Is monarch considerd "hard"?

[CivIVMonger]

I know that if you don't have a deep interest in Civ, you probobly aren't on the forums. Were I am getting at is that the players here are definitely more elite than your average player. So on the grand worldwide scale do you think monarch is a difficult level? Also, those of us ohhhh say.... me kinda need some help on it so if you would include some advice I would be grateful. I am currently having trouble with succesful war and diplomacy.

 

[Lansky]

Difficulty is in the eye of the uh... player. Doesn't quite work but you get the idea. I find Monarch quite easy and Deity normally is still a loss. When I first played Chieftan was rough. . .

If you want "tips" then start a monarch game and ask for help at various intervals. If possible post a save with pictures. People will play along normally and give you a comparison via shadows as well as just straight up pointers on what you are doing inefficiently or just plain stupidly.

 

[CivIVMonger]

Difficulty is in the eye of the uh... player. Doesn't quite work but you get the idea. I find Monarch quite easy and Deity normally is still a loss. When I first played Chieftan was rough. . .

If you want "tips" then start a monarch game and ask for help at various intervals. If possible post a save with pictures. People will play along normally and give you a comparison via shadows as well as just straight up pointers on what you are doing inefficiently or just plain stupidly.

Thanks, I will do. I AM interrested to see the poll results!

 

[michmbk]

For about two months, I considered Monarch hard. It took a fair amount of growing pains for me to get used to that level - for me, it's been the biggest and toughest jump to date (I haven't made the immortal-deity jump). Going from warriors to archers is a big adjustment for the player, and really learning how to time things more becomes critical. Notable adjustments:

1. You really need to sell out on the early rush - focus on the tech that unlocks your rush unit, and whip/chop aggressively to get them out to take out the AI.

2. Tech path needs to get tighter. For me, this started to click when I got away from the religious path, stopped bothering with oracle, and learned to head towards alpha, aesthetics, lit, currency and COL. Those are the most critical techs post-worker techs (monarchy as well in some situations, but I often trade for that). From there, getting ready to practice the lib race is important.

3. Early specialists can make a difference. I really try to run 2 scientists in my library city as fast as I can - in a lot of games, I want that academy, the philo bulb, and possibly even part of education.

4. Being aggressive when you have the edge. I really started to learn this one at the end of mastering monarch. For example, if I'm able to hit steel first, I'm willing to whip like crazy in all but my best research city to get cannons out fast as possible. If you can hit a civ or two with cannons against longbows, maces and other medeival units, you'll blow them away with few casualties.

Really, it all comes down to getting the timing tighter to move up to that level. I suspect most will say that prince-monarch was a difficult jump to them, but it's very satisfying once you do it and keep improving - now monarch games feel easy, but it took a lot of work to get there.

EDIT - to correct a typo - it sounds nice to use cannons pre-longbows, but I meant to say cannons against longbows.

 

[budweiser]

I say it is hard for someone just learning. I can beat it, but I just moved to emperor this summer. People here have been playing for years so they are way past it. For them it is like a cat toying with a mouse.

Tips for Monarch
diplo - open borders, have same religion, generous tech trades, advanced tip look at their favorite civic and run that.
war - build lots of units instead of buildings, pick on an easy or weak neighbor not a pro or aggressive if you can. Scout them out at writing and open borders. You might see that they only have archers and you can make swords.

 

[shyuhe]

You can win on monarch completely ignoring diplomacy and focusing only on warfare and teching. Not that this advice helps, but monarch always war is very much doable and there's no diplomacy in that game. Granted, you do need to wage war successfully in an always war game.

It's hard giving advice in a vacuum but try bribing civs to war more often. You may have to give up good techs but it really slows down AI tech rates. For successful warfare, just use overwhelming forces. Scout the enemy SoD and make sure your army is big enough to take it down in 1-2 turns. Flanking is great, as is siege.

 

[DaveMcW]

The AI has a 11% production bonus on Monarch.
And while at peace they will never spend more than 40% of their production on units.
So they are stuck at 44% military spending compared to you.

Build units more than 44% of the time, and the monarch AIs will be crushed.

 

[CivIVMonger]

For about two months, I considered Monarch hard. It took a fair amount of growing pains for me to get used to that level - for me, it's been the biggest and toughest jump to date (I haven't made the immortal-deity jump). Going from warriors to archers is a big adjustment for the player, and really learning how to time things more becomes critical. Notable adjustments:

1. You really need to sell out on the early rush - focus on the tech that unlocks your rush unit, and whip/chop aggressively to get them out to take out the AI.

2. Tech path needs to get tighter. For me, this started to click when I got away from the religious path, stopped bothering with oracle, and learned to head towards alpha, aesthetics, lit, currency and COL. Those are the most critical techs post-worker techs (monarchy as well in some situations, but I often trade for that). From there, getting ready to practice the lib race is important.

3. Early specialists can make a difference. I really try to run 2 scientists in my library city as fast as I can - in a lot of games, I want that academy, the philo bulb, and possibly even part of education.

4. Being aggressive when you have the edge. I really started to learn this one at the end of mastering monarch. For example, if I'm able to hit steel first, I'm willing to whip like crazy in all but my best research city to get cannons out fast as possible. If you can hit a civ or two with cannons pre-longbows, you'll blow them away with few casualties.

Really, it all comes down to getting the timing tighter to move up to that level. I suspect most will say that prince-monarch was a difficult jump to them, but it's very satisfying once you do it and keep improving - now monarch games feel easy, but it took a lot of work to get there.

Thanks, I for one thought that prince monarch was challenging. The real pain is getting DoW'd on by your best buddies Shaka, Monty, Genges Khan, and others. But keep a good military and it might not be hard. Another pain is getting used to warring and brakeing the habit of being pure culture at the pre noble levels. The hardest jump I took was Warlord----> noble. Actually...

 

[hou jing]

4. Being aggressive when you have the edge. I really started to learn this one at the end of mastering monarch. For example, if I'm able to hit steel first, I'm willing to whip like crazy in all but my best research city to get cannons out fast as possible. If you can hit a civ or two with cannons pre-longbows, you'll blow them away with few casualties.

Im truly humbled by this statement. I've gotten to where I can win domination or conquest at ease on Noble (is there any other kind of win? ), but to get cannons prior to the other Civs reaching Feudalism is something I've never even considered. Impressive.

 

[CivIVMonger]

The AI has a 11% production bonus on Monarch.
And they will never spend more than 40% of their production on units.
So they are stuck at 44% military spending compared to you.

Build units more than 44% of the time, and the monarch AIs will be crushed.

Getting like eight replies in 3 minutes is helpful! I don't usually study the XML for advice, but that is meaty information, thank you!

 

[AmazonQueen]

I still find it quite hard, win some, lose some, chuck in some
I'd class Settler to Warlord as Easy, Noble to Monarch as Moderate, and Emperor Plus as hard

 

[peapd]

IMHO,

The necessary skill for beating Monarch is understanding all of the game mechanics and rules.

I slogged through Prince without really understanding how diplomacy works, what specialists did, etc...

Having a good grasp of all of the mechanics and applying those to your strategy and play is what it takes to have a good win percentage at Monarch. That's what happened in my experience.

Let me say that this in itself is complicated, because civ is a complicated game.

Now those who can win at Immortal/Deity have some other understanding of the game that eludes me.

 

[oyzar]

I have never actually tried playing civ with my eyes closed before, but i think i might be able to do it...

 

[CivIVMonger]

I have never actually tried playing civ with my eyes closed before, but i think i might be able to do it...

haha!

 

[oyzar]

I read about people not handling diplomacy well and struggling at monarch. Then there are such players like tmit who win with just diplomacy at immortal. Personally I am pretty sure I didn't have a clue what i did diplowise when I was able to master emperor.

What skills are needed isn't really level specific, but the more skills you pick up, the more levels you are able to master.

 

[dalamb]

I suspect within a few days you'll be getting about 50% "used to be hard, now it's easy" if you're expecting a typical subset of the forums to eventually answer. I'm one of the few "it's really hard" people - still struggling with Noble.

 

[CivIVMonger]

I suspect within a few days you'll be getting about 50% "used to be hard, now it's easy" if you're expecting a typical subset of the forums to eventually answer. I'm one of the few "it's really hard" people - still struggling with Noble.

well thanks!

 

[michmbk]

Im truly humbled by this statement. I've gotten to where I can win domination or conquest at ease on Noble (is there any other kind of win? ), but to get cannons prior to the other Civs reaching Feudalism is something I've never even considered. Impressive.

Sorry - total typo. I meant to say cannons attacking longbows (and maces and other medeival units). I'm not even close to that good - maybe on settler level. I'll fix.


Diplo is another great point I forgot to mention. Monarch is the first level where I started to pay attention to diplo. It definitely makes a difference. Knowing who will DOW at pleased and who won't is a big start to concentrating your army. If you have mehmed on one side and willem on the other, and both are pleased, it's very important to know that you can keep all your units on the side where Willem is, and leave the other side minimally protected. Also, gifting resources or running favorite civics (or both) are huge in getting people to friendly. I almost always have an extra wheat or corn or some health resource I can gift.

 

[JammerUno]

It's a good difficulty if you don't want to be too obsessed with the finer points of the game.

 

[futurehermit]

In order to beat monarch, you have to be fairly skilled at the game. So, I voted that it is "hard". It's no longer hard to me, but I think it is "hard" compared to the skill levels beneath it.