Your goals in this scenario:
- Never change or lose your capital.
- Build 7 Wonders of the World in your capital.
- Win the game by space or conquest.
Rome
# of cities population defenders buildings
1 2 2 1
2 4 4 2
3 6 6 3
4 8 8 4
5 10 10 5
6 12 12 6
7 14 14 7
8 16 16 8
9 18 18 9
10 20 20 10
11 22 22 11
12 24 24 12
Palace and academy count as buildings!
[/INDENT]
I see the least problems in the buildings or the population, getting enough troops may be a challenge though, as they may not be Warriors past Bronzeworking, and I don't think we can have more than 10 cities in the end. We cannot let our capital grow freely, like we all do in the games we usually play, we'd be forced to build troops only and we couldn't even use them to attack others because of those mechanics. 6 defenders at size 3 already is horendous, and we even need 8 at size 4, which is the minimum size for 2-pop-whips, which we'll definitely want, because on this low difficulty, it'd be stupid not to go for a Horse Archer Rush and conquer one or two capitals of the AIs, they're gonna be better than the cities we will be able to settle and we'll even get them cheaper. Building 8 Axes will slow us down, and we need BW for whipping, so no way around it.
I didn't have time to look at the starting save yet, so no clear suggestions from me, just very vague for today. Station some Warriors in the capital, build 2 Settlers as the smallest size that'd reasonable (I don't know how many resources we have, if 3, then Settlers at 3, if 2 or less, then Settlers at 2) . Use the other Workers for Worker stealing, we can probably get peace with the AIs again easily (never played Monarch, but below Deity getting peace is usually always possible, I remember it being possible on Immortal) . Optimal number of cities for a Horse-Archer rush usually is 3, but that's on Deity, on Monarch we can probably rush earlier with less troops which will make 2 cities optimal. Probably 1 would be optimal, but I don't think that BSPollux was so nice to let us start with Horses.
Can we agree on a 2-city Horse Archer rush, or does anybody persist to beeline Praets? Or maybe even a Chariot-rush for the first target and then follow up with HAs for the 2nd? Sounds even better to me.
I'm no great fan of building the GW, even if it would count towards our Wonders and is the cheapest Wonder we can get. If we can get it late, great, but for a Barb-threat on Monarch? When will that happen? And with what will the barbs attack, Warriors? I think we can definitely rush the 1st target before that, and handling a few Barb-Warriors should be no problem with 1-2 extra Chariots. Imo, we should go AH and then probably TW -> BW. Writing is imo also ok, but a GS has not great priority for me, as Conquest will definitely be the faster victory option, and I don't think AIs will ever reach something HAs, Praets and Catapults could handle. Maybe we'll need Trebs at some time, though I doubt it somehow. I don't even think, that we should go Buro in this scenario, who knows if we'll ever get a Religion to run Theo, with lowly Monarch-AIs being incapable of producing Missionaries in an adequate time. To me, it currently seems, that Vassalage will be the much better option. Too bad, we cannot Oracle it, because BSPollux gave Priesthood to the AIs.
Sry for this long, not really well written post, I currently lack time and just wanted to write down my thoughts. I think what I wrote is true and important, even if it's formulated badly.
)
I'll try to get that done tomorrow and post my comments/thoughts.
