what is the civic that you least use?

[Ambreville]

The only one I have not found a viable use for is ENVIRONMENTALISM. Usually, by the time it becomes available, I have access to plenty of happiness resources so its effects are moot. Every other Civic choice has some great uses when matched up properly to specific situations.

What would be useful are some guidelines as to when would be the best situations to use these CIV's. Most of them are pretty straightforward, but I usually stick with maybe half of what's available since I couldn't figure out when would be a good time to use the apparently worthless ones.

I wish the folks at Firaxis would spend less paper/ink recopying into their manual information that's plainly available in the game (likes endless pages of stats on units, buildings, leaders, etc), and instead put more on how to play some of the scenarios (especially for Warlords), as well as hints that are spelled out and actually useful as regards general and practical game play (such as choosing CIVs or religions, general strategy, etc).

 

[famousanus024]

I voted environmentalism for the same reason as the rest of you. It comes way too late, and when you do get it, unhappiness and unhealthiness aren't even problems anymore..and why so many votes for serfdom? I love that civ, I get it right away. I never use slavery, so I use switch to serfdom immediately until I get emancipation.

 

[Thedrin]

Antilogic:
I was making a point that you can use Pacifism when not actively warmongering, and switch to warmongering later. I haven't actually tried to run Pacifism while attacking, so I don't know how that would work out (not well is my guess, which is why I've never tried it). I think Pacifism actually works out that you have to pay 1 gold per military unit absolutely (in your borders or not), but the no upkeep really helps on cutting down that effect.

I've run a succesful warmonger game as Tokugawa (in Vanilla) with Pacifism running for most of the game. The trick was to combine it with Caste System and have my best food city (food maximised) to run as many merchant specialists as possible. This covered my unit costs, unit supply costs and the increased maintenance due to more cities without having to reduce the research output of other cities. As the wars continued I settled [all of] the great merchants into the same city to increase my gold per turn and to increase the amount of food in the city allowing yet more merchant specialists to be run.

 

[Rast]

Though, thinking about it now, environmentalism does seem to be one of the better civics in OCC games.

 

[Antilogic]

I've run a succesful warmonger game as Tokugawa (in Vanilla) with Pacifism running for most of the game. The trick was to combine it with Caste System and have my best food city (food maximised) to run as many merchant specialists as possible. This covered my unit costs, unit supply costs and the increased maintenance due to more cities without having to reduce the research output of other cities. As the wars continued I settled [all of] the great merchants into the same city to increase my gold per turn and to increase the amount of food in the city allowing yet more merchant specialists to be run.

That's a unique approach. I'll try it after my current games...

@Ambreville: Check out the strategy forums. I remember seeing a great guide to civics and when to use them there.

 

[crunch]

I am surprised by the unpopularity of pacifism. I'm using it very often.

 

[Soil]

Isn't the increased support cost for pacifism only applicable when your units are out of your cultural borders?

I've used it very few times, so I'm still unsure about the descriptions meaning. Theocracy is my favourite though for the exp on my units.

And yea, environmentalism gets my vote. I have not once switched to it.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Isn't the increased support cost for pacifism only applicable when your units are out of your cultural borders?

No.
567890

 

[Ambreville]

@Ambreville: Check out the strategy forums. I remember seeing a great guide to civics and when to use them there.

Thanks!!

 

[Swedishguy]

No.
567890

What the sam heck is that supposed to mean?

 

[Thedrin]

You can't make a post with less than 10 characters. 567890 allows the post to be made.

 

[Swedishguy]

Ok, let's see what the moderators think about that...

 

[Oisin]

Pacifism used in combination with Representation, Mercantilism, Free Speech turns your civ into a GP and culture factory on steroids.

Environmentalism is useful when you want to grow your cities to massive sizes, run coal plants and factories, and don't have access to a wide range of foodstuffs.

The only one I've never used is State Property.

 

[Nilmerf]

The only time I've ever used environmentalism is during a one city challenge. I don't think I've ever used nationhood.

 

[Swedishguy]

Nationhood is a must if the enemy launches a sudden attack. But you should do allright.

 

[Canterbury]

Actually, I use Slavery the least. It is useful, and used by a lot of people, but I usually prefer to spend gold to hurry production (I usually try to build the Pyramids first). Conversely, I find Environmentalism quite useful for simultaneously fixing/preventing health problems in a lot of cities with factories, labs, etc. Maybe it's just me.

 

[br_casino]

Actually, I use Slavery the least. It is useful, and used by a lot of people, but I usually prefer to spend gold to hurry production (I usually try to build the Pyramids first). Conversely, I find Environmentalism quite useful for simultaneously fixing/preventing health problems in a lot of cities with factories, labs, etc. Maybe it's just me.

I didn't used slavery until I started increasing the difficulty level. It really comes in handy to take care of those cities with unhappiness.

 

[Canterbury]

I didn't used slavery until I started increasing the difficulty level. It really comes in handy to take care of those cities with unhappiness.

Do you mean that slavery decreases unhappiness? How does that work?

 

[Nilmerf]

Do you mean that slavery decreases unhappiness? How does that work?

It's very ingenious. Make sure when you use slavery the population is decreased by more than 1. Therefore, if you kill off 2 people, your penalty for crowded cities will go down more than the whipping increases unhappiness. And hey, you get a free unit or building out of it too! It's best used for high food production cities so they can quickly build up their population again for more whipping. By that time the -1 happiness from whipping may have gone away. It truly is the most powerful civic in the game.

 

[Canterbury]

It's very ingenious. Make sure when you use slavery the population is decreased by more than 1. Therefore, if you kill off 2 people, your penalty for crowded cities will go down more than the whipping increases unhappiness. And hey, you get a free unit or building out of it too! It's best used for high food production cities so they can quickly build up their population again for more whipping. By that time the -1 happiness from whipping may have gone away. It truly is the most powerful civic in the game.

OMG that's cruel! I wonder if anyone uses Slavery with Emancipation. Thanks for the info, though. I'll use it in my next game.