Gigglethorpe tries to defeat Monarch difficulty

[Gigglethorpe]

So Huayna Capac has capitulated after I only took a couple of his cities. Granted, one of them was his capital, but I don't remember it being that easy in Warlords. Does losing the capital make the AI lose so much morale that they give up? Is the power rating a factor?

So I have two choices for my next target: Augustus or Tokugawa. Augustus has been reasonably friendly to me, though he is close to Huayna Capac's borders. Tokugawa is north of me, and has been Annoyed with me for a while. I would have to have a few turns to make reinforcements (I had some pretty bad combat rolls, and Capac had a couple of Pikemen) and move my troops to face him. Tokugawa is also both Protective and Aggressive, which makes his units surprisingly strong even if they are backward. Tokugawa is the bigger threat to me and has the most land, but I would also take heavy losses.

Eh, if all else fails, there's always space as a backup plan.

(Also, why did Augustus switch to Lincoln's religion after demanding that I switch to Christianity? Lincoln was one of the most hated AIs. . .)

 

[Gumbolt]

Overall you want more farms than cottages now. You should be whipping most cities every other turn and focus on food. Farms= faster growth. I normally leave the cottages in the capital.

Once you have engineering I would use some of that gold to upgrade chariots.

You need a super medic asap. Use it on a chariot.

Keep whipping units in every city every time you can 2-3 pop whip. Don't worry about low pops. You need to reform your stack and get those 25 cuirs ready for the next attack. For now 1-2 units to scout toku and Romans. Chariots will be okay for Toku. He s not happy with you and could back stab you at any point. Hopefully your power will put him off.

Have you scouted out Toku's and Roman's stack? The Ai are all still pretty backwards. Cuirs should be good for a long while yet. If you can kill a large stack with little or no losses this will make it much easier to cap an AI.

You might as well grab all the Incan's Happiness resources.

Overall in next 3-4 turn you need to prep next assault.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

After a long war, Tokugawa is groveling at my feet. He's not the pansy that Huayna Capac was. Perhaps that's bushido at work.

Augustus seems to have Gunpowder, but Napoleon and João do not. Napoleon is the obvious next victim.

Maintenance costs are getting pretty high. Is now a good time to whip Courthouses?

Is the tech pace normally this slow in Beyond the Sword? The AIs act as if I set it to Epic speed by mistake.

(Given that Huayna Capac expanded the Inca empire and died from a European disease that he contracted on a military campaign, you'd think he'd be one of the more aggressive leaders in the game. . .)

 

[Gumbolt]

Why are you building wealth???? You need to be whipping cuirs more aggressively. If costs are too high delete the unwanted HR defenders. For a string of Ai Caps you need to keep pumping out the units. The slower you move the risk of Ai reaching rifles is much larger.

I would not be worried about musketeers. Really not an issue with cuirs. You need more farms in your whipping cities. Regrowth is too slow. Stop chopping jungle.

Incans have 170 gold. Demand it from them. It's cash for free. Toku has 150 gold. You have no need for wealth. Just keep whipping every city for cuirs and keep pushing. This is too slow for my liking and you still only have 30 or so cuirs.

Satsuma is building a library?

Bulawayo would of been a great HE city. Amazed you have not built it there yet. You need marble and Toku has this.

Overall you need to be focusing more. What is going to help you win the game faster??

Almost worth declaring on French now. They'll send a stack and hopefully attack Toku. You could wait 2-3 turns.

You might as well trade for the Romans happiness resources.

Lots of focus needed here and I think you could do much more micro here. On higher levels more micro is essential. I can accept you are on a learning curve here. This game is for the taking but on monarchy you should be walking this much easier.

 

[Seraiel]

You got a lot of very good advice, and didn't even say thx once and still don't post screenshots, so I guess you're not interested in getting more of it.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

You got a lot of very good advice, and didn't even say thx once and still don't post screenshots, so I guess you're not interested in getting more of it.

Thanks! I haven't posted screenshots and save files in a while because I was busy following your advice and storming the opponents with Curassiers! Civilization IV warfare can get monotonous after a while, so my posts during that time would not have been interesting if I had made them. At least the AI research priorities were. . .strange, and they did not go for Rifling in time to save themselves.

The last save file is one turn before victory, and another screenshot shows my score.

Thanks to how little vassals contribute towards Domination victory land and population, I actually got a Conquest victory instead. I never saw the "nuclear chess" cutscene before this game. Lincoln captured one of João's cities for me, so sometimes the AI vassals are good for something.

It may have been inefficient play on my part, but brute force and enough slave labor to make the Confederacy blush works on Monarch at least.

How do I change the username in Civilization IV, by the way?

I'll probably continue to play on Monarch for a while, maybe trying out some Fractal maps to get used to different victory conditions at higher levels.

Special thanks to Gumbolt for specific advice, especially on attack stacks and using Farms over Cottages. It was in this game that I learned how valuable happiness resources are. They help my citizens ignore the pain of whipping.

 

[Gumbolt]

Well looks like you didn't need much more advice after taking out the first 2 AI.

Still no Heroic Epic!! That was a big fail this game. A decent HE city can build a cuirs in 2-3 turns. 5-6 mines can easily add 15-18 base hammers. Add 25% forge and 100% bonus from HE and the numbers soon add up to 40+ hammers a turn for units.

Same for forges. You whipped some of those cities 8-9 times. All those hammers from the base production/overflow from the whips could of had 25% extra. Also the forge reduces the number of pop whips required as it is 37 hammers per pop instead of 30. This avoids issue of having to have 10 hammers into the build.

You need to learn to trade for resources and gold more but this comes with time.

On a plus side you have nearly 100 cuirs. I think next game you should probably be aiming to finish it much sooner. Still a good start on Monarch for someone who was struggling at the start of this thread.

Losing 177 gold a turn is no big issue as long as you keep capturing cities and taking gold from other Ai through trades. I am sure you mean't no offence to anyone by not thanking people.

So are we ready for a emperor game???

Perhaps a start where you are not so free to settle 10-12 cities. This map could of used a 7th AI.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

I don't think I'll start an Emperor playthrough quite yet. I'm still getting used to more advanced strategies, and different victory conditions. Domination and Conquest might not be worth it if I roll something like an Archipelago, for example.

Out of curiosity, how do you get an AI to peace vassal to you? Augustus wouldn't do it even though he was sometimes Friendly with me.

I'll keep the Forges in mind for next time, as well as the Heroic Epic.

I think you said that Cottages were mainly useful for the capital because of Bureaucracy benefits. Does that mean that I should build Farms instead for my other cities?

 

[Seraiel]

To peace-vassal someone, you either need 1.5 times of his military and 2 times of his land or 2 times of his population (forget about the last, you having 2 times the population without 2 times the land would be bad play) and 8 tiles shared borders (diagonal tiles count, vassal borders don't count) or 3 times the military (and the 2 times land) if no 8 tiles shared borders. He also needs to have the stance listed in civ illustrated #1 or above.

And start on Emperor, your AIs had absolutely no chance, Emperor isn't that much more difficult.

 

[Gumbolt]

I think most games need a mix. Cottages in capital works well with bureau. Sometimes it is better to go for hammers pending on start.

I think stick with emeror start for forum and you can have a monarch game which you play away from the forum. You will need to focus much more on the start with Emperor.

Posting a starting save without settling the capital would be a good start.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

By popular demand, I've started an Emperor game, without settling the capital!

I'm playing on a Fractal map this time, not a Pangaea, Donut, or any other land war oriented map. This should teach me how to play the map.

My leader is Justinian. I like The Wheel as a starting tech, but Mysticism? Ughhh. . .at least if I need to build Monuments, I don't have to research an additional technology, and the path to Hereditary Rule is slightly faster!

Back when I played on Noble long before I joined the forum, I used to fall into the trap of researching tons of religions, so I would have loved Mysticism at the time. Now, that's just a few more turns spent researching Worker techs.

The Cataphract is a significant redeeming quality for the Byzantines, at least on paper. It's essentially an earlier and cheaper Curassier without the first strike immunity and withdrawal chances. If I have opponents on my landmass, I'll consider going for Guilds.

I should probably tinker with Civics a lot more in this round, since my leader is Spiritual. Imperialistic might help some with the early game and for getting a "Great Medic" later on if a Cataphract rush is possible.

The land doesn't look too great to me. Mainly forests and one food resource. If you see any potential that I don't, please tell me!

 

[civfanchambers]

Too many plains tiles. I would definitely regen the map. Fractal maps are fun. Sometimes you get a goofy shaped single landmass, other times a few small continents. But it sucks when you end up on a small continent with a couple other Ai, while most Ai's are on another landmass.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

Too many plains tiles. I would definitely regen the map. Fractal maps are fun. Sometimes you get a goofy shaped single landmass, other times a few small continents. But it sucks when you end up on a small continent with a couple other Ai, while most Ai's are on another landmass.

Wouldn't having most (not all) of the AIs on another continent make a good buffer for a cultural or space victory? Maybe diplomatic too if you handle your alliances carefully?

Is it common for people to regenerate maps? I don't want to quit like I did before I committed to the Shaka game. Is the map generator really that bad that regenerating the map is required on high difficulties?

Right now, I'm not remaking this map without some more advice.

 

[civfanchambers]

Having most other civs on another landmass will limit tech trading partners unit astronomy. Also once you do make contact you might find yourself far behind tech wise. Depending on the location of founded religion, culture victory might be easier, but could just as well be harder. As for regeneration of the map, I'll let some of the other forum members speak for themselves. But I frequently regen the map. I can't think of the last time I had a good map straight away.

 

[Gumbolt]

That start looks horrible. Plains and so far only 1 food resource. Perhaps more in the fog.

If you are going to upload pictures at least upload a save too.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

That start looks horrible. Plains and so far only 1 food resource. Perhaps more in the fog.

If you are going to upload pictures at least upload a save too.

Here's the save file.

 

[ikotomi]

I would check 1NW with your warrior. A little bit higher chance of revealing some green land. On Emperor, this start is definitely playable, dry plains wheat is a little better than a plains cow. Justinian is just very awkward, with none of the basic worker techs, so you will want to plan carefully after the area around your capital is revealed.

If most everyone else would rather see a different map, I would agree though. This start doesn't really look like a normal game.

 

[Seraiel]

Too many plains tiles. I would definitely regen the map.

This. That start looks really ugly, it's probably a whole level of difficulty higher than 80-90% of the usual start.

 

[Gigglethorpe]

I would check 1NW with your warrior. A little bit higher chance of revealing some green land. On Emperor, this start is definitely playable, dry plains wheat is a little better than a plains cow. Justinian is just very awkward, with none of the basic worker techs, so you will want to plan carefully after the area around your capital is revealed.

If most everyone else would rather see a different map, I would agree though. This start doesn't really look like a normal game.

Just in case I want to come back to this map for some reason, I made a new save file where the Warrior moved 1 NW. Not much better, though there is a Deer at least, and a Wine for Monarchy.

Let's regenerate the map. . .

This start looks much better. Grassland tiles, a riverside corn, and some Gold. I don't know where to move the Warrior, but Agriculture looks like an obvious choice.

 

[Gumbolt]

Not as bad as first thought. Still going to be a weak capital.

You want hunting and Ag first. Then almost certainly BW with all that forest.

SIP looks best. 1NE might get a plains hill but it looks like you have some coast up there. Should have a nice run to oracle with all the forest. No happiness resources in sight.

With imperialist leaders you normally want some early mines. Not sure how this will time with techs here. Chopping with Imp will be nice for 30H chops to settler.

I think try the original map. A double gold start won't help you learn emperor level. Long as you follow advice you should be okay.