First win!

[Apocalyptic]

I just got my first Conquest win on Monarch! I earned it all on my own! (Someone whispers you only won cuz you put it on Elimination mode and attacked their new cities!) Okay...mebbe thats kinda cheating...however...I beat it in the BCs...well before the AD and I was ahead technology wise, unit power, and everything but wonders. Only slightly behind there. So could I have won legit? Probably but it woulda been a hard fight. So whaddya think? Not bad for a noob eh? I coulda won legit I was ahead in virtually everything.

 

[Turner]

Was it 'cheap'? Maybe. Was it 'cheating'? Maybe.

Point is, you learned something about Monarch level now. Perhaps you had an aid or two, but that plus could also have been used against you. And you get a better understanding of how monarch works.

I'm sure your next win isn't far behind.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Congratulations. My only monarch win to date has been a domination (as Egypt), although in my second game I've ripped two of the three major powers apart and am preparing to take on England. Once that's done, I just build and wait for 2050. I want to go for histograph for one .

 

[Apocalyptic]

Well I am confident elmination aside I could have won. Two of the cities were pretty darn well guarded for that early in the game. I just had a massive string of immortals smack into them I love the Persian race. Considering the fact I was ahead of them in virtually everything I do think I could have won. I prefer to play harder modes on tiny maps. I prefer Conquest wins. A real man gets a Conquest win Of course...culture wins are kinda cool too. Just something about a city joining you without you having to fight a single unit.

 

[Despair888]

Im about to win my first game ever also. I have maybe
four easy cities left to take over for domination.

Congrats.

 

[KabeDerlin]

I just started my first Monarch game a couple days ago. Going pretty good. I havent discovered all the other civs yet but on my continent I'm number 1.

Once I got the hang of expansion and micromanagement, Regent turned out really easy. I won two Regent games and decided to step it up. Now my first monarch game is turning pretty successful, though I'm about to hit that slow research point known as the early middle ages.

I'm thinking about dropping my science to 0% and seeing where that takes me. I've tried it once before but it didnt work out so well on the lower levels. It'll be a good expirament for me.

It's awesome to see how much my game has grown. My friend and I started playing Civ a few years back. He stopped and kept on going. I got serious on Civ about four or five months ago just when he began playing again, but he is somewhat less than a "fanatic" and thus he still plays on Chieften instead of accepting the challenge of higher levels. Anyway I look at his games a lot and can just spot errors like mad, much as the Diety and Sid players here could spot my errors easily. I use him as a comparrison to how much I've matured in this game.

I've yet to try a OCC. Maybe after I win monarch

EDIT: BTW. My first monarch game was played totally random. I ended up getting what looks to be a pretty average world, probably temperate, 4 billion, and continents. I ended up with the American's though. Not sure how to cope with that late Golden Age. I figure the game will be over without me ever having hit it.

 

[Pook]

Congratulations!
I was a Civ II player who used the AI as a super-swiffer to clean the floor at Deity level. When I first got Civ III, I figured I could just drop down two levels and beat up on the game at Monarch while I learned the nuances of Civ III. Wrong! I found myself on the wrong end of the mop the first few times. It was tough to get that first win at Monarch.

My recommendation- read the entire War Academy. Yes, it's 84+ articles, but the time spent reading them is far less than the time spent learning the game by trial and error.
Once again, congrats!