01-03-2004 07:37									#1
	When to do Republic Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

With the 510 BC save MAST sent us a note saying they will be sending us Republic next turn. We have a few things to consider about making the switch to Republic. First a little review of our situation.

We are currently a Despotism generating 56 commerce/turn with 10 lost to corruption. We are spending 6 gold/turn on maintenance. The Colossus completing next turn will affect the 5 citizens working in Funky Town. Two of those tiles will lose the benefit to the Despotism penalty so we will generate 3 more commerce and I expect to lose 1 more to corruption. In Despotism we will go to 59 commerce minus 11 for corruption with a net of 48 (up from 46) commerce. The Despotism tile penalty is currently affecting 4 tiles, 1 commerce lost on the incense hill, 1 commerce lost in the Sunshinia city tile, and 1 food lost on each of the 2 floodplains. We have 28 citizens and 10 city tiles that will generate +1 gold each under Republic. As a Republic our commerce will go from 59 to 101 per turn. I am not sure how the corruption rate will change. I expect we will lose 12 to 14 commerece. We currently have 34 units, all are free under Despotism and will cost 34 gold under Republic.

Summary:
Despotism: 59 commerce – 11 corruption – 0 unit cost = 48 net commerce
Replubic: 101 commerce – 13 corruption – 34 unit cost = 54 net commerce
Note: I made no consideration for improvement maintenance costs since it will be the same under both governments.
Until we get larger cities there isn’t much difference between Despotism and Republic as far as commerce goes. Republic will gain us +2 food from the floodplains and a couple of shields from mined hills. Under Republic we will also lose the happiness provided by units in the cities. With incense soon to be our second luxury we will be limited to size 4 cities without providing additional happiness. Temples and cathedrals will be needed for our cities to grow.

When the turn arrives we will be 8 turns from Monotheism. I did some playing with the slider and determined that we will be about 355 science points from completing Monotheism, so we could do it in 7 turns under Republic after going through a period of anarchy. If the anarchy lasts for 3 turns we would finish Monotheism 2 turns later by switching to Republic then we would under Despotism. I estimate it will take around 21 turns to research Theology under Republic.

Here are three proposals for the next 50 turns.

1. We switch immediately to Republic. Three turns of anarchy, 7 to finish Monotheism, and in the next 40 we complete two more techs (e.g., Theology and Education). We will be putting all the commerce we can into science without running any significant deficit (i.e., no real change in our treasury during this time). Our production comes from the cities themselves, no money available for rushing.

2. We switch immediately to Republic. The turns of anarchy, 7 to finish Monotheism, and then we research one tech at a minimum rate (e.g., 10% science) over 40 turns. This is the same as the first proposal except that we will gain about 2000 gold and have one less tech. That 2000 gold could be used to rush 500 shields worth of improvements.

3. We wait until we finish Monotheism in 8 turns, then switch to Republic. During the anarchy we make one citizen a scientist so we only have 37 turns left at 10% to complete the research. This gives us the tech 2 turns earlier than in the second proposal while still allowing us to generate gold to use for rushing, By continuing under Despotism for a few turns it allows us to complete a couple of settlers in Suntanland and Funky Town (after Colossus is built) so they can head out a few turns earlier than they could in either of the above two proposals. Depending on how far they go they could be spending the anarchy time moving to their city site. Although we will not lift the Despotism tile penalty for another 8 turns, we will get a couple of settlers a few turns earlier and we will get some of that back when the cities are settled earlier.

I like the third proposal. It maximizes our period of anarchy. I am not worried about taking so long to research as we still have Engineering to trade and will have Monotheism shortly. Even though we will spend 40 turns getting our next tech the extra cash to rush improvements will make our cities more productive when the period is done so we will be in better shape for continuing research afterwards. To go along with this the improvements we should rush first should be marketplaces to increase the amount of gold we generate during this period. As I mentioned earlier we will not see that much of a benefit from Republic until our cities get bigger. To that end we need temples, cathedrals, and aqueducts. I would not do libraries until later in the period since they will not provide any benefit when we are doing minimum research.

Comments? Did I forget to consider anything?

	02-03-2004 07:35									#2
	Got spare money?

I like the 3rd plan as well. It gets those settlers out sooner. But we really aren't in much shape for Republic. We really need markets to fully take advantage of the government changeover. However, now is about as good a time for anarchy as we'll ever have ... at least after we get those 3 settlers out. In the future, we may not have the luxury of peace that we have now.

--Togas

	02-03-2004 19:45									#3
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Sounds good. The first things I want to rush when we get the money will be a market in Suntanland and then a cathedral. Then Suntanland can start pre-building for Sistine's. Then we rush markets in our other larger cities.

	02-03-2004 21:12									#4
	Increase Your PM Length

I agree, 3rd option sounds like the best.

Plus those flood plains giving extra food will help speed up the growth for more Settlers to cover all dat land.