SE Help

[futurehermit]

I don't really understand these "phases." Obviously if you're spiritual you can swap back and forth at will — whip some things, switch to Caste, wait for angry faces to go away, swap back and repeat. But if you're not, how often do you switch phases? I thought part of an SE is being at near constant war so is there really a peaceful building period?

And does a SE favor a small, higher quality empire or a large, sprawling one? I seldom raze cities; I tend to go for State Property, and I eschew colonies and vassals as best I can. Or does size not matter?

You can't permawar early because the war weariness and economic costs will cripple you. Permawar becomes available post-fascism. During these earlier time periods you want some periods of production/warfare and some periods of peaceful teching (usually to next level of military tech).

Something like this:

-Axerush
-Tech through currency/col
-Another warfare of expansion, usually supported by catapults (unless you decide to tech to the renaissance)
-Tech through liberalism and possibly renaissance military tech unless you want to fight during medeival era
-Another warfare of expansion, usually at this point you will clear you continent if playing continent-style map
-Tech to industrial or modern era unless you think you can close out the game during the renaissance
-Invade other continent if going for domination or else tech peacefully for space race

 

[Winston Hughes]

Spiritual allows many tricks that are cool at first, but quickly bog down in repetitive micromanagement.

Surely you mean: Spiritual allows many cool tricks, and lets you do loads of highly enjoyable micromanagement.

 

[Roxlimn]

futurehermit:

Having enough food in one city to support 8 Scientists is itself map-dependent. For many maps, it's probably more effective to eschew Caste System early on in favor of many cities running 2 Scientists each. You grab more land, you develop vertically in a powerful way, and your capital can still be used as maintenance generator if it can profitably run Cottages.