Most Useless Civics Branch?

[SlipperyJim]

Cliffs:
labour is the least useful civic category

I really think it depends on the stage of the game. Late-game, the unhappiness from Emancipation really makes the Labor civic choices more or less useless. Just switch to Emancipation when your people get cranky, and don't ever look back. Before that stage, those other Labor civics can be very useful.

Slavery is the civic to have in the early game. When food is more common than hammers (a common occurrence, at least for me), using the ol' whip is key to improving your civ. I particularly like to pop-rush when a city is nearing its happiness limit; if that citizen is going to be unhappy anyway, I might as well get some production for it!

I will admit that I don't use Serfdom much, because I usually spam so many workers that my terrain is good-to-go without any additional help.

Caste System isn't a general-purpose civic, but it certainly has its place. Running an Artist in every newly-captured city to pop the borders can be great for a warmonger. Merchants can get you out of the economic hole caused by overexpansion. Scientists can give you the technology edge. And the "combo" possibilities for Caste System are huge ... add Representation for additional science, Sistine Chapel for additional culture, etcetera....

In short, I think that all of the civics branches are useful. There are a few individual civics that I rarely use (Nationalism, Serfdom, Pacifism, Environmentalism), but not so many as to render an entire branch "useless"....

 

[Theodorick]

For a warmonger state property can become very important. Often the meager +4 or +7 extra for trade routes in each of your main cities won't make up for the sometimes staggering maintence costs in far away or conquered cities. But this is only truly useful if you have a simply massive nation which consists of a lot of conquered cities and nations.

In one of my better games I played as the romans on a huge map. Through the entire game I slowly conqured two nearby continents and eventually had a nation which stretched from the north to the south pole. Even with three capitols including the main one, cottage span, and free market, I wasn't making a huge economic gain. I then rushed for communism, grabbed up state property, and my income per turn with 90% research jumped from only 45 per turn to over 200 per turn. This gave me enough spare income to conquer the last two continents.

Now in other games were my nation is tiny, maybe only consisting of 8 cities, state property hurt more than help me. It's useless if you're a small nation without ambitions to rapidly expand through war.

Nationhood is a war only civic. It's totally useless in times of peace.

Usually when I am at war I have the civics:

Early:
Hereditary Rule (Help reduce War warinees), Vasslage (Army), Slavery (A good early substitute for nationalism), Merchantilism (The free specialist can really come in handy in conqured cities) and Theocracy (Army).

Late: Universal Suffrage (Combined with Kremlin, cottage span, and a good economy, you can make a huge army/improved infastructure in only a couple turns.), Nationhood (Allows me to make a bunch of city defenders almost free of charge to guard my conquered cities so my offensive army can continue marching), Emacipation (Just to eliminate the slavery unhappiness), State Property (Usually by now my war-machine nation is huge, so this civic is better than free market), Free Religion (For the extra happiness, and plus I usually have the pentagon to make up for it).

Also don't underestimate the power of slavery. Rushing those final 4 turns during a wonder race, or quickly making buildings and units, can benefit you a lot, especially in a food strong city. I've used slavery so much during the early game that I almost use it once every 2 or 3 turns, and compared to not using slavery my score and power is sometimes double then what it would be without slavery. Those who call slavery useless just haven't really bothered with it's potential.

 

[Vietnamese Guy]

free market is for small, diplomatic nations, while state property is for large expansive nations, nuff said

 

[gmanne]

Nationhood is a war only civic. It's totally useless in times of peace.

Not with a spiritual civ. (A thanks to Sirian and Co here) Discover 'Rifling', flick to Nationhood, draft from every city, disband obsolete units, return to 'normal' in a few turns. Muscle to gunpowder troops in one turn, higher defence rating at significantly lower cost. Hardly 'totally usless'.

I would argue spiritual civs never have 'useless' civics.

 

[Panzar75]

...but then I always thought feudalism was a waste in civ3...

You may have thought so but it doesn't mean it's true for everyone. In fact, most of the time this was my only form of government for the entire game. If you played OCP then obviously there's no benefit from this government. If you play with many tightly packed smaller cities though, Feudalism can easily do 100 gold per turn compared to Monarchy due to unit upkeep.

As for the topic, I haven't formed a solid opinion yet as I have only finished about 10 games or so of Civ 4.

 

[LoopyLewis]

Personally, I don't touch the Religious civics until Free Religion comes around. Sometimes I can't even be bothered having a state religion. I dont see the point. Therefore, for me, Religious civics are the most useless civics.

 

[Older than Dirt]

I think the matrix of the 25 civics in 5 groups is THE outstanding (genius) accomplishment of CIV IV. It permits an incredible variety of strategies. Each civ can be very useful at times. This aspect of the game should keep it interesting (and even fun) for a long time. I became bored with Civ 3 after less than a year and went back to Civ 2, because of the limited viable strategies in Civ 3. I still have not used the Caste System or Theocracy much and am looking forward to experimenting with them.

 

[Willem]

Sometimes I can't even be bothered having a state religion. I dont see the point.

1 point free culture, +1 happiness just for having it in a city, plus 1 gold if you have the Shrine for the religion. And if you have the Holy City, anytime it's established in a foreign city you can see how many units are there. What's not to understand?

Therefore, for me, Religious civics are the most useless civics.

Theocracy gives your units extra experience points, Organized Religion lets you complete city buildings 25% faster. Those are both good to have at times. I generally go with Organized Religion myself

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well, the ones I've almost never used are

Police State, Just Because I tend to develop, I can see how it would be useful in a highly military situation (or on more difficult levels where happiness is harder)

Nationhood (honestly believe this is underpowered)...again might be good in a low happiness situation though

Serfdom: think it is a bit underpowered, perhaps if worker actions cost more, or it gave a bigger boost, probably good for a large early empire (I do tend to go the more developed route)

Caste System: again most useful on a low developed route, definitely not underpowered with things like Mercantilism.

Environmentalism: good for OCC, they've moved it to a better place, but I can't see where another wouldn't be better most of the time, they probably need to boost the Health bonus to about +10, so that if you really want to use it it counts (+6 only translates to +2 population in an already large population) or perhaps some type of a +% to food bonus. It IS useful when you want to cripple other large powers through the UN (to cut their science rate)