Monarch Game Help

[AnitaGaribaldi]

I’ve been reading this forum for some time and I read the articles to the War Academy. From time to time I read the articles again. It’s too much information, I can’t get or apply everything at once.

I've been in trouble in my Monarch games. Many of them looks ok in the beginning but around 1500 AC I usually get in deep trouble. Sometimes I think I take too much time to take down the other civs or I just get scared and quit the game.

I’ve been trying a few things. I came to the conclusion that early wonders are too expensive, so I’m building only one. I may give a shoot at the Pyramids if I have stone, in this case I will use the GE to build the Great Library. If I don’t have stone, I’ll go only for the Great Library. If I get boxed and cannot build at least 4 cities, I go into early war and I don’t build any wonders until I have 4-6 cities. I don’t build Pyramid even if I have stone.

I’m posting the saves of my last game. I’ve played it until 50 AD. I don’t have Warlords. My can handle well only small, tiny and duel maps. Standard maps are OK but I may get some system crashes. I haven’t tried big and huge maps.
Settings: Small map, Pangea, temperate climate, low sea level
Leader: Elizabeth
Victory type: Domination

Here is my start location. It was pretty good: gold, oasis, river. I settle in place.

Tech researching order: Bronze Working, Hunting, AH, Wheel. I start building a worker. I start exploring with my warrior (not automated). By 3400 BC the worker was ready, I started chopping the Settler. I got the settler by 2800 BC. The new city I used to grab copper. After the settler is ready, I started a worker in London.

2560 BC I start a barracks in London. 2720 BC I started researching agriculture, followed by Pottery, Agriculture, Mysticism, Iron Working and Archery. Iron Working was important because second city had a lot of jungle. I built a scout in London just to have it killed soon after. In York the build order was worker (jungle!), archer (barbs), Obelisk.

1560 BC I started a granary in York and soon after in London. 1400 BC I built my third city Nottingham to grab horses, whine, sugar and wheat. The first building is an Obelisk. 1360 BC I started researching Alphabet. 1200 BC start building a barracks in York. York will be a military production city. 1000 BC I build a granary in Nottingham. Nottingham has low production so I decide to make it a science/commerce city, even if it’s producing few breakers now. I’ll put cottages on the grassland tiles.

750 BC I start to beeline to COL. I don’t like to found early religions but COL is very useful even if you lose the race. I founded the Confucianism. 625 BC I have a new city, Hasting, near gems and bananas. I build there an obelisk the for culture. The AIs are slow to get Alphabet, I notice it will be easy to get the Great Library. After COL I beeline to Literature. I started the Great Library in London.

425 BC I traded Monarchy and Mathematics with the AI.

I decided Hasting will be a GP farm for Great Prophet. I still have only one religion. I think I need at least two priests to win the race with London (I cannot fire the scientists from the Great Library), but one priest will already put one some GP points, so I can have my Shrine earlier.

I decided to research Music to get the Free Artist. 50 AD I got the Great Library. My Great Artist is sitting in London waiting your answers. What do I do with it? I guess I’ll put it in Hasting or London as a Super Specialist. Hasting is a Holy city. So I’ll build there the Shrine, Market, Grocery, Bank and maybe Wall Street. The culture will grab more land and the AI will not settle near. The second point is the iron. It will take some time until the borders of London expands and I can grab the Iron. I don’t want to build a new city just for that. If I put the Great Artist in London as a Super Specialist, it will take 8 turns. No way I’ll culture bomb, I’ll not lose 3 gold/turn just to get iron 8 turns earlier. I can put a Worker to build a road to the iron, as soon as the border expands, I build the mine. If I use two workers, it will be fast.

I started researching Currency for the money, but Construction might be a better idea. I want to got to war now. I need cats. My goal is the Americans. They are my neighbors, Gandhi will not backstab me. The Americans have the Pyramids too, a very nice Wonder.

If I get the Pyramids, I’m planning to build there a forge and hire a engineer. I hope I can get two Great Engineer. Wonders to build with the GE: The Statue of Liberty and Wall Street (Hasting is low production).


My plan is

• build one more Worker
• build more courthouses
• switch the research to Construction. Trade Calendar (self research techs that are pre-requisite). Get Currency. Beeline to Liberalism. The first Great Scientist should I save for Education or build an Academy?
• build one cat to put down the defenses and raze the barb city near Hasting. Of course I’ll build more cats, but I don’t think I need to wait the second/third cat to start bombing the city defense down.
• build some missionaries (2-3) and send to Americans, convert to Confucianism and spy his cities (not sure if it’s worth trouble)
• attack and keep the first city from Americans (Philadelphia) (6 cats 10 axemen/ Swordsman 2 spearmen) (too small? Should I get a bigger army?)
• send a pillage stack (2 spearmen, 2 axemen, 1 chariot) (too big?) I have one chariot with Sentry promotion.
• Keep building units
• get iron

There is a nice place for a fifth city, with dye, rice, spice, horses and silk. Should I settle there now? I’m afraid of the upkeep cost, I don’t want to be broken after war. This will slow down my war start.

I notice one big mistake in my game. I forgot about Slavery. I will adopt it, I don’t think Caste Systems is useful now.

Any comments? After Liberalism, what should I get?

The world by 50 AD:

Thanks

 

[cabert]

1) you're too small. vertically or horizontally, your choice, but you need more population
2) why on earth do you build aqueducts? you're not even unhealthy.
3) there are good happiness resources to get, those would help growing vertically + working the gold is worth a city

I'd target 2 more cities, while teching to currency then start massing troops (catapults! spears, axes) to take out America (or india,your choice, but America is bigger AFAIK, and it's always a good move to get the leader down)

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

With the gold just sitting there waiting to be mined, you went Worker Settler Worker? Without slipping in a few other builds so that you could at least whip the workers (oh, right, you forgot Slavery? )

 

[AnitaGaribaldi]

1) you're too small. vertically or horizontally, your choice, but you need more population
2) why on earth do you build aqueducts? you're not even unhealthy.
3) there are good happiness resources to get, those would help growing vertically + working the gold is worth a city

London was unhealthy, it had size 7. Just before I go sleep, I noticed the stupid thing I did. I chop out the last trees to hurry the Great Library, London was unhealthy and lost population. Nottingham with so many desert tiles cannot grow much. I guess even a barracks would be better, at least I could whimp out units. I just checked the game, I don't have an aquaduct in London but I'm building one in Nottigham. I cannot understand myself.

My population is small. I have HR, so I can grow. I have to look on that more carefully. I guess it would be better to get Calendar earlier.

I'd target 2 more cities, while teching to currency then start massing troops (catapults! spears, axes) to take out America (or india,your choice, but America is bigger AFAIK, and it's always a good move to get the leader down)

I confess after so many mistakes, it's hard to keep playing the game. I think this is the reason I finish few games, I quit. I try to fix the mistakes in a new game. I hate reloading. This time however I think it might be worth. I've taken fairly detailed notes so it will be easy to compare strategies. Thank you very much for your reply.

With the gold just sitting there waiting to be mined, you went Worker Settler Worker? Without slipping in a few other builds so that you could at least whip the workers (oh, right, you forgot Slavery? )

In London was Worker, Settler, Warrior, Scout. The second worker I built in York. My first warrior was killed. I built the second. It was killed too. I built the scout. The scout moves faster so I thought I could escape the barbs, but it got killed too. I gave up. I waited until I got an acher to look the surroundings again. I never put in auto-explore. If I see an animal or barbarian, I try to scape, if not possible, I try to put the warrior/scout in a high defence bonus terrain.

I'll read about whipping again. It's something I'm trying to learn, but sometimes I still forget. I still cannot plan it well into my game. Last week I tried out the gambit Oracle/Metal Casting/Pyramids. After a few tries I could get the Great Engineer before the Great Prophet, but it was not in time for the Pyramids. Thank you very much for your reply.

 

[Nestorius]

Am I missing something? Its time to capture the barbarian city and then invade America. You usually can win Monarch if you have the more good commerce cities than the other civs. Quit building and get the war over with before America gets too far ahead.