How do I use Caste System?

[vormuir]

I'm unable to get much out of this civic. The only value I get from it is running an Artist for a few turns for fast border pops. That's nice, but unless I'm Spiritual it doesn't seem worth a turn of anarchy.

I know that people use this to generate GPs. The problem I have is that in the early game, few cities have enough food surplus to run more than one or two specialists.

What am I missing?


Waldo

 

[DigitalBoy]

Caste System is often regarded as a weak civic, especially next to Slavery, but I sometimes like to use it. Being able to assign nothing but scientists in my GP farm lets it be a good research city and tips the odds in favor of getting a Great Scientist, which I think is the most useful great person.

 

[mrt144]

caste system with representation + beurracracy + (a big capital city) and science multiplying buildings and pacifism is a science and GP hog

 

[jkp1187]

I have found caste system useful for:

1.) when running a conquest game (or in any situation where expansion outstrips finances,) Caste gives me the ability to hire a lot of merchants, and keep science at a good rate. Even just hiring one merchant in every city can often make the difference between a deficit and a surplus.

2.) when gunning for cultural win, Caste allows me to hire a load of artists and pump up culture.

3.) When looking to create a mess of GP's (especially if philosophical or with Parthenon,) Caste is a godsend.

Ideally,when using caste, you need to have one or two cities with lots of farms. This means you could miss out on cottage cash later, but in those cases above, I've found Caste to be useful.

 

[Eimon Gnome]

I never used it much until playing at prince. Now, I rely on it when I get into a situation where I don't have a lot of open borders - hence little external trade. Think in terms of a game where you only have open borders with two or three of the AI players. Another signal is that I am not using the slavery whip much, for whatever reason.

Flip it to mercantilism and caste - republic is a huge added bonus. Now, the loss in trade is easily made up by the increased merchant gold. Keep the science slider high.

It's worth taking a mid game scenario and doing a "save". Play once with the caste/merc and once with the slavery/whatever. See if your total gold and beaker production goes up or down.

 

[BCLG100]

Caste System is often regarded as a weak civic, especially next to Slavery, but I sometimes like to use it. Being able to assign nothing but scientists in my GP farm lets it be a good research city and tips the odds in favor of getting a Great Scientist, which I think is the most useful great person.

Caste System is never regarded as a weak civic if running an SE.

 

[ratrangerm]

I have found Caste System works better in the midgame, provided you are setting up for it.

For example, if you plan to run a Specialist Economy, you'll likely want Caste System when you hit midgame, because you are less concerned with whipping population and letting the cities grow so you can run more Scientists.

Or if you are setting up multiple GP farms, Caste System can be useful if you want to emphasize a certain Specialist.

But when you first discover Code of Laws, it's usually best to stick with Slavery for a while as, when you get CoL, not all of your cities will have yet reached the point where they can run multiple Specialists... you should be able to run one or two per city, but not more than that, so Caste System isn't necessary. The exception would be if you plan on getting a Cultural victory and don't have Drama yet to build Theatres, so you can get a head start on running Artists.

But by midgame, your cities should be bigger and, for cities that have multiple farms and/or food resources, that's when Caste System provides a bigger benefit.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Combo civic. Stick it alongside representation, pacifism and mercantilism and put that combo in the hands of a philosophical leader and you're golden. Specialists assigned however you want, an extra one from Merc, all of which are producing x3 great people points and 3 beakers? Yes please.

If you aren't running a combo like that Caste System is trash, though.

I'll recommend Peter or Gandhi if you want to give that style of play a try. Both are philosophical and have 'roided up workers. With Ghandi's lead on an early religion grab and cheap temples, and Peter's health bonuses and fast granaries, both are, in their own ways, great at building insanely high population cities. Which is great for making that style of play work.

 

[Polycrates]

It's great in the hands of a Philosophical leader, used long-term for nabbing maximal Great People.

It's also great in the hands of a Spiritual leader with a hybrid economy, who can switch back and forth between CS/Pacifism and back to slavery (or later Representation/Mercantilism/SC/Pacifism). You can have quite a few cities chugging along with a library and a couple of scientists, and use bursts of CS to propel your other cities ahead of your main GP farm to nab some quick GPs and avoid wasting valuable GPPs in secondary GP pumps. You'd be surprised how many specialists a couple of food specials can run, especially if you don't mind running a bit (or a lot) of a temporary food deficit.
Without CS it's difficult to run a GP strategy that effectively involves more than a single GP farm.

Also the artist border-popping thing is very nice.

But if you're running a cottage economy with just a single GP farm and you're not Phi or Spi, it's fairly difficult to justify.

 

[CivSetä]

It's very useful after you have chopped your basic buildings. I usually run CS to generate great scientists fast enough to pop philosophy/paper/education. Usually slavery is better, but CS is handy if you need great people points fast. If I play spiritual leader the situation is totally different, I usually stick on CS until very late, then I change to slavery once in a while to whip excess population away.

 

[Giaur]

I use Caste system while attempting to Cultural Victory. Great Artists are all I want.

 

[Dirk1302]

I have to be spiritual to use it, otherwise switching between caste and slavery is just too costly.

 

[cabert]

I have to be spiritual to use it, otherwise switching between caste and slavery is just too costly.

same for me.
But when I am spiritual I use it quite often to get great scientists/merchants/artists faster.

 

[Dirk1302]

^absolutely playing Ghandi caste system can be real fun.