Monarchy or Republic?

[AutomatedTeller]

The things that cause weariness are:

Losing cities
Losing units
Being in enemy territory
Being attacked
Being bombarded

Never, ever lose a city in republic. Give it away, abandon it, whatever - don't lose cities.

In AA and early MA war, it's hard to not end some turns in enemy territory, so that's a pain - but make sure you bring defenders!! You will get counterattacked.

one thing you can do if you are facing a powerful enemy is declare and sit in your cities and wait for them to attack you - wipe out their stack on your turn (thus, you dont' get attacked and you dont' spend time in their territory), then attack them. This usually only works well if they don't have horses, though...

 

[Desertsnow]

I have the same problem when switching to Republic, an economic crash. I usually like to have a good network of roads (roads = commerce) and several markets either operational or under construction when making the switch out of Despotism, and set the sliders down a little for a while, at least until my economy catches back up. Usually you can set the sliders down a little anyway once you leave Despotism.

 

[syrinx_dm]

To try to sum this up: Republic is generally better, Monarchy is generally easier.

For your first game, on Chieftain - I'd recommend Monarchy. IMHO, the built in Unit Support and the extra content citizens from the Military Police make it a more forgiving Government for newer players.

 

[Aceman101]

I was talking about size 12 cities. (metro is 13+)

Really . Ever since I had civ I thought metros are size 12 and up.

 

[MAS]

It doesn't matter, in vanilla and PTW, republic has no free units at all. (except slave workers of course)
However, I count the free unit as a form of gpt, a form of gpt that can't be used for anything else than unit upkeep, but on the positive side, can't be lost to corruption.

So under monarchy, each city gives 4gpt bonus, and each town 2 gpt bonus, and each metropolis gives 8 gpt bonus.This bonus gpt can't be modified, and can't be used for anything else than unit upkeep.
Under republic, a size 6 city (town) gives 6 gpt bonus a size 12 city gives 12 gpt bonus. But with a market it becomes 18 gpt bonus.

Theoretically, if you have a huge, and I mean huge, empire, then monarchy gives more gpt in total because the bonus gpt can't be lost to corruption, while the bonus commerce from republic can.
But this is only useful if you actually have an army the size of the unit upkeep. otherwise the bonus gpt from monarchy will just get lost. Typically, the more cities you have, less units per city you need, while still having a large army. So this isn't all that useful.

If have gpt income from trade deals with other civ, or by producing wealth, or tax specialist in specialist farms. you can use that to pay the upkeep, and run 100% science. But only commerce can be turned into science, so only the republic bonus will then help you.


And here is a bonus tip of the day:
If you do use monarchy, or communism for that matter, it may be worth building hospitals in cities, even when they don't have more than 12 tiles to work, and let them grow to size 13. Just that one extra pop will make it a metro, so the free unit upkeep will move from 4 to 8. The hospital itself cost 2 gpt upkeep, so it is saving you upkeep (assuming you have enough units to need this.) The extra citizen could be turned into a tax-man specialist to elevate the upkeep even more.

(in Conquest, this tip works for monarchy and fascism, but not communism as upkeep for communism is changed to 6/6/6)

 

[seanos08]

Most games I play I switch to Republic at the start of the middle ages and stay there. I don't start wars but have a decent number of offensive units. Only if I get massive War wearyness will I change to communism. This only happens if I am at war with a powerful enemy and lose some cities.

 

[Kernal]

I used to use monarchy a lot as a carry over from Civ 2 (I would usually play to conquer the world, and in Civ 2 you get a lot of forced peace treaties as a republic IIRC). Now I always use Republic in Civ 3 as soon as possible, even with the higher unit support it's tough to beat the huge amount of additional gold you get as a republic (assuming you have roads on the squares that are worked).

 

[Roxlimn]

The three most important variables to weigh in when deciding to switch between Monarchy and Republic are these:

Settlement Size
Unit Force
War
Bonus Tiles
Worked Tiles

Generally speaking, Worked Tiles should never be an issue, but it might if you're playing against a human and he's busy pillaging your stuff with cheesy tactics.

If you have many smallish cities (massive expansion in AA, and/or wartime acquisitions), then switching to Monarchy is better than staying in Despotism until your pop gets higher, particularly if you're Religious. The extra unit support is massive and could get your economy substantively up. Plus, your food and industry improve so you can seriously get your Civ up and cranking.

I'd say that 5-7 is about the breakpoint. If most of your cities are size 4-6, Monarchy is the better plan. Greater pop growth sooner means more worked tiles and more comerce rather than waiting for the people to grow. Also, you have less of a need for temples and the like since your units can serve as a stopgap measure to allow you to concentrate on Science and Money buildings.

War is also a big issue. A defensive war can be fought under Republic, but if you're looking for a protracted invasion in the near future (for important resources for instance), then Monarchy is the way to go. You'll get lots of free unit upkeep, you can use your units to quell new cities, and each new city grants you even more unit upkeep. You can really field in massive multiple stacks of invaders this way.

However, most of the time, players will postpone invasions and wait for the Republic, since it is that great a peacetime government. You can really surge ahead technologically and economically with Republic. On occasion, I have played games with such massive commerce bonus tiles that I deemed Republic a wash. The extra commerce that would be gained just wouldn't be that much. Those games I go Monarchy then straight to Communism or Democracy. For Religious Civs, it's also very useful to get Monarchy as a stepping stone to Republic, since you don't pay as much in terms of Anarchy, and you could use the additional growth.

 

[MAS]

If you have many smallish cities (massive expansion in AA, and/or wartime acquisitions), then switching to Monarchy is better than staying in Despotism until your pop gets higher, particularly if you're Religious. The extra unit support is massive and could get your economy substantively up. Plus, your food and industry improve so you can seriously get your Civ up and cranking.

I'd like to point out that unit support for towns is 4 in despotism and 2 in monarchy. If you switch to monarchy, you can easily have the same initial economic problems as if you switch to republic.

I'd say that 5-7 is about the breakpoint. If most of your cities are size 4-6, Monarchy is the better plan. Greater pop growth sooner means more worked tiles and more comerce rather than waiting for the people to grow. Also, you have less of a need for temples and the like since your units can serve as a stopgap measure to allow you to concentrate on Science and Money buildings.

I'd say, if your cities are to small, it is better to stay in despotism a little longer than to have 2 anarchy's.

War is also a big issue. A defensive war can be fought under Republic, but if you're looking for a protracted invasion in the near future (for important resources for instance), then Monarchy is the way to go.

You can fight offensive wars extensively under republic. Up the lux slider a little bit and still earn more cash in the end.

You'll get lots of free unit upkeep, you can use your units to quell new cities, and each new city grants you even more unit upkeep. You can really field in massive multiple stacks of invaders this way.

Like I explained in my previous post. It doesn't matter whether you pay your upkeep with the bonus upkeep per city from monarchy, or the bonus commerce per tile from republic, except that the bonus commerce from republic is way higher. You can usually pay for a larger army in republic than you can keep under monarchy for free. And still have more commerce for science.

However, most of the time, players will postpone invasions and wait for the Republic, since it is that great a peacetime government. You can really surge ahead technologically and economically with Republic.

Republic is superb for peacetime, and great for war. Monarchy is mediocre for peacetime, and o.k. for war. (Exception being the Always-war variant.)

On occasion, I have played games with such massive commerce bonus tiles that I deemed Republic a wash. The extra commerce that would be gained just wouldn't be that much. Those games I go Monarchy then straight to Communism or Democracy.

Ok, lets see, your empire was only one city and that one city had 7 bonus-gold hills and 2 cows, and 2 rivers that covered all 21 tiles in the city radius? And even if that was the case, how would you beat +12 commerce? If you have 10 cities, we are talking about +120 commerce, thats 30 bonus-gold hills. And even if, by some fluke, you had 30 bonus gold hills in your 10 city empire, the advantages of monarchy are still not going to beat an other +120 commerce.

For Religious Civs, it's also very useful to get Monarchy as a stepping stone to Republic, since you don't pay as much in terms of Anarchy, and you could use the additional growth.

That may be true, but only if, by some fluke, you got the monarchy tech way before republic. Otherwise you'd be better of going to republic right away.