How to Authoritarian in 2.2? With Syncretic Evolution, it's an insane self-sufficient empire. Maybe more than it used to be, at least for the economy side.
Government
Ethics
Something you
must know is that
Syncretic evolution + Xenophobe = serviles in slavery without the need for Authoritarian. If you choose Xenophobe over Authoritarian, be sure to set your
Resettlement and
Land Appropriation policies are set to
Allowed for respectively your main species and default settings (other species than yours). Taking Xenophobe or not depends how agressive you want to be.
If you swap Authoritarian to Xenophobe, instead of 0.5 influence (1 for fan. authoritarian) and relocation for free (or it seems), you get the equivalent of
Fast breeder (twice this effect for fan. xenophobe) for all your pops and a neat -20% to outpost cost (-40% for fan. xenophobe). Not shaby I'd say, so really consider carefuly your options.
Any flavor between:
- Authoritarian/Xenophobe + Spiritualist (Sp) [tie between psi ascension and bio-ascension until I test it further]
- Authoritarian/Xenophobe + Materialist (Ma) [bio-ascension, avoid robots - yeah seriously]
- Authoritarian/Xenophobe + Militarist (Mi) [bio-ascension, you should also select military civics for sheer space superiority]
- Authoritarian/Xenophobe + Pacifist (Pa) [this one is actually OK at some point but that's overall going to be hard past the expansion point]
Remarks:
- Xenophobe is pretty much OK at any point because you don't plan to have that much as it would broke your empire integrity. You will be more hated and be in wars though.
- Force any to fanatic level if want to [see strong combinations to see why fan. authoritarian or fan. spiritualist can especially be very powerful]
- Pacifist will hinder you
- Xenophile and Egalitarian are very bad
- Avoid anything else
Government Type
(by decreasing order of preference)
Oligarchic for Ma, Mi
Imperial, Dictatorial or Oligarchic for Sp
Pa: whatever is available
(yeah I know I am biased towards Oligarchic. Agenda is awesome. Tell me if you find better combinations)
Civics
Mandatory: Syncretic evolution
Additional civics
, either
:
- Aristocratic Elite : comboes with Adaptative and higher habitability perks (see Special colonist section for more)
- Citizen Service (AI) : rather later, good pick for militarist and warmonger of all sort
- Cutthroat Politics : rather later
- Distinguished Admiralty (AI) : rather later, good pick for militarist and warmonger of all sort
- Efficient Bureaucracy : rather sooner, could be replaced later
- Environmentalist : rather later
- Exalted Priesthood (Sp) : boosts your unity production by around +50% at the start. I'm not sure how much it gives on a more longer term.
- Imperial Cult (imperial Sp) : rather later
- Inward Perfection (Pa) : akka the most insane isolationist combo ever
- Functional Architecture : rather later
- Meritocracy (oligarchic) : rather later
- Mining Guilds : ok but not that mandatory now. Rather sooner, could be replaced later
- Nationalistic Zeal (Mi) : rather later, good pick for militarist and warmonger of all sort
- Philosopher King (dictatorial or imperial Sp)
- Police state: you won't have stability issue at all, so only for the added unity. Not the greatest pick here.
- Shadow Council (Democratic, Oligarchic or Dictatorial) : selecting your ruler remains a potential factor in optimization, having 75% of the price isn't cheap at all
- Slaving guilds: ah well sorry it's not compatible with Syncretic Evolution any more. Well that was so broken after all.
- Warrior Culture (Mi) : bomb all the way really. At one point, the increasing damage will do more than this perk.
- Technocracy (Ma) : when I tested it, this thing seemed broken and it gave me +25% research output alone at the cost of a bit less unity and amenities but this build is high on these nonetheless so yeah I would definitely consider it if playing materialist.
- Byzantine Bureaucracy : I dont think you'll need it considering the reduction from slaving and sheer amount of amenities you are going to produce, but that remains an option.
- Merchant Guilds : could have some use
Strong combo
- Imperial Cult + Cutthroat Politics
- Parliamentary System + Cutthroat Politics
- Authoritarian / Militarist / Xenophobe + Distinguished Admiralty + Citizen Service
Species
Main
Build
Let's go with a bit of theory first. This is the perfect call for jobs that are not related to raw materials:
Administration: Traditional(+1) + Charismatic(+2)
Clerks: Charismatic(+2) + Thrifty(+2)
Culture: Traditional(+1) + Natural Sociologists(+1) / Intelligent(+2)
Research: Intelligent(+2)
Then we have our Core build, either you focus on growth and economy and your core will be:
Traditional(+1) +
Charismatic(+2) +
Weak(-1)
or you are interested in a short term research focus while either not going bio-engineering or forsaking the second generation of researcher in which case your core rather be:
Traditional(+1) +
Intelligent(+2) + Weak(-1)
I'm adding weak as the least impactful for all government except militarist. If you choose militarist, you have to replace it with another one but it's going to have an effect on your empire one way or another.
IMPORTANT option
If you think unity is fine enough as it is for the early game or permanently (Sp I'm looking at you) and you're aiming for bio-ascension, take only
Charismatic(+2). You'll follow the same guide but piling habitability, transveral and leader traits with the slots freed and points available. In fact, bio ascension yields many formidable uses regarding leader traits and probably surpasses Psi ascension considering the species modifiers alone (the Veil remains formidable on its own).
That means we have 8 trait points and 4 traits slots available to 'play' with, 2 coming in the early-mid.
- Erudite will be taken for 2nd gen researcher as already stated in the guide. That leaves us with 4 points 3 slots. You could fill the gap with Robust(4) or any combination of a single Field expertise + 2 leader traits. It could be wise to take +15% Society here because we are going to gene-mod quite a bit.
- Thrifty(+2) is granted to traders. That leaves us with 6 points 3 slots. Again you have quite the amount of choices from the core pops pool (see below) but Communal(1) appears like the best choice here because this pop speciality will be found only in very high density cities with very high concentration of clerks meaning you can expect quite a number of additional clerks from this trait alone which in turns means even more trade value.
- The core pops:
- If you need to add some punch to your leaders, that's here and now. Robust(+4), Quick Learners(+1), Talented(+1) and Enduring(+1) are your base pool. Considering you already have +50 life from Robust you may expect Enduring to not be that important. Or you could upgrade in two steps.
- If you want to boost your armies, Resilient(+1), Strong(+1) or Very Strong(+3) are yours to take. As a pacifist or militarist, I would recommend Resilient(+1) here as having my colonies defending themselves the best they can is respectively my only war occupation or my failsafe if I cannot retreat my fleet on war campaigns soon enough.
- You can also pick from the transversal traits: Nomadic(+1), Communal(+1), Conformists(+2), Conservationist(+1) are all decent options.
- You could even add Traditional(1) as soon as you get your first point. That's actually a pretty decent option.
Special colonist:
- Take Aristocratic elite as 3rd civics
- Basic colonist template: core + Adaptative(2) when you get at +2 traits. Colonize mid habitability with them and make them the ruler(s) of these worlds until something better pops up
- Advanced colonist: core + Very Adaptative(4) when you get Engineered Evolution. Upgrade Basic colonists and extend your colonies further.
- Neo-colonist template: core + Robust (4) when Evolutionary Mastery is taken. Replace Advanced colonists with this template and extend your colonization to its maximum.
The chance of seeing an advanced leader will be high with this.
Specialization
That's how you use your 1st gene-modding trait point, and the sooner the better:
1') Research city:
+ Intelligent(+2) + Decadent(-1) [We'll call this first generation researcher]
1") add Charismatic(+2) + Sedentary(-1) to the core template and apply it to every pop of the core species
2) Trade city:
+ Thrifty(+2) + Sedentary(-1)
Bio ascension
You should now design the second generation of researcher by selecting the core and adding Erudite and Robust. This is a quite insane combo but with low chance of appearance in the leaders pool. Replace all the 1st generation with this second generation and keep an eye opened when looking for a new leader from now on.
For other specialities, remove negative traits and take your pick (2 traits left). Transversal traits such as these are all good:
- Ascension tree specific (4 points) : either Fertile or Robust,
- (Extremely) Adaptive : comboes for the added habitability and increasing happiness of rulers,
- Conformists,
- Nomadic
- All leader-related traits,
- Conservationist
Serviles
Build
- Serviles(1), Rapid Breeders(2), Industrious(2), Repugnant(-2), Fleeting(-1)
- Serviles(1), Ingenious(2), Industrious(2), Repugnant(-2), Fleeting(-1) [my current build]
They go farming, mining and technicians jobs on their own. And they do the job very well.
Note: Rapid breeder isn't that great as it removes the ability to take Ingenious later unless you go bio ascension. Also the default 50/50 is usually a fine growth rate for your colonies: you will even be able to relocate pops where they are wanted the most for dirt cheap.
Important: don't let them go to clerk jobs. That's for your main species to take, and even later your specialized main species.
Specialization
Depends if you go bio-ascension or not.
If yes, couple options:
- You haven't taken Ingenious yet: remove Fleeting and do it.
- You have Ingenious: remove Fleeting and add Fertile(4) or Robust(4)
If no: sadly, you don't have enough points to add Ingenious(2) when bio-engineering + rare bio-engineering tech kicks in. Your best pick is then to remove Fleeting and take either Strong, Communal or Conservationist.
[my pick would be Communal for the potential main pop it can unlock]
There's no worth in removing
Repugnant(-2)
Strategy
Always
- Put serviles into slavery
- Turn 50% trade into energy credits, 25% into consumer goods
- Trade can be shared among various cities and colonies however research shall be located only in fully dedicated research cities. One is probably far enough at the start.
- Before you start specializing more, the pop growth is usually quite efficient by itself. However select the species being grown when you start specializing your main species. The trick is to wait for a pop to have grown and the new pop just started growing up: if you change the species on a growing pop you loose part of its development time so far up to 0 if you do that several times.
- With the sheer amount of food you are going to produce, you should be able to keep the growth planetary decision up in all your colonies until fully grown up. That beats the Fast breeder trait by a large margin as it applies to both species and is more than twice the amount of growth the trait gives. You could consider both but you probably don't need it.
- Avoid integrating pops that are not your own unless there's a real value in doing so. Your species are self sufficient and by far one of the most potent in doing their jobs. Exceptions worth the risk: the species candidate is a born leader or allows you to colonize a whole new set of 3 planet classes (you can move serviles over there but at one time they're going to appear on their own)
Consider
- Aristocratic Elite as 2nd or 3rd civics [like really, really]
- Ecumenopolis is a real game changer and this build has what it takes to fuel it. Build one at least (or get Fan Hannabilis from precursor event and break the game)
- Focus on bio-engineering for your society research options. This build significantly relies on bio-engineering but keeps it civil enough.
- Choose between terraforming or special colonist template to deal with non habitable planets and stick to it.
- Higher living standard for main species [+10% research is great and with few downsides, Ma has it good here]
- Governor traits are all localy strong because this build is highly specialized:
- Iron fist is your most important trait for all productive sites. Abuse it.
- Intellectual should be found in research cities.
- Agrarian Upbringing in agricultural colonies to lessen the stress on your Iron fist governors.
- Retired Fleet Officer at shipyard, in which case trade centers appear to be the best colony type to place it with no downside. [your first starbase is very likely a BAD pick for that, at least for the early-mid game]
- Army Veteran lessen the cost of expeditionary armies in Army Academy site.
- Corvée System as 3rd civics if you plan to move your main species around. That's especialy extremely potent to move pops in excess to new or growing colonies without shutting down the pop growth power of your colonies
- Keep an eye on Self-modified pops when they appear
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