Cheated out of my first GOTM (58) (boo, hiss) after switching from despotism to republic at cost of many (I think 10) anarchy turns, only to find that I couldn't afford the switch. Even at zero sliders I was fast going broke! Not the first time I've had this type of experience, but switched this time after reading much advice on the bennies of early switch. I usually play at monarchy or regent, go despotism-democracy (-communism if need to fight a lot), and play for some modern age victory condition. Until I get out of despotism, I often fall behind on tech, avoid building wonders (AI usually beats me to them anyway, even sometimes with my pre-build), and so have to play catch-up. Most often I win diplomatiic, space or 2050 victory.
I've tried living with fewer military to afford switch, but that just invites invasions. I let governor manage cities & mostly manage workers, so I don't have to micro-manage them. Don't like wars cause I have to micro-manage them also. Once played game to space victory avoiding wars entirely!
Replayed GOTM 58 with despotism-democracy-communism and eventually won space race against other continent survivor by virtue of tech lead and resulting rain of stealth bombers and MIs on that continent.
BTW, I plan to solve catch-22 cannot post GOTM 58 result (I cheated), so cannot read final forum discussion by overlooking that bold prohibition (once a cheat always a cheat< at least for GOTM 58!). Maybe, the advice should be you cannot post AFTER reading the final discussion! That also fixes the post-is-closed Catch-22 for people like me who are going back to play old GOTMs and are able to find the discussions that go with them.
Is there some tool that can show me in advance what life would be like after a government switch? What advice have you for a macro-manager, that would improve middle game results via republic or monarchy, or is that just the sacrifice one makes as a macro-manager?
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