Government Progression

eyrei

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As far as I know, most civilizations in the real world at one point had a despot, and then a king or queen, and eventually made it to a representative form of government. There are, of course, many exceptions to this, but that is not the point of this post. In CIV3, I have been experimenting with this same style of progression. I switch to monarchy much earlier than I would normally go from despotism to republic. The main advantage of this is the speed at which cities grow, because of the three military police. Only a couple of luxuries are needed, plus a temple and marketplace, and the city can easily get to size 12. You do not have to halt growth to make room for entertainers while you build a colloseum, as you normally have to do under republic. While republic produces more commerce, monarchy produces exactly the same amount of shields, and sometimes more, because more people can work. Therefore, the happiness improvements necessary in republic can be built more quickly. As soon as these improvements are done, the transition to republic will go very smoothly. I believe the benefits of this outweigh the additional period of anarchy from switching goverments more than once.

Some would argue that using monarchy will cause you to fall behind in the tech race, and that it is really only good for war, but every time I have tried this, my civ is so well developed when I do switch to republic, that I can research all the techs I am lacking(that other civs have) in four turns, with my science only at 20-30%. I quickly catch up, because this expands my treasury rapidly, allowing me to purchase many of the techs, as well. Then I start to pull ahead by putting my science at 70-80%, while still making a profit. Has anybody else tried this?:king:
 
Exactly. In fact, I think this strategy is so powerful, I don't bother switching out of Monarchy any more.
 
Originally posted by chiefpaco
Exactly. In fact, I think this strategy is so powerful, I don't bother switching out of Monarchy any more.

The only problem with remaining in monarchy, is that if other civs manage to use republic or democracy, on any level monarch or higher you will fall behind in technology if you remain always a monarchy. My point is more that it can be used while your empire is growing to build a strong base for republic or democracy.
 
Above monarch level, i've been finding myself having to go from monarchy to republic, rather than straight to republic.

My cities are often smaller and producing less because of the advantages the AI receives, so the increased military policing limit has been helping me compensate. As things stand now, most of the techs can be bought cheaply, so i'll often stay in monarchy long enough to conduct a strategic war, As well as to build key happiness improvements like you said. After the switch to republic i'll usually stay there the entire game.
 
Originally posted by No.Dice
Above monarch level, i've been finding myself having to go from monarchy to republic, rather than straight to republic.

My cities are often smaller and producing less because of the advantages the AI receives, so the increased military policing limit has been helping me compensate. As things stand now, most of the techs can be bought cheaply, so i'll often stay in monarchy long enough to conduct a strategic war, As well as to build key happiness improvements like you said. After the switch to republic i'll usually stay there the entire game.

Yeah. I used to just stay in despotism until republic, but I am finding 40+ turns in monarchy can be an excellent growth period.
 
Using Monarchy in conjunction with owning a luxury market (for example, 4-5 spices) seems to balance out the tech drop. Selling off the excess resources keeps your treasury humming along quite nicely. I can keep my 'entertainment' slider down at 10%, while researching at 70%.
If the resource market is met, I slip into Monarchy very early and stay there for the majority of the game.
As has been mentioned, the Republics and Democracies will out produce you, in the long run. But, war is bound to happen somewhere along the lines. The AI will not stay in either of these governments for very long once war breaks out, copping out to Communism instead.
A monarchy, therefore, matches up well.
 
I fully agree. Do not switch to Republic as soon as you can. Monarchy allows very quickly expansion due to the low rage(unhappyness;) ). On very hard difficulties this useful strategy becomes even more useful. Works great as a religious civ. You can get to monarchy faster than republic if you are playing as a religious civ or militaristic civ, or even faster as both.

I would recommend starting out switching to monarchy as soon as possible or soon after it is available. Then later when feasible switch to either republic and staying with it, or wait and try democracy if you won't be fighting almost at all(no offensive wars). Or, the other option: stay in Monarchy until you get Communism and then use it(good for winning by domination or conquest, or very long wars).

Of course a religious civ can use whatever is needed at the moment.
 
Yes I also think it's good to switch to Monarchy before Republic. The AI civs seem to feel this way too, as far as I can tell. In a recent game I had planned to stay in Despotism until I had Republic, but the AI civs went for Monarchy first. I found I was lagging pretty far behind waiting for Republic.
 
Originally posted by eyrei


The only problem with remaining in monarchy, is that if other civs manage to use republic or democracy, on any level monarch or higher you will fall behind in technology if you remain always a monarchy. My point is more that it can be used while your empire is growing to build a strong base for republic or democracy.

If you try to research yourself, I don't find the techs too expensive under a good Monarchy setup until the Modern Age, at which time I might switch. However, I usually scratch my head & say "why"? I find it's as much trouble setting up a Republic super-research civ as there is building a super-commerce or super-war/production civ under any govt you choose, including Monarchy & Communism. It's all in the preference :)

With 1.17, I find it pretty easy to buy techs the whole game or "mop up" for so cheap now... If there aren't many civs left to make it cheap, then there may be only 1 or 2 to drag down! I haven't found a game yet where I've fallen behind.

I guess I don't see the appeal of getting a tech lead so much. It was easy before, but now?

Your last point is something I agree with 100% though. My comments are only from experience on Emporer lately so I can't comment on other difficulties.
 
In my current game, in which I employed this strategy, I actually managed to get a two tech lead at the beginning of the industrial age. I easily built Universal Suffrage, and then the TOE, and then Hoover Dam. I did buy the techs in the Nationalism branch, but it was definately nice to be able to research the ones I wanted. I then sold medicine and atomic theory, which pretty much bankrupted the other civs. This is the true benefit of getting a tech lead. Selling techs really does hinder the other civs progress, when they are sold for exhorbitant prices because nobody else has them. This will not happen unless you are a republic or democracy, because, while monarchy does allow you to buy techs to keep up, it will not get you the lead.
 
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