Ideology choice

[besset]

How do you choose which ideology to take? I feel they are all relatively versatile and you can win multiple ways with each tree.

Personally, I pick autocracy when I'm playing a warmonger civ. Whether if going for DV or any other victory the tenets are nice because they allow you to fight more effectively. Also if I'm close enough on the map to my only competitor I usually pick autocracy and finish the game by conquering them.

I usually pick order when I play progress and have gone wide, I find the yields are better than freedom because I most likely won't have a capital with large population for working all the specialists and many of the tenets are wasted.
Freedom is really nice when I went tradition since I will have more specialist slots. Though you could maybe go freedom if you went artistry as medieval tree and progress/authority in the start.

I'm curious to know when you pick what and if you found any nice combos/synergies.

 

[amateurgamer88]

For me, I generally find myself picking between Freedom and Autocracy. While Order is good, I haven't found any good games for me to take it over the other two.

Freedom for me is very versatile. It can help with a variety of VC and is helpful in most of my games. I'd argue that Freedom is sometimes better than Autocracy for a warmonger civ. Why? If you are playing on a map like Continents, then you might have been mostly invested in a land army to invade your neighbors. Unless you are snowballing out of control, you might have to wait until you get Ideology before you unify or mostly dominate your continent. If you don't have a navy but have plenty of gold, Freedom allows you to build a navy extremely quickly. I recall a game where my income was good enough that I can buy two Cruisers/Ironclads every turn with them getting full experience. Autocracy will struggle to compete with that if you don't have enough coastal cities with decent production.

If you have the units and just need to fill that supply cap, then Autocracy is amazing. The lvl 3 tenet, Air Superiority, allows you to ferry troops to newly conquered cities so you have constant reinforcements. If viable, I'd definitely take Autocracy as it just makes your military that much more dangerous in terms of mobility and the promotions you can get. I find the discounts for upgrades/purchases aren't as important if you already went for Imperialism but it does leave you with more gold than you need.

As for Order, it's good but I haven't had any games where I can take advantage of it. Maybe it just doesn't suit my play style. It's likely very good but I'm just awful.

 

[Stalker0]

I still find Order really good for a science victory. Great Leap Forward - 2 free techs is just amazing at that point in the game, and there are some solid yield boosters built into Order as well.

 

[Noob Fanboy]

Order always, ALWAYS.

 

[tu_79]

If I focused on great people, then Freedom, uncontested. Especially if going scientific victory, as being able to purchase spaceship parts is what makes you rush the SS in no time.
If I had already conquered some vassals, and have quite the army, Autocracy. It's funny that it allows a faster diplomatic victory, but that's a good fall back victory in case domination takes too long.
I suppose Order is in the middle, but I rarely go peaceful and not focus on great people.

 

[Minh Le]

Freedom for Specialist and Spying in CS. Its greet if youre already ahead and want to pull even further.
Order for greet production, monster Internal Trade Routes and very good science. Its greet for catching up if youre behind and you cant go for war (the run away is a warmonger with tons of cities and units).
Autocracy for Strategic resource, boosting units strength, experience. Its greet for war obviously.

 

[besset]

Freedom for Specialist and Spying in CS. Its greet if youre already ahead and want to pull even further.
Order for greet production, monster Internal Trade Routes and very good science. Its greet for catching up if youre behind and you cant go for war (the run away is a warmonger with tons of cities and units).
Autocracy for Strategic resource, boosting units strength, experience. Its greet for war obviously.

Do you still go freedom if you are ahead but didnt focus on great people? For example if you play progress germany?

 

[Minh Le]

Do you still go freedom if you are ahead but didnt focus on great people? For example if you play progress germany?

I think I would choose Autocracy over Freedom in this case. But double chance to coup and +4 influence per turn from TRs are nice. But I doubt I wont have war at that state of the game and constantly grabing alliance with CSs. So Autocracy gives much more in this case.

 

[Bromar1]

Do you still go freedom if you are ahead but didnt focus on great people? For example if you play progress germany?

Autocracy combat bonus + panzers is quitep powerful

 

[Rekk]

Mmmm. Tyranny

 

[cerk]

How exactly do you use tyranny?

 

[Enginseer]

How exactly do you use tyranny?

You ally city-states and bully them. It's essentially a boost ur capital's yields every 10 turns and get a free great diplomat's worth of influence.

 

[cerk]

The wiki says friendly. So can I bully friendly city states too or do i have to be allied with them. And bullying means asking for tribute or do you get a new bully option

 

[Minh Le]

The wiki says friendly. So can I bully friendly city states too or do i have to be allied with them. And bullying means asking for tribute or do you get a new bully option

You have to ally them, and its the demand tribute. Its a super useful tenet when playing diplo victory, youre ensured alliance with all the city states within reach of demand tribute and get free yield every 10 turns in your capital.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

No, you don't have to Ally them, that's wrong. Friendship with a CS is enough. If you're Friendly or Allied, you increase your influence while decreasing the one everyone else has.

Worth noting is Tyranny doesn't work if you aren't at least Friendly, if you're neutral with a CS then your influence will decrease as if you tributed normally, and I don't think the influence of other civs decreases in that case. To make it work you have to either fulfill enough quests or send an unit with that first tier Autocracy policy for a friendship or a diplomatic unit to become friends.

 

[MorphBer]

Mmmm. Tyranny

I oten go Freedom but Tyranny is probably the single most fun policy in the whole game to me