From Prince to Monarch

[Skutai]

In Civ III, the King difficulty level was my comfort zone. It was challenging enough that I couldn't goof around with the computer, but wasn't so frantic and unforgiving as Emperor level. After one game on Noble I thought I'd dive back in to King (Monarch) in Civ IV... and was beaten badly. Repeatedly.

Here are some things I learned that allowed me to break out of Prince and finally succeed on Monarch.

1. The AI players have several advantages including increased production, tech, and more starting units. Yet, as always, the AI lacks a capacity for abstract thought and is severely limited in the area of strategic combat. Thus, any lead lost in the Ancient or Classical eras can be made up through military action in the Medieval or Rennaissance earas. Choose your targets carefully: weaker nations with no friends should be high on your list. Precede your military buildup by reasearching a critical war-time tech (Guilds, Military Tradition, or whatever gets you a Unique Unit, for instance), and switch to Civics that give you a boost to unit Experience.

2. With Heroic Epic, select one city to be your troop making machine. Keep in your mind that the AI, even one that may seem like an ally, can appear on your border with a large army at any moment. Having that one city dedicated to building up your military helps prevent the Builder Blindness that makes folks like me (and maybe you) construct research and culture boosting buildings in every city as soon as they become available. You can't survive with a 1st rate civilization protected by a 2nd rate military.

Early on every city should have at least a spearman and archer unit, starting with your border cities (replaced by Pikeman and Longbow units later). Generate a mobile force of Horse Archers if at all possible. Even a few of these fast reacting units can save your bacon from an unexpected attack.

3. Your eventual domination of the AI nations begins on turn one with the most direct path to early cities and early wonders. Here's mine:

(Note that I like Industrious nations as this all but guarantees the acquisition of certain critical early Wonders.)

Capital: Warrior, Worker, Settler, Warrior, Settler, Stonehenge
Tech: direct to Bronze Working, Mysticism, collect necessary tile development techs, direct to Oracle then direct to Hanging Gardens.

The wood-chop strategy is key as two felled forests cause the first Settler to come out very quickly. The second Settler gets one wood-chop as long as it leaves me with at least one forest near the capital for health bonus. Two quick additional cities (with Stonehenge) carve out a massive chunk of land for your eventual expansion, and put you on equal or better footing than the AI.

I like Hanging Gardens because it is an early Great Engineer wonder (I never build the Pyramids) and gives your entire civilization a big boost. Oracle is nice but I can live without it. Building Stonehenge means that I always get an early Great Prophet which allows me to snatch Theology, and hence Christianity. Really, as an Industrious nation I can count on building Stonehenge, and can thus count on getting Theology first. Therefore I have no need for rushing to get Buddhism, Hinduism, or Judaism.


...

That's all for now. Cheers.

 

[Ex-Cop]

Thanx nice ideas

 

[Lord Chambers]

You definetely are pressed to use your resources on Monarch and above. There really isn't a lot of room for slop.

But I want to offer a slightly contrasting view, since so many Monarch players talk about how they had to up their emphasis on military to survive. Since your resources are limited, you're going to be hindering yourself by emphasizing military more. So I try to be as cost effective as possible by using warriors. Then, I just maintain a small core of mostly offensive units for taking back whatever I may lose.

There's certainly some risk, as having a lesser defense means cities get taken and they may be razed, but when you're penny pinching (about hammers), it makes much more sense just to have a single, cheap unit in most cities for the happiness boost, and then keep fewer expensive offensive units where you need to repell an invasion. Most of your cities aren't going to be involved in a battle, so it's wasteful to defend them all like they will.

 

[monkspider]

These are excellent tips, well done.

 

[redscare]

Good tips. But IMHO The Oracle is a must in higher difficulties. That free tech is the only way to keep up with the AI on emperor and above (in monarch it helps a lot but you can live without it depending on your strat).

 

[Astax]

One thing I figured which is pretty cool for early wonder is to build your city on top of the stone, that way you dont have to conenct it and build quary. You dont miss out on that good of a tile since it would probably be low/no food and 4 hammers.

 

[Skutai]

Something I noticed last night is that going for Theology with the Great Prophet generated by Stonehenge takes some additional attention. At first the GP may only give you quick access to Monarchy. Once I got Writing, however, it gave quick access to Theology. I'm not sure what the exact relationship (it might have been number of techs, or a certain progression, and not just Writing) but it's something to consider when using that strategy.

 

[Astax]

Something I noticed last night is that going for Theology with the Great Prophet generated by Stonehenge takes some additional attention. At first the GP may only give you quick access to Monarchy. Once I got Writing, however, it gave quick access to Theology. I'm not sure what the exact relationship (it might have been number of techs, or a certain progression, and not just Writing) but it's something to consider when using that strategy.

You meed Mysticism, Meditation, Polytheism, Priest Hood, Monotheism adn writing. Then you all set to get Theology.

 

[Skutai]

You meed Mysticism, Meditation, Polytheism, Priest Hood, Monotheism adn writing. Then you all set to get Theology.

Yep. If you don't have Writing yet the Great Person offers Monarchy. Once you get Writing it changes to Theology.

 

[VeniceBeach]

I recently moved to Monarch and have had some success. It's the first level where many if not all of the AIs will be ahead of you for at least the first 2500 years. I think they start with two settlers and a multitude of military units. I tend to be a peaceful builder until late-medieval, but with Monarch, I had to build military units right away or risk being attacked. It's not that the AI is "more" aggressive, but anytime the AI calculates that it has a large military advantage over a close neighbor, it will tend to attack. Imagine if you had 8-9 attack units and faced an enemy with 2 archers in each city. I know I'd attack.

You need to have several defenders in border cities and you might need to compromise on city locations to get hill defence bonuses. Then you need a couple of offensive units as the AI will go around and pillage those critical early improvements on resources.

Another strategy is an early offensive. Chances are much higher that an immediate nieghbor will attack you early on Monarch, so do a preemptive strike. Realize that most wars can be ended after 10 turns or so, so rather than spend those ten turns defending your territory, force the AI to spend them defending his. You have to sacrifice some early production to build units, but you'll need them anyway. You might capture a city (although this isn't the goal), but you will pillage the AI improvements, possibly capture a worker and build-up some veteren units. If your invasion goes poorly you can strategically retreat to forest/hill squares and usually by the time his units push you to your borders, the AI will accept a peace treaty. As a result, you've avoided war on your soil and have bought some peacetime to continue to build.