Mercanlitism is so not cool

[Pogel]

In my current game I wiped my three neighbours off my continent early and had a large landmass to settle. The other continent had Carthage, America and Rome who were mostly getting along. I wanted to rapidly expand my empire on my own continent without too much interference so implemented an isolationist policy to prevent them scouting out my land (my army was pretty thinly spread at points). With a large number of developing cities, compared to my rivals, Mercantilism worked very nicely until I could adopt State Property.

 

[anjf]

I never use it. I start with decentralization and expand, make friends, adopt free market expand further, adopt state property declare war to expand further and most of the time I have the best economy

 

[pixiejmcc]

I play only MP, which is almost always always war. Therefore mercantilism is a good thing for free. Happy dayz.

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

I finally saw the light with Mercantilism. My new favorite combo is Representation+Pacifism+Mercantilism. Make those gp scientists and you have a nice science boost, plus science academies. Sistine Chapel (in the rare games you build it) gives you a free gimmie boost. Also factor in Lady Liberty or Parthenon.

Yeah, Mercantilism might cost you some gold, but the GP can be worth far more.

 

[Andraeianus I]

Read this:http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=183435

It is possible to have mercantilism AND foreign trade by adopting open markets in the UN!

 

[pixiejmcc]

Sistine Chapel (in the rare games you build it) gives you a free gimmie boost.

I only see one use for Sistine Chapel: If you're going for a cultural victory. Hm no I see another benefit - if you are running mercantilism, every new city will have the cultural trait (there seems to be quite a few ways to make a non-cultural civ cultural ) .

 

[futurehermit]

only two points need be attended to: 1) specialist economy; 2) wartime

cottage economy + peace time = free market (prior to state property at least)

 

[Wodan]

Am I the only one who (when opportunity permits) uses closed borders to seal off future territory for my own future expansion? Mercantilism is a godsend.

Wodan

 

[Gnarfflinger]

I dislike open borders intensely myself. I don't like letting the enemy scout me out for weak points and resources...

 

[MrCynical]

Am I the only one who (when opportunity permits) uses closed borders to seal off future territory for my own future expansion? Mercantilism is a godsend.

I doubt it, since it's a very obvious idea to seal off territory like this. However few people attribute this as a good point of mercantilism for the simple reason that they'll have filled in the sealed off land before it becomes available. Even if for some reason you haven't, banking is not at all far from astronomy, and then other civs are going to be able to reach that land regardless of your closed borders.

I dislike open borders intensely myself. I don't like letting the enemy scout me out for weak points and resources...

Might be an issue in multiplayer, but not in single player. The AI is not remotely capable of doing anything useful with that information.

 

[Wodan]

I doubt it, since it's a very obvious idea to seal off territory like this. However few people attribute this as a good point of mercantilism for the simple reason that they'll have filled in the sealed off land before it becomes available. Even if for some reason you haven't, banking is not at all far from astronomy, and then other civs are going to be able to reach that land regardless of your closed borders.

Depends on how much you prioritize Banking. Most of the AIs don't (with some notatable exceptions such as Mansa), so it's not that insignificant a time period.
-- Even assuming the extra areas are reachable by coast.
-- Quite often, these non-optimal areas are tundra without a lot of water, etc.
-- Even without this, all it takes is a city or two to fill up the coast and the entire interior is yours whenever you are ready to settle.

Wodan

 

[MrCynical]

The only way you can seal off non-coastal land is to have a complete ring of your culture around it (barring bizarre mountain ranges, might be an issue on highland maps). Even if your civ has sealed off your chunk of coastline, the interior will still be open to whoever else is on your continetn unless you make a sort of doughnut shape empire, which I can't see working.

While the point on banking is understood, you've got the issue the wrong way round. It doesn't matter when the AI gets banking, it matters when they get astronomy relative to when YOU get banking.