic economic civ, or maybe Merchant Capitalism, which isn't all that useful.

[dragodon64]

I tend to prefer the large empire building civs, so Empire is a must. Agrarianism is nice in the early-mid game, but after the mongol invasions it's hard to tell whether it or market economy is more useful. Organized Religion is always useful, nothing gets conquered cities up and running like +25% on all buildings.

My one major complaint is on the legal column. Religious law is far too useful (I always use it, from when I can switch to it to the end of the game) while Meritocracy is useless (never used it). I really think that Meritocracy, to reflect the real world, should be the most useful civic in its column, but the current boni are just too measly.

I propose Religious law be made medium or high upkeep and the bonus reduced to 25%, while Meritocracy should have its bonus extended to +100%.

Also, I feel that Absolutism and State Monopoly both come too late in the game and are not that useful. I feel that you're either too big not to use Empire or too small not to use Aristocracy from mid-game onwards. While State Monopoly's costs (upkeep, no companies) hugely outweigh its benefits (measly bonus, spending cash on production) to make it never worth sacrificing Agrarianism or Market Economy.

[youtien]

Originally Posted by dragodon64

I tend to prefer the large empire building civs, so Empire is a must. Agrarianism is nice in the early-mid game, but after the mongol invasions it's hard to tell whether it or market economy is more useful. Organized Religion is always useful, nothing gets conquered cities up and running like +25% on all buildings.

My one major complaint is on the legal column. Religious law is far too useful (I always use it, from when I can switch to it to the end of the game) while Meritocracy is useless (never used it). I really think that Meritocracy, to reflect the real world, should be the most useful civic in its column, but the current boni are just too measly.

I propose Religious law be made medium or high upkeep and the bonus reduced to 25%, while Meritocracy should have its bonus extended to +100%.

Also, I feel that Absolutism and State Monopoly both come too late in the game and are not that useful. I feel that you're either too big not to use Empire or too small not to use Aristocracy from mid-game onwards. While State Monopoly's costs (upkeep, no companies) hugely outweigh its benefits (measly bonus, spending cash on production) to make it never worth sacrificing Agrarianism or Market Economy.

Meritocracy is useful for Mughal, because the main quest is conquest, and you can quickly acquire the richest cities in the game.

[dragodon64]

Really? But +50% great general appearance really doesn't make a difference in your conquests, because those really rich cities can just produce tons of units so very quickly. Instead, using Religious law to boost the GP production that comes from all the specialists in those massive cities seems so much more useful.

[Jusos2108]

As Oman I use Aristocracy and Merchant Capitalism. However, I haven't found them useful with any other civ.

[dragodon64]

I've used Aristocracy with Georgia and Armenia as well.

I see almost all the AI switching to Merchant Capitalism once they get Companies. The extra only applies to coastal cities, so I could see why Oman, Yemen, Sindh, Gujrat and maybe Byzantium would go for it, but I have no idea why (mostly) inland civs like Malwa, Makuria and Abbasids would do so.

[Jusos2108]

Merchant Capitalism also fits Oman's UB and UP extremely well.

[azander12]

Originally Posted by Jusos2108

As Oman I use Aristocracy and Merchant Capitalism. However, I haven't found them useful with any other civ.

I use Aristocracy with almost every civ I can, I find the extra gold it provides, especially in conjecture with Religious Law and Market Economy (free priests for everyone!) vital for keeping your research rate up.