Governments

[Bamspeedy]

Republics have less war weariness. If you are in a democracy and have to bump luxury up just 10% higher because of WW than you would have to under Republic, than democracy is worse off (also democracy would lose more shields/gold/growth if they have to hire entertainers that they wouldn't have to under republic). Corruption difference between Republic and democracy is not much at all, so the only benefit of Democracy is the worker bonus. But if you have your productive cities fully developed then workers developing your high-corrupt cities won't make much of a difference.

If you are at peace and will be for quite awhile, then by all means go to democracy for the worker bonus (or if you are religious, since the anarchy is only 1 turn).

 

[Grey Knight]

Here's a good question. I'm playing Chinese, and just got Riders. I have a enemy on my continent with 10 or so cities to finish off (we're at peace now). Once I win a battle, the Riders will trigger a GA.

1) Should I switch to Republic now, since that will maximize the GA? The war should be short.

2) Stay in Monarcy until the war is over?

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[DB_Terror]

Grey Knight, I personally would stay in monarchy until the war is over. War wariness could outweigh the advantage of being in republic. If I were you, I'd save the game, try either option, then reload and try the other

Talking of governments, I've come to like switching back and forth several times. I usually try to get out of despotism asap - to monarchy if I'm fighting a lot, to republic if I'm being peaceful. I must admit I don't pop-rush but will try it soon. Apart from the ability to pop-rush, I find corruption in despotism outrageous.
Democracy rules when you're trying to get a lead in the technology tree. I'm currently playing Monarch, and am being outpaced as long as I'm not in democracy. It goes without saying that you need a temple, marketplace and library, ideally also a bank, cathedral and university in every core city. With these improvements in democracy, you're a total powerhouse. You usually get new techs within 3 to 4 turns, and still have lots of cash rolling in.
The only problem is that once you've built up your military and go to war, you must switch to another government, and can't keep up the research. So I still have to find out the ideal deal here.

 

[Franks]

Personally, I prefer Republic. Since I'm most of the time at war I would not be able to keep people happy under Democracy but under Republic it's not much of a problem for me. If war weariness is becoming problematic I just buy luxuries from AI or increase the luxuries rate until the war is finished and I always aim to build Universal Suffrage with a leader or by pre-build. I found this help alot. In my last game I was playing Persia and I have been at war with 2 civs for approx. 40 turns, In the end of the war, my luxuries rate was at 30% and I was still making 356gpt, when the war ended I switched luxuries rate back to 10% and everything was fine + This war gave me a great deal of leaders. War pays =)

 

[Tazman]

In the manual and on web pages it says there are benefits from 'We love the King day' I have yet to find out or work out what these benefits are
Can any one tell me the benefits of 'We love the king day' for each government type.

I love playing on Democracy and change as soon as possible. I build up my cities move lights years ahead in technology, and supported military, then revert to Monarchy and kick some Civs in the proverbial`s.

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Grey Knight
Here's a good question. I'm playing Chinese, and just got Riders. I have a enemy on my continent with 10 or so cities to finish off (we're at peace now). Once I win a battle, the Riders will trigger a GA.

1) Should I switch to Republic now, since that will maximize the GA? The war should be short.

2) Stay in Monarcy until the war is over?

Thanks,
Shawn

It depends. How many cities have all the happiness improvements? Do they all have temple, marketplace,cathedral or do you have Sistene or other happiness Wonders? Do you have banks? Plenty of luxuries? If you have most of those things, I think I'd go with Republic.

I've been in a long war in my current game under Republic. I've tried staying in Democracy, but it just drives you nuts trying to keep people happy if the war isn't a short,sweet one.

One other factor is whether you are religious or not. If you are religious (well, your civ is anyway) then it's very easy to change back if it doesn't work out. If you aren't religious, 4+ turns of anarchy really sucks when you are in a Golden Age and at war, believe me, so I'd stick with Monarchy.

One last thing. If you do switch to Republic, make sure you aren't attacking someone who is selling you 3 luxuries on gpt deals.

 

[island007]

Republic is about all I use. I'm a heavy warmonger, and a republic system works great if used correctly. The key to a sucessful Republic is luxuries; get them anyway you can trade or war. Some of my wars are centered around luxuries. My two current games are typical.

1) Huge map, monarchy, all random (I was given Persia). I've been at war since around gunpowder, and I'm currently reseaching flight. Always at war with at least 1 civ and somethime 2-3 civs. I control 6 luxuries, trading for 1 , and should get the last in a war.

2) Small map, monarchy, all random (I was given France). I've just made peace a few turns ago. I needed the respite. I've been at war for almost the entire middle ages. Luxuries are scarce. I control 4, trading for 1, and the other 3 are a dream. In fact I've not seen a single fur.

The point is one can fight long and multiple wars in a Republic. The secret for me has been {War Weariness}. Everyone knows about the improvments, but I do one little thing with my play style. I have the AI "Declare War".

I do this by leaving a little patch of OK terrain that they want tosettle on. It is important to have it far from them, so they have to walk through your land. They will send a settler with a defensive unit. When you see one move your offensive units to the border. The next turn start demanding they leave (before you move ANY troops); it may take two or three attempts, but eventually they will "Declare War". It helps to keep them Furious with you.

When they "Declare War" it has a positive affect on you WW; it may trigger WLTKD. Remove the small force in your teritory. You get 2 slaves and more positive WW. Attack with offensive units take 1 city or 2 on the first turn. You get more positive WW. You can be at this war for around 15-20 turns before you even have to think about WW problems.

Sorry for the length, but it's just more food for thought.

 

[Justaschizoid]

Though it's not one of the official governments, I like having a Fascism government (from the Fascist patch of course =P)
It best fits my style of play, which is half agressive, but pushing tech too. I'm not all-out war, but I'm not a sit back and kiss ass type either, so neither communism nor Democracy work very well for me. Fascism allows me to have a decent military, use Military Police to keep the population in line, have no War Weariness, and yet still have a decent science and production rate. Biggest downer about it for me is Pop rushing. I'd rather rush with gold.

Official governments, I use Monarchy most of the time, but once my empire gets so big, I switch over to republic for the lesser corruption.

 

[tctatheel7]

discovering republic is usualy my first goal in any game. i switch to it immediatly, and do whatever it takes to grab luxeries and build happiness improvements so that i can fight lots of wars and not have to worry about people getting sad. sometimes i'll switch to democracy. i hate communisim. monarchy is good if u need to fight, but cant get luxeries.

 

[Lynx]

I like Communism and monarchy for all my gamesbecause I get itno a helluva lot of wars, and I usually build an Immense industrial capability to fight them, hehe.

 

[alpha one]

I prefer democrasy and republic. Keping people happy in peace times are a pice of cake if you like to spend time on building up every citys infrastructur. If you have cathedrals, tempels, colloseum and market place, + luxuries and The Cistine Chapel, you should be able to have a happy people, no matter how big the cities are. I had a city with 42 laboures, and all had a BIG smile on their face.

Republic is also great for wars, since there is low ww. Democrasy gets also a great worker bonus.

 

[Lynx]

Im playing a game as the americans, and it turns out that if you have a super economy, you can fingt huge wars as a democracy, i went from 150 units to 750 units and i still was gaining 1000 gold per turn.

 

[widdowmaker]

Everyone likes demo! Why!?!?!

Yes i know you lose production in your "core" cites. But when Comm come sinto play yes you go from having a 200spt city become a 150spt city. But all those other 50 spt citys that lose 45 of it to corruption just became great citys. MY eniter empire is my core. MY capital is no more valuble than my outer rings. IF they nuke my cap so what? IT doesent hurt me. But if they did that to me in a DEMO. I am screwd(spl? having a brain shut down now).


EDIT: Damn sorry to bring this back. I forgot it was like 2 yrs old! SORRY!

 

[keiselhorn]

IMO, democracy is only appropriate for long periods of peace when you are concentrating in techs for the next war. Of course war weariness can be managed and democracy still allows full-scale wars, since they are quick (it seems like Sun Tzu reincarnated into Sid Meier)... but I prefer to be in Republic for a war. I avoid anarchic revolutions at all cost, since I don't choose religious civs.

Democracy is also really cool when you have control of the world, for a nice milking.

Normally what I do, if the game is not won in the end of Mid Ages/ beginning of Industrial, is having wars in Republic, especially if the enemy is in democracy. Sometimes I keep Republic for most of the Industrial, cos the techs will come anyway by demanding them from weak civs and defeated enemies.

A republican civ has a clear advantage in wars against democracies. And it's toe to toe against communism.

By the way, I don't even touch communism. The unit support advantage is not that big. U need to be already big in communism to support a large army.

Monarchy is almost useless. The only good thing it brings is the Hanging Gardens. I don't even research it, I demand it from somebody. I just jump straight to Republic.

But for me the best gov is Despotism. Of course only the Ancient Ages. But that's when the game is won, except in large maps. Despotism is just perfect for sword/horseman rushes. In the Ancient Ages, research is quite unnecessary. Just cripple the rivals and demand the techs from them. Normally I get about 70% of Ancient techs by blackmailing and kicking the AI.

As you can see, I'm the typical warmonger. If you do some good expansion and prepare a nice concentrated army, the game is won in the Ancient Times. Research can be summarised into military techs.

Don't underestimate despotism. This govt rox!

 

[NoAnswer]

I think democracy is great even for wars, except that in my current game i'm beginning to have problems with war weariness. i'm playing on regent as the japanese all civs (CivIII) huge map, continents. i switched to democracy as soon as it was available, and i started researching alot. I'm doing pretty well now, i have my own continent because i kicked off the romans and eqyptians in the early game. I've read that you shouldn't exceed 32 cities, so that's exactly what i have, and now i'm in industrial times, and all but 4 of my cities are metropolises and all have every single improvement to date, i have universal suffrage, most of the other wonders, and all 8 luxuries. ok, so now i got the largest civ -Persia- to declare war on me, and then the second largest -CHina- alied with them. Now, India is in on it too, who coincidentally is the third largest, BUT the point is that THEY all declared war on ME. So now even with all the things i built i'm getting war weariness because i like taking my time in wars, but this shouldn't be!! I really like democracy because i'm 5 techs ahead of everyone, and since all of my cities can easily produce 60-70 shields per turn and still grow fine, i can be building infantry and artillery every other turn in almost all my cities. The problem is war weariness, and i don't get it. I mean i hear lots of you complaining with 3 luxuries, but i have all 6, 10% entertainment luxury, and all the city improvements which include police stations. It's amazing what a pain democracy can be!!!

 

[Bilko]

I play mainly on huge archepalego maps so it's always communism for me. With courthouses, police stations and markets in every city, and 5 luxuries, you have virtually no corruption at all, allowing for complete effeciency, so you really can fully mobilize for those big wars.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I was really disappointed that they took out Fundamentalism that was the greatest Government. If you did something like sneak a nuke into their city they didn't care, because they expect you to do rotten things like that. People are always happy, and your able to get a lot of money really quickly. The only drawback was 50% cut in research, but you could easily steal it.

 

[Roxtar]

I kinda liked Fund. also, when I played Civ2, for the same reasons cited above. The big $$$ I got from it--ain't nothin' like FUNDamentalism! Noticing that the copyright year for Civ3 is 2001, I can't help but wonder whether 9-11 was a factor in keeping that gov't out of the game...or did the game come out earlier in the year?

 

[benstandby]

I switch into a Republic as soon as I have at least 3 cities with marketplaces & temples- and roads on every tile being worked (and a couple more to allow for growth [remember that the bonus to commerce only comes from squares already producing one commerce]). Republic allows me to keep my science at 40, tax at 40, and luxuries at 20... until I need a boost.

I find that I can crank it up to 80 in either tax or science if I need to for a couple of turns and really capitalize on the base commerce+50%+50% in each city. This can make the difference in getting a tech one turn before the AI or getting enough cash to buy a tech within two turns of its discovery.

I tend to play Huge Archipelago maps, and my two richest islands get my P and FP.

I try to keep my important cities in WLTK day for the reason that (don't quote me) you experience less corruption in those cities on that turn (and maybe you grow one size point per turn... [maybe that was just in SMAC (some guy wrote a strat guide that layed out exactly how to "POP-BOOM" your civ in SMAC- I still do it in civ3 sort of by rote, but it may not work) I've been wrong before about corruption- so don't quote me]).

Anyway, with lux at 20, a couple of lux resources, and temples +cathedrals/colluseums, I tend to have no problems with War Weariness unless I have something like 50+ units in enemy territory for long periods of time.

Besides, if you can't pay for your military in a republic, one of two things is happening: 1) your economy sucks (hit F1 and look at your gross income [either you have too few roads, too may buildings, or not enough markets/banks]) -OR- 2) your military is WAY too big for your civ's size.

 

[kb2tvl]

First, Theology was taken out of civ because it was unbalancing. You could win civ 2 by getting the statue of liberty and switching to theology and just owning the rest of the world.

On governments. There is not really a perfect gov't but it depends on what you want to do and how much in the way of happiness buildings/wonders/luxaries you have.

Monarchy is great for early fighting and if you do not have many buildings built or you do not have any luxaries. The goverment is not very dynamic but by the time you can get democarcy, you can have a few luxaries that you "aquired" from your neighbor.

Republic is a great goverment if you have a few luxaries and markets in all your core cities. Also, you will end up runing 30% luxaries during war time which cuts into the extra trade you get from republic. If you can fight a war where you enter the enemies territory and attack that turn then you can keep this to a minimum. If you GA in republic and it is an early republic, I would suggest to take one or two cities and mostly build. Otherwise, stay in monarchy because you do not to suffer from WW at all.

Democarcy can be a good next step after monarchy. Keep in mind that when playing a demo, you need to be very careful about WW and crashing your gov't. Before police stations, you can only take a few cities before WW starts to kick in. At that point, start playing defensively and start building buildings again.

Communism can be a good goverment after democarcy. A courthouse + police station + WLKD due to 4 mp and luxaries and happiness buildings can be great and fairly productive. Do not expect to out tech your competion but you will probably be able to take them over.