I usually play on regent and this is my first monarch game. I would usually just play this but i want some help since ive heard that this is a hard step up?


Anyway heres the first screenshot, I am carthage on large argagapelo*spelling* map temprete climate sedentary barbs all random opponents

Seems interesting. Ill be watching. every breath it takes. every move it makes. ill be watching this.

Jeezz monarch is hard... its 300AD and im still not getting ANYWHERE!!!

im still in ancient times and everyone around me is going into medeval.

So ive changed my strategy ive lowered science to zero and gone only military.

Here is a screenshot of 30 AD where i *thought* i might still have a chance

Leptis Magna is building Wealth? This early in the game? That's not good at all.

Looking at the mini-map, there's lots of land you haven't settled. Pump out Settlers and fill in that land! With those wheats, Leptis Magna would be better off making Settlers, not Wealth. Even better if you can irrigate them.

Well I'll probably keep on eye on this thread, and maybe even offer more advice that you didn't ask for.

Change Hippo and Theveste from temples to settlers, drop science to build up some funds, get more workers cause I can only see one and try to irrigate alot of your plains.

I can't see but what neighbours do you have? don't worry about military just yet, just crank out the settlers. settle till you can't move anymore then concentrate on your military.

Good luck

Here is a screenshot of 310Ad
I have most of my citys building military as i have no hope left for a cultural victory.

I plan on attacking the russians most turns well be uneventful until i attack so my next post will be the invasion :ar15:

sorry everyone monarch is just a wee bit too hard for me, i think ill practice on regent some more. if you want to know why im quitting IM NOT!!! i just got distroyed by the spanish. darn...

Don't go back to Regent. Stick with the difficult Monarch, and you'll improve faster.
The most important thing for you to learn is expanding faster. Make that a priority in your future games. Read up on settler factories.

ok ill take your advice i just played a game on regent and it seemed pretty easy :wow:

yeah, stick with Monarch. if it'll help, play like 40 or 50 turns then post a report or save or soemthing, so if you need any help we could point any tips out.

i will do that, in this thread too if that'll be ok?

ok here is my new game, its 70%water continents warm temprete 4billion

barbs sedentary, monarch, dutch

so far in the game its been pretty uneventful, i dont think ive built one wonder but as for money and space, im doing pretty good.

as always the AI has iron and i dont.. im gonna have to fight for it so settle in some remote area just to get it. i have a screenshot and here it is...

and here is the save, the year is 1150BC

The first things that jump out at me are city spacing and worker actions. If you're settling that wide with the intention of filling in later, that may be a workable strategy, but if you're not planning to fill in then you have a lot of unworkable tiles around your capitol.

Workers:

I like how you connected Rotterdam, Hague, Groningen and Haarlem by road, but I probably would have more of their surrounding tiles improved by the time they're that size.

The work around Amsterdam is very puzzling. Irrigating grass in despotism doesn't change anything, so I generally wouldn't do it unless there is a food bonus on the grass or I need to irrigate accross to (a) tile(s) that do(es) need it. And you've improved at least 6 tiles that Amsterdam--or any other city--can't reach. Those turns would've better been spent either in the city's work radius or roading towards other cities. I see 5 tiles irrigated but not roaded. I always road a tile before leaving except in extraordinary circumstances. If you don't need a road there then you probably didn't need a worker there in the first place. If a city is working that tile then you want a road for the gold bonus. Also, there are some roaded tiles around Amsterdam that aren't improved and don't lead anywhere; I'd rather have a road only than an improvement without a road, but at this stage of the game those ware wasted worker turns. Also, I would have concentrated on the river tiles around Amsterdam first because they get +1g in addition to the road.

This is very nice terrain, by the way.

I probably would have irrigated the cow and wines unless I was overabundant on food and desperately short on shields.

Population: Your population is fairly high for this stage of the game. You might have been a little poorer for now but better off in the long run making more workers and settlers along the way. My population stays pretty darn low until I finish expanding, and by then my workers have connected all cities and improved at least 2-3 but usually more tiles around the core cities especially so the population, production and income booms pretty quick after that.

Barracks: You have 6 barracks in the screenshot of 9 cities, but your cities don't have improved tiles for each citizen to work, so their productivity is not near full potential. You would be building vet troops faster if you made more workers first. With all those barracks I hope you're planning on attacking someone soon!

(All comments based on the screenshot.)

I looked through my saves for a counterexample. I found a couple of bad starts...I've had those lately. Also I've only very recently discoverd the power of granaries and didn't use them in the attached screenshot, but given the start it may not have been appropriate yet.

This is a 1200bc save. I can already see several mistakes in it, but let me contrast the worker actions with your screenshot.

This was a low food start, so growth was slow, but notice none of my cities are above pop 2 (well, Tokyo, but it just grew and settler is due next turn). They made workers or settlers when they got near that size. Kyoto has only 2 improved tiles because for the near future I expect it to not reach size 3 and the workers are needed elsewhere for near term productivity. I have a roads connecting the cities and on improved tiles but no extra yet.

Osaka is a bit farther from my capitol than I usually do, but by settling a tile south I now have a canal between two seas and a chokepoint city to preven the AI from sending settlers/troops north so it was a strategic decision.

Edo, Tokyo and Satsuma are also odd placements at first...you'd think I'd want them closer to the capitol. Again, special case here: my land to the north is mostly tundra, and there are no civs that way so I can expand south first to race the AI then expand north uncontested. Plus Edo and Tokyo are on grassland and Satsuma is on the only fresh water I can reach. Note that Edo and Tokyo have two improved tiles each and the workers are moving on to road towards Satsuma and then irrigate back to my plains for some desperately needed core food.

Osaka only has one improved tile, but then it's the only 2-food tile available so growth is very, very slow there. I must have been beelining for the river to irrigate back.

Even with this low food start I have 3 workers, 1 settler and 4 founded cities.

Going off topic, looking at my screenshot I'd probably have been better off sending that settler north. Not much good up there, but there is some grass and it's closer to my capitol. Kyoto is set to archer but will grow to size 3 in 8; I expect I just forgot to change it to settler...then again maybe that's why the other settler is heading east because Kyoto's is going north. I don't know why I'm building a temple in Edo; seems a tad early for that.

Back to worker actions, I see a worker ready to road by Edo and a worker selected on Edo. I don't gang my workers this early, so the Edo worker must've either just been built or is roading SE towards a future city site.

EDIT: There's a temple in Osaka, too. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm food poor, temples are cheap for Japan and....I dunno, seems like more archers would've been more useful. Bad start location, but I could've done better with it.

EDIT 2: Odd. Before when I've used the attach feature it puts a link there and not the image. Oh well.

OK here is a screenshot.. its 90AD all my cities are defended by swiss mercinarys and i am prepared to attack america with my units all lined up on my northern border

i have

Horsemen:7
Midevil Infantry:10
Swordsmen:5

and 5 cities to the south continuosly building MI every 2-4 turns

I think i have a good chance aganst old abe

your stretched waaaay too thin. they have knights, send some SM with your forces or those units are gonna get picked off easily by American Knights. try to cluster the units into stacks rather than a long thin front, and you'll have a better change of taking their cities. some of your horsemen are loosing their advantage by being too far away to strike in the first turn, you need to try to take as many of the knights out before they can retaliate

if it was me, I'd cluster my units into 2 groups, 1 at Miami and 1 at Boston. move your troops at Boston onto the Mountain. it'll offer protection and will put you on the good side of the river, negating any defensive bonus.

I'd also wait 2 turns and upgrade all those horsemen to knights and you'll hve a better change, you'd need a large number of horsemen to take down a few pikes in a size 8 city.

Yes, keep your troops in stacks. When they're spread out the AI can attack the weakest one. When stacked the AI can only attack the strongest and then suffer your counterattack.

You don't necessarily need to block the AI from your territory; for defense just guard your cities and be ready to strike if he threatens the city's production. With roads and horses the offensive counterforce can move between cities so not as many forces are need at each city.

Abe has a city on your southern tip. The AI always seems to have at least an archer handy in cities like that, so watch your back for a harasser.

This is Monarch. You don't have a shield production advantage over the AI, and you didn't have enough improved tiles earlier so Abe may very well have a bigger army. You have to use superior planning and tactics to counter that.

Also use diplomacy to determine if Abe has spare gold or gold-per-turn. Determine how far up the tech tree he is. See how far up the other civs on the tech tree. If Abe has a tech advantage or lots of spare cash he can easily buy an alliance against you.

River warning! Miami is across a river. Your arrows show you attacking across the river. :nono: That provides a combat bonus to the defender.

Advanced tactics: Try trading techs around to give you more gold and techs. You almost have Chivalry researched so you could probably buy it cheap or broker other techs around. One possible situation: Another civ has engineering but not Monotheism, and you don't have engineering. You can try trading Mono for Eng and hopefully some gold. Then you can sell to another civ lacking one or the other. It takes a couple of tries to get the hang of it, but there are four advantages: You can catch up quickly in tech; you can get more gold; your relations with trading partners improve thereby reducing the chance they'll join an alliance against you; and if you do it right Abe won't have money or superior tech to buy an alliance against you.

EDIT: More worker tips when it is safe: Get irrigation to Middelburg. You're agricultural so irrigated desert is as good as irrigated plains. Road the game forrests by Maastricht. The Hague! You're killing me! Improve those river tiles so those 10 citizens can do something good for you!

thanks for the advice all. ive declaired war on the americans they've captured one of my citys and ive captured one of theirs. The war was a even stalemate until my buddy the hittites steped in. The poor old americans had to go and defend their northern border leaving me unchalleged. Although i dont have iron anymore leaving me with only longbowmen, its alright. Im taking the americans down with sheer numbers. All of my citys are producing longbowmen and trubuchets at speeds of 2-3 turns a piece! The tide has turned on the americans and i might just win my first monarch war!!!

My war with america was going so well and when lincoln asked for peace i accepted, getting back middelburg at the same time. About 5 turns and 10 longbowmen later, i redeclaired war. The hittites and i have taken most of america philidalphia has mosolium of mallosos (or however you spell it) ive also taken new york, chicago, st.louis, and san fransisco along with my previous war with america where i took miami.

Now i have at least 50 longbowmen but they are to the north. im very worried though as you can see in the screenshot the hittites have sent around 20 units south where my there are hardly any units except defensive ones so if they did attack i couldnt lead a successful counter-attack. I fear the hittites (being in my past expireances VERY sneeking and agressive) will take advantage of our RoP and "sneek" attack me? anyone thinkin the same?

My first thought was that you're screwed. However, if that city on your southern tip is still American they may be heading for that. Tough call from here.

Oh, and peace treaties are a minimum of 20 turns. You broke the 20-turn deal, so your reputation is ruined. You will have great difficutly trading in per-turn deals in this game.

EDIT: Another thing: You're building a musketman, however your UU--Swiss Mercenary--is defense 4. There's no reason for the Dutch to build musketmen unless you have some :crazyeye: need for that 2 attack value. The Swiss Merc's are much cheaper. By the way, when I look at my saves I point out tons of mistakes to myself, too. It's not like I'm sure I would've done better. ;)

EDIT 2: If you decide they're attacking you the usual panic move would be to abandon all infrastructure and build troops--any troops--as quickly as possible, with reducing research to 0 and rushing as soon as shields are in the build box--if not sooner in dire situtations. However all but one city in the screenshot is building a very expensive improvement so you'd waste a heartbreaking number of shields to switch to military. Tough, tough situation if they attack.

EDIT 3: Are you automating your workers or directing them yourself? I'm biting my lip on more worker comments for now.

I automate my workers, its about the only thing that i do. I totally forgot about that city to the south, im crossing my fingers that thats what their going for... I dont want to move all my troops there. Im going to continue playing this but not right now. im a little hungry:thumbsup:

so america is gone, and shortly after i mustered my troops and declaired war on the mongols. That didnt last very long, i was blowing them out :ar15: but when they asked for peace i said yes and i was glad i did too because they had a huge stack of MI that i didnt see before. So i during the war i took 3 of their citys, one was a former american city that the mongols took in a previous war.. the others were theirs. So now i have gone into anarchy in hopes of doing better culturally by getting a better gov. the question is which one? :confused: Monarchy (previous gov), despotism, feudalism, republic, or democracy

Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahrrrrrejasdfajk!!!!! IM MAD111 :mad:

STUPID ME :wallbash: STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! :wallbash:

GOSH!!!

i got soooo far and was doing so good. but of course i didnt save. i left the game on the desktop unsaved and one of my parents came in and turned off my computer.... ugh, i dont think im gonna continue the game from when i saved 1000 years earlier. sorry, thats all folks

Ah, apparently you aren't familiar with the autosave feature. If you care to continute from the end of your last turn, load a game, open the "Auto" folder and open the latest save. Voila But do it before you start working on another game or the autosaves might be overwritten by the new game. You can change the # of autosaves somewhere in the preferences.

By the way, Control-S is the hotkey to save. I usally hit it before bathroom breaks, meal breaks or other trips away from the computer for a while. Old habit from losing too much typing when losing emails and other compositions due to crashes, power outages and such.

I think there's also an "Iron-Man" setting in the game startup which stops the auto-saves so you're not tempted to reload and redo a turn gone bad. It boosts your score, too, I think.

oh god, why didnt i think of that? i already started to continue my "rise of rome" scienario....