Republic or Monarchy

[nutriphat]

Despotism is crap and i think most of us try to get some other form of government as fast as possible.

Which government do you try to get first, and what are the benefits and disbenefits of republic vs monarchy?

[Bluefrog]

Check out the civilopedia entry for both. I usually stick to Despotism for a little while after I'm able to switch, just to prepare my treasury for the hit. Unless most of you cities are size 7, either way you'll take a hit on military support costs.

If you do a lot of warmongering in the early game, Monarchy is for you. If not, Republic is the way to go, by and large. It allows for faster research, but also requires other means of happiness, as it doesn't support military police.

[Palaiologos]

Monarchy. Actually i stick with Monarchy through the rest of the game.

[Harovan]

Both are economically better than Despotism, because they get you rid of the despotic limitation in food, production and commerce. Both allow rushbuying instead of poprushing under Despotism. Some people see this as a disadvantage.

The Republic is a good government for a economically prosper and peaceful civilization. It has commercial bonus, each tile that is producing at least one commerce, gets a bonus commerce. Short wars under Republic are possible, but if you fight long wars, you will get problems with war weariness. If you play on a higher difficulty level, you need 3 luxuries and marketplaces in your core cities to keep your people content till size 12, otherwise you need to use the luxury slider. This is because there's no martial right, units in the cities don't make your citizens content.

Monarchy is a good government for the eternal warmonger. It knows no war weariness and supports a martial law of 2 units for towns (size 1..6), 4 for cities (7..12) and 8 for metropolises (size 13+). It has no commercial bonus, but is not so dependant from luxuries like the Republic, because you can make your citizens content with units.

Golden rule: Get rid of Despotism ASAP. If you're a warmonger and plan to conquer the World, Monarchy is your choice. If you're more or less peaceful and have a strong core and some luxuries, go with the Republic.

[joncnunn]

If your Religious, switch to Monarchy ASAP, and wait for Republic until your emipre can support it and then switch to Republic.

For Non-Religious civs though, you need to make a choice between Monarchy and Republic, and if the choice is Republic, you need to stay in Depotism until your empire can support the Republic. If your choice is Monarchy, then you can switch as soon as you discover it, aren't in a GA, and aren't in the middle of building of a GW.

[PrinceBimz]

Republic is good but don't plan on being able to fight a long war. War weariness will kill you under republic.

[realpolitic]

Republic -- Espically if you've profited from techwhoring - the profits can be used to fuel further advances.

[Brizey]

Long wars suck in general anyway. You lose your superior management advantage in a long war.

[player1]

Get Monarchy.

Exept in case in which you could manage happiness in Republic without needing luxury slider (amd that mean having at lkeast 3 lusury resources).

P.S.
Othervise if you take Republic and spending too much on luxury slider, you'lll get gold adn science more slowly then in Monarchy.


P.P.S.
And there are some (very) rare games in which you stick in Despotism.

That when you are at war and you have many units, in which case going to Republic or Monarchy woudl drain you gold and science reserve (and you realy need a lot of units in order to get that happen).