[BTS] How to play Stalin effectively? (Monarch level training)

[sampsa]

Research: Wheel -> Pottery .> Writing -> Alphabet, cause Maths -> Construction will take longer and Alpha let's us look into our opponents techs.

You are doing this again. Focus! Don't go alpha if you are planning to attack at construction. What do you do with the ability to look into AI techs? Not much.

edit: just noticed this is monarch again, I was expecting at least emperor. You could also just go 2-city axes if you want to play optimally. In this case alpha makes sense.

 

[Master_Of_Ideas]

Yes, that's a fair point, your A1 spot is a stronger helper, which is relevant !
X-post : yes, Constantinople best target. Logistics say so and not AGG/PRO leader. Checking AIs for units is also a good idea at some point ("Soon our numberless Archers will destroy you").
I see you didn't complete the second camp, well played !
Now you can if you grow Moscow to 4 or you can chop the second settler still at size ". (not sure of Moscow's status)

I chopped both at size 3. And I liked your idea for 3-cities, commited to it in building the second settler, but now I am a bit unsure about how to progress. Maybe 2 settlers were a mistake, because the necessary workers distract me from building axes. I am sure, that Justin cannot defend himself (he has barbarians attacking him), but this makes the attack much harder to plan. I will need 8-10 axes for sure.

Conflicting with Churchill will be very hard, because London is on a hill. I am quite sure, that the only way to keep the land is over culture, military seems impossible at first.

Now we will attack Justin for sure, building axes in 3 cities.
But I do hard to decide whether settling at the horses or at the cow. The cow will be a direct culture confrontation, and I soon need to develop culture techs (I don't have already). The horses are strong for later, when I focus on hammurabi.

Because the horses have no food, it's not probable, that Churchill will take them soon and I can settle there after Constantinople, when preparing attack to hammurabi next. But I don't know, if I want to have the border conflict with Churchill...

So okay, I go for corn first, building barracks at start of St Petersburg.
Other question: When would you optimally switch to Slavery? I thought about the time, when settler #2 goes to his preferred place and St Petersburg still has size 1. What would you do?

Choices are a good thing to have

Haha, and they make live a bit more challenging but it's good to go into deep planning in open games like here. I had not thought about grabbing the cow spot when you didn't mention it. That is an interesting idea, maybe I do it... to grab horses later.

 

[Master_Of_Ideas]

You are doing this again. Focus! Don't go alpha if you are planning to attack at construction. What do you do with the ability to look into AI techs? Not much.

edit: just noticed this is monarch again, I was expecting at least emperor. You could also just go 2-city axes if you want to play optimally. In this case alpha makes sense.

Yes, I felt, I need som more preparation. This game is completely different to the last. Harder opponents, no need for astronomy. Alpha makes sense, when we axe-rush Justin. I won't attack at construction the first time, because Justin has just a too suicy land here.

Alphabet has another advantage: Bribe AIs for war, e.g. between Hammurabi and the Chinese.

So it looks that we do a 3-city-axe-rush here.

When would you switch to slavery in this game?

 

[sampsa]

Yes, I felt, I need som more preparation. This game is completely different to the last. Harder opponents, no need for astronomy.

You are massively overestimating the resistance you will face. In general when attacking, you don't need preparation that delays you, you need SPEED.

When in K-mod they spam archers in capital, here you can expect 2 archers per city or so. Just walk in with 8 axes or something and grab.

So it looks that we do a 3-city-axe-rush here.

Why? 2-city axes is just a lot better, because it is faster.

Alphabet has another advantage: Bribe AIs for war, e.g. between Hammurabi and the Chinese.

Totally irrelevant at this difficulty level.

When would you switch to slavery in this game?

Perhaps only when you attack. You have lots of chops, a lot of high tiles and whipping without a granary is not that hot.