Overall %-based monopolies are in par with flat-based from the very beginning of game
agree, all +10% yield monopolies are significantly stronger than +2 +3.
They aren't.
Flat +2/3 monopolies are
vastly stronger and I am really a bit stunned by reading otherwise. Let me explain:
- First of all, flat monoplies should be prioritzed at all cost and only then they work as intended. Progress is already the strongest policy (on par with tradition depending on civ and start), no matter what you want to do later, and flat monopoly is a big incentive to choose it. The +2/3 monopoly if prioritised, should
double your culture, and give you at least 50% if not 75% more science, faith and gold. This can't compete with +10% in the first half of the game.
- Secondly, the game is decided (or your position for the second part of the game, if you can mantain lead or still have potential to topple/surpass those in lead) in the first half, let's say up to industrial.
- It is not true at all 10% are equal to flat bonuses from the very beginning. You should get +10/15 in total by turn +/- 50, every turn is precious (settling on top of resources if necessary, buying workers, tech path only to get monopoly + settlers, no wonders or army if they are not on the tech path of course, unless some rare opportunity is present). And that's the minimum (+2/3 x 5 resource tiles) to get the monopoly on standard and large maps where there are 8/9 standard luxuries, it gets additional +/- 2 tiles shortly thereafter to give +14/
- Sell the first and usually second and third luxury asap for 2/3 + some gold from you, GPT from the AIs. This GPT will allow you to buy workers faster no matter what is your policy, price is always 160 gold. You will have enough happiness and you should usually buy one from the AI for a city state quest and more instant gold or to get an alliance.
- You have to consider what improvements and tech path are to connect each luxury. +2/3 monopolies can be achieved extremely fast with only two tech which also covers your mobility to be founding cities on island/avoiding barbarians on land when you have a sea resource.
- You have to consider the terrain and features on which they spawn. Just a couple of examples, copper 10% production is weaker than gold or silver as it spawns on grasslands and plain more frequently and gets gold from forge, and I see it many times on flat tiles, while gold or silver usually get great desert/tundra hill, which have great floodplains, oasis, deers and tundra pantheon. Jungle/forested +2/3 plantations give great opportunity with progress to rush bronze working for a sweet 40 production when chopped, then (or before) the wheel to keep workers occupied with roads in the meantime (which means +12 science with 4 cities in itself probably doubling your science, as you first should be getting monuments/production buildings/shrines, not councils) and only then calendar, so the delay in monopoly is offset by faster shrines/monuments in new cities.
- Now a big one: yields from tiles just normally, apart from monopoly, which stacks with them. For example whales get +1 science plus 10% which will be better by renaissance, which is nice. But you know what is nicer? Plus 2 instead of 1 production from crabs in addition to +3 food that will allow you to get +3 science from a scientist faster, +1 faith and culture on incense on top of that +2 faith, plus one culture from the start from wine iirc before monopoly and +2 faith in addition later. There are more +2 sea monopolies (which are the most accessible with just two techs and the strongest ones, earliest specialists cause of lots of food) than 10% ones. Plantations without forest/jungle are mostly +2, those with forest/jungle (free production) are also strong, though weaker than the others, well maybe citrus and cinammon are also very strong cause of crazy good initial yields and double +1 production for cinanmon (both herbalist and a market, also +1 food for faster specialists, very strong). Perfume can be not very but strong if connected early enough and as a naked tiles resource it should be, gold gets you invaluable workers to buy and get tiles and buy out crucial buildings. +10% also have the weakest resource among them: the olives. Apart from tea and salt (which have the longest monopoly bonuses to come online) and aformentioned whales and probably some others I don't remember right now, 10% monopolies have weaker initial tiles, weaker bonuses from improving a tile and weaker bonuses from buildings. About the building bonuses that's very in general and this is the least important part why they are stronger, but I believe it is true, albeit by a slight amount. Bonuses from improving a tiles in addition to monoplies are the big part, and I really believe stacking like +culture and faith from pearls/incense/wine or +3 science iirc from coral makes even those +2 monoplies effectively plus 3/4 (as you get one culture and one faith from improvement in addition to monopoly, and then again from buildings, not one production, one food, and two gold for salt for example. those are just much, much stronger yields) as you can only work so much tiles in the begining and those will be luxuries, basically until the end of the game. And remember to settle on top of usually at least one resource to get faster monopoly as those monopoly yields and pantheon and building yields (from resources, not improvements) stay. You will get less those improvement yields vastly offset by faster monopoly. And try to settle, not work, flat desert incense (only +2 gold base yields) cause it will be very worthy, eventually plus 2 culture, 4 faith, 2 gold, 1 production after temples iirc, but very awkward tile to work as you need food and production tiles in new cities. Such tiles hamper growth and production, you don't want to choose betwen those and faith/culture. And those (and +2/3 monopoly tiles in general) are great to put one or two great person improvements over them, when you will have more other tiles to work, as all building, pantheon, and monopoly bonuses to resources stay.
- Plus two faith in the city offsets a shrine, plus two culture from a tile a monument, Of course you want them
so you can get double monument and shrine per city effectively. But you are free to get an invested well, stone works or forge first to get all three of them fater. And in later cities, starting from a fourth probably you get those instantly the turn you found them, it's brutally strong.
- You have to consider those let's say +6 to culture/faith/ specially when playing tradition but also from the capital/main city for progress and authority, plus unique buildings, beliefs, and so on. In total you'll get +14/21 more or less (from 7 resource tiles) before turn. But those will not stay at +14/21, as you will get % modifiers from other sources. This +6/8 culture or science in the capital will be easily doubled by tradition quite early, other policies a bit later.
- Plus 2 faith monopoly with a good pantheon can get you
first religion on deity more ofthen than not,
without building shrines, which allows you to get more production and science buildings much faster and thus compete with the AI much more efficiently.
- Plus 10% monopolies are very inefficient in the first part of the game, just look at the production breakdown in a new game with progress, and it is 15% bonus to production for building , not 10% .Before turn 100, and you constantly get new cities which start with below 10 production, it will take 20-30 turns to each of them to get even 2/3 production from it, progressively faster with each new city, more workers to improve tiles, etc.
It will take probably a fully worked guild in addtion to culture pantheon, arena, and a monument to get +2 culture from 10% monopoly, and
a worked a library and university for science, to any non-capital/main city .
- Plus 10% monopolies do nothing to instant yields which are a great source of yields in the first part of the game. We are talking bonuses from founder beliefs li, culture for tech and buildings from progress, gold and science from citizens in progress, production and gold from expanding borders in authority, science and culture for killing camps and units in authority.
- Of course +10% scale better, but only mid-late game. But you have to survive a warmonger, found religion, found new cities offsetting their culture/science penalty. You'll get one and a half policy tree before 10% monopolies will get better than +2/3. And they will still require some time to offset them being weaker in the early game. And flat bonuses give you a better position in mid game, when you most likely conquer/settle/get from city-states/ all of that another monopolies among which you can get 10%.
In total +2/3 monopolies are
stronger until around late medieval. By early/mid renaissance yields explode due to scaling (x3) and then enhances/reformations/policies/bonuses to specialists/bigger population in cities and unlocking two guilds, so 6 buildings and 12 (!) culture specialists in addition to your 6, not to mention you start working a new engineer and scientist, and probably settling final cities or conquering some, that all happens around this time late medieval-mid renaissance.
I hope this will clarify some things. It was a fun analysis that actually forced me to use my memory and connected the dots, colloquially speaking, a bit.
