Managing unhappiness late in the game?

[Dr_Gonzo]

So, I am having a terrible time managing happiness in my large cities in the later part of my current campaign. This is particularily troublesome when I'm at war, my big cities and even some of the midsized ones quickly end up with many people not working.

FWIW, this is my first CIV campaign in a long time, and I haven't patched the game recently.

Anyway, in all my cities I've built all the buildings (even culture) which could possibly contribute to happiness. The only option I see in the game to solve this problem is changing civics. I could switch back to Representation from Universal Suffrage, but that wouldn't be worth it, the hurry production feature is just too handy.

Another option would be to switch from Organized to Free religion. I guess at this point I could deal without the +2 EXP bonus. However, since I've used organized religion for a while, very few of my cities have anything but my state religion (budda). Monestaries are obsolete, and I don't think I have any of them anywhere except for buddist monestaries. I know that right now, I can't train anything except a buddist missionary.

If I switch to Free Religion will I be able to train up other types of missionaries? If not, is there another way to quickly spread lots of other religions? Otherwise, how long will it take for religions to spread naturally? Most of my cities are all on the same continent, where my civ is the sole occupant.

Or, does anyone have any other tips on keeping my citizens happy? I don't think getting another happy resource is feasible, I have most of them and the 1-2 that I don't have won't be easy to get via trade or conquest. Working on building Hollywood right now, but that's still only a +1 to happiness.

 

[JujuLautre]

I believe you talk of theocracy, not of organized religion.

That said, if you go in organized religion, you can build missionaries without monasteries. But if you do not have the cristo redentor and are not spiritual, I'm not sure the anarchy would be worth it.

Finally, in case of war, build war-weariness reduces or raise the culture slider.

 

[IAM]

Under Organized Relegion you can build missionaires as long as that relegion is present in that city. Have you tried the culture slider, hereditary rule or trading for more happy resources? Would it be possible to switch to slavery and exterminate some angry citizens. During war mount Rushmore and jails? Does your opponent have the Statue of Zues?

 

[PieceOfMind]

Religion will not auto spread to cities that already have a religion.

For memory, monasteries allow you to build their missionaries even after the monasteries are obsoleted. Really you should always think about building at least one monastery for every religion that spreads to you before Sci Method, so you have the easy method to spread religion in the late game.

If you have built the buildings that give from culture, perhaps you should bump the slider to at least 10 or 20 percent. With a coliseum and theatre you will get 3 more if you put the slider on 20%. You sacrifice some beakers and/or gold but at least you are not wasting the unhappy citizens.

 

[Dr_Gonzo]

OK, thanks for the input everyone. Bumping up the culture slider was something I had not considered, but I bet that will work, or at least help!!!

It sounds too like switching to free religion is not an option... as the sci method is already discovered, and I don't have any monestaries/missionaries except buddist. So to do this, I'd have to first switch to organized religion, change my state religion, spam missionaries, repeat with other religions. Probably not worth it, right?

I think next campaign, maybe some planning ahead, and allowing other religions to take hold before switching to theocracy...

 

[Willem]

I think next campaign, maybe some planning ahead, and allowing other religions to take hold before switching to theocracy...

You might want to also consider using Vassalage instead of Theocracy for that extra XP. There's no downside to that civic as you also get free units from it, and there really aren't that many strong civics in the line until late in the game. With the religion civics, Organized Religion comes very early and overall adds more to your empire than Theocracy does, at least IMO.

 

[Joshua368]

What, bureaucracy is a weak civic now?

 

[Willem]

What, bureaucracy is a weak civic now?

I think it is. It only affects your capital and has a minor effect on your overall economy.

 

[hexem3117]

Bureaucracy has its uses...I probably use it at some point in almost all of my games.

I think Vassalage is not all that great of a civic; you don't really get very much use out of it unless you're warring, and I almost always get Feudalism much later than Civil Service...I want those macemen...like RIGHT NOW

It's useful when you're MASS producing units in conjunction with Theocracy, but I would almost always rather have +50% hammers and commerce in my capital until about 2/3rds through the game. I tend to switch to Emancipation as soon as I get it...I just can't live without those +2 commerce per town. I also switch my Government to Universal Suffrage...God I love towns.

Which leads to another ON TOPIC thought...I believe someone may have mentioned this already, but I'm too lazy to hit the back button and check, but Emancipation has the added unhappiness bonus if you do NOT use it, so if you switched to it that could help the OP too.

 

[JujuLautre]

It sounds too like switching to free religion is not an option... as the sci method is already discovered, and I don't have any monestaries/missionaries except buddist. So to do this, I'd have to first switch to organized religion, change my state religion, spam missionaries, repeat with other religions. Probably not worth it, right?

No, no; under organized religion, any city that has any religion can build missionaries of that religion. Just not your state religion.
As a matter of fact, you can als be under organized religion without any state religion

 

[IAM]

Yea, really a gem for spiritual trait. Swith to Organized Relegion spam missionaries from every city possible and spread relegion for a few turns. You can only have/build 3 missionaries for each relegion at a time but if you have 3 or 4 relegions present most cities can produce one. Then switch to free relegion for those bonuses. If your not spiritual could you get Christo Redentor?

 

[Joshua368]

Bureaucracy can often account for like 50% of my medieval to renaissance research. As a commerce multiplyer it works multiplicative with the other multiplayers and it can easy net you like an additional 100-150 beakers if your capital is cottage spammed. (and you can move your palace to whatever city is best if your initial position sucked) The hammer bonus isn't too shabby either.

 

[nbcman]

@ Dr Gonzo

Manage the sizes of your cities such that they do not grow beyond the happiness cap. Change Windmills on hills to mines or change farms to cottages/workshops to reduce the amount of food available for the city. Normally, when I get Biology I go back and reduce the number of farms at my cities so the cities don't grow too fast and go past the happiness cap.

If your unhappiness problems are due to being at war, do you have Jails in all of your larger cities to reduce the effects of War Weariness by 50%?
Have you built the Mount Rushmore National Wonder to reduce the effects of War Weariness by 25%?

 

[Dr_Gonzo]

@NBCman -- managing growth seems like the way to go. It definitely seems like the happiness penalty for having too large of a city seriously outweighs the loss of the extra pop. However, it's just tough to get in the mindset of contraining growth. I want my cities to be huge!

I did notice that I had an Islamic monestary, and am hopefully on my way to capturing a city with a Christian one now (and also, some wine!) Even without going to free religion, you can still get happiness bonuses by spamming missionaries out of the extra religions by building a temple and a mosque/stupa/etc in problem cities.

With a boost to the culture slider from time to time, and it's becoming manageble for me. Last resort will be to switch to Organized religion and spam some confucian/hindu/taoist missionaries. (Thx IAM!)

Question: are there any circumstances underwhich it's a bad idea to have multiple religions in a city? I can't see any penalties to this, or am I missing something? Again, I think a big mistake was not building monestaries earlier in the game before Sci Method.

 

[Willem]

Manage the sizes of your cities such that they do not grow beyond the happiness cap. Change Windmills on hills to mines or change farms to cottages/workshops to reduce the amount of food available for the city. Normally, when I get Biology I go back and reduce the number of farms at my cities so the cities don't grow too fast and go past the happiness cap.

A better option would be to run a bunch of Specialists. There's nothing all that bad about having some unhappiness in your cities. In time that city simply doesn't grow anymore since you'll have some people consuming food and not contributing anything. But it's usually not a crisis situation if you go past your happy cap. The main exception to that is unhappiness caused by War Weariness.

 

[Willem]

Question: are there any circumstances underwhich it's a bad idea to have multiple religions in a city? I can't see any penalties to this, or am I missing something?

The only downside is if the religion was founded by another civ and they have the shrine for it. Every city you add that religion to will add +1 gold to their treasury. Everything else is a positive, especially if you are in Free Religion.

 

[Skallagrimson]

WHIP IT!

Whip it good...

 

[6K Man]

Eiffel + the media wonders = 6 happies.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

What, bureaucracy is a weak civic now?

I was thinking that too...200-500 BPT from one city seems good to me. I've never gotten over 300 non-deficit BPT before 500 AD any other way, although usually it's less.

 

[Phoenician]

In the late game, halt growth when you reach your happiness cap. Best way to do this is to task specialists. The culture slider w/ colosseum + theatre should be used during war time unless you are running police state with jails/mount rushmore.

I usually try to grab or trade as many happiness resources as possible. If you can get your happiness cap to exceed your health cap, then you are playing a good game.

temple are amazing. If your a spiritual leader, cheap temples are an amazing happiness booster to have. Spiritual is a great trait for happiness.