Monarch Level

[Mullet Crusader]

I've decided htat regent is no longera challaenge, as a whup the feeble AI's in every category six ways from Sunday every game. Moving on to Monarch, where the AI gets these damn bonuses, i awlays run into trouble.

First, i get out-teched like hell. The AI's are always so far ahead of me. I got ahead of them by researchign Polytheism which i traded the other techs for, and caught up. I then tried to research Monarchy, but by the time i did, the other civs already had it, plus philosophy, contruciton, and code of laws! And they ALL have EVERYTHING too because they trade to easily amongst each other and snub the human.

Second, i have to leave some of my border cities unguarded because i cant afford to send Spearmen with my settlers because if i took the time to do that, the AI would expand all aroudn me and i'd be screwed, so the AI sees a couple undefended cities and attacks! Of course they have mountians of warriors since they get a production bonus. Like in my last game, the British attacked me, and quickly dragged the Arabs into it, and soon after that the Indians. Getting Mahatma Gandhi into a war against me? Come on! And India was FAR smaller and weaker than me, too! Why didn't the British declare war on THEM?

Anyway, im just wondering exaclt ywhat i should do about this, i can no longer play on Regent, i just win too easily. Should i take the time to make spearmen to send with my settlers instead of just sending spearmen later? If i do should i build a barracks early in that town so the spermen is a Veteran? And how exactly do i stop the AI from kiling me in tech? Should i try shooting straight for the Great Library? Seems the AI would beat me to it with its bonuses.......

Anyway, any advice is appreciated, im sure some of you had similar problems making the Regent-Monarch transition. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to give me some help.

 

[Shillen]

As for keeping up with techs early on. One of the biggest things is getting contacts asap. Send your warriors far off to get contacts, it's even more important than scouting for good city locations. If a civ has a contact that you don't have, buy it. You'll make the money back in the cheapened techs, and you can sell the contact to other civ's too.

Another thing that can help a lot, but is kind of a pain, is to check the diplomacy screen every single turn. If you don't check every turn, then the AI's will trade techs around and reach tech parity before you even realize a new tech was discovered. This leaves you with nothing to offer. You should always be on the lookout for 2 or 3 for one opportunities. An example is say Russia has writing, iron working, and mysticism. France only has ironworking. Germany has iron working and mysticism. Buy writing from Russia, trade it to Germany for mysticism, then trade mysticism and writing to France for iron working. You just got 3 techs for the price of one and you're now at tech parity.

As for escorting your settlers. If barbarians are sedentary or off then go ahead and send the first couple settlers unescorted. It's not always the case, but the AI usually won't declare war that early on, unless it's a cramped map. After you have a couple cities then they should each be producing warriors. Forget about spearmen, they're too expensive for now, priority #1 is getting all cities defended and military police. After you've got a good core going then you can start producing spearmen instead of warriors.

As for barracks. If you're a militaristic civ by all means build barracks right away. Well not in your capital, I mean in your other cities that will be producing escorts. But if you're not militaristic then just build your first few warriors as regulars. Once you've got all cities defended you should switch one or two towns at a time to barracks, while a third city produces warriors still. Once you complete a barracks go back to producing escorts and switch the other one to barracks.

Another thing on the techs. If you go with the minimum research method then by all means don't be afraid to pay gpt for techs. You won't have to do it much on monarch, but when you move up to deity and emperor you'll be paying gpt almost all the time. This was a real wall for me when I moved up to emperor/deity because I never wanted to pay 20gpt for a tech in the ancient age. On monarch though, you don't have to go with the min research strategy. If you get a good solid core ring of cities around your capital early on you can keep up with research, assuming you trade techs at every opportunity. Either way works.

edit: I focused on barracks/escorts because they were in your question, but don't forget about workers too. I produce a worker in just about every new city I found. If it produces 1 shield and 2 or more food per turn then I'll build a worker right away (it will reach size 2 before the worker is built). If it won't reach size 2 fast enough then I'll build a warrior or two first, for defense/escort, then a worker as soon as I'm able to. Roads are the key to your survival. But if you do well in regent I assume you know how important workers are already.

 

[Mullet Crusader]

Thanks for the tips, i have been using your advice on techs, but i havent checked every turn, or even every other turn, only when I got something new, neevr to check if the AI does, so im gonna try that. Also the thing about building warriors first should definetely help too, i think that was screwing me up so hopefully building regular warriors to defend my first few towns and barrakcs afterwards like you said will help.

And i definetely know the importance of works and roads. So thanks, and any additional advice is still welcome

 

[stevenx]

been playing monarch level for several games now... i would start to build 2-3 scouts and send them out to look for goody huts... once i found them, i would wait till they give me tech... if u r lucky, u can go republic by 1750BC (i skip monarch even if i had them first)... normally i only need to research 2 tech n found all the rest for the ancient tech tree... as for wonders... u need to have more then 1 city building them... else the AI will still beat u toi them... as for army... i juz build a few n send them out to my border cities to protect against barbarian... so far AI never attack me cause i give them what they wants... also give them 1gold (whenever u have some free gold) for free juz to make them feel happy... with this strategy i m so far ahead in tech research that i get modern armour while the rest of AI is still in knights and cavalry...

 

[Matt_G]

Stevenx,
Try a non expansionist Civ. Sounds like you have developed a dependency on the trait. Just an observation....no offense intended.

 

[Anti-EUA]

Hi! Well I am going to win my first monarch game (in my first try).
Some things I always had in mind that helped me
1 - If I see one city next to my soon to be territory, I try to attack. I took 2 cities in the early game, from 2 different civs, and guess what: The 2 weakest civs in the game were the ones I attacked early.
2 - Look at diplomacy every round. I see that if you are researching a tech the AI already have you can buy it for a lot less! Ok you pay for it, but 1 or 2 turns researching another thing is nice. And you can always trade with another country that doesn't know the other civ
3 - About escorting settlers, I escorted when I was going to create near aggressive civs, such as Mongolia and Zulu. Never bothered when creating a city next to non aggressive civs.
4 - Playing with a expansionist in this case might be good, since you get a scout who will never get barbarians from goody huts! Maybe you get a settler, tech or money to buy tech from others!

 

[stevenx]

Matt_G,
yes, u r right... been playing expansionist Civ all my life(in Civ3)... cause i like to build lots n lots of cities... will try another type of civ to get all-round experience...

 

[Hygro]

expansioist won't help you build lots and lots of cities, it will just help you with finding good locations, have good maps, and many contacts early on. If you want a "lots of cities" trait, go for commercial as it allows a 25% greater OCN (optimal city number), thus having more uncorrupted cities.

In my first Monarch game I spent all my time making settlers, while trying to get the Great Library. I ended up with the hanging gardens instead :sigh: However, I got enough land, and I kept just barely a strong enough military I was able to avoid most wars (I also gave in to demands).

When the time was right I would invade a nearby weak civ, giving me more land and less competition, plus the collusus (though the city was too corrupt to be of any good, at least it was out of computer hands).

I found that I could go into deficeit spending and get chemistry first. I tried for gunpowder but ended up wasting most my money (I was 1 turn behind!)

With chemistry I was able to trade for lots of gold and techs like education, astronomy, banking, music theory, printing press, navigation. I also got many expensive maps (the maps at the time were very costly), and lots of GPT. Not to mention I went from 2 luxeries to 7.

With so much GPT and luxeries I was henceforth able to spend 100% on science. I was then able to get another tech first in the middle ages, landing me 1 or two more techs (though I made the mistake accidently researching the ones the AI was researching, thus I simply kept up).

Once I reached the 2nd third of the industrial ages, I could sell techs as I pleased. Nobody ever caught up, except occasionally with things like communism.

the game ended up in a diplo win because it was--even on my fast computer--getting to take me about 30 minutes average to wait for and play my turn.

 

[Sirp]

Originally posted by Hygro
expansioist won't help you build lots and lots of cities,

Well, the number of cities you get out of 'advanced tribes' and free settlers might not be 'lots and lots', but they sure help.

it will just help you with finding good locations,

So that you can build cities in these good locations, which will thusly turn into good cities that can build lots of settlers fast to build lots and lots of cities maybe?

If you want a "lots of cities" trait, go for commercial as it allows a 25% greater OCN (optimal city number), thus having more uncorrupted cities.

This won't do that much to help you get lots of cities, just to make your cities less corrupt once you do get them.

If there's one trait that *does* help you get lots of cities it's probably industrious, since it helps you irrigate and mine faster, letting you build settlers faster.

Of course, militaristic is good too, since you can use it to use the 'other' method of getting lots of cities

Mullet Crusader: My recently completed Training Day Game for Monarchs has lots of hints and tips on how to win on Monarch. In that game we comprehensively dominated, getting far ahead in cities, technology, and cash. I suggest you read the thread to get some hints and tips.

-Sirp.

 

[Mullet Crusader]

Thanks!