Differences between difficulty levels

[adrianj]

I'm a fairly comfortable Prince level player, and hoping to move up.

I've had a look for a list of changes between the difficulty levels on the forums and picked up some useful facts (eg, AI starts with an archer at Monarch), but can anyone point me to a comprehensive list of differences? I'm guessing there is already an article in the strategy section but I haven't been able to find it.

And perhaps some things have changed with BtS?

Adrian.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I know there's one around somewhere because I've read it but I don't know where.

 

[adrianj]

Does anyone know off-hand the differences between Prince and Monarch to get me started?

 

[joncnunn]

Check the handicap.xml. It will answer all your questions on what the differences in the difficultly levels are.

 

[joncnunn]

Highlights I'm seeing (note I have Bhruic's patch so might be differnt:

1. On Prince the human gets 6 free units, on Monarch it's 4.
2. On Prince science is 110% more espensive to the human, on Monarch it's 115%
3. On Monarch, the AI gets a free defender.
4. On Monarch, the Barb towns start with 3 defenders instead of 2.
5. On Monarch, you only have one chance instead of two of "high gold".
6. On Monarch, you have two chances of "Barbs Strong" instead of one.

 

[oranges]

Isn't there also a production bonus for the AI and lower happiness/health bonuses for the human player?

 

[DMOC]

A few other differences you might want to note:

Additional starting techs for AI's:

Monarch gets Archery
Emperor gets Hunting and Archery
Immortal gets The Wheel, Hunting and Archery
Deity gets Agriculture, The Wheel, Hunting and Archery

Emperor gets 1 free worker
Immortal gets 2 free workers
Deity gets 1 free settler and 2 free workers
(not to mention the additonal defenders--deity gets 4 starting defenders for instance)

Happy and health caps for human players from Warlord to Deity are 4 for happy and 2 for health.


In pertaining to Prince and Monarch....

Prince, the AI gets 95% discounts on most production.
Monarch, the AI gets 90% discounts on most production.

 

[royal62184]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=236346

The standard version pdf page 74 has everything I think you will want to know except what free techs the AI gets exactly, but DMOC posted that.