Tortfeasor
Chieftain
I've been reading up on some of the more advanced strategy threads for awhile now and I finally beat Monarch for the first time today. A 1959 space race victory on Earth 18 with Cyrus. However because it's a map I know and possibly my best leader/civ in the game it still feels like this wasn't the jump from Prince it's supposed to be. Before jumping into a random map/leader, maybe even putting it up on the forum to get advice as I go along I wanted to put up some thoughts and questions I had from this last game and see if there's any more wisdom to be gleaned that might help me next time.
Thoughts:
1. Maintenance got expensive! I've read in countless threads that Monarch is where this starts to really jump but just reading does not prepare you for it. On Prince I was able to immortal rush Arabia, India, Egypt, and Greece before my economy put a stop to it. This game I rushed Arabia and India before running at 10% science. Likewise the cities I set up to make money were far less effective at this and I have to say it really cramped my style. I settled my cities closer and ran merchant specialists but I made far less money than I'm used to, so can I do anything more on this?
2. AI mobs = experience. Catherine did not like me in this game, to say we went to war a few times would be putting it mildly. I could have crushed her earlier than I did but I had her forced into a chokepoint and it got routine to hit her with siege and then total her stack before milking her for gold to make peace. I could be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that the AI starts getting some combat bonuses on Monarch and that did not seem to be the case. Am I smoking something there or were my perpetually upgraded immortals just that good?
3. Great people are my new best friends. I've heard that specialist economies are the way to go on higher difficulties. At least in this case I can believe what I read on the internet. I popped 3 golden ages from great people and a great merchant gave me the gold to upgrade those immortal knights to cavalry. However I am also a fan of the whip and PG farms not withstanding how do I balance the use of great people and the need for population points to run the specialists with getting needed infrastructure and units out with the whip?
Questions:
1. AI aggressiveness. Does the AI go *bleeping* crazy on higher difficulties? I had quite the diplo headache because the Buddhist bloc I joined was not very bloc like going after infidels but delighted in intra-religious conflict with constantly shifting alliances. I've not seen a definitive answer to this question and would love to know if this was just a one off.
2. Espionage. I believe that I read the AI weights the human very heavily for espionage point spending but is too stupid to do anything with that at lower levels. Security Bureaus proved worth their weight in gold this game, there were turns where I was catching 5 or more spies in a turn. Yes Catherine hated my guts and we spent a lot of time at war where she would want to mess with me in every way possible but is this something I need to start paying more attention to?
I realize specific examples would be better but by the time in the game these occurred to me I knew I was going to win and they didn't seem that important.
Thoughts:
1. Maintenance got expensive! I've read in countless threads that Monarch is where this starts to really jump but just reading does not prepare you for it. On Prince I was able to immortal rush Arabia, India, Egypt, and Greece before my economy put a stop to it. This game I rushed Arabia and India before running at 10% science. Likewise the cities I set up to make money were far less effective at this and I have to say it really cramped my style. I settled my cities closer and ran merchant specialists but I made far less money than I'm used to, so can I do anything more on this?
2. AI mobs = experience. Catherine did not like me in this game, to say we went to war a few times would be putting it mildly. I could have crushed her earlier than I did but I had her forced into a chokepoint and it got routine to hit her with siege and then total her stack before milking her for gold to make peace. I could be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that the AI starts getting some combat bonuses on Monarch and that did not seem to be the case. Am I smoking something there or were my perpetually upgraded immortals just that good?
3. Great people are my new best friends. I've heard that specialist economies are the way to go on higher difficulties. At least in this case I can believe what I read on the internet. I popped 3 golden ages from great people and a great merchant gave me the gold to upgrade those immortal knights to cavalry. However I am also a fan of the whip and PG farms not withstanding how do I balance the use of great people and the need for population points to run the specialists with getting needed infrastructure and units out with the whip?
Questions:
1. AI aggressiveness. Does the AI go *bleeping* crazy on higher difficulties? I had quite the diplo headache because the Buddhist bloc I joined was not very bloc like going after infidels but delighted in intra-religious conflict with constantly shifting alliances. I've not seen a definitive answer to this question and would love to know if this was just a one off.
2. Espionage. I believe that I read the AI weights the human very heavily for espionage point spending but is too stupid to do anything with that at lower levels. Security Bureaus proved worth their weight in gold this game, there were turns where I was catching 5 or more spies in a turn. Yes Catherine hated my guts and we spent a lot of time at war where she would want to mess with me in every way possible but is this something I need to start paying more attention to?
I realize specific examples would be better but by the time in the game these occurred to me I knew I was going to win and they didn't seem that important.