Resurrecting this thread, I just got back into Civ IV and decided to give this strategy a try. Thanks a lot, Wejer, for writing such a detailed guide.
I started a marathon Monarch level game with two other civs. Managed to steal a worker from each, the first time I've done that. I noticed that after each theft, the AI switched to using pairs of workers and archers, so I guess it is not very feasible to steal more than one worker from each civ any more.
The tech and build order suggestions were very clear
I ended up having to chop my Settler in order to grab the only horse resource from my nearest neighbour. That meant it wasn't a very good city, but the stolen workers had pre-made a road to the site, so my capital could immediately start producing Immortals.
I waited until I had 10 Immortals before declaring war on the nearest neighbour. Now one thing which I wasn't clear on, Wejer suggested Combat 2 and Flanking 2 promotions, but with only a Barracks, I had to send the troops in with only one promotion. Did I miss something there? After taking the enemies capital, and razing one other city, there is now one city left, and I have two combat 1 medic 1, one sentry/flanking 1 and one flanking 2 immortals left.
Obviously I'm going to have to produce another set of fresh troops to conquer the last civ, I'm thinking maybe 18 since he is some way away and will be getting axes/spears hooked up. My question is, do I keep the veterans alive and hold off killing the nearest civ, so they can guide and heal the in-production army, or do I risk losing them and wipe out the first civ right now?
Second question, the capital I kept, but they are very unhappy due to war weariness, fighting their own culture and religion and so on. What's the best way to handle this? If I can't keep this at a productive size, should I be thinking about founding a fourth city, maybe towards the last enemy, in order to produce Immortals more quickly?
Thanks again for the guide, I'm pretty confident I'll get my first ever Monarch win, and then I'll try the strategy again with more civs and a higher level
Y.