Monarch Specialist Economy Walkthrough

The goal of this thread is to provide a walkthrough of one version of a specialist economy in order to help players new to specialist economies understand some of the things you can do. I am not looking to provide any strong arguments about the merits of a specialist economy compared to other economies or regarding definitions of what constitutes a specialist economy and so forth. I am happy to debate such things in other threads. I am simply responding to continued threads from players new to running a SE about how to go about doing it. Here is one example.

Settings: Monarch/Hemispheres/Normal Speed/Rest Default

Leader:



Arguably the strongest SE leader and, with horses, arguably the strongest leader in the game. I am completely comfortable on Monarch, able to win 100% of my games with any leader. This comes from not moving up to a challenging skill level and instead prefering to master Monarch. Playing with Ramesses kind of feels like cheating now, but anyways, this is just a walkthrough.

Industrious goals:

Industrious is a very strong SE trait. My goal is to target world and national wonders that help with specialists and help with warmongering.

Specialists:

-Stonehenge: Normally I would skip it if going pure SE, but in this case it gives us a free UB and thus 2 free priest slots in all cities. Sweet.
-Pyramids: Early rep/ps is great for cycling with a spiritual leader
-Great Library: 2 free scientists. Sweet.
-National Epic: +100% GPP in one city
-Parthenon: +50% GPP in all cities
-S Paya: Opens all religious civics. Great for cycling with a spiritual leader
-Oxford: Good for primary science city. 3 scientist slots
-Angkor Wat: +1 hammer for priest specialists. Good synergy with UB
-ToA: 1 free priest. Sweet. Synergy with Angkor Wat
-Statue of Liberty: 1 free specialist in all cities on main continent
-National Park: If the game gets to that point, free specialist per reserve
-Wall Street: Still need and gives 3 merchant slots

Warfare:

-Globe Theatre: Key for drafting
-Heroic Epic: Main military city
-Iron Works: Main production city
-Mt. Rushmore: If the game gets to that point, combats WW
-Red Cross: If the game gets to that point, free medic promo
-Kremlin: Helps with whipping
-Pentagon: If the game gets to that point, +2 xp all units
-West Point: Bonus xp for units produced from one city

Spiritual goals:

-Save on anarchy game long
-Cycling between war time and specialist civics; stronger as game progresses
-Cheap temples good for priest specialists

Starting position:



Round #1 (part 1)

Round #1 (part 2)

Round #1 (part 3)

Round #2 (part 1)

Round #2 (part 2)

Conclusion (part 1)

Conclusion (part 2)

Good idea. If possible follow it up with a Cottage economy walkthough. Also post a link in the sample game directory so posters can find it later on!

4000BC-See no reason not to settle in place. Pop scout from hut. Start worker and animal husbandry.



3760BC: Pop 51 gold from hut
3600BC: Buddhism FIDL
3560BC: AH done, start mining. Do we have horses?



Yes, two patches.

3400BC-Worker done, start warrior
3320BC- Mining done, start BW
3120BC- Hindu FIDL
2880BC- pop 75 gold from hut
2840BC- BW done, start myst, slavery (no anarchy). Do we have copper?



Yes, but in not the best location and we don't really need it before the SoL anyways.

2680BC-Meet Justinian, pop a map from a hut that shows his early empire:







Turns out he founded Buddhism.

2600BC-Myst done, start masonry
2560BC-Judaism FIDL
2440BC-Memphis founded:



Nice early production city, grabs marble, and later becomes my HE city.

2360BC-Masonry done, start polytheism
2240BC-Complete our first wonder:



Free UB in every city, nice!

2040BC-Finish polyth, start pottery
1760BC-Meet our next leader; finish pottery, start writing:



Asoka. Turns out he is squashed into the NE on the other side of Justinian. He also founded Hinduism.

1480BC-Writing done, start aesthetics
1400BC-Pop 53 gold from hut
1320BC-Our brave scout finally got killed by a barb
975BC-We complete our second wonder. Would've preferred it in the capital, but it had to go in Memphis:



That priest will prove its worth if we land pyramids and angkor wat. Plus, it will provide us with at least one early gp outside of our capital.

-825BC-Aesthetics done, start Literature
-600BC-Declare war on Justinian with 13 war chariots with reinforcements on the way:



Building wonders in the early game delays your expansion. How do you correct this? 1) War chariots. 2) An imperialistic neighbour spamming cities, but lacking metal.

575BC-Reject Asoka's demand for Aesthetics
550BC-1st GPers born, a GProph; sack Constantinople; sack Thessalonica:



I save him for the Mahabodhi.



525BC-Sack Antioch
475BC-Complete our next wonder:



We have no specialists or settled great people and we don't really need the happiness at the moment, so I revolt to police state to help produce war chariots (no anarchy)

425BC-Lit done, start Meditation; sack Adrianople; 1st GG born (medic 3 war chariot); Complete our next wonder:



Our GPeople will come faster now.

350BC-Medit done, start priesthood; Sack Nicaea
325BC-Open borders with Asoka
275BC-Finish priesthood, start fishing; Confucianism FIDL
250BC-Angora sacked; take ceasefire with Justinian:



He is down to a single city, which requires IW and Calendar to develop. Plus, I want to keep him around so that Asoka will trade techs with me.

225BC-GPerson #2 born, another GProphet:



This time in Memphis, thank you ToA! I am hurting for gold bad, so I settle him in my capital. I also then switch to representation (no anarchy) to power him and the ToA priest up with some beakers.

200BC-Finish fishing, start Code of Laws
150BC-Send our first GP to complete the:



Spreading Buddhism will help with the gold situation. Constantinople will be my future Wall Street city.

Post-War Empire:



Nice-sized BC empire. However, the consequence is struggling to break even at 0% science:



Troubling, but simply running a combination of representation-enhanced scientists and merchants across our empire gives us back a stable economy that is humming along with a decent amount of beakers.

To be continued...

...continued

125BC-Reject Asoka's demand to adopt Hindu. I want to spread Buddhism, but later end up going Hindu temporarily anyway, since Asoka is spamming me with missionaries. I don't fear an attack from him at this or any point.

25BC-Complete HE in Memphis:



50AD-Complete our next wonder:



In the capital. The capital really was an uber bureaucracy capital, but I decide to go sub-optimal and farm/mine it for wonders and specialists. This puts me in a bad position gold-wise. Optimally, I would have gone for a lot of cottages in the capital in preparation for bureaucracy. This would be purely to pay the bills.

75AD-Sack barb city Yue-Chi; Trade Aesthetics to Asoka for IW and Hunting:

Do we have iron?



Yes!



100AD-Complete our next wonder, this time in Justin's former capital, since we needed to chop, because we didn't have any gold pits:



125AD-Convert to Hindu since Asoka has been spamming it to all my main cities and I haven't been able to spread Buddhism to my core yet.

225AD-Finish CoL, start Drama for the culture slider
250AD-Make the switch to PARCS (Representation, Caste System, Pacificism) No anarchy



Inside Constantinople:



275AD-3rd GPers born, another GProph. I was running a lot of scientists hoping for a GS, but got unlucky. I settle him in my capital to continue combatting the low-gold situation:



Shot of our cities at this point:



375AD: Complete NE in Thebes; Finish Drama, start Math; Sack Mycenian (barb city); this gives us 10 cities at 375AD, which is pretty decent:



I know, I know, I should've had that granary built in my capital already! Another suboptimal move.

420AD-GPerson #4 and finally my 1st GS:



450AD-Finish Math, start Civil Service; Trade Lit/CoL/Drama to Asoka for Alphabet/Sailing/Monarchy; Trade him wheat for gems as I need the happiness because I can't afford to up the luxury slider anymore at the moment; Use GS to bulb philosophy:



Taoism founded in Yue-Chi.

540AD-GPerson #5 born, another GProphet, I settle him in my capital again:



600AD-GPerson #6 born (starting to crank them out now), another GS. I keep him reserved for now:



640AD-Get lucky and pop a silver resource in Constantinople
660AD-CS in, switch to bureaucracy for the production bonus (no anarchy); start calendar; declare war on Justinian, sack Nicomedian and eliminate Justinian:



That clears away the "We yearn to join our motherland unhappiness" that was affecting Justin's former empire.

A shot of Asoka's empire, from a culture perspective (he starts to put major cultural pressure on my border cities later):



740AD-Calendar done, start currency; Use our GS to bulb paper.

800AD-Found Heliopolis:



To be continued...

...continued

820AD-Finish Currency, start Metal Casting
840AD-Get Great Person #7, our 3rd GS; bulb most of education:



880AD-Complete our next wonder:



Yep, now we have uber priests who get the extra hammer and 3 beakers from rep.

Shot of what an early-game SE city looks like during a research phase:



920AD-Complete MC, start last bit of education
940AD-Get event that spreads Hindu to 4 of my cities; sack Phyrgian (barb city)
980AD-Pop music from a hut that was guarded by an archer (wasn't first to Music)
1010AD-Finish Ed, start Compass; Get our 8th GPerson, our 4th GS:



1050AD-Finish compass, bulb most of liberalism and set research to finish it off

1070AD-Finish liberalism, take Nationalism. Since I have marble, I start on the Taj in Memphis.

1080AD-Get our 9th great person, our 1st GM. I decide to save him for awhile.
1090AD-Asoka is putting major cultural pressure on our border cities, which causes us to lose Mycean to Asoka (culture flip). This is only temporary until I gear up for war again:



1100AD-Our 10th great person is born, and lo and behold it is our 1st Great Engineer!!! With a GE and a GM in hand, I decide to save them both for corporations later in the game:



1150AD-Finish machinery, start optics, need to find the other continent and machinery also enables macemen as I am starting to prepare to wipe Asoka off the map.

1160AD-Finally finish spreading Buddhism to all cities and I convert to Buddhism (no anarchy). I make my final trade with Asoka: Phil/Paper for Feudalism + 450 cash.

I enter my first major cycle (no anarchy):



To be continued...

I'll run the "FEUSS" shadow .

madscientist said:

Good idea. If possible follow it up with a Cottage economy walkthough. Also post a link in the sample game directory so posters can find it later on!

Click to expand...

Can you give me a link?

I'll run the "FEUSS" shadow .

Click to expand...

Sounds good!

Sample game directory - it's stickied on this forum by the way.

A question: would it have been better to settle the GPs in the future Wall Street city? Of course you'd lose the production in the capital, which is also a wonder-pump, but the WS city is more likely to prioritize the gold-boosting buildings than is the capital.

carl corey said:

Sample game directory - it's stickied on this forum by the way.

A question: would it have been better to settle the GPs in the future Wall Street city? Of course you'd lose the production in the capital, which is also a wonder-pump, but the WS city is more likely to prioritize the gold-boosting buildings than is the capital.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Yeah, I could've settled the GPs in the future WS city, but my reasoning is that the short term production boost outweighs the far-in-the-future gold boost. Also, my capital will prioritize the science buildings as well (library/university/oxford) and the GPs are generating beakers from representation.

madscientist said:

Good idea. If possible follow it up with a Cottage economy walkthough. Also post a link in the sample game directory so posters can find it later on!

Click to expand...

Done! 10

Nice article. I never really thought to build all the ancient wonders and rush to catch up in cities.

Question: When you built the 13 chariots, did you whip them all, or just a few?

When I gear up for a rush I whip and build units. Usually when my city hits size 4 and I finish a current build, I whip.

Nice write up future, dugg for the use of PARCS!

TheMeInTeam said:

I'll run the "FEUSS" shadow .

Click to expand...

Dave Mcw must be a happy man

hah ... you just stole my thread AND my leader!!

The irony is my game followed virtually the same path to victory. That said in review I think a lot of what is capable with Ramesses is simply not possible with any other leader under a 'mids based SE. SPI plays into 'mids based SE so well it's not funny. The ability to land Pyramids/Parthenon/StoneHenge thanks to IND is gamebreaking. Add in a crazy rush UU, a solid SE UB, and good starting techs. It's too good.

feralminded said:

hah ... you just stole my thread AND my leader!!

The irony is my game followed virtually the same path to victory. That said in review I think a lot of what is capable with Ramesses is simply not possible with any other leader under a 'mids based SE. SPI plays into 'mids based SE so well it's not funny. The ability to land Pyramids/Parthenon/StoneHenge thanks to IND is gamebreaking. Add in a crazy rush UU, a solid SE UB, and good starting techs. It's too good.

Click to expand...

Great minds think alike. I was actually leaning toward playing this game with Louis, who is also one of my fav pure SE leaders. I agree with you that Ramesses is an ideal-type situation; however, the same ideas apply. The anarchy can hurt with non-spiritual leaders, so that has to be taken into consideration when looking at cycling. Landing the wonders can be difficult-to-impossible with non-industrious leaders. So, I might do a philosophical non-spiritual leader next to show how that plays out.

futurehermit said:

So, I might do a philosophical non-spiritual leader next to show how that plays out.

Click to expand...

I would be very interested in that. This is a great walkthrough but really everything is going perfectly, especially with the chosen leader.

I would love to see how it'll play out with a PHI leader where you (perhaps intentionally) do not get the mids. Generally if I judge that I won't land the mids, I'll almost always favor cottages, even with PHI, after I've churned out a few quick scientists for early academies and bulbing.

Again, good walkthrough

Hereditary Rule said:

I would be very interested in that. This is a great walkthrough but really everything is going perfectly, especially with the chosen leader.

I would love to see how it'll play out with a PHI leader where you (perhaps intentionally) do not get the mids. Generally if I judge that I won't land the mids, I'll almost always favor cottages, even with PHI, after I've churned out a few quick scientists for early academies and bulbing.

Again, good walkthrough

Click to expand...

Yeah, with a philo leader I generally will not go for the mids unless I have stone. Philo with stone is like...[insert best thing in the world here]...

I will likely avoid pyramids even if stone happens to show up in the philo game just to show how it plays out without it. The key still is cranking up the luxury slider for happiness and running lots of scientists. Settle for long term gains or bulb for short term gains. The idea is still the same, the effectiveness varies depending on leader and map.

futurehermit said:

When I gear up for a rush I whip and build units. Usually when my city hits size 4 and I finish a current build, I whip.

Click to expand...

I think you should mention these specifics a bit more, cause that's the difficulty in your type of SE. Like you said about the whole cycling thing. Perhaps number the turns in a war cycle and how much units are costing and how long your cities take to grow back?

futurehermit said:

Yeah, with a philo leader I generally will not go for the mids unless I have stone. Philo with stone is like...[insert best thing in the world here]...

I will likely avoid pyramids even if stone happens to show up in the philo game just to show how it plays out without it. The key still is cranking up the luxury slider for happiness and running lots of scientists. Settle for long term gains or bulb for short term gains. The idea is still the same, the effectiveness varies depending on leader and map.

Click to expand...

I never really have problems getting pyramids without stone or industrious, even on Emperor, even after chopping the Oracle and laying out a few settlers. Do you prioritize other early wonders?