you're in-between difficulties? I'm too good for Prince but not comfortable on Monarch yet.

It's like I can't run a game smoothly. I'm all over the place. I remember I felt the same when I graduated to Prince a few months ago.

Any advice?

Stop building wonders.

Stay on Prince and try some sub-optimal strategies (Ragnar on a Highlands map; peacefully building with Tokugawa), or go to Monarch and stomp around with the Romans.

Keep at it. PLay Monarch one game, then Prince. It took me a while to handle Emperor and I found just continuing along is the best method. Playing the stronger leaders help, but also taking a whirl with saladin occasionally works.

Play harder Prince games, and easier Monarch games. Difficulty is not just the level you play, but the leader, map, AIs placements, etc all play a role.

Try the Nobles Club games at "Monarch Light", the AIs in that series dont get their bonus Archer tech, so they are a tad slower at their own development. Same with the PYL games, use the Prince World Builder file, but select Monarch in the Scenario menu.

And stop building Wonders, for sure, at least til you get a "feel" for the pace. Put those hammers into workers and settlers, and units for that matter.

you're in-between difficulties? I'm too good for Prince but not comfortable on Monarch yet.

It's like I can't run a game smoothly. I'm all over the place. I remember I felt the same when I graduated to Prince a few months ago.

Any advice?

Play harder prince games or easy monarch games.

Easy games = pangea maps, archipelago (AI's dont do well). Small maps with few opponents. Good traits (ex Elizabeth)

Hard games = continents (you may have to worry about a runaway AI on another continent. Larger map with lots of opponents. Weak leader (ex Charlemagne).

I'm a bit of a headcase when it comes to improvement - I LOVE the process of improvement. Still, what's worked for me at EVERY difficulty so far has been to play a game, if I win it great if I lose ------> WHY did I lose?! For why sometimes the answer isn't so obvious, so I look at other people's games where they do win and look for disparity between the two. This allows me to narrow down weak facets of my game - for me recently it was early game tech ability...the BPT variance was too great. After practicing optimal openings/tech paths, my overall game success shot up heavily.

Rinse and repeat - most people are weak in different areas, so you may need more military rather than tech for example, or less focus on wonders (which although not the answer for me...who usually didn't build them...is actually a pretty typical problem for people moving up!).

But yes, sometimes that phase can be frustrating :). It was only a few months ago for me from prince to monarch so I remember quite well...you'll get there! Good luck :).

I feel like I'm in that phase, which for me means Less Wonders and More Military, as I suck at wars.

'Course, I'm levels lower then that right now (Warlord), but...

1) Build more workers and
2) whip more.
These things might seem elementary or overly specific answers to a general question but when I think about the things that improved my play these two stand out.

Bah, I never stopped building wonders :p

It's just that it gets harder to get as many of them built.

If you don't like going up one level, try going up two.

I never liked Emperor... my old Monarch strategies still seemed to work, I would just have to execute them more carefully -> hard work but a guaranteed win = no fun.

When I tried Immortal instead, I found the game different enough from the lower levels to be fun again, despite tending to lose at first.



Re wonders: I'll build 4/5 of them up to Immortal, in fact they became more crucial to my playstyle. I'm not sure if that's even possible on Deity though; I for one have more pressing concerns on that level.

No, I really enjoy that phase! The game for me is about learning and being adaptable. I wouldn't at all enjoy finding out the optimum strategy or for example saying this game I'm going to use a Wonder Economy. I just find that mentality really stale.

Keep trying at this new difficulty, but I wouldn't necessarily make the game deliberately easier by picking easy map/traits etc. You don't want to become dependent upon certain bonuses.

However, I would look back critically at your successes on lower levels, and find out if there are aspects of the game you are bad at or if you tend to use one strategy rather than being adaptable. For example can you convincing win a military campaign against someone who has tech parity with you? Do you need the Great Library to win? Are you bad at war in a particular era? Do you trade with the AIs enough?

Also, analysis of the reasons you lose at your next difficulty level can be invaluable:

I'm a bit of a headcase when it comes to improvement - I LOVE the process of improvement. Still, what's worked for me at EVERY difficulty so far has been to play a game, if I win it great if I lose ------> WHY did I lose?! For why sometimes the answer isn't so obvious, so I look at other people's games where they do win and look for disparity between the two. This allows me to narrow down weak facets of my game - for me recently it was early game tech ability...the BPT variance was too great. After practicing optimal openings/tech paths, my overall game success shot up heavily.

I'm playing my first game on Emperor that hasn't been a total failure. I'm a bit 'all over the place' as you say, and I was reluctant to get into a fight early like I would on Monarch considering the headstart that the AI gets on Emperor. Also I neglected workers and am generally pretty bad at diplomacy. These are points that I will work on in my next game. I'm coming back though, and have seized two rival capitals, and am preparing for the final push for a cultural victory. It's gonna be very close, and that's the reason I love this game.

Same here. By now, I'm in the 'mastering Emperor' phase of my game - ie. playing more difficult leaders such as Tokugawa or Saladin and regenerating too powerful starts. I'm still not ready for Immortal though.

And build only the wonders you really need for your game.

yea, i totally hate the difficulties in-between settler and deity. j/k!

I never really found this, when i moved to monarch i think i delayed it so much and got so good at smashing prince, that when i moved to monarch it was just about right.

1) Build more workers and
2) whip more.
These things might seem elementary or overly specific answers to a general question but when I think about the things that improved my play these two stand out.

I have to say, I am just moving up to Monarch and gave up a game last night where I had done a lot of things really well (got the Oracle, GL and Colussus won the Liberalim race in 1305 despite being isolated and never meeting an AI until Education was complete), but in hindsight not following this advice was the clear killer. I was on a good food/commerce continent with no calendar resources and almost no hills - so my production was insufficient to build infrastructure in my numerous commerce cities quickly and I was short on units. Had I built more workers and whipped properly, I would have had those cities stronger much faster and had the necessary defensive units when I got to Redcoats instead of having a massive SoD invade just as my first Redcoat stepped onto the field.

I have to say, I am just moving up to Monarch and gave up a game last night where I had done a lot of things really well (got the Oracle, GL and Colussus won the Liberalim race in 1305 despite being isolated and never meeting an AI until Education was complete), but in hindsight not following this advice was the clear killer. I was on a good food/commerce continent with no calendar resources and almost no hills - so my production was insufficient to build infrastructure in my numerous commerce cities quickly and I was short on units. Had I built more workers and whipped properly, I would have had those cities stronger much faster and had the necessary defensive units when I got to Redcoats instead of having a massive SoD invade just as my first Redcoat stepped onto the field.

...and knowing is half the battle. ;)

Stop building wonders.

Excellent advice.
Or to be more specifically: Stop building early wonders you don't really need for your overall strategy.

Play Rome, beeline to IW and then spam Praets. This way you can ignore the difficulty level :)

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to stick to Monarch.

I played a Marathon game but quit before the AD years from boredom. I think it just moves too slowly.

I'm back playing in Normal speed.

I think the problem was that I was switching from Normal Speed/Prince to Marathon Speed/Monarch. That really threw me off. Because I didn't know whether I was doing badly and hence the long research times or whether it was the speed change.

Going back to Normal, I'm still behind the AI but I'm not far off. I may not win this game but I think I'll keep at it.

Play Rome, beeline to IW and then spam Praets. This way you can ignore the difficulty level :)

Almost like playing the Inca on monarch+. :mischief:

I train at immortal level these days, even knowing that I'm greatly underqualified. It seems to me that rexing, city management and specialization work more or less the same on all levels, so it doesn't matter which difficulty you practice it at. As for AI interactions, I want to be able to play at the top levels some day, and I figure that I might as well get used to their tricks as quickly as possible. So far, playing on immortal has been a daunting lesson in humility, but also a surprise at how well I manage to compete and survive despite impossibe opposition.