Which ideology for sprawling domination victory?

[zxcvbob]

I have my 2 original cities, one annexed city, and about 6 puppets so far (2 of the puppets were capitals. Happiness is not a big problem yet, but it has dipped negative briefly once or twice. It's only going to get worse though. Pretty soon I'll have my 3rd factory and can pick an ideology -- and should be the first civ to do so because I just clobbered the only other civ that had a lot of tech. What's the best ideology for managing both happiness and unit maintenance costs? Of the two, I think happiness will be the bigger challenge. I usually go Autocracy or Freedom, but I seldom play for domination. I've also never played a large map before.

(Japan on archipelago map, with Tradition and Patronage filled and a little bit of Honor, Rationalism, and Exploration. I don't remember if I opened Commerce.)

Also, at what population level does annexing a city (and buying a courthouse) break even regarding the increased policy costs? About 10?

Thanks.

[ReAnimA]

Order gives the highest happyness output, especially if u going to play domination=get more cities, but autocracy ll help u to make wars easier. Also Liberty policy gives u great reduction of happyness problem if u re getting more cities and population.

[Mabu]

autocracy. the prora wonder for happiness and all the politics which improve your combat

[Lamp]

Depends, really. You can go 3 ways with Domination:

Order: It has a lot of happiness bonuses, and it gives a science bonus for Factories as well as a few bonuses for production, and Great people generation; this is the way to go if you're playing Hybrid and want lots of Puppets/incorporated cities due to the Free Courthouse promotion. Good for pumping out units and staying afloat if your too big, while also keeping you in the race scienficially and culturally; somewhat of a Hybrid, they don't really excell in any direction but can focus anywhere you aim them. Versatile.

Autocracy: Pure domination, lots of combat bonuses (25% more damage from damaged units; this is god with Japan), while also giving a few happiness bonuses. While Order is suited to puppets and incorporating cities, Autocrazy is suited to burning cities down and only taking Capitals; but they do it fantastically. Unit Production bonus, Damage bonuses, Resource bonus. They don't, however, get a science bonus, but they do get a culture bonus for every city they take. Pure Domination Victory. Powerful.

Freedom: they have a lot of Great people bonuses, as well as a few military unit production bonuses; while they're not the best at a domination victory they can still hold their own with the extra gold, science, and great people improvements. They don't have a lot of happiness bonuses, so this put them as the best for Cultural victories in a small empire, but it also gets them a bonus to increase melee production if they do choose to expand. Stable.

It all depends on your playstyle; Lots of city's or a few, Domination focus or secondary, Where's your Tech, Where's your enemies tech, lots of things to consider.

Best I would say is:

Order - Big empire; lots of happiness bonuses, bonus in allied lands, city states unit gift bonus, general city production bonuses
Autocracy - Small empire: Pure damage, more generals, more units, cheaper upgrades and purchases. As Japan you're already a reckingball, every aspect of Autocracy will synergize with your passive.


TLDR: Order if you want to be big, Autocracy if you want to be small

[zxcvbob]

I took Order because I'm already bigger than I'm accustomed to playing, and for the "Double Agents" thing. When I've played Order before, the stealing came to an abrupt halt as soon as I picked that, and I think I'm way ahead in science right now. I'd like to keep my monopoly on artillery as long as possible -- at least until I get bombers or battleships :-)

I saved the game right before I picked so I can go back later and try Autocracy to see how it plays out differently.

[zxcvbob]

Freedom: they have a lot of Great people bonuses, as well as a few military unit production bonuses; while they're not the best at a domination victory they can still hold their own with the extra gold, science, and great people improvements. They don't have a lot of happiness bonuses, so this put them as the best for Cultural victories in a small empire, but it also gets them a bonus to increase melee production if they do choose to expand. Stable.

I think Freedom is my favorite ideology. I can focus on tech and tourism, and field a much smaller army, then right about the time the other civs declare war because they notice that I'm weaker and have lots of gold (I guess they don't realize gold is a weapon), I can pop out 6 free foreign legions and buy an artillery or cavalry -- suddenly my capital is much stronger than their attack force. (that's usually my cue to go on the offensive and make an example of somebody)

Being able to buy space ship parts is nice too.

[mrmike_49]

you may want to annex a city or 2 - puppets STAY unhappy, but when you annex and then build the Courthouse, that cities unhappiness goes away, plus you can build happiness buildings in it as a priority. Problem is unhappiness STARTS out worse for annexed city

[zxcvbob]

I've read about a strategy where you leave everything as puppets and send workers in to replace all the non-resource tiles with trading posts -- generates lots of gold and keeps the city from growing so happiness doesn't become a problem.

[Bandit17]

Playing on Emperor difficulty I tend to favor Order just for the happiness bonuses. I tend to run larger empires so happiness is always at a premium and if a different Ideology begins to force itself upon me the extra happiness acts as a buffer until my military can fix the problem:)

Order works well for large empires wanting Domination, Science and Diplo victories. Autocracy for small military empires and Freedom for small peaceful culture/tourism foucused empires.

[zxcvbob]

Freedom in general is my favorite. For this game in particular, I was having trouble deciding between Order and Autocracy -- I'm not used to playing wide but the large map is kind of forcing me to. And I still can't reach a few of the CS's that want trade routes. (guess I better go capture another city closer to them...)

[baterism]

Order have "iron curtain" so you don't need to make courthouse. So, yes order is intended for sprawling domination.

But Autocracy have "third alternative" which double the strategic resources, good if you want to spam battleship/frigate. And also "police state" where you get +3 happines for every courthouse.

If you are confident with your civ happiness, go autocracy. But remember your selected ideology can generate a lot of unhappiness depending on other civ's ideology with biggest tourism.

For ex: Once I play diety and went autocracy, the unhappiness is massive. The reason is Brazil have tons of influence to my civ and go with Freedom. It lead to unrest in my civ with around 30 unhappiness. The solution? Invasion to every freedom civilizations.

[zxcvbob]

I took Order, and it's working pretty well to keep happiness afloat, but it's not doing much else. (maybe I don't need anything else) For my last couple of policies, I went back and finished filling Rationalism rather than picking ideology tenets because Rationalism was more useful. (is Iron Curtain on the 3rd tier? I remember seeing it, but it wasn't available last time I had to pick something) Something to help with unit upgrade costs would be nice...

I just started a war last night with the only contender left in the game -- also the only civ that was still friendly toward me. I spent a lot of gold to ally *every* CS (I already had over half of them, but he had the rest) right before I DoW'd so they would all turn on him. I think collectively they have destroyed more of his navy than I have. The next city I take is small and I'm going to liberate it to resurrect Brazil; I was going to liberate the last big city but it wasn't previously captured like I thought. Then I take Gao and that should be enough... then on to Siam or Russia. I don't remember the other small civs, but there are 2 or 3 more.

When this game is finally over (my first game on large map and first game at standard speed instead of quick) I will go back and try Autocracy and see how that works differently. I had no idea how long a standard game took; I can't believe some of y'all play marathon and epic. I have trouble remembering what I was doing from one session to the next.

ETA: I forgot about that spy killing thing. Since I took "Double Agents", I have killed about 6 or 8 spies, and it hasn't been all that long ago. About every other turn someone pops up and apologizes about that recent unfortunate incident. :-)