Learning Monarch II

[Mantic0re]

So I got the chance to play tonight at work. Playing the save where I declare on Monte at turn 85 doesn't go well. I'm not able to hold the city like I expected (partly because my archers didn't make it into the city before retaliation).


So I underbuilt units for the war. Reloading before the DoW gives me a stronger stack and I roll over Monte. Late in the war, Victoria declares on him as well and takes on city. I capture the rest. I raze only one but in hindsight the last city I take is terrible and should have been razed as well. I'm currently at 9 cities.


Willem settles the one city a few turns after I raze the Aztec city. He's settled to 5 cities and is the only non-Buddhist nation (Pacal founded Buddhism and is without metal).


At this point I'm leading almost everything except Tech. During the war I've tech'd writing, Alpha, Math and finish currency 2 turns after Monte is dead.


I've got a upper level strategy decision to make but I stall a bit for economic techs until I decide. I've traded around for Monotheism and have a tech decision.


My Overall plan is to take more land with military and head for Conquest/Dom/Diplomation (if AP is built and I can swing it). My two possible targets are Willem who is not sharing the worlds religion, has two coppers and only axes. Or Pacal who is a sitting duck with the Buddhist shrine, Great Library, and NO METAL. I'm leaning toward Willem first for a few reasons. First, I don't think Pacal will ever be a threat in this game and is easy prey. Secondly, I'm hoping for some diplo improvements with war partners (hopefully Toku).


My questions are:

1. Continue now with HA's, or work on infrastructure / tech and push for knights? Knights will almost certainly be employed later to finish off Toku, Vicky, and Mehmed.
2. I have two calendar happiness resource. Calendar or HR? I can self tech Monarchy in 4, or tech something else and trade currency for it (to Willem).
3. In this position, are missionaries and a switch to OR worth the cost? The hammer saving is expected to be ~25% of a Courthouse, Granary, and maybe a Library minus the cost of the Missionary.

 

[ecuwins]

So I underbuilt units for the war.

You need to scout your target. In this case, your first chariot that wasn't needed for barb defense should have been over there scoping him out.

 

[ecuwins]

Played a little bit more up to 660AD.

250AD

Spoiler :

I realized that I don't have enough troops to continue safely at this point. Cutting the metal resulted in Jaguar spam, heh, it beats the crap out of spear spam though. I'll just sit tight and get some metal units into the mix.

I also whipped a settler to grab the marble. I do not want Willis creative crap dropping a settler around there. This puts Washington into wonder mode GLib, NEpic, Sistine is my plan.

Techwise: Math > Currency > Lit > Music. Traded Aesthetics for Monarchy.

450AD

Spoiler :

Now we're in business. It's finally time begin finishing him off. I left two axes behind in the old Aztec capital to prevent any Jaguar shenanigans(woody2s are floating around).

660AD

Spoiler :

RIP Monty. Looks like Lib Military Tradition and upgrade the remaining Horse Archers to queerassears[sic]. Maybe the more elite metal units to maces, hmmmm? Anyway, now it's time for infrastructure, garrisons, and find the remaining barbs.

What to do, what to do, with all those trees

 

[raxid]

@manticore you're gearing up for a war by running lots of cottages and not using any grass hills?

 

[Mantic0re]

In that save I'd finished off Monte and was at a decision point. Since I had no real sense of what my next step should be I just left cities alone until I got some forum input or made a decision. Iirc, in that save, or on the following turn, my cities were building wealth and pushing as much research as I could manage.

I think it's better to grow cottages than to work mines to build wealth in that situation. During my war prep and engagement, I run the highest food and hammer mix I can find usually, which means off the cottages and into the mines again.

 

[OneLeggedRhino]

In general, if you have 2+ Calendar resources, that's better than Monarchy. First, you'll usually only want 1 unit in your non-border cities, so monarchy winds up with units out of place. Second, calendar resources have good yields too. Sure, you can grow arbitrarily large with Monarchy, but in practice that's only worthwhile for a bureaucracy capital, and you'll know if you have one and want monarchy for it.

 

[raxid]

In that save I'd finished off Monte and was at a decision point. Since I had no real sense of what my next step should be I just left cities alone until I got some forum input or made a decision. Iirc, in that save, or on the following turn, my cities were building wealth and pushing as much research as I could manage.

I think it's better to grow cottages than to work mines to build wealth in that situation. During my war prep and engagement, I run the highest food and hammer mix I can find usually, which means off the cottages and into the mines again.

in your screen shot you're building HA and working 3 cottages and neither mine, this is what i based it off as i don't have time to look at save now.

 

[ecuwins]

Well, the Horse Archer Rush Manifesto calls for: Horses, ASAP commerce for a HBR beeline(cottages in this case), then, and only then, can you wreck your econ. Core cities should have a mix of tiles to work and later cities may sacrifice infrastructure first over military units now.

I think you got it, Mantic0re

I see what you're saying too, raxid.

 

[Mantic0re]

I didn't really look at the screenshots I posted but I bet I mix up my build and tile configurations quite a bit. I don't really have a short term plan to guide me so mistakes like that are more common. If I have something to really focus on I'll check my cities every turn.


Willem is close to Feudalism which answers one of the questions for me. I could probably still take Pacal with the units I have. I've not see a game where he is a hard target. Even if he has Feudalism, he has a low city count and has been spending hammers on Wonders. Taking that shrine would be a nice addition to my empire.


Part of the reason I'm still so focused on war is that I haven't really played a game from this point on that doesn't involve rushing to a choice military tech and marching. Some games it's Guilds, others I play nice until cannons (common) or rifles. Rarely it's flight or Nukes. If I wind up in a good AP position I'll sometimes take that route. In general that is my Prince winning strategy. I get the sense that at this point I can redirect my focus to other VC's (maybe a little late for culture) the tech paths and priorities to do that are not well understood yet.

.
If anyone has suggestions for short term plays I'm all ears.

 

[dimatud]

i would beeline guidls and go for Pacal with HA meantime, he deserves to die and he is almost always a sitting duck. then recover your economy a bit (shouldn't be a problem with all the shrines + market/grocers once you get guilds). Knights, aren't the best unit in teh game but if you get them at the right time (pre-engineering) you should be able to finish up the map (chain vassaling or whatever it's called). hope i'm not missing something big, didn't had time to read the whole story

 

[dimatud]

i wouldn't bother with culture but if you really want to try it i think it's far from beeing late. just decide on 3 cities with most food and wonders, beeline music and build the sistine, make sure you have both religions (and temples) in at least 6 citites so you can build at least 2 cathedrals. at that point the fun is pretty much over though in my opinion