Originally posted by Stop Killing Me
Im a little confused as to what is wrong with my game play mainly whats wrong with my science. Throught most of the first era I am technolgicaly advanced and try to get 2 defencive units per city. I usualy rush to republic and thats when the problems start. From here in I fall well behind in tech and it doesn't recover till the industrial age which means I loose 90% of my games (only game I ever one was a space race game) I don't understand how it is possible to fund science city improvements and more importantly a military in republic. Ive tried to make less units but that doesn't seem to work because the AI just attacks you cause they know your weak and you end up in a long drawn out defencive war which only cripples your science further. So Im wondering if anyone can give me any advice. Thx
I used to have this problem as well - switching from despotism to republic used to send my treasury plummeting, making it hard to keep up in tech. Now, I have no such problems, and the key is to understand the differemces between despotism and republic. Here are some of the features:
1) 2MP in despotism, none in republic
2) each city gives you 4 unit free support n despotism, none in republic
3) there is a tile penalty in despotism, not in republic
4) the corruption difference between despotism and republic is very large
5) each tile that already produces 1g will produce an extra gold in republic.
What does this translate to in your game?
1) the first thing you'll notice as soon as you switch is that you'll intially have a harder time keeping your people happy in republic, because the 2MP has gone. Solution: use luxury expenditure. When I'm in republic, my lux slider tends to hover around 30%; the more luxuries you can hook up or trade for, the lower you can reduce your lux slider, but the important thing is, do not hire a bunch of entertainers when you get into republic, use the lux slider to keep as many citizens working as possible.
2) As soon as you enter republic, you'll find that you're suddenly paying a huge amount in military expenditure - every unit, every worker you have costs you 1gp that you previously never noticed in despotism, because you had free support. Understand that you do not neccassarily have to cut your military in republic, you just have to use it smarter to keep your income high. You say you get 2 military into every city you have? That;'s fine in despotism, but there's no point in republic, because they don't act as MP. Defend your borders heavily, you can leave the center of your empire relatively lightly defended. I would urge you to abandon this thinking of "I need x military units in each city to have adequate defence". Sometimes I leave the cities in the center of my empire completely undefended, sometimes I have a token warrior in there; there are suggestions that if you leave your cities completely undefended, this may encourage the AI to sneak attack or make more demands of you...I don't know if this is true, there has been no proper study of the subject...but you certainly do not need 2 units in all your cities. Defend the borders, the center is safe. Suddenly, you might find you don't need quite as much military to be safe, or even if the AI does attack you, you can easily repulse theirn attempts if most of your military is concentrated on your borders...
3) with the tile penalty lifted and corruption less of a problem in republic, you'll find your cities a lot more productive...your luxury expenditure will pay for itself if you develop your lands, and your cities will be able to produce many more shields. The key: have lots of workers to get your lands improved and your cities growing...remeber, you get 1 extra gold from every tile that already produces 1 gold in republic, so try to ensure that every tile you work is roaded, so you can claim the extra gold - you will need a lot of workers to do this.
4) following on from the last point, try to get all your cities to size 12 ASAP - irrigate over mines if you have to, set up worker factories to boost your pop if you have to, but get your cities large. If every tile you work gets you an extra gold, the more tiles you work, the more income you get. As I stated above, do not be afraid that the growth will outstrip your ability to keep your people happy - it will in the short term, but with every tile producing at least 2 gold and corruption much more slight, the lux expenditure will pay for itself and get you extra gold. This is perhaps the most important thing with regards to making rebublic a success, and why republic is so much superior to monarchy: a size 12 city in a republic will produce 12 gold more EVERY TURN than a size 12 city in monarchy - this more than makes up for the fact that monarchy and despotism give you free support and MP; the free support and MP add up to only 7gpt: so you are getting an extra 5gpt from each city in republic if you maximize their potential.