Which ideology do you prefer in general?

[PhilBowles]

So far I've only played Freedom and Autocracy. Freedom looks more overtly powerful, but Autocracy has some thematically brilliant touches that really get across the feel of a military dictatorship.

 

[MantaRevan]

So after browsing the civilopedia a bit, I think Order is a tiny bit stronger than Freedom, but all of the branches are ridiculously good compared to the other policy trees. It's still pretty difficult to beat science from factories and factories at half-cost.

 

[dojoboy]

No preference yet, as I've gone Freedom in my only 2 games so far. About to play Poland, so I'll give one of the others a try. That said, Freedom's 'Volunteer Army" and "Space Procurements" are compelling choices.

Of my two games, I noticed Order presented the most resistance for my rivals. So, if you're running a negative in happiness, that can negate production bonuses provided by Order.

And, Askia's people revolted while he was running Autocracy.

 

[VainoValkea]

With diplo victory being so easy now and Freedom's Treaty Organization making it even easier to love every City-State there is, I'm going with Freedom.

 

[BluegrassGeek]

*It probably didn't help that the entire Freedom tree was shouting "'MURICA!" in your face over and over again until you just wanted to hit it over the head with a lead pipe.

As an American, this nearly made me laugh out loud.

I went Order for my first game, so I haven't seen the BNW version, but the old Freedom really was kinda focused around American standards of freedom.

 

[Nickel_lion]

I always go for Freedom, no matter what

Me too...

Besides, I hated to be almost obliged to choose Order (communism) in G&K because of my large empires and the fact you could buy ENGINEERS with faith. Now I can forget Order FOREVER!! DEVS!! (Sorry, there are some communist NUTS in my country, ruinning it, and damn, I HATE communism. Very subjective, yes, but that's how I feel).

The only thing I REGRET from the Freedom tenets is that they erased FREEDOM OF SPEECH in the tree. (I ususally got a kind of orgasm when I chose it -the very few times, for the reasons I stated above, in G&K). However, they got Capitalism, Civil Society and Creative Expression, which are cool also.

And of course, you will get the STATUE OF LIBERTY with freedom!! Great bonuses with it.

 

[Iry]

I tried to go Autocracy in my latest domination game, I really did.

I had saved up several thousand gold, chosen Mobilization, Third Alternative, and the moment I got Flight I burned every last gold purchasing Great War Bombers. The world had never seen such offensive insanity. I conquered half the map in less than 30 turns leapfrogging from newly created puppet city to puppet city. And then I collapsed under my own weight with 98 Unhappiness.

I needed two things for my offensive slaughter: Gold and Happiness. The Autocracy happiness policies were not cutting it; I didn't need more forts and barracks and those would take a long time to construct! So I flipped to Freedom which gave me lots of gold and happiness combo policies. I proceeded to sail to a domination victory thanks to Freedom.

That is when I realized that Autocracy is not an offensive ideology. It is much better for prolonged defensive battles where you really need to entrench yourself while you build up for a culture victory. It is not the ideology for stomping across the countryside like Godzilla.

 

[ggmoyang]

That is when I realized that Autocracy is not an offensive ideology. It is much better for prolonged defensive battles where you really need to entrench yourself while you build up for a culture victory. It is not the ideology for stomping across the countryside like Godzilla.

I agree. Industrial Espionage tenet is quite good for that.

 

[MantaRevan]

That is when I realized that Autocracy is not an offensive ideology. It is much better for prolonged defensive battles where you really need to entrench yourself while you build up for a culture victory. It is not the ideology for stomping across the countryside like Godzilla.

Interesting point. I ought to try that some time.

 

[Giskler]

If you have the happiness back it up then Autocracy is incredible for warfare. I tend to prefer Freedom and culture primarily though.

 

[Lyoncet]

I tried Maya/Freedom once (won Diplo handily) and now finishing up an in-the-bag Order Poland science win. I've found the production/factory bonuses ungodly powerful for Order, but one thing that's been surprisingly helpful was Double Agents. I'm an era or more ahead of everyone–on Emperor, no less–and everyone and their dog is sending spies to Warsaw. Being able to kill as many as I do has not only kept the rest of the world's ignorant populace under my silky Polish boot, it's also given me a lot of positive diplo modifiers for letting it slide over and over. I think I've maybe had 3-4 techs stolen and had another 15-20 spies caught and killed.

Overall I went tall enough that game that Statue of Liberty alone may be better than any Order policy, but it's been a good damn run so far.

 

[knighterrant81]

I like Autocracy. It does the job it needs to do - keep people happy, while you finish mopping up the AIs. Annex+Courthouse becomes a net-positive happiness, and just build military buildings for more happiness.

Maybe Freedom/Order are better, even for Domination, but I don't know, I haven't tried them yet.

 

[spfun]

Order is in my opinion the best for science victory so I prefer order

This, the 25% factory science is about all i'm after, since science is the limitation in a space victory. In saying that i love freedom, just it doesn't have the ability to shave off turns off my victory time. Buying space parts with gold? pointless considering i would have built all the parts before the last tech has arrived. And they only take 3-4 turns to build anyway. ( on standard )

 

[Wir0s]

I wanted autocracy for the stratg. resources bonus (warmongering 4life), but my population doenst like it, so, i ended with order.

 

[dapperbandit]

My first game I played as Shaka and went with Autocracy. It's third tier Tenets aren't that great but it's middle Tenets are really nice.

Surprisingly I ended up winning a diplomatic victory since I exterminated all the other civs on my continent and was left with about 9 city states that ended up being my allies nonstop for nigh on a thousand years.

It has some surprisingly good happiness tenets too. Combining fortified borders with the Neuchwenstein wonder did wonders for my happiness.

 

[Shafi-is-back]

Played just two games, first one with Morocco and went for diplo win, picked Freedom. second game playing as Brazil and obviously targeting a culture win and picked Order, my initial reaction is that order seems to be slightly stronger than Freedom.

Freedom can be insanely powerful if you have plenty of food and can run lots of specialists i think.

Another thing i've noticed from my two games is that Order seems to be the dominant Ideology among the AI's. Has anyone else noticed this?

My vote went to Order.

 

[Lyoncet]

Another thing i've noticed from my two games is that Order seems to be the dominant Ideology among the AI's. Has anyone else noticed this?

This has been my experience too. Even the tall empires that could use the specialist bonuses usually tend toward Order, unless they're warmongering and go Autocracy. I've seen two Freedom (out of 7 AI) in one game and 0 out of 5 AI in the next.

 

[Ulthwithian]

For me, it's either Order or Freedom... Order, at least, seemed chock-full of Happiness bonuses.