
Originally Posted by
eireksten
Morte, that's not republic at all. You still lose more food (as in population) than a republic.
Your way
Population 3 - Work 1 Grassland and 2 Forest
Get Settler in 5 turns, drop to population 2 (with no spare food).
Republic Way
Population 3. Work 1 Grassland and 2 Forest
Get Settler in 5 turns, with 10 spare food!
Assuming you don't have more food than this, you need 10 turns to grow back to size 3 without the republic. Through being a republic, you only need 5. This means that a settler "costs" 15 turns from that city without a republic. With a republic, it only "costs"
Assuming you've got another grassland (in fact optimal for you), you can optimize your city to use 9 turns between each settler (requires micromanagement). In this scenario, though, the republican nation will need only 7.
And this is only in the optimal scenario for your strategy, meaning your city is size 3. At any other populations, the republic will be even more superior. At pop 2, you can't even build settlers (while the republic can). At any higher populations than 3, the benefit from a republic increases (since you are losing more food compared to republic).
So, you can't say that that method works like a republic. It is probably the most efficient way without it though (at least with 2 grassland). I use it myself, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have benefitted from being a republic.
edit:
Thought I'd add that the republic can produce settlers every 8th turns even at population 2. So even if they've got pop 2 cities and you pop 3 cities, they're faster than you.