What do SE and CE stand for???

[AccipiterQ]

This forum needs a glossary lol...what do those terms mean??

 

[Hackapell]

SE- Specialist Economy: relies on food for production and scientists to provide research, Creates GS to give you temporary tech lead. Independent of the slider, so can be tech leader while running 0% Science. Strongest in the early game.
CE-Cottage Economy: Cottages and slider provide research. Strongest in the late game. Requires less Micromanagement.

 

[DaveMcW]

CE = never build specialists, ever
SE = never build cottages, ever

Both these terms are highly misleading and bad strategy.

 

[Bureaucracy]

I think a little misleading is that one must use scientists for the SE. In most cases this is so.

 

[Defiant47]

CE = never build specialists, ever
SE = never build cottages, ever

Both these terms are highly misleading and bad strategy.

I've found through my (inexperienced) playing that while a CE can still run specialists and have a mini-SE, an SE usually doesn't run cottages at all (unless financial with spiritual/philosophical/industrious).

This is because while playing a CE, I may get some food resources and end up with some nice food yields but insufficient happiness. However, with SE I directly go for farms and then stop at insufficient happiness.

 

[AccipiterQ]

CE = never build specialists, ever
SE = never build cottages, ever

Both these terms are highly misleading and bad strategy.

oooh ok! Do people actually have success running these strategies at higher levels?

 

[JujuLautre]

I think there is somewhere in this forum an immortal SE walkthrough, using 0 cottage. Can't remember the name of the poster though...

edit -- here it is: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=218926

 

[Photi]

to accipeterQ, the link below is from the war academy. it is not completely comprehensive, as it leaves out CE and SE, and also DoW (declaration of war) and WFYABTA (we fear you are becoming too advanced). it took me forever to figure wfyabta out.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/reference/acronyms.php

 

[axident]

oooh ok! Do people actually have success running these strategies at higher levels?

SE is common at higher levels, but I don't like it. There is also a "HE" which is a hybrid economy or a compromise between the two. And let's face it, all SE's are compromise economies, because it's not like you are going to tear down the cottages of captured cities or anything. SE basically exploits the lightbulbing giving big boosts to research in the early going, leading to big tech leads, and you trade part of that lead for others' techs. Without good enough trading partners, SE flounders. So SE actually works better at higher levels as the AI civs usually tech faster and have better stuff to trade.

Also try the EE. Espionage Economy.

 

[Percy]

SE is common at higher levels, but I don't like it. There is also a "HE" which is a hybrid economy or a compromise between the two. And let's face it, all SE's are compromise economies, because it's no like you are going to tear down the cottages of captured cities or anything.

Well, actually, yes. Pillaging and then putting farms is sometimes a better option. And if that is not running a "pure" SE, then a CE with a GP Farm which runs specialists is not pure either.

 

[FrancisMarion]

SE is common at higher levels, but I don't like it. There is also a "HE" which is a hybrid economy or a compromise between the two. And let's face it, all SE's are compromise economies, because it's no like you are going to tear down the cottages of captured cities or anything. SE basically exploits the lightbulbing giving big boosts to research in the early going, leading to big tech leads, and you trade part of that lead for others' techs. Without good enough trading partners, SE flounders. So SE actually works better at higher levels as the AI civs usually tech faster and have better stuff to trade.

Also try the EE. Espionage Economy.

I've been playing a No Cottage, No Lightbulbing SE style, and it's allowed me to get my first win on emperor.

Settled specialists might not be the sexy option, but it's a lot more stable and less dependent on the whims of your trading partners AND it's much better late game where lightbulbing is no longer a realistic option.

Ofc since Civ is a non-competitive game, it really doesn't come down to what's best but rather how you enjoy playing.

 

[Diamondeye]

I enjoy SE most even though Ive just started trying it out - the micromanageless CE simply is too boring for me

 

[uberfish]

SE = stupid economy and CE = crap economy, depending on who you ask.

 

[axident]

Well, actually, yes. Pillaging and then putting farms is sometimes a better option. And if that is not running a "pure" SE, then a CE with a GP Farm which runs specialists is not pure either.

True, but much of the time you're better off just leaving a bunch of well-developed cottages alone. I did have to pave over some AI cottages to make a functional wonder city in my EE game:

EE - Espionage Economy: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=239376

And yes CE isn't exactly pure if you do that GP farm thing. I roll my eyes at food-heavy GP farms and tend to have wonders do the heavy lifting for me.

 

[popejubal]

And yes CE isn't exactly pure if you do that GP farm thing. I roll my eyes at food-heavy GP farms and tend to have wonders do the heavy lifting for me.

Great People are good enough to make a CE devotee want to "pollute" their play style with a few specialists in their Great Person farm, but I've done just fine without cottages in a Specialist economy. I was very impressed at how well the SE worked even without cottages once I realized that running Merchants was how I would get my gold instead of lowering the Science slider.

Lowering the Science slider was what I did to keep my 25 population cities happy during the the perma-war that I had going on from 0 AD to 1000 AD. The best part is that running 40% culture had no serious effect on my economy because the overwhelming majority of my cash and beakers came from specialists instead of coming from commerce.

That said, I still enjoy Cottage Economy more, this game just really lent itself to a Specialist Economy.