Guns and Butter

Civ IV, for the most part, functions to entertain its player. The entertainment value comes from the process of learning and applying the skills necessary to achieve success. One of the reasons Civ IV has attained such success (Game of the Year 2005) is because there are six different ways to win each game (Time, Conquest, Domination, Cultural, Diplomatic and Space Race.) My personal favorite method of winning is military conquest. But, for any manner of victory to be met, respects must be paid to the principles of production.

The Economic Questions must be answered relatively early on in the game in order to formulate a good strategy for victory.
Q1. What to produce?
A1. Depending on what type of victory you are striving for this is crucial. Conquistadors produce military, Dominators produce population (and take land), Culturists produce culture, Diplomats produce bullshit, or the UN and Astronauts produce the Space Ship.
Q2. For whom to produce it?
A2. I think the answer to this is for yourself.
Q3. How to produce it?
A3. This is where the technologies come in and the production power of your cities and workers. Each victory will require the production of certain units, buildings, and technologies.

If you weren't in class Tuesday, we had a discussion about some pretty basic and important economic concepts. Specifically The Principle of Increasing Marginal Opportunity Cost and Comparative Advantage. Believe it or not the rest of this blog post is going to be focused on explaining how the game reflects these principles during game-play. I'll make it short and concise...

The Principle of Increasing Marginal Opportunity Cost - This is mainly applied to the researching of technologies in the game. Each technology more or less improves the majority of one sector; while other sectors may benefit, it will not be as substantial as the primary sector (ex. production of Radio is mainly cultural, but also allows for development of submarines and other military units.) The standardized graph for the PP frontier uses Guns and Butter, a simple enough divergence between society's staple (food) and the excess military capacity (guns.) Depending where the current point of production is on the frontier, a reflection of a society's food surplus is shown. Once the always necessary Food Surplus has been met the possibility of specialization is revealed (the ability to produce military units and Guns.) However, the principle demands that for increased military production, food production must be foregone and vice versa; the amount of variance depends upon the slope or curve of the PPF.

Comparative Advantage - If you've played enough, you will know that each unit or building that a city may produce requires a certain number of turns to complete. If you have a relatively new city the number of turns to complete a specific construction can range from 4 to 200 turns. Possibly 4 turns to create a granary, or up to 200 turns to create a modern armor. The comparative advantage is a reflection of what a city's factors of production are more suited to produce. As more base constructions are completed the comparative advantage may shift from basic food surplus creation to other things such as cultural, or military production, etc.

If you want any kind of victory, you must answer the Three Economic Questions early on in the game and pursue the required fields of specialization consistently through the games duration...


Leave a comment if you feel what I have said is stupid or irrelevant...or if you think this post is the most enlightening thing you've ever seen.