Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter LI: Victoria

Okies freddy is dead or almost. While I was in middle of taking his whole landmass the lil @$$%$&^% went and settled a 1 tile island grrr. So I capped him.

I took look at sitch at this point. and diplo sitch:



And tech sitch:



(dont want to talk about how bad Im behind and just focus on how I AM ahead of giggles) All seemed to show giggles best choice for next target so:



The boys loaded up and off they go

Hopefully I can take out giggles pretty quick then by that ttime I will have AL and HOPEFULLY that will be enough to go after Pete next.

After that NOO clue. Zara and dari are waaaay ahead techwise so going after to them will be tuff. Not sure if I even take ALL of Giggles and Petey will put me over the dom win threshhold. So that means a war with Dari or Zara at some point.

Demos look like this:



Still sad but not TERRIBLE. But I have had BETTER games by this point so things SHOULD be MUCH better than they are. No idea WHY I am playing this game so sucky. But there ARE some things I am clinging to for hope. Namely that despite being SOOO far ahead in tech dari only has like 6 cities so even tho he have AL already and I dont I am ahead of him in power already. So if EVERYTHING goes right then MAYBE I can take out giggles then petey they hit dari hard and fast before he can counter too much maybe THAT will be enough to win. I am hoping so anyways.

My empire at this point:



My cities are a LITTLE bigger thanks to getting better land from freddy and monty plus some trades but still not anything awe inspiring.

So thats my game at this point. WAAAY behind the leaders but luckily there still a cpl ai's left I have a chance to take out and HOPEFULLY taking them over will put me in better place to go after the leaers if I need to. Thats the plan anyways so wish me luck

-The start is fairly painful, mostly because I can't make my mind up about it. 1 SE is the most seductive tile for me, with the river access allowing a Levee later on. I decide to settle in place (might change that if I'm forced to replay this one). Basic strategy is to get The Great Lighthouse (good early wonder, and easily accessible, as said before), use the Merchant to bulb Metal Casting and build the Colossus, the other sea-wonder.

-I get the Herbalist event. It doesn't backfire, and free health is mine.

-Black Pearls in the Clam plot I put my Fishing Boats. That's the setup for a good start.

Preliminary dotmap:



-186 I complete The Great Lighthouse, allowing me to focus on expanding again. I've hooked up the Copper to the SW of the capital and am training fogbuster Axemen.

-Tech path is Mathematics-Currency-Code of Laws (again) to snatch Confucianism. This succeeds in turn 305. After that, I do some backwork on the religious techs, go to Civil Service, and then make a first civics switch (to limit anarchy, I put it off for a while). During CS research, I get my first Great Merchant and use him to bulb Metal Casting. The Colossus is built in turn 406.

-I go for Paper and the University of Sankore. I pass up on the logical follow-up (Education) because of the Trireme quest (which fails if you reach the Renaissance age) and because I want Divine Right and the Spiral Minaret. The Trireme quest succeeds (and, because of TGL, I get +2 commerce from every Harbor), and Hastings builds the two religious wonders (production-wise, it's almost as good as London).

-Turn 508 I get Optics and decide to go for the circumnavigation race. 3 turns later, I am sorely disappointed when I find that someone else has already done it. The completion of the Spiral Minaret, one turn later, is a nice consolation, though. With three Caravels going in different directions, I finally start meeting people. Within five turns, I've met them all. Rundown:
The Buddhist Block: Frederick and Montezuma. Monty hates Frederick. Monty's pretty large, Freddy's not. They're both backwards, with Frederick definitely worst off (he doesn't even have Alphabet).
The Hindu Block: Zara Yaqob and Gilgamesh. The two top dogs.
The Guy with Shwedagon Paya: As all AIs with Free Religion as Favourite Civic seem to do, Darius I has prioritized getting Shwedagon Paya. He's in FR now.
The Lonely Taoist: Peter is isolated, like me. Unlike me, he did pretty well with it.

Some early backfill trading yields Aesthetics, Archery, Feudalism, Alphabet, Horseback Riding, Philosophy, Literature, Drama, Calendar and Engineering. Tech parity hasn't been achieved, but I'm getting pretty close.

Overview of the world:











It's looking pretty good, to be honest, for a Monarch game in isolation. Tech parity has pretty much been achieved, I'm in the Liberalism race and my GNP is average. I'm feeling a bit out of my league, but the other isolated Monarch games I've played so far looked a lot worse.

Well I made my attack on giggles and he was willing to cap after I took that one city so I let him join Monty and Freddy as my lacky. I then waited to finish teching AL then set slider down to zero for build up some gold for mass upgrading then:



It was time to go say hi to petey

While my guys were fighting petey I teched out RR, did a trade for physics, teched out artillery, and flight, a GE spawned in London so he made Mining INC. Upgrading my cannons to arty and navy from wood to oil along with being able to send over some airships then fighters has been making war with petey go reasonably well:



At this point he down to 3 cities and since he took SOOO long about being willing to cap I think at this point I am just gonna wipe him out.

Vic conditions look like this:



I am hoping MAYBE peteys last 3 cities will get me like 5%. Then I will have to try and go after Dari. He only has 6 cities but they might be tuff. Here is tech sitch:



Luckily he doesnt have electricity yet which means he dont have inustrialism yet. And it doesnt look like he has flight yet either. But just in case my home cities have built a few anti-tanks along with some more Infantry and soon a few paratroopers as well so maybe then we can hit dari hard and fast and take him out. after that I am not sure how much that will put me to the dom win threshold. I am kinda worried even if I take out all of dari's cities it might be close but still a few shy. Especially if a lot of his borders with zara get swamped by zara's culture.

And that means I will have to take on thetech leader Zara :/. No clue how far past electricty is but with my luck you KNOW he is gonna have Indy teched so that means tanks and marines to deal with. ONLY good thing going is HOPEFULLY I will be close enough to dom win that I dont have to ACTUALLY take out zara COMPLETELY just take a cpl of cities and hold em long enuff to get my win.

Here are what the demos look like:



I dont have to sob anymore since I am doing MUCH better now. Although Im above average in most categories it looks a lil better than it is just cuz freddy and his 1 tile island is REALLY killing the average down hehe. But mining inc and getting factories built is helping my hammers so maybe even IF Zara has better troops I can just build TONS and TONS of troops and try to swamp him.

Here is my main empre now:



Right now they mostly all woorking on getting sorted for max hammer production and then going on massive unit binge what all the factories and airports and mining offices done plus any health buildings they need to keep from shrinking. Then once I feel comfy with my troops it will be go after dari and then if thats not enuff to get dom win then go after zara and take cities till I get it. Not MUCH of a plan I know but it best one I got so wish me luck

You can tell Zara already has Industrialism by looking at the "Can research" column. One of the options is Plastics, which requires Indy. However, you can still beat him even if he has tanks. Build a load of fighters to wipe his airforce and a lot of anti-tanks. Declare. Wait for him to come to one of Gilgamesh's cities and attack - planes, siege, clean up. Wait to see if there's a second stack and invade. However, I think it will take a while to cap him because Fred is useless - too weak. It makes Zara feel strong. The game is in the bag. Congrats.

It's really not a very ugly victory. I mean, you were behind when you met the opponents (not very embarrassing considering you were in isolation), and then you just destroyed them one by one. Regardless of the tech situation, you have a great lead. Your power rating is way higher than number two's, and power is really all that matters. The AI also tends to be sucky at using his army, so you've got this in the bag. When you're planning to Dominate, the army is all-important.

If I compare your situation with mine at Checkpoint 2, I have to say I envy you (and I think many would agree). I was way behind at that point (4-6-6 in GNP-Prod-Food, compared to 3-4-2) and only really doing better in the tech department (but the screenshot was post-trading). I've noticed that you really tend to underestimate yourself in these games. I see you saying every time that it's impossible, and then in the next checkpoint, you kick the ass of whoever was scaring you just before.

I actually think the island is pretty good. Health-wise, it's mehish, but the happiness situation actually isn't all that bad. Ivory and Silver go online with Hunting and Mining, and they get extra happiness from Markets and Forges (which come online fairly early). I'd rather have this kind of happiness situation than 3 Calendar resources. It also has plenty of rivers, some hills, and nice grassland.

Am I the only one who seriously considered moving his capital SE? 1S has been discussed extensively (for the Plains hill), but 1SE seemed a lot better on the long run to me. I always tend to go for river placement for cities. Levees/Hydro Plants make it worth it, in my opinion.

The diplomatic situation is pretty much perfect though, I have to say (this seems to be true for everyone in the thread). Monty's the only real warmonger, and he's always busy with Freddie or Zara. Gilgamesh is kept busy by Darius and his Free Religion, and backstabber Peter just seems content sitting on his island building wonders. Gilgamesh-Zara-Darius are always tech leaders, but they don't like Monty/Fred/Peter, who provide fairly easy land which can then be used against the last three.

thanks for the kind words . Its not that I dont think I am gonna lose this game at point I am at. Its just very fruustrating not making my cities as nice as I want and also I DO get nervous when I feel I am behind. And I am still newish to prince so I am usually behind a LOT longer than I would be on noble now. Noble was a PAIN too at first but I started to get the hang of it so hopefully I will get better at prince too

As for settling 1se. I DID think about that to so I could get a levee in my cap but that would mean giving up TWO seafood. And one tile east wouldnt leave much room to west and as it turns out there wasnt much room to the east ether so that would have meant either giving up a few tiles or put two cities crowding the cap BIG time to get to the seafood on those sides. So that and early hammer from plains hill seemd best dealio to me.

As for the island itself really the main thing I didnt like bout it is I dont mind not having a VARIETY of resources but at LEAST I hope that if I dont have many different resources I hope there is a LOT of one just so I can end up trading it later. Although I got lucky. There were two decent happy resources plus I got mids built and got a religion and got herb event so between all that and expansive trait early on helath and happy probs werent as bad as they could have been but I still would have liked more stuff hehe.

I guess the silver is nice to have early on but I play two cont hemisphere games a LOT and I notice game tends to give LOTS of calander and then things like fur and ellie to one cont and then gold silver gems and a little less calander to other cont. And unless it like multiple gold or gems in my start location I kinda like being on the cont that DOESNT get the metal happy resources just cuz usually oer course of game at LEAST one and sometimes even all 3 end up popping from mines and all the camp/calander happy resources cant do that.

Uncovering Elephants on a river, I move settler to plains hill, so as to claim such elephants and gain +1 Base Hammers.




I see the Comp agrees with me, still coastal, but misses the river..*sigh*


Initial tech's are as selected, subject to resources, 2 work boats are queued, using the 2 hammer and 1 food tile.





Settling popped the hut for a map...Ho hum...


Once the borders pop, I move to the Elephant as it contains 1 extra commerce.


Bronze working is in, and do we have a source of Copper .





I''ve now explored all the island mass, for what its worth.


1st is the Island group to the north, this means the Great Light House will be aimed for.




Next is my Starting position. London will be my Science city, with the Capital being moved inland to capital city/ironworks. This will have Cottages or Water mills and iron works, not sure which combination is best.




I'm so used to Farming and specialists, I automatically assume water mills and levy, I'll try cottages and levies here, under Bureaucracy.


The south contains both Stone and Marble, Silver, 1 pig to be claimed, some tundra and marginal tiles.





Not much of a home land. How shall the Empire rise from this??

600ad immortal/normal.

i'm trying to get to liberalism first. i could have over-built, and i'm stuck for now as i reassess things.

i've got 6 cities, great lighthouse, oracle, colossus, parthenon (in capitol), great library and bulbed taoism, no military, three workers and am researching civil service (5 turns).

i'm still in slavery, at least until i can whip some courthouses. i have room for 2-4 more cities (dotmap suggestions welcome).

i took a lot from JammerUno's game. my first attempt was settler first and not as good. i'm still not in a great position, check the screens:




lucky:



there's got to be some strategy to work with this. so far, i've got a medic 1 trireme.

obvious city sites are 5N of nottingham and 3W of coventry.

mmm. black pearls.

Well I killed off Petey. Regathered my troops still dreading having to try and fight a war with one of the tech leaeders.

I looked at the vic conditions and with Peteys land I had about a smidge over 61% of the 64 I needed in land.

It made me regret not just taking Monty completely out when I had the chance cuz I was pretty sure if I had ALL his land myself I would get the dom win. But alas he capped and I cant war on a captiulated vassal unless they decide to break free and as been pointed it that RARELY happens.

I start grumbling to myself "If ONLY Monty was the kind of idiotic whackjob he would commit suicide by trying to revolt free of his captiulation even though I have Infantry and he barely has gunpowder"



Oh yeah I forgot..he's monty hehe

So apparantly he like when I slapped him around so much the first time he asked me to do it again my guys happily oblige and soon Monty just a memory.

Afer all of Monty's cities go out of revolt I check vic conditions:



Close but no love. HOWEVER Montys last two cities are VERY close to getting their second border pop. And after the first one pops:



And last city only one turn away from its border pop and it looks like it should be enuff and:



It was So thanks to Monty pretty much INSISTING I kill him off I avoid a potentially UGLY war with Dari and get a ugly win instead hehe. How Ugly?

Here are the final graphs:



Lagging behind in most things almost whole game but did pull head in some categories late game. Was still getting STOMPED in espionage points tho

Final demos:



Got respectable leads in some categories by the end but I HAVE had beter games. Not that the final results were TERRIBLE but not best I have ever played either.



Middle of the pack score reflects that.

My core empire at the end:



They were starting to FINALLY get a little pretty after HUNDREDS of turns of mediocrity but I would have liked them prettier hehe

My ONLY city of note:



Yeah I know 154 lousy total beakers out of my "science" city. Again not an especially TERRIBLE city but not all that great either.



Middle of the pack city ranking reflects that too. And over half of the wonders I own all seem to be captured ones from Petey. After Collossus I didnt build a SINGLE wonder

Well thats it for this game. Not my prettiest win ever but it STILL a win. And people keep telling me if I am gonna move up from noble and stay on prince I HAVE to get used to playing from behind. Although I have to admit is is kinda sucky (I MISS building MY shinies waaaah )

Most interesting thing about this game is SOMEHOW by the end I managed to put up a semi respectable tech rate even tho I had a GRAND total of 6 librairs, ONE university and ONE observatory :/. I have NOOOO clue how that happened. I am GONNA assume it HAD something to do with fact that by end of game I had like 113 towns and 11 villages backed by Fin trait. Compared to like 54 total farms. A game where I have like a two or even three to one farm to town ratio is more typical for me. I am gonna assume with THAT many towns US might have been helpful although when I DID try it it did NOT seem to go very well so I went back to rep. Maybe if I waited till I had more towns or something? I dont know this is why I MUCH prefer hammers to cottages. I just couldnt hardly build ANYTHING in most of my cities. I was forced to put them ALL on unit pumping or else not only would I have had cities with no buildings but also NO army ;/. Things didnt really seem to turn around hammer wise until after I got Factories and then shortly after mining inc.

All in all I guess the land wasnt THAT bad. Mostly I think it was just the land was BEST suited for cottage spam and Vicky IS one of the nicest leaders for that. I just need to learn how to play that way better. Especially know exactly WHEN is the best time to go US and depend on rush buying for production. So while frustrating at times it was learning experience and the BEST kind--one where I learn and STILL dont lose hehe. And that along with Monty's hijinks made it fun so thanks rolo and everybody and hope everybody else has good luck and see y'all next game if there is one

You really are underestimating yourself. I am pretty sure you can win on monarch if you try... Being behind isn't the end of the world. You are even complaining when you are #1 in every demographic. By that time the game is already won in whatever way you want... For example TMIT is often fighting infantery/artilery against mech infantery and still winning. I am sure you can manage to beat the AI at tech partiy . The AI really does suck at warfare. As you move up to Deity/Immortal(a long way still to go before you get there though), you can be behind the entire game and still win. The game isn't about milking the biggest wins possible, just winning is enough. That said there are some that enjoy preforming the most spectacular wins, you find those in the hof forum.

I left off with Gilly in WHEOOH, but he ended up DoWing Zara, not me, and laid some pretty heavy smackdown on him, taking a city and knocking him down the scoreboard. Meanwhile, I whored tech around an worked on my CV. Not all artists will come from my GP farm, as London and York will produce a GP each during the endgame (as well as a Merchant from elsewhere). I'm only counting on one of these GP being an astist, although each should have a 70-80% chance of being so.

That's what you want when running Sushi for a CV:




It was worth 22gpt! Woo. All going swimmingly until...




Ack! Not checking WHEOOH was a bad move. Had to scramble some units and sell some tech for cash, but I eventually saw off his attacks. To be fair to him, he came with loads of ships and contemporary units (which surprised me a bit after the first stack contained Knights). I hadn't run entirely naked militarily as the world was pretty split on religious lines, so I had a couple of cities training Redcoats from 1700 onward (though I did switch one to Broadway, only to fail to snag the Wonder by 1 turn).

I eventually paid Monty to make peace (with Liberalism). Whilst the war was a minor irritation (and some unlikely defeat ennervating), more annoying was that neither GP from London & York was a high-odds artist, leading to a delay of a dozen turns in the win date:

Oh I dont think I am THAT bad. I didnt say my demos were horrible just kinda of middle of the pack meh and I think my final score reflected that it was an accurate appraisal. And for the record I was NOT number 1 in EVERY category And I am not even CLOSE to ANYWHERE near players like TMiT level so just cuz they can do some stuff doesnt mean I can.

And I know I CAN win on monarch. I have played a cpl of Monarch games and won a cpl but admittedly even others playing the games I won stated how those games were unusally easy games. But even in those "easy" monarch games the WHOLE time I flet like a poor swimmer out in middle of ocean it just wasnt comfy at ALL.

I honestly do think a good assessment of my skills at this point is VERY solid noble playing trying to get the hang of prince. And I dont mind that since I still have fun playing the game even if I am not out stomping all over diety .

-Shortly after the last checkpoint, everybody (Gilgamesh, Zara and Monty) gangs up on Darius. When they come knocking for me to help them, I can't really help but accept. Who am I to give up cheap diplo points? Frederick, however, is not quite so pleased with me, and declares war immediately. Gilgamesh, in the meantime, wipes out the Persian Empire. Darius quickly vassalises.

-Liberalism is my main target. The same cannot be said about the other civilizations. Zara could easily have gotten there first, but he researches Nationalism, Printing Press and Astronomy before bothering with Liberalism. This allows me to get to Astro first. I rejoice and quickly take Astronomy as my free tech. I go down the Guilds path next for Free Market, but when I finish on Guilds, I notice that nobody has Economics yet. I go to 100% research and hope to get there first. Surprisingly, I'm actually the first to get there, and I get a bonus Great Merchant. He waits a bit to make a large civics switch after Democracy.

-I pop the GM for a Golden Age. London, in the meantime, gives me a Great Engineer at less than 1% odds (luckiest roll ever). He is used to build half the Statue of Liberty (which I surely would've ignored otherwise, as it's not that great when you have only a couple of cities to profit from it), which London finishes on its own.

-My fake war with Frederick turns real quite quickly. He's the logical target for my wrath, being the last in the score, last in power, last in tech, last in everything. I land with Redcoats and Cannon next to Munich, which falls quickly. I then move downwards. Monty, seeing an opportunity, declares on Fred too, but I bribe him to go away. He rejoins the fray later on, but his conquests are limited and I take the most important German cities. I'm moving to Assembly Line as quickly as possible while trading for other techs (most importantly ones that will help me get to Communism, the most important economic tech on a multi-continent game). It is very alluring to declare on Monty while his army is relatively in the open in a captured German city with no cultural defensen, but his power is twice of mine, and I only have 6 Infantry and a bunch of Cannons, so I really can't take him on. I wait for the Factories in the homeland to finish.

-After Communism and Fascism (for the free Great General), I switch to State Property and Free Speech. No real military civics, but FR and US are too good right now to change to Theo or Police State.

-Monty declares war on Zara. Well, it's your funeral. He leaves himself wide open for a nice backstab from my part, which I will do as soon as Monty and Zara start going at it. The diplomatic situation, in the meantime, is pretty explosive.



Gilgamesh and Peter have their hands full and no worst enemy. That sounds bad. Peter is Friendly with me though, so I sign a Defensive Pact with him. We all know how backstabby the guy is. Let's hope Gilgamesh doesn't go at me.

-Wow. That was unexpected. Peter actually declares war on Gilgamesh, the runaway score leader. That's going to be very ugly. He immediately captures one of Gilga's coastal cities. On the plus side, this means everybody's at war with somebody...except for me.

-Darius breaks free of Gilgamesh, and I trade Rifling and Communism to Gilga for Medicine. I throw in a bit of gold to get peace between Gilga and Peter. I can't have Gilga running over Peter.

-When Zara finally comes calling for help with Monty, I do not refuse. Cheap diplo, he was my next target anyway, let's have some fun. I immediately destroy a large stack that was defending a worker near Dortmund.

-Peter asks me to join his war against Darius. I accept, as Darius is quite irrelevant. Peter gets peace with Darius, then declares war on Monty. I already weakened Monty, and now the vultures are circling.

-Monty vassalises to Zara. Durr. I had completely forgotten about that war. That really sucks. I was okay with Peter, not with Zara.

-Zara finishes Apollo Program, and, a turn later, Monty breaks free from him. As courageous a move as that is, it's exactly what I want. War breaks loose almost immediately.

-Darius is willing to capitulate, even though all our battles have been on the ocean and I haven't set foot in his territory. Well, that's no problem, I didn't want to invade him anyway (it would cause immediate cultural pressure from Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh is not a priority right now).

-After capturing Tlatelolco, I decide that completely killing Monty just isn't worth it. I take his capitulation.

Well, that's checkpoint 3 as far as I'm concerned. This is definitely looking like a Domination victory. Peter and Gilgamesh are up next, and then I should've won. I don't really fancy going up against Zara, though I should be able to outproduce him.

Overview of the world:

I've conquered Fred and Monty, but it took me many hours of real-world time to do it. Not sure I can work up the enthusiasm to continue, though it's clear I'm winning. I'm far ahead in power and manufacturing ability but have far to go to get a domination win:Darius will be a pushover, but Giggles has lots of territory, is 3 turns from rifling, and is protective. I'm 5 turns from Assembly Line, 6 from Electricity (partly bulbed with a recent GS), and 16 more from Industrialism, but I don't think I should follow my cowardly instinct to wait 16 turns for tanks. He doesn't have Steam yet so I'm safe from destroyers for a while and he won't be able to rapidly reinforce via railroads, whereas I can bring enough workers to build some resupply routes fairly quickly. Invasion troops consist of

• A Woodsman III redcoat, two Medic I redcoats and a Medic III knight for healing.
• 7 Accuracy cannons for knocking down defences
• 8 CR III and 1 CR II "suicide" cannons
• 3 Barrage II cannons for defending against counterattacks.
• 22 CG II redcoats free as city defenders, so I need a lot more; I can strip former German and Aztec cities down to 1 each if needed but I'd prefer not to do that.
• 8 good city attacker redcoats, 5 of them with CR II from promoted axemen and macemen. I may need more; I lost none so far against Fred and Monty, but Giggles will likely claim a few. Some of the CG II can kill off the last few defenders after the cannons do their work, though.

If I want to use two stacks against Giggles I need more Accuracy cannons and more good attacker redcoats -- Combat II or maybe Drill II?

A bit of history:

Team England settled out with seven cities on the mainland and two in the north - again less than most. London as the wonder-driven GPF/science centre added Shwedagon Paya, University of Sankore and Oxford University. The Brits managed Liberalism for Astronomy and in 1435 tech'd Education (well, banking was on the way to the UU and the UB) for a GM; two golden ages have been used.

With Montezuma next door, who would attack if his nation was armed only with toothpicks, England planned toward an invasion with readcoats and trebuchets. When it became possible a frigate screen was placed to the north and west as the Aztecs were tech challenged but others were not. With the exception of Frederick becoming Montezuma's vassal everything looked fine until 1695 when Darius I showed-up with three galleons in the north. This was not a good-will-tour and when the frigates sent them to the bottom Zara Yaqob declared a war on Victoria which is still ongoing.

The Aztec invasion force became the Ethiopian invasion force and with Montezuma heading for Astronomy an eastern frigate screen was cobbled together. On the brightside Peter declared war on Zara Yaqob in 1702 and the Persians settled out with England in 1716. On the darkside Montezuma sent out five galleons and five caravels about 1724 but badly battered frigates eventually finished that fleet only to discover a gargantuan Aztec navy (28 ships) in Tlatelco ESSS of the capital. England was able to seal the port and just barely take it in 1750 with forces meant for Ethiopia. That was a big navy!

So, at 1754 England is only at war with Zara Yaqob while holding four Ethiopian cities and one Aztec city and monitoring an economy headed south in a hurry. Oh, and, a grand example of why I'm just competitive at the Prince level. In 1730 I voted no rather than never on an AP DoW aganist my only pal Peter, which caused a war. There is a considerable difference between being asleep at the switch and being brain-dead. Mistakes do matter.

As you say, you win on monarch. You don't lose on prince. Your level is closer to monarch than to noble... That said by all means play what is fun for you. If you find it fun stomping all over the AI, you shouldn't have to move up levels to find games that challenge you just because other people says that challenges are more fun. Sometimes crafting a nice empire and stomping all over the AI is fun too (this can be done on deity too though, if you just tip the settings in your favour). Personally I don't play much deity. While it can be challenging, and I probably wouldn't lose all the time. The game just isn't as much fun as playing against opponents who actually think.