Economy?

[Zyura]

What are differences between economic systems?
If i change from Mecrantilism to Free Market nothing has changed.I can even loose some money!
I know that State Property is the best, but what is the difference between Decentralization,Mercantilism and Free Market?

 

[feldmarshall]

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/civics/

 

[King Flevance]

Mercantilism is great if you do not have open borders and do not intend on opening borders very soon. Also, there is not much difference if you and 1 neighbor are you only open border territories.

Free Market is betterif you have alot of people with you sharing open borders. (Mostly the ones that are far away as trades routes are based on distance and city size.) It is possible for Free Market to be better than State Property. Free Market is has better potential the larger the map is.

State Property benefits the player with a large empire to chop off all those distance maintenance costs. A small empire does not benefit nearly as much. So, this civic same as Free Market, is better on larger maps - but is most useful on anything above standard.

 

[largedarryl]

That is too bold of a statement saying that state property is the best. I would say that state property is only the best if your empire is large, and possibly on more than 1 continent. If you are contained on a single island with several coastal cities free market is the best. Mercantilism is great for the early game because 1 free specialist in every city is very powerful in the early game.

Sorry about starting to explain, but I'm pretty sure there is a good description about all of these in the war academy somewhere that can tell you everything.

 

[Sisiutil]

Keep in mind that when Free Market becomes available (with Economics), there's a good chance that most of the other civilizations will be running Mercantilism. That civic eliminates foreign trade routes, negating the trade route benefit from FM. Less advanced civs may still be running Decentralization, but their trade routes will be less lucrative.

It's not worth switching to FM until other advanced civs with whom you have Open Borders agreements also adopt it (or State Property or Environmentalism--anything but Mercantilism!).

 

[mudphud]

Defiantly be careful in a game like civ IV saying anything is "best" as most things in the game are tradeoffs. Even environmentalism can be useful in some cases. When needed don't be afraid to change civics (esp. if you are spiritual), some civs are obviously better in wartime while others are suited for peace. Free market may not be so great during war because your trade routes may be compromised by the closed borders and state property could help keep your economy up while you expand your territory (if you are taking cities).

Oh and good point sisiutil - you have improved my game a lot with your posts and ALC. Thanks