Starting out on Regeant (lvl3)

[TheOverseer714]

Republics need much management, but roads and lean and efficient militaries are even more important. If you dump all those useless MP's and invest in offensive units, your gpt would improve. Adequate numbers of workers helps a bunch, getting roads built is a necessity for a successful republic. Don't give up on it yet!
Edit: CivAssist 2 or MapStat are very helpful, I recommend using one or the other to help managing your game. Almost indispensible for running a republic.

 

[Mursi lives]

Dont wait for a well-developped empire to switch to republic, switch to republic to accelerate your expansion: irrigate some grass, turn your research temporarily off and use your gold to rush some settlers/workers.

Alternatively, if you are conquering the world, use your gold to buy barracks & units, and get the techs you need by trading peace.

 

[darski]

Well i have officially given up on The Republic. I try and go republic= -18 gpt.I revolt, go Monarchy, +15 gpt. Is it because I'm too much of a warmonger?

it's probably because you don't build cities fast enough and close enough. I usually have huge military numbers but I out build the AI every game. I am also a Warlord Player who is making the move up to Regent. It was applying the rules of REX that permitted me to get victories at Regent.

 

[MAS]

Well i have officially given up on The Republic. I try and go republic= -18 gpt.I revolt, go Monarchy, +15 gpt. Is it because I'm too much of a warmonger?

Don't you play with the sliders in the F1 screen?

In republic you get a lot more commerce, 70% SCI in republic can be more than 100% SCI in monarchy.

The numbers -18 and +15 you mentioned are meaningless without mentioning the total amount of commerce you are making.

Also, you shouldn't keep units around for MP in republic.

 

[Tone]

Is it because I'm too much of a warmonger?

No. It is because (AFAICS from the data from the last game) you were insisting upon putting two spears in every town. Warmongers don't have 50-70% of their units as spears.

To add to MAS's comments, it is the absolute figures from the F1 screen that count. When I switch to republic, I can never run at 100% science but my 50-70% science is worth more than the 80-100% despot science.

Disband the useless units and have a fewer number of quality units (to repeat myself from above).

How many cities and workers have you got in your new game? Don't manage the size 6 cities that you had before if you have more room to expand in; build more settlers. If you don't have an average of at last one worker per town, then your citizens will be toiling on unimproved land. Insufficient roads means that you will not benefit from Republic. Noramally the reason why I cannot run at higher than about 70% science when I switch is my unit support, and at least 2/3rds of this is down to workers and settlers. They are the most important units in the game!

BTW remember that you can post a save that people can see now that you are patched. That will stop us from guessing!

 

[mr_lewington]

Ok, was out of town.

Now for the responses

1st. I usually have my science slider at 70-80% and Happy slider at 10%
2nd. Since i was cramped on the island, i didnt really invest in offense, so i just stayed with my spears.
3rd. Is the Republic superior to the Monarchy?

 

[TheOverseer714]

1. You can bounce the sliders when you get overruns on research and gain extra money on the turn before a tech will finish researching. At least you use the happy slider, so you aren't afraid to. Just use it as necessary, if you grab some luxes, the slider can go down.

2. Spears are also not really useful except frontline cities, otherwise build swords, horses and catapults for an active defense. For MP's, warriors are cheaper, and hurt less to dispose of when that time comes.

3. For any game except always war, yes Republic is better. I'm still struggling with the transition to Republic myself, but more and more I see its benefits.

 

[mr_lewington]

Ok here's the latest save. Enjoy

 

[Tone]

I've had a quick look at the save. Another toughish start as although you have a couple of cows, you have no fresh water and the only land expansion through jungle and desert. You are in a strong position tech wise though and so you now need to ensure that your empire is developed to maintain this good start.

Quite a few contacts. That makes research/trading easier. It's a huge map though so there are plenty more civs out there though. Maybe a couple of those warriors stationed in your main towns could go out and explore the landmass?

You have a better worker-town ratio than before but most of them are clearing jungle so your productive towns are working tiles that are not fully developed. Sorry, but you still need more workers! I thought that a detailed look at each town would help illustrate this so here goes:

London is working two unmined bgs. If you are serious about that GLH build; surely you want to get it done as soon as possible?

Nottingham is working two unmined/unroaded bgs. (Switch one of them to the roaded bg that you have a worker mining.) You do at least have a worker here though!

York is working fully developed tiles but there is an undeveloped bg when you have roaded and mined a standard grass.

Canterbury is working two hills (as there is no jungle cleared). Neither is mined and one is not roaded. It is not connected to the capital and so corruption wil be higher yet you have a precious worker mining a golden mountain that this town will never be able to work until you get some food there and yes, that means clearing the jungle. Maybe a granary is not the best build here when you have so many tiles to develop.

The situation in Hastings is very similar to Canterbury. Oh, and why do you need a temple here?

Coventry. Please tell me that you are going to build a worker here after those walls are done.

Warwick. Very brave building it under a volcano! I hope that it doesn't erupt. Now why don't you build a worker here? It can then develop those tiles and chop that forest that will then help the temple build. BTW notice that if you move the citizen from the bg onto the fish, you get more income but no loss of shields.​

Have you ever heard of the term wonder addiction? Wonders are nice but the game is won by having plenty of powerful cities. That means settlers and workers.

I see that you are also addicted to spears and that nothing I can say will change that at the moment. You also ask whether Republic or Monarchy is better. Well the answer in almost every situation is Republic but you will not be able to get it to work until you learn to play the game without insisting on having a couple of spears in every town so for now I suggest you go for Monarchy.

 

[mr_lewington]

>.> im not addicted to wonders, it was a new turn and i guess i forgot to change it. Also, i usually make spears when i have nothing else to build (i avoid wealth as often as possible as ive seen time and again where my economy has become dependant on "wealth cities"

also in another game, i started on 3 wheats

 

[Aabraxan]

. . . . i usually make spears when i have nothing else to build (i avoid wealth as often as possible as ive seen time and again where my economy has become dependant on "wealth cities" . . . .

mr_lewington, I haven't looked at your saves, but I've read the posts that others have left and can't resist throwing in my two cents' worth.

I don't blame you for avoiding wealth, but I'd avoid building spears when you have nothing else to build. I always build my military first, so I don't generally run into the problem of "nothing left to build." With that said, if you do run into that situation, at least try building offensive units.

At 1.2.1, spears are rotten attackers. At least go for archers, or better yet, horses and swords. That way, when you run out of room to expand, you will have an offensively powerful military that can go out and make some room. If you're overloaded with spears, all you can do is wait for the enemy to come to you. That causes a number of problems. First, you can expand through offensive wars, but not defensive ones. Second, if your units are being attacked (& you're in a gov't with WW), you gain WW, even if you win the battles. If you're on the attack, you only get WW for battles that you lose, not for the ones you win.

 

[MAS]

Also, how come you have nothing else to build that early in the AA?

My main problem usually is that I don't have enough production and cities to do all the things I want to do within the amount of turns I want to do them.

 

[mr_lewington]

I couldve rephrased nothing to build to "nothing to build that my economy can support"

 

[mr_lewington]

here is yet again the latest save, and im doing fairly well (definetly not this turn though) Im Egypt, just finished a succesful war with Aztecs and im decommishing my spearman. My only problem is i switched 2 republic. Now owing the bank of Egypt -69gpt. I had an incridble start, with 3 wheats, tabacco everywhere and 3 horses +1 iron (sorry for the double post also)

 

[Aabraxan]

I couldve rephrased nothing to build to "nothing to build that my economy can support"

Even if you'd rephrased, I'd suggest building offensive units. If I'm under the support limit, I have room for more offensive units. If I'm over the limit & am going to strain my economy by building units, I'd rather strain my economy with offensive units. That way, when I use them, I'm expanding, which will help ease my economic problems.

 

[TheOverseer714]

If there's nothing to build, build workers, settlers, and artillery. Wealth is ok if you don't depend on it to finance your empire and there is nothing needing built. If you are pressed for support, building regular spears only exacerbates the problem. At least workers are helping your empire develop, and artillery units can be disbanded as you modernize. If I have outdated catapults and trebuchets in excess and they are being replaced by cannons, I disband them in captured enemy towns to build slaves while the cities are in resistance. Even a town rioting will build stuff if the shields are there. 2 supported catapults disbanded = 1 slave and 1 less resistor, so there are many benefits to building bombardment units instead or spears. If you aren't interested in capturing new cities and expanding, you'll choke on unit support if you keep building regular spears. Besides that, the AI respects 10 horses more than 19 spears, and 5 swords more than 19 spears(I think that's the ratio) but even if that is an exaggeration, it boils down to offensive units are more respected than defensive. Even if they are strong compared to you, you'll see less demands if your military is 90% offensive.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Looked at the save, I am wondering if you uploaded the correct save, as the Aztecs look hale and hearty. You sure like your spears Spacing isn't bad, but you need more workers, and they need grouped to be more effective. I see only one catapult, not good at higher levels, but okay at Regent. I'd trade all those spears in for workers, and build a couple barracks in high production cities, especially Alexandria, you must build veteran units when you can. A veteran Ancient Cavalry is a match for a knight with the extra hitpoint. I'm sounding critical, but these things should be fixed if you want to win this game and future ones. You are doing okay despite these handicaps (along with an ugggglyyyy map), but you could be dominating with some tweaks to your game.

 

[mr_lewington]

Its 1150 AD in my game and things are going well. every 15 turns or so a war with the aztecs. Took about 20 turns to stabilize my economy. No longer spear dependant, but there is 1 pike for every city (average out) 17 pikes, 11 swords, 8 med infantry, 7 ancient cavalry, 4 catapults. so im balanced atm (med infantry are pumping out more however) and im preparing for yet another assault on the Aztecs. The reason for my lack of offense is because of the latest war with Aztec Btw, how are my scandinavian friends fairing up north?

 

[TheOverseer714]

Freezing and starving in their tundra.... Here is a tip for you, you don't need to defend every city. Only those within 2-3 tiles from a border need a defensive unit. The other areas can use zone defense, about 2-4 mobile units (horses/knights/cavalry) can defend an area 12 tiles in any direction. Later on, with railroads, they can defend every city not on the front lines.

 

[mr_lewington]

this is true, but i have 0 naval supremacy, and they've (the aztecs) have been costal raiding.

Here is the latest save, I haven't played since your last post, but I'm gearing my army Offense style, they just need replenishing.