Tip for player moving up from regent to monarch

[Dida]

I have been playing regent for a while and it is getting too easy, so I moved up to monarch. I have only played 2 games so far, both I did poorly. I found out early expanion is more difficult because citizens are by nature less happy, and the barbarians are a lot tougher now. I used to be able to pick off barb camps one by one using a single warrior and fill my treasury with gold. Now I often lost units to the barbs.
Any general tips for moving from regent to monarch?

 

[Turner]

I had a lot of problems too. What I ended up doing was modding Regent to be harder. Took the AI to AI trade rate between Regent and Monarch, and gave them an extra settler and worker. I think I gave them the difference between regent and monarch in production bonus.

And just keep plugging away. Regent to Monarch as been my hardest jump.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Really? That's weird, because I found the Regent to Monarch change the easiest one to adjust to. I'm pretty sure there's no difference in happy faces for one thing.

The only major difference I found with Monarch compared to Regent is that you tend to get more wars, earlier. So it's a good idea on Monarch to prepare for war pretty much right from the start. If you don't start one, someone else will.

Oh, and you also want to be more careful with treaties, as AI care less about breaking a Right of Passage, and will take advantage of a Mutual Protection Pact to start a war which you will get dragged into.

 

[GR8Madmax]

My problem with the jump was that I didn't escort my settlers or have adequate defense in my cities. I've since made it a priority to do both on Monarch.

I almost never sign a MP pact any more. I also make sure I have all my cities decently protected if I have a ROP pact. The AI likes to sneak attack (ROP rape) and if you have railroads, this can bring your empire down in a single turn. In one of my Monarch games India used a ROP & railroads to burn my undefended capital down to the rubble. That was the last thing I expected from my friend Gandhi.

I make sure I only fight a war when I want to fight one. In my last game as the Ottomans (Monarch), I fought my first war with swords, second one with Sipahi and the final one with MI/MAs. I cruised to a space victory in that one and had the option of Diplomatic victory.

Give in to AI demands (tributes) even though it might hurt your ego. There is plenty of time for revenge.

Don't break deals as your reputation becomes important in higher difficulty levels.

Trade with the AI often, especially techs and luxuries.

My wonder priority is in this order:
Great Library
Hoover Dam
Theory of Evolution
Bach's or Sistine
Leonardo's Workshop

I only managed to build the Great Library and Sistine Chapel from that list in my last Monarch game yet it was a fairly easy win. The wonder priority also depends on your playing style, victory conditions (UN, Apollo Program), civ & map. I usually play on large continents.

Pick the civs that best fit your style. I prefer relegious, industrious, scientific, agricultural & commercial traits (for C3C in that order).

Govts: I go from Despotism to Monarchy to Democracy. I normally fight short wars in Democracy if I'm not a relegious civ. If I'm a relegious civ, I may fight longer wars by switching to Monarchy if I'm fairly small and Communism if my empire if fairly big (large and huge maps).

This is of course what I do and prefer. Others do things differently (a lot of people like Republic for long wars) so it's up to you to find what works for you.

 

[Oddible]

Great and thorough suggestions by GR8Madmax.

I would add that workers become a more important element from Regent to Monarch. Find a fertile spot, plant a city and make it your worker farm. Build a few workers from it, then a granary, then more workers. You'll barely keep up with your population growth. I'll often build a worker as the first thing I build from all but core cities.

Also, its nice to get Philosophy on C3C because you get a free tech if you're the first to research it.

 

[GR8Madmax]

Excellent point about the workers & Philosophy Oddible.

Another MAJOR point I forgot to mention is artillery. I used to never build catapults, cannons, artillery, etc. and my artillery to unit ratio used to be about 1:10. I thought these and defensive units slowed down my attack force. Now, I build them like crazy and have about a 3:1 ratio of artillery to units. These lil' buggers alone will win you games as they were a big factor in my ability to win on Monarch level consistantly.

I shell a city with artillery before I send in the attackers. I never attack a city that's size 12 or above and make sure to wait another turn to attack such a city if artillery failed to bring the size below 12. I also make sure I bring the defenders' helth to red (1 HP) if possible.

Same thing with attacking enemy stacks. I shell them with artillery and reduce their HP as much as possible before sending my units in. This way you have a chance of getting more Military Great Leaders since you tend to get more elite units with more victories. Always send in Elite units to kill enemy units that are down to 1 HP.

In my example of my last game as the Ottomans on Monarch (in my previous post), I combined swords w/ catapults & trebuchets, Sipahi w/ cannons & artillery w/ MI & MAs. I didn't get to the point of radar artillery in that game. My artillery & MI/MA counts when the game ended:

Artillery: 123
Mech Infantry & Modern Armor: 55

 

[Dida]

Thanks for the nice tip. I will try again with these advices at heart.

 

[Smellincoffee]

"The only major difference I found with Monarch compared to Regent is that you tend to get more wars, earlier. So it's a good idea on Monarch to prepare for war pretty much right from the start. If you don't start one, someone else will."

Yup. I tried a few monarch games. In one, the Germany declared war on me three times in 40 turns, and another AI tried to help them. I my second game, Greece of all people was a warmongerer.

Moderator Action: Smellin- I edited your italics tag. Try brackets instead of '<>'. Hope you don't mind.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[alamo]

You could just give in to the demands until you have established yourself. Once you build a SOD then take your revenge.

Was Reagent really too easy? Did you play random maps and civs, and try different victory conditions? Did you stop reloading?

 

[Gengis Khan]

I see Turner is jumping headfirst into his newfound abilities.

 

[Oddible]

I find the jump from Monarch to Emperor to be more significant than Regent to Monarch. Start an emperor game and suddenly your tiny civ is surrounded by hoards of ai all over the place - how do they produce and pay for so many military so early!

And true, in Monarch, I tend to build a stack of somethin' and hit my nearest neighbor before even thinking. Just to knock em back a bit - even if I don't take any territory, I'll just raze cities and stunt their growth a bit - makes 'em soft when I can afford to do the job right later.

 

[dgfred]

The problems I find on monarch are the tech advantage and the
AI always declaring wars on you for no reason. Regent is alot
more relaxing and fun for me due to equal tech research, then
I may turn up AI aggression to add more challenge. The jump
from Monarch to Emperor is much more dramatic.

 

[smallmoskito]

I've also just made my jump to monarch. i find it pretty challenging but I guess i could still put myself somewhere. check out my Chinese Feudal Empire in stories and tales!