Gigglethorpe tries to defeat Monarch difficulty

[Gigglethorpe]

You still have plenty of land for peaceful settling.

Where would be the best places to settle and why?

I'm thinking of settling to the southeast for the stone and fish, and then another city for an extra copper (and possibly deny it to Isabella if she doesn't already have it).

 

[Gumbolt]

This map is terrible land wise. Finding a city with a food resource will be tough here.

No workboat on the clams. (Fishing late.) Leaving your capital using a copper mine and 3 forest tiles. Seems to me you wanted fishing before TW and BW. BW earlier would of helped more. You really could of used that 3rd worker sooner.

St Petersburg is settled to help with cottages but misses the horse and wine. Beyond the cows/oasis this city can only help 2 cottages. Guess it is okay. Oasis helps a bit.

Your third city Novograd has the rice but for me the pigs looked better. Then it could still help with 1-2 cottages.

Your main issue is the helper cities have taken 99% of Moscow food leaving it stuck at size 4. I guess you can switch back the food once the helper cities work the cottages.

Strange map. You could rush someone using axes but they all seem too far away. That close spanish city could of been nice.

Fish site is okay. Rice/marble and horse site should be okay. It's one of those maps you just have to acept most of yours and the Ai cities will be pretty poor.

That final copper site is a bit far for me. You do need to keep Izzy happy as she is a warmonger.

Not sure on the spear build. Granary??

 

[Gigglethorpe]

I have a major update this time.

I researched Writing and then Alphabet, and traded them with the AI. I picked up Mysticism, Iron Working, and Archery. I made a few more Workers, connected my cities, finally connected the clams to my capital, and chopped a few trees to make Granaries and Libraries. I built some Barracks too for good measure, because I'll be going to war eventually. I still have not built the stone and fish city yet, because I've had to build a few more Workers and make a respectable military. I'm building a Settler for that location now. The early game is so stressful!

Taking Gumbolt's advice seemed like a good plan, so I grabbed the rice and horse location to the west before Shaka could. Good thing I'm playing as a Creative leader, because Shaka's nearest city happens to be the Confucian holy city as well. No, he didn't build the Oracle; Cyrus did!

My biggest concern now is that Isabella "has enough on her hands right now". I build some Axemen and some Barracks before I found this out, so I'm about even with the AI on the Power score. Cyrus saw which way the wind was blowing and converted to Judaism along with Napoleon. Unfortunately, the two religions in my empire are Hinduism and Confucianism. (I have no state religion right now) Shaka is Confucian and Tokugawa is Buddhist, but neither of those two border Isabella.

Despite Shaka's close border tensions, he "would have nothing to gain" by attacking anyone, although it might be possible to bribe him to fight Mansa Musa later.

 

[SpK]

Seems like that holy city is your first target in taking down Shaka.... any chance of an ally?

trade and gift all you can with a few AI to get your alliance going and hopefully Isabella will join in attacking the weak.

No much advice other than generic - build fast so you can choose when to attack ;-)

 

[Revent]

You've been expanding a bit slow. Ideally, you want 6-7 cities at minimum by 1AD. Looks like you might struggle to get that. Instead of building research, you should build the pyramids for failgold.

Your fogbusting warriors should now be put to use either as city garrison or as scouts to explore your enemies territory.

Do you have a plan tech wise? I'm guessing you want to do Construction and use Cats.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

You've been expanding a bit slow. Ideally, you want 6-7 cities at minimum by 1AD. Looks like you might struggle to get that. Instead of building research, you should build the pyramids for failgold.

Your fogbusting warriors should now be put to use either as city garrison or as scouts to explore your enemies territory.

Do you have a plan tech wise? I'm guessing you want to do Construction and use Cats.

How do you expand that fast and still have enough Workers, or a functioning economy for that matter?

 

[Pangaea]

6-7 cities by 1AD isn't that much, it's the minimum really. For the economy, cottage your capital, especially if you have some nice riverside grassland. A good (and not nigh on impossible) target is to get 200 by 1AD when you have the slider at 100%. An Academy in the capital plus running Buro from CS helps. CS may come later, though, depends on many factors.

Getting the Oracle should be easier on Monarch without necessarily giving up too much development. May be possible to Oracle CS, but otherwise Currency is a great pick. Then you sell backfill techs to the others for and keep your slider at 100%.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

Even with my inefficient and clumsy playstyle, I still managed to steal two holy cities and Shaka's capital! He is now reduced to one city on a tiny island, and another overwhelmed by Mansa Musa's culture.

Building lots and lots of Catapults was the trick. The Swordsmen and Axemen were mostly useless against an Aggressive leader, and in Warlords, Catapults can kill units.

The Pyramids "failgold" kept my research slider afloat throughout the war, along with the gold I got from capturing cities. I think I may partially build the Pyramids on most subsequent playthroughs.

I hardly ever go for the Oracle, because you have to research less useful religious technologies in order to build it. Then again, many of the top players take advantage of it, so the rewards must outweigh the turns spent researching and building it.

Napoleon is a bit miffed that I "declared war on his friend", but they followed different religions anyway. He also hates Mansa Musa more than me. I'm still concerned about him "having enough on his hands right now". Mansa Musa was Confucian, but he founded and converted to Christianity. The Jewish alliance between Napoleon, Cyrus, and Isabella is still going strong. Yet I still do not have a city with Judaism. What are you doing, Isabella? My character can't join her "one true faith" if she doesn't send me any missionaries!

My save file was taken immediately after the war, so I'd like to know what to do next. Epic is much more forgiving than Normal when it comes to waging war, since your units aren't obsolete as quickly. How many units should I build for an attack stack on Normal before I go to war?

Should I plan to attack Tokugawa soon, or peacefully build until I get Cossacks? Which technology path would be the best way to get Cossacks quickly?

 

[Revent]

How do you expand that fast and still have enough Workers, or a functioning economy for that matter?

You have to sacrifice a bit on the workers. More workers is suggested at the lower levels because players can then afford to be a bit inefficient with worker management. As you go up, you will have to make do with less workers, but get a similar amount of work done.

Whipping and chopping will help a lot. Sometimes, you end up only having one worker until 3-4 cities. But at monarch, this shouldn't be a problem.

By the way, if you jump onto BtS, a lot more people will be able to give more detailed info. I am guessing I'm not the only one who doesn't have BUG mod, etc...for Warlords so its hard to get all that detailed info and be able to draw dot maps, etc..

 

[SpK]

I would focus on diplomacy while building forces.

Who is weaker, Toku or Mansa? Also does one have a juicy target like a holy city or a useful wonder??

Good diplomacy should get you allies against either

Oh, and explore AI as thoroughly as possible, find their stacks

 

[Gigglethorpe]

Well, that last game went disastrously, and it was mainly my fault. I need to learn to micromanage more, as I play Civilization way too quickly.

Who would have guessed that Tokugawa's Samurai could be a good match against Cossacks? Here I was thinking "He doesn't even have Gunpowder; this can't be hard!" After that, I knew this game was a lost cause and quit.


So I decided to roll a random leader on a Normal speed Pangaea for a clean slate. Guess who showed up? None other than GANDHI!

When I found out that you could nuke Gandhi and nuke people AS Gandhi, I knew I had to get Civilization IV back in 2009. The idea was too absurd to pass up. So of course I end up with him here.

I watched a few of Sullla's videos on opening strategies yesterday. Granted, they were for Unrestricted Leaders Multiplayer, but I could apply some of the strategies to single player too.

So the best move here seems to be to go for Bronze Working first. I start with Mining as India, and the capital is surrounded by forest. Unfortunately, there are a few unusable Calendar resources around, but I have sheep, corn, and floodplains to help out. Building one worker and then chopping out more unit looks good.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

The RNG must be playing a practical joke on me right now. I randomly draw Gandhi, and the first AI opponent I've met is George Washington! About 4 turns into the game (3840 BC) at that. Other players say that he's peaceful, but he must hold a personal grudge with me. I've had isolated starts where I would build peacefully until he gets galleons and then declares war shortly after first contact. If I try to fight back in other games, he vassals to someone else at the last minute!

I have a. . .history with this guy.


EDIT: And then I met Tokugawa shortly afterwards. This game is going to be interesting!

 

[SpK]

Make friends with Washington, gift him techs, will take 3 or 4, but once you have that pleased, he makes a decent ally

Seems like you have enough food and forest to REX aggressively. Hopefully you can claim some horses.

going for alphabet via AH?

 

[Gigglethorpe]

Make friends with Washington, gift him techs, will take 3 or 4, but once you have that pleased, he makes a decent ally

Seems like you have enough food and forest to REX aggressively. Hopefully you can claim some horses.

going for alphabet via AH?

Going for Alphabet through Animal Husbandry sounds like the best solution. Besides, I have a Sheep resource in my capital. Time spent towards the Oracle might be better spent on more Fast Workers and Settlers.

Washington is so close to the south that I can see his Workers building roads towards me. I am also on the northern coast of the Pangaea. The western area nearest to me is a desert.

It looks like going to the east is my only real option for major expansion. Maybe a city to the west to take advantage of the lake commerce?

Also, guess who wants me to sacrifice 50,000 slaves in honor of his visit?

 

[Gumbolt]

You have a fast worker and you built a second one? They are fast workers and have 3mp so in theory you should need less of them. If your intention is to rush out a settler quickly fair enough. Right now you need to scout much more to find good sites.

Why would you not work the corn first for growth instead of chopping? 9 turns growth to size 2 is horrible. The sheep would be my second tile here followed by a mine. Cottages later on. A second warrior would of been better than a second worker. You need units to explore.

If you want workers steal them from the Americans.
Don't overly worry about Toku. Normally Ai stacks at this level are 4-5 strong and often can be stopped by 2-3 axes and a spear. Just monitor what the AI does.

If you are trying to learn the game this food poor map is not the best place to start. Unless there is a lot of hidden food you will be settling some poor cities here with 1 food resource each.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

There's not a lot of hidden food, and now I'm surrounded by the AIs. I'm going to reroll a new map, now that you've taught me about building fewer Fast Workers and giving them more to do, but what would you do if you end up with a really bad situation like this in the future? Especially if you have no copper or horses?

The part I hate most about Civilization IV is the early game, because it's always hardest to figure out what to do at that point for me.

 

[Gumbolt]

To be fair this start you had an AI directly below. The Americans always had nowhere to go. You could of grabbed the cow site to somewhat block them in. The Gems, dye and rice would be a nice site long term. The issue here is no early military resources. You could of tried to gtrab some ivory. Maybe IW would of been a better route for a break out?

Swords and pults may have been best way to secure land here. I have no doubt too that Toku would of attacked you soon after he settled up copper unless you could get him to pleased.

The map is winnable but not perfect for learning the game. Maybe chopping out 1-2 early settlers was not a bad thing. I normally go worker, grow to size 3-4 on warriors or something, settler and worker soon after. Pends on map really. This allows you to work food resources with first worker for faster growth.

 

[SpK]

There's not a lot of hidden food, and now I'm surrounded by the AIs. I'm going to reroll a new map, now that you've taught me about building fewer Fast Workers and giving them more to do, but what would you do if you end up with a really bad situation like this in the future? Especially if you have no copper or horses?

The part I hate most about Civilization IV is the early game, because it's always hardest to figure out what to do at that point for me.

Play enough that you can go - last time I had a map kinda like this I needed to * find food/chariot rush/save 2 forests/prep for a defensive war/whatever *

Choose an option, see how it goes, remember/takes notes on mistakes and things that went bad, come up with a plan on how to do better next time.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

This looks like a much better start to me than the last game. Not many trees to chop though. Agriculture looks like the best tech to research first. The gems and floodplains would make this a commerce city, perhaps?

 

[Pangaea]

The capital should basically always be a commerce city (cottages), because you want to run bureaucracy there. This location looks fantastic for that Riverside grassland is ideal for cottages, and you also have a gem for early commerce, plus a wet corn and some floodplains. Looks grand. Best of luck

Correct to start with agriculture while building a worker.

A little unfortunate with jungle so near (usually a side effect of gems), so you'll probably want to expand north. Depends a bit on what scouting reveals.