Democracy bug

[asabahi]

I usually play the persians, and stay in monorchy until all my early wars with my immortals and knights are over. Than I research and switch to democracy. Now I know that no units are supposed to be supported in democracy, and you have to pay for it. But at some point in the game I get zero/turn for unit cost. So I just crank out military units and the cost per turn is still zero. My last game I was paying for units and than all of sudden it changed to zero cost per turn. It's great because you can build this huge army and wait till someone starts a war or something and gobble them up in 3 to 4 turns, but is it a bug or a feature of the game.

 

[dojoboy]

Yea, this is the "free army bug" thread. My question is, do the AIs have the same 'benefit?' If so, it would still be unbalanced because the AIs wouldn't know how to exploit it. I think.

 

[asabahi]

I think the AI recognizes it has money to make units and it does. When I look at the military advisor screen the number units the AI has is pretty high. But I don't think the AI knows how to take advantage of factories. I build them the first chance I get, and if I decide to go to war all my towns are producing units in 1 to 3 turns. But the fact the units are free is great.