[HELP] How to compete in monarch level

[PAnz3r]

fsss....i tried another game but i quited it when at the first engagement with a civ they got 8 tech to trade vs no one of mine....its very unconfortable...also if a follow your suggestion i continuos to be too backward....i share the tech with the others "small" civ when i can, but the first civs are unattainable also in the far future of the game....didnt satisfy the bigger nation make demand to stop trading, attack or betray the small civs i need...

i searched the basic tech first, and i made a worker for the terrain improvements but , at the time when i discover the alphabet allowing me to exchange the techs , the Ai's are too advanced for trande it.

 

[silverbullet]

It is a bit unusual to be so far behind on monarch level. Do you mean that by the time you have Alphabet there is nothing you can trade for with ANYONE? If this is the situation, you are not developing your land correctly. I can only give more feedback if you post a saved game.

It is ok if there are 1 or 2 civs that are ahead of you, you can catch up later as long as you have good land. The easiest way is by working a lot of cottages, but commerce resources and food resources for specialists are also important.

 

[Sero Sed Serio]

Sometimes you can simply get screwed by placement, other times you have to make the right choices in how to grow your empire. Pay attention to what works and what doesn't.

If you find yourself behind in research, maybe you need to create more cities with commerce as their specialty.

 

[Mack_Jagger]

Well most players find the step from Prince to Monarch to be difficult. It certainly isn't easier going to Monarch, straight from Noble. But hey, balls like that has to be applauded

EDIT:Hmm sorry I got this thread mixed up with Jaboos Justinian thread.

 

[PAnz3r]

today i'll re-try a game....and a make varius save for post it...by the way, im new on forum, how can i post a save ??

 

[JujuLautre]

In the advanced posting pannel, go to "manage attachments"; pretty straightforward from that on

 

[Joshua368]

I've been finding Prince to be fairly easy recently, so I've finally made the jump to Monarch and played my first game at the level a few days ago.

I was Elizabeth (nice powerful civ) on a continents-like map. The BCs featured me early expanding until I was attacked by my neighbor Charlemagne in the Classical Era... successfully fought him back (captured a city) and then retaliated with a nice stack, destroying his cities and capitulating him with only a few artic and island cities left way back there.

So at this point I was in a good position, had a nice chunk of good land (slightly more than my neighbors) and considering my neighbors were Mansa Musa and that Inca person, and we all shared a religion, I figured I'd play the game as a tech-trading peaceful builder space race lovefest.

But even with beelining techs and careful trading with the two and an ally overseas... I still found myself constantly falling behind. When the space race came I was dead even with at least three other civs... but it didn't even matter because HC was going for a cultural win! His borders were eating mine up and he was only a few turns away... so I upgraded my early army to Mech. Infantry and unleashed a last ditch strike in which I razed his third culture city.

Of course the war was devastating as his power level was huge... my towns were massacred in a missile barrage and my strike force got destoryed after burning the town. After being able to bribe peace with what used to be my major science city, I was heavily weakened. HC ended up winning cultural with a fourth city, and even after that I would've narrowly lost the space race in a few turns.



Soooooooo... I decided to redo some history and went back to the big turning point of the game: defeating Charlemagne. This time I marched my army to Inca, upgraded them to macemen and knights. Crippled them taking their strongest cities and took peace. Then my musketmen upgraded to redcoats and I destroyed Mansa Musa in a drawn out war, capitulating him to islands. Then I finished off HC.

So now I own the entire island (surrounded by a ring of vassal cities on islands ), three great capital sites, and began a massive and successful ww2-style invasion to the other continent. The polarity of the two paths of history was stunning.

So you want to do well at monarch? War often and war well.

 

[Bleys]

One thing I suggest is that you do a report on your game. Use some screenshots, and update the report to include all your tech choices and building choices (every 10-20 turns or so), right through Alphabet, so that we can see where you may be making some poor choices.

Another suggestion I have is that you pay very close attention to what techs the AI has when you hit Alphabet each game, and tech a DIFFERENT line yourself. One of the best tips in the Diety Strategy Guide is "tech Aesthetics, purely as trade bait + possible Great Library, because the AI doesnt tech this line too early, and you can usually trade it for a bunch of other techs". Tech trading is important, but if you have nothing the AI wants, you wont get much benefit from it. If you are teching the same exact lines the AI is, you wont every be able to trade because they can tech much faster than you at Monarch in the early game. So tech stuff the AI doesnt research, even if its not what you REALLY want, so you can trade that stuff for the techs you actually want.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[PAnz3r]

well, i've just finished to play the new game that i started this morning,actually im in the 1690 b.c. and i got the indians with Asoka and, first game ever!, im the second civ in the world! X)

i started in a continent with the germans and the russian, i plan the positioning of all the city i fuond and i follow your suggest for boost the improvements on the land, this time the tatics goes pretty well and ,with the right tech trading with AIs, i follow the enemy from close, when i discover the value and the law code my civ take the take off strip and became the second entry in the points chart, at the moment i controll the situation and boost military unit, if, perhaps, the americans ( the first civ in points) try to do the space ship or aim at diplomatic victory i've a strong fleet with a "rapid deploy" task force for take down them ambition....

now, i wanna finish this game but i surely retry another time with a different civ for testing the initial growing plan

 

[vicawoo]

Working a forested tile or floodplain yields +1 food/hammers, a mine yields +2, a special resource up to 4. Since most people only get one worker before their settler, worker turns are at a premium. The numbers of turns to grow to size 4 or 5 is never going to be faster without a worker, the only time you save is in building the first worker.

 

[vicawoo]

And to panzer, monarch civ 4 is different from the other civs. The AI will tech slower at lower difficulties.

Maybe some screenshots would help.

 

[Bleys]

Sounds like your doing better. Once you get a feel for what techs are "good trade bait", and start getting those techs early, you will start keeping up with the AI in points.

I would like to ask another question. How many workers do you make? Do you have 1 for each city or more?

Its a common mistake to stop making workers when you are making more cities. Lots of players end up with only the 2 or 3 workers they made early in the game, and forget to make more workers when you make more cities. This is VERY important if you have cities in the Jungle. You want 2 workers per city in the Jungle area, chopping it down so you can put Cottages up. Put your first cottages on any jungle tile touching a river. Also, when you get the Calendar tech, you need workers to make Plantations. They are usually very good tiles to improve, so you can get the resource plus the commerce.