Finally playing an interesting game... time to pick Ideology

[El Caballerion]

So... I usually quit before I get into Industrial age, but since finally moving a notch up to DIETY from IMMORTAL, the games are so much more intense!

In any case, as SPAIN I've managed to defeat the Zulu AND the Huns... on one continent! This now leaves me and one other super power: INDONESIA. Indonesia is a little more powerful than I am and just chose AUTOCRACY. I chose ORDER and noticed my happiness plummet from my lower tourism mumbo jumbo.

Question is thus... If I eventually want to go to war and crush Indonesia, should I go along and choose his ideology (since he has better tourism)? OR should I go for a different ideology to incite war?

 

[joncnunn]

If the AI thinks you have a stronger military than he does, it's not going to DOW you over ideology or anything else; it's just denounce you / refuse to give fair trade deals / try to ban your luxuries / try to embargo you. You'll have to be the bad guy and DOW yourself or at the very least find another AI that wants you to DOW them.

 

[GhostSalsa]

If you are not going to conquer, having the same ideology is ideal. That way you don't need to worry about pressure, Indonesia is taking care of you. Just turtle for your Science or Diplo victory.

Also,if you are not going to conquer, having a different ideology would be almost pointless. Order gives production bonuses, but you'll be spending your production on happiness buildings and culture and tourism just to pay off your choice.

If you are going to conquer, it's more of a wash. Choosing same ideology would be easier in some respects, but then you create a vacuum for other AIs - free from Indonesia's Autocracy tourism thanks to your invasion, they can get strong using Order or whatever while you and Indonesia tear each other apart. If there are no other strong threatening AI's that doesn't matter. Choosing different ideology would be harder since you have to conquer through unhappiness, but if you are quick about it you will soon have all the stolen works and tourism and no more unhappiness. Speed is what matters. If you choose Order you should be DOWing pretty much the same turn to minimize unrest time.

 

[sendos]

Keep in mind that if you do choose Indonesia's ideology, they'll be on their way to a culture victory. You might be getting unhappiness but at least you stalled their culture victory.