Looks like this died out, but I wanted to thank you guys for this thread.
I've been stuck for a long time with one win on monarch and really no idea how I got it since I've been steamrolled more times than I can count since...but on prince I haven't finished a game in ages because I am the steamroller and that's no fun. Now I'm in a very challenging but I think winnable monarch game, and it was what I learned in this thread that made the difference.