Monarch!!!

[Ruler]

So, Prince too easy and boring, Monarch too hard but yet still very interesting?

For those people who made it what made the different? I really start to feel like I want to pull my hair off game after a game.

Just some thoughts. How high you keep your unit cost at? what you do if you don't get early religion? what science level you are happy with it's required to keep it at 100%? I don't think Monarch should be so hard yet.

This is just a one start but I usually start with settler (Just make sure first city is yours to block AI and get early bronze working to make axemens), worker, units until pop size 4-5 then whip/chop new worker/settlers/unit/wonder then I start to build cottages very aggressively maybe a couple scientist if enough of food and connect resources and hope I don't fall too much behind in science when I get code of law I build courthouses in every city no matter what I should have enough of units for this then I switch to Caste System and start to think what spezialist I want to pop out first.

I think this is very aggressive start but still AI gets macemens before me. I think even if you fall behind in science you should be equal in units. Like in last game I was Korea (Financial and?) and had 4 city with plenty of cottages I was still beaten by Rome's macemens and longbows just before I got macemens and Rome was fighting with Brennus too.

 

[RIcs]

Up a level, usually means a change of habit too...
a habit no longer work sucks...
but if same habit can go another level without a hit ? I don't see why you wouldn't go another up and another and another... until something hits. (which at the end of the day, you want that hit, you want your habit no longer work. )

 

[ultra]

i recently tried playing at Monarch level.

i found it way too challenging, im not an experienced player, i was lagging behond on technologies, and at approx 1500 i would get my arse kicked my the larger civs who all add cavalry to my horse archers

 

[Ruler]

Actually I'm pretty good now after read some post and articles from written by people here.

I found some useful tricks ie set your science at 0% never figured that out and get some nice amount of gold this works nicely if you have hammers set up on your cities too, extra food allow you to do it, set them on hammers and wealth then science at 0%. I find that very useful especially if you are playing without religion. What I have tried to do now a few weeks I don't think you have business on Emperor if you can't win Monarch without religion.

 

[shadow2k]

So, Prince too easy and boring, Monarch too hard but yet still very interesting?

For those people who made it what made the different? I really start to feel like I want to pull my hair off game after a game.

Just some thoughts. How high you keep your unit cost at? what you do if you don't get early religion? what science level you are happy with it's required to keep it at 100%? I don't think Monarch should be so hard yet.

This is just a one start but I usually start with settler (Just make sure first city is yours to block AI and get early bronze working to make axemens), worker, units until pop size 4-5 then whip/chop new worker/settlers/unit/wonder then I start to build cottages very aggressively maybe a couple scientist if enough of food and connect resources and hope I don't fall too much behind in science when I get code of law I build courthouses in every city no matter what I should have enough of units for this then I switch to Caste System and start to think what spezialist I want to pop out first.

I think this is very aggressive start but still AI gets macemens before me. I think even if you fall behind in science you should be equal in units. Like in last game I was Korea (Financial and?) and had 4 city with plenty of cottages I was still beaten by Rome's macemens and longbows just before I got macemens and Rome was fighting with Brennus too.

I can't answer specific questions like what to keep your science at, or troop costs...there's just no one answer. Every single game is different, and that seems to be your problem. You need to break away from the mindset of always doing something because you heard/read that it was good, and actually use a logical though process to decide what is best for your empire.

Sometimes you need a lot of troops because of an aggressive neighbor, or you're planning a war...you can't worry too much about the cost. If a city is only costing you a couple gpt in maintenance, but bringing in 20gpt with cottages or whatever it is...then why build a courthouse? Build something that will bring in more gpt, like a market/grocer...hell, even a harbor might bump up your trade routes enough to be worth more than the expensive courthouse that has no other benefits like healthy/happy.

At Monarch and above, you can't just have a single strategy you always use. You need to adapt to the situation, and learn WHY you do things, not just do them because you think they're good. Sometimes good things are bad if you aren't doing them at the proper time, or if you had better options.

As far as specifics, I normally completely ignore religion. It usually creates more problems than it's worth in many situations. I'd rather research my way to the strategic resources, and concentrate on getting happy faces in any of the other numerous ways.

I don't think I've ever used Caste System except in a cultural victory. It's an expensive civic. I'm normally in Slavery in almost every game until I can't stand the emancipation penalty later on...although sometimes I'll use Serfdom if I've got a lot of worker jobs to do in a hurry. You have a city with enough food that you can run specialists, so why not just whip a library and run a couple scientists instead? Whip a forge at first chance so that future whips get that +25% bonus, and you can run an engineer. Whip a theatre at drama, and a market at currency, and you've got access to any specialist you want. Obviously you can't run 6 scientists and assure what you get...but hell, they're all useful for tech research. And you've also now got a city with some infra built, so you can take better advantage of running all those specialists and grow the city even larger to support more of them as the game progresses.

You need to break out of your habits, like someone else said. I suggest you play some games where you force yourself to not do certain things. Like no running Caste, not building a settler right off before you know where the most important resources are, researching a different path...whatever it takes to get you to actually think about what you're doing, instead of just playing from memory.

You might also want to read through some of the succession games at Monarch level. A lot of good players tend to explain and discuss why exactly they are doing certain things. It's not the strategies themselves that you want to pay attention to, but the thought process that goes into figuring out which ones to use at which time.

 

[Ruler]

Thanks for a long and informative reply but I think that's needed for Prince at least it was for me but I'm not much of a warmonger so go figure out. After reading some post and articles if foundd couple ways to improve my game.

1) More food, even more food, more whipping, more early production, more aggressive. I was definitely missing this on. This game is all bout food.
2) Play with the science slider, it's not going to kill you if put it on 0%.
3) Try to get more out of tech-rading.

I agree with Caste System I think that was one thing taking me down I liked to pop out GM with Caste System but I think I should go scientist instead.
I would love to keep one GM in Capital for bad days but oh well.

 

[Ruler]

I started to think about GM I really miss it. Not too many people speak about free GM at Corporation I wonder why?

I haven't got it too many times maybe on Prince I guess my hands been too busy on Monarch. I think should I go for it in next game.

 

[shadow2k]

I started to think about GM I really miss it. Not too many people speak about free GM at Corporation I wonder why?

I haven't got it too many times maybe on Prince I guess my hands been too busy on Monarch. I think should I go for it in next game.

Most people are gunning for Liberalism at that point. You can get more expensive techs that can slingshot you into a huge military or economic advantage. Banking/Economics/Corp just doesn't give that same type of advantage that you can get in numerous other ways at that point in the tech tree. I never even research Banking in half of my games, let alone Economics or Corp. I just stay in Decentralization and kill everyone before I ever need to have them.

Lately I've been going Liberalism > Nationhood as freebie > GE for Taj Mahal > Crank research to Cavs. While your Cavs are running over their Longbows, you research to Steel. You'll still be able to go just Cavs with no support through the Muskets if you can afford to take some losses when hills and/or huge culture cities are involved...or have a second SOD that's just guarding some Trebs that bombard each city before the Cavs get there, staying one step ahead of them so they don't have to wait on the 1-move units. The AI's will either be dead, or facing Cannons + Grens by the time they reach Rifles.

If you're more of a builder...Lib > Astronomy, build Uni's and Observatories, opening up overseas trade routes...you'll suddenly be researching a heck of a lot faster than the AI, and can take whatever path you'd like at that point.

I just see no compelling reason for the Banking line at that point in the game. The AI goes into Mercantilism, killing the trade routes you'd get from Free Market and Corp. They ignore Economics once the freebie is gone. Most AI's don't like Free Market for some reason...so you have to give them Economics cheap/free, then bribe them into it. I hate doing that, as it negates part of the advantage I just got by going that way. Banks do me no good because I've probably got research cranked, and never found religions...so no Holy Shrine money. I get my money by researching for a military advantage, and capturing new cities. I'd rather capture my six banks and Holy Shrine, it's so much easier to let the AI do all that work for you.

But if you really want a GM...just whip a market/grocer once you get Currency, and plop down four merchants for a bit in your GP city. You can easily get a GM this way if you really want one. The freebies are like carrots. Most of them aren't worth chasing after...except the free techs (Oracle/Lib) where you get to choose what you want, and can turn that into a strategy. Corp just gives you a bit more cash, which isn't going to completely change the way the game is going.

 

[Ruler]

Thanks again. I'm kicking now my problems was definitely too little food. It's amazing what early whipping can do and focus even more on science. Prince kind of let you take it easy and do whatever you like.

I don't bother to open a new thread but I just want to thanks all people for their helpful articles, posts and guides especially War Academy. I started to play Civ3 maybe 2-3 years ago on Warlord evertything was working automatically I love the feeling of a domination what got me into, then noble manually, first win on Prince was awesome at this point I admitted I'm addicted for a big time, and now Monarch, yay!!!

Buy Civilization and you have fun for YEARS!!