Dealing with insane unhappiness on Monarch and above

[Exsanguination]

Here's the situation: I've got about twenty cities, I'm German, and loads of commerce. I can't trade with any civs (all separated by sea), and I'm researching Theology. Just about EVERY city has one or two entertainers in it to keep its people under wrap (not to mention the 20% lux tax). This is my first monarch game, and I need help.

I'm building temples/libraries/cathedrals in that order EVERYWHERE (libraries before cathedrals so borders expand and AI doesn't settle my island). Pretty soon I'll start the FP (but it'll probably take 200+ turns due to corruption) - that should help. I'll be building Sistene soon. By then, I should be fairly well off.

My question is, how to deal with it NOW. Its insane, every turn at least 3 cities go into unrest. I've got spices online, and once one of my cities expands I'll get Ivory online, but thats all the lux's I'll get w/o trade.

What to do? Any tips? This would make a good strategy guide...

 

[Bamspeedy]

Well, with only 1 and soon 2 luxuries, marketplaces won't help. Monarchy would certainly help with help from military police. But you take a hit from commerce. So either take monarchy for production, or Republic for the money. After you get more happiness empire-wide (wonders, luxuries, more improvements), then Republic should do alot better.

 

[Exsanguination]

thanks Bamspeedy

BTW, if it matters, I got 4 spices online + 2 coming (nice!), and am a republic.

 

[JFL_Dragon]

Ok Just one thing I notice was that you said you are learning theology but you don't have both you luxuries linked ? I tend to get all the luxuries linked ASAP on Monarch and above well before I even get close to reseaching theology.

I find Monarchy is the best initially to settle unrest.
The MP (3) really helps before the process of changing to Republic/Democratic.

As you know that gives you 5 content people upfront with no temples or luxuries.

Cheers

JFL_Dragon

 

[chiefpaco]

If you have loads of commerce, how about upping your luxury tax by 10%? Some people like to keep it at a level to induce WLTK days really easily. Here is how I like to put it, at a minimum:

- take a look at all your cities with entertainers to get maximum production/gold
- increase luxury tax 10%

Now you can probably put many of those entertainers back to work and actually earn back about the money you put into the luxury tax, but have gained more food & shield production.

If you can't afford this, you will probably need to trade for more luxuries. I find luxuries a high priority on higher difficulty levels. Claim them when you can.

Monarchy is a better government for happiness, because of the military police. I would sugget trying that if you find yourself luxury deficient.

BTW, if you are not a control freak (like me) and want to avoid putting your cities into disorder, use the governor to manage the citizen moods only. They will then handle the happiness quite well in almost all cases, even if they aren't 100% perfect at picking your favourite tiles to work.

 

[No.Dice]

With 20 cities you should have a healthy cash flow coming in, other than switching to monarchy, perhaps you could rush some key improvements in the worse-off cities?

Sounds like you switched to Republic too early. Your core cities should have a temple and cathedral/coliseum (depending on game situation/civ attributes) and at least 1-2 luxuries online to compensate for the loss of the military police you had as a despotism.

The extra anarchy period during your switch to monarchy, or even staying a despotism (for the gpt) will almost always outweigh an early republic.

If you started with a generous amount of luxuries though, by all means, go for it.

Players are always in a hurry to get out of despotism. With each city supporting 4 units, i find myself making upwards to 90 gpt in the early game, an income that would be severely slashed with a switch to monarchy, or an early republic.

What of the lost production, food and commerce from being a despot? Very rarely are your core cities unable to produce at least 10 shields per turn, enough to build most any ancient age unit in just 3 turns, the extra production wouldn't have helped much. Shaved a few turns off that library or cathedral perhaps?

By size 7, i'm facing serious unhappiness problems if those cities don't have a decent infrastructure, which is quite difficult to do without caving to AI threats in the early game. Do i really need my cities growing that fast? Sizes 5-6 will generally net me my 10 shields. On emperor difficulty 2 lux/temple/2 mps will allow you a size six city.

As for commerce? More than made up for by the unit support each city is giving me.

I found my game improved quite a bit once i stopped trying to follow the AI trend and switch govts as soon as the tech became available. Lets hear it for despotism!

 

[Exsanguination]

well i'll tell you this, there is no way I'm switching to Monarchy, I just endured a 7 turn anarchy which put about 4 entertainers in each city. I'm starting to build marketplaces to increase cash flow (its rather pathetic, about +10 per turn, I think I've got the sliders set to 3.5.2), but cathedrals are more important, they are doing wonders, but in the corrupt cities they'll take 120 turns...

 

[BillChin]

I suggest turning on all the governors to manage happiness. This may mean a few lost shields, but no more disorder. Micromanage the core five cities for shields (click governors off for these), but let the outlying cities govern themselves.

You have learned the hard way about Republic. My rule of thumb is that Republic requires three luxuries (three different types not three of the same) and marketplaces in the core cities. If luxuries are not available stay in Despotism or switch to Monarchy, and go conquer or trade for some.

In many cases, it is better to build Cathedrals before Aqueducts.

 

[Exsanguination]

oh whoops, forget to mention - GOVERNORS SUCK!!!

Yea, I once tried making them manage happiness, and only happiness, but they ended up managing everything! Trade, production, shields, all that! So when I tried to change which tiles my people were working, the game shut off the governor, meaning no more happiness watching.

Is there any way to make it so governors only watch happiness, and don't mess with what your people work?

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by BillChin
I suggest turning on all the governors to manage happiness. This may mean a few lost shields, but no more disorder. Micromanage the core five cities for shields (click governors off for these), but let the outlying cities govern themselves.

In many cases, it is better to build Cathedrals before Aqueducts.

Too fast expansion equals unhappiness.

As for governors, turn them on. But watch out for war weariness when they are on. You might suddenly discover hordes of entertainers trying to keep the population happy, thus hurting your other functions. So keep an eye on them and the cities.

 

[God]

Are we playing GOTM 8 and getting tips?

Ohwell, I would use governers. They will keep the happinesss in check. Build some temples, and get 3 or 4 luxuries. Have 2 units per city in monarchy. In my game I didn't bother to raise luxury rate, go to republic or build cathedrals in my city till later when they reached size 10.

Put governers on Manage moods, and Emphasize production.

 

[Exsanguination]

hehe.. no, not GOTM 8

like I said before, the governors don't work for me

 

[DrSpike]

Don't go rep until you have the infrastructure in place to handle it. In Monarchy 2MP + lux + first two content anyway + temple you can reach 6. That's the first milestone. Then you need aqueducts and cathedrals/more luxuries and can go rep.

 

[Bamspeedy]

like I said before, the governors don't work for me

It's working for you the way it does for everyone else. If you select 'manage happiness' it will select tiles for your citizens to work. Yes, for everyone, if they try changing the tiles the governor will turn off for that city. You could use manage happiness, AND any of the other options (emphasize production, commerce, food). Like BillChin said, use the governors for all the far cities. The core cities manage how you want them if you prefer, but the distant cities usually won't make much difference at all because of corruption, so use the governors in those cities. The core cities will most of the time stay happy anyways if you have the luxury slider up a little, and they get all the happiness buildings built fast, but still watch to make sure they don't go into disorder.

 

[Tassadar]

You need a third and a fourth luxuries, so switch to monarchy once you got chevalery and some veteran knight, and conquer those lux. Then built marketplace ( if not) and switch to republic.

My first priority is always luxuries, i need at least 3, if not, then WAR

 

[Exsanguination]

Originally posted by Tassadar
You need a third and a fourth luxuries, so switch to monarchy once you got chevalery and some veteran knight, and conquer those lux. Then built marketplace ( if not) and switch to republic.

My first priority is always luxuries, i need at least 3, if not, then WAR

I made this map specifically so I wouldn't have to go to war.. I hate war, it's so pointless esp. in civ3.

again, thanks Bamspeedy. Didn't know thats how govs. worked. Dumb***es.