Best government civic

[civvver]

Serfdom is NOT worthless. Giant earth map with Brazil- I was centuries behind Europe and Asia in terms of tech and production. My saving grace was an amazon basin full of rivers and grasslands, but those grasslands all had jungles on them. Quick revolt to serfdom, mass settle the basin, slash n burn those jungles and replace with farms and cottages. It got done fast. Then as soon as I had communism I swapped to state property and replaced all the farms with watermills. Managed to pull off a big come from behind space victory. Don't think I could've done it without serfdom. You can do the hammer analysis if you want and say hey just build more workers, but it's hammers saved you can invest elsewhere. Slavery lets you build infrastructure fast provided you have food. Serfdom lets you build improvements fast after a rex. Both are great civics.

As far as best government civic, I say representation. Provides top notch research. Universal suffrage is ok except that I've often replaced all my cottages with watermills once I get state property.

 

[Tatran]

US I think outperforms rep in late-game. The Hammers from towns is needed to production and being able to buy stuff is critical.

Representation is still better for research in the late game when you have big cities with a lot of specialists.

 

[GGracchus]

US if rushbuying, representation otherwise. Representation has good use earlygame for the extra happiness and good use lategame for the extra bonus to specialists.

 

[mtr12]

US/Kremlin is crucial for CE Warmongers.

 

[MilesBeyond]

As far as I can tell, it basically comes down to: US for CEs, Rep for SEs, HR for early game and diplo, and PS for war (with spiritual warmongers having the nice advantage of being able to jump between PS and HR at the drop of at hat - first conquer, then assimilate).

I usually go for Culture Victories so to me, Representation is key - all those extra beakers on your Artist specialists lets you sit at <20% science and still snag whatever techs you might need (not to mention 9 beakers per settled GS, which in tandem with Library, University, typically 3-5 Monasteries, and maybe even Observatory, is huge). If I've got enough specialists, I can even sit at 0% science and research techs within only a handful of turns.

 

[Archbob]

The ability to bum rush stuff is more important than a few extra beakers late-game. But if your going for cultral, I can see using Rep all the way through.

 

[ben-jammin]

Serfdom is for spiritual leaders when you've got 20 squares of jungle to chop and improve.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The ability to bum rush stuff is more important than a few extra beakers late-game. But if your going for cultral, I can see using Rep all the way through.

It's usually a lot more than a few beakers in most cases.

Also, you can't rushbuy space parts.

Though I imagine I should really go to US earlier near the end of a conquest victory.

 

[CivNoobie]

Honda

 

[capnvonbaron]

Serfdom can make for a good secondary REX, but I'd only use it as a SPI civ so I can get out of it without penalty.

And I don't know why people keep bringing it up, its a LABOR civic, not Gov.

With that, my vote goes to REP.

 

[joanne]

Honda

You really had to necro a 10 month old thread to make that corny joke?

Back on topic: I use rep for building late-game tech advantage (goes well with caste and bio farms), then either PS for faster unit production, or US if I have plenty of cottages and for rush-buying. You don't have to stick with exactly one and only one gov't civic (or legal or labor or economy or religion civic for that matter) throughout the rest of a game.

 

[Heathcliff]

Have you serfdom haters tried to oracle feudalism?
You can get serfdom early then.

 

[Mylene]

Have you serfdom haters tried to oracle feudalism?
You can get serfdom early then.

You could make a strategy article, would look good with BW avoiding as duo

 

[Cusanus]

You really had to necro a 10 month old thread to make that corny joke?

And worst of all: I don't get it. Honda... ?

 

[joanne]

^ Honda Civic

You could make a strategy article, would look good with BW avoiding as duo

I see what you did there

 

[floydmcw]

Re-necro-ing the thread ... yesterday I was playing a game in which Brennus built the Mids on turn 109 (Epic, Immortal). He chose to revolt to (drumroll) ...

Universal Suffrage

I guess the AI was not ready to make use of the Repr beaker bonus, and didn't need the happy boost from HR. But why not Police State? He built a lot of units. (And if the AI was concerned about the High upkeep, why not a Low-upkeep civic? US is Medium.)

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

Re-necro-ing the thread ... yesterday I was playing a game in which Brennus built the Mids on turn 109 (Epic, Immortal). He chose to revolt to (drumroll) ...

Universal Suffrage

I guess the AI was not ready to make use of the Repr beaker bonus, and didn't need the happy boost from HR. But why not Police State? He built a lot of units. (And if the AI was concerned about the High upkeep, why not a Low-upkeep civic? US is Medium.)

Short story the AI doesn't have a fracking clue about what it's doing ever.

 

[SrslySirius]

I think I rely too much on Hereditary Rule. I always find myself pumping out warriors and letting my cities grow to massive sizes. It's great, but any time I consider switching civics, I just groan at the thought of the massive happiness penalty I'll get hit with.

I basically never use Representation. Comparing each scientist to a silver mine really puts things into perspective though. I should probably give it a try.

Noob question, but is there any way to run a lot of scientists without Caste System? I think libraries just let you run 2.

 

[coanda]

Noob question, but is there any way to run a lot of scientists without Caste System? I think libraries just let you run 2.

No easy early-game way. A number of buildings and wonders add scientist slots or free scientist specialists, but the only ones you'll have before Education are library (2 slots) and possibly a city with The Great Library (2 more scientists).

 

[SrslySirius]

No easy early-game way. A number of buildings and wonders add scientist slots or free scientist specialists, but the only ones you'll have before Education are library (2 slots) and possibly a city with The Great Library (2 more scientists).

Rep really doesn't seem that strong then, unless it's just mandatory to pair it with caste system. My understanding has always been that a specialist economy is supposed to be strong early game, whereas the cottage economy dominates mid to late game. That's not the case if you can only run 2 scientists per city most of the game.