I want to devote one post just to Monarchy, because I feel its prerequisites are incredibly messy. Currently, Monarchy requires:
Despite looking imposing, it's easy to meet Monarchy's prerequisites midway through the Ancient Era. Metal Casting, Trade, Caste System, and Priesthood are all Ancient Level 3 techs. I have played a few games on Noble difficulty/Normal speed and I have regularly seen Monarchy reached by someone before 3000 BC, which is too early in my opinion.
The least I am going to do is to make Bronze Working a mandatory prerequisite. There are some other changes that I could do:
Let me know what you think would work best.
- Metal Casting
- Trade
- ONE of Bronze Working OR Caste System OR Monotheism OR Priesthood OR Writing
Despite looking imposing, it's easy to meet Monarchy's prerequisites midway through the Ancient Era. Metal Casting, Trade, Caste System, and Priesthood are all Ancient Level 3 techs. I have played a few games on Noble difficulty/Normal speed and I have regularly seen Monarchy reached by someone before 3000 BC, which is too early in my opinion.
The least I am going to do is to make Bronze Working a mandatory prerequisite. There are some other changes that I could do:
- Make Writing mandatory. Having two level-4 prerequisites would make it harder to beeline to Monarchy.
- Use Warfare instead of Bronze Working. This would push things up a little.
- Delete Caste System and Priesthood from the list of possible OR choices. Like making Writing mandatory, this would require you to have two level-4 techs before launching the Classical Era.
Let me know what you think would work best.