Rate the civic categories in terms of importance

[DigitalBoy]

A poll that I thought would be interesting: which set of civics do you think has the most weight in affecting gameplay and influencing/complimenting strategy? (This is really more about the categories as a whole and not about specific civics within them, but it's OK if you favor a category because of a civic within it that you especially love.)

At the top of my list is probably the legal civics. There's a lot of variety in the civics here that do a lot of different things and compliment a lot of different strategies, and they're all pretty powerful. Just as important is when they become available. Late enough that you have to put consideration ahead of time into when you want to get them and how you want to research down the tech tree, but early enough that they make a big difference over the course of the game.

A close second for me is the government civics. These are probably the most powerful civics, as Heriditary Rule is sometimes crucial for breaking the happy cap and Representation and Universal Suffrage are potentially gamebreaking mid-late game boons to research and production, respectively. The only reason I place this category below the legal civics is because of how late the last three come in the game. Unless you build/capture the Pyramids or make very dedicated beelines, you're basically running Heriditary Rule for half of the game, which cuts back on the sense of strategy I feel is involved.

Religious and labor civics tie for third. Religious provides a nice variety of fairly useful and accessible civics. They definitely have a lot more flavor than the labor civics, but labor makes up for it with Slavery and Caste System. Serfdom and Emancipation are rather 'meh' in my opinion.

Economic comes last on my scale. It's the category where I'm running the default civic (decentralization) for the longest period of time, and I can really work with any of the civics no matter how I'm playing. State Property shows promise for really affecting gameplay and strategy with super workshops and watermills, though.

 

[raketooy]

I would say government civics, for the reasons you stated. Legal civics are also very important, but I just feel that the government civics have greater influence.

 

[lordqarlyn]

It's hard for me to say any one category is important. They all have roles in the game, and ignoring a category can affect how your game goes.

But I am curious on how others feel.

 

[lovetramy]

i say Labour is the most important . Whipping , castle system and emu all very vital .
gorverment is soso . I can stay HR for the whole game if CE and Rep is SE .

 

[AmazonQueen]

Government then Labour or Religious then Economic then Legal.
I tend to spend most of the game in Bureaucracy, maybe switching to Free Speech late on. I don't feel theres a lot of choice in Legal, the best is dictated by availability and situation. In the others theres more choice with different civics offering ways of handling situations.

 

[Pendragon65]

I would say for me Government if i can hit representation through the the pyramids i tend to fly,not always but nearly always it is my favorite way to go.

 

[lovetramy]

the thing is on high diff lvl its so hard to have mids unless you r ind and have stone so HR is the only viable choice for gov

 

[Catan_Settler]

I would like to request another poll. For those of you who voted government civics as the most important category, are you also one of those pyramids obsessed players?

 

[Jazzmail]

If you factor in how early:
1 Government. Representation comes early IF pyramids. Else hereditary rule may become a crucial civic if you lack resources. All nice civics here.
2. Religious. Organized religion is a favourite civic and it comes very early. Theocracy is great and comes almost soon enough. Pacifism has it's rare uses, but free religion is a bit weak.
3. Legal: I like all legal civics really. Too bad they come later.
4. Labour: Slavery is early but I don't like it much. Caste system has it's uses. Serfdom has no real downsides, but no big bonusses either. Emancipation brings a meager bonus when it's nolonger needed.
5. Economic civics come too late. Mercantilism doesn't even work for everone. State property and Free market are great but come very late. Environmentilism is worthless and comes last.

 

[Catan_Settler]

I agree with some of your points Jazzmail, but I find that a lot of the civics you say are too little too late, are extremely valuable for most peaceful victory strategies. Sure for a warmonger who is making a killing off burning cities, and has access to most of the happy/health resources through massive expansion and conquest, some of the late game perks may be meaningless. But for someone who doesn't control most of the land mass, they are the keys to victory.

 

[Hammurbabble]

I don't think there's a single category that's most important. But depending on what victory condition you want to pursue, some civics and therefore some civic categories may be more useful than others. Specifically:

If you're going for a Conquest victory, you need to stay on top of military tech, maximize promotions and unit quality, have an economy capable of supporting a large army, and deal with war weariness. That's all! By the late game you'll be razing every city you capture, so managing empire size isn't crucial, culture and economy (except as necessary for the above) aren't crucial either. The best civics are: Police State (Government), Homage (Legal), Slavery (Labor), and Theocracy (Religious). Economic almost doesn't matter. And Homage and Theocracy both is a bit of overkill, especially since you'll be generating lots of GGs anyway to settle in your production cities for lots of promotions. So Government, Labor, and either Legal or Religion become the most important.

Domination is similar in some ways, but with this you want to keep the cities you take, so empire management becomes important. By the end of the game, you will be HUGE, so State Property becomes very important and useful. Economic civics are thus much more important for a Domination than a Conquest victory.

Space Race? Downplay the military some, you'll want to conquer enough for a heavy research base but stop way before you would for Domination, and upscale the economy and research, and also production when you get ready to actually build the ship. This puts a premium on Government, Economics, and Religion. For research, the best civics are Representation, Free Market up to a certain city size and Environmentalism after that, and Free Religion. For production, switch to Universal Suffrage. Labor and Legal are much less important for this.

Diplomacy? As with Space Race, the military is only middling-important. You'll want to go to war to keep your allies happy, and to conquer enough resources for trading and gifts. Otherwise, the most important thing is research. Staying ahead of the research curve lets you build the important wonders, and also gives you technologies to gift, or offer in lopsided trades, to make enough civs like you that they'll vote for you for Supreme Leader. So again, Government, Economics, and Religion are the really important ones.

Culture? The military is important only for defense, and to acquire enough resources for health and happiness. Research can be very targeted, and it's OK to fall behind in areas not contributing either to survival (i.e. don't fall TOO far behind in military tech) or to gaining culture. The best civics are Caste System (Labor) and Pacifism (Religion), so those two categories are the most important.

This is an incredibly complex game that can be approached a lot of different ways. Just as with questions about what's the best/worst civ or leader, it all depends on what you're trying to do.

 

[Cyrus_the_Great]

Nicely put.