I played a couple of practice games because I hadn't played Monarch before this level and never warmongered successfully. However, in one practice game, I got my highest score ever doing just that. I thought one of the reasons for my success was having copper in my capital radius and having axemen. My goal in this game was to duplicate/improve upon that game.
Like many others, I went to the plain hills to settle. Then I saw gold and I was kicking myself for not founding the city on it.
So I did something stupid but it paid off. I decided to make my first build a settler. And this is where I got tremendous luck. My warrior found a hut which gave me a scout! The scout found a hut which gave me Bronze Working! And right near the gold was copper! I decided to found Osaka on the gold. Went for Pottery, Writing and then Alphabet. And chopped for a library to expand the borders to include the copper. Soon, my axemen would be ready to protect my cities, steal workers and warmonger.
A lot of the city radii of Kyoto and Osaka overlapped and I tried to take advantage of it. On some turns, one city would use farmed land and mined hills to produce units or buildings while the other would work the cottages, and then vice versa. But there was enough hammer, food and commerce to go around in that space to build my empire.
That scout didn't survive long so I didn't have much of the map visible. Hatshepsut was the first victim/civ I saw. She was my first target.
I built two workers (one in each city) to connect the copper, build mines, cottages and for chopping. Obviously I needed more and the Egyptians have always had many slaves so I didn't think they'd mind if I "borrowed" a few. Well, that led to war and me taking Heliopolis from them. What a wonderful spot too! Cows, Ivory and plain hills on a river! I'd sue for peace and then attack and this went on and off until I wiped her out.
Unfortunately, a couple of her cities and barb cities got autorazed. Maybe that worked out well for me as it didn't completely kill my research, but I would've preferred to keep building military unites instead of having to build settlers everywhere to wipe out the fog. Worse still, later, I had an Indian and English city in my territory and they're just a nuisance.
Soon after I finished her off, I went for Montezuma. I used a very small force (no more than 15 axemen and swordmen altogether, including losses) to wipe out Hatshepsut and I knew that wouldn't be enough. So I had to build more forces as well as bring the vetern troops from the SW corner of the map to the NW part and spotted to strike.
I took a couple cities but I knew I had to get better units. I had few Crossbowmen at this time and his horse archers and Jaguars were preventing me from sweeping through his countryside. As soon as I got Civil Service and switched to Beauracracy, I had two cities quicking churning out Samurais (Kyoto capital, and Heliopolis with Heroic Epic).
This time, the warring went much easier. I took several of his cities. Sued for peace. Then attacked 10 turns later and finished him off.
But before the second declaration of war, I started a war with Saladin on the south. A couple Egyptian cities had become very productive cities and were quickly building units of their own. Victoria wasn't happy with him and I joined her war. What's odd everyone was always pleased with me right until I attacked them. And sometimes, even AFTER I attacked them and sued for peace, they'd remain cautious!
Anyway, I didn't have a huge force to start rampaging so the fight with Saladin needed some time to pick up steam. I took a couple cities, sued for peace and then regrouped. Then I took some more cities, sued for peace before the final war to end him. During this war, Huayna asked me to join him against the Indians. I obliged. First reason was to eradicate that nuisance city they planted in my territory. Second reason was to make use of the veterans that wiped of the Aztecs. Third was to position my troops to attack Victoria from the North while the forces that killed Saladin would attack from the West.
I waited to attack the English until my cities returned from resistance. And I did use the "exploit" of having all the citizens be artists (with Caste Systems) so that the cultural borders would expand on their first turn.
The war with Victoria was interesting. A two front attack can be beneficial for various reasons, but the cities to the north of her were Indian cities that were just getting courthouses, granaries, barracks and stuff out. And almost all my samurai are city raiders, except a few that are medics. Each medic usually has shock or cover and some have Formation. So while these stacks are great for taking cities, they're absolute bad in the open field or defending cities.
So I abandoned Calcutta to save some units and formed a group to attack Coventry. From the west, I took Oxford and Anjar. However, I didn't plan well and was late on taking over Warwick. This meant the guys in Coventy weren't getting defended soon enough, so I abandoned that city too and sent guys back to Madras and Bangalore. Victoria completely pillaged those areas, but I was happy to just hold on to those cities. Soon, I was able to regain Coventry as well as Nottingham and Newcastle. Then I sued for peace and she threw in Calcutta.
At 1315, I had a Great Artist in Nottingham, but I wanted to use him on London. I had enough forces to take London, Canterbuy AND Hastings within three turns of declaring war. But with all the culture I was building all over the map, I won Domination before I could re-declare war
Wonders built: very few.
1035 CE Great Library
1250 CE Hanging Gardens
1320 CE Colossus
1330 CE Versailles
Comments: Except Great Library they didn't matter. I had a GP farm in Thebes and it was my science center because I didn't have science anywhere else. With GL and caste systems, most specialists were scientists. The Hanging Gardens was the one thing I did to boost my score.
Revolutions:
630 CE Revolution for Bureaucracy
990 CE Revolution for Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Serfdom, Theocracy
1120 CE Revolution for Hinduism
1130 CE Revolution for Caste System
Comments: I got theology for Theocracy, but I didn't have a religion until 200 years afterwards! However the rest of the decisions made sense. Bureacracy as soon as possible because my capital was crucial in pumping out units and research due to cottages. Once warring began:
a) it was hereditary Rule or Despotism
b) How many units are being pumped out elsewhere vs significance of research in Kyoto and speed of pumping out Samurai far away from any battlefield. Vassalage wins.
c) Serfdom needed to rapidly chop for courthouses, barracks and granaries. After most of that done, I went to Caste Systems to pump out artists in new cities to expand culture (to boost land area to speed the ending of the game).
d) Never got banking so always Decentralization
e) For warring, especially early, Theocracy is a no brainer
Research order: All other techs were through trading:
3560 BCE Mining
3520 BCE BW
3040 BCE Pottery
2400 BCE Writing
1400 BCE Alphabet
1000 BCE IW
520 BCE Metal Casting
360 BCE Literature
80 CE Machinery
280 CE Code of Laws
620 CE Civil Service
750 CE Theology
890 CE Feudalism
970 CE Drama
1105 CE Engineering
1185 CE Paper
1265 CE Divine Rights
Through trading, in no particular order:
Agriculture, Hunting, Animal Husbandry, Sailing, Mysticism, Meditation, Polytheism, Archery, Horseback Riding, Priesthood, Monotheism, Mathematics, Monarchy, Compass, Calendar, Construction, Currency, Optics, Music, Philosophy
Comments: I got really lucky with Bronze Working, but I think I did well in regards to when I traded techs and with whom. Trade techs to keep good relations or with certain civs because you think they'll get it soon regardless or wait to trade because you want them to spend time on it.
Also, in regards to the order of trading techs. I went for mining and BW first (would've done so even if not gifted from the hut) because I wanted to place my second city near copper. That was central to my plan. After Alphabet, I could get the techs I skipped and then went for Iron Working to make sure I could place a city near it. Fortunately, with iron near Kyoto, I could use that settler elsewhere. I went for Metal Casting to build forges and then Literature for the Heroic Epic. Soon, Helopolis was churning out units ever two turns. I went for Machinery next because I knew I couldn't get Samurais soon, but Crossbowmen would be lethal against Axemen/Swordsmen/Jaguars.
Then the direction was CoL and Civil Service to get the wonderful Samurais. I foolishly got Theology when drama would've made more sense. I still needed to expand culture/borders to reduce Fog of War. Building libraries everywhere made no sense and I didn't have religion to expand. I should've waited to learn Theology after Engineering. As the war expanded, I needed the extra movements to move Samurais out to the war front. And I didn't convert to Hinduism until 1120!
Barbarians
80 CE Saxon autorazed
800 CE Goth
1075 CE Khazak
Egyptian wars with Hatshepsut:
780 BCE declared war
700 BCE Heliopolis (became my military production central)
560 BCE Elephantine autorazed
340 BCE declared war
300 BCE Thebes (became my GP farm)
60 CE Alexandria autorazed
20 BCE Memphis (with forbidden palace, center of southern empire)
Aztec wars with Montezuma:
300 CE declared war
310 CE Tlaxcala
420 CE Tlatelolco
660 CE declared war
770 CE Xochicalco
870 CE Teotihuacan
900 CE Tlacopan autorazed
910 CE Tenochtitlan
1010 CE declared war
1025 CE Texcoco
1035 CE Atzcapotzalco autorazed
1035 CE Calixtlahuaca
These cities weren't used for much because they're so removed from the rest of the wars. However, they did some production as well as have some cottages.
Arabian wars with Saladin:
920 CE declared war
1005 CE Najran
1025 CE Damascus
1085 CE declared war
1110 CE Mecca (Hindu holy city, hence the switch to Hinduism)
1115 CE Basra
1135 CE Medina
1190 CE declared war
1200 CE Baghdad
1200 CE Khurasan
All of Saladin's cities were Hindu and with the holy city I was hoping to get a great phophet. But that never materialized and my economy was never boosted with the religion. But the spread of it was helpful with Theocracy.
Indian wars with Asoka:
1110 CE declared war
1115 CE Kolhapur razed (only non auto-razing since it was right inbetween 4 of my cities!)
1160 CE Delhi (Buddhist holy city)
1185 CE Bangalore (Christian holy city)
1200 CE Madras
1215 CE Calcutta
English wars with Victoria:
1255 CE declared war
1260 CE Anjar
1260 CE Oxford
1260 Lost Calcutta
1270 CE Coventry
1275 Lost Coventry
1280 CE Warwick
1295 CE Nottingham
1295 CE Gepid (Islamic holy city, was a barb city in my territory the English Horse Archer got to first)
1305 CE Coventry
1315 CE Newcastle
Lessons learned:
1) SMALL attack forces can do BIG damage. AI civs tend to keep stacks of armies and if they're far from you and you attack, you can easily take workers and a city or so and sue for peace. But to do this tactic, you must maintain a sizable army or they won't talk to you.
2) Even while warmongering, you can maintain good relations with other civs. This is great especially if you want to focus on certain techs and trade for the others. I only researched the big techs and traded for all the others. Being friends with two financial civs (Incas and English) meant I could trade for small techs I skipped. And as long as I didn't give them the big techs right away, no civ got a big tech lead.
3) Not declaring a religion meant that other civs didn't hate me and I could trade small techs with them. I'd learn something from Huayna and could trade with Saladin or Asoka.
I have learned more and more comments, but it's been long enough for now..
I made nice with Monty and took Hatty down quickly with swords. This worked a whole lot better. My only problem was that I stalled out right after busting up Hatty. My tech was down to 0% for a while as I was researching CoL.
). When I finally realized the mistake (because I couldn't build HE in my designated city since the capital was already making it 
). I'll go through again and go all-out for domination just to give my warmongering skills some exercise.
