Tier 2 governments

[Sostratus]

I almost always go Merchant Republic. The 2 wildcards are almost too strong. Taking monarchy means I am giving up something critical - either I can’t use a legacy card, I have to forgo a district adjacency boost, or an expansion card like settlers/workers. I only need red slots to build up a military from scratch; its more the fault of red cards than red slots though.

I did make myself a small mod to rebalance some of the slots on tier 2 and 3 governments, and with that on I actually think about it more.

 

[UWHabs]

I don't look at monarchy as tier 2. It's more like tier 1.75. You get it on the way to theocracy and much faster than merchant republic. The three military slots can be pretty good at this stage for promoting chariots to knights and archers to crossbows. Knights need iron and are expensive so you can slot both discount cards while having a spare to run a production card or conscription if your army is expensive. Archer to crossbow is almost prohibitively expensive without the discount and I generally refuse to promote them without it slotted.

Can't think of the last game I've played where I didn't use monarchy for a while. Maybe if I were a hardcore maritime civ I could see rushing merchant republic as a better path. At the same time I can't imagine staying in monarchy once the others are available.

It's ok with Poland because of the added flexibility but with them I'm usually building the GMC and a lot of holy sites so I can faith buy hussars so theocracy winds up being the better pick.

Yeah, this 100%. Monarchy comes early, and while military cards are worse than others, around that time you are often upgrading units or going on offense somewhere, so it can be very useful to have those card slots. Or even if you're not going on offense, it can be a useful time to start building a few units to move towards upgrading them later. Plus, unlocking the government plaza building earlier is nice, a lot of the time I need that done so that by the time I get to theocracy for the faith discount, I can now buy units with faith. I don't really like any of the T2 legacy cards, so I don't really care about which one gets locked in.

Otherwise, I would say that I do split between Theocracy and Merchant Republic. MR has better policy cards, but there's always something I'm doing with faith (be it units, great people, or civilians with a golden age) that the bonus there is very strong. More often than not I probably end up in theocracy, but I will skip it some games.

 

[Myomoto]

How would you change Monarchy to be more a 'true' tier 2 government? I think highest on my wishlist is to swap a red card to a wildcard. The exclusive cards for wildcards are after all mainly for great people, and monarchs are quite famous for being patrons of scientists, artists, engineers, etc, so I feel it fits (as well as a government with a more or less absolute ruler being highly flexible and efficient).

Likewise, I would maybe change the housing from walls to a bonus to great people points, but maybe restrict it to cities with 10 population or more. Something like: Districts in cities with 10 population or more provide +1 great person point of their type (too strong?).

 

[Archon_Wing]

I go for Theocracy whenever possible, if I have any kind of faith generation. Otherwise, Merchant Republic. Monarchy I may switch to if I need the military slots for a few turns.

 

[CoconutTank]

One thing that I don't understand in the Tier 1 thread is many people seem to talk like they only pick one.

Switch your government often and whenever necessary. On the turn you switch government you can change your policy twice which is handy.

For Tier 1 what I usually do is, Autocracy first (and chop 3 woods for the Pyramids), then Classical Republic, and save Oligarchy for potential wars.

For Tier 2 I do Merchant Republic first, and if I have a good faith economy I will switch to Theocracy. If not I will save Theocracy to the point when I want to spend lots of faith (to buy Rock Bands) and even go like Communism -> Theocracy -> Democracy, to save on faith purchase.

IHMO Government switch in VI is a little too easy and thus cheesy. Yeah I'm aware existence of anarchy. But if a player can go Communism -> Theocracy -> Democracy without any pain you know something isn't quite right.

With T1 govts, switching between them is more viable due to them being available at the same time. The price to switch govts is kind of pricey, but additionally for T2 govts, the problem is getting the govts in the first place. This is less of a problem for Monarchy <-> Theocracy, given how close they are, but Reformed Church is still a leaf civic. Merchant Republic is pretty far from the other 2 T2 govts, and trying to get either Theocracy or Merchant Republic delays one from getting T3 govts, which imo are much more important. Trying to get both would be a really big delay.

 

[Zaarin]

I wasn't aware there were tier 2 governments other than Merchant Republic. More seriously, I'll take Theocracy if for some reason I get to it first (or I'm playing a civ like Ethiopia that benefits from the boost in Faith generation), but 99 times out of 100 I'm bee-lining for Exploration.

 

[hhhhhh]

With T1 govts, switching between them is more viable due to them being available at the same time. The price to switch govts is kind of pricey, but additionally for T2 govts, the problem is getting the govts in the first place. This is less of a problem for Monarchy <-> Theocracy, given how close they are, but Reformed Church is still a leaf civic. Merchant Republic is pretty far from the other 2 T2 govts, and trying to get either Theocracy or Merchant Republic delays one from getting T3 govts, which imo are much more important. Trying to get both would be a really big delay.

I'm among those who "overvalue" culture so culture is usually abundant and the extra cost of the two civics isn't really a burden. (They cost 340 + 440 culture, or 468 if you get Eureka for both, you can even make them only cost 405 culture if eureka is obtained early, or even 337.6 culture if you save Divine Right to unlock in Renaissance era.) The amount of faith you saved from theocracy (buy builders, settlers) is huge and cannot be ignored. And the nimbleness you obtain from changing policy twice on the turn you change government is also huge. Totally worth it. (When a builder costs 210 production, monumentality faith purchase in a Theocracy government is only 230 faith.)

 

[Republic of San Montuoso]

Am I the only one playing for fun and thus choosing their government pretty much purely for roleplay reasons?

I mean, I know that from a purely minmax POV, if you want to go diplomacy, merchant republic is probably the best, but when I'm playing with a city-State whore civ (like Matthias, Pericles or Tamar) I always go Monarchy because bonuses to envoy points (Monarchy is just the government for Tamar: bonuses to walls and city-States, it's just her thing).

Basically, my picks for governments are:

• If I'm playing diplomat or warmonger, Monarchy;
• If I'm heavy on culture or my religion is an important part of my RP personality, Theocracy;
• If I'm going gold or isolationnist/production, I usually go for Merchant Republic.

I know there is strategy, but for me it would feel wrong to play Matthias and not sticking to Monarchy.