Links for Monarch guides?

[odin1981]

Hi all I'm new here. I was wondering if there where any links for like barb timings, and settler move out timings for opponents? I'm thinking about jumping up to monarch after my third game on prince. But it would be cool to get a feel for these two specific timings.

Thanks to any who answer .

 

[Seraiel]

I think there are no guides on timings. Building the 1st Settler is usually best at size 3 (very very very seldomly size 2 and only in specific situations (i. e. only 1T to growth to size 4 or very early BW with plan to 2-pop-whip the Settler (ideal play when being IMP) ) and Barbs afaik always appear at the same turn and it's difficulty speicific, maybe people can give you info on that as I play without Barbs mostly. What I know is that Barbs only start to enter the borders when the overall count of the AIs cities is 3 or > .

What I'd definitely recommend you to read are the CIV-Illustrated guides, they independant of difficulty and afaik the newest guides that got written so you'll find info about the game in them that is not outdated and which will help you to greatly improve your skills .

 

[DrCron]

What Seraiel recomended about the "CIV illustrated" guides in the "strategy articles" forum is true, they are good for any difficulty.

On Youtube there are videos on Monarch and Emperor, although you could just watch Deity vids and consider that it's just going to be easier for you. If you do this, just remember that on Monarch you should always be first to Alpha, and that doing an early rush with chariots can be very effective (if you start with the wheel and get animal husbandry early, you might get the AI before they mine copper so no spearmen).

 

[odin1981]

Because I'm newb I have been playing with trading tech off as off late. Don't really have a good handle with what unlocks what so I have not been good with trades. Plus as of the past few games I have played I have had really good luck with starting spots for research. So it has been cool to see how much effort it takes to research independently on my own.

Plus I play with huts on until there is a difficulty that is too good for ai to have huts on. And I have had a good run also with techs grabbed because of huts. The past game I am on I nabbed a turn 5 BW, turn 20 or so IW, into a turn 50 or so HBR with India.

I have checked out the leader bios and Siswhatever's guide for new players. Caught a few of Sulla's walkthroughs on youtube (first 5 or so on the Dutch guy mainly). I have very little interest in deity type stuff though. My difficulty cap will probably be up too whatever level the ai doesn't start with 1-2 free cities at the start. Seen some off absolute zero's vid's mainly for whipping out a early stack of X to pick off a neighbor.

So far with 20-30 games under my belt I'm more into trying to figure out slavery cause it feels kinda pivotal this game for macro. It is a very sublime skill though. It is very ambigous as to when it is right to pop the whip and why. Been playing a hybrid style economy when I can (1 game had like only 2-4 flood plains damn expansive leaders) .

My worker count has been around a 1 to 1 ratio with my town count as of late. Until around 0 AD when I can chop out a better ratio. I know this needs to improve but I expect a dip early on at least for the levels I have played at due to usually doing some form of axe/chariot rushing early game to take out a close civ. Though I am interested in playing at a skill level higher than prince cause it is easy to 3-4 warrior rush a close capital first 1k years or so is something I know I won't be able to keep up with. And I know I won't be able to keep that up higher levels.

 

[gaash2]

I've found by far the easiest way to succeed at higher difficulties for me was to attack early. I play on huge map for what it's worth, not sure if that makes attacking early more or less of a necessity.

 

[odin1981]

Oh cool I like epic and large with 13 civs plus continents. But first 10 games where epic and marathon to concentrate and focus on early game. I hate Pangea maps like the plague so a nonono on them personally.

Yeah I am not much off a warmonger. But I recognize the tech patterns there are around like 5 of them. Ancient axe, Classic H Arch into elephaunt/treb, Macemen into knight, H arch into cuiress mace into grenadiers and archers into gunmen. Then the real late type stuff.

They are when if you have a close undesirable neighbor you hit that level first and knock them outta the game.

 

[Seraiel]

What Seraiel recomended about the "CIV illustrated" guides in the "strategy articles" forum is true, they are good for any difficulty.

Quoted for truth .

No, seriously, read the CIV Illustrated series. It doesn't matter that the stuff is good for Deity-level, those guides explain the most important things like city placement, distribution of wonders and especially economy and as a grand super-issue that you can use as a reference book you can take CIV Illustrated #1 which gives you all infos you will ever want to know about any specific leaders in CIV, it'll help you a lot with diplomacy. Once you have understood those basics (and those guides can really be read in a few hours) you're on Emperor or Immortal. The only thing that's really missing is a guide on the several approaches of war like Axes, Elepult, Horse-Archers, Cuirrassiers etc. but you either find a lot of info on this when searching this forum or the videos from Absolute Zero (name on youtube chris +some numbers) or people will also tell you something about those approaches if you ask them. It's basically the only guide we weren't able to finish because the war-topic is just too huge for one guide and my time has become more rare unfortunately.

 

[odin1981]

Quoted for truth .

No, seriously, read the CIV Illustrated series. It doesn't matter that the stuff is good for Deity-level, those guides explain the most important things like city placement, distribution of wonders and especially economy and as a grand super-issue that you can use as a reference book you can take CIV Illustrated #1 which gives you all infos you will ever want to know about any specific leaders in CIV, it'll help you a lot with diplomacy. Once you have understood those basics (and those guides can really be read in a few hours) you're on Emperor or Immortal. The only thing that's really missing is a guide on the several approaches of war like Axes, Elepult, Horse-Archers, Cuirrassiers etc. but you either find a lot of info on this when searching this forum or the videos from Absolute Zero (name on youtube chris +some numbers) or people will also tell you something about those approaches if you ask them. It's basically the only guide we weren't able to finish because the war-topic is just too huge for one guide and my time has become more rare unfortunately.

I'e read the first one on the leaders made it easy to column'ze who my ally's, my enemies, or who are ci's who are neutral on a pad and paper. The city one eh? You preferably look for 2+ food plus 1+ other reasource. Depending on what it will be after that depends. The only difficult thing I find is a right ratio of wet grasslands to hills for production towns plus wood to chop. Unless of course your only settling for and on a resource that is than it is different entirely (like marble, stone, elephaunt).

 

[Seraiel]

I'e read the first one on the leaders made it easy to column'ze who my ally's, my enemies, or who are ci's who are neutral on a pad and paper. The city one eh? You preferably look for 2+ food plus 1+ other reasource. Depending on what it will be after that depends. The only difficult thing I find is a right ratio of wet grasslands to hills for production towns plus wood to chop. Unless of course your only settling for and on a resource that is than it is different entirely (like marble, stone, elephaunt).

Ok, no read the guide on the economy, it's only 2 posts long and the economy is described as the most difficult or challenging topic in CIV.

Regarding riverside Grassland and Hills: You don't need Hills actually if you can whip, what really decides is a) food (1 source is enough if it's at least Grassland Cows or wet Rice or 2 (farmed) FPs) b) Luxuries c) any other resources.

There were several other also important things in that guide though, like i. e. "settle with the source of food in the first ring if not CRE" or "use cities to block the other empires to have land to expand to" and it's really important to understand the process of decision making so why city x before city y and why i. e. settling 1N which loses the riverside and 1 tundra deers but therefore gets Copper in the inner ring which allows a way earlier Axe-rush (while Tundra-Deers are a weak source of ) which gets you city 3 and 4 10T earlier and 10T earlier city 3 and 4 means more than city x would produce if having those Tundra-Deers or it allows to attack while the AI only has Archers or 20% less cultural defense etc.

I know that this may still be too much detail if you only want to play Monarch, but I only want to state by that that those guides have a high amount of detail and the more you advance through the difficulty levels the more important those details become.

 

[DrCron]

(...) it has been cool to see how much effort it takes to research independently on my own.

Plus I play with huts on until there is a difficulty that is too good for ai to have huts on. And I have had a good run also with techs grabbed because of huts.

(...)

My worker count has been around a 1 to 1 ratio with my town count as of late. Until around 0 AD when I can chop out a better ratio. I know this needs to improve but I expect a dip early on at least for the levels I have played at due to usually doing some form of axe/chariot rushing early game to take out a close civ. .

Starting on Monarch the AI should be faster than you because of the bonus, so you'll need to start getting the best out out of your trades. But you should still be able to be first to Alpha on every game, so b-line it and backfill the early techs with trades. Quick tip: if you will lose a tech monopoly, trade that tech to everyone on the same turn to make the most out of it before the AI starts trading with each other (or at least trade it with all the guys that are friends with each other). The AI never techs Aesthetics, so it's a good tech to get for later trades (but keep the monopoly for a while, the Parthenon is good and 1 tech later you have literature, and the GL is great).

To get a better worker ratio keep in mind that early game you might have zero luxuries (one if you are lucky and got a gold start, or maybe ivory) so you don't want to grow much. If you will reach the happy cap soon but don't really need to whip anything yet, build a worker. Keep in mind that when you start building your granary and library you'll grow pop non-stop for a while, so you want to have a margin (if you want to keep your whipping for that early rush).

On monarch the chariot rush works pretty much every time. On emperor it's still very good, so you can keep playing it for quite some time.

 

[Lazteuq]

I think the difference between noble/prince and monarch is that on prince, you can play the game like an AI and still win. On monarch, if you try to passively play and out-develop them, you will fall behind. On higher difficulties, you have to play aggressively, seizing opportunities which the AIs do not. Don't expect to just build a cute little empire and defend occasionally, they will get to space while you just learned about steam power or something (that may be exaggeration)