I haven't played a Civ game in awhile and I thought it might be fun to try again. I have Warlords, although I haven't really played with the new change to chopping. In the past, I felt I needed chop rushing to be competitive on Monarch/Emporer, are there any starting strategies that will work on Monarch/Emporer without chopping?

What's the best starting build now that chopping has been nerfed?

it still works to chop, it is just not that allpowerfull. I chop once for my settlers to shave a couple turns off it(the early ones at least). Bascailly(i feel) you want to improve as many titles as the city can currently work then chop with remaning time.