Moving to Monarch

[dhokarena56]

I'm a pretty reliable Regent player. It's often hard for me to win on large or huge maps on Regent, but with a good civ anything below that is pretty easy.

I am just stuck on Monarch.

I micromanage fairly well, play good civs like the Celts and Persia...what should I do?

 

[Spoonwood]

Post a save.

 

[GamezRule]

Yes please, I happen to have the same thread for emperor.

 

[Raliuven]

I'm a pretty reliable Regent player. It's often hard for me to win on large or huge maps on Regent, but with a good civ anything below that is pretty easy.

I am just stuck on Monarch.

I micromanage fairly well, play good civs like the Celts and Persia...what should I do?

What is it about the large boards that make it difficult to win on Regent? That might answer some of your questions.

On Monarch I have found that you rarely have a lead (or much of a lead) in techs anymore. The AI researches better and trades better (cheaper at least) with each other. So you are often fighting for tech parity more often. IMO, it is trading skills that are mostly impacted. Self-research is not impossible, but it much harder. You actually need to accept that some AI civs are on your world, at least for a while, and trade with them.

Also, if you haven't worked on your REX game, you will need to step that up. The faster production of the AI means that they will be filling up the land much quicker - so you need to be on top of it. Settler and worker factories - you need to learn how to use them. It is a huge advantage over the AI during REX.

You are less likely to win a 100K cultural victory (on accident) because the AI will build just about every cultural building there is. Flips are also more likely to occur because of AI culture, something you rarely need to worry about at Regent or lower.

You will have less units than the AI (but you will make more workers, right?). That means you need to fight smarter. You can't just throw your units away because you outnumber the AI 3:1. Now they will outnumber you.

 

[dhokarena56]

I did in fact almost win once with the Iroquois- had about 62% of the land area. But Sumeria had the rest, and once it got into the Industrial Age, I was screwed.

 

[ecuwins]

What is it about the large boards that make it difficult to win on Regent? That might answer some of your questions.

On Monarch I have found that you rarely have a lead (or much of a lead) in techs anymore. The AI researches better and trades better (cheaper at least) with each other. So you are often fighting for tech parity more often. IMO, it is trading skills that are mostly impacted. Self-research is not impossible, but it much harder. You actually need to accept that some AI civs are on your world, at least for a while, and trade with them.

Also, if you haven't worked on your REX game, you will need to step that up. The faster production of the AI means that they will be filling up the land much quicker - so you need to be on top of it. Settler and worker factories - you need to learn how to use them. It is a huge advantage over the AI during REX.

You are less likely to win a 100K cultural victory (on accident) because the AI will build just about every cultural building there is. Flips are also more likely to occur because of AI culture, something you rarely need to worry about at Regent or lower.

You will have less units than the AI (but you will make more workers, right?). That means you need to fight smarter. You can't just throw your units away because you outnumber the AI 3:1. Now they will outnumber you.

This.

Settler and worker factories are king but don't go overboard, you still have to defend yourself, pay attention to your surroundings. If you get easy Iron, you're gold. If not, then you will have to fight smart. Artillery is your friend.

As for the Iroquois, they just need horses for their UU, right? Mounted Warriors pwn, use them!

 

[beastie978]

I think Monarch is the level where having a specific victory condition in mind early in the game becomes important. On Regent and below you can wander into just about any victory any way you want with any civ you want. But at Monarch, you won't always have the across the board leads in tech/gold/units, so you have to have a game plan to maximize your strengths.

You also need to start keeping an eye on who your neighbors are. At Monarch, you suddenly have to be prepared to deal with starting next to the stronger or aggressive AIs. If you neglect defense, Persia/Maya/Iroquois etc will make you pay early.

 

[dark_pretender]

Hi

Some advice for a conquest vic...

I played iro on my first monarch games right now Im a decent emperor player planing to jump into the next lvl... but In my opinion Iro are great for "trying a higher dificulty lvl"...



This works for me I play c3c 1.22 so I hope it works for u... (the best civ in my opinion for this strategie are the Iroquois but u can use whatever u feel comfortable just dont forget to trigger ur GA.

First build ur core cities using CxxC then once u start getting only corrupted cities go into CxC... (this will give u a lot of unit support plus science using specialist) My last emperor game I had a numer of allowed units of 175 or so... I play small maps since I like to play pangagea maps And I hate those "2 minutes turns" In the advanced part of the game. Or having to build lots and lots of cities since I dont like to capture cities but this also works on standard maps because I used to play standard maps.

Do not build temples, markets and science buildings can be built only in ur core cities, corrupted cities can be set to produce markets and once u r in the need of setlers u switch those cities to produce setlers (u can keep track easily of this corrupted cities using civ assistant to use those cities that will give u a setler in one turn.)

Corrupted cities must be irrigated and u should use the specialists to produce money or science... in my case I prefer science... but its up to u.

When I play Iro usually I go for republic slingshot ( I beat the ai to it most of the times even on emperor lvl) once u get phil u trade preferably trying to get wheel and horseback riding, (anything else is ok but this two techs are a "must have") once u research republic u switch to republic and then start researching literature in order to trade again with ai...if u did it right at this point on monarch lvl u should be one or two techs away from medieval age. (since u will get most of the techs from trades) just be sure u r not getting optional techs in ur trades

once u are in republic u must identify ur first victim... a good option is the ai that doesnt have Iron, or horses (or both) and has a lux or a resource u dont have... build something like 12 mounted warriors and declare war... (dont worry if 12 are "too few) once u trigger ur golden age u will spam these (just watch ur numbers in order to avoid getting too many, remember that once ur GA ends having too many units will trash ur economy and dont forget to set ur most productive cities (in gold) to build markets once u start having too many mounted warriors usually I stop once im about to reach the 30 mounted warriors (when possible cash rush the buildings)

at this point u should be "stablished" with a good economy more territory and a decent army, from this point is up to u... also at this point even having scientist enemies its posible to start doing ur own research of course u wont outresearch these scientist civs, but at this point its possible to get a "decent research rate" to keep up in those military techs, just dont forget that every time u free enemy land, u must build cities in CxC placement patern, u can go for knights then cavalry every time u make peace get some techs in the negotiation table

I dont like to capture enemy cities, so I race them to prevent having to garrison those recently conquered cities, when I go war I cash rush barracks in the closest city to the warfront I sent my units I race fortify and then next turn I sent back those redlined units and send replacements... while claiming the land first I place my cities in CxxxC patern... once its posible I send more setlers to fill in those spaces and get a CxCxC patern.

when building science or comercial buildings if possible cash rush, every time its possible cash rush things... dont let ur money sit there.

Hope this helps u

Happy civing!!