Goverment progression

[hifisoftware]

Hey everybody. I was wondering if anybody can share their prefered order of switching goverments. I usualy stay in Despotism until Republic. After I get republic I sometimes will wait a bit to complete a wonder if I am in a race with somebody else and then revolt. Then I wait untill Democracy and revolt again. Since Civ2 I do not think that I will like Comunism. I figured I might skip Monarchy, because anarhy after revolution lasts too long and might not be worth benefits that Monarchy provides over despotism. I was wondering how many other people skip over Monarchy?

Another point that I am not sure about is when to revolt. Say if I have Great Library started on same time as somebody else and I have it half completed I will usualy try to avoid revolution until I complete it. Yet maybe it would be better to switch to more efficient goverment right away.

 

[Arius Mephisto]

In my old strat which I'm still trying to use... I go

Despotism -> Monarchy -> Democracy (wait till sufficient technology and ready to start kicking some civ tail) -> Communism

sometimes I go to republic inbetween... especially now that those obnoxious senators can't override your descisions

 

[spork]

Do it like Marx predicted: Despotism -> Republic -> Democracy ... and when you're hyper-insustrialized -> Communism. Then, spread the Worker's Paradise all over the world!

 

[Sonic747]

Despotidm-Monarchy. No more. Communism is too corrupted, republic and democracy bad for war and has 0 free units.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by spork
Do it like Marx predicted: Despotism -> Republic -> Democracy ... and when you're hyper-insustrialized -> Communism. Then, spread the Worker's Paradise all over the world!

Yeah. Amazingly this works quite well in CIV3. Maybe the designers are Marxists.

I rarely use Monarchy unless I am a civ with a UU in the middle ages, so that I can effectively wage war.

 

[Sam_Catchem]

If I get Monarchy from a trade or something and I am a religous civ I switch. If not..I just wait til I get Republic. There is little point to sit through all the years of Anarchy for Monarchy. This is why I love the religous civs.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Sam_Catchem
If I get Monarchy from a trade or something and I am a religous civ I switch. If not..I just wait til I get Republic. There is little point to sit through all the years of Anarchy for Monarchy. This is why I love the religous civs.

Yeah. Religious civs rock. They remove the problem of choosing a government, because you might as well reap the benefits of democracy, and then if someone declares war, you switch to communism or monarchy (depending on whether you have excess people or money) in one turn. EXCESS people ...... now that is kind of cold ......kind of funny too.

 

[Proteus]

Despotisme --> Republic --> Democracy

It´s the Combination I nearly always choose in most of the Civ-Games (maybe in CTP and CTP2 I sometimes choose something different, but that´s the only Exception [The CTP-Series has also a greater Range of Governments to choose from ]).

 

[hifisoftware]

Yes, I think you are right. Despotism->Republic->Democrasy is the best. I must try to use Communism, just to see what it is.

On a separate note. I tried to see it makes sense to revolt while in the wonder race. Apparently it usualy does (or at least it did in my case). I had some wonder half complete (Great Library I think). Revolution took 5 turns and my time to complete decresed by slightly over 10 turns after revolution. (Something like from 65 to 53, unfortunatly I did not write numbers down). On top of that my city that was set to use as many shield producing fields as possible started growing again. As anything it depends on a particular site and definetly on number of turns in anarchy, but now I always revolt as soon as I get the advance.

Anybody has any expirience to share on this?

 

[Proteus]

Sure,
if it is a Head-to-Head Race with another Civ to build the wonder it is most of the times better to postpone the Revolution, until you have built the Wonder, cos you never know, how long the Revolution will last (it depends of course on how much you have already spent for the wonder and how important the wonder is [for example: I wouldn´t postpone the Revolution for the great Library unless I´ve already spent very much shields, cos I tend to discover education very fast {which makes the great Library useless}]).
I´ve done it sometimes (though not very often).
If I´m the Leader in science and know, that my Opponents aren´t yet ready to build the Wonders I wouldn´t postpone the Revolution.

 

[The_Clash]

I am very much a fan of Despotism->Republic->Democracy.

That way you have only to revolts and you can get ahead in the tech. race.
:tank: Then quickly take out other Civs! :tank:

 

[Zooey]

I usually go Despotism-Monarchy-Democracy. Monarchy's early in the tech tree and usually the time I get it I'm not waging a lot of wars. As soon as I get Democracy though, I switch because of the rampart corruption. By that time, I'm making 100 gold per 10% in taxes and I can have the rest mostly in science. 100 or so years after I change to Democracy, I start warring and I'm so far ahead that I've got Marines going up against Spearmen and a few Riflemen. All the gold I aquired goes to buying temples in the conquered cities so they don't get culturally stolen.

That's always worked for me, but there may be better ways, I'm not playing in Deity after all. Another good thing (although I think it may be an error) is that no one rejects my orders like in Civ1. I took about 20 Cavalry, with a Right of Passage agreement, right up to Rome and started a war with the Romans. No senators argued with me, but maybe it was just because of what the Roman leader was wearing.

Obviously Persians have a good taste in fashion right? :crazyeyes

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Despotism >> Monarchy >> Something else My first two are standard, but the third is completely up in the air. Depends entirely on the situation come the industrial age. Usually skip republic at this point, as I'm not good enough yet to utilize it's advantages to the point where it negates needing a sizable force

 

[cafka]

I'm goin' Marx stylee

Despotism -> Monarchy -> Republic -> Democracy -> Communism

In my latest game I'm using Democracy, but it doesn't really fit my war mongering style. On the other hand, Greek Democracy is great when it comes to production and commerce.

 

[Toasty]

If I'm up for a militaristic or scientific game, I'll go Despotism->Monarchy->(Communism), () meaning maybe.

Commercial is Despotism->Republic->(Democracy), because Republic in my experience puts out more commerce than Democracy (which is kinda wierd).

 

[Tranced]

with the new patch, communism is much more effective, especially if you have a huge empire as far as corruption goes. its even more effective when factories come into play, because you're producing a whole lot of shields in every one of your cities. most of the time these shields are enough to keep you competitive with other civs. another thing i love about communism, is your not suppose to crack the whip only in caveman times, no, your suppose to do it in modern times to! i cant tell you the thrill i felt when i was able to take a couple pop and grind them down with my boot in favor of some new fancy building. one of the only gripes i have with communism is that you won't be winning a science war, the lowered commerce eats into your science research times, but overall, i think i found my new fav government.

 

[bakunin's bum]

I'm still playing my first game, and I went Despotism -> Republic -> Democracy. I'm still on democracy and concentrating on commerce and science (and a few dirty military operations here and there) but corruption in my largest frontier cities (size 12-18) is so rampant that I'm getting 1 shield production when I should be getting about 25. I have a courthouse and everyone's happy. I don't know what the problem is. Should I switch to communism to spread out the corruption or what, or is there a better way to solve it?

 

[stravaig]

Bakunin -
Communism is one option for those far away cities. That, or just spend /tons/ of cash buying up their infrastructure.
Keep in mind that things like libraries and universities are only good for culture ... what with the corruption, you're not likely to get any research out of them. Marketplaces will make them happy, but Banks are pretty useless.
Police Stations reduce corruption now, too. You might try those.

As for my progression, I play it by ear.
I go from Despotism to either Republic or Monarchy depending on:
1) which one I can get the quickest. Sometimes I get techs from Goody Huts and AI Civs that lead me one way or the other.
2) The geopolitical climate. If I'm likely to be going to war, I'll lean towards Republic.

Then, I'll stay as one or the other until I can get Democracy. Unless I'm Religious, and then I might switch depending on war/peace contingencies.
I stay as a Democracy through to the finish... at least so far I have - I've yet to try out Communism. Now that it seems to be working properly in the Patch, I might give it a try. Also, I doubt I'd use Communism unless I had a Religious Civ and could switch back as needed.

- Stravaig

 

[tetley]

If I'm non-religious, usually it's Despotism->Democracy. 1 revolt.

If I'm religious, it's whatever the heck I want at the time.