What government is the best?

[vojtus]

Despotism/communism until development of railroad and most cities connected and continent clear of enemies. Then democracy and few units with min. 2 point of movements are enough to protect the continent, leaving home city only when enemy land. If you are going to conquer another continent just flip government until enough railroads is build and than flip again.

[remzi]

Originally Posted by tuga2112

i dont know what dificulty do you play on but i usually play up to prince. now the 3 biggest differences between republic and democracy from my experience are this two.

1- democracy makes 2 unhappy citisens per unit away from home city while republic does 1 (with woman sufrage that makes zero unhappy on republic witch is very handy at war times)

2- democracy as no corruption. republic has no corruption on your capitol city (the one with the palace) and the % of trade lost to corruption is higher the fartherst the city is from the capitol

the third difference (although doesnt affect my gameplay at all but some others it might) is that when on democracy if a city is "unhappy" for (i think) 2 turns the government collapses while on republic that doesnt happen.

if your building a large empire with many cities you will end up with cities very far from the capitol and even with courthouse you will have a lot of waste to corruption and that means slower tech and less treasury.

in a siple way democracy is harder to mantain but if you can mantain it its by far better than republic.

i hope that explains the point of view of many players as i hope they agree with me

agreed

[Bratticuss]

I never had issues with Democracy government. You can even conduct full scale wars with Democracies.

Its all about planning. Democracies are very fragile governments. Just need some pre planning.

Make sure all of your cities have a Colosseum and cathedral improvements. Some of the best wonders to use are Women's Sufrage, Bach Cathedral and Michelangelo's Chapel.

Spread the units you take to war among the cities. When you are done with them. Disband or set them in new home city.

Pump luxury rates up and convert your special citizens from taxmen to entertainers to boost city mood.

When you go to war with another Civilization. Never ever parlay with them. Do not talk or communicate. Just obliterate them.

[Bloodwing]

I always liked Communist governments at the beginning, but as I got further along in my experience, I figured that Democracy was probably the best. With the Women's Suffrage wonder, it's just great.

Good advice for running a Democracy is well explained in the above post.

In my opinion, Communism is just an easier government to run. You won't get the full economic benefits from it, but it'll do the job.

[ignatius]

Bratticuss hit the nail on the head. Despotism and Democracy are all you ever need - all other forms are utterly useless.

If you go for early conquest then you stay at Depotism, fill the land with closely packed cities and crank out chariots (+ some diplomats and sails) until you own the world.

For anything else, you beeline to Democracy and stay there for good. See that you are at war or w/o contact with all opponents before you make the switch. Also, you make sure to get Religion with Mike's chapel and Bach ASAP.

The rationale is very simple: Democracy gives not only the highest bonus of all government forms, it is also the only form which is both decentralized (and thus oblivious to distance of capital - like Communism) and allows for city growth via those all-important WeLoveThePresident-days (like Republic). The limitations of Democracy are easily overcome with proper planning, a good (rail)road network and frequent use of the h-key. If you build Shakespeare in a production rich costal city to support your ships and expedition forces, you can field huge armies with no penalty whatsoever. - Not that you actually need one: conquest with Democracy means taking out the capital and buying up the rest, so your invasion force will consist mostly of diplomats and settlers.

[RaT666]

Democracy or republic are best. Just in case you are going to conquer all the world few years after game start, communism can be useful.

[DragonHerder]

I always go to monarchy at the earliest available opportunity, then stay on it until the discovery of democracy. Then switch to democracy until i need troops outside the city, then switch to republic for the duration of the war.

[GibsonS]

I always linger too long in Despotism; makes it very easy to stamp my iron authority on the world but screws me up in every other respect.

My tendency is to switch to monarchy/communism (depending on how spread out I am) once I've subdued the other civs, then change to republic when I've pretty much finished building new cities.

I'm too much of a wuss for Democracy; settle for the easy life of a Republic!

[Whelkman]

Monarchy gets a bad rap around here, but it's a mere 1 tech diversion on the path to Republic/Democracy, and when combined with the "zero turn revolution" trick it yields benefits while marking time to the more advanced governments. In fact, I'd say for "builder" type societies, Ceremonial Burial is probably the most valuable starter tech given the quick jump to Monarchy.

[hauserke]

I prefer communism

[Furrow]

In war communism,
in peace Republic or Democracy.

[michaelsander]

Keep the government as a democracy or republic, research technology and improve cities. If need be to conquer cities, simply use a diplomat to subvert or bribe a cities, it will gain you the cities and allow you to declare war on the enemy civilization.

In addition, at king or emperor level it is hardly worth it to conquer a city with military units unless you,

1) Have drastically more powerful units compared to the enemy civilization.
2) Use a nuclear weapon.
3) The city hasn't city walls, riflemen, mech inf. or any other strong defensive unit.

[CivCro]

First Despotism than Communism and last but not least The Republic. Democracy for peaceful times is not a bad idea...

[Fanatic Noob]

This one:

Because of this party

[LordTC]

I'm a big fan of despotism if I'm going for a specialist economy. I seldom grow cities large enough to be unhappy (don't need buildings to support) and seldom work very many tiles either. Because I work so few tiles I seldom upgrade tiles early on, which limits the value of the +1's. I've got to admit It's a lot of fun to cross the entire USA with a ship from city to city pacific to atlantic. I should get the Panama Canal wonder for doing that or something :P

[Fanatic Noob]

It is good to develop railroad as much early as possible to help cities grow when you run on despotism Also - if you make them celebrate they produce even more food You just need to make sure they never go out from celebrate, or grow too big, because then can go out to food shortages.

I also run on despotism whole game even in peace to make game more challenging.

[bitula]

I've always used Monarchy as an intermediate step in midgame to grow the cities faster. I didn't see any reason to skip it nor of course to keep it forever.

[Fanatic Noob]

Playing on monarchy/communism is not challenge for me. While playing on republic/democracy is just piece of cake (too easy).

[Tristan_C]

Despotism works as advertised to a point, but eventually you start losing your born-contents (I think 7 or more cities) and the higher governments have better ceilings on that. The unrest impacts your output to an increasingly-ridiculous extent. The more cities, the more apparent the need for Democracy overall, and the less optional JS Bach is, too, for that matter. Funny how Democracy is supposed to present the greatest unrest challenge, but it's just the opposite in large civs.

Originally Posted by Fanatic Noob

This one:

Because of this party

No kidding

[blessern]

I go straight for discovering/applying The Republic. This gives:

Lots of trade (science) early on.

Little or warfaring until the Woman Suffrage is in place, just some strategic defending. I usually "sacrifice" the development of a city to build 3-4 defensive units to place around, the city will be in constant disorder, but its worth it for the prosperity of the rest

When WS is in place there is no unhappyness with warfare.

Cities close to my capital are developed as trade (science/money) cities, faraway cities are just producing units for the frontline.

If I have to declare war later on, i just call for a revolution, declare war and choose Republic when the revolution is over.

BUT: if I fail getting the Womans Suffrage, i'm in for a major setback