Regarding practising / stepping up - It depends on a few things.
Time - If you have a reasonable amount of time, I would play a few more at Monarch, possibly Emperor, whilst you get to put into practice what you've learnt from this game. Importantly this game was a relatively quick-fire game, with the ability to quickly roll through the opposition. At Monarch to some extent you can normally find someone to attack early doors. I'd try a game where you also focus on a degree of teching - Certainly on Monarch, you should soon get a reasonable tech lead, what you do with it is optional (I.E Currs or mass rifle / cannon. Or tech through to tanks - so you learn the later game.
With limited time, then feel free to go in at the deeper end, but I'd be slightly wary of going a) straight to immortal (I agree with Fippy that Immortal from Emperor isn't a huge jump, generally AI has more developed cities (starts with worker + extra tech (or 2 from Monarch))) - Until you are sure of the basics. b) If you were thinking of another shadow game, that's OK, but be careful of seeing the answer, through better players, rather than getting there yourself. I'd probably suggest trying 4-5 starts on the higher level, and to a degree feedback where you are getting to after say 75-100 turns. I.E Are you winning (If so, great) - How's military going? Tech etc. If you're struggling, why might that be? (I think you might initially find city expansion feels too slow, especially on Immortal.)
To use an analogy, in my spare time, I do a little chess coaching. If I helped a student by walking through a game with them against an opponent, that's good if they learn, but if I helped them through a much stronger playing than them, whilst it would no doubt be a win, it's only any good if the student has learnt why the game was won. In reality trying without the support, they would likely fall short. OK Civ 4 isn't chess, the variabilities in Civ 4 are less vast ultimately, but I think the premise is sound.
Really what you want is help out of the forum, which allows you to win games at higher levels yourself, as indeed I have done, but perhaps I've been more cautious in ensuring that I know what I'm doing before moving up..
That said, the summary you made above, if you were to stick to many of those principles should work on most / all levels up until Immortal. (I think Deity would need a slight tweaking.)
Time - If you have a reasonable amount of time, I would play a few more at Monarch, possibly Emperor, whilst you get to put into practice what you've learnt from this game. Importantly this game was a relatively quick-fire game, with the ability to quickly roll through the opposition. At Monarch to some extent you can normally find someone to attack early doors. I'd try a game where you also focus on a degree of teching - Certainly on Monarch, you should soon get a reasonable tech lead, what you do with it is optional (I.E Currs or mass rifle / cannon. Or tech through to tanks - so you learn the later game.
With limited time, then feel free to go in at the deeper end, but I'd be slightly wary of going a) straight to immortal (I agree with Fippy that Immortal from Emperor isn't a huge jump, generally AI has more developed cities (starts with worker + extra tech (or 2 from Monarch))) - Until you are sure of the basics. b) If you were thinking of another shadow game, that's OK, but be careful of seeing the answer, through better players, rather than getting there yourself. I'd probably suggest trying 4-5 starts on the higher level, and to a degree feedback where you are getting to after say 75-100 turns. I.E Are you winning (If so, great) - How's military going? Tech etc. If you're struggling, why might that be? (I think you might initially find city expansion feels too slow, especially on Immortal.)
To use an analogy, in my spare time, I do a little chess coaching. If I helped a student by walking through a game with them against an opponent, that's good if they learn, but if I helped them through a much stronger playing than them, whilst it would no doubt be a win, it's only any good if the student has learnt why the game was won. In reality trying without the support, they would likely fall short. OK Civ 4 isn't chess, the variabilities in Civ 4 are less vast ultimately, but I think the premise is sound.
Really what you want is help out of the forum, which allows you to win games at higher levels yourself, as indeed I have done, but perhaps I've been more cautious in ensuring that I know what I'm doing before moving up..
That said, the summary you made above, if you were to stick to many of those principles should work on most / all levels up until Immortal. (I think Deity would need a slight tweaking.)
