uberben
Chieftain
New to posting in the forums, but I've been trolling for awhile and thought I would share some of the tips I've accumulated that have gotten me up to and now past Monarch. Hope these can help someone 
Early game:
Decide if you're goint to use a 'Cottage Economy' or a 'Specialist Economy' Do a search for both, figure out which one works best for the leader you've chosen, and run with it. Don't deviate from the plan.
Specialize Your Cities Ok, so you've made some cities, but you need to decide what your cities will do. There's three catagories:
1) Great Person Farm: This city needs a lot of specialists (scientists are preferred to either settle in the city or to research technologies, but whatever your playstyle prefers), so this city needs to produce as much food as possible. Only one of these cities is needed, and is probably going to be your capital.
2) Production City: Hammers are the key here, but make sure you have some food as well in order to work those mines, watermills and workshops. These will be your primary troop makers, and should produce units most of the game, stopping only to make forges, barracks, factories, etc. Hammers are key here. 2 of these cities will be fine, but you could get by with 1 depending on the map.
3) Commerce City: Gotta make money, and these cities will make it. Basically, anything that produces commerce is needed. Notice how all that sugar is in one place? Put a city there. See a lot of grassland? Put down some cottages. Anything that helps these cities make more money will be produced, ie markets, banks, etc. 3 or more of these cities will help.
Now, these rules only apply to your core cities. If you capture a city, it might not fit the mold for any of these, so don't force a label on them.
Use and appropriate amount of workers Can't tell you how much this has helped me. Before Monarch, this wasn't a huge issue, but it gets to be really quick. Basically, if you don't have enough workers, you can't improve your tiles in your BFC, and your economy isn't as effective as it needs to be. 1.5-2 workers per city is a good rule of thumb. Keep in mind that you probably won't have to produce all those workers, many can be captured in wars (see below).
YOU PROBABLY NEED TO GO TO WAR IE, unless you're going for a cultural victory. An early war is going to even out the advantages that the AIs gets on you at higher difficulties. You just can't out-tech or out-expand them reliably. I generally play on continents, and I find that early domination of your continent is probably your best bet. Research 'Bronze Working', adopt slavery, whip and chop yourself out an army, and declare war on your closest neighbor. Do a search on this site for "Axeman Rush" or just "Rush", there's plenty of tips out there from better players than me
Your main goal should be either capturing all the cities on your continent, or at minimum having all your opponents capitulate (not the best option, but necessary if you're economy tanks). Be sure to chop/whip out courthouses to reduce maintenance costs.
Renaissance:
If you're able to dominate your continent beforehand, congrats. But, if someone is holding out with Longbows or Muskets, you might need a hand here (I know I did!)
Prioritize Liberalism This gets you a free tech, which you want to use on either Nationalism (for drafting, more on this later), Gunpowder, or Printing Press. Any of these are fine, but if I had to choose I'd go with Nationalism. No maintenance, +2 for a barracks, and drafting 3 units a turn are money here. Drafting 3 units a turn will produce a nice army really quick, along with whipping/chopping other units. 3 units per turn for 20 turns is 60 units. That alone should be 'Game Over'.
"But how do you deal with the unhappiness caused by drafting?" I'm glad you asked...
The Globe Theater is your friend An absolute must-builed national wonder. No unhappiness in a city means you can draft that city down to 5 and not worry about it. This city will need a LOT of food, so choose carefully where you put the it. I'd say at least two food resources, maybe more. The more population, the more units.
What to draft? Now, drafting 60 of anything will probably be fine, but I've had the most success with Riflemen, so tech to Rifling ASAP. Their 14 power is more than enough to overpower longbows and muskets alone, but softening up a city with seige engines (catapults, trebuchets, or cannons need to be produced while drafting) will make things easier.
Once you dominate your continent, the modern era becomes a lot easier. You can generate a huge army quickly and invade, build the UN and dominate diplomacy, or sit back and build a space ship. Whatever path you chose, it's a much easier victory.
Hope these tips help some of you get past Noble and Monarch!
(Did I miss any? Post in the comments!)
Early game:
Decide if you're goint to use a 'Cottage Economy' or a 'Specialist Economy' Do a search for both, figure out which one works best for the leader you've chosen, and run with it. Don't deviate from the plan.
Specialize Your Cities Ok, so you've made some cities, but you need to decide what your cities will do. There's three catagories:
1) Great Person Farm: This city needs a lot of specialists (scientists are preferred to either settle in the city or to research technologies, but whatever your playstyle prefers), so this city needs to produce as much food as possible. Only one of these cities is needed, and is probably going to be your capital.
2) Production City: Hammers are the key here, but make sure you have some food as well in order to work those mines, watermills and workshops. These will be your primary troop makers, and should produce units most of the game, stopping only to make forges, barracks, factories, etc. Hammers are key here. 2 of these cities will be fine, but you could get by with 1 depending on the map.
3) Commerce City: Gotta make money, and these cities will make it. Basically, anything that produces commerce is needed. Notice how all that sugar is in one place? Put a city there. See a lot of grassland? Put down some cottages. Anything that helps these cities make more money will be produced, ie markets, banks, etc. 3 or more of these cities will help.
Now, these rules only apply to your core cities. If you capture a city, it might not fit the mold for any of these, so don't force a label on them.
Use and appropriate amount of workers Can't tell you how much this has helped me. Before Monarch, this wasn't a huge issue, but it gets to be really quick. Basically, if you don't have enough workers, you can't improve your tiles in your BFC, and your economy isn't as effective as it needs to be. 1.5-2 workers per city is a good rule of thumb. Keep in mind that you probably won't have to produce all those workers, many can be captured in wars (see below).
YOU PROBABLY NEED TO GO TO WAR IE, unless you're going for a cultural victory. An early war is going to even out the advantages that the AIs gets on you at higher difficulties. You just can't out-tech or out-expand them reliably. I generally play on continents, and I find that early domination of your continent is probably your best bet. Research 'Bronze Working', adopt slavery, whip and chop yourself out an army, and declare war on your closest neighbor. Do a search on this site for "Axeman Rush" or just "Rush", there's plenty of tips out there from better players than me
Your main goal should be either capturing all the cities on your continent, or at minimum having all your opponents capitulate (not the best option, but necessary if you're economy tanks). Be sure to chop/whip out courthouses to reduce maintenance costs.Renaissance:
If you're able to dominate your continent beforehand, congrats. But, if someone is holding out with Longbows or Muskets, you might need a hand here (I know I did!)
Prioritize Liberalism This gets you a free tech, which you want to use on either Nationalism (for drafting, more on this later), Gunpowder, or Printing Press. Any of these are fine, but if I had to choose I'd go with Nationalism. No maintenance, +2
for a barracks, and drafting 3 units a turn are money here. Drafting 3 units a turn will produce a nice army really quick, along with whipping/chopping other units. 3 units per turn for 20 turns is 60 units. That alone should be 'Game Over'."But how do you deal with the unhappiness caused by drafting?" I'm glad you asked...
The Globe Theater is your friend An absolute must-builed national wonder. No unhappiness in a city means you can draft that city down to 5 and not worry about it. This city will need a LOT of food, so choose carefully where you put the it. I'd say at least two food resources, maybe more. The more population, the more units.
What to draft? Now, drafting 60 of anything will probably be fine, but I've had the most success with Riflemen, so tech to Rifling ASAP. Their 14 power is more than enough to overpower longbows and muskets alone, but softening up a city with seige engines (catapults, trebuchets, or cannons need to be produced while drafting) will make things easier.
Once you dominate your continent, the modern era becomes a lot easier. You can generate a huge army quickly and invade, build the UN and dominate diplomacy, or sit back and build a space ship. Whatever path you chose, it's a much easier victory.
Hope these tips help some of you get past Noble and Monarch!
(Did I miss any? Post in the comments!)
and str unit to do so.
