Oligarch or Democratic state - which do you prefer?

[jim600]

I thought that there would be bigger more distinct advantages/disadvantages for these options in the current 2.1 patch but the differencies seem to be still v.small. so I find it difficult to choose beyond "roleplaying" decisions.

Which do you use, and in what circumstances?

[Rad]

Oligarchy for the law bonus, in the vast majority of my client kingdoms. Less corruption=more money, plus it usually means more cavalry units.
I do have a Democracy set up in Rome, one in Illyria and one in Greece as well.

[Hummer]

The law bonus for the most part. Although once in a while, there are some regional infantry units I want so will go with democratic.

[Roma_Victrix]

I agree with what others have said and I don't think it should have anything to do with your own personal preference. You should base this decision on the main reason as to whether or not it makes sense to have an oligarchy or democracy in the region: do they have good cavalry available or not? If no elite cavalry is offered, it's not that big of an advantage to have an oligarchy, especially in a region that is more renowned for its infantry. Native heavy infantry (in some cases elite infantry) are necessary for defense during sieges, whereas you'll need locally-recruited native heavy cavalry for winning field battles. Recruitment should be your number one concern. Rad made a wise decision to place a democracy in Rome, for instance, because the democratic government gives you the same cavalry type as the oligarchy (polybian equites). The only advantage is that there is one or two more polybian equites available for recruitment in the recruitment pool. Meanwhile, what you really want from the Romans is their heavy infantry, principes and triarii. More of them are available in the recruitment pool if you have a democracy installed in Rome.

At the moment I'm playing a Koinon Hellenon campaign and it is cool to mix Roman infantry with my standard thorakitai-based Greek armies.

[Seimour]

I tend to follow a simple rule. Oligarchies are for any inland cities and democracies are for coastal ones. Democracies give experience bonuses to naval units whereas oligarchies give bonuses to land units. My only regret with client states is that they dont give a morale malus to units recruited there to represent their less than stellar loyalty to a foreign overlord and thus make them less reliable.

[Rad]

The whole +morale bonus is bugged.

[QuintusSertorius]

The whole +morale bonus is bugged.

It's not bugged, so much as doesn't work, because it can't work. There's nothing to "attach" the bonus to.

[Rad]

So, it's bugged. Useless being a better word

[MrBlack103]

I tend to lean towards whichever unit types my faction seems to need more. For example playing as Rome, infantry is already well-covered, so I'll use Oligarchic most places. If I expect the region to be attacked in force, I'll lean more towards democratic as cavalry are of limited use in sieges.

[Roma_Victrix]

I tend to lean towards whichever unit types my faction seems to need more. For example playing as Rome, infantry is already well-covered, so I'll use Oligarchic most places. If I expect the region to be attacked in force, I'll lean more towards democratic as cavalry are of limited use in sieges.

I usually find that it's nice to have some cavalry during a siege, if only a couple units of cavalry, because you can ride them out of a seperate gate of the city and then have them ride along the outside of the walls until they are placed behind the besieging enemy, crashing into their backs or capturing anyone who attempts to flee.



In essence, though, you must strike a balance throughout your empire, with roughly half of your allied goverments being democracies and the other half oligarchies, because having only heavy cavalry or only heavy infantry in these outer regions is almost nonsensical or hampering to your war efforts say the least. You need to have a good mixture of the two. Since heavy cavalry is more expensive in terms of recruitment and maintenance costs, it would make sense to have more democracies pumping out cheaper infantry, yet as others have noted here, oligarchies actually bring in a bit more cash since their law bonus clamps down on corruption. Oligarchies can at least create some good light and medium infantry types. Closely allied Celtic oligarchies have the advantage of provding you with not only Donno Eporedoi heavy cavalry, but also the elite Argoi heavy infantry (the equivalents of Hellenistic Hypaspistai and Epilektoi Hoplitai, or Roman Triarii, or the Carthaginian Sacred Band).