Best Goverment

[Comrade Pedro]

What is your opinion on this question:
-Which is, globally, the best goverment in civ2?

In my opinion, the best goverment in civ2 is the fundamentalism, because you dont have to worry about getting people happy, and the construtions that before costs money, became to give money (i mean temples and things like that).

 

[funxus]

I'm fond of Demo, and also Republic depending on era.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Yeah, the "freedom" goverments are good, but they dont offer the best support for war.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Democracy is the best govt., even for war. It is not worth changing out of it to go to war. It is almost esential to have Bach to manage it properly, but the tech that you get is very important. Try not to fight a long war, as you might eventualy keep to many units outside your city, and have to disband units or something... Keep a tech advantage in war and you should be OK. There is much on strategy about demo, and could probably fill an entire thread. Play one or two leveld below what you normaly play, and try democracy... see how you do. Or try Allies in WWII scn.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Well, i must confess that i never played with Allies before (i think they are too arrogant ). I played always with Spain or Turkey and when i have the chance i changed the goverment to communism....

In the other matter i think that making war with demo is a disadvantage. And when you say that you need tecnology, well i believe you can win a war with quantity instead with quality. Even though you can extort tech from minor civs if you keep them alive...

 

[Achinz]

Depends on your type of game and even on its phase (changes to take advantage of the focus and altered strategy).

Democracy for best trade and fastest tech research and hence gold.

Communism is better than Fundamentalism for waging a war. WLTCDs will maintain tech rates and trade payoffs in cities celebrating and the Vet Spy you get automatically is an unmatched unit for quick conquest.

 

[funxus]

The point of warring in demo is that you can keep money and science coming anyway. If you have the right wonders, trade and a good civ going, you won't need to worry about your cities going into disorder, the problem is rather to keep them celebrating even at war.

Sure you can win with quantity, but it's cheaper using a better unit.

Fundamentalism is very good too, but try following Garfield's advice.

 

[Achinz]

The proviso about having the right wonders and a fairly advanced stage of civ is important in deciding whether it's better to wage war in Democracty or Communism as well as the size and strength of your enemy civ.

 

[addiv]

Ah, government discussion, my favorite subject.
For me, Fundamentalism is overall the best government. I am a very agressive player (I don't do spaceships, only World Conquest), and I usually play at Deity+x, so I have to maintain a strong military to be able to beat and thus stay ahead of my enemies.
Also, it's of course very hard to keep your people happy at this difficulty level, so it's very hard to run a stable democracy. Fundamentalism is of course great, because it eliminates all unhappiness. I don't have to build any 'happiness improvements' (well I do before I get to Fundy of course; I always go to Statue of Liberty as fast as possible, to revolt to Fundamentalism), and I can fully concentrate on building military units. Science I simply get from stealing from my dear neighbours. The income in money is overall probably even larger than at democracy, but I don't need much money anyway, because my production and unit maintenance ability is so great.
My goal is always to try to conquer the world as fast as possible, so I'm usually in a constant state of war. Sometimes, when war is not possible or not beneficial at that moment, I'll switch to Democracy for a while to develop. I always go back to Fundamentalism as soon as possible though.
When I have conquered the entire world save 1 city, I switch to Democracy of course (after disbanding my entire army), to get as high a score as possible. Civscore is not very important to me though, so Fundamentalism stays by far the best government to me.
Maybe my favorite government will change in the future though; 5 years ago I would have prefered Despotism (Civ 1 heritage ), 3 years ago Communism (but that was probably because I was a communist back then), and 1 year ago Democracy.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

See guys, what we have here is a REAL man . I also identify despotism as a interesting government. As i say "Nothing like the old despotism!"
Authoritarian guys are the real future!

 

[blackthorn]

I maintain republic untill I am finished with my techs. Then I switch to fundy, and begin my total takeover. Usually this is how I play but it varies from game to game.
I would say my favorite gov. is Republic for its all around usefulness. I.E. Trade, happiness,growth.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

But republic isn't a "way" to democracy?

 

[blackthorn]

I am not sure i understand your post. Could you be a little clearer on what you mean?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Addiv sais that demo is harder to maintain in D+X, I would disagree. You need lux to survive in demo, and blackies make your lux go farther. I havent actualy finished a d+ game yet (got involved with a scn. that I'm building) but I would guess that many many blackies would be usefull to a demo; but you must do what you must do...

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Sure. I mean that people usually change to republic before change to democracy. In a way, republic is a "first" democracy, because when people get democracy they change imediately, even if they were with republic. Republic is a preparation for democracy.
And i am vey sorry because of my bad english (if you dont understand this time tell me again please)

 

[blackthorn]

I usually get republic very early in the game, and I stay there untill my tech path is finished, now if all civs are way behind my tech(and they usually are) then my switch to fundy happens much sooner,before my path is done.
It all depends on how the game plays if the A.I. is close to my civ I will do whatever is necessary to destroy them. Most of the time I end up fighting a huge war with 2-3 civs at a time. In this case I use fundy to qickly build my military and have no dissruption while doing so.


What is a blackie?

(BTW Comrade your english is not very bad, it is quite good.)

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Originally posted by blackthorn
What is a blackie?

When you get cities, your citisens become less even tempered. Eventualy you will run out of content citisens to reduce, so the comp. gives you blackies (they look a bit like pirats). These can be made happy with two lux, but take twice as much "cathedral power" to make them content. I only saw blackies myself in diety, though when building a scn. I saw them once before that. When you make entertainers though, the comp. takes the blackies first... If you want to see them, use cheet mode, give yourself many, many cities and stay in despot.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Wow! i never heard about this blackies. How do they look like? They look like the others? And this is a Civ2 Gold feature?

 

[blackthorn]

Hmmm..... I seem to remember these 'blackies' in civ I.

I have never played on higher than king level, so maybe that is why I have'nt seen them.

 

[funxus]

Check the graphics, and you'll see what the blackies look like, and I think they are found in all versions. They are sometimes called double unhappy, or very unhappy too. Some say it's a bug that 2 lux make them happy, but I don't know. Because of the lux cap, i.e. max 2 luxuries per pop are applied, these can be very useful in democracy to make cities celebrate, especially between the expiration of HG and the construction of CfC.

If you want to see how many blackies there are from the beginning in your city, press the 'happy' button in the city screen and check the top row.