Democracy - is it worth it?

[Cleverbeans]

I'm currently playing a Monarch level game where I've conquered most other Civs using military means generally by Legion rushing them. All my opponents now have the tech for cavalry and my next close neighbor is the second biggest Civ (Egypt), and I'm wondering if switching to Democracy and trying for a space race victory is a doable plan. My initial experiments with the switch haven't proven useful, since the Egyptians notice that I've culled most of my military to increase profits and then launch a surprise attack (we have a right of passage pact and the jump me).

So, is it worth trying for the space race? I'm pretty sure I can out produce my opponents, and buying tech from the Greeks has been cheap and effective. However, since my unique unit is past it's glory days, I'm not sure I can build an army in time to take out Egypt without my new units becoming obsolete and constantly upgrading. I'm currently in a Monarchy government but the corruption on my outlying cities makes them pretty useless, and I'm not sure I want to wage war as a democracy.

Any advice? Please note I'm playing unpatched Vannila.

 

[Bartleby]

You don't want to wage war in Democracy.
You'll find that Democracy won't help corruption in outlying cities, even less so in unpatched vanilla, corruption was brutal in that.

If at all possible, patch to 1.29f, better yet buy conquests (sorry if you don't wanna hear that).

 

[MAS]

You can war in Demo, if you play it smart, and keep losses to a minimum, but I'd just stick with republic...

The main strategy for winning space race the earliest and easiest, is to conquer up to near the domination limit (reaching the limit will cause a domination victory, so you stop when you are near it...) then optimize your empire for science.

A rule of thumb is to build a library in cities producing at least 10 beakers base. Cities producing less than that should either grow some more or be turned in specialist farms. These are less effective in vanilla than in conquest, but they help nevertheless.
In conquest I'd use scientist, because they give 3 beakers vs the 2 gold from a taxmen. But in vanilla I'd use taxmen, so that the specialist farms can pay upkeep and maintenance, while my core can run at 100% science.

A science farm is a city surrounded by irrigation, maximizing food for supporting specialist citizens, and having no city improvements. This way, each of these cities will gain you gold from producing wealth, its single uncorrupted commerce, and the taxmen, but it is losing none to maintenance!

To defend yourself, build only fast moving attack units (cav, and later tanks and modern armor) and a couple of artillery. The AI fears attack unit more than defense units, so its less likely to DoW if you have more attacking power... With a rail network in place, there is no need to fear an AI DoW.

Beat the AI hard enough (by causing them to have more losses than you) and they'd sign for peace again soon enough...

 

[Jazzmail]

Don't bother with democracy playing as Rome.

Demo is still an improvement over monarchy, but there is the risk anarchy due to level3 WW.
That's not a biggie when anarchy periods are 1 turn, but in Rome's case you lose several turns. Democracy isn't worth the switch when you have a non-religious civ.

You can wage a long war in democracy, but it's harder to do.

Apart from WW, demo is excellent though.

 

[civverguy]

If you are not going to fight any wars then go with democracy.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Or unless you're stacked with luxes and/or have the AI declare war on you.

 

[Rising Star]

A phony war is very good in democracy. Just be sure to keep it phony if all you're after is the happiness bonus.