Monarch... its impossible

[NeverSurrender]

No advice from me (where to start with advice on a game like civ?? ).

But I have said myself that the jump from prince to monarch is HUGE! I have been playing civ pretty constant since christmas (never played any civ before) and what I do is if I can beat a level twice consecutively I'll then move up to the next one. Currently playing emperor and pretty proud of myself. Have beat emperor twice but not back to back. But I too thought monarch was a baptism of fire, took me many tries before I started to get good, so you're not alone, just persevere and you will find yourself getting better, there is just so much to learn with this game. You can get away with some mistakes on prince, but on monarch you have to keep your sh*t real tight.

 

[NeverSurrender]

Oh and just to say again in agreement with the thread starter: The jump in difficulty is far the greatest from prince to monarch, emperor is only a little better than monarch in my opinion.

Good luck.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Your cities are very small for 1944 AD, and your land is still very underimproved. You might not be building enough Workers. Also, you don't seem to be improving optimally - you've got a lot of farms and relatively few cottages.

But like others have said, I'll need a savegame file to be able to say anything else.

 

[gomms]

hmmm, how do i post a saved game? is it the same as using image shack that i use to put up my pictures? (i'm at uni right now so i'll try when i get home)

well the farms thing, i pretty much have no more farms, i convert to cottages pretty quick.

I'm hoping that if i invade england very soon i will get large enough for a domination victory. Coz a land invasion of the other land will be much too difficult.

Well not much i can say when i'm at uni so i'll try post the save game when i get home.

 

[gomms]

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=42244a7251a4227ad2db6fb9a8902bda

here it is, its the current save from when the screen shots are taken.

Once again thanks for the help guys!

 

[baboonfan]

Baiscally, there is no reason to be so behind in tech in monarch level if you manage your expansion and economy right.

A general rough strategy for Monarch (doesn't fit any situation, but fits most):

Some nice tips there, man. I just played through my first monarch game applying some of those ideas, and came out with an easy 1580AD conquest victory - albeit on a tiny map, 4 civs.

Blocking your enemies from expanding their empires to locations that make your game more difficult was the key for me. It's too easy to place your 2nd and 3rd cities to where the useful resources are, just to find out you got no room to expand and have to resort to war.

For newbs to monarch I recommend checking 'random leaders' and take Surayvarman (sp) & The Ottomans. Expansive & cultural are powerful on Monarch.

 

[KingMorgan]

I would have said there is a larger jump from Monarch to Emperor rather than prince-mon.

Some quick tips and rules of thumb, don't found a religion, if you do , don;t convert. If you feel you need to, then only convert when all AI on your continet is of the same religion. You initially need 4 citites, good high food cities, once of which should be suitbale for many hammers. Make sure you have your borders cities well protected, 4 strong units per city is good. Forget wonders unless you can chop out Great Wall or an easy Stonehenge. pyramids are good if you want to run extra scientists and you have a extra happiness under Rep. Untill your confident on monarch leave the wonders.

once you have these four strong cities, you can then assess the map and decide what strat you;d like to follow. My advice would be to beeline it to Libralism, then reassess on your victory condition.

the best tip is to spend a day browsing this sub-forum.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=155

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay first few tips.

1. Quelcha rushes using 7-8 quelcha units against archers knocks over cities easily. (plus 100% bonus against archers is a no brainer.)

2. City placement. Your capital is at the bottom of your empire. The further cities are away from your capital the higher the maintenance cost. For instance to the right of your capital is a copper resource surrounded by forest. You could have chopped a wonder or two from that. There are also gems near hastings. York has a holy city too. (worth capturing)

3. Excess forest/ jungle. On maps with huge swathes of forest and jungle you need more workers. I really think early on workers/settlers are the key. Unless you have lots of food resources to grow your capital.

4. Your building archers? I rarely build archers unless i am worried about barbarian attacks and i dont have axemen. I normally build longbowmen when they come along to counter crossbowmen.

5. Religions. You have gone for the early religion. I personally would of gone for bronze working tech instead and captured an Ai holy city. Theres always later religions to grab.

6. Just to agree the 1944ad pictures gives no real clue to how good your game play was.

End of day with Quelchas you could of rolled over the English capital without building a single worker/settler early on. Always play to your civs traits/ unique unit/ unique building and starting techs.

7. You can post saved games on the forum you know!! Although posting a 1944ad game wont help you much in terms of advice!!!

Still your on monarch and seem to have made it to 1944ad. thats something.

 

[Gumbolt]

Theres a little paperclip top middle when you post messages on forum. Thats how to attach files. Locate file on pc. Upload to forum and finish your forum post and your done.

 

[Hammurbabble]

Monarch is my standard difficulty level now, so all of this should relate well.

First of all, while a lot of the advice you've been given above will sometimes -- maybe even usually -- work, there is no such word in Civ4 as "always." It all depends, and you need to consider:

1) Who are you playing?
2) Who are your neighbors?
3) What kind of space do you have, and what kinds of resources?
4) As the game progresses, how does the diplomatic situation evolve?

I don't have a set strategy; I have algorithms, if-then statements, and each of those questions is important.

For example, my early-game strategy usually goes: explore, build a city or two, build the Oracle to get COL to found Confucianism; BUT -- there are at least two exceptions. Does my civ start with Mysticism? If so, then I'll try for Hinduism immediately, and if I get it I'll tailor the Oracle towards getting Metal Casting instead. Do I have some AI right close by, with copper readily available? (Or horses if I'm playing Egypt or Persia, or neither if I'm Inca and my too-close neighbor isn't Mansa Musa.) And especially, did said neighbor found a religion himself? If so, I'll forego the Oracle altogether and do an axe rush instead.

(Note: one of the more nonsensical "always" ideas you'll find is "always find an AI and do an axe rush." Axe rushes are very situational. Why bother if your closest neighbor is comfortably far away? But on rare occasions, it is called for.)

When do I start my warring, assuming no axe rush? Well, that depends. It's very situational. Usually when I play a leader with warmongering traits (aggressive, protective, or charismatic), I'll do my first one once I have Iron Working and Construction, BUT -- my current game I'm playing Lincoln (Phi/Cha) and because of the position I had on my continent I found myself expanding peacefully and had all I could deal with economically just from founded cities and barb towns, so my first real war used Rifles and Cannon -- AND (on the other hand), a previous game I played as Boudica saw its first war before I had any catapults, but that's because everyone else on the continent declared on me.

It's just not predictable, and you have to have various paths depending on what gets handed to you.

Found a religion? I say yes. Unless you end up doing an axe rush and take someone else's holy city, which won't happen most games. A holy city in the early game just makes things so much easier. Also, if you found a religion you're guaranteed to have one, and don't have to wait for the unpredictable arrival of someone else's faith.

Building wonders? For me, almost always the Oracle like I said. What else? Well, it depends. Am I Industrious? Do I have marble? Is my neighbor a nasty warmonger so that I need to put my effort into the military instead? What kind of victory am I shooting for? Each victory requires a slightly different approach.

Tech trading has lots of potential that many players don't realize, and this greatly boosts the value of the Oracle or being the first to Liberalism. Example: In my current game, I was behind a lot of techs, but won the Lib race and took Astronomy. I then had three expensive techs, Education, Liberalism, and Astronomy, that other civs would trade for. Trading these repeatedly got me Banking, Gunpowder, Guilds, Engineering, Economics, Nationalism, Printing Press, and Constitution. Researching those two techs, in other words, got me eleven techs. Not too shabby, eh?

Also, don't neglect the possibilities of trading techs for cash. If some AI is really backwards but has a lot of money, so that you don't mind tossing them a technological bone, call him up, put a tech in the trade window and ask "what will you give me for this?" Typically, the AI will offer his entire bank account, maybe with a world map thrown in just to sweeten the deal. This can come in handy when you're doing massive upgrades.

When the AI demands tribute, do you pay up or not? Remember that when you do, you get a 10-turn peace treaty and neither of you can declare war. You also improve that civ's attitude towards you. Worth doing? Very situational, depending on whether they can attack you, whether you want to go to war with them, and what they're asking for.

Anyway, I could go on forever, but I hope the point is made: there are no hard and fast absolute rules.

 

[gomms]

hmmm, thanks for the tips guys, i'm eager to finish my assignment and start a knew monarch game.

That monarch game that i posted is on hold, i might play it later i dunno, i went on to build 6 ICBM and 4 tactical nukes, but i just got tanks and england has mech inf and modern armour and so do the rest of the world.

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciated!

 

[gomms]

hopefully the next time i post it will be to get help from moving up from monarch

 

[foobarred]

Like most people, I used to think Prince was impossible. Now I play Emperor.

Part of the problem is purely psychological. If you think something is impossible, then it is. The way to overcome this is to start a game, and play up to about 1000 AD. That shouldn't take too long. Evaluate how you did, and if you think you're screwed, then try again from the beginning of the SAME GAME.

Now, for the 2nd time, play again, but learn from your mistakes. However, try not to cheat and use your fore-knowledge to your advantage. For example, when exploring, even if you know that there's a goody hut to the East, do what's logical and step on that hill to the north.

I've improved a great deal in a short amount of time doing it this way.

For example, I just played an emperor game with Ghandi in a super-isolated start. In my first try, I got my ass kicked. I basically started over when I realized I was about 10 tech behind the leader and had no hope of coming back.

The second time, I formulated a strategy: If after exploring, I find that I'm in an isolated start, get the Great Lighthouse at all costs. That helped a great deal, but still I was far behind.

Third try, Get the Great Lighthouse, early transition to a CE instead of staying in SE, and Beeline to Astronomy. And as I'm researching Astronomy, build caravels like crazy and switch to No Religion as to not to anger new acquaintances.

Again, much better. In fact, I was able to win the circumnavigation race and Liberalism, in which I took Scientific Method as my free tech. But still, I got my head handed to me after choosing the wrong tech path after Liberalism.

So I started back up with the save I had just after winning Liberalism and tried from there. From there, I went to Communism and cranked out Settlers and missionaries like crazy to settle on virgin lands.

Much better, but then I was vunerable to attack was became way behind in tech.

Again, I tried again, but this time, I prioritized Oxford University, followed by Biology, while cranking out settlers. Then after Oxford, I cranked out military units.

Finally I got a space race victory, proving to myself that yes, even isolated starts are possible in Emperor.

Yes, there were quite a bit of reloads, but they weren't the re-loads of the type of: I lost that battle so I'll reload until I do. They are re-loads of trying different strategies to learn which ones work the best under certain situations.

On another game, I've restarted it about 30 times to perfect the art of the early axe rush. Now I go back to play Monarch and it seems easy. I can play all the way through and win without reloading.

To summarize: Play until about 1000AD. If you're sucking, read up on a strategy and try again to do better. Do it until you hit a milestone (liberalism is a good one). Then keep going. Prove to yourself it's possible.

You'll get better quick.