[spoilers]Oh Canada! Victoria has a Commodore, eh?

[Commodore]

What tech do you have again Commodore? Everything up to Rifling, Democracy, what about Steel?

Steel is next, yep, then RR.
I have Rifling.
Democracy, Communism dead ends.
Corporation, so Assembly Line is also an option but seriously who cares about factories.

[Krill]

Would you be so kind as to post an F4 screenshot highlighting other key players tech?

Yes, I'm basically asking how far behind or ahead of scooter/mack/plako/any one who isn't dead you are.

[Commodore]

Next in the series...

Nationhood: It's a Trap!

So I'm rumbling along here in the smug knowledge that I can assemble an army out of thin air by the mere expedient of throwing money at build queues. With luck and the wise showing of force, I may well be able to continue to maintain "thin air" in lieu of an actual army. However much I might be living in a glass house, though, I think I want to throw some stones.
I am more and more thinking that there are few civics more misused than Nationhood and the draft. It is a dangerous, dangerous seductive civic that I think everyone should be very careful of using. I'll try to unpack the whys of that.
First, though, what are the benefits of Nationhood/drafting? Well, we've all read the recommendations and played with it in single player, the hammer efficiency is amazing. One pop for 110 hammers is an amazing deal, even two pop in RBmod has that rifle draftee looking dirt cheap. It's fast...neither cash rush not whipping gets what you want the turn of, so that's wonderful and heck, you can natural-build while you draft, too. Nothing will get you a huge army fast like the draft, nothing. The civic is also nice and inexpensive, and you get a nice +2 out of what should be a ubiquitous building.

..but that last one should clue you in on the problem. Drafting is sweetly addictive, press button, get candy soldier. But it makes your people mad, and the worst thing about it is, thanks to the barracks and going -1 pop, the first hit is free. But if you're swapping into Nationhood to make an army, you need more than that first taste, so you draft again, and maybe (you poor bastard) again. And it's worse. You're getting +2 in every city with a barracks! Good luck swapping out again.
The thing is in Civ4, RBmod or base BtS, the weird little building called the granary makes growing a breeze. And it makes regrowth fast. With a very few exceptions (all cities you don't want to draft at all), the limiting factor in draft recovery is happy, not food. A mass-whipped empire will recover faster than a mass-drafted empire, because it's all about the unhappy incurred.

There is a second, however, and perhaps even more fundamental problem with drafting; it gives you sucky offensive units. Recall what I said about land wars, bad idea, competence? That's true for two-mover armies with all their innate mobility and built-in tendencies to wreck siege if they get the first blow. Now talk about waddling massive stacks of muskets/rifles/infantry? Only cripples, AIs, and players used to playing against AIs die to that. And even those will always be better taken on with mobility units.

Now Nationhood isn't always the wrong civic. It costs no upkeep, so for non-supercap owners it can be a very solid fit on purely economy marks; the happy boost, while dangerous to rely on, can be helpful while you are working on my permanent methods of redressing the problem. If you're a poor lost soul who has somehow found yourself on the path of the Spy Economy, obviously it is the One Right Choice civic. Defensively, it is bar none the best civic in the world due to the rapidity of response it enables. If you have the Globe Theater by all means abuse that sucker, and of course Spiritual can make careful use of Nationhood for all the above much more carefully.

I'm not making a doctrinaire statement here like "never ever use Nationhood". But please, please be very cautious with it; it's such a good, good deal at first, but it will leave you washed up and emaciated if you get hooked.

[edit for Ceil's great EP point)

[Gavagai]

I think you can mention RB strategy in the inter-site demo game as a classic example of draft misuse. I don't have a close knowledge of this game but I'm pretty sure that hordes of drafted maces (!) had a lot to do with RB team collapse...

[Ceiliazul]

nationhood's greatest value in single player is for an espionage economy. If you're using spies to steal tech it should read "+25% research in all cities". combined with +2 happy everywhere... that's good stuff!

But yeah, the draft is seldom as good in practice as it is in theory... Globe excepted. Even there though, who wants to swap civics just for 1 unit per turn (from globe)? if you're not getting anything else of nationhood, thats a steep opportunity cost.

[Commodore]

Okay, I'll be doctrinaire about this one: If you're drafting a mace, you should probably take a good long look at what went wrong. Because something is very wrong with your plan(s).

[pindicator]

Zerkers. How I wish I had gotten to draft zerkers. Especially ones with free C1

[Commodore]

Zerkers. How I wish I had gotten to draft zerkers. Especially ones with free C1

That's a berserker! Samuari are also best draft idea ever.
Honorable Commo-san is correct. But Samuari do not need to be drafted they die with honor in gladness. The sad faces are from the honorless dog-men who are shamed to stay behind.

[Hashoosh]

With even a globe city and SPI, 5t (the minimum) gives you 5 units for 10 pop and saving ~550h. But what if you look at the pure opportunity cost of the switching from bureau in the cap?

[Commodore]

Good news, everyone!

...Brampton is our city #30, folks! That's a lot of cities, Mackoti, who has more cities, is also majority Christian. That's why the Church of the Nave is painful to give up. But you can see on this screen why I want another GA too...Pacifism saves me money now, but when I rushbuy an army, it's going to be painful.


Thirteen more turns, barring horrid luck. Then, then lads...Industrialism ho! Drafting all the while, naturally.