Monarch: The Agony

[biscuit]

Been playing Monarch for many months and am getting nowhere. Seems like I've haven't improved my game since I started on this level. I've read some of the guides and have posted on here before to no avail.

I probably just suck. I posted my game if anyone wants to look at it. The major problem is the AI gets light years ahead of me. I'm just got Rifleman and the AI has Modern Armor. I must be doing something terrible wrong.

I wish there was a walkthrough for this level.

 

[dojoboy]

I've not looked at your save yet, but I think I can offer some general advice.

(1) diplomacy - consciously contact civs more often than you normally do; you never know when you'll discover a "gold nugget."

(2) oscillating wars early on - not a must but it can help those less skilled in debilitating neighbors and increasing techs (through peace negotiations).


(3) trade techs

 

[AlanH]

You built half the cities I would have founded in the space around Kyoto. City placement should be much closer, do some research in the Strategy Articles forum under RCP. You have a second core around a Forbidden Palace, but the cities around it are too far apart as well. Have a look at the discussions on city placement in mcsniper's thread. I've attached a dot map showing a possible citiy plan for an inner ring. The two most powerful tiles in your early game were the two cattle tiles north east of Kyoto. One of them has no city using it, the other is two tiles away from the city you founded near it, so it wan't active until you had a temple and border expansion.

You only have seven workers and eight or nine slaves. If that's all you have had through the game then your early land improvements would have been very slow.

You have as many riflemen as you have cavalry, and you are building more, so I assume you are planning for failure, with excessive defence, rather than expecting to expand by conquest of your neighbours.

Choose your research projcts with care. Why are you researching Espionage? It may be a good idea, but you need to have a good reason for it as it's an optional tech and you aren't going to get any trading value from it.

You've never even traded for contact with the French. The more civs you know the cheaper your techs will be to buy or to research and the more diplo options you have. It would never occur to me to reach the Industrial with an unknown civ on the map. Look at Moonsinger's trading training thread for some clues about trading.

You've built colosseums in lots of towns that could have been building military units. You have only two luxuries, and are using cathedrals and colosseums as expensive happiness buildings instead of exploiting your markets with more luxuries. You don't even have enough population in most of your towns to need this level of happiness support.

I'm a warmonger by instinct, but I think the early game priorities for any player, be they builder/warmonger/scientist, are the same:

- Create a settler factory to churn out settlers every 4/5/6 turns after 3000 BC.
- Build an effective core of 10-12 cities around the palace with two rings of cities at distances three or four, and six or seven.
- Build workers at a rate of 1.5 to 2 per city once the core starts to develop.
- Only build the improvements you need for your objective, and for the role you've chosn for each city.
- Don't build defenders.
- Build the Forbidden Palace as soon as possible near to the capital.
- Conquer a neighbour, hopefully winning a Great Leader during the war to build a new palace in the neighbours capital and create a second core using their cities.
- Conquer your home continent as soon as possible. Once you have only coastal borders you can treat your neighbours with contempt if necessary, as they are incapable of mounting successful seaborne invasions.
- Careful selection of research projects, and trading to your advantage at every available opportunity.

 

[biscuit]

I've heard other people say build cities farther apart to optimize the land space (=points). I've read about the rings, so I will try that. Close together, you say. Good point about the cattle. I will remember that.

I normally have more workers and work the land until every square is done.

You say I could be building military units instead of colosseums, but you also say by building more units I am planning for failure? I seem to always get attacked and never have enough units. I thought you could never build enough.

Espionage is not good? Then you can find out how many units your enemy has and know whether or not to attack him or not.

Thanks for the tip about contact. I wasn't aware of this.

Luxuries are better than cathedrals and colosseums then?

You shouldn't be cranking out settlers from the start?

What do you mean by "dont build defenders?"

What is the benefit of building a new palace and when is the best time to do it?

 

[AlanH]

I've heard other people say build cities farther apart to optimize the land space (=points). I've read about the rings, so I will try that. Close together, you say. Good point about the cattle. I will remember that.

You can't use more than 12 tiles per city until Sanitation, by which time the game should be in your pocket. Your current population can't even work 12 per city. Put them closer together to use more land, make more cities and people and more of everything. You'll still be able to fill the space as you'll create more settlers early on with more cities producing. If they get crowded in the late game well, thin them out if necessary.

I normally have more workers and work the land until every square is done.

Every square should have been done before yuo reached rails. I'm usually starting to wonder what to do with workers by that time. When steam arrives they are all able to rail immediately because all th roads are in place.

You say I could be building military units instead of colosseums, but you also say by building more units I am planning for failure?

I said you are building defensive units. They only do any good if your cities are being attacked, and by that time you are on the back foot and losing. Build fast offensive units - cavalry in your case. If yuo don't like starting wars, use them for active defence, killing attackers before they reach you.

I seem to always get attacked and never have enough units. I thought you could never build enough.

Offensive forces are respoected much more highly than defensive ones. The AI calculates your weakness or strength the same way your military adviser rates them. There's a Strategy Article on how the AI calculates strength, and trust me, you'll be much less likely to beattacked if you have more cities and more offensive units .

Espionage is not good? Then you can find out how many units your enemy has and know whether or not to attack him or not.

I usually don't have the option as I try to win before teh Industrial Age, and I use the military adviser to tell me if I'm strong or average. Either will do, and sometimes I'll even attack when I'm weak if I know I have other advantages that they don't count. For example I can use armies to better effect than the AI knows how, and I can attack overseas without having to worry about them coming after me. Espionage is no use if you don't have the forces to attack with anyway. You need to get to tanks as soon as possible, and espionage isn't required. Look at your research priorities in the light of your situation. Don't just research the next thing on the tech chart. The AI will waste time researching Economics and Music and Esionage, and meanwhile you can research useful stuff, trade for those IF you want them.

Luxuries are better than cathedrals and colosseums then?

Definitely.

You shouldn't be cranking out settlers from the start?

If you mean before 3000 BC then probably not. You need to do some exploring to know where to put your second city, so if you are not expansionist and don't have a scout from day one you'll have to build at least one first. That's likely to take 10 turns. It will take at least another 15 turns to poduce 30 shields for a settler. By then you'll probably be at pop 3, so the settler will appear and you'll drop back to pop , and your gpt and spt will drop back to small numbers as well. Sure, the settler will build a second city earlier, but you don't have enough workers to develop land for two cities. Don't produce your first settler until you are at pop 5 or 6 in the capital, then your capital will keep going at a faster pace and everything just works out better.

What do you mean by "dont build defenders?"

See above. I now have an absolute policy that I never build any unit that has a higher defensive strength than attacking strength, and I never build a slow unit if I can build a fast one. I also don't build catapaults or cannons, though if I find myself in the late industrial I will build artillery, as they have enough range to keep up with tanks as long as there are rails to move them.

What is the benefit of building a new palace and when is the best time to do it?

If you build your first core of cities closely packed, at distances of 3 or 4 or 5, you can build the Forbidden Palace in that cluster quite fast, as it will be in a high productivity city. Once you have the FP you are in good shape to try to get a leader during your first major conquest of a neighbour, and use him to build the Palace in your ex-neighbors capital. Your new Palace will probably have captured cities spaced around it at least five tiles away. The AI uses rings, although probably not deliberately, and radius 5 seems to be its favorite distance. If this is the case, then all towns at distance 5 or 5.5 from your new capital will be at low corruption, and all towns at distance 5.5 or less from your FP will have the same low corruption. So the best time to do it is as soon as possible after you build your FP.

I recommend yuo have a look at the spoiler threads in the GOTM forum to see how the pros do it. Look at posts by SirPleb, who not only knows how to play this game to perfection, but also explains the way he does it well.