Government Strategy?

[Yzman]

What governments do you usually use for which victory types? I myself am a peaceful player and find myself using the same governments over and over.

classical republic > merchant republic > Democracy with little variation.

Though I will say that in my last game I was going for a religion victory and theocracy helped a lot. My apostles were killing 3-4 inquisitors each which was basically converting the cities for me without having to use the apostle.

I have yet to use all of the others ones but may try when I do a conquest game ( only victory I haven't done)

What about everyone else?

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I agree that Classical Republic->Merchant Republic->Democracy is typically the strongest path. Economic slots and wildcard slots are the strongest two types, generally speaking. You don't need a huge military and you'd generally rather upgrade old units than build new ones, so a lot of the military policies are not very necessary.

Autocracy is terrible with one economic slot and zero wildcard slots. There's also serious anti-synergy between the military focus of its slots and its wonder construction bonus. I would almost never take this.

Oligarchy definitely has a place if you're rushing with Legions or Hoplites or something. I usually find Classical Republic stronger, but Oligarchy isn't awful.

For the second-tier governments, Theocracy is obviously great if you're going religious or if you've spammed Holy Sites, and terrible otherwise. Monarchy is really bad. You don't want to be building Medieval Walls and three military slots to one economic slot just sucks. It does come earlier but I don't think it's worth rushing for--it's not necessarily better than Classical Republic. Just go for Merchant Republic instead. The slot types in that government are perfect and the +2 trade routes and gold purchasing discount are very strong.

In the late game I typically go for Democracy because I like the economic focus and the discount on buying great people. Fascism certainly has a place for late-game domination but there'd be no other reason to take it. Communism seems rather weak to me. Its slots are much worse than Democracy's, and if you want to build spaceship parts, you could probably get more production from buying the spaceship-oriented great people with Democracy than you could by running Communism.

So as I see it, for Culture or Science victory take Democracy, for Domination take Fascism, and for Religious you probably want to stay in Theocracy.

 

[mnf]

I use the one that provides enough slots of the type I need at that stage of the game. As a peaceful player, my baseline is also Classical Republic to Merchant Republic, but I often go into Oligarchy then Monarchy when my neighbors aren't behaving themselves, and I decide to just wipe them all out and take the whole continent for myself. Then by the third stage it really depends on how much combat I expect. Fascism for more combat, Communism for less combat.

I don't find Monarchy terrible. Especially for peaceful players who may have been that little bit too eager on economy who are now warring against two or even three civs (yes I've had that). Then the extra military policies are strong to build your military up properly. Monarchy is useless if you already have a good military presence (well you should, but I like building for economy more than military so I often neglect it). While Theocracy may seem better than Monarchy with its extra Economic slot, the legacy bonus and government ability is only useful if you are planning on spamming (or already have spammed) those Holy Sites. The 20% bonus influence points is no joke either.

I've yet to get a second game into the last phase, so I've only used Fascism (it was a conquest victory).

But I agree that the military cards are generally lack-luster. I find myself always preferring those Economic cards.

 

[Magil]

Mostly Classical Republic to Merchant Republic, but Theocracy has its place (heavy religion focus, especially for a religious victory), as does Oligarchy (early war with a strong melee UU like the Hoplite or Legion).

For third tier I tend to go Communism first--its boost is easier to get (I play with a slower tech/civic pace mod), and the production is useful early on for getting Power Plants up and running. I do tend to go Democracy sometime afterwards though, as my economy booms and the Gold purchasing of Great People becomes a much more common thing.

There are still useful Military policies--the ones that reduce unit maintenance and Logistics are ones I tend to almost always have slotted. 50% discount on unit upgrade is a temporary slot for a wave of upgrades, and +15% production for space race projects in cities with an academy/seaport is a good policy for a science victory.

 

[narmox]

If playing peacefully, I will also take care and see what the govts of my neighbours are, to avoid some diplo penalties (they DO matter, bonuses too, the AI isn't as schizophrenic as the forum posts generally seems to indicate). Democracy is probably great for peaceful victories. And probably flows well from the previous republic choices, as a synergy/continuation strategy.

I found that getting the extra slots from wonders and GP are even more important than the individual govt, once you hit the 2nd tier. Can even get the eureka for computers that way by getting enough extra slots early enough that your govt has 8 slots haha. Then choosing a govt becomes a matter of what bonus and legacy bonus I want, and do I want to keep good relations and with who, based on ideology.

I did find Fascism was really good to accelerate my recent Domination victory, though I was only playing at King so I would have succeeded no matter what I think, at that point, but it helped a lot. Along with some well-placed missile silos

So there are a lot of factors to consider I guess...

 

[teks]

Democracy beats communism eventually but communism is better initially.

 

[Victoria]

I have played Autocracy when America as it gets a double quick legacy bonus. It was a small thing, I was surprised how well I coped without the extra cards TBH. I have also swapped governments before, when quite a few were fascist and I was a democrat i was loosing a bit of tourism to them so swapped quite happily. Fascism is not the best for cultural victory but when most other people are fascist its better to follow the crowd.