Stepping up from Warlord to Regent

[Dave the Monkey]

Hi. I was wondering whether anyone could give me any helpful tips regarding making the jump from Warlord to Regent.

I seem to find Warlord far too easy, but seem to struggle a bit on Regent level. The last three Regent games I have played I first suffered a histograph defeat, finishing with a score second to the Aztecs, was wiped out by the Aztecs in the second game (see a pattern emerging here?) and then abandoned my last game when it was clear by about 1000 AD that I was flogging a deap horse.

What are the major differences between the two levels? It seems to me that the AI is FAR more aggressive than on Warlord.

 

[sabo]

I'll bet you aren't trading anything. You should read up in the "strategies" thead here at CFC

 

[Akane]

Exploration becomes a ton more paramount when you go up levels. If you're not exploring effectively, then you won't be able to make the contacts you need in order to trade techs, trade maps (for MORE exploration!), and generally make civs happier because they know you don't have any adverse plans regarding their safety.

Civs regularly hated me before I learned about this because the more trades you do with them the happier they are. Look up some of the threads in the War Academy about stuff like this. I would say though that these two tips almost completely alone raised my game from warlord to monarch within a couple weeks.

Another quick tip would be to look into the Game Of the Month write-ups to see some tips of what other players do to win games.

Good luck!

 

[Dave the Monkey]

Thanks for the responses

I do trade- probably too much in all honesty.

I'll try reading some of the strategy guides and take it from there.

 

[Volstag]

Thanks for the responses

I do trade- probably too much in all honesty.

I'll try reading some of the strategy guides and take it from there.

Dave,

I'm in the same boat myself. I can crush Warlord all the time, but I only have a 50% win ratio on Regent at the moment (and many games I've simply quit). Here's what I've found:

* Don't automate your workers (until the late industrial/modern era).
* Keep a close eye on your cities. They need more micromanagement. You need to squeeze out every shield/food you can muster.
* Early wonders. This is a tough one. I have, somewhat, of a wonder addiction, but I've found I can keep pace better if I don't build them (in the AA, at least).
* Expansion is more important. You need to setup "settler factories", and keep churnin' those lil' buggers out.
* As much as it hurts, you may have to kowtow to aggressive civs who make demands of gold/techs/etc. Wars in the AA, when you're not ready to fight them, can hurt your progress a lot.
* Trading with Civs is a good way to keep them off your back, but it can be difficult, if not impossible, to trade when the enemy Civs want nothing that you have access to.

These tips will help some... they've allowed me to win a game, or two. Unfortunately, Regent is still difficult for me. I'm mostly a builder/culture/tech player, and I find it difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a good position (relative to everyone else).

For example: My current game is Regent, Large Continents, 7 enemy civs. I'm playing the Maya. My initial expansion was, IMO, pretty good. I believe I was one, or two, cities above everyone else, and I was leading in % of world, and % of population. Unfortunately, to maintain that advantage, I had to scrimp on infrastructure, military, etc. I'm not researching techs at all, because it appears to be largely useless (I'm always beaten to techs). In short: I had no "bargaining chips" for diplomacy.

As I feared, the Zulu declared war on me w/o provocation. Since this is the AA, I couldn't use luxuries to sway the other civs to my cause (no trade network yet), and I certainly couldn't use techs either (as noted above). Sure enough, the Zulu convinced the Dutch and the Germans to join the war against me.

So, here I am, in the late AA, in a war against 3 technologically advanced Civs. I'm going to fight it out, but if/when the dust settles I'm going to be so far behind, I don't know if it will be worth continuing.

Really the only time I've won on regent is due to: the successful incorporation of the aforementioned tips, great starting location(s) and/or lucking-out and building the Great Library before everyone else -- which makes me wonder if not pursuing wonders is a good idea (especially the GL).

As an aside: why the hell did they remove map trading, and contact trading in Conquests??

-V

 

[Arathorn]

Posting a save file and/or picture of your empire in the AA and/or at the AA/MA transition will help a lot of players recognize some short-comings and give suggestions on ways to improve play.

General suspect list (often newer players struggle with these ideas):
- Too few workers (all squares worked should be improved)
- Too little/incorrect trading
- Too many specialists
- Poor corruption fighting (courthouses, FP built, etc.)
- Poor kill ratios in combat (leading to getting overrun or not gaining territory)

Read some SGs and/or some stories. Try a variant on warlord (maybe non-oscillating war?) to help bridge the gap to regent. Read GK2. There's a billion places to get good advice on this site. It's just a matter of finding them -- or soliciting more directed help.

Arathorn

 

[ozo]

As an aside: why the hell did they remove map trading, and contact trading in Conquests??

-V

They didn't. It was just moved further down the tech tree. Map trading is activated by Navigation (and another tech?) and contact trading by Printing Press. Curraghs were added to offer more exploration possibilities which certainly are needed in Conquests.

 

[Tatran]

Wise advices from the speakers above.
Here are some of mine.
1)Expand very fast by building a lot of cities.
Put them everywhere where there's grassland + plains.
Don't care about placing.You can shape up your empire
later.Most cities/towns need only 7 tiles,so don't waste
the other 14 tiles by waiting until you got aquaducts +
hospitals.Use rivers + beach -> extra commerce.
2)Build some embassies early to prevent dogpiling in case
of war.Pay gold/turn to other civs if an AI declares war
on you.It's better to do it the next turn,so they don't
turn all against you.
3)Skip techs you don't have to research to go to the next era.

 

[Prince David]

I'm currently milking my second Reagent game, and both have been successful. For me the big change was to be more aggressive from the beginning. I'd recommend going back to warlord and practising your fighting skills. I used to be a builder but am now much more war-like in my late AA and early MA. During the early AA I focus on 1)expansion, 2)infrastructure, and 3)military. I organize my cities in tiers. My first tier cities (first 3 or 4) alternate between settlers and units (they all have barracks). My second tier cities tend to be a bit bigger as they produce workers and units. My third tier cities produce catapults. Build yourself a good stack of offensive forces, a few defensive forces and a pile of catapults and go kill your weakest neighbor.

Micromanaging is crucial - never automate workers. Also, focus on keeping your city improvements to a bare minimum. Expand and conquer to aquire luxuries, build barracks, marketplaces and habors frequently, granaries in settler factories, temples rarely and by pop rush and libraries never. Use your excess income to buy techs, bribe neighbors and support large armies.

And most importantly: Study "Cracker's Civ3 Opening Plays site" (see War Acedemy). It has vital information about establishing your first several cities, and the techniques described are just as valid for quickly bringing any new city up to speed.

From everything I've read, the harder levels force you the be just as mean as the other civs. And if I can become a rampaging mo-fo, any one can.

Good luck!

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

Working my away to monarch and above.

use mapstat utility every turn - saves lots of time.

learn the settler pump - I'm still trying to get this down.

Pick a level you are comfortable on and try NO research. Really help those trading skillls.

Get wiped out on GOTM a few times and then try a shadow game after reading the spoilers. I'm still too embarassed to post my results.

Note Conquests changes just everything.

 

[microbe]

I did lose the first Regent game myself, at which point I was still using governors and automating workers.

So there is still a long way to learn and improve. Smaller maps might be better for you so you can spend more time in turns that matter.

 

[KabeDerlin]

Im also struggling with the step up from Warlord to Regent. I'm winning like 40-50% of my Regent games but usually only by conquest. Strength in numbers is usually the only way I can defeat an enemy as they are always more advanced than me. I'll post a few saved games and maybe you guys can tell me what Im doing wrong.

EDIT: here is my current game. Just from reading some tips today I have found many things I have done wrong. The specs of the game are as follows

Civ: Persia (I have actually never played with this Civ before)
Difficulty: Regent
Map: Huge Continents 70% Water.
Current Situation: Just beat back Incan invasion and now Im taking the fight to their territory, though Im still a ways behind in techs and hoping they don;t get Cavs soon. I just got Gunpower like right before my last save. I threw all my research away hoping to just buy techs. This is saved games spread through the game so you guys can see how i bult my Empire. I hope you guys can help me out a bit.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Arathorn is very correct as usual. There are several training day games being played on the succession games forum. Additionally, Ainwood is playing a training day game over on the GOTM forum.

 

[viper275]

@Kabe Derlin: Downloaded the latest save. It looks like you did well, just get lots of money and buy techs from the Aztecs. It looks like fun and I'll play some of it. I just bought contact with zululand from the Aztecs, the zulu then traded me a tech for techs and gold. More workers would be nice. The Incan city defenses might be tough-they have Saltpeter.

 

[Dave the Monkey]

Thanks for the tips.

I do tend to micromanage workers and cities- I have never used governors or automation. I also do trade a lot, but maybe give tech away too cheaply.

I began a new game on Regent level yesterday with the Dutch and began on a fairly large continent shared with the Mongols. From my previous attempts at Regent level, I knew only too well that it would only be a (short) matter of time before the Mongols rampaged through my territory. I therefore built a sizeable army of archers, warriors and swordsmen and went at them before they had a chance to get at me- this went totally against my usual playing style, but alas it was successful. I've knocked the Mongols back to 2 cities and also expanded into another large island close-by. I'm in the late middle ages and am top of vitory points by some way- this one's looking good !

 

[JackRules]

I also have just moved up to Regent (won my first game via spaceship and lost second after terrible tundra start). I'm now playing as Sumeria (note: bonehead move of the month-thought I could do a warior to sword mass upgrade with Enkidu Warriors!) and have wiped ot Korea, Babylon, England, and crippled Aztecs and am about to go overseas to tackle the Hitites and get my first domination win since Warlord! I could easily get to space from my current position, but I need to get over my fear of war on a grand scale. For me, the jump has been pretty successful because:

1) GK2 Training thread - there is a ton of great info there.
2) Concentrating more on military and less on building infrastructure early on.
3) More aggressive expansion phase.
4) More micromanagement of cities and workers.
5) Better trading
6) Patience! This has always been my weakness...Learning to hold my own early and then surging ahead later in the game; not writing my game off just because I'm not the leader of the pack early on.

I've always been a builder at the expense of more military early on, but I think you really need to get strong militarily to keep those other guys off your back before getting your cities revved up for production later on. Now if I can just figure out how to win on Monarch!