when do you switch governments

[web25]

what are your strategies for switching?

do you learn republic or monarchy before the next tech tree or just keep up with federalism, engineering or theology?

 

[Everkane]

You need to get out of Depotism as soon as possible.

Most of people on lower levels get Philosophy so they can get Republic as a free tech (this is known as "Republic Slingshot"), but at higher levels you hardly gonna get Philosophy before the AI.

You can go for Monarchy also, it depends of the kind of game you are looking for.

In the worst case scenario you can go to Medieval Era and take Feudalism (in Civ 3 there's no such thing as Federalism), but I don't see the point of doing this. It's up to you.

I particularly play 90% of my games as a Republic, rarely switching govs more than once.

 

[timerover51]

what are your strategies for switching?

do you learn republic or monarchy before the next tech tree or just keep up with federalism, engineering or theology?

Unless you are playing a Religious civilization with minimal Anarchy time when switching, you do the switch in the Ancient Period and avoid switching thereafter. You do want to get out of Depotism as soon as possible.

 

[Civinator]

The much too long phases of Anarchy are one of the shortcommings of Civ 3. When I remember well, when playing nomal Civ 3, I switched to Republic as soon as possible and later to Communism. Many of the governments in Civ 3 are not very useful in practice, as the gains are not worth the losses when switching governments.

Therefore I mostly play my own mod. In the next version of CCM, switching of governments will be improved even more and may be a new form of government will be added for TCC-games (Two Cities Challenge).

 

[Aabraxan]

I get out of Despo as soon as it's possible/economically feasible, and stay in whatever I go to for the rest of the game. Unless I'm playing AW, that almost always means Republic. For AW, Monarchy.

 

[Desertsnow]

I get out of Despotism when as soon as I'm confident that I'll have a healthy economy. In my novice days I went to Republic, but I play a more aggressive style nowadays and so usually go to Monarchy, and then Communism later.

 

[CommandoBob]

what are your strategies for switching?

do you learn republic or monarchy before the next tech tree or just keep up with federalism, engineering or theology?

In a nutshell (for me), the plan is to get out Despotism as quick as possible. There are production penalities in Despotism that disappear in Monarchy/Republic.

Unit support costs are higher in Monarchy/Republic than Despotism. In Despotism, free unit support is 4 units/4 units/4 units for town/city/metropolis, with 1 gpt for any excess. For Monarchy/Republic, a town (city less than size 7) supports 1 unit for
free. So, if all your cities are small and you change governments, you are now paying unit support for 75% of your military, where before it was all free. In Monarchy, it costs 1 gpt for each unit; in Republic it is 2 gpt. Cities (size 7 to 12) support more free units and Metropolis (size 13 and more) even more.

That sounds bad, and it is, but your cities grow faster when you are not in Despotism and this will fix itself. But try to have some of your cities at or near size 6 when you change governments. It helps.

Figure (very roughly) that it will take about 10 turns after you select your new government type to get your economy moving upwards, if you don't adjust the science and luxury sliders.

The larger your civ, the longer your Anarchy time between governments, up to nine turns. No city production happens during Anarchy. No new units and no new buildings. Plus rebuilding the economy afterwards. Which is why, unless your civ is REL, most folks only switch governments once.

 

[Theov]

You need to get out of Depotism as soon as possible.

Most of people on lower levels get Philosophy so they can get Republic as a free tech (this is known as "Republic Slingshot"), but at higher levels you hardly gonna get Philosophy before the AI.

You can go for Monarchy also, it depends of the kind of game you are looking for.

In the worst case scenario you can go to Medieval Era and take Feudalism (in Civ 3 there's no such thing as Federalism), but I don't see the point of doing this. It's up to you.

I particularly play 90% of my games as a Republic, rarely switching govs more than once.

you need writing also to switch to republic, preventing your from slingshooting.

 

[Theov]

Only later in the game, when I've conquered another civ away from my main land, I sometimes switch to communism. Not for the economics, but for the production overseas and the lack of war weariness.

 

[Redcoyote]

I have learned it is better to have democracy when you aren't at war. I usually switch to either Monarchy or Fascism when I want to go to war against another nation. I get tired of the Hippie protesters during times of war.

 

[Bowsling]

I get out of Despotism when as soon as I'm confident that I'll have a healthy economy. In my novice days I went to Republic, but I play a more aggressive style nowadays and so usually go to Monarchy, and then Communism later.

That's like literally the opposite of my civ progression. Republic is a much, much, much, better government in almost every cirumstance. Hell, I even stay in a republic for warmongering games.

 

[Everkane]

You need to get out of Depotism as soon as possible.

Most of people on lower levels get Philosophy so they can get Republic as a free tech (this is known as "Republic Slingshot"), but at higher levels you hardly gonna get Philosophy before the AI.

You can go for Monarchy also, it depends of the kind of game you are looking for.

In the worst case scenario you can go to Medieval Era and take Feudalism (in Civ 3 there's no such thing as Federalism), but I don't see the point of doing this. It's up to you.

I particularly play 90% of my games as a Republic, rarely switching govs more than once.

you need writing also to switch to republic, preventing your from slingshooting.

I believe it's kinda obvious you need Writing since it's impossible to get Philosophy without it

 

[MarkK]

Switch whenever the most evil impulses of your brain dictate you must...

 

[web25]

i noticed sometimes when i switch to republic it takes me longer to research than with the starting government. i have plenty of roads for the commerce bonus. maybe monarchy is my government.

 

[Theov]

I believe it's kinda obvious you need Writing since it's impossible to get Philosophy without it

Uh.
Code of Laws I mean.

 

[Bowsling]

Everkane made that post assuming that you research Code of Laws first. Below Emperor, you can usually do all this just as the first AIs have Writing. Above Emperor, it's really really difficult to research both techs before the AI.

I'm sure Lanzelot could elaborate much more on the Republic slingshot.

 

[darski]

I generally played small maps but I often found it difficult to get out of despotism. I would have Cathy next door or Bismark nosing around or I would get my golden age just when I would be switching in 3 more turns.

 

[choxorn]

The larger your civ, the longer your Anarchy time between governments, up to nine turns.

Really? That's what determines Anarchy time? I always figured it was random.

 

[timerover51]

The larger your civ, the longer your Anarchy time between governments, up to nine turns. No city production happens during Anarchy. No new units and no new buildings. Plus rebuilding the economy afterwards. Which is why, unless your civ is REL, most folks only switch governments once.

Hmm, I will need to start to keep that in mind when I do the switch. I have noticed that I can get a range of between 2 and 6 turns of Anarchy to go from Despotism to Monarchy, even on my modified maps when I am not playing a Religious civilization such as Spain. Normally, I am the Dutch, the Vikings, or the Byzantines. Sometimes the English, none of which are Religious.

 

[CommandoBob]

I had heard years ago that the larger the civ the longer the anarchy, but I don't recall who said that.

I was re-reading Ginger_Ale's sticky on Frequently Asked Questions - Civ3, Play The World, & Conquests, in the Empire Management Questions section, where I saw this, which has more detail.

What is anarchy? Is there anyway to make it shorter?

Anarchy is the time spent between governments, aka a "revolution" period. When you change governments, you enter anarchy - in anarchy, your cities don't produce any shields, and you can't research. You can't hurry production, but your cities will grow! It is essentially mimicing chaos. For Religious civilizations, anarchy only lasts 1 turn in Vanilla and Play the World, and 2 turns in Conquests. For non-Religious civilizations, the formula is: 1 (2 for Conquests) + random number between 1-4 + number between 0-3 depending on size of your empire. The calculation is pretty much based on luck and the size of your civilization - if you revolt when it is smaller (earlier in the game), it is more likely to be shorter, but not necessarily.