Early government choices

[Torakami_Bltzen]

Hi, after surfing the war academy and the other forums for a while, i found that everyone goes to republic as there first government after despotism, and i've seen no references to people going over to monarchy. I am just trying to figure out what is better about republic, when i go to republic i ususally get a bunch of my cities going into disorder because there are no more military police, and you also have to pay for every single unit you have! What is the advantage of republic over monarchy?

 

[WildFire]

For me, it's the amount of money you get. Roads produce more money than despotism and monarchy and since I occansionly like to build, its always good to have money.

 

[Torakami_Bltzen]

but wouldn't the fact that you have to make more hapiness improvements since no military police in republic, and the fact that you have to pay for every unit you have, negate the money advantage?

 

[WildFire]

Well, as long as you have lots roads and enough cities it shouldnt really put you into that much financial trouble.

 

[kirbtron]

Republic usually works out so that you can pay for the army and get more gold (or tech) because of the extra commerce and lower corruption. The main advantage of monarchy is happiness. The three police units are nice, but especially during war time you needn't worry about civil disorder. You can bring your neighboring republics into anarchy by refusing peace because of war weariness. I had success in my last game with China going from despotism to monarchy to democracy. Riders rock.

The main advantage of researching towards monarchy is that the AI prefers to research towards republic and so you can get some good tech trading going on.

best,
Peter Kirby

 

[wilbill]

I usually prefer to go to Republic. But, if I'm in a warlike environment or don't have enough "happiness producers" I'll go with monarchy. Monarchy ain't that bad - and the advisors show you more respect, lol.

 

[Shillen]

I go for whichever one I can research first and then change my playstyle accordingly. My main objective is getting out of despotism as soon as possible. There are some special cases where I don't do this. Some games I want to go for a fast conquest or domination and I'll definitely go for monarchy since I'll be at war most of the time. Other games I'm going for a fast space race or diplomatic victory so I'll go republic then for the faster research. But generally it's whichever I can get first.

 

[Trev]

The fast track to Republic is the best tactic in my opinion, particularly on the higher difficulties because of the extra money earned from roads.

Therefore make sure you have built the roads with the workers and also build marketplaces early. Tax rate of 90% and luxury of 10% on emperor or higher levelsand you will earn the money to but techs and city improvements at a good rate

 

[BillChin]

Monarchy is a good choice when a player lacks luxuries. I suggest three or more luxuries and marketplaces in place before switching to Republic. Otherwise a player with a significant military and few improvements will have less gold after the switch.

Monarchy is also a good choice for pure conquest based strategies.
+ Bill

 

[eddfire3]

Where do you set tax rate?

 

[Torakami_Bltzen]

you set tax rate at the domestic advisor screen. you allocate a % of your income to science, and a % to hapiness, and anything that is left is your tax rate, i.e. if you had 40% science and 40% hapiness then you would have a 20% tax rate

 

[[GoD]Toxic]

I only have one word for you... Republic

 

[eddfire3]

Oh I thought there might be a slider some where but i get what ur sain

 

[Bloog]

In my current game I started without luxuries. Only had horses, green pastures and flood plains. I pop-rushed an army of horsemen and conquered 1 luxury and iron. Despotism has its uses...

By then I had Monarchy researched. Switched to monarchy and conquered one more civ (2 luxuries). The fun part of monarchy is getting 2 free units per town. So any distant supercorrupted hamlet will still produce 3 gold ! I doubt the combination Republic/Commercial can outproduce this amount of gold.

So there we are : one more civ on my continent controling one more luxury. In order to conquer that one using republic I
- have to research republic (phylosophy and republic to go)
- switch government (5 wasted turns)
- have to research currency
- have to build marketplaces to keep my main cities from revolting and pay for the units.
I guess I'll conquer the continent using Monarchy.

When I have 4 luxuries I expect Republic being better than Monarchy, but by then half the world is mine already

 

[SirTweek]

Unit support is really deceptive. Say you have 5 size 5 towns. Under monarchy you get 10 free units. Under a republic if you have roaded up everything like a good civer you get one bonus commerce for each square worked giving you 25 extra commerce, hence you can support 25 'free units'. Say you have to set the luxery slider to 10% that's only about 3-5 commerce or even with 20% that's only 5-10 commerce, still leaving you with the bonus commerce to support more units then monarchy. The only advantage of monarchy is military police and no war weariness which isn't that huge of a bonus.

 

[billindenver]

The only time I'll go to Monarchy is if I get it in a trade or goody hut. I need the gold to research and/or buy techs. If I get Monarchy from TGL, I don't change to it cause I know I'll be getting Republic soon.

 

[Adofl Lundgren]

I usually use the following guidelines as to which gov't type to switch to.

1. How many lux do I have (3+ then Republic, 2 Undecided, less than 2 then Monarchy)
2. Am I at war/am I going to war shortly (Yes, then Monarchy; No, then Republic)
Tiebreaker: How fast am I expanding? If you're early in the land grab phase of the game, Monarchy's not a bad stepping stone to Republic/Democracy, especially if you're playing a religious civ. Should your first government change happen after the land grab phase, and your empire is large, go Republic, as you'll have a larger number of productive cities.