Breaking through the happiness cap

[InFlux5]

I'm a veteran player; I play on Monarch as I find it the most fun. I think the one area where my game suffers is breaking through the happiness cap early enough. I'm curious as to how people usually do this. Every option is pretty time-consuming to implement.

-The Pyramids are a huge build, and on Monarch+ I'm not making the investment without serious bonuses.
-Monarchy is expensive and basically useless except for enabling HR. It takes a while to get this tech. What to do in the meantime?
-Calendar is expensive to research, and I usually have other priorities. It takes a while to get it. Again, what to do in the meantime?

So basically, I want to know which of the un-attractive options you usually go for first? I do tend to go with the Pyramids to HR more than the others, but I kind of see that as a crutch.

 

[Orion071]

Well a religion + Temple = +2 happy or
Hopefully you have Gems, Gold, Silver, Ivory or Fur

There's not much else you can do early on.

I almost never go for Pyramids, like you said, they cost too much.

The AI's love Monarchy. Once I get Alphabet I can usually trade for it shortly after. Same for Calendar. I almost never research either of these.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

Orion hit all the main points pretty well (especially trading for monarchy). The only thing I would add is look for possible resource trades, and that if you are Charismatic, Stonehenge is a good investment. Other than that, it is less about "breaking through" the happiness barrier and more about making the best out of what you have.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Well, I'm sure you've already read Ways into Happiness by Cabert, but there it is anyway.

Something I'd like to add is Slavery. It's most efficient at lower populations, so it makes for good management.


-- my 2

 

[oyzar]

Monarchy is one of the most important early techs by far... I often find that i get this before math/alpha/col etc. Basically the first expensive tech. As long as you get up some decent early commerce it doesn't take too long to get there.. Trading for monarchy is really too slow most of the time. Getting it from oracle is of course another option.

 

[lilnev]

Unless I have other sources of happiness, I prioritize Monarchy. Calendar I can usually trade for eventually.

 

[vicawoo]

On monarch warlords, you could get alphabet early enough that you'd have to wait awhile to trade it for monarchy. Emperor, I think you're fine.

If you want to increase your population, expand.

 

[Guardian_PL]

I side with Otakujbski - in early stages slavery helps to deal with overpopulation and buildings/units are 1-2 pop worth, so until Monarchy/Religion/resources/trade will show up that's the best option to keep them happy.

SMILE!!! If not...

 

[Leventis]

On monarch warlords, you could get alphabet early enough that you'd have to wait awhile to trade it for monarchy.

On BtS I have to wait even longer to trade for monarchy. I self research it a lot more often now than I did on Warlords, but still try to trade for it when possible.

 

[Derbus]

Is there a good way to check if you can get Monarchy???

After reading Orions post about trading for monarchy I tried researcching something else in hopes I could tech trade with someone else for it.

But hapiness cap was owning me too hard, i ended up stopping research mid way and cranking it to 100% to speed out monarchy

 

[Leventis]

Is there a good way to check if you can get Monarchy???

After reading Orions post about trading for monarchy I tried researcching something else in hopes I could tech trade with someone else for it.

But hapiness cap was owning me too hard, i ended up stopping research mid way and cranking it to 100% to speed out monarchy

Yep, I've been there too -- usually I will get alphabet first then check the tech situation to see if any of the AIs are likely to get it soon. If I really need monarchy, then I will consider self-teching it to get some good trades out of it as well.

 

[Roxlimn]

I tend to go more for HR. Losing the Pyramids when you chop-rushed to build it is a big hit, maybe even a game-breaker.

One of the tactics I use is to monopolize a particular resource. If I can choke off a resource, even if it requires a poor city, I do it. This is so that I can trade for a happiness resource far away from me, but available to a friendly rival Civ. I sometimes research Sailing on my own just so I can get at a happiness resource trade I otherwise wouldn't get.

Building cities close to AIs with religion and Opening Borders gets them friendly and spreads the religion to you, which is another source of happiness. If I'm REALLY, REALLY strapped, I generate a GP and lightbulb Philosophy or CoL for my own religion. It's a bad way to make happies, but what can you do?

 

[UncleJJ]

I seldom build the Pyramids as I think HR is much better in the early game than Representation. Spending 500 hammers on a wonder when you could REX or build a stack of axes is bad enough but to then adopt an inferior civic is even worse Getting only +3 in your best cities is not enough compared to say +8 that is easy to get with HR when only the health cap matters. Also if you have more than 6 cities Representation gives nothing while HR gives +1 at least for the basic garrison in the extra ones.

So for most games (although there are exceptions) I rate HR as the best and most reliable way to get early happiness. I usually research towards Monarchy straight after Writing and start building extra archers or chariots as it is being researched.

After that I will prioritize Calendar fairly highly depending on what resources I have available to use or trade. By the time I research it I often need Calendar as much for its boost to health as for happiness since my big cities are up to their happiness limits. The happiness resources from Calendar lets me re-distribute the HR garrisons to fast growing smaller cities thereby saving me production and upkeep.

 

[xanadux]

Another benefit of HR is you have more units, so power is higher, and less likely to have an AI DOW you. Drawback is if you don't build extra units and do get in a war, your units leaving your cities causes unhappiness. Be careful not to be stuck in a situation where your core cities need the units for happiness and your border cities need them for defense. It can be a good idea if you think a war is coming to get drama and put some theatres in your big cities so that in a pinch you can raise the culture slider to use your units and stay happy.

 

[eewallace]

Pyramids and HR if I have stone (or am playing an industrious leader).

Otherwise, what I usually do is catch cities just under the happiness cap and redeploy the citizens of that the city is either growing extremely slowly or is stagnant. (Alternatively, whip away the unhappy guys.) Then readjust when happiness resources come in or cities get temple/coloseum, etc.

 

[nullspace]

Drawback is if you don't build extra units and do get in a war, your units leaving your cities causes unhappiness. Be careful not to be stuck in a situation where your core cities need the units for happiness and your border cities need them for defense.

That's what I don't like about HR. If you use HR, do you build lots of cheap units like warriors, archers, and chariots just for the happiness, or do you build "real" units that can actually fight?

 

[DaveMcW]

If you use HR, do you build lots of cheap units like warriors, archers, and chariots just for the happiness, or do you build "real" units that can actually fight?

How about both?

Cheap units maintaing happiness in the core, modern units in the border cities.

 

[UncleJJ]

I usually build a mixture of both real fighters and the cheapest troops, so in the early game it's often a few warriors, left over from when that was all I could build, lots of archers or chariots built just for happiness and as many axemen, swordsmen and catapults as I need for my real military. The real stuff will be on the borders ready for action while my "safe" cities will only have happiness troops and a single axeman (just in case). If I'm going to be aggressive I build more good troops otherwise I save costs while doing other stuff like building infrastructure.

When I go to war I sometimes whip a few expensive troops (macemen or trebuchets) from the largest cities to reduce the size of my cities and free up the garrison. I then move the new troops plus some of the garrison to the frontline cities, taking the good troops in the SoD while the garrison troops take over in the frontline city. I consider the population to be sort of hamers-in-waiting and they get used when I need them with the latest technology (e.g. trebuchets instead of catapults) and with the best promotions (due to running Vassalage and / or Theocracy). That technique of purposely reducing your city sizes during war or just before war gets round the problem xanadux uses the culture slider to solve. The dual controls of HR and Slavery is a good solution to problems with WW as that is dependent on city size.

Later in the game using a combination of HR with drafting and slavery allows close control over city size and the ability to turn food to hammers at efficient rates. I find drafting a rifleman and whipping a trebuchet or cannon from a medium sized city every 10 turns or so soon builds a powerful army and replaces losses.

 

[Roxlimn]

Archers, definitely.

I try to avoid building Warriors when I can, but they're useful even in the late game just for holding the city and clearing the Protection unhappiness penalty.

 

[bardolph]

Pretty much what everyone else said: Hereditary Rule.

Religions, Temples, Luxuries, Luxury-multiplying buildings (Market, etc), and of course the Culture Slider are all great ways to free up your armies so you can go conquer stuff, but until then, HR + Soldiers FTW