Team Python- Monarch Training!

Ahh yes. The days of Monarch. Getting from the good old beatin the AI on regent games to the "The always beat me on Monarch" games is a pretty big step. But no fear, Monty Python Games are here!

The first thing you have to understand (which you may already know) is that, when you playing on Regent and hopefully winning, the AI were you equal. They had nothing over you but you had you brain over them. The only way they're winning on Monarch is becuase they need a handi-cap, bonuses.

The only thing you have to do is use your head, becuase they dont have one! The AI has bonuses but doesn't know how to use them so take that to your advantage and use your strategic skills to beat them, here I will teach you.

The setting will be;
Standard map, continents
70% water
wet, hot, 5 billion years
restless barbs
7 random opponents
Culture-linked start and respwan are OFF
On Monarch (duh!)

Our civ will be the Mongols. Good ol' Mongolian Tribe and will soon be a Mongolian Nation.

The Roster:
Amirsan
GI Joe
Jimmy Dean
KotatsuNeko
CivGeneral


Throughout the game I am going to ask a couple of questions to keep your mind going like the good old Sulla and Sirp way. The first 5 will be now sinse we cant start yet, sadly, I dont have my computer yet.

1. What are the exact bonuses the AI get in Monarch as opposed to Regent?

2. What are the Mongolian Traits?

3.How can those traits be used effectively?

4. What is the Mongol UU and what does it replace?

5. What should we do below on the first turn?

Good Luck with tha questions .

DO NOT TAKE THE SAVE YET!

Save Game! Dont take!
Unless your not in the above list of CFC Players in the game.

CivGeneral, Force Sensitive Assassin, Reporting for duty .

1. What are the exact bonuses the AI get in Monarch as opposed to Regent?
The # of Defensive class units they start with is 2 and the # of Offensive Class units is 1. The Ai to AI Tech rate is 140%

2. What are the Mongolian Traits?
Militaristic and Expantionist

3.How can those traits be used effectively?
With the Expantionist trait, we get a free scout. We can use this trait to expand more quickly than our rivals.
Militaristic would mean cheaper military improvements.

4. What is the Mongol UU and what does it replace?
The Mongol's UU is the Keshik. It replaces the Knight

5. What should we do below on the first turn?
Hmm, We can use the worker to pop that goodie hut that is north of us. But after past experiance I dont think we should pop it just yet. The close proximity of our settler would mean that the city would pop the hut for us rather than sending a unit to pop it.

Glad we finally got this started! And I'm also glad you managed to weather that blackout, Amirsan; I'm nowhere near it, but I recently had to go without power for a while, and it ain't fun.

Going to the questions, I'm not familiar with the differences between difficulty settings, so we'll move on to...

2 & 3: The Mongols are, of course, Militaristic and Expansionistic. With Exp., we'll start with a scout and can make more quickly, and goody huts will never spawn barbs. Making one or two more will let us explore the contintent quickly, netting us extra gold/science/settlers/cities without immediate fear of ground pounders. Good for early game, but the benefit won't last long. Militaristic gives us faster unit promotions and cheaper military buildings; not a crucial ability, but helpful when we go to war. These will also give us the Pottery and Warrior Code techs, for early Granaries and Archers.

4. The Mongol Keshik horse archer replaces the Knight, and has a few advantages: it's cheaper to make than a Knight by 10 shields, which is nice; it's able to cross mountains as though they were grasslands, but since we're using a low-mountain map this isn't terribly useful; and it doesn't require iron. This last benefit is... nice, but iron is so generally useful we'll want to secure it regardless. Still, if we end up without it, we'll have a useful tool to get some from our neighbors... provided we have horses.

5. Hmm. Coast/lake to the SE, plains to the NE, *possibly* a coast of some kind but more likely a desert behind that mountain to the north, flood plain to the NW, and hills and... forest? Maybe?... to the SW. There's no point in moving, and that goody hut is guaranteed safe, so drop the city, and move the worker to the moo-moos, to start irrigation next turn. The scout we should send to the eastern hill, I think, since I suspect the terrain will be better suited for colonization that way instead of the west or north. Of course, whatever we get from the hut will be a nice little bonus; if it's a warrior, send him NW onto the adjacent mountain.

1. What are the exact bonuses the AI get in Monarch as opposed to Regent?

I knew they had extra units, but I didn't know exactly how many, or what the other bonuses were as CivGeneral pointed out above.

2. What are the Mongolian Traits?

Militaristic and Expansionist ( I knew that one )

3.How can those traits be used effectively?

Use scouts to get an early tech/map knowledge lead, and hopefully a settler/city. We'll also never get barbs from a hut, so we can pop them at any time. Always change production away from settlers before be pop huts, so that we're more likely to get them out of the huts. Militaristic can be used to quickly upgrade our units to elite, and to product fast barracks.

4. What is the Mongol UU and what does it replace?

Keshik, and it replaces the knight. It moves across mountains like they are roads, and is 4/3/2.

5. What should we do below on the first turn?

I would move the scout to the hill on the west. That would let us see if the water next to us is a lake or the ocean (likely ocean). If it is ocean, I would recommend moving the settler one square SE to be on the river and the ocean. Move the worker to the cow to begin irrigation. If it is a lake, plant the settler where it is. Set research to 10% on Ceremonial Buriel, so that we won't pop it from a hut.

Ok, we haven't gotten a message from GI Joe, I will PM him.

Ok I'm here.
Mongols are militaristic and expansionist.
They get the Keshik to replace the knight.
did not know the % diff. in levels or between us and AI.
Good to know. How do you find that out anyway?
I agree with letting our culture increase pop the hut.
The scout trait will allow us to explore greatly popping alot more huts and making our world map worth more when we sell it.

didn't think we were starting till Sat so I was checking 1 time in morning and 1 time at night.

well.... for some reason my ptw w/1.21 patch decides to not
run any game I get from here or from friend I had been doing pbem.
when I load a game I d/l from here or from one sent in email
I get error: DataIO operation system error:Bic
I can play games I start on my own computer from saving and loading them later.
also my screen freezes up after being online about 5 min.
any problem solvers here????
I removed and reinstalled the game but same prob.
also deleted leftover folders in my computer when I removed and reinstalled ptw a 2nd time.
went to pcpitstop and no red flags there. also scanned with norton. no errors.

Ok, can't evaluate the answeres now becuase I'm leaving, my dad is flying back to his country and I am taking him to the airport . I will evaluate on Sunday and start on Monday or so. Sorry for the delay, I dont even have my laptop, It should be getting here on Monday.

Ok, back. Checking your answers now.

Just a quick question? Are we going to play with the 1.21 patch or the 1.27 patch? Just wondering since I am going to upgrade to it (Dont worry, if we are playing with 1.21, I can always back step )

In the original sign up thread, they mentioned 1.21, so that's what I've stayed with.

1. The AI on Monarch get exactly 2 defensive units, 1 offensive land unit. They also get more free troop support (4 and 1 more for each city). Thier cost factor is 9 and thier AI to AI trade rate is 140. So CivGeneral and Jimmydean are half correct and GI JOE and Kotatzu didn't answer. GI JOE, you can get this info in the Editor.

2. Expanionistic and Militarialistic. Everyone was correct (darn it that was my trick question)

3. Ok, first of all, the expansionist trait gives a free scout that movement is 2 and gives better goodie huts. The way to use it effectively is to build scouts, alot. I dont mean to build 10 or 15 but build at least 3 before your first settler and granary and build a couple more, so its like building 5 to 7. Building only one scout doesn't get it's full effect! With more you will have a better WM and more free techs, gold and hopefully cities. The other great side for this trait is that is gives the Pottery Tech. The pottery tech gives the Granary which may be almost the most powerful building in the Ancient Age. Build this immediatly to pop out settler faster than opponent.

The other trait is the Militarialistic Trait. It gives you Warrior Code first (unles your the Japanese). Warrior Code allows the construction of Archers which can be helpful in the very early game. I would suggest building like 1 after your scouts for a very early war with the nearest nieghbor. I will decide if I will do that though . Another way to use this trait effectively is to get in a couple wars and try your hardest to get Elites and Leaders sinse the Militarialistic Trait gives you more chances of upgrading the ranks of your units. I will not say who was right or wrong here, you decide for yourself here.

4. The Mongol UU is the Keshik and it replaces the Knight. It is cheaper and treats all mountains and hills as if they were roads. Though its defense is 2 instead of 3. I suggest making this a buildier game until we get these, unless anything else comes up. Everyone got this pretty right. I only asked what it is and what it replaces though its good to know that you know the other stuff.

5. Ok, were to go. If you look closely to the northern Mountains you can see a bit of the coast, if not a lake then it can be an estimation that we are north and thats the ocean, you never know, it may be desert too. If you look even closer to the south you can see some grassland, I would move the scout down there and investigate. The I would move the Worker east to the cow to explore also, if we settle there then we start on cow. If we find a better spot then we move. If you got similar to this then its right, or maybe you have better but different then its good.

About techs I would start on up to the Wheel and find out if we have horses. Sinse we dont have any second level techs to research, max. to Wheel will help.


Ok, gtg, thunderstorms will mess up a computer .
We will start 2morrow, I will get my laptop and play the turns as soon as possible.

And yes, we are playing with 1.21.

Originally posted by amirsan
And yes, we are playing with 1.21.

Click to expand...

I kind of figured that Ill be switching back and fourth between patches. (1.27 on GOTM and 1.21 on this SG). Luckly I saved my 1.21 instalation patch .

Ok, this game is starting pretty soon. I just wanted to get a couple things out before we start tommorrow.

1. We will be using NO EXPLOITS, especially in the early game. Open up a LKendter Game and he pretty much covers all of them. We will also try to play as Honerably as possible unless there is a situation.

2. If you haven't been in an SG before, it works like this; The thread starter makes a game. He playes the first 20 or so turns and everyone else takes turns to play 10 turns or so until the game is beaten or lossed.

3. In this TDG, I will play the first 20 turns to start us off. We will all play 10 turns each after that. I will evaluate each turn, the good and the bads. Though don't forget, everyone else can put any input, suggestion and comments. Don't forget, we are a team and we will work and have fun and learn while we beat this Monarch game so if you have an idea feel free to say it .

4. We will make decisions as a team to declare war and trade and other team decisions. If you have a question in the middle of your turns you can always "save your game" and post your question and get an answer. Though don't be afraid to make mistakes, you will learn from your mistakes, everyone will learn from your mistake maybe. I wont be harsh just to let you know, but I have to know I have my point across. So I hope we're looking foward to a great game and eccellent teamwork!

This is going to be the last question before we start the game around tommorrow.

What type of game are you expecting to have? What type of game are you used to (warmonger, builder other)?

I tend to be a big culture fan, and work on improvements rather than build up my military (in fact, this often gets me in trouble and invites the AI to attack). I'm usually leery about climbing above the 'safe' city limit for a map, though given how often I've seen games around here go way beyond that, I'm starting to revise my opinion on that score.

I can see some more culture happening in this game. We should consilidate alot of territory. An early FP can cut down that corruption from alot of cities and a Republica Government could help.