What I have been thinking about is a way to rush improvements and units in governments where gold is usually the way.

We all know the case: it's a democracy/republic and there is a lot of fully corrupted cities far out in the empire. The trouble is that those cities get a lot of population but the population is useless because all it produces will be corrupted. And we can't use them for poprushing... or can we?

I have actually found a way. After we have researched nationalism we get the draft ability. At that time we will be able to draft rifles and a little later infantry. The trick is then to use those cities to draft with. The units produced can then be disbanded for 20-22 shields depending on if it is a rifle or infantry. Poprushing gives 20 shields per citizen lost. That way citizens can be turned into production under rep/demo.

Advantages:

• It can be used under rep/demo.
• The drafted unit can be disbanded in any city, thus the "poprush" can help other cities as well

Disadvantages:

• It cannot rush things in one turn as standard poprushing can do (unless you draft with several cities and disband all in the same city).
• The HUGE disadvantage is that only cities with population 7 or more can draft so it wont grow as fast as a town would.
• Only native citizens can be drafted.

Other things to consider:

• The unhappiness is the same for drafting and poprushing (1 citizen unhappy for 20 turns for each citizen drafted/whipped).
• The shield amount gained is roughly the same (20-22 versus 20).

To summarize I find this a slightly less useful way of poprushing, but a good way to get around being in rep/demo with a relatively large empire.

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