Governments

[DaveV]

toby - you'll never see a first unhappy citizen under Communism, either.

[Tom DeMille]

I would say that the designers did an excellent job in making all forms of goverment attractive. Sure, Democracy, Fundamentalsim and Communism are the best government forms, as well they should be. They are the last ones to be discovered. Despotism, Monarchy and Republic are simply intermediate steps. You don't keep building chariots when cavalry becomes available, just as you don't stay as Monarchy when Communism becomes available.

My favorite government is Republic. WLTCDs are extremely important to OCC, so that jump from size 5 to size 12 (and then size 21 with sanitation) is the biggest event in my games. Sure, I switch to Democracy as soon as it is available, but by then the important part of the game is over.

[The Mad Monk]

I tend to spend much of my mid-game in republic, mainly because I play TOT and have a lot of military units out exploring all four maps. Democracy just dosen't cut it for the kind of huge-world exploration I engage in.

Toby: have you noticed that dwarves count as military in the fantasy game? This is another reason to stay in republic. Then there are the helicopter / missle / bomber units; they come early and often in both the Fantasy and the SF games. Are there any Buteo units that DON'T qualify as helicopter types? Playing them in Greatlaw must be a nightmare...

[Sieve Too]

Although not applicable in the classic game, Republic is often desirable in scenarios when you can get the (renamed) Women's Suffrage wonder fairly early. Rep + WS means no unit unhappiness at all plus excellent science and the ability to grow with WLTCD. Since most scenarios are "total war" types, the AI won't foil your war plans with senate negotiated peace offerings.

In the standard SP game, I never find much use for Communism. You can either have good science or good money with Communism, but not both. Without money, vet Spies won't have enough gold to bribe. Fundy kills you in science but the extra gold and production means you can produce an armada of Spies to steal AI techs with abandon, often with no reputation hit.

[inca911]

Republic is definitely a huge step early in the game due to the WLTCD. Bigger cities = bigger trade bonuses = lots of gold and science. After your cities get big, though, a switch is always in order depending on the status of the game.

Neighbors Too Close? Use Fundy and war to open up some space if bribery isn't an option.

Need to expand? Go Commie and build a host of cities without unhappiness, but without the science hit of Fundy.

Well established positionally? Democracy is my choice when I am happy with my civ status. Use it to grow your cities once your position is strong.

If you don't use Republic and WLTKD to intelligently manage the growth of your cities early in the game, I feel you are missing out on a golden opportunity. Use taxmen/scientists to reduce the food supply to 0 in a city if you have not established the infrastructure to support additional growth (temples built, markets built, etc). It is always nice to have ten size 8 cities early in the game when the AI only has 3-4 smaller ones!!
[This message has been edited by inca911 (edited April 04, 2000).]

[Black Bart]

I have yet to use communism in a regular game. I know I should. But usually I go form monarchy to Democracy. I never use Republic as well. It's said here the units away from home penalty isn't as bad, but it's still more than I can bear. But maybe because the few times I used Republcic, I got it so early, my cities were still too small to support units in the field. But SOL and Democracy come the same time, so I go straight for Democracy. If I had SOL earlier, I might consider Republic and Communism earlier.

[Neon Deon]

Demo is easy if you are big. The happy guys
off set the "out of towners" Coupled with Women's Suffrage and Shaky's who needs fundy?? Just home all your pissed off air units in the city with shaky's. Unless for some reason you need more than 50 bombers.
And if you fine tune your economy it will run
in the black at 0% tax!