Help! Difficult transition from monarch to emporer

[osdavis]

All,

Help! After kicking lots of a** consistently on the monarch level of Conquests, i began playing on emporer level. Needless to say, now the combat boot is on the other foot.

Is this really as huge a jump as it seems? I know about huts, corruption and better head start for the AI civs, but come on, i'm getting burned everywhere. My citizens are often unhappy, my science appears to advance a hell of a lot slower than in monarch, and production? Forget it. I'm able to hang with the AIs until about 2000BC or so (three to four cities) and exist somewhat fruitfully (albeit in seventh or eighth place) until about 1AD. By this point, though, someone's already got feudalism and i'm maybe getting monarchy.

I play the Persians (said in the civilization reviews to be hugely advantageous)...

Help? Or should i just go back to monarch and nuke everyone indiscriminately and repeatedly? (It is fun...)

 

[tupaclives]

I only have Vanilla so I cant tell for sure but in Vanilla: regent, monarch, emperor and diety are just as easy as each other after the start. I have multiple wins on diety and they are all won in much the same fashion as my wins on regent. The trick is to get a good start and by that I dont mean rerolling until you get 8 cows in your starting city radius (if anyone has actually got that please tell me ) what I mean is maximising your starting resources. Maximise your food bonuses (if you get any) and your shields, being industrius persia can easily get that terrain working at maximum efficiency quicker. When you have enough food and shields see what sort of factory you can make, can you make a settler or a worker factory or is the food too low and it is best suited to pumping out troops. If you dont have a settler factory in your capital then find 1! Find enough food bonuses nearby to make a settler factory in one of your cities, then start grabbing that land before the AI does! Keeping up or getting ahead in expansion means more cities producing commerce and more cities producing troops and (in certain governments) more unit support. Read the article on moving from monarch to emperor it gives lots of great advice, also remember that you only get 1 content citizen on emperor so those mp are important at the beginnign and also learn to use the lux slider. Theres heaps of great advice to be found on this site in the war academy written by players far more qualified and capable than myself so read those articles!

 

[Fried Egg]

There's an article in the Strategy Articles forum on this specific topic:

Monarch to Emperor: the Great Leap

Perhaps it will be of help?

 

[ellie]

Great articles but it IS a big jump imho ive had the same experiences.

I think as mentioned in the article you have to change mindset a fair bit.

For example, early game in the past ive forsook too much military to get infrastructure / hanging gardens/ sistine chapel etc and got used to getting them everytime. Being isolationist..hasnt been a massive problem either.

Suddenly i HAVE to concentrate on military and what sort of mil im pumping out.

 

[Turner]

I had a hard time transitioning from Regent to Monarch. What I ended up doing was creating a half-regent/half-monarch level, and it made the step up a lot easier. I did the same between monarch and emporer. I don't play emporer...I don't have wonder addiction but I do like having a chance at a wonder when I decide I want it.

 

[Fried Egg]

I found Regent --> Monarch ok. It's certainly more challenging but generally, the same sort of tactics that work on Regent work for Monarch. You just need to be a little bit more thrift, choosing what cities build a bit more carefully, trading techs more freely, etc. But it sounds like on Emporer, you need to bring a whole new approach to the game.

 

[ellie]

To those that win on emporer, i know the english arent the best civ, but would picking a diff civ make much difference to my success??

Im usually third on emporer, 7 civs giant map (pangea or continents).

Have considered persians, ottomans or an agricultural civ to improve my chances (or babylonians for culture win)

 

[Bartleby]

or an agricultural civ to improve my chances

That'll be the best way to get a leg-up if you're struggling to get established quickly. Try the Iroquois, as they have a very nice UU. The most significant advantage you will get as Agri, though, is that one Grassland Cow can be enough for a proper 4-turn Settler Factory.

 

[vmxa]

First I am not fond of Persia, yes they can be strong as any civ can. I would not pick them for my first run at emperor.

Go with proven civs like China. They have a perfect UU for contients or pangea. I presume not being alone on an island, then sea/ag is better or even commerce.

Do not be concerned about not being out in front on techs. You can get back on top later, even as late as late IA if fine.

Do try to make trades until you are either caught up or have everyone hating you.

So the biggest issue is not managing your workers and empire. Try to get on rivers and coast to oost commerce, this boost research. Learn to not get tons of spears.

Make only a few warriors before you go to all troops coming out as vets.

Do not use wide spacing, no matter how much open land you see about you.

Do insure that a citizens are working improved tiles. If this is not the case you must get more workers.

Start in on attackers as soon as you can see the end of rex coming. Horses are the best. Strike when you are ready and annex land, raze or capture I don't care. Bring combat settlers to replace the abandon towns.

Stop the campaign by 20 turns and recoup 20 turns. Do it again.

My rule is that no AI can out research me, if I have a lot more land than they have.

Do get out of Despotism asap. One switch is all you make, so pick it wisely.

Do not research optional techs unless you are the leader or it brings a key unit, can you say Riders.

 

[rysingsun]

someone's already got feudalism and i'm maybe getting monarchy...

that doesnt sound so bad to me. i agree that you should get used to being behind at this point in the game. even if you are still behind early in the industrial age it is no real reason to panic. the ai research typically goes way down in the industrial age. perhaps it's because of all those mpps they start making when they get nationalism. they get into wars and lose their luxury imports and trading partners. they switch to fascism (communism in vanilla/ptw) and their commerce drops. they get war weariness.

besides this you dont really need to be caught up in tech to successfully wage war. it helps of course but it certainly isnt a requirement.

 

[colontos]

in my opinion, trade is the most important thing at high levels. assuming you do passably at the start (although you can be the smallest at the end of rex and still be ok) but trade is your best friend for getting techs. run 0% research. use one scientist to research out-of-the-way techs in 40-50 turns. you will only succeed in getting these techs first once or twice per game, but each time you can use them to catch up even 4 or 5 techs if you get them before the AI. since you are not resarching, you dont need to build libraries and universities. check all the AIs every turn, and save up money to buy techs. try to wait until one AI gets a brand new tech, buy it, even at a high price (luxes and strategic resources help to lower the money price) and then trade it around and you can get 3 or 4 more techs plus some or all of your money back. this will keep you in the running at least until the IA, and then when the AIs start to bog down in late IA, rush or build a bunch of libraries and universities and start your own research, you'll keep up or do better than the AI for the rest of the game if you have a decent infrastructure. here's an example:
You are England.
Babylon has techs A B C D E and F. A is a brand new tech and only Babylon has it.
Persia and Ottomans have B C D E and F.
Spain has C D E F.
Zulu have C E F.
Mongols have D E F.
Buy tech A from Babylon. The price will be high high, maybe hundreds of gpt in the late middle ages or industrial age, plus lump sum gold and luxes or resources, but pay it all. then trade A to Persia for tech B. Trade B to Spain for C, then trade B and C to Mongols for D and E. Tech F, probably printing press, can be grabbed from anybody, and you are now tied for the tech lead, and are even ahead of Ottomans, who still dont have tech A. This works very well at Emperor and Demigod, but it may break down higher than that.

 

[Empiremaker]

Don't be afriad if you fall behind early. Use the Lux slider. Try playing Iroquois or anouther agri. Make a settler factory. BUILD A GRANARY in your 5-6 core cities. Don't build temples in the AA. General tips.

Personally I found Emp-Demi-god much much harder. That extra setteler is great for the AI.