Why Change Governments?

[norse]

Is there a specific reason to switch governments during the course of the game? I think the despotism works well since it seems easy to play. Whenever I switch governments I immediately begin losing money and I have to tweak to break even. It seems keeping the same government is easier. I suppose that certain governments are good means to certain ends depending on how one would like to win. What gov types are good for what stragegies for winning? Additionally, are there any good tips for switching govs?

I have only played one or two games to completion so I am still learning.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[kangyio]

First,you might want to use religious civ if you really got pissed off during switching goverments because there is no anarchy between switching goverments,although I have never used one before.
Second,you are absolutely right,different goverments have different strengths,as long as you can get the most out of it,then it's a good choice.But back to the matter of staying at depotism,I really can't see the point,I think at least monarchy is in many ways if not all better than depotism.

 

[DS_Legionary]

First off my advice on Despotism. GET OUT OF IT A.S.A.P!!! You are wasting a lots of food, production, and income in most cases. You get a tile penalty in Despotism that if it produces more than two of anything, it drops it by one. Meaning a tile that under normal condition would produce 3 food, 1 shield, and 3 gold, only prduces 2 food, 1 shield, and 2 gold. That's one food and one gold wasted. After a few tiles this really adds up. Especially in the early game, when it is most crucial.

Also, about losing money when you switch governments. If you do not have a good infrastructure set up (Like marketplaces or libraries) you will probably lose gold. Not to mention, that switching out of Despotism most likely means that you will have a decreased unit support. Which in turn means less money coming into your treasury. But, given some infrastructure, you will end up with MUCH more productive cities in any other form of government.

BTW just a suggestion. When switching out of Despotism you will most likely have two choices. Monarchy or Republic. If you know that you will be going to war with a neighbor soon pick Monarchy. If you think you will most likely be peaceful for awhile choose Republic.

 

[MadScot]

Absolutely - switching governments is key to doing well.

In despotism and anarchy - the two worst govs - you lose one food, one gold and one shield for any tile which has three or more. So a mined hill is three shield in e.g. republic, but only two in despotism. That, alone, is reason enough to swap as soon as you can.

Despotism also has crippling corruption, so cities far from your capital are nearly worthless, with likely only one shield and one gold per turn, which hardly contributes to the civ, and may actually make a loss.

Monarchy is a good warmongering govt (Domination and Conquest victories) especially for less experienced players, since there is a lot of free unit support, your people never become war-weary and you can use military units in your cities to keep people from being unhappy.

Communist is like that too, except it's better for widely spread empires (where the corruption spreads evenly, so all towns contribute a little) but your core is more corrupt than monarchy. You get more military police to keep the cities happy, and can use population to rush projects, just like in despotism.

Democracy is the peaceful route to victory. You get extra-fast workers, bonus gold in almost all tiles, very low corruption. Downside is your people don't like war and you pay for all your units. Diplomacy or Space Race are good for this.

The all-round best IMHO is Republic. You get most of the pluses of democracy, with a bit more corruption and a bit more resilience to war weariness. Once you get to understand how to manage the happiness of your people with luxuries and entertainment tax, you can wage almost continuous war as a Republic.

Tips for switching:

Religious civs take only a one turn anarchy when switching, so can switch at will. Long war - go commie or monarch. Peace - go back to republic or demo.

Non religious need to be more careful. If you know you're going to war a lot, it might be worth staying in Monarchy, and may never be worth being a democracy. You'll lose more production if you switch a lot than you gain in the good turns. That's why Republic is so nice. It's a decent compromise and saves on the anarchies a lot.

 

[sabo]

Originally posted by DS_Legionary
BTW just a suggestion. When switching out of Despotism you will most likely have two choices. Monarchy or Republic. If you know that you will be going to war with a neighbor soon pick Monarchy. If you think you will most likely be peaceful for awhile choose Republic.

Even going straight to Rep from Despo if you expect war isn't such a bad idea either, but it depends on some factors (difficulty level, resources, happiness buildings, etc)

 

[Grille]

Originally posted by norse
Whenever I switch governments I immediately begin losing money and I have to tweak to break even.

If you switch from despotism to republic (or demo) and have this specific problem, your citizens are probably working a lot of tiles w/o a road on it; possibly your towns are small on avarage, thus the absolute number of tiles being worked is small either.

In republic (demo) you have to pay 1 gold support for each unit while despotism has a dynamic system to support a certain number of units for free.

Generally, it's recommended to build a road on any working tile ASAP. Rule of thumb: have at least 1 worker per city from early on. A road gives +1 commerce. Due to despotism tile penalty, you could not benefit that much from your working tiles. Republic (demo) removes any tile penalty and you get additionally +1 on every commerce tile. If you have enough roads built (and actually enough citizens to work these tiles), the additional commerce from republic (demo) will easily compensate the despotism free support advantage; with an avarage military size, you should get more gold from republic than from despotism while science research is faster - that is even true if you have to spend some commerce on entertainment. Furthermore, you would get more food and shields from certain tiles from any gov other than despotism, so you'd have bigger cities with a bigger production capability.

Unexperienced players like to underrate the power of the worker and the importance of tile improvements (esp. roads in that case) in the early game.
Now if you found a new city, build a worker there almost as first task. A new city with 1 shield per turn and at least 2 food per turn could have the worker as first task, other cities might build some other stuff first to not waste shields (2spt and 2fpt city: warrior, worker..., for example). If you follow such build patterns, you should be better off by the time you discover republic (and switch to it) - in most cases.

Have fun!