Yuch, communism is a great military option

[RAL2000]

I kind of avoided this one ideologically, but it works really well on higher levels when you are looking for a straight military victory.

I turned off everything except dominance (i.e. the 66% of land surface) victory condition.

I went from despot to monarchy to democracy to communism as my empire got more and more spread out -- no way are two administrative centers enough. A brief stint in Democracy just didn't cut it -- I was getting overwhelmed by corruption, and of course every time I would attack someone to take more territory my population started ripping up the nice things they built. You can't take 66% of the land surface and not end up with a lot of cities spread out all over the place!

It has been a challenge to stay up on tech, but I can usually extort tech in exchange for a peace treaty. Conscription benefits are great too -- you can crank population using irrigation and while it eventually catches up to you three new infantry per big city per turn goes a long way toward plugging gaps in the line and garrisoning captured cities.

Nothing new here for more experienced players, but if you haven't tried it in a military victory game you are missing something big -- now can we call it something else? Communists in the real world didn't do so hot on the military front did they.

 

[Jimmicus]

Communism's in the cold war didn't do so bad when it heated up. The Korean war was a bloody stalemate despite the best efforts of the western world; and of course no-one should forget that it was Russia that did more than anyone to defeat the Nazis in WWII. The potential for massive conscript armies in the game does well enough to represent the workings of communism in war. No need to tweak IMHO.

I haven't had much experience with communism in game unfortunately as I have been unable to get over the civ 2 aversion to the whole concept. Must try it in the next game...

 

[Sven]

Depends on what you're comparing it with... They did pretty well 1942-1955, and they also managed to kick the U.S. out of Vietnam...

(The previous post mentioned the same as I... sorry, it took me 30 minutes to read other posts before replying, so he got in between)

 

[RAL2000]

LOL and good points on the ideology

Actually what I find hilariously ironic under communism is getting out the whip and wiping out five citizens to build a cathedral. Marx would be scandalized, hee hee.

 

[bennydtown]

I'd say it's pretty historically accurate. The large communist states have certainly won a lot more wars than they've lost, and even now Russia and China maintain very large standing armies, when compared to their overall GDP. The Soviet Union's downfall had little to do with military weakness, just economic inefficiency.

So now China's trying to learn from their mistake by taking a more market oriented approach. Of course, in my opinion, they're just mixing what's worst about Communism (Lack of local accountability and rapant corruption) with the worst of Capitalism (Lack of Corporate accountability and rapant worker exploitation). Who knows, maybe it will work for them. I sure wouldn't want to live there.

Beside the point though. What communism lacks in it's ability to create wealth, it makes up for in military advantages and the ability to focus on specific goals.