Need advice on handling Republic

[dze27]

Does anyone have any specific advice on handling a Republic government early in the game (i.e. from when you discover it to say mid-Middle Ages)? I find the support costs to be overwhelming since the upkeep per unit is doubled and there are significantly fewer free units than with Monarchy. It doesn't seem to be enough to make up for the commerce bonuses. This ends up killing my income and, consequently, science. I do build lots of Marketplaces where useful but they aren't cheap and it takes a while to get those all set up.

I don't particularly want to waste a period of anarchy going Despotism -> Monarchy -> Republic. It's hard to skimp on units, too. I need my workers, and a decent military is essential past Regent level. I am something of a warmonger but it's not the war weariness that seems to be too much of a trouble, it's the income.

BTW, I play Monarch/Emperor.

 

[vmxa]

Either governments are going to be a bit of a strain right after you switch. In both you have two things to strife for 1) more income and 2) more cities.

Getting towns to city size is going to increase income and support. Getting worked tiles improved and getting more pop to work more tiles is the main way to increase income. As you say markets are not going to be easy to put up right away and do not increase income that much in small or corrupt places.

The one thing you can do in Republic that you probably would not want to do in Monarchy, is to reduce troops. You do not need units in the towns that are not going to come under attack.

Of course trades may be an options as well, but not always. Do ensure that you have only structurees that are needed.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Key is luxes, of course. Also, getting some cities to size 7 will help a lot - you can give them a tax man or two as specialists to deal with happy issues, if you need.

Entertainers if you must.

But having a couple of luxes is pretty important in republic - trade or capture them. You'll almost certainly have to run 10% or so on the lux slider.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

also... roads. In republic, you really shouldn't be working tiles that don't have any commerce, which means roading everything. You can also turn off research for awhile and just buy techs from the AI. It slows the game down considerably, of course, but if you broker them, you can get good deals.

 

[Ataxerxes]

I'd like to add a note to the good advice above. Related to what VMXA said.

In order not to get killed by unit maintenance in the early game, don't sign right of passage. Then you don't need to garrison your internal cities at all. Just keep your troops at the border. This can really cut down on the number of military units you need.

The problem I find is that, with Right of Passage, the AI just can't resist an unprotected city. They will move into and take over one city in the middle of your empire. It's like a drug to the AI. Even if they have no hope of holding the city and you have 4x their power. "Why do you do such things, when you know I will kill you for it?"

Under Monarchy or Despotism, if you have every city garrisoned for happiness, then maybe sign Right of Passage. Maybe.

 

[dze27]

Thanks for the tips. I'm usually pretty good about getting luxes hooked up and everything roaded. I target luxes during expansion and will go to war over one early on.

I think the point about getting to size 7 is something I need to work on. Getting a worker pump set up and focusing on population to get the 2 extra free units would help. I'll try to get rid of some of those units in the interior cities, but it's map-dependent. On Archipelago they can land anywhere, so you don't want to leave coastal cities undefended (at least, not within 1-turn reach of a couple of units).

As an aside, I'm playing a zero-research game right now for the first time on Monarch (my previous game was a 27-hour Emperor game so I needed a break). It's been quite interesting and has forced me to rethink some stuff. Sadly I can't seem to broker the techs I do acquire for a decent price, but I'm making so much gpt it's not that big of a deal. I've just started the Industrial age (as AutomatedTeller mentioned, the pace is very slow... it's 1335 AD) and only 1 civ is ahead of me in tech, and it's the three optional government techs, plus I'm leading by far in score/land/population. One of the AI cities I captured had the Colossus and a couple of other wonders, and I rushed the FP with a MGL and built a Marketplace and Bank. I'm sure this isn't a record or anything, but I'm in my Golden Age, running 100% tax and it's generating 130 gpt after the minimal corruption without any railroads built! (And it would be even higher under Republic...)

 

[Bartleby]

On Archipelago they can land anywhere, so you don't want to leave coastal cities undefended (at least, not within 1-turn reach of a couple of units).

I find that although the AI *could* land anywhere, they always want to land in one particular spot; Usually near your capital. I think what they actually target is either your oldest city or the city nearest the top of the "city array" inside the game.
The reason I say this is that I've observed the preferred landing spot to change when AI core cities start to get razed, or if you capture an AI capital during a game where you moved your settler.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

yes, they do land in one spot. Usually an archer and a spearman.

And they can take 15 turns, chugging along your coast, to get to that spot - even when they COULD land 2 turns away from their land in an area with no defense whatsoever.

There are things that are annoying about the AI in Civ III and, to be honest, that's the biggest one.

I don't know this, but I assume the AI handles Marines (and berserkers) differently.

About ROP - I agree, though generally early in the game, as long as you have cities with luxes garrisoned, you'll be ok - the AI is trying to expand.

when you get rails... that's when it gets interesting. I had a 20K game once where I didn't garrison my cap. That was embarrasing - fortunately, wonders will give you culture if you take the city back...