Do
not stress, its a turn based game, you can take all the real time you want for each in-game turn.
For a real Always War varian game, there is only
Monarchy. Do with it just as you would with republic in normal epic games: Switch to it once feasible, and never look at it again!
Really simply and clearly... how do I proceed with production (settlers/cities?)
Build some warriors to scout the area, knowing your most direct environment is very important.
Build 2 units to defend your city before building your first settler. And have a defender ready for your new city. But as soon as your scouting units detect that you are on a peninsula, and the AI only comes from outside of it, you can start sending undefended settlers to the safe zone, and units to meet with incoming AI units. (this is why scouting units are important)
Build your cities so they all have
about 12 tiles to work on, except coastal cities, they should get 12
land-tiles to work on, unless there is a bonus resource in the water.
Except for your first couple of scouting units and defenders, you should build vets, so build barracks as soon as possible.
Do not build temples, and do not build libraries, and even markets until much later in the game. To increase your commerce (and thus science) just expand, build/take more cities.
Raising gives slaves (cost no upkeep) and removes any chance of flipping.
Really simply and clearly... how do I deploy troops and what troops?
(the following is a bit overly careful for chieftain, I admit, this is what I'd do on regent and monarch, in chieftain you could do without the defenders and catapults and just mass charge with stacks of horseman.)
When your first couple of scouting units get killed by AI, replace them with vet spearman. In fact, build extra spearman, and send them to harass the AI's, not only to pillage their improvements, but as long as hostile units are around, (fortify on a hill/forest/mountain/jungle near a city) the AI will keep their workers inside, even if they
could have finished some work. (the AI isn't smart enough to see it) This will keep the AI from getting roads, thus cripple their progress by a large amount.
Do this to any AI you can reach. You may not be in a position to conquer them, but early harassment will greatly weaken them for the future.
After you build a couple of cities, specialize them, one for workers, one for settlers, 2 for vet units, and also a couple for catapults. (once you capture enough slaves you may rejoin native workers in cities, but don't join slaves, keep them)
Yes, you heard me correctly, build spearman and catapults!
But even in an AW game, when your empire is large enough, you can leave the inner cities undefended, just make sure you kill all incoming.
In the
very early game, focus on defenders, when you have a nice starting set up switch it around and make sure your forces are mostly offenders, (not counting catapults) and attack incoming units on your turn, but move your forces so that they are unlikely to be attacked on the AI turn.
A catapult takes 1 HP per attack, assuming they don't miss, you need 2 to red-line a reg, and 3 to red-line a vet. But they do miss, so build 4 or 5 catapults per offensive unit. (use the offensive unit to take out a red-lined unit) Use defenders to protect both, and use defenders to prevent incoming AI to move on highland (hills mountains) so that you can always attack them on flat land.
Use fast moving attackers (horseman) they may not move fast because they have to stay in the stack with catapults and defenders, but they retreat 50% of the time they lose a battle, so your losses will be smaller.
keep track of rivers, do not attack over a river if you can avoid it.
Keep track of how many units are defending an enemy city, you can expect the other cities to be defended about the same, so you can calculate how many units you need to take them for sure. (But expect 1.5 times the defenses in their capital)
Do not gamble make sure you
will take the city you targeted when you decide to go for it. And make sure the AI
will not be able to take any of your cities.
Leader-fish, and if you are lucky enough to get an early leader, rush the Pyramids. other wonders worth rushing are leo's and Sun Tzu's.
And of course, rush the FP, and maybe even a palace replacement to shift your core to a more favorable area.
Especially if you followed my advice and you didn't build many improvements in your early cities, besides barracks and one or two granaries, this palace shift isn't costly.
All other wonders are not worth getting. The Great lib is best captured.
Tip for the day: the Greek UU is one of the best for AW games, especially for the early AI harassment tactic. The AI will often not attack them, and not ever be able to send workers to improve their land.