This article covers Civilization 3 Complete V1.22.

What you should know:

Town: 1-6 population
City: 7-12 population (requires fresh water or an aquaduct)
Metro: 12+ population (requires a hospital or the Shakespeare’s Theatre wonder)

Hurry Method: you can either buy units or buildings (rate is 4 gold for a shield). Or you ‘whip’ people; 1 citizen for 20 shields.
Corruption: how much commerce and production is wasted.
War Weariness: When at war, your citizens can grow tired of the war and become unhappy. Or not.
Draft Rate: the number of citizens you can draft per turn.
Military Police Limit: Max number of units in a city that makes 1 unhappy citizen content.
Unit Support: number of units that cost you no money. All units ‘over the cap’ cost you 1gpt.
Under Republic they cost 2gpt, under Feudalism they cost 3gpt.
4 towns and 3 cities under Monarchy have 4×2 + 3×4 = 20 unit support. That means that every unit over the cap of 20 cost you 1gpt.

Anarchy

Anarchy happens when switching from one Gov to another – called revolution. It basically means you have no government at all. It also happens when WW reaches 100% when under Democracy.

It lasts from 2 to 8 turns, dependent on the size of your civilization / map size. You don’t want to be here.

Worker Efficiency: 50%
Hurry Method: None
Corruption: Catastrophic
War Weariness: none
Draft Rate: 0
Military Police Limit: 0
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 0/0/0
Notes: No city production, no research, Despo Penalty (see Despotism). Specialists still work. No maintenance costs or unit upkeep needed.

Despotism

A.k.a.: Despo
‘Base’ government, this is the government where you start with. Good for starting Civs with little income, happiness problems (lack of luxuries) or without the income to support a large military.

Worker Efficiency: 100%
Hurry Method: Forced labor
Corruption: Rampant
War Weariness: none
Draft Rate: 2
Military Police Limit: 2
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 4/4/4
Notes: Any square which produces more than 2 food, commerce, or shields produces 1 less. (aka ‘Despo Penalty’)

Feudalism

Good for civs with small towns (under pop 6). You might actually want small towns because of the unit support – you can do that by whipping your citizens to hurry up production.
Also for countries that are behind at the start of a game and want to expand through war.
Also a popular government in 100K culture victory games.

Worker Efficiency: 100%
Hurry Method: Forced Labor
Corruption: Problematic
War Weariness: Low
Draft Rate: 2
Military Police Limit: 3
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 5/2/1
Notes: Units over the cap cost 3 gpt.

Monarchy

The lack of war weariness (WW) can be more valuable than the commerce bonus in Republic and Democracy, if you plan to be at war for a long time.
The presence of military police can compensate a lack of luxuries and makes a good combination for small kingdoms at war and have an army a Republic can’t support.

Worker Efficiency: 100%
Hurry Method: Pay citizens
Corruption: Problematic
War Weariness: none
Draft Rate: 2
Military Police Limit: 3
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 2/4/8

Fascism

For reichs that are expanding through war, are under developed and won’t see peace any time soon…

Worker Efficiency: 200%
Hurry Method: Forced Labor
Corruption: Nuisance
War Weariness: None
Draft Rate: 2
Military Police Limit: 4
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 4/7/10
Notes: Pop declines when you change over. (1 in a Town, 2 in a City and 3 in a Metro)
Culture is not produced until you have a popular majority.
Higher chance of espionage mission success

Communism

A.k.a.: Commie
Late game gov for large civs that have corruption problems; the Secret Police HQ is another building next to the Palace and Secret Palace to reduce the corruption overall.
Good for extended wars because there’s no WW and good unit support. Also, you can whip foreign people in newly conquered cities to prevent revolts. Able to build the Secret Police HQ.

Worker Efficiency: 100%
Hurry Method: Forced Labor
Corruption: Communal
War Weariness: None
Draft Rate: 2
Military Police Limit: 4
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 6/6/6
Notes: Higher chance of espionage mission success

Republic

A.k.a.: Repo
For republics big enough to support their military; fighting short succesful wars. Long wars will cost you to keep your population happy.
Most popular government because of the commerce bonus, the low WW and because there’s less corruption than under Monarchy and Despotism.

Worker Efficiency: 100%
Hurry Method: Pay citizens
Corruption: Nuisance
War Weariness: Low
Draft Rate: 1
Military Police Limit: 0
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 1/3/4
Notes: Military over the cap cost 2 gpt.
Adds 1 commerce to any tile already producing at least 1 = the commerce bonus.

Democracy

A.k.a.: Demo
For peaceful builders, not planning to be at war anytime soon. Requires good diplomatic skills to stay out of war.

Worker Efficiency: 150%
Hurry Method: Pay citizens
Corruption: Minimal
War Weariness: High
Draft Rate: 1
Military Police Limit: 0
Unit Support Town/City/Metro: 0/0/0
Notes: Cities immune from propaganda.
Adds 1 commerce to any tile already producing at least 1 = the commerce bonus.