Need advice

[ironfang]

It is the year 1700 and I am the Americans. After two successfull wars my nation spans over 60 cities.

To the north of my borders is Zululand (20+ cities) and 3 Greek settlements. To the south there is a war torn region that is mixed up of Aztecs, Greeks and Indian settlements. South of that is the Indian nation (10-12 cities), east of them is the Baylonians and Aztecs. My east and west borders are Ocean.

I currently have a military force of 190+ units, and under my current government, I can support 220 military units. I just upgraded 90+ rifle men to Infantry, and 13 cannons to Artillery. I have around 30 Cavalry units, a small navy (10+ ships) and about 20 works.

My issue is this. My nation is rife with corruption. To my south are two nations that are hostile towards me, but not very powerful (Indians and Greeks). I want to increase my productivity, and reduce corruption, but I feel that the need for war may come sooner than later.

With all that said. I have three choices at this time. Democracy, Communism, or remain a Monarchy. What does anyone else think I should do?

ironfang

 

[von Brumi]

A republic should lessen your burdens, you can still send out limited contingents without too much whining. Otherwise, isolate yourself, go for Democracy and enjoy, let them cut each others' throat. Seal your borders with that infantry, tow a few Arty pieces there and enhance what you've got.

 

[Kev]

von Brumi - looks like I keep following you on these posts.

I agree with the isolationist Democracy the von Brumi mentions. Corruption is a pain in the rear for sure, but Democracy may help some. Other options can be found on the threads that deal specifically with corruption, but you may want to try a few things to get it under control.

- Build a palace that is more central to all of your cities.
- Build a Forbidden Palace in a different part of your continent.
- Courthouses can help - albeit sometimes not very much.

Get some tech and some cash rolling in and you'll have very little trouble defending your borders. At this point, going after your rivals in a military fashion probably won't do you much good. They seem to be occupied enough, anyway.

Enjoy.

 

[costanza]

If I were in your situation I would do this: Switch to Democracy and start preparing for a war to your south. Move artillery and defensive units down there to protect your cities.

You do need to be in monarchy before you go to (start) war though. And I know this slows everything down, but it's worth it to not have to deal with the war weariness.

The corruption problem sux; you'll probably have to move your capital so you can stretch your empire without losing so much to corruption. I've never tried this, but others seem to have gotten it to work.

Don't be stupid. And don't get careless. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

 

[ironfang]

My main concerns right now is because of the size of my empire and the fact that it is doing relatively well. Corruption is a pain, but it isnt crippling. I simply want to expand and become MUCH more powerfull, but the empire size is unruly, and Anarchy sounds a might bit costly.

What about communism for my empire size? Any thoughts on that? I was thinking about going to communism (which would expand my military capacity drastically) and drive south. Crushing the Indians and the Babalonians in the same stint.

ironfang

 

[quinalla]

Sounds to me like you are itching to attack, I think you should switch to Communism and start attacking. You don't sound to worried about corruption at the moment so I would just attack now. Good luck!

--quinalla :crazyeyes

 

[Malys Faisent]

I concur, switch to Communism if you think it is going to be a long, drawn out war. If you are worried about corruption, just raze everything, or sell what you capture to friendly AIs. If you have a nice stockpile of gold (or if you choose to sell your captured cities) then going to Democracy is an viable option...just make sure that the war doesn't drag on.

Also Communism might be better while you are capturing cities and building them up enough to be decent. You can capture, station troops to help keep the peace and then build temples and libraries, switch to Democracy after you've captured their cities and wiped them out to get the science boost.

Edit>>>

Whatever you do get out of Monarchy though, if these other nations are in Democracy or Communism themselves it is more likely that any city you capture will revolt back to the original owner if you are under a less developed government.

 

[ironfang]

Thanks for the advice. So far, I have gone against all common sense and it has worked.

I decided to go to a democracy (Communism sucks badly... needs to be fixed in a new patch). After that I accidentaly signed a pact with the French to go to war. This caused the Aztecs to strike me first, which caused me to strike back and dig deep into the disputed "Mutt Region" ( mixed up of Indian, Greek, Babalonian, and Persian citizens who have been conquored and reconquored several times by each of the above mentioned civs).

The wierdest part is that when I am capturing cities now, as a Democracy, cities dont revolt, and they immediately go into WLTK. I have many luxuries in my kingdom, and have my luxury rate set to 2, while taxes are at 2, and science at 4.

So it seems I can conduct the offensive as a Democracy for now, of course this is only three turns into being a democracy.

ironfang

 

[Richard III]

What sucked about communism that needed patching?

 

[ironfang]

Here is my gripe with Communism.

It seems to me that Communism is made for smaller nations. When I switched from Monarchy to Communism here is what happened (without adjusting ANY rates);

- Corruption worsened in all cities by 25%
- My revenue went from +90 to -135
- My cities which had only happy and content people now had at least 2 - 3 unhappy people.
- My cities production rate dropped (by 15%)

It seems that communism is only slightly better than despotism and worse than Monarchy. If this style of government is based on empire size, then the people at Fairfaxis should take into consideration MAP SIZE. If you want to be historicaly accurate, Communism should be less corrupt, and highly productive. The down size should be less happy and content citizens and less revenue. If communism is for 20 cities, than I bet it only really works for Standard size maps on down.

ironfang

 

[Albert Einstain]

Communism is VARY corrupt (as in real live) and NOT productive (as in real live too). But more troops in the city makes unhappy citizens content (I dont think that they are happy )))