Yeah, you're right: I was thinking of the city that's so high in corruption that there are only one or two shields left over. But that's just a rule of thumb. I have been known to rushbuild one in areas where I ordinarily wouldn't (for culture, etc.).
I agree. But I just can't get familiar with republic. Last time I tried republic was pretty recently, two days ago, I think. Anyway, when I made the switch, all my cities instantly went up in flames. When the cities went up in flames, I put the lux slider to 20% and that contented all but two of my large cities.
Anyway, I met the Americans and the Aztecs first up. It was strange because I met the Americans and Aztecs first up in my last game. And I'm sick of the Aztecs. As soon as I meet them I know there's going to be war. Maybe I should turn off culturally linked start locations. Anyway, as I predicted, about 100 turns later Aztecs declare war. So I thought, fine. I've got a city-on-a-hill choke point; I'll just get a few spears and build a wall in that city. I was at war with America too, so I didn't want to send archers at the Aztecs because all my troops were "busy" with the Americans.
It isn't what it seems. I Capture 3/4 of America's cities and make peace with them, then switch to republic. I thought that there wouldn't be any WW because I didn't send any troops in Aztecs territory. So the first few Aztec troops come into my territory. I'm not scared since I have a choke point on a hill guarded by several spearmen. But the next turn, all the cities riot and I notice that I'm LOSING 54 gold per turn, when I was making 14 gold per turn in Despotism. So, the lux slider went up to 20%. Everything was fine... For one turn at least.
Suddenly, civil disorder struck almost every of my 30 towns. I checked what the problem was. "All were sayin' is give peace a chance!"
Right...OK... Well, didn't the Aztecs just declare war or did I? Then I checked to see if there were any of my troops in their territory. Nope, not one. There was however, a few Aztec spearmen who were just fortifying themselves in MY territory.
I couldn't/didn't want to kill them because: a) They were elite's, b) They were fortified, c) They were on a hill, d) They were only two spearmen, no workers or towns behind them, so there wouldn't be much value in risking many of my soldiers lives just to destroy them, and e) The most advanced troop I had at the time, was an archer. I didn't have any strategic resources on my continent (No iron no nothing) but fortunately I had two luxury resources, which was not enough to contend the angry mob even combined with the lux slider at 20%. So I had to have my lux slider at 40% to make everyone neutral.
But after a few more turns more cities start rioting because of the two elite Aztec spearmen in my territory. So I thought I should kill those spearmen because they are costing me lots of money with the luxury slider. So I sent my best 4 elite archers to kill the spearmen. One spearman got redlined after all 4 archers die. My efforts were clearly in vain. Of course, the Aztecs "refused to acknowledge our envoy".
I didn't have many troops left and the Aztecs were coming in with more archers and Jag warriors but they were easy to kill. The spearmen were the problem. So I couldn't produce more troops because all my cities were rioting, so the cities couldn't produce more troops, and my lux slider was at 60%, so I couldn't afford to raise it to 70%.
To think that an entire nation suffers catastrophic productivity failure and nation-wide rioting just because of two foreign spearmen in the nation's borders that are clearly not hurting any people, but just standing there. To think of a reason why this would happen due to two spearman would be very difficult, to say the least. It was like the entire nation was in anarchy; maybe one very small desert town was the only city not rioting.
You'd think that for the whole nation to suddenly riot and every single town to halt production and riot, something very cataclysmic would have to happen, no no, just two Aztec spearmen that were impossible to kill due to troop shortages and the numerous bonuses they had.
This insignificant reason to start so many riots is just unbelievable. The whole country was vilified. There is no reason why this would ever happen with Monarchy.
As you can see, my main gripe about Republic is the unrealistic situations that can commence due to WW. In fact I am frustrated at WW due to the stuff-ups it causes, and the unbalanced amount of civil disorder it causes. It clearly states in the editor that WW is low but for one moment I did not think that the republic WW seemed low.
WW would be acceptable if you were the aggressor and you had too many troops in the enemy’s territory. But it isn't acceptable when your troops aren't even in the enemy’s territory and all your cities riot. Not to get involved in Real-Life matters, but I know of many countries that were republic that didn't have nation-wide rioting and productivity due to a war.
But this was no war; this was just two spearmen in my territory. In fact, I don't think, ever, in the history of mankind that a complete nation wide riot happened due to very small numbers of troops stationed in a country’s territory. That is all.
Oh, and about the increased commerce bonus in republic, I understand that you can build libraries in cities that normally have less commerce in Monarchy. But it isn't difficult to get a city with lots of commerce in monarchy. I would definitely rather have no WW in monarchy than the increased commerce bonus in republic
)
