Sid Meier’s Civilizations 4: Government Civics

Civilizations 4 has what are known as civics. A civic allows you to choose how you run your civilization, each with benefits and/or penalties. Are you an elected president, or a king? Perhaps you are a fascist dictator. Do you allow free speech? Are there open markets? There are many choices that become available throughout the game.

Most of the civics available in Civilizations 4 are acquired when a new technology is discovered. The exceptions are the ones that your civilization starts with. These starting civics have no real benefits or penalties for your civilization as they are the starting ones. They do require some upkeep costs, but these are low.

When you discover a technology that is associated with a civic, you will be asked if you want to change to that civic. Whether you decide to do it then, later, or wait and change to another one at another time, you will go through an anarchy phase. This phase usually lasts for only a turn, depending on how many civics you change at time. The anarchy phase is a time when your government is in chaos and your people demonstrate. You lose production ability, too. However, this phase usually passes by quickly and generally unnoticed.

There are 5 government civic fields that you change. Each one has 5 different civics to choose from once you have the necessary technologies researched. The civic fields are Government Civics, Legal Civics, Labor Civics, Economic Civics, and Religious Civics.

Government Civics are the actual way your government works. It includes a Despotism, Hereditary Rule (monarchy), Representation (republic), Police State (fascism), and Universal Suffrage (democracy). Each one has benefits that can be handy depending on how you run your civilization. If you’re a conqueror and go to war constantly, a Police State would be best as it reduces war weariness. If your people are constantly unhappy, switching to a Hereditary Rule allows your military units that are stationed in your cities to make your citizens happy.

Legal Civics are a sort of description of the freedoms of your citizens. It includes Barbarism, Vassalage, Bureaucracy, Nationhood, and Free Speech. Most of these assist with the military ability of your civilization. Vassalage gives newly created units some extra experience, which makes them stronger in battle. Nationhood allows you to draft citizens into military units. Generally, unless you really need those drafted units, it’s better to just get Free Speech as it provides some extra money and extra culture, which allows your cities’ influenced territory to expand.

Labor Civics are how your citizens working ability is organized. It includes Tribalism, Slavery, Serfdom, Caste System, and Emancipation. Most of these focus on the production ability of your civilization. Serfdom makes your workers build terrain improvements quicker, which is handy if you have a lot of undeveloped terrain laying around.

Economic Civics mostly affects the money production ability of your nation. It includes Decentralization, Mercantilism, Free Market, State Property, and Environmentalism. State Property is nice if you have high maintenance costs from all your civilization’s possessions. The reason is that it gets rid of maintenance costs that you get from cities that are far from your capital.

Religious Civics are how your government affects religion of your people. It includes Paganism, Organized Religion, Theocracy, Pacifism, and Free Religion. Because religion affects the attitude of other civilizations toward you, going for Organized Religion might be a good thing. It allows you to train missionaries without any of the prerequisite buildings. They can then be sent around the world to spread your religion. Free Religion is the best as it makes it so there is no state run religion. All religions are allowed, and even encouraged within each city as they provide happiness bonuses.

So, now you know all about the civics of Civilizations 4. Will you choose to be a fascist dictator with free speech? Or a democratic president with none? The choice is yours.