So, after about a dozen games of Monarch, I've developed exactly two workable strategies.
I can almost always win with the Incans by using their UU to hold off barbs and enemy civs alike till I get some cottages and courthouses up. I hold off the early war till I get construction then go rampaging with catapults and axemen. Once I get to a comfortable size, I either push on for domination, or stop and build science like it's going out of style (Even Mansa can't keep up )and build the spaceship.
I can sometimes win the Romans. Instead of doing my normal early tech build (Beeline to BW, Beeline to Pottery, Beeline to Alphabet, trade of stuff I missed, then Code of Laws), I research Iron Working after Pottery, then Animal Husbaundry/Agriculture (I need the improvements ASAP and can't wait to trade for tech), then Alphabet / Code of Laws. I build some Praetorians as early as possible and go rampaging against the barbs and enemy civs alike. As I miss out on a lot of early cottages since I'm chop/pop-rushing Praetorians and barracks my ecomony is mostly pillage-powered for quite a while. If the war machine rolls until Courthouses come I'm fine. If something stops it (last game I had a stack of 8 die to two fortified archers at 80% odds ) I'm screwed since my research falls to 10 or 20% and I get hopelessly behind.
Early cottage spam with Washington, which worked great up through Prince, leaves me too weak early on to be very viable. Haven't tried culture yet on Monarch.
I can almost always win with the Incans by using their UU to hold off barbs and enemy civs alike till I get some cottages and courthouses up. I hold off the early war till I get construction then go rampaging with catapults and axemen. Once I get to a comfortable size, I either push on for domination, or stop and build science like it's going out of style (Even Mansa can't keep up )and build the spaceship.
I can sometimes win the Romans. Instead of doing my normal early tech build (Beeline to BW, Beeline to Pottery, Beeline to Alphabet, trade of stuff I missed, then Code of Laws), I research Iron Working after Pottery, then Animal Husbaundry/Agriculture (I need the improvements ASAP and can't wait to trade for tech), then Alphabet / Code of Laws. I build some Praetorians as early as possible and go rampaging against the barbs and enemy civs alike. As I miss out on a lot of early cottages since I'm chop/pop-rushing Praetorians and barracks my ecomony is mostly pillage-powered for quite a while. If the war machine rolls until Courthouses come I'm fine. If something stops it (last game I had a stack of 8 die to two fortified archers at 80% odds ) I'm screwed since my research falls to 10 or 20% and I get hopelessly behind.
Early cottage spam with Washington, which worked great up through Prince, leaves me too weak early on to be very viable. Haven't tried culture yet on Monarch.