Caste System?

[HoldDaMayo]

I've never used switched to it in any of the games I play, does anyone else use it and when/why?

 

[MrCynical]

It's useful if you're running large numbers of specialists in your cities, and/or have a lot of food rich cities. It generally gives more flexibility in what specialists you can have, and can also be handy in captured cities where there may be no other way of generating fast culture than artists, and the city is unlikely to have any buildings that will allow them to be selected without Caste System.

In general I prefer Slavery in the early stages and Emancipation in the later, but Caste System does have it's uses. The other one in this set (Serfdom) is basically useless, at least I've never used it, and I've never seen any strategy for using it.

 

[eric_]

Serfdom seems to provide a boost in income over Slavery.

 

[walkerjks]

Any strategy that is based on getting a large number of great merchants, great scientists, or great artists almost requires the caste system. Culture wins, for example, don't really require great artists, but fast culture wins do.

 

[MrCynical]

Serfdom seems to provide a boost in income over Slavery.

Slavery has no upkeep costs. Serfdom has low upkeep costs and the only bonus is accelerated worker speed. Serfdom will therefore reduce your income compared to slavery.

 

[eric_]

Hrm...weird...I must've upgraded two civics at once or something then...

 

[AtriumComplex]

You can use the Caste system to manipulate what kind of GP you get. Just pile on the artists/scientists/merchants in your GP city and you are nearly guarnteed your choice.

 

[Shillen]

I use both serfdom and caste system in my milking games. Caste system allows you to get a quick border expansion at the expense of growth. It also allows me to carefully control my cities' borders so I don't trigger domination by accident. Serfdom is of great value when I'm converting all my improvements in my entire empire with farms. But serfdom can also be useful in a game with heavy amounts of jungle that needs to be cleared.

 

[Thyrwyn]

Caste System is also useful during offensive blitzes: you can set Artist Specialists in your newly-conquered cities to pop the borders out quickly; then change them to Merchants to offset the maintenance costs while you press the attack. this allows you wage war longer and leave the economic recovery till after the smoke has cleared.

It also dovetails nicely with Representation (+3 beakers per specialist) and the Sistine Chapel (+2 culture per specialist).

 

[Mathemagician13]

Mercantalism + Caste System = Free merchant in every city. That's a reasonable gold boost if you're running high research %s.

As mentioned, if you want great merchants (and I usually do, the +1 food for using them as a super specialist rocks), caste system is the path to get them.

 

[niffweed17]

i have used caste system when going for cultural victories. it is absolutely essentially that my GP farm get at least four or five artists to keep churning great artists early and often.

otherwise, i use slavery/serfdom and later emancipation.

 

[Corbeau]

Cast System is best with Representation. If you have a food rich start, you can almost go without cottages if you want. A bunch of scientist specialists plus Representation in a city with Oxford University and an Academy is just crazy. I had one game where I had my first three cities on a river with tons of flood plains. 30 population is an awesome thing. And yes, I did go for a culture win with those three cities.

If you're financial though, I'd go for cottages. Play to your strengths!

 

[Yzen Danek]

I use both serfdom and caste system in my milking games. Caste system allows you to get a quick border expansion at the expense of growth. It also allows me to carefully control my cities' borders so I don't trigger domination by accident. Serfdom is of great value when I'm converting all my improvements in my entire empire with farms. But serfdom can also be useful in a game with heavy amounts of jungle that needs to be cleared.

Milking? I thought this was left behind at Civ II.

I didn't even know it was possible in CivIV to improve your score by a greater margin than you would get by winning that turn; all of my ridiculous scores have come from things like domination wins in 1800 bc.

 

[Prince David]

I've seen the "Caste System to expand borders in recently captured cities" strat mentioned in a couple of places, but never clearly outlined. I've been trying it in my current game with inconsistent results. How do you do it properly?

 

[BigCMan]

I've never used switched to it in any of the games I play, does anyone else use it and when/why?

Basically, if you have the Caste System civic in a city with lots of food, you can churn out great people pretty quickly (and the ones of your choice too, for the most part).

 

[Drake007]

I've used caste system in a weird way recently. At the start of an immortal standard continents game, I chop-rushed a boatload of axemen and invaded my neighbour while beelining to priesthood to get the oracle. When I got it, my neighbour was dead but so was my economy; I was running at exactly 0% science and didnt have pottery!. So I chose Code of Laws, switched to caste system, and put three merchants in the conquered capital. Since I was philosophical (fred), I got a great merchant in like 8 turns and sent him to an AI city: 1350 gold! (epic). With that I was able to research at 100%, get alphabet quickly and get all the worker techs I missed by going for priesthood, all while cottage spamming my two-civ big empire. I'm currently playing this game and its turning out real well. Dunno how valuable this strat is but it sure is decent.

 

[Innawerkz]

I've seen the "Caste System to expand borders in recently captured cities" strat mentioned in a couple of places, but never clearly outlined. I've been trying it in my current game with inconsistent results. How do you do it properly?

You use an Artist Specialist to grow the borders of new & conquered cities much faster. It beats waiting for a library or theater being built when the Caste System is in place.

 

[Prince David]

That's what I thought, but I really didn't have enough surplus food to support any specialists and so not much happened.

I think what happened was that I was expecting a longer war and so did a fair amount of strategic pillaging (like food resources). Then when I conquered the city I had to use every citizen to support the population. I think pillaging food resources is a strategy I need to abandon - city size has essentially no effect on defensive bonus and thus there's no need to starve cities down like in CIII.

 

[Roxtar]

I have used Caste System sometimes for quick border expansion (artists), slight research boost (scientists), or a li'l gold to minimize negative GPT (merchants). Also, if I use Mercantilism &/or have build the Statue of Liberty, Caste guarantees that I don't get stuck with a Citizen specialist in a city that has no library, theater, market or grocer.

However, I tend to be production-oriented. Merchants, scientists & artists don't provide hammers, which I need most when cities are newly founded & I'm trying to get granaries, lighthouses & courthouses built quickly. So for most eras in most games, I stick with Slavery so I can whip said buildings which already take forever to finish otherwise, & would only be prolonged by the presence of said specialists.

 

[EverNoob]

Using the Oracle to get Code of Laws, and therefore Caste System early in the game can be extremely useful for getting the merchant and artist specialists (and great ppl) before you have Currency and Drama.

For example this is my standard way to start with Roosevelt:
Oracle --> Code of Laws --> Great Merchant --> Metal Casting
Roosevelt is all powered up and ready to wage war!

Once I build theaters and markets I move on to Serdom though.