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Aabraxan said:

Republic and Demo both have The Commerce Bonus. It adds 1 commerce to any tile already producing at least 1. Yes, they are the only governments that have it.

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• Republic is the best all-around government;
• Monarchy is the government of choice for the All-War variant;
• Communism might be good, if only it didn't come so late or require an additional anarchy period;
• Feudalism is good for culture-whip games.

Aabraxan said:

I very rarely use anything but republic, so my experience with other governments is somewhat limited. I have never used fascism or communism.

There's pretty consistently a small contingent of die-hard supporters of Communism around here. As I've never used it, I can't tell you from experience if it's any good. On the one hand, Communism's supporters seem to like being able to produce units in every town around the globe, along with having great unit support. On the other hand, the non-supporters say that it works best if you space your cities further apart than you would for a Republic. Therefore, you have to plan to be a Communist civilization from the very beginning. From my perspective, I don't want a second anarchy and, by the time Communism rolls around, my empire is well established and set up as a Republic. I suspect that, if you like to play with the late-game toys, Communism rocks. I am going to try Communism one day, honest. . . .

As for Republic, the commerce bonus goes a long way towards: (1) fueling research; (2) cash-rushing stuff; (3) buying friends; and (4) keeping people happy. Short wars are usually considered better, but Republic is durable enough for serious warmongering, if you can manage your losses. Oscillating wars go a long way towards mitigating WW, as well.

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Aabraxan said:

I very rarely use anything but republic, so my experience with other governments is somewhat limited. I have never used fascism or communism. The "conventional wisdom" with regards to governments is that:

• Republic is the best all-around government;
• Monarchy is the government of choice for the All-War variant;
• Communism might be good, if only it didn't come so late or require an additional anarchy period;
• Feudalism is good for culture-whip games.

Monarchy is considered better for All-War for two reasons that I know of: (1) no WW; and (2) slightly better unit support. I think the first reason is probably the more important of the two, simply because you cannot make peace in AW games. Monarchy's unit support is only marginally better than Republic, but WW in an All-War game can be a killer.

I've only used Feudalism once or twice, but my impression was that I could support a very large army with only a few small towns. Republic needs cities for support. Feudalism needs towns. With a food-poor, shield-rich start, I suspect Feudalism could be a powerhouse. On the other hand, with a food-rich start & an agri civ, you can whip tons of stuff. Keeps pop down, which keeps unit support up. And you can pair it with an agri civ like the Celts or Sumeria for cheap culture buildings and whip them, too. The only culture win I've ever had was as Sumeria. Conquered my continent and proceeded to beat my people like they owed me money.


There's pretty consistently a small contingent of die-hard supporters of Communism around here. As I've never used it, I can't tell you from experience if it's any good. On the one hand, Communism's supporters seem to like being able to produce units in every town around the globe, along with having great unit support. On the other hand, the non-supporters say that it works best if you space your cities further apart than you would for a Republic. Therefore, you have to plan to be a Communist civilization from the very beginning. From my perspective, I don't want a second anarchy and, by the time Communism rolls around, my empire is well established and set up as a Republic. I suspect that, if you like to play with the late-game toys, Communism rocks. I am going to try Communism one day, honest. . . .

As for Republic, the commerce bonus goes a long way towards: (1) fueling research; (2) cash-rushing stuff; (3) buying friends; and (4) keeping people happy. Short wars are usually considered better, but Republic is durable enough for serious warmongering, if you can manage your losses. Oscillating wars go a long way towards mitigating WW, as well.

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lazarus319l said:

. . . . I almost always play on pangea so there's more war but the corruption often really stacks up. So my question is 3 fold. 1.) If you have a large army should you upgrade older units or sell them off? Seems like the cost of a large army in a big map would be huge at 2GPT

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lazarus319l said:

2.) Is republic always more versatile cause you can do the tech rush to republic easily and simply manage the WW with slider?

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lazarus319l said:

3.) Does WW factor in if you try to kick them out of your territory and they declare war on you?

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lazarus319l said:

4.) Ok one more - - - if you want to start a war in republic is it better to simply go after their major base (if possible) and bypass their smaller bases to take a GW and then sue for peace?

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