Regent...

[vmxa]

DFBATTLER, I did not notice this mentioned, if it was sorry. You can upload saves here as long as they are not too large. The best way to do that is to manually save the game as it will be compressed.

The autosave is uncompressed and will be very large. Typical is about MB Vs KB for std maps.

 

[Donny Brook]

IIRC, vet troops also increase your military-strength count as far as the AI is concerned. So 100 vet warriors will be feared more than 100 reg warriors. Can someone confirm?

 

[vmxa]

1645AD save:
I saw some auto moving units, this is fine as long as they are within your borders and not exposed. It is a good idea to use the preference to Always wait at end of turn. This gives you a chance to look around and see if you missed anything.

May I also suggest Color Blind Help. This is useful for posting screen shots as we can see the empire names for towns. Colors are not reliable as you have more nations in the game and maybe even a color mod ( I use one for 31 civs).

One more that could be useful is Always build the same unit. I find it is easier to change the build with that one. What happens is the game may toss up a build that can be done in 1 or 2 turns and I may miss it.

I will probably be making units with larger shields demands and have a longer build time and can catch it and changed it, if needed.

Looks like this is a game with only 4 nations? That is very low for a std map. 1645AD and still only seen about half the map?

First thing that struck me is that Berlin is cut off from the rest of the empire? Berlin started with 4 wheat and a few flood plains (one had a wheat), so it should have been able to just crank out settlers. True it actually does have connecting tile with Munich.

You can see Incense right next to Munich, how did you manage to not get any of them, especially by 1645AD?

I suspect some of these things were talked about, but I will just put up what I see FWIIW.

10 workers is very low for any size empire. You have 16 towns and are closing in on the Industrial Age, so 20 would be better and by the next age 30.

I see other nations have towns in your area, several places. This is way too late in the game for that. You probably should have removed everyone from the continent by now. Often Regent games on Pan maps will be won by the mid to late 1600's.

You are in Monarchy, but are not at war? Monarchy is really a war government, if you plan on being peaceful, Republic would let you do more research.

Your largest expense is corruption at nearly 1/3. You should have the FP up long ago, it would do a little on that issue.

Second largest is science, but is only 104.
Third is maintenance at 85 or about 1/4. I am sure you have too many structures that were not a good investment, we shall see.

Fourth and last is unit cost of 32, no entertainment cost. You do not have that many units, so the issue is you have too few cities. To that end you should look to see if you can plant any right now and you can. Madrid could have one CxxC and not even ruffle feathers.

Workers I am not going over, but I see mines going up on mountains and hills? Santiago is mining a hill and has a grass tile right next to it without a road?

I would check on all towns to see what can be done with workers or structures. Frankfurt is the only one I will look at. One mountain getting a mine with 2 mined mountains not being worked? Another mountain getting a road, not real bad, but you are not growing at size 9.

Why not irrigate that cow instead and grow? A granary with zero growth, at least if you have it use it and pop out a worker. Not real crazy about making a uni in 12 beaker city. I would rather have a couple of cavs right now.

No lux slider, but still 8 happy faces and 1 unhappy. This tells me we spent too much on happy structures. Yeah a colosseum, ouch. You have incursion all over your empire, those shields could have been used to kick out the Persians. Better yet not let them in to begin with.

 

[DFBATTLER]

<long post>

Dang I've screwed up a lot, I know... Thanks a lot though, now I know better what to do.

Started a new game... How am I doing now? (Ceremonial Burial and Mysticism came to me by means of Goody Huts, Pyramids are badly needed)

 

[vmxa]

Pyramids are never badly needed, just nice to have. Do use the save function and load those, rather than autosaves. It is no problem for me as I have a 15MB connection, but I would still prefer 300kb rather than 1.6mb.

 

[DFBATTLER]

Pyramids are never badly needed, just nice to have. Do use the save function and load those, rather than autosaves. It is no problem for me as I have a 15MB connection, but I would still prefer 300kb rather than 1.6mb.

I'll remember that next time (the second statement). As for the first, Pyramids can be a great source of growth throughout a game, especially on a Pangaea-type map. (=

 

[vmxa]

Of course they can, but at what cost? The thing is at levels like Monarch or lower, you can do as you please. It just gets more expensive to try for it as you move up. You have to take a strong town out of action at a critical stage.

That is why I said they are never badly needed, just nice.

 

[vmxa]

I played this out to 440AD to give you an idea of one way to cut off some of the pressure.

1325BC:
5 towns down and my borders are from the coast on the east of Berlin (Leipzig) to the 1 tile lake on the west (Konigsberg). Furs in the borders of Frankfurt, but not connected. One boat out.

Looks like Persia has had very good luck on huts and knows HBR. I have peddled Alpha to all three nations known. I have embassy with all of them. I have the 7 tier 1 techs and IW, Write and Myst, working on Philo.

1125BC:
Ottoman had 4 warriors in my land, 3 next to Frankfurt. I told him to leave or DOW and war was his choice. This was a couple of turns back. All 4 are now dead. I just popped HBR from a hut.

I had embassy with Spain that I made 3 turns ago.

I took Lit with Philo as I do not have CoL yet. I like Libs and we get them at a discount. My elite spear won twice, but no leader. The last two games I played I got a leader on the first eilte win, so I hoped that would still work (not likely).

630BC:
Made peace with Ottoman after razing 2 towns and they gave 1 town in the deal. I abandon it and they are OCC for now. IOW they will never be a factor.

550BC:
Have Gems, Furs and Incense hooked up. I finally sent a worker to connect the iron. Next turn will start hooking up the Horses. Found Nuremburg, Heidelburg, Cologne and Hannover.

450BC:
Spain is only down a few techs as I have sold them many. The others are still without things like writing, all down Math and so on.

Sumeria does have Monarchy.

I am working on Republic and still need Construction and Currency.

Found Bremen and have a settler next turn going to the south coast.

430BC:
from your save we see that:
Spain 6 towns (7)
Persia 8 (7 and GL)
Ottoman 7 (3)
Sumeria eliminated (6)
Zulu 9 in GA (9 and GL)
Russia 7 (5)
Iroq 11 (9 and GL)

Germany 3 plus 1 captured (11)
The numbers in parens are for this run. The big thing is 11 towns for Germany and the map is cut in have by us.

150BC:
Revolt and drew only 4 turns, sweet. I have MoM in Berlin, so that took care of the only city size town. I only had to use 1 specialist, thanks to 3 lux. Researching Currency with lone scientist for now. Will have to drop a bunch of units after switch.

FP started a few turns back. Did found Stuttgart on the coast next to Nuremberg adjacent to Umma. I have circumnavigate the continent and the island next to the Ottoman. Also the island to the SE and now going off to see what is to the east. Actually I am now heading east, from the far west of the map, back to my continent.

There must be a continent in that path, only place one could fit.

70BC:
Switched and found Iroq. Popped in an embassy and they are in anarchy building the Pyramids, nearly finished.

Found a small island just south of Stuttgart. Probably will disband that boat as it looks around.

10AD:
Met Shaka and make embassy. I see they are 4 turns from Pyramids.
One nation left to met.

150AD:
Start on Chiv. Upgrade 2 spears to pikes. I got the worse free tech (Mono). I researched Feudalism. Lots of wars on the other land. Shaka and Cathy jumped on Hiawatha. Iroq finished the Pyramids and no cascades. I have three going, ToA in Berlin, Leipzig on Lighthouse and someone has been on FP for a long time.

Probably will have to switch, but I have several to go for if needed. I am not trading Lit as I want to see some of the wonders end first and maybe give someone on this land the chance to make it. (I actually never did that trade).

Berlin is size 12, but is not shield rich. I should look to see if any wonders would cause a GA at this point. I know Copes would be a science one, but not sure if it will on its own. Not use to having them or a science nation.

Trying to get markets up in a few places. We have 3 lux and there are 2 more on this continent. Several are working on SoZ.

210A:
Isabella has some units that look like trouble. I dial her up and get a DOW. Guess a few MDI's would make sense.

I have two swords, just need to get them to a barracks. (I never did find the second sword and must have been dreaming).

310AD:
Spain get Ottoman to jump us. I am not going to upgrade swords as I upgraded my lone horse and will have a second knight next turn.

LH and HG finish this turn and ToA last so I switch some builds.

340AD:
KT triggered a GA, never did check on that. FP was finished. Start Sun's while in GA and no one is in MA right now. Researching Invention in 5.

Pop in embassy with Russia and they have 3 jokers, not doing well under attack from the two largest on their land.

390AD:
Grab Aydin. Start on Gun, switch the GLB build to Leo.

440AD:
Start on Theo in 4 turns.
Two Salt tiles in the hills on the borders. Not hooked up right now, need to wait for peace. One is next to a volcano, so not real good. The other next to a Spanish town. Will take that soon and then hook up. I leave those island to the others as I would rather slowly take over the mainland.

 

[marceagleye]

Spoonwood thanks for the instruction. I admit I overreacted to your criticism of my strategy. The problem is I've never had any real success with Republic (above Regent). Monarchy is my gov of choice until I have enough improvements/luxuries to retire the MP and go for Democracy or until I get Communism. You're right I should use the entertainment slider with Republic. It's been awhile and it's time to try again.

As far as my lack of progression past Emporer... If I were still a single man I have no doubt I'd be deity by now. Unfortunately real life keeps getting in the way. Yet still, I love this game and will never give it up.

DFBattler my advice to you may be a bit misguided according to the experts, but I have had much success on Regent and Monarch with this strategy.

 

[vmxa]

DFBATTLER I pulled up your new game, but only glanced at it. The reason I did not take more time and effort to look it over is that I am not sure if it would be useful.

At around 900AD you should have about 16-20 towns at this level. I think in the replay of your prior game I had 14 built and 5 or 6 captured. Many players like to space out what is often called OCP or Optimal City Placement.

This is quite optimal for vanilla or PTW at lower levels. It is not bad at C3C, but requires more skill and experience IMO. What you see is what you are doing and it is making it hard for you to be where you want to be at this point.

Yes, you can drop down those OCP towns and do quite well, but most posters will not. The purpose of my playing out your game, was to give you a guideline as to where you may want to be at a given point in time in the game.

Reread, if you did read that log, and see if anything looks like it could be germane and help you do better. I will post the end of the game for completeness.

 

[vmxa]

580AD:
Peace with Spain and Ottoman eliminated. Sun finished this turn, sell off hand made barracks. I did sell Lit to Sumeria. It is known to several now.

590AD:
Start on Chem in 8. Russia eliminated by Hiawatha.


600AD:
Shaka demands Engineer and I laugh and he DOW's. He is not on this land and I am the only one with Astro. I get WLTKD from his ignorance. Found a town to fill gap from old Ottoman towns and the Empire.
17 towns is second. 1st in the other stuff.

930AD:
Spain DOW me again.
Finished Copes. I finished Leo.
Have MA started. Have 2 salt connected now. Will upgrade a few knights.

980AD:
I let Shaka have peace for nothing.
I grabbed the only Spanish town near me.
I have my second army now. A knight made the first and an archer the second. I did upgrade my elite knights on the basis that I will not have that much combat, from this war. I am currently not making any troops, just using the ones I have now.

I am on Mag now, have only ToG left of the required techs. I could do Econ and go for Smiths, but not sure I want to delay the IA. I think I will get to the IA and see if I can get Steam for free. If I do, I will come back for Econ.

1000AD:
Sumeria joins Spain, so I capture one of there towns with my brand new cav army.

1020AD:
Got a leader from a crusader, leader has no move after getting to town.
3 battles at this town and got a leader and two elites. Sweet.

1030AD:
Last turn Sumeria came out of the fog with a stack of 9 AC's. The good news is they had to go through mountains, so I was able to use cavs to pick them off. I filled the 3rd army with 3 red cavs from the last battle. Grab another town, so now I have filled the south area in and have a settler to finish the gap. Two armies siege Ur.

The nerve of Isabella, wanted peace last turn after getting Sumeria in on it. I need a few more towns to be on her border.

1050AD:
Grabbed Kish, Ur last turn. HG in Ur and GLB in Kish. Now have a solid block from SE coast to east coast to south coast, with a bit of the north coast. Have not been able to start Pentagon yet.

1060AD:
Start Pentagon, but have now got Newton to start some place, not sure when or where. It is so ugly, I got Steam, so I go back for Econ. I have 1 bank up already. It made me think of a line Grady Mathews said in a 9 ball match he was announcing. A fellow player/announcer named Bill Incardonna made an outrageous kick shot and Grady said "that is disgussting".

He said that because he knew Billy would tell about that for the next 6 months. So the rich get richer, Steam for free. Econ in 5, maybe less. Belay that, no coal. The only one I see is at the far end of Xerxes land. There may be some under the fog on the Spanish land.

Found a town and that was enough to drop it to 4 turns.

1070AD:
Grabbed Lagash and the SoZ, it is obsolete for me.
Captured Bad-Tibra and it is the last Sumerian town on the mainland, so I make this deal: peace for Monarchy. He has two towns on the island shared with Spain and Persia.

At 29 towns I am now number 1.
Hum, I do have the Pentagon going.

1080AD:
It just gets better and better. I know see that coal is next to Salzburg. I also see we in fact have Spice and Silks here, so that is 6 of the 8 lux, that is crazy.

1110AD:
Grab Toledo. Looks like Persia is about to get froggy. I see two immortals coming in my land. Will wait a turn.

I had just moved a musket and 2 crusaders in that direction. The nearest town has a musket and a crusader, not sure what they plan. I would bet they want to head for an empty town, but they are far away.

Should get the coal after this turn.

1130AD:
Yup a DOW from Persia.
Grab Barcelona and it has the Great Lighthouse.
Start Smith's finally.

I started electricity, maybe last turn forget.

1140AD:
MA done, I started Newton there as it is the same as an army and I can switch later.
Lots of WLTKD now. Should have Spice connected soon. Never mine, I see I have silk and spice now, must have a road some place.

1170AD:
Have Madrid and the Oracle. One town left on the mainland, sending 1 army to see about Persia.

1180AD:
Got the last town on the mainland, so I made peace for the two towns on the far island in the east.

1190AD:
Cav got a leader form 4th. Did not rush Pentagon as cannot use 4 man armies right now anyway, do not fit in galleons.

1200AD:
start on RP.

1210AD:
50 gold from hut on the island gift from Spain. Got to love the AI leaving huts next to a town.

1265AD:
Start Medicine, no rubber on the entire continent as best as I can tell. None on any of the island near by either. Well faster workers and artillery are nice.
Razed a few Persian towns so far.

1330AD:
Removed Persia from mainland. Got a SGL and rushed the ToE.
Made peace for Printing Press.

1335AD:
Entire continent is filled by Germany now. Rails from one end to the other, all town connected.

They all have Gunpowder, Invention, Engineering. All except Sumeria have Chemistry.
Only Persia has Printing Press. Zulu and Iroq have Metal.

I have Steam, Medicine, Electricity, Electronics, RP, AT and Science Method. Industry in 4. Wonders I have all, except Colossus, ToA and Pyramids. I may have razed one or two. Smith's is still going and I just started Hoovers.

1370AD:
My vision has gotten worse it appear as I just eliminated Spain and found rubber next to Pamplona. So I will have Infantry for invading the other land. I have cleared the two other small islands and taken the next to last Persian town. Sumeria now OCC.

1375AD:
Eliminate Sumeria.

1380AD:
Eliminated Persia and have all the islands in the East and South East. I see a tiny Zulu island in the SW.

Started Refining.

1420AD:
Steel next turn. No oil on either mainland or any of the three islands I control. I have marsh, jungle, tundra and still no oil. Well I have an invasion nearing Shaka and his oil. Poor Hiawatha wanted and MPP/RoP and I let him have what he wanted. So he will be in a war soon.

1445AD:
Combustion comes in next turn. I am paying for not playing much in the past month as I ready messed up my invasion. I forgot to bring a settler. So I landed on my hill and realized I could not make a town.

I invaded one this turn and used my 5 armies to block access as my one move units could not get in in one move.

I hated to do this as now they will amass and come with more units, when I open it next turn. The good news is I captured the place with a barracks, so I rushed a wall. I will rush a civil defense with all my boats next turn and then open the path.

In the mean time I put in a 4th unit to the 3 cav armies and an infantry in the infantry army. I do not have enough to fill the knight army. That will be my next rush and the a harbor and then a lib, if I hang on.

1450AD:
Start on Flight, Hiawatha DOW's Shaka per our MPP. The town has oil and rubber is 1 tile over. I see the place already has a harbor, so I will rush a cav to fill the army.

1470AD:
Starting to move out, grabbed another town. Start on Mass Prod. Got another SGL, but really have no use for it.

No wonders now available, just finished Wall St. I started an army, but don't really need it.

1485AD:
Mass next turn. Capture Zimbabwe and it has two wonders.

1490AD:
Start Motor in 4 at 70%.

Transport arrive with 4 or 5 settlers.
I just noticed I have added wines, so 7 lux.

1500AD:
Grab the tiny island town.

1510AD:
Start Comps, that is what I wanted, but got Eco for free tech, oh well.
Hiawatha breaks the MPP and DOW's me. He lost a number of cavs on the IBT attacking infantry behind walls. He did not even hit the town he could reach the easiest as it had the infantry army. I see one more tiny island. It is a tundra and I will leave it as I will soon have Shaka down to only that town.

1535AD:
I used the SGL to rush Seti. I forgot I had Panzers, so I am making them in the MA city. It is now the only place making troops. I have made peace with Shaka as he is off this continent. I have rails from the two southern tips to my front and all the south is mine.

I am not pressing Hiawatha yet, but I will now turn my armies on him. I have brought over the army I built. Oh more bad news for Hiawatha, I upgraded my infantry to Mechs. I only have 55% of the land, 68% of the pop.

Nearly have the jungles cleared and I do have the swamps cleared. I am getting by with fewer workers than I need, just no need to make all that work for myself.

1540AD:
Got another leader, so form Cav army. Capture one Iroq town and autoraze another.

1585AD:
Slow going as I shut off production after 4 or 5 Panzers. I have grabbed 8 or 9 towns and have about 63%. Just finished the Internet, my pre was off a few turns. I am not going to make any more and just sold off my factories.

Doing Fission now after finishing Rocketry. I have not checked, but I don't think Hiawatha has gotten into the IA. Nope they need three more techs.

 

[vmxa]

This was a large map on continents so it take more time to domination. Pretty good start, but after Iron and Horses, resources were not well located. I think salt was not real close, but at least there was some to get.

I cannot remember the coal, I think it was there, but I failed to find for a time. No oil or rubber on the continent.

I basically played peaceful in that I did not declare, until the end of the game. I even gave peace a few times. As you can see war and Republic can coexist.

Game ends in 1605AD.

 

[DFBATTLER]

This was a large map on continents so it take more time to domination. Pretty good start, but after Iron and Horses, resources were not well located. I think salt was not real close, but at least there was some to get.

I cannot remember the coal, I think it was there, but I failed to find for a time. No oil or rubber on the continent.

I basically played peaceful in that I did not declare, until the end of the game. I even gave peace a few times. As you can see war and Republic can coexist.

Game ends in 1605AD.

Dang that's pretty nice. I see from your savegame that you have a lot of Wealths... It's for unit support, right? And obviously those cities don't need anything else...

 

[vmxa]

There was no need to make anything at that point. They either had any structure they should have or they were not going to get any structures. At the end I was not building anything on the mainland.

I made or rushed a lib in a few captured towns to get the borders to expand on the other land. Just trying to get the 66% sooner.

I tend to shutdown as the game gets near the end, so as to make it easier on me, less town pop ups wanting to know what to build. You had a solid start location, you just need to get more aggressive on expanding.

I like to get settlers out to make it hard for the AI to cross my borders, so they are cut off from exploring and expanding. If I can block them off, the land behind can be filled later. Especially if they are not getting galleys quickly to go around.

I did not need more unit support as I was well below my free units, due to the number of towns and the smallish army (troops) size. It was no strain to beat them with fewer units. I think I only made 3 bombers, 1 fighter and 4 Panzer units.

I had one unit that was upgraded all the way to guerilla and never fought. I was going to upgrade it to TOW, but it was on a tiny island with no barracks. I had money that I did not need, so I thought it may be fun.

They were so hapless that they almost never even attacked me, even in captured towns. I am more use to dealing with very large numbers of units that will hit a town, regardless. I only got about 6 or 7 leaders, well I had 2 SGL's as well.

I think SGL are too over powered and should have only worked to boost science for a few turns, no rushing wonders. Too bad the science boost never even worked.

 

[DFBATTLER]

There was no need to make anything at that point. They either had any structure they should have or they were not going to get any structures. At the end I was not building anything on the mainland.

I made or rushed a lib in a few captured towns to get the borders to expand on the other land. Just trying to get the 66% sooner.

I tend to shutdown as the game gets near the end, so as to make it easier on me, less town pop ups wanting to know what to build. You had a solid start location, you just need to get more aggressive on expanding.

I like to get settlers out to make it hard for the AI to cross my borders, so they are cut off from exploring and expanding. If I can block them off, the land behind can be filled later. Especially if they are not getting galleys quickly to go around.

I did not need more unit support as I was well below my free units, due to the number of towns and the smallish army (troops) size. It was no strain to beat them with fewer units. I think I only made 3 bombers, 1 fighter and 4 Panzer units.

I had one unit that was upgraded all the way to guerilla and never fought. I was going to upgrade it to TOW, but it was on a tiny island with no barracks. I had money that I did not need, so I thought it may be fun.

They were so hapless that they almost never even attacked me, even in captured towns. I am more use to dealing with very large numbers of units that will hit a town, regardless. I only got about 6 or 7 leaders, well I had 2 SGL's as well.

I think SGL are too over powered and should have only worked to boost science for a few turns, no rushing wonders. Too bad the science boost never even worked.

Quite the master you are! And I was really surprised to read these points . As for the last SGL statement... It really sucks but I don't think they're gonna patch it, Conquests is pretty old :/

Great job though, now I know what to do in Regent!

 

[vmxa]

I think this start would be very good for practice. It gives you a lot of things to deal with. It was annoying to not have some of the resources, but then it is good to learn to deal with that issue.

Having lots experience makes it easier to know what to expect and what you can get by with at different points. Looking forward to seeing you on Monarch soon. To me the fun of the game is learning to handle more and more pressure.

The best games for me are the ones that look like I am not going to be able to survive. If not the game at least some battles. The only exception is I do not really enjoy being far behind in tech as I often am in my games. The good news is I have learned that I can come back, well most of the time.

 

[DFBATTLER]

I think this start would be very good for practice. It gives you a lot of things to deal with. It was annoying to not have some of the resources, but then it is good to learn to deal with that issue.

Having lots experience makes it easier to know what to expect and what you can get by with at different points. Looking forward to seeing you on Monarch soon. To me the fun of the game is learning to handle more and more pressure.

The best games for me are the ones that look like I am not going to be able to survive. If not the game at least some battles. The only exception is I do not really enjoy being far behind in tech as I often am in my games. The good news is I have learned that I can come back, well most of the time.

I dunno about Monarch yet, trying to pass Regent first but chances are that once I get the gist of it and get some more experience in the game, I'll eventually (one day...) get to Sid and beat it in with Conquest Victory. (=


One thing I will add: Are there any specific opening moves to do? Like:
1. Warrior, explore.
2. Warrior, explore.
3. Settler, settle.
4. Warrior, explore.
5. Worker.
6. Settler, settle.

etc.

 

[vmxa]

I play it by ear. Evaluate the start and see what makes sense, given the settings you are on. I don't just go A, B and then C. In a Regent game on a good start, I will take liberties. May not make any troops for some time, especially if I do not see anyone close and I know there are no expansion civs around.

If am playing Always war, I need to get troops up right away. As you play at levles that only allow one content citizen, you pretty much need to get that warrior or two out soon to keep the peace.

I do not like to make a settler asap, I prefer to not let my town drop to size 1. That may be required in a pan map at a high level and you have little time to grab a few spots. At regent you should be able to let the place grow to maybe size 3 and start a settler and time it to not drop below size 3. If you have a real food surplus, you may be able to set up a nice factory.

 

[DFBATTLER]

I play it by ear. Evaluate the start and see what makes sense, given the settings you are on. I don't just go A, B and then C. In a Regent game on a good start, I will take liberties. May not make any troops for some time, especially if I do not see anyone close and I know there are no expansion civs around.

If am playing Always war, I need to get troops up right away. As you play at levles that only allow one content citizen, you pretty much need to get that warrior or two out soon to keep the peace.

I do not like to make a settler asap, I prefer to not let my town drop to size 1. That may be required in a pan map at a high level and you have little time to grab a few spots. At regent you should be able to let the place grow to maybe size 3 and start a settler and time it to not drop below size 3. If you have a real food surplus, you may be able to set up a nice factory.

Settler and worker factories are a lot of fun, especially when you have two or more. I've beaten AIs in the lower nooby levels like that, LOL. Any more tips you can give me?

 

[vmxa]

Nothing that has not already been talked about. I would just repeat that you want to have as many workers as it takes to keep up with tile improvements. At least for the first dozen or so towns.

Play a game at Regent along the lines you have been for settings and use all you have picked up. See if you can win domination by mid 1800's. If you do that, you probably can move up.

If you find the time, look for a few SG games that are at Monarch, they are hard to find. If the game was completed, bookmark it and read it over time. Only use C3C games, though.

Skip variants at least those like AW, you will not be able to use those tactics in normal games. Well you can, but it will not teach you much. I think Tobby had one with some solid logs, from good players.

Only read the AW and levels above Monarch for fun, till you are ready to try above Monarch. Settings that are similar to those you will use are the best.

If you get stuck post and players will jump in.