favorite military government

[ak]

Wondering what some opinions are on best war mongering government. Brief conclusions of mine are:
republic and demo - too much unhappiness for long wars
despotism - too large of a productivity penalty. Although I like pop rush in an earlier, gold-challenged economy.
communism - tried it but didn't like the pop rush limitation. By that era gold is more plentiful.
monarchy - haven't had it very long in my few games. Not sure if it has enough advantages over communism other than rush build preference.

[MadWombat]

Communism all the way! Dude, free unit support, PLUS you can pop rush stuff! Population is cheap. Plus, it gives you a good way to decrease population in those annoying just captured towns so they don't defect so much. :evil

[Whammy]

Does pop rushing have a lasting negative affect on happiness?

[ak]

Originally posted by Whammy
Does pop rushing have a lasting negative affect on happiness?

Yes. Don't remember specifics but it's less onerous for Communism than Republic or Demo.

[MadWombat]

Yep. It lasts 20 turns.

[ak]

The reason I'm not crazy about pop rushing in mid to later game is some of the improvements can totally decimate a town pop-wise, in some cases make it impossible. Whereas, with a nice treasury, you have more rush flexibility - especially in a tight spot.

[Droplede]

Gold is good.

I'm with you on that, ak. At least with the way I play, pop rush loses its desirability pretty quickly when I'm out of ancient times. Gold rushing taps a more accessible source and keeps everyone happy.

Understanding, of course, that I'm not big on domination wins and eternal war, I've had good luck conducting campaigns in Republic. I'm very deliberate about keeping my luxury supply high, so that helps. And it gets easier, of course, after I've started building a few police stations. But I've been at war (that I caused) with both France and Germany for about 30 turns now without losing a city to rioting.

I admit, though, that going into perma-stomp mode make Communism real attractive. Love that high city-fortification happiness level.

[MadWombat]

Hmmm... by the time I have communism, I don't really NEED to be rushing things in my main Cities, it's taking 2-3 turns to pump out modern armour or mech inf, and, since I'm generally mobilized, that's all i can build anyway. I use pop rushing to reduce the population in my newly captured cities. All those workers you capture are helpful too... as soon as the resistance is over, you can throw them into the city to get extra things out of it =]

[ak]

True, in your core cities you don't need to rush as much (although it's nice to occasionally throw a little gold in to save a few turns and keep the pop growth cranking). But in the newly-acquired outer cities, I sometimes have situations where I need a quick walls/temple/barracks/library or whatever and I don't have enough population to rush it/them.

[MadWombat]

Use captured workers until you do have population. I always get a whole bunch of workers when I invade the AI and use them to pump up city populations until I have enough to rush. =]

[ak]

thanks, I'll try that. I'm sure they'll be happy for a change of pace after jungle detail.

[MadWombat]

No worries. =] Makes getting those improvements a breeze. =]

[Droplede]

Heh. Good point, Mr. Wombat. In my current "Mr. Nice Guy" game, I've avoided having my captured workers join my captured cities for happiness reasons. But that would make that late-game Communism rush more viable for those distant captured cities. After all, if you're just gonna work them to death. ...

That's the sound of the men workin' on the
chain
ga-ay-ang!

[MadWombat]

Oh yeah, extra technique; if you want to rush something expensive like... uhm, say an airport (I think it costs 8), you can make your city start something that costs less than 6 people to rush, rush it, and then change production, pump in some more workers, and rush the rest.

[ak]

MadWombat, which gov't do you prefer up until you get Communism? Assuming you're in a warring state of mind.