Goverments

[Joseph]

I like to get along, as long as possible, so I go for Theocracy as soon as it is available. Then wait until Corp. Rep. is available and I change to it. I play Med 4 large all the time. In Med 4, Monarchey is available before Theocracy. I used it for a few turns, until Theocracy is available. One of these games, I'm going to try every Gov., and go for military conquest.

------------------

[Solver]

Goverments

I want to know which goverment type do you prefer. Here are my goverment preferences, but I would be happy to see what do you like.
Early in the game, Theocracy is the first thing I’m going for. It produces much more gold than Despotism and also allows setting science % to 60. This results in much more better research. Theocracy also gives you the ability to create Monks. I like it, as Monks are a very powerful weapon, even early in the game.
When I discover Democracy, it’s not a good choice for science. That’s because it allows science percent of 70, but produces less gold than Theocracy does, and also doesn’t allow you to create Monks. Then, in the Modern era, I love Fascism if I’m going for a conquest victory. If I’m lucky to have Renaissance era enemies by then, I can attack their Pikemen with Fascists, what gives me a terrific advantage.
I love the Multinational Republic (or Trade Republic?) for it’s fantastic gold. With science percent of only 60, it generates lots of research, as gold is simply terrific. You’re also going to have tons of gold in your stocpile with it.
And finally, in the Diamond era I like changing my goverment to Ecotopy. That’s when I build the Eden Project, I can switch to Ecotopy. Then order my best cities, which are able to produce Eco Rangers (Park Rangers?) in 1 turn, to do that and launc them into the space. Let the Rangers land near eache enemy city, if possible and this is a great for conquest.
Share your opinion on goverments, as that’s a very important concept for your empire.


------------------
Solver - http://www.aok.20m.com

[slamp]

Exactly the same for me under normal game.
I switch asap to Theocracy, and later to Corporate Republic.
With Apolyton Pack I use: Theocracy then Fundamentalist then Corporate Republic.

[Gregurabi]

Solver pretty much nailed it. Theocracy -> Fascism -> Corporate Republic (or Technocracy).

I'll switch to Virtual Democracy when I pass 100-110 cities. The 120 city limit is the real killer for me, since I always play conquest on large/huge maps.

(That's in the unmodified game, of course.)

[John Markenham]

I go for monarchy, then theocracy, then ussually fascism, and sometimes I will switch to corporate republic. I never switch to ecotopia but I always have to get the park rangers, but the eden project kills the three most polluting cities which are ussually my best cities, which have all of my good wonders in them. Maybe I might want to try and not have so much pollution. That might be a good idea.

[Walrus]

After playing through to the modern era under a theocracy, I experimented with Republic as I found myself always one step behind the leading AI civ's science......this is on a huge map, Emperor skill and 6 enemy civs.
I found it gave me a good boost science-wise which I was able to turn into a decisive advantage by the time I was able to industrialize.

I find the clerics don't work too well for me under a Theocracy, as half the time the target city rejects the conversion attempt. I prefer building mills early on and building up stacks of musketeers/cannon/cavalry with a slaver thrown in, then beating up everyone nearby. Don't have to worry about tithe income then, as I've captured the city anyway

[Odin]

My order is Tyranny/Despotism, Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, Ecotopia, Vurtual Democracy

[Cannes]

I go Theocracy immidiately, I then go democracy, because I almost always reach the 40 city limit of theocracy before I discover corporate republic. Corporate republic, then technocracy, when I reach 110 cities I finally switch to virtual democracy.

[Cannes]

I have just discovered (in the ctp2 forum) that you can change the limit of cities allowed by each government time before they become discontent.
Call_to_power\ctp_data\default\gamedata\govern.txt
There is a list with all the government types and their characteristics. The city limit size can be changed here. Here is an example of the anarchy setting:
TOO_MANY_CITIES_THRESHOLD 1000
I have personally boosted the number of cities in general ending with a threshold for virtual democracy of 1000 cities, which is propably about the largest amount of cities you can fit into a huge map... if not, then I will just have to make it bigger

[phoenixcager]

I usually go Theocracy- Corporate Republic-Technocracy

------------------
phoenixcager
------------------
of the the Civilization Gaming Network. Visit the CGN Forums

[Gregurabi]

Cannes: yes, long-time CTP players also know about the text files. I've been tempted to fix up the government limits myself, but I have some sort of built-in tendency to view this as cheating. (It would benefit me, but not the AI, since the AI's too stupid to expand aggressively or to conquer its neighbors and thus have enough cities to matter.)

If I were going to change it, though, I'd lower the threshold values but also dramatically lower the per-city penalty. For example, Theocracy has a 40-city limit, but it has a per-city penalty of 0.5 -- so for 50 cities (10 over) you get 5 points of unhappiness. I'd probably change this to a 20-city limit, but with a per-city penalty of something like 0.1 (1 point of unhappiness for every ten cities over the limit; or 3 points of unhappiness for 50 cities). Of course, I'd have to do a lot of play-testing to determine what the "proper" values should be.

[Cannes]

Reply to Gregurabi:

Lowering the threshold will have an even greater impact on the game than making it higher. AI will stop building cities as soon as it reaches the limit, no matter the penalty for having too many cities. So that would greatly dicrease the number of cities that the AI is prompt to build...