Republic vs. Democracy?

[t. Master rogue]

I have no plans for war and am in good standing with all other civs(polite-gracious). My immediate goals are wealth, culture, & infrastructure. I am operating as a rebuplic and will discover democracy in one turn. Are their any reasons given my current orientation that I "should not" switch to democracy? Thanks in advance & thanks to all those who have responded to my previous posts!

 

[knacki]

According to the Info Center, I'd say a switch from republic to democracy is always good for u because of
1) minimal corruption -> wealth
2) worker efficiency 150% -> infrastructure
3) immune to propaganda -> culture
Then in a demo u got all three u wanted

Another thing which could be important is this thing of civs' favorite / shunned governments, which I think matters for the relationships u'll have with the other civs in the game. For the time being every one may be polite / gracious, but for example I guess americans, if they are in the play, will like u better if ur a demo than a republic, once they will have switch gov... Another example : Koreans' shunned gov is republic, so...

 

[Tomoyo]

The only reasons not to switch to democracy are the anarchy and the War Weariness, so in yuur situation, I would switch.

 

[Warwind]

If you have a super large civ if tons of 1 shield city's stay in republic you get 1/3/4 free unit support

 

[tao]

If you are already able to research techs in 4 turns, if you have replaceable parts for worker speed, if you are not religious, you loose more because of the anarchy period than you gain, IMHO. Especially if you e.g. want to get as fast as possible to the UN.

 

[rychan]

Check your unit support costs (F3). If you have 60 units out of 70 allowed, it might be worth 60gpt to stay in republic. If you have 100 units out of 70 allowed, it would still be cheaper to stay in republic. If you have 150 units out of 70 allowed, then you're paying 160 gpt for your extra units, and it will be cheaper to go to democracy where all units are 1 gpt each.

 

[Arathorn]

Unless you're religious, the period of anarchy almost always overshadows the minimal gains of switching to democracy.

You say your immediate goals are infrastructure, wealth (why, BTW?), and culture. Those are just as easy in Republic as in Democracy (or close enough to not really make a difference) and you start them many turns earlier by not revolting.

How about mid- or long-term goals? If those involve fighting, stay in Republic, so you can do both.

In general, anarchy is rarely worth it.

Arathorn

 

[IbnSina]

I'm with Arathorn on this. I never switch to Democracy unless I need the enhanced worker efficiency to build up a recently-conquered empire, or unless I'm playing a religious civ (unless I'm playing a religious civ). Five to eight turns of anarchy is just devastating. You can make all the gold and infrastructure you -need- in Republic, and start sooner.

 

[Juhahu]

Republic is better.

- Lot of free units. I usually get 150-200 free units even in standard maps (lot of size 7 towns )
- Less war weariness. In multiplayer game if someone would take democracy, it's 100% that others would attack him in few turns, when he can't really fight a long war

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Couple of things:

You haven't mentioned which version you're using. Some of the tips in this thread won't matter if you're using vanilla. (unit costs in particular)

If you do decide to switch, hopefully you know the anarchy "re-roll" trick. To do this, when you get the tech, you go into the "big picture" and start a revolution. Check how many turns it will take. If it's a lot of turns, then when you exit you will have the choice to stage a revolt (even though you already did) and possibly get a fewer number of turns. If you get a short anarchy period, then just say "anarchy is working fine for us".