Spotting Settler factories

[Lanzelot]

Ah, yes, forgot about the 4/6 cycle... That is even easier to set up than a 3/7 cycle.

Sid is always a completely different game with different strategies required... But is Monarchy really useful for Sid? Whether you research or whether you try stealing or n-fers: you will always need lots of commerce?! It probably depends on whether you manage to get Philosophy: in that case Republic should not come much later than Monarchy, not?

 

[Spoonwood]

Another combination factory during a golden age could be a 4 turn swordsman-settler factory or 4 turn horseman-settler factory. You spend the first two turns on the unit, and the last two on the settler.

But is Monarchy really useful for Sid? Whether you research or whether you try stealing or n-fers: you will always need lots of commerce?! It probably depends on whether you manage to get Philosophy: in that case Republic should not come much later than Monarchy, not?

I don't know... this could really use more testing. You might manage to get some of that commerce via some n-fers for their gpt, which the AI has. You don't need the commerce produced, you just need to get them gpt for the techs and then use them for n-fers. You won't put up markets right away, and a Monarchy can grow a few turns earlier. Also, Monarchy tends to come at the end of the ancient age. You might wait to revolt until the very turn you can trade out of it. With The Republic I've seemed to have the ability to first acquire it once the AI has made serious progress towards their medieval techs.

Also, the Monarchy slingshot works out much easier than The Republic slingshot (via getting the other techs) on Sid, *if* you can get to Philosophy first. From my 20k Sid games, I could often enough manage the Monarchy slingshot (and then have a second revolution to maximize my research... though that isn't necessarily optimal).

 

[Spoonwood]

But is Monarchy really useful for Sid? Whether you research or whether you try stealing or n-fers: you will always need lots of commerce?! It probably depends on whether you manage to get Philosophy: in that case Republic should not come much later than Monarchy, not?

Playing another game now, it looks like you're probably right.