Most used civics

[BCLG100]

I nearly always use state propoerty as soon as i can, everything else it depends...

 

[Leif]

Hooray for democratic socialism!
Universal Sufferage
Emancipation
State Property
Free Religion

Seconded, although during wartime I typically switch to
Police State
Vassalage
State property
Theocracy

 

[Acceptable_Loss]

It seems like we all have pretty similar preferences for favorite Civics:

so a more interesting question could be: which Civics to you least often use?

For me that would be Environmentalism...

 

[Leif]

For an enviromentalist to never use enviromentalism, I'm strange in that way.
I also tend to not use free markets much either.

 

[kamigawan]

I would question the blind switching to free speech as soon as it is available. In my games, there is a large period of overlap between when bureaucracy is better than free speech, even though free speech is available. Usually this period lasts at least until emancipation (so between liberalism and democracy).

 

[starbolt]

I would question the blind switching to free speech as soon as it is available. In my games, there is a large period of overlap between when bureaucracy is better than free speech, even though free speech is available. Usually this period lasts at least until emancipation (so between liberalism and democracy).

Blindly switching is generally not good, but certain techs are no-brainers (situation and time permitting) assuming better options are not available:

Despotism -> Hereditary Rule
Tribalism -> Slavery

I usually skip the early religious civics and go directly from Paganism -> Pacifism unless a war pops up. Unless I'm cranking out wonders, I usually skip Bureaucracy and go straight to Free Speech.

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On that note, I question your comments on Bureacracy > Free Speech. In a tiny empire, you might be right but I think Free Speech ramps up faster because it provides gold (not commerce) which usually allows you to run your science higher. The culture is also a strong bonus to insulate your borders.

I also wonder about Emancipation being in the least bit good? I can understand the argument for Democracy to get Universal Sufferage but I can say with a straight face that I have no idea how to use Emancipation to any good effect. I tend to plant cottages early, so most of their growth is done. If I am rapidly expanding I might plant cottages, but right or wrong I'll lean towards farming/windmills in new zones to grow population. I've been known to throw up 'defensive cottages' from time to time (the AI will stop to pillage developed housing instead of blitzing a town), but I don't think that qualifies.

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Can you elaborate on why you think Emancipation is better than Slavery or Caste System?

 

[Zombie69]

Slavery. About 70 to 80% of all production in my empire is doen through pop rushing. That civic is way overpowered, especially because it was badly coded and they didn't manage to fix the exploit yet.

 

[Gherald]

Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, Mercantilism, Theocracy

 

[Till]

Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Slavery and Paganism are the ones i most commonly use.
Most games are over before Police State even becomes available and i often don't have a state religion until mid-end game.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

On that note, I question your comments on Bureacracy > Free Speech. In a tiny empire, you might be right but I think Free Speech ramps up faster because it provides gold (not commerce)

According to CIV4CivicInfos.xml, Free Speech changes the commerce yield of towns.

 

[kamigawan]

---
On that note, I question your comments on Bureacracy > Free Speech. In a tiny empire, you might be right but I think Free Speech ramps up faster because it provides gold (not commerce) which usually allows you to run your science higher. The culture is also a strong bonus to insulate your borders.
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Free speech gives commerce not gold, and only in towns. What I am saying is that in my games my capital is very well developed and bureaucracy almost always gives more commerce (that is, research + gold) than free speech for a certain period even though free speech is available. To check whether or not this is true, just switch civics and compare output. During this time I usually have about 6-8 developed cities and about 4-6 young cities.

As for slavery: I find that once your cities grow to a point where it takes longer to re-grow population than it does to simply produce the hard way, I no longer whip. A very easy judgement call, IMO, since the number of turns it will take for each is listed.

 

[Zombie69]

If all you do is look candidly at the listed number of turns it takes, rather than micromanage how many turns it takes so that you get the maximum benefit (and exploit the bad coding to the max), then you're not using slavery to its maximum potential and that may be why you don't think it's all that good. Look at the article "Micromanagement is alive and well in Civ 4" for more detail.

 

[Kushluk]

Environmentalisim, I tired it once in the late phase of my game and it made my empire rediculously happy and healthy. I literally had to turn off the applauding sound effect, it was verrrry annoying getting 4 or 5 of those every turn. I ended up winning that game by domination.

I think the civic might be worth it, but it comes too late to see much play.

 

[The Tyrant]

State Property. To be honest, I still don't understand the phrasing of the description "No maintenance from distance to palace" - can anyone explain that? How far is 'distance'?

That refers to the distance factor in city upkeep costs. When you're in a city screen, mouse over the city upkeep cost in the upper left hand portion of the screen. You'll see that there are two factors that determine how much a city costs in upkeep (# of cities, and distance-to-palace). City upkeep is actually based on three main factors, but only the first two are shown in the mouse-over: the number of cities you have, and how far the city is from the capital. Note that Forbidden Palace and Versailles also act as capitals for the purpose of determining distance-to-palace. The more cities you have, the more expensive each city is in terms of upkeep. Also, the further a city is from the capital, the more it costs in upkeep. The third factor is city size. Larger cities cost more in upkeep than smaller cities.

State Property reduces city upkeep costs by eliminating the distance factor.

 

[Kushluk]

Police State
Vassalage
Serfdom
Slavery
Theocracy

 

[GoodSarmatian]

It seems like we all have pretty similar preferences for favorite Civics:

so a more interesting question could be: which Civics to you least often use?

Plice state and Nationhood.
Is there a good reason at all ?
Police state halves war weariness, but ww only affects my largest cities, so I'm better off with representation whichalways increases happiness by 2. Police state would only be beneficial when I have four unhappy citicens, but this is something I usually try to prevent. The military production bonus seems irrelevant as well. +25% when you already have forges and factories ?

Nationhood might be useful because barracks increase happiness, but with free speech or bureaucracy I have a higher income and can afford to spend money on culture. About drafting: I prefer either bureaucracy to build units faster in my capital or vasallage fore more exp.
Might be useful as an emergency-civic if you have a small army and are suprised by an invasion, but I't do this only with a spiritual civ, so I can switch civics again after I have some new defenders.

 

[marioflag]

Personally i think that nearly all civics are balanced except for economic civs.
Mercantilism i'm sure is really one of the least used civics because it's really weak.1 GP for city is a good advantage but with no commerce it isn't really worth the choice.Probably a small boost to production in every city could make it a bit better as choice.About free market and statal property i often find statal property better but people says that they are balanced because free market is better for small/medium empires.Anyway in mid/end game you will have often a great empire so statal property is often the choice.Except for economic civics i find the other a lot balanced and their choice is based on game rules and situations.

 

[El Koeno]

I never use mercantilism. Although I have been thinking it might be useful combined with representation and a wonder which gives benefits to specialists (such as the sixtine chapel).

I usually opt for free-market. Although I hardly ever bother to compare it to state property, it seems like a good deal, trade routes can yield pretty much, especially if you have a lot of harbors. Still, seeing how much better free market seems to be in real life (compared to state property), it might be underpowered.

 

[Technocactus]

Representation
Free Speech
Caste System
State Property
Organised Religion/Free Religion (depends on situation)