I had my best start ever (monarch/normal/standard/hemispheres) today so I thought I would post an overview for any of the players who are looking to move up to monarch.

I was playing as Ramesses and had horses in my 2nd city (Memphis) just north of my capital. Dutch were out west a little bit, USA were out east a little bit, and Ottomans were further to the southeast. Empire: ca. 350AD:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStart0000.jpg

I chop/whipped war chariots and first took out Amsterdam. This was the only Dutch city and Willem spent time building stonehenge instead of an empire or defenses. Thanks buddy! He had stone in his capital so I built the pyramids and maoi statues there.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStartAmsterdam0000.jpg

Since I had zero losses taking Amsterdam I decided to fly my war chariots over to the USA to see if I could do some damage. I razed 2 of his cities keeping only his capital, which got the GL, NE, and became my gpfarm:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStartWashington0000.jpg

Then I turned my sites on the Ottoman empire. Things were tough here because he had copper in his capital and he had spears kicking around. He also snuck a settler out onto the east coast and had a large number of defenders there :mad: However, he had the great wall and I wanted it to protect my strung out empire. I also wanted the continent to my self, since he wouldn't trade with me now. So, I put my empire into full-tilt war-chariot production mode and after a bloodbath, I kept edirne and istanbul (I wasn't exactly sure where the GW was):

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStartIstanbul0000.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStartEdirne0000.jpg

Memphis transitioned into a nice commerce city:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestStartMemphis0000.jpg

I managed to keep my economy afloat through all this by not taking any cities besides capitals (except Edirne to ensure the GW). Although my slider dropped considerably, it never bottomed out, and I was getting good beakers from settled great people in my capital under representation. As my cottages matured and courthouses came online, I gradually filled in the holes in my empire to connect the borders between the former 4 empires. Now I am expanding further.

After all this, I beelined optics to find out who was overseas (HC, Ragnar, Sitting Bull) and then liberalism, taking astronomy to trade resources and start galleons.

I'm planning on finishing the game out via domination in the renaissance after a rifling beeline.

War chariots really are a powerful uu and if you have them, it makes monarch feel more like prince.

I always enjoy watching other peoples' successes -- especially when they involve War Chariots (I :love: all Chariots).

I'm specifically curious about how you approached expansion on your island after you isolated it. Did you follow the "60% rule" and slowly fill out your island, or did you ignore the Barbarians and expand to the fullest quickly?

Only comment is that you might have been somewhat better off if you spared ottomans for a bit while peacefully expanding. When running a mostly SE with loads of scientists and representation the slider tend to matter rather little. You can just expand all the way down to 0% and use some cottages as well as courthouses to recover. The scientists will make sure you keep a nice research rate..

When running a mostly SE with loads of scientists and representation the slider tend to matter rather little. You can just expand all the way down to 0% and use some cottages as well as courthouses to recover. The scientists will make sure you keep a nice research rate..

Was this in response to my inquiry?

Typically when I start or become isolated, I rapidly expand to every corner of the continent until not only my science slider drops to 0% but even beyond that where my science rate even drops to zero :science:!.

That leaves a gaping hole in research for a good epoch but leaves me with a late-game monster nobody can catch up to.

I'm curious if others use a similar approach or follow "standard" practices of expansion in isolated circumstances.

Sure i have done this at times. It is probably the best method for handling large continent to yourself after having wiped out your enemies situation. Note however that you can't ever run out of research unless you for some reason chose to do so since you can't make scientists make anything but science. They are so good(with rep) that most of the time it is more than worth running them even if you are losing alot of gold at 0% research.

Note however that you can't ever run out of research unless you for some reason chose to do so since you can't make scientists make anything but science.

Run no Scientists or all Merchants. ;)

But yeah ... I chose to in order to fill up the very large Continent I became isolated on as quickly as possible.

Good for you on getting off to a great start with Rameses. I had trouble with him. You can still pick your victory path at this point. It's always fun to be in control of a big continent, so many decisions to make.

I feel I could win any victory at this point. Any three of the capitals would make excellent legendary cities. After settling my continent I could easily win space. However, I prefer domination victories and will go for that. It also tends to give you a better final score ;)

I have been settling the continent fairly rapidly, although I see no reason to drop my research so dramatically. Don't get me wrong, I'm not delaying any settlers, but I am also getting some infrastructure in my cities as well. However, I'm not going for "the best finish possible." Once I know a victory is at hand, I like to relax and take my time. So, I'm just settling peacefully and getting prepped for a galleon/frigate + cavalry spam invasion of the other continent.

I also had a great start in my last game as the Egyptians (Hatty). I started on the east coast, Napolean is in the middle and Roosevelt is on the west coast. I agressively settled toward the French and made a few War Chariots. just 6 was enough to conquer 2 cities guarded by archers and axes. when the French spears (no relation to Britney) started showing up, i sued for peace, then cranked out more WCs + some axes. Eventually wiped the French out and contained the Americans in the southwest corner of the continent while settling the rest.

My slider did reach 0 and was even losing money then (no currency, cottages was not yet hamlets). Had to pillage to keep units from disbanding.

WC is definitely a good UU, because AI usually don't build spearmen to defend. WC, with its speed, can do some nice damage before running into any resistence. And when AI finally scrambles to build spears, WCs can still take them because of promotions and numbers advantage.

I like playing as Ramesses. One game I thought was ironic when I was playing him; I got a great prophet named Moses...

I think the best option is to run a prist economy until astro: they give hammers and settled GP in a beuaro capitol can pay easily the Rexing needed in this kind of situations.

Now all that jungle.... maybe cottaging for a CE transition?

Well, I finished the game in my second sitting:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestVictoryScreen16800000.jpg

I worked on settling my continent (there was a lot of land to settle still!). I built 10 galleons and send 30 cav/rifles to invade the incas. The galleons then ran back for reinforcements. I took the Incan coastal city and then killed a ton of troops with minimal losses then took the capital and he capitulated. Then I invaded Sitting Bull with 60 troops. 30 took his capital along the coast and moved on to take another city. The other 30 took an inland city and pressured another until he capitulated as well. At that point, with the 2 vassals I was at around 62% land and just needed to wait for some border pops (had long ago shut down research and was cranking culture slider) for the win.

My continent at the end:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestMyContinent0000.jpg

The other continent (Sitting Bull and Incas were vassals):

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestOtherContinent0000.jpg

My only two noteworthy cities (the rest were just building troops/working tiles/cranking settlers (slow growth)):

Capital (400 beakers I thought was ok for this stage of the game [it would have been a LOT more with science slider at 100% though!]; you'll notice the year says 1695--I just wanted to get back in economic civics to show the capital at full strength and I had recently changed civics and had to wait a couple turns; I picked bureaucracy-dunno if free speech would've been better, but it's mostly irrelevant!):

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestCapitalEnd0000.jpg

GpFarm (former USA capital):

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestWashingtonEnd0000.jpg

Final Score:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/futurehermit/BestFinalScore0000.jpg

I consider this the best game I ever played. I had one game with a higher score as Kublai in warlords, but I really abused early cav that game and my continent was large enough that I won domination without needing to go overseas. I think this victory was a stronger win for me, although I got a slightly lower score.

Sorry for the ego-post, just wanted to share this game with you guys :) Hopefully it is at least somewhat educational/entertaining.

You post a lot and seem to play a lot. Move up to Emperor.

I would, but I like to play a more relaxed style of game. I don't like to think as hard as emperor requires :lol: Plus, I don't play as well as this when I get a poor map or play with different leaders. I've told myself that until I can beat what the map gives me with whichever leader that I still have challenges to face on Monarch.

C'mon ,hermit... you play a lot better than me and I already jumped to Emperor ;) I'm pretty sure that you can cope Immortal with some practice....

I got BtS today and my first game (monarch level, standard size map, normal speed, random leader) was with Hatty, on a small continent (with no happiness resources at all, except for some whales!) with just Wang Kon. Built 3 cities, had marble and stone, lovely, Pyramids and Parthenon. Meanwhile build lots of war chariots, kill Wang and keep all his cities (he had 5). I faced 2-3 spears in total after I pillaged his suspicious "mine on a plain" rather than a hill. Withdrawal war chariots softened up the spears.

After that I couldn't reach the other continent (fractal map) until astro. I never even researched it, winning a culture victory in 1832. The new Sistine Chapel is very nice indeed.

EDIT: Zara decided to make things interesting about 20 turns before the win by invading me, but he landed on the wrong side, away from my big 3 cities. He took 2 cities and I gave him a 3rd for peace, phew. He could have destroyed my muskets/knights/longbows easy with his cannon and rifles ;) Maybe he wasn't watching the victory conditions screen! Amusingly, I also had 7 great artists stacked up in a forest at one point in the game. I wonder what they were talking about, Kafka, Michaelangelo and co.

I also had my first conquest victory ever with Ramesses (it was a WOTM game, WOTM9 I think).

War Chariots are great. I think I prefer them to Immortals. Egypt starts with the wheel and the map generator often decides it's a good idea to put horses in your BFC. Egypt always seems to start near flood plains as well.

I absolutely love the Egyptians. Only civs I like better are India, America, and Sumerians.

I love how they can grab an early religion sometimes since they start with mysticism.

Everything about Ramses is synergystic and couldn't possibly be better. Grabbing early religions, building the obelisk, and getting a Great Prophet to get all the shrines for the religions u find. REX a little, then rush someone with war chariots. All affordable with all the shrine income u get. Plus, since priesthood is only 1 step away from either religion founding techs, you can always nab the oracle as Ramses and keep up in tech.

Also that w/ Ramses and u start near stone = the godliest SSE economy ever. (look at Obsoletes games)

Egypt don't start with myst so going for an early religion with them often doesn't work well.. Pyramids + war chariots is more of their thing...

oh really? damn thought htey did
-_-

They have a decent shot at judaism ( and Org Rel is a nice thing to have if you're a Ind religious freak.... )

C'mon ,hermit... you play a lot better than me and I already jumped to Emperor ;) I'm pretty sure that you can cope Immortal with some practice....

Yeah, I've played this game for years and if I wanted to strain my brain I could probably play on immortal. However, one thing I've never liked about strategy games is how on the highest levels the AI seems to be playing a different game than you (because of their insane bonuses). I like feeling like we are all playing roughly the same game. And I like feeling like I can win without excrutiating effort :lol: It is just a game after all :) However, like I said, I still struggle with bad maps/leaders, so I see that as more of a challenge than playing HC on higher levels for example.

Sorry for the ego-post, just wanted to share this game with you guys :) Hopefully it is at least somewhat educational/entertaining.

Don't worry about it! It didnt sound arrogant, just excited. I love seeing other people's progress, victories and strategies. Good work ...

I only got 2 religions in my cultural game, Confucianism (researched normally) and Taoism (I think it was a lightbulb... can't be sure though). An extra religion would have been nice to win quicker but it wasn't necessary. I tend to not run priests off the obelisks though... I probably would if I was planning a big warmonger game to bulb theology.

Best thing about Egypt (apart from the awesome chariots) is both leaders are spiritual.

Best thing about Egypt (apart from the awesome chariots) is both leaders are spiritual.
No kidding, I am having trouble deciding which of them I like better, Ramses or Hatty.

As an AI, I much prefer seeing Hattys face come up when I find that yellow cultural border though, LOL, Ramses can be a PITA.

No kidding, I am having trouble deciding which of them I like better, Ramses or Hatty.

As an AI, I much prefer seeing Hattys face come up when I find that yellow cultural border though, LOL, Ramses can be a PITA.

Ya, tough call for me as well. When Ramesses was introduced in WL, I used him ALOT, but now I find myself back to Hatty. I seem to prefer the culture ...

Hatty is the better straight-out rusher, but I think Ramesses is stronger overall. Ind = stonehenge > creative's +2 culture imo (unless straight-out rushing). Cheap forges = cheap libraries imo, so that is a wash. Then you just have cheap theatres/coliseums vs. +50% on all wonders game-long and I would give the clear edge to the latter.

If I knew before the game started that I had horses and a close neighbour, I might take Hatty, but otherwise, I would go with Ramesses.

I used to enjoy seeing Hatty pop up as well, but she is the only civ leader to have used nukes in my games to date. (Only once against me though, in this months GMajor).

Hatty's a pushover early-to-midgame though. She usually rexes hard, but has limited military. That's the kind of AI I love to see around.