What are the advantages of Feudalism compared to Monarchy?

[Seanirl]

There must be some... I just got feudalism and Feudalism interests me. That and the tech Feudalism can only be used by me for the government because I've no iron

 

[The Economist]

Feudalism's big advantage is in the army size it allows you to field. What is unique about Feudalism is that you're allowed to support more troops if you have a small city than if you have a big one. I think its something like 8/4/2 for small (1-6)/medium (7-12)/large (13+).

Its got war weariness, but only a little. I think it also has worse corruption than monarchy.

Analysis: Only use it if you have at least a few small frontier cities (and plan to keep a few around without letting them grow) and you have a big army to support. The army should be so big, in fact, that it would be hard to support in a republic even with its lower corruption and commerce bonus. In other words: its pretty much for war mongers.

And war mongers without iron aren't very war mongerish... so its prolly not the best gov't choice for your situation

Good luck though

 

[Veteranewbie]

Feudalism is crap, don't use it, it only supports 5 units per town you have and decrease the units support as your towns grow, and each extra units you have, you have to pay 3 gold to support them (it cost 2 gold per turn in republic, and 1 gold in all other governments), thus it will make it very costly to support a large army unless you have a lot of small towns. Therefore, unless you have a HUGE empire with LITTLE population in each towns (and note that corruption doesnt affect food production, thus any of your small towns can grow into larger one) feudalism is your last choice of government. But I assume a good way to use feudalism is keep hurrying production to keep the population down. If you want huge army, stay in monarchy and upgrade to fascism. Note that feudal has the same corruption as monarchy

 

[meltone1]

Feudalism supports 5 for town, 2 for city, and 1 for metro. Corruption is same as Monarchy. Mil. police is same as monarchy. War weariness is a factor, however, which is the same as republic. Use feudalism if you have a lot of military units, mostly towns, and aren't planning on staying at war for a long time. 3 support for extra units is crap, really.

I modded feudalism a while ago to have 6.2.1 support, communal corruption (due to the decentralized government) and 2 support for extra units. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but I think it's gonna be just fine. Other suggestions people have made is for the government to require "no maintenance", and then to compensate for that, not allow hurrying of production. I haven't done this though..

 

[Master Shake]

I use feudalism instead of monarchy when my towns are all small population and I expect them to stay that way for a while. Seems to work for me...

What was that about iron? You seemed to be implying you can't be a Monarchy if you don't have iron? Is that true?

-mS

 

[Colonel Kraken]

I like the idea of communal corruption. Good thought.

Another thing you could do to spice up Feudalism is allow them a couple government specific improvements/wonders. Maybe they should be the only ones who can build Knights Templar. Allow a Castle/Keep improvement that increases defense and lowers unhappiness. Stuff like that can make a certain government very tempting for some situations.

--CK

 

[Naokaukodem]

For now, Feudalism have some "resistance" rate set to 0 (just like Fascism, which is the last governement which can be discovered and farest in the game than Democracy), maybe that means that none or the smallest Anarchy period is experienced when a non-religious civ switch to it ?

It could explain the cumulated issues of this governement from both Monarchy (corruption) and Republic (war weariness).

 

[player1 fanatic]

Since normally, in the game, you have more then 2 units per city (workers included), Feudalism obviosuly gives better results if having lot of small towns then Monarchy.

Just make sure that in moment you get units that do need upkeep to switch immediatly to some other government.



P.S.
Although, personnaly, I think that MODing Feudalism to 1gp per unit upkeep (instead of 3gp) would make it more interesting (and not make it ubalanced at all).

 

[Seanirl]

Analysis: Only use it if you have at least a few small frontier cities (and plan to keep a few around without letting them grow) and you have a big army to support. The army should be so big, in fact, that it would be hard to support in a republic even with its lower corruption and commerce bonus. In other words: its pretty much for war mongers.

Right. I don't think I'll be going into Feudalism then because I think most of my cities are at least around size 9.

And war mongers without iron aren't very war mongerish... so its prolly not the best gov't choice for your situation

Yeah but luckily I managed to get chivalry before anyone else and trade that for incense, iron and some money from the Germans

I also took Lagos from the incredibly weak Portugeuse. Then made peace for The Republic and some money and gave them Feudalism.

Now I'm getting the Knight's Templar next turn

What was that about iron? You seemed to be implying you can't be a Monarchy if you don't have iron? Is that true?

Looking back on it now I do seem to be implying that but what I meant was that Feudalism gives you the gov., pikemen and med. inf. and you need iron for all but the government so the only thing I could use it for before I got iron was the government.

So... given the current 3 gold unit cost in Republic... I think I'll stay in Monarchy.

Although I don't think my army is all that big.... and I AM religious.. I'll probably try it out and see if it's cheaper.

 

[Emperor Xerxes]

In my mod I gave all the governments a unique improvement or small wonder. Feudal governments can build the Feudal Estate which gives extra gold income and production.

 

[meltone1]

Originally posted by Emperor Xerxes
In my mod I gave all the governments a unique improvement or small wonder. Feudal governments can build the Feudal Estate which gives extra gold income and production.

hmm.. which box(s) do you check to give extra gold/shields? Maybe capitolism? I'm not sure..

 

[kring]

Originally posted by Seanirl


So... given the current 3 gold unit cost in Republic... I think I'll stay in Monarchy.

Did you mean Feudalism instead of Republic? Republic is only 2 gold/unit with some free unit support (1/3/4).

 

[derekroth]

I think that Feudalism is only usefull for underdog countries. If you like to play out games even if you have a really bad start or get boxed in by the AI early on. Feudalism could be usefull to get yourself out of that trap. Assuming that your small empire is mostly towns, you could built up a pretty substantial military compared to the size of your empire. Then use this to suprise your weakest neighbor and hopefully gain a large chunk of land. After which, a more usefull government might be called for.

I think another reason they made this government is to allow those pathetic AI civs traped on some desolate and small continent have an army large enough to resist attack. Many of my games have little continents like this with one civ trapped in the past. With Feudalism, they have a better chance of resisting an amphibias invasion by supperior forces. Of course, this is assuming the AI knows not to build aquaducts.

 

[maqabee]

Question on feudalism and other gov't-- if it a preferred gov't like maya and feudalism are is there an advantage of any kind to play in that gov't??

 

[Colonel Kraken]

Originally posted by maqabee
Question on feudalism and other gov't-- if it a preferred gov't like maya and feudalism are is there an advantage of any kind to play in that gov't??

No, that just means that if the AI is playing Maya, it'll prefer to switch to that particular government type.

--CK

 

[Master Shake]

According to one of the strategy articles here, preferred government has no effect on the AI's choice of government--it affects only the AI's attitude towards other civs.

-mS

 

[Wormwood]

My understanding is that there are no building maintenance costs under Feudalism (unmodded game).

 

[Dr Elmer Jiggle]

Originally posted by Wormwood
My understanding is that there are no building maintenance costs under Feudalism (unmodded game).

Nope. I think that was announced at one point during the beta period for either Feudalism, Fascism, or both, but currently the only government with no building maintenance is Anarchy. You can view the government rules in the editor.

 

[Revolutionary]

Oh I didn't know that. I heard some where that they decided to give the no maintenance to Fascism instand of to Feudalism

 

[tomart109]

I find that Feudalism is better than Monarchy in the early game!

I like to micromanage my towns, keeping them 6 or under by bleeding off excess in workers/settlers. This maximizes growth and shield production per population (don't even use the word "exploit" - I am royally sick of that word...) to outgrow other civs in the crucial early stages, getting the jump to crucial resources and the best land. (Also, Agricultural trait is part of this plan - boost that early growth!)

So it's easy to have the biggest military, 5 per town. Plus the extra workers connect everything so I have the best mobility. Couple that with aggressive warmongering to take out nearby rivals and take an early lead...

I find that I don't ever reach the limit where i have to pay that exorbitant maintenance, but if i did, i'd just make more towns...