Happiness

[Resident Mario]

Way back before they nerfed happiness on luxuries and the happiness buildings, I had won a couple of domination victories with Montezuma, Songhai, Obu, and a few others. In the couple of games I've played over the past two weeks, I couldn't help but wonder how one could possibly deal with the happiness problems of trying to conquer the world. I've seen some impressive screenies of continents awash in a single color, but I don't know how people manage to grab enough happy; even playing relatively peaceful games, I've found myself forced to rush for Notre Dame, Taj Mahal, and Eiffel Tower to stay in the yellow, so to speak.

So. How do you guys do it?

 

[TheHanzou]

Not hard at all, courthouse everywhere. Get a courthouse in every captured city and you will have a HUGE surplus in hapiness. It just takes some money or time to get it, which is probably intended to slow down conquests.

 

[Resident Mario]

I was under the impression that puppeting was best practice in terms of happiness?

I sure have been out for a while =|.

 

[bhavv]

Maybe try a conquest game as Darius since their UB is a bank with +2 happiness, and puppets default to gold focus so they should eventually build it.

 

[joncnunn]

I was under the impression that puppeting was best practice in terms of happiness?

I sure have been out for a while =|.

Its always been court houses. Undocumented feature since the beginning that a courthouse removes the base unhappiness of the city in addition to eliminating the extra unhappiness caused by occupation. (People routinely razed and resettled on the exact same spot to avoid the maintenance cost of a court house until they figured this out)

Also, you combine this with razing useless cities the AI founded.

Puppeting is for while the city is still in resistance / you can't afford a court house for it at the moment. Also if your going for a cultural victory your generally better off leaving the city as a puppet to avoid the increase in policy costs.

 

[PhilBowles]

Maybe try a conquest game as Darius since their UB is a bank with +2 happiness, and puppets default to gold focus so they should eventually build it.

Strangely enough, that's what I'm playing right now - just starting out, but I want a mixed domination/heavy commerce approach and I've taken to playing with excess happiness to maximise Golden Ages, so Persia's a natural fit.

 

[smallfish]

Autocracy > Police State. Then annex a puppet and build/rushbuy courthouse.

Bag all the wonders with high happiness bonuses

Nab some of the Tradition SPs at the start.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Nab some of the Tradition SPs at the start.

No and no. Finish Liberty (Meritocracy) and take Piety opener + Organized religion.
Right side of Honor/Order opening/Autocracy (Police State) later.