Republic - Don`t laugh at me.

[Moon Pine]

Why every one here says republic is a strong Gove?
It can have only 1/2/5 free units per city, no military police and +1 maintain fee per unit. Every time I switched to it from Dep suffered from heavy incoming lose and unhappy citizens, and had to disband hordes of units to leave my civ vulnerable to enemy strikes.
For instance, what`s his superiority to Monarchy? And how to manage well a Republic ? Thanks.

 

[aluka]

Perhaps you're not roading enough tiles. When those tiles are worked it brings in more gold.

 

[Mesodius]

I still use Monarchy as opposed to Republic, and I do fine. Of course, I am at war almost constantly, which I am told is the only time Monarchy is better than Republic.

 

[King Hannibal]

If your at constant war use monarchy republic involves alot of attention to your cities, try putting tax specalists in soem of your cities. When i play republic i normaly only try set me civ so that i make my cities into a square and have 3 sides facing a water and the front line the only ones with soldiers.

 

[Moon Pine]

But Military Police problem is not so easy to solve.

 

[gmaharriet]

Why every one here says republic is a strong Gove?
It can have only 1/2/5 free units per city, no military police and +1 maintain fee per unit.

You didn't say what version of Civ3 you are playing, but those stats are incorrect in either case.

In vanilla/PTW Republic has no free units and maintenance for all units is 1gpt.

In C3C unit support is 1/3/4 free, and 2gpt for all in excess of that.

In both cases the commerce bonus more than pays for any lack of unit support, though it does take some adjustment when you first make the switch.

 

[retro V]

...commerce bonus...

The civilopedia mentions this but doesn't specify what it is. Each tile that yields at least one commerce gets one more; not a lot when towns are still small from producing settlers or workers, which is why republic seems to suck at first.

 

[Marsden]

I think he meant an (extra) +1 which would equal 2 for unit support. But anyway, one piece of the puzzle which is understated but very important nonetheless is; your empire must be ready for Republic. What you said is true, if you have tons of units and are at war often, then republic is not a help. Don't forget, war weariness factors add up no matter what government you are in, just in certain governments they have no effect, but they are still there, so if you are in a long messy war and switch to republic you'll automatically have unhappy people.

So here's a small list, I might have forgoten something, I'm sure someone else will pick it apart fill in the missing parts.

1. Make sure you have a good road network, the +1 commerce that is such a good bonus doesn't work if there isn't 1 commerce there already.
2. Don't keep excessive units or disband them right after the change, you Don't need those extra 2 or 3 warriors in each town.
3. Have at least 2 or more luxuries hooked up, if this isn't possible then you will have to use the entertainment slider or keep pop down.
4. Don't be involved in a long war already while switching, if you are in that situation either finish it up or take a peace treaty, but remember War Weariness affects stay around for 20 turns so don't go right back on the treaty or else you'll be right back where you started.

Again, anyone who can mention anything missing please do so.

 

[MAS]

Support in monarchy is 2/4/8 and support in republic is 1/3/4.

Metropolises don't come until very late in the game, so you could just as well count 1/3 for republic and 2/4 for monarchy.

So free units upkeep in republic is only 1 per city less than monarchy.

As for MP: units standing around in cities are a waste of shields. I build them to conquer. One of the things I get from conquest is lux resources.
And each lux resource gives 1 happy face in every city connected to my trade network. More in cities with marketplaces!

If you use 3 units per city to provide 3 content faces in monarchy, you basically have only 1 free unit upkeep in cities. because 3 of 4 is wasted to MP.

If you temporary have some happiness problems, before you are able to conquer lux resources, just up the lux slider a bit. Or use specialist, specialist are always counted as content. (use the lux slider to keep your core working, use specialist in more corrupt cities)

Monarchy isn't better for war, most of the time, the commerce bonus still outweighs any problems coming from war. And you can easily work around the problems, if only by signing peace and start a war with an other civ. only to continue your conquest of the first civ again later.

The only exception is an Always War variant game, where you declare war on every civ you meet and never sign peace.

 

[Turner]

I think he meant an (extra) +1 which would equal 2 for unit support. But anyway, one piece of the puzzle which is understated but very important nonetheless is; your empire must be ready for Republic. What you said is true, if you have tons of units and are at war often, then republic is not a help. Don't forget, war weariness factors add up no matter what government you are in, just in certain governments they have no effect, but they are still there, so if you are in a long messy war and switch to republic you'll automatically have unhappy people.

So here's a small list, I might have forgoten something, I'm sure someone else will pick it apart fill in the missing parts.

1. Make sure you have a good road network, the +1 commerce that is such a good bonus doesn't work if there isn't 1 commerce there already.
2. Don't keep excessive units or disband them right after the change, you Don't need those extra 2 or 3 warriors in each town.
3. Have at least 2 or more luxuries hooked up, if this isn't possible then you will have to use the entertainment slider or keep pop down.
4. Don't be involved in a long war already while switching, if you are in that situation either finish it up or take a peace treaty, but remember War Weariness affects stay around for 20 turns so don't go right back on the treaty or else you'll be right back where you started.

Again, anyone who can mention anything missing please do so.

Marketplaces. You get the luxury bonus (2 happy faces each for 3rd and 4th lux, 3 each for 5th and 6th, and 4 each for 7th and 8th) not to mention the multiplier to commerce for that city. With the commerce bonus it really adds up.

 

[Mirc]

Support in monarchy is 2/4/8 and support in republic is 1/3/4.

Metropolises don't come until very late in the game, so you could just as well count 1/3 for republic and 2/4 for monarchy.

So free units upkeep in republic is only 1 per city less than monarchy.

As for MP: units standing around in cities are a waste of shields. I build them to conquer. One of the things I get from conquest is lux resources.
And each lux resource gives 1 happy face in every city connected to my trade network. More in cities with marketplaces!

If you use 3 units per city to provide 3 content faces in monarchy, you basically have only 1 free unit upkeep in cities. because 3 of 4 is wasted to MP.

If you temporary have some happiness problems, before you are able to conquer lux resources, just up the lux slider a bit. Or use specialist, specialist are always counted as content. (use the lux slider to keep your core working, use specialist in more corrupt cities)

Monarchy isn't better for war, most of the time, the commerce bonus still outweighs any problems coming from war. And you can easily work around the problems, if only by signing peace and start a war with an other civ. only to continue your conquest of the first civ again later.

The only exception is an Always War variant game, where you declare war on every civ you meet and never sign peace.

That's true and I use Republic most often, however I have to disagree, there are certain games, even not AW, in which I just can't stop War Weariness after 200 years of constant war with a strong neighbor (meaning I can lose units and cities sometimes).

Still I'm not trying to contradict you.

 

[Macezek]

But Military Police problem is not so easy to solve.

Well, look at it this way. In Republic, there is no Military Police support, so you don't need those units. They are now free to disband or send to war to capture cities. Either way, you increase your income by capturing new cities or getting rid of useless units. You also increase your income just by switching govs because in Republic you get +1 commerce on every tile with a road. Republic also has less corruption than Monarchy. So in the end, you make lots and lots more commerce every turn, which now can be spent on bumping up your luxury slider up a notch or two or more. Use specialists to keep your population under control, and if you really need it, build a temple and cathedral. The Sistine Chapel is a good wonder to build too. And as others have said, luxuries + marketplaces are really helpful.

 

[CommandoBob]

If you want specific advice on a Despotism to Republic revolution, post either a screen shot of the game or a game save just before you begin the revolution. That gives the better players something to work from instead of just spouting the six or seven rules of revolution prepartion.

For me, theory is fine, but seeing it in action helps a great deal.

 

[Kool Keith]

I personally do not buy into the theory that your empire needs to be "ready" for Republic.

Just get yourself into Republic as fast as possible, and then you will be able to take your commerce bonus and the extra food and you will be able to grow much faster.

The longer you stay in despotism, the worse of you probably will be.

 

[dgfred]

If you get a GA in despotism from a sneak attack. Would you change gov'ts
if you could even if you are in a Golden Age, or wait and switch when the
GA is over?

 

[ecuwins]

It is not so much a matter of being "ready" as opposed to not having too many units. In fact having too many units is fine as well, as long as they are ready to go to war and take some territory, cities, slaves, ect... Just don't have stacks of spears and nothing else sitting around doing nothing.

Edit: ^^^ I would not waste any of my GA on Anarchy -- I would only make that switch if I were playing a religious civ.

 

[dgfred]

It is not so much a matter of being "ready" as opposed to not having too many units. In fact having too many units is fine as well, as long as they are ready to go to war and take some territory, cities, slaves, ect... Just don't have stacks of spears and nothing else sitting around doing nothing.

Edit: ^^^ I would not waste any of my GA on Anarchy -- I would only make that switch if I were playing a religious civ.

In my example I am the Iroquois. So far I have waited to switch.

 

[drakdan]

I imagine that switching over would lose more shields than staying in Despotism. Maybe if you are religious you could swing it.

 

[TheOverseer714]

As someone who has just recently starting using Republic, I understand the concerns mentioned above. However, once you fully adjust, you will see the advantages. Republic demands a different style of empire. In the high corruption areas, make many small, close towns with no MP's, no improvements, and high food production. These become your specialist farms, they exist to make taxmen and scientists. The bonus is, each one supports a unit. Once you get Railroad, they can be left undefended, with a ready reaction force of Cavalry/Tanks/MA's to repel any invaders. This works best if you are on a continents or archipelago map. On a Pangea, better make your farms well away from any wars, as they attract enemies like flies to honey.

 

[Moon Pine]

Er..... maybe republic should be switched after I got Markets and Cathedrals. I always first teched to Phi and get Monarch or Republic with the free tech ^^ But that way, I needs to keep Dep until the Middle Age and delay the Knights.