anyone ever use serfdom?

[attackfighter]

If you're suffering from lots of hard wars, serfdom is good. Lots of workers will be captured, lots of improvments will be destroyed, and your cities will be building mostly military, not workers. Sadly, the ai sucks so badly that they usually aren't a military threat.

Also, you don't always have a GP farm, or lots of food (for whipping) either. If you've got lots of plains and hills, with no suitable place for a GP farm, than you're wasting your time with caste system and slavery. Btw, I do quite well on emperor and I rarely have a single city dedicated to great people. It's definately a bonus, but it's not a necessity.

 

[Gorey]

i think too many people overlook the +1 to workshops in caste system. even without the great people bonus, this is pretty hefty.

with guilds & caste system.. workshops become viable. making a grassland square equivalent to a grassland hill.

my production centers get a massive boost and my commerce cities finally get the hammers they're sorely lacking.

later on once i switch to universal sufferage (+1 in towns) and have levy's and a few watermills up, i can change those couple workshops in my commerce cities to cottages as i can make up those hammers elsewhere.

but regardless... my production centers will always have as many workshops as i can work... state property or not.


after reading alot of this thread, i did come away with a use for serfdom.

if im spiritual and a) have nothing to whip currently and b) not yet ready for caste, a short trip in serfdom doesn't sound like a bad thing.

 

[Rusty Edge]

I use it because I detest slavery.

Yeah, I know, it's only a game, but by the same token it should be fun, and slavery drains the fun out of it. It's more fun to play as a liberator.

 

[oawiefga]

I use serfdom every game at least until I get railroads. By then every tile in every city is improved and I set the workers to auto. The rest of the game game I spend in caste.

 

[Yared]

I use serfdom every game at least until I get railroads. By then every tile in every city is improved and I set the workers to auto. The rest of the game game I spend in caste.

That's too early.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I use serfdom every game at least until I get railroads. By then every tile in every city is improved and I set the workers to auto. The rest of the game game I spend in caste.

You're probably playing below your level. Usually after railroads, a number of AIs will have switched to emancipation making the hard to combat. Don't get me wrong, you can combat emancipation and stay in slavery/caste forever if you work it well (Espionage or using HerRule). Are you switching to caste system for the +1 to workshops? I would think that by Railroad, you've already attained a # of GP and many of your cottages are quite developed making Emancipation even more desirable to quickly grow the rest of your cottages.

Caste System is best when abused throughout a majority of the early to late-mid game. Late game is usually more difficult to run Caste System (and questionable if you haven't used it up to that point). At least in my experience this is true.

 

[Kullervo]

I use serfdom all the way to state property. Often in the rennaisance Era, I expand very rapidly, and so I don't have a lot of horrible cities draining my economy, I make them as self-sufficient as possible. And to balance my budget, whenever Great Prophets, Merchants, or Artists are born, I settle them in my economic powerhouse, usually my capital.

 

[Memphus]

Very rarely will you ever be in a position where Serfdom is available but Caste System is not. And if you are in that position, then you either A) don't know what you're doing, or B) know very well what you're doing and understand the special circumstaces you're in, and don't need to be told which civics to choose.

Always knew I was doing something wrong...

A) You and me both Krill. You and Me both.... oh wait... maybe we fall under B?

 

[Da_V_Man]

seriously has no one ever used serftom and the hagia sophia. (I think that is the wonder that give 50% worker bonus)

This works great with a spiritual leader, but I have found this to be very useful. I go on a massive rampage with my armies. Stop and rebuild the economy by switching to serftom and organized religion, and then I repeat.

I have noticed it helps me reduce time between wars, but only if it is before the hagia goes obsolete and only if I have the hagia in the first place

The Hagia Sophia goes obsolete with Steam Power, which adds a 50% worker bonus. In other words, whoever has the Hagia Sophia won't have a change in improvement speed.

I used to solely use Serfdom because of it's low upkeep until I realized how usefull Caste System is. Now I never use it.

 

[TeraHammer]

I use serfdom occasionaly, when we get a lucky feudalism oracle (vanilla multiplayer)