Russian History

[nuther]

If you were going to try to simulate the historical Russian Empire, how would you answer the following questions, assuming a large pangea map?

Which civs would you pick?

How long would you stay in despotism?

What goverment would you switch too?

Would you ever use a Republic?

Would you say the Romanovs were despots, monarchs or could you justify a republic by saying they were emporers?

When (at what tech advance) would you change to communism, and when would you change out of it?

Would you say russia is a republic or a democracy today?

Thanks.

[Arrian]

Which civs would you pick?

Mongols.
Chinese.
Scandanavians.
Germans.
French.
English.
Indians?
Arabs?

How long would you stay in despotism?

Until I discovered Monarchy.

What goverment would you switch too?

Monarchy.

Would you ever use a Republic?

Maybe. Probably not.

Would you say the Romanovs were despots, monarchs or could you justify a republic by saying they were emporers?

Monarchy.

When (at what tech advance) would you change to communism, and when would you change out of it?

Well, I don't know if you can pick a particular spot on the tech tree. I'd say after the first industrial age war.

Would you say russia is a republic or a democracy today?

Hmm. I'd say democracy. The way I look at it is, in the game, "republic" is an ancient republic, like Rome was once. "Democracy" comes later, and represents a more modern system.

-Arrian

[alexman]

Originally posted by Arrian
The way I look at it is, in the game, "republic" is an ancient republic, like Rome was once.

From Civilopedia
Under a Republic, you rule over autonomous city states by consent of the people through representatives.

I don't think what the civilopedia describes ever happened in history (I could be wrong), but it seems closer to ancient Greece than to Rome. In any case, Arrian's right. The Republic in Civ3 is not meant to be a modern government (even though they messed up the balance and it ended up being the best all-round government in the game).

By the way, don't expect to recreate history by playing a standard Civ3 game. It's just not designed for that, IMHO.

[nuther]

I dont expect an exact recreation of history. However, I feel that if I can loosly follow the historical development of the civ I am playing, then that is close enough and it gives more of a challenge. Otherwise, almost all games become the same: go for republic, go for Great Library, go for TOE, Hoover, etc, etc.

It can be hard to hang around in monarchy all the way through to modern times while everyone else is a democracy or republic. But I wonder if I should stay in despotism all the way until communism. Russia was always so backwards.

I forgot to ask what victory conditions you would enable. What about just a space race, or a UN and a space race? I dont think any russian was ever out to conquer the world, but what about domination (communists revolution) or culture?

[Harovan]

I have done so half a year ago. A large pangaea (but not a real world map), and opponents were Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, India, the Ottomans, Germans, French, English and Scandinavians. It was a fun game, but it fell in the same trap like most of my games: In the early modern age it begun to suck and I abandoned it. After conquering half of the world, I had not the slightest desire anymore to conquer the other half.

I remained in Despotism till the early medieval age. I didn't fight ancient aggressive wars, but was blessed with a large peninsula (better: subcontinent) and rexed me into the biggest empire. I got even tech-wise on the verge of the industrial age, later I built a huge army and fleet, switched to Communism and went on a conquest. I had chosen a Stalin leaderhead for this game and I gave my ships names of real Soviet ships.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Re: Russian History

Originally posted by nuther
Which civs would you pick?

Large, what is that, 10 civs? Er... definitely Germany, Japan, China, India, England, Ottomans, Vikings, France, and Mongols.

How long would you stay in despotism?

Maybe forever, to simulate the fact that Russia's Monarchy never really got too "constitutional"

What goverment would you switch too?

Oh alright, Monarchy, I guess.

Would you ever use a Republic?

Nope.

Would you say the Romanovs were despots, monarchs or could you justify a republic by saying they were emporers?

I would say the sheer number of forced labor projects and pogroms qualifies the Romanovs as depots, rather than monarchs. And what the hell Republic had Emperors at its helm? (I would disagree with "Rome")

When (at what tech advance) would you change to communism, and when would you change out of it?

I'd say Replaceable Parts would be appropriate. Also, after refining... oil was at issue in the Civil War...

Would you say russia is a republic or a democracy today?

NEITHER. I'd say it's still "Communism". A case could be made for Republic or Monarchy, in Civ terms. A close match doesn't really exist.

[MysteryMan]

I wonder if they DID mess up the balance in making the Republic more powerful than the Democracy. It is true that a Democracy CAN be more potent than the Rep, but Democracy only works if the leaders are of the SAME MORAL MIND as the general populace, which is extremely rare and short-lived (historically speaking).
A Republic is designed, by it's very nature, to ensure that a small group of people are making decisions for everyone else.

Also, witness the fact that the most powerful nation of our time is a Republic....

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

You have a point, but I'm fairly sure that the designers of Civ intended "Democracy" to stand for "Representative Democracy," i.e., the Republic. (Whereas Republic is intended to stand for the Roman republic, more or less, or perhaps Athenian "democracy")

[MysteryMan]

That is RICH! So the Republic form of government is based more on Plato's 'The Republic' (which as far as I know has never been historically implemented) and the 'Democracy' of the game is the modern-day Republic. IMHO this is a rather serious blunder, no wonder Republic ended up as the 'better' gov't system.
Although in all fairness, this may be somewhat realistic, even those few countries (such as my own! ) who try to follow the doctrines of a democracy are unable to fully do so...

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Well, absolutely! You'd be hard pressed to find a true "democracy" in the annals of history or in the present day...

Of course, that doesn't mean that we should all become little fascists or anything...

[nuther]

I started a game using Sandinavia, China, Mongols, India, Korea, Japan, Ottomans, France, England, and Germany. I chose a monarchy level game because I was worried about staying in despotism all the way until communism/replacable parts/refining.

I just made it out of the first age. On average, I am about on par with tech if not one or two techs behind. This is mostly do to less than optimal trading on my part. One bright spot was not worrying about spending a lot of time researching monarchy or republic - that made getting out of the age a bit faster. All in all though, the first age would have been almost the same if I was not planning on staying in despotism so long. I am using a 3 to 4 space city placement.

My free tech was engineering which I traded for feudalism. I am now researching Invention. I plan to stick to the bottom of the tree for this age and get to cossacks faster. Also I think I will by pass chivalry because so many of my opponents get knight class UUs, I want to hold them off as long as possible.

I dont usually do this, but I might try a prebuild for Loenardos workshop. I can also afford about 50 free units so I am building up horsemen, I have 10 now. My neighbors are scandinavia and china as my only neighbors. Its time to start wars so I can go leader fishing.

I'm not sure how well my position will hold up through out this next age I am third on the power graph. Maybe cheap universities and many small cities will help me keep up in science capacity. I want to keep the world fighting and my borders expanding. If I can do that, I think I can slow down ai tech.