Rank the civics from 1 to X, in each category (where 1 is favourite), starting at;
Government then Cultural, Labor, Economy, Compassion and lastly Education.
If you have a hard time ranking them, think about which you have used the most.
State your reasoning if you want to.
Here are the civics if you don't have them memorized or have the game opened
As an example, I'll start.
Government
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Now, Rank away!
Government then Cultural, Labor, Economy, Compassion and lastly Education.
If you have a hard time ranking them, think about which you have used the most.
State your reasoning if you want to.
Here are the civics if you don't have them memorized or have the game opened
As an example, I'll start.
Government
- God King - I always use this in every game as soon as I can.
- Aristocracy - Very useful in a farm heavy game together with Agriculture, either you are playing as the Calabim, or running a specialist heavy empire. Especially nice with a financial leader.
- City States - Good if you over-expand before your economy can handle it, or if your cities are far from each other.
- Republic - Also very useful for a Specialist heavy economy, I havn't played this way a lot, so I havn't used this civic a lot. Excellent if you are going for a cultural victory.
- Theocracy - Very situational, I've used it in one game, which was my latest, where I wanted over 10 Experience on every newly built unit.
- Despotism - You start with this, it's not useless, the -50% War weariness has its uses, but usually not worth sticking with unless you are fighting many wars for long periods of time, and war weariness is getting out of hand.
- Religion - The extra happiness rocks in the early game.
- Pacifism - +50% GPP is huge when you are trying to get Great People.
- Nationhood/Social Order - +10% Mil prod isn't much, but usually it helps, especially as the production overflows to the next build order. The -25% War weariness from Nationhood helps in wartimes.
- Consumption - Haven't used this a lot. But I can see it's uses. Both the Inn and Theatre are pretty expensive buildings, but in the late game and if you have these, this civic can give a nice happiness boost, with a small but probably useful tax increase.
- Liberty - Very situational, I have only used it when I was gong for a cultural victory, where it's definitely a must.
- Slavery - Pop rushing rocks, and slaves from combat rocks too. I'm always bad at training my own workers, so this helps a lot. And they can be upgraded to Lunatics, or sacrificed for production.
- Military State - Nice one when building up for a war. The upkeep is a bit expensive however
- Arete - I've practically never had RoK as state religion, so I can't rank this any higher. The birthrate is an excellent bonus though. +1 from mines seems like a decent bonus too.
- Caste System - Very nice if you are trying for a Cultural Victory. Or running a specialist heavy economy, +1 research from every specialist is a nice bonus.
- Guilds - Probably nice for a specialist run economy, especially if you wanna do some kind of Great Merchant farming.
- Serfdom - Never use this.
- Agriculture - +2 Food from farms is a great bonus. And you don't even get any penalty if you keep your farms on grasslands/floodplains.
- Guardian of Nature - This might be the #1 civic in this category if I had been using Leaves lately, but I havn't. Very strong civic, will give your cities a huge happiness and health boost if you have a decent amount of forests/jungles.
- Conquest - What can I say, for warfare this is an excellent civic. You want your unit building cities to have finished growing while you use this one though. It's probably good that this civic cant be used in combination with Agriculture.
- Also Excellent for it's +2 Experience. - Foreign Trade - Haven't used much, but I can see it's potential.
- Mercantilism - Seems very situational, as I said somewhere else; Maybe I'd use this if I'm fighting a war, with no open borders and my research at 0%.
)- Sacrifice the Weak - VERY strong civic. Your cities will only need 1 food for every population point with this civic, which means you can either get HUGE metropolises, or spam cottages/mines and still get HUGE cities. - It's a good combo with Agriculture or Conquest. And very useful for a specialist farm.
- Public Healers - Only usable if you are good, but gives a nice bonus.
- Protect the Meek - Light version of the above
- Basic Care - Low cost, you start with this.
- Fend for Themselves - No cost, but gives +1 Unhealthy, only point with this civic seems to be to get on the good side with Calabim, and on the bad with everyone else. And to cut down on civic costs.
- Apprenticeship - I use this one for most parts of the game, the +2 Experience points are a very good bonus.
- Religious Discipline/Scholarship - I like both of these. Religious Discipline is probably a no-brainer for a good civ. But I find Scholarship a better civic overall.
- Military Discipline - This civic feels very weak. The War weariness bonus is nice. But it just feels like it lacks something. Maybe it needs a national unit tied to it?
Now, Rank away!
helps a lot. Later it's still good if you have multiple religions in your cities. I like the combination of Nationhood + Apprenticeship early on (before religion); it gives extra exp without any loss of hammers. +50% GPP from Pacifism is good too... but personally, the increased support costs choke the life out of my economy.
while military state costs 33 more 
