Playing higher difficulty levels

[Grimus]

I used to play on Prince primarily. I was never very aggressive and always naturally played the peaceful, builder route. When the new AI patch was made, I started trailing behind the other civs and struggling very badly.

So, I changed things up, and started warmongering. My usual trend was to dominate my closest neighbor, whoever he was, right from the start. While playing like this, Prince level was a joke... I was pretty much untouchable and most powerful all game.

Now, I'm trying out Monarch and getting beat. Do I need to be even more of a ruthless monster in order to win on these levels? Is gameplay on higher difficulties constant war and taking what the AI's have in order to survive and keep up?

 

[yena]

You can win peacefully on all levels (I've done it on immortal) but in most cases an early war is close to essential on higher levels. The strategy you describe works on Monarch too, but requires more preparations and concentration.

Once you've decided to go to war you will need to put everything else aside in order to build a decent invasion force, at least 6-8 axes if early, or lots of cats if later. Slavery is your friend here - build units until only one turn remains, whip, and let the overflow build another unit almost instantly. Go for the enemy capital first if possible (unless on a hill and you don't have cats).

Be careful not to overexpand. Either research CS for courthouse before or during the war, or only capture/keep a few cities that are close and profitable.

 

[oyzar]

on monarch you can still play hack and slash most of the time. The point is realy to just get enough units and the AI cant realy do anything.

 

[futurehermit]

On monarch and higher winning is about making the right decisions.

Have copper and a close neighbour? Axerush, keeping the capital and holy city(ies) and raze the rest (you won't be able to afford the maintenance usually). Keep ones that can pay for themself (e.g., if they have workable gold/silver/gems) and are respectable (e.g., have at least one food source and some developable tiles).

Have no close neighbours but have stone? Build the great wall to ward off barbs and then build yourself a handful of stone wonders to leverage your early game. Then expand post-col until the land is gone and then attack during medieval or renaissance era.

Elephants nearby with a couple close neighbours? Go for a construction beeline and run wild with elephants and catapults, using the spoils of war to feed your economy (i.e., keep from going on strike)

No nearby happiness specials? You're gonna need monarchy sooner rather than later because happiness is much less forgiving on higher levels. Have marble? Why not go for an oracle slingshot to monarchy?

 

[Harbourboy]

On monarch and higher winning is about making the right decisions.

Precisely. You can win on Monarch without lifting a single finger in battle (even I have managed that), but you have to be ruthless in your pursuit of that objective. At each higher level, there are less paths to victory, and usually that means that you can't try and do multiple things at once.

Going for conquest? Then don't stuff about with pointless wonders and religions. Beeline for your best units and build lots of them.

Going for cultural? Then don't try and have a military tech lead. Beeline for your cultural techs and make sure you win the race to things like Sistine Chapel.

 

[futurehermit]

Very true, but what I mean is also you have to adapt to the map more. You can't force a strat on a map. You have to take what you're given more. You can plan to axe-rush all you want, but even if you have copper, if you don't have a close neighbour then you have to know better and take a different route. You can plan to build the pyramids, but if you have Monty on your doorstep, you have to take a different route.

And that reminds me, the higher you go, the more diplomacy is extremely important. You can't just cheese everyone off and expect to live to tell the tale. You have to pick your friends and do everything you have to to build relations with them (giving into demands, helping them in war, adopting their religion, etc.). And you have to pick your enemies and be prepared to take them out. If you have friends it will be easier for you to bribe them into helping you, making your wars easier. If you don't have friends, your enemies will bribe in allies and you will have a much harder time of things.

Collaring an aggressive civ early on can make a world of difference, especially compared to having them come after you...

 

[Grimus]

K, thanks guys. I think I'll give a new game a shot and try to be more adaptive and diplomatic. It's nice to know that you don't have to be a total warmonger all the time.

 

[futurehermit]

You don't have to, but you do need to take out at least one rival early on if you have anyone close enough to get the land. If you don't have a close rival, you can probably win completely peacefully provided you have decent land. As long as you can build around 15 cities peacefully that should be enough for space race on standard map. On the right (I think standard) map size you only need 9 cities for cultural.

 

[fed1943]

Agree. Map must "do" the top decision