Episode: 4290
Title: HPR4290: Playing Civilization IV, Part 5
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4290/hpr4290.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 22:35:14

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This is hacker public radio episode 4,290 for Friday the 10th of January 2025.
Today's show is entitled, Playing Civilization 4 Part 5.
It is part of the series' computer strategy games.
It is hosted by Avocad, and is about 15 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, we look at a new feature called Civics.
Hello, this is Ahuka, welcoming you to hacker public radio and another exciting episode in our series on computer strategy games.
And I'm continuing with our look at Civilization 4.
And what I want to talk about first here is Civics.
Because that was another one of the major changes in Civilization 4.
And it is pointing away to future developments as well.
So what are Civics?
These are broad policies about how your society will be structured.
And they have consequences for what you can do.
Now the Civics in Civ 4 seem loosely based on the social engineering options in Alpha Centauri.
And they come in five categories.
Government, legal, labor, economy, and religion.
And then each category has five options.
Though you start off in a default base in each category that has no prerequisites and no benefits.
This is similar to the situation in Alpha Centauri.
But as the game progresses, you can open up new options as you progress through the tech tree.
Often the benefits are so attractive that you might want to adopt the new Civics right away.
But be careful.
Each time you change Civics, it is like having a revolution and you will experience a short period of anarchy.
And during anarchy, your city production, growth, and research are all halted.
And once you've done this, you can't do it again for several turns.
Now, if you have a leader with the spiritual trait, or if you have the Christo-Ridentaur wonder,
you will not experience any anarchy when changing Civics.
So that's something to keep in mind.
Now, here are the Civics.
First, the government.
You start off with despotism.
In 4,000 BC, when you presumably created your first city or within your turn or two of that,
you're in despotism.
It has no prerequisite tech.
It has no effect on your empire.
Upkeep costs are low, not terribly productive.
And the next government civic is hereditary rule.
Now, this becomes available when you discover monarchy.
It gives you one additional happiness for each military unit stationed in each city.
The upkeep costs are still pretty low, however.
Representation.
Now, this becomes available when you discover constitution.
It gives you three additional science per specialist.
And it also gives you three additional happiness in four to six of your largest cities,
the number depending on map size.
But it also increases the upkeep costs from low to medium.
Police state.
This becomes available when you research fascism.
It gives you a 25% bonus to producing military units and reduces your war on happiness by 50%.
However, it increases your upkeep costs to high.
And finally, universal suffrage.
This becomes available when you research democracy.
It gives you one additional hammer from every town and allows you to spend gold to rush production.
So those are the government civics.
Now, the legal civics.
The base case here is barbarism, where, again, this is where you start in 4,000 BC.
It has no prerequisite tech, has no effect on your empire, and the upkeep costs are low.
Then, the next step up would be vassalage.
This becomes available when you research feudalism.
It gives you two additional experience points for new units and more free units.
However, it increases your upkeep costs to high.
Then bureaucracy.
This becomes available when you research civil service.
It gives you plus 50% production and plus 50% commerce in the capital.
However, it also increases your upkeep costs to high.
Nationhood.
This becomes available when you research nationalism.
It allows you to draft one to five units per turn depending on the map size.
It gives you plus 25% espionage points in all cities.
And two additional happiness from barracks.
And there are no upkeep costs.
And finally, free speech.
This becomes available when you research liberalism.
It gives you plus 100% culture in all cities and plus two gold from each town.
Upkeep costs are low.
So, those are the legal civics.
Now, labor civics.
Base case is tribalism.
Where you start in 4000 BC, it has no prerequisite tech, no effect on your empire,
and the upkeep costs are low.
Next is slavery.
This becomes available when you research bronze working.
You can sacrifice part of your population to rush production in a city.
This is commonly referred to by players as whipping production.
The upkeep costs rise to medium.
Surf them.
This becomes available when you research feudalism.
It allows your workers to build improvements 50% faster.
And the upkeep costs go back to low.
Cast system.
This becomes available when you research code of laws.
You can have unlimited artists, scientists, and merchants.
And you receive one additional production from each workshop.
Your upkeep costs rise to medium.
And finally, emancipation.
This becomes available when you research democracy.
You get plus 100% growth for cottages, hamlets, and villages.
In addition, any other player that does not have emancipation experiences a happiness penalty.
And your upkeep costs are low.
So those are the labor civics.
Economy civics.
Your base case is decentralization.
This is where you start in 4000 BC.
It has no prerequisite tech.
No effect on your empire and the upkeep costs are low.
Then it's mercantilism.
And this becomes available when you research banking.
You get one additional free specialist per city.
You are not allowed any foreign trade routes.
And foreign corporations have no effect on your empire.
Upkeep costs rise to medium.
Free market.
This becomes available when you research economics.
You get one additional trade route per city.
And maintenance costs from corporations are reduced by 25%.
Upkeep costs are medium.
State property.
This becomes available when you research communism.
You have no maintenance costs from the distance to the palace.
And plus you get one food from each workshop or water mill.
Plus 10% production in all cities.
And corporations have no effect.
Upkeep costs are low.
Environmentalism.
This becomes available when you research medicine.
You get an additional six health in all cities.
But maintenance costs from corporations go up 25%.
You get plus two health from public transportation.
And plus two commerce from windmills and forest preserves.
Upkeep costs are medium.
So those are the economy civics.
Now the religious civics.
Space case is paganism.
And that's where you start in 4000 BC.
It has no prerequisite tech and no effect on your empire and the upkeep costs are low.
Organized religion becomes available when you research monotheism.
You can build missionaries without having a monastery.
And cities that have state religion can build buildings 25% faster.
Upkeep costs however are high.
Atheocracy.
This becomes available when you research theology.
Cities that have a state religion can build units that have two additional experience points.
And no other non-state religion can spread.
Upkeep costs are medium.
A pacifism becomes available when you research philosophy.
That's plus 100% in the birth rate of great persons in cities with a state religion.
One additional gold support cost for each military unit.
But no upkeep costs.
Free religion.
This becomes available when you research liberalism.
You cannot have state religion in any of your cities.
You get one additional happiness per religion in each city.
And plus 10% research in each city.
Upkeep costs are low.
Now how should this civics thing figure into your strategic thinking?
I have a few ideas about that.
Now we looked at previously the various leaders and the civilizations and the traits they bring to the game.
And we saw it was important to align the leader choice to the kind of strategy we wanted to pursue.
You would not want a leader who strengths lay with the military if you're going to pursue a culture victory and vice versa.
Similarly, you would want to focus on implementing civics that align with your strategy.
Some civics are clearly helpful for certain strategies.
Let's look at a few examples.
First military conquest.
That's always a popular one for players of this game.
For your government civics, the best in the relatively early game is hereditary rule which becomes available when you research monarchy.
In the late game, police state which becomes available when you research fascism is a sound choice.
As for legal civics, a vassalage which becomes available when you research feudalism is very good and in the late game nationhood which becomes available when you research nationalism would be the best choice.
Now as for the labor civics, the choice is not so clear cut.
Both slavery and surfdom have something to recommend them depending on the circumstances.
Slavery can help you pump out buildings faster and you will definitely want to get barracks in each city and probably walls to help with defense.
But the logistics of moving units to the front makes building roads very important so surfdom would be a better help there.
And you also want to be sure you build the mines to get the copper and iron needed to equip your soldiers and build the pastures for the horses needed for your mounted units.
For the economy civics, you can make an argument for state property but really none of them is particularly better.
As for religion, theocracy is the standout choice for a military victory strategy.
Now if you're going for a science victory, the choices are different. For government civics, representation is best.
There is no standout choice for legal civics but for labor civics, the caste system is going to give you more specialists including scientists.
For economy civics, mercantilism will give you a free specialist in each city and for religious civics free religion gives you a science boost.
Now what if you're going for a culture victory? Well, if you're going for a culture victory, no government civics gives you a direct boost.
But representation with the science boost is a good indirect benefit since science opens up other possibilities.
For legal civics, free speech is the obvious choice. But until you get there, bureaucracy is pretty good.
For labor civics, caste system is again a good bet since you can get more artists specialists.
In economy civics, mercantilism again is the choice for added specialists.
And for religious civics, pacifism, when combined with state religion, gives you more great people.
And you will want to get as many great artists as you can.
Now, civics and research, just a quick note here.
The various civics choices beyond the simplest ones all become available when a specific technology is researched.
And that means you need to think about your research choices strategically.
Don't pick the next technology to research Willie Nilly or by blind guessing.
You know what strategy you're following and you should choose things that fit your strategy.
And for our next look at civ4, we're going to dig into the research.
So for now, this is Ahuka for Hacker Public Radio, signing off.
And as always, encourage you to support FreeSoftware. Bye-bye.
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