Monarchy, Democracy or Communism?

C3C patch1.22 Monarch as the Sumerians wanting a 100k cultural victory.

I conquered Rome, I invaded 3 other civs. I'm entering the Industrial age as a monarchy with 42% of world territory and 52% of world population. Cash rushed culture all over the place. I believe I'm well on my way to the 100k. The only thing I'm not sure about now is which form of government I want for the second part of my game....

I don't want to waste don't know how long a period in anarchy just to find out I don't like my switch to communism or democracy. Should I switch or just remain a Monarchy this game? To be honest, I don't know. If I wanted a domination victory I'd switch to communism and just attack the silly obsolete AI civs left. My territory is big enough for it. Of course I cannot cash rush culture anymore but I don't believe the tech tree is giving me any new culture improvements until the science lab. Those few forgotten cathedrals I can just build myself in those far away towns that get a nice corruption improvement from communism. Besides.... I don't want a domination victory. Democracy would give me a huge economy with loads of gold and since I'm not planning long wars anymore war weariness won't be a problem. Then I can buy those few forgotten cathedrals in my corrupted far away towns. I don't believe fascism is useful here.

Ehm ... I believe I could use some good advice here

You can use Republic. Cash rush and low WW. But if you want that and not money, you should stay in a Monarchy. I would recommend Communism because you can whip culture buildings. Just whip them all.

Maybe but it is one of the coldest maps I've ever played. Many far away towns just don't get enough population for whipping the hell out of them

If you decide to switch, I would suggest Republic. You said you aren't planning any more long wars, but just in case, if you do, you'll have low WW, unit support, and the economy boost of Democracy. Republic is a combination of Democracy and Monarchy in my opinion. If you are the leader in science, just turn down your science to get a good income, and use that to rush remaining improvements. Good luck!

Democarcy for maximum cash and Republic for cash and decent military forces

I usually use Monarchy because it gets a good enough cash flow, good production, and good enough military support.

Doesn't republic get really bad WW?

Cash-rushing culture buildings does work, but it would be much more efficient to switch to communism and just build the improvements. It sounds like you have quite a few cities; you could make them all productive with communism. Having all those cities producing shields is much better than spending 4 gold for every shield to rush stuff.

drwsince1987 said:

I usually use Monarchy because it gets a good enough cash flow, good production, and good enough military support.

Doesn't republic get really bad WW?

Click to expand...

While it does have WW, it's quite manageable with Universal Sufferage, Police Statoins, all 8 lux's and marketplaces. Demo is much worse.

If you're not planning on more wars, Republic. If you plan on still doing a lot of conquering, then do Monarchy. Unless you can goad them into attacking you, then Republic would do okay.

Actually, I think this is the one case where Democracy is better than Republic. The advantage of Democracy over Republic are:
- less corruption
- faster workers
- better unit support (if you have a large army, which you may have, since there is nothing else to build)

The advantage of Republic over Democracy:
- War Weariness

There is a wonderful article by Oystein on War Weariness [link]>>Link<< . Take a look at it, and you should be able to manage short, defensive wars in Democracy.

At that point, corruption may not be an issue. Neither would faster workers, if his work force is already large. Personally, I hate it when my workers get faster, because by the time I can switch to Demo or get replaceable parts, I've already got my workers set up into teams and I need to reorganize them. But that's just me....

Demo doesn't have free units. Although the unit cost in demo is cheaper, you get 1/3/4 (town/city/metro) free in Republic. This can add up to cheaper unit support for Republic than demo. Of course, Monarchy isn't bad at 2/4/8, and communism is decent at 6/6/6...

Hmm not really sure yet but tnx for all your input people!!

I like the faster workers in Democracy and I sure have a lot of railroading to be done. I never considered Republic that's maybe because of my (misguided??) notion that it is an inferior early age form of government which you can best replace with Democracy as soon as possible. I also think my unit support would be gigantic in Republic.

I'm still believe nullspace makes sense: consider switching to Communism, I got a huge number of non productive cities now that could just build all the culture themselves then + I get the advantage of the SHQ lowering corruption even further. I get a nice unit support and my hands are free to grab whatever AI city I find useful. 42% world territory still leaves me some room to expand and I could take cities from 1 civ and give them to another to maintain a balance of power between the remaining AI.

this is really the 1st time I struggle with a government question.

Globo said:

this is really the 1st time I struggle with a government question.

Click to expand...

And it won't be the last. I do this about every game, although it's more for me "Do I go Monarchy --> Republic, or straight to Republic?"

Choosing governments is not a thing to do lightly. There's a lot to consider. So while we all have our favorites, I think most of us would go a different path if the situation warranted it.

One thing I miss from Civ2 is the ability to preview governments. That is, on the turn your anarchy is done, you can switch freely to any known government without the anarchy penalty. This way you could see which one is economically better for you.

Turner_727 said:

One thing I miss from Civ2 is the ability to preview governments.

Click to expand...

Yes that's true, I forgot about that We should post a request in the Civ4 section but then again .... weren't they just a little bit too easy on us with that?

Just thought I'd let you all know I chose Democracy. I seriously thought about Communism but I'm glad I didn't. It would probably have delayed my cultural 100k civ victory. Stayed in Monarchy quite long this time and used it to invade my weak neighbour China. very honorable Then switched to democracy went to 0 science the last 30 turns or so and cash rushed culture all over the place while the cities with a complete list of culture improvements just produced wealth. Turned out my best score yet

tnx for all the input people!

SJ Frank said:

The advantage of Republic over Democracy:
- War Weariness

Click to expand...

and the other advantage:

you dont have to worry about falling into anarchy during wars.

i get in the habit of drafting a lot of troops and then disbanding them in remote cities to rush their improvements. in a remote city with a lot of irrigation plus a granary and of course an aquaduct they can often be drafted every turn. in 20 turns this can lead to an unreal looking happiness problem (imagine 6 population 5 of which are entertainers and the 6th is unhappy - and this with 7 luxuries and 50 percent on the luxury slider). in my last game i fell into anarchy something like 3 times in 6 turns. good thing i had a religious civilization but after the third time i wised up and said "lets try republic this time!"

Unhappiness doesn't cause the revolution. War weariness alone causes it.

I always start w/ Monarchy. Decent cash, no WW (that I know of), and the added benefit of MPs (which can be nice if you're in a luxury poor area). After that I'll either switch to democracy (for culture, diplomatic and space-race wins) -or- communism (conquest & domination). If I feel like the mid/end game is going to be rife with warfare, I'll sometimes favor Communism over Demo (even if I'm trying to go for culture, diplo, space, etc).

I like Monarchy and Demo for the ability to "cash rush" improvements -- not a huge fan of whip rushing (though I'm not sure why).

-V

Actually, Monarchy does accumlate WW points. However, that form of governement ignores it. But if you're on a losing war, and switch from a 'non'-WW government to a WW government, you immediately feel the effects of it.