Rush to Government Techs vs. Diverse Research

[KhanMan]

This is a thread to discuss something I have been wondering about for awhile: is it better to rush towards Monarchy or Republic, like in Civ2, for the production bonuses, and pay the higher costs, or wait on the government techs and get more of the less expensive lower level techs first?

Opinions, all?

-KhanMan
King of the Greeks

[Eli]

I prefer Despotism-->Monarchy-->Democracy

Mainly because I tried the Despotism-->Republic-->Democracy in my first game and it didnt end well.

[Lord Maxwell]

You can as well fill up some techs while you wait. Odds are high that you need to stay Despot for a while so you can force labour alot. (Especially on bigger maps.) Killing 1-2 citizens for finishing right about any early city improvement is mighty nice. And if you want to be in the contest of owning enough land you will have ALOT of cities that only produce 1 shield. Even after courthouses are installed in them.

On a tiny map I build 15 cities, and the last 6-7 of those were unable to get above 1 shield even with courthouses. Instead having to wait for the Secret Thingamajig to be built in a city with 1 (!!!) shield produced. On a huge map this would be 60-80 cities, with half of them totally improductive for alot of turns.

Once you get basic infrastructure up you should go republic. Once in the middle ages beeline for democracy and switch to that. (My Secret city finally got to 3 shield production then.)

Despotism can be used to good effect early. (And you keep numbers down in cities as well, keeping people from rioting over the lack of temples etc etc.)

[Paradigm]

Republics are awful to maintain unless you have either built financial improvements or have set yourself up with cash lots of throw around(i.e. luxuries,gold mines,etc). All these cash making improvements will close the shortfall from the fact you are not given any unit support from the cities.

I also needed to change the allocation of science and luxuries in the doemestic advisor screen; i think i have it at 40% luxury, 30% science. Amazingly though i pour all my money into spoiling my citizens I'm still cutting a net gain of every turn of about +25-+40 gold a turn. Science though one would think at 30% is crap, but the average time it takes to reach another advance is 16-22 turns on average.(Anyway with all the cash being thrown around you can just buy advances from other civs).

I have found it very useful to be a monarchy or a communism, when im in the Phase expanding my empire. After ive gotten comfortable with its size, I focus on having over 60% of my cities built marketplaces. Usually if the cities have also had the usual terrian improvments, becoming a republic wont be so rough.

[Eli]

40% luxury???

I currently give only 10% with my Persian Democracy, and it's more than enough.
I guess that without the Chapel I had to give 20% but 40% looks too much.

[Sarxis]

I don't know if there is any right or wrong way to answer this. A lot depends on what style of play you are gong for; wether you are at war; what kind of improvements you are wanting to build..
The advantage to going for techs like, pottery for example, is the wonders that you get to build right away (pyramids).

[Paradigm]

Yeah i know 40% is rough...It was the only way my empire would stablize. In any of the previous civs 40% was never neccesary, but it was the only way to control the cities w/o having martial law and all the costs incurring w/o keeping up to 2 or 3 troops in each citiy.


Im playing on regent currently, i dont know how much that affects thier mood.

Does anyone have a perspective on the differences in the citzen moods on the different difficulty settings? They gave a very ambiguos desciption in the instruction manuel....

[albiedamned]

Originally posted by Paradigm
Does anyone have a perspective on the differences in the citzen moods on the different difficulty settings? They gave a very ambiguos desciption in the instruction manuel....

From the Civilopedia entry on Overpopulation:
Chieftan: first 4 citizens are content
Warlord: first 3 citizens are content
Regent and Monarch: first 2 citizens are content
Emperor and Diety: only first citizen is content

After the initial content citizens, all subsequent citizens are unhappy unless you do something about it (martial law, improvements, luxuries, wonders).

[KoalaBear33]

I think it depends on your strategy. I think if you get a unique unit early on, it's better to go for that and try to expand instead of waiting for monarchy (or republic). Yes you lose efficiency but I find that your unique unit is MUCH better when you use it as soon as possible.

KoalaBear33