Tips before moving to monarch?

A

AnthonyIII

Warlord
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
290
Hey guys! Have you got any tips on which experiences on should gather from regent level and how many number of wins one should win before trying to make the next step? I want to make sure I am comfortable at regent before going for monarch. Also, are there some civilizations that will give you more valuable experiences over others? :)

Now I managed two Persian conquest victories, two egyptian domination victories and a french conquest victory. But I'm still not confident enough to try monarch.
 
Lots of open questions. By valuable experience I would save playing less than the strongest civs and win with two opposing VC's. Like maybe domination and UN. Cleo is not so easy to use on domination, so that is a good one to have.

Maybe archi and continents maps to see different tactics. I would think you are solid for Monarch with 5 or more wins on Regent.
 
In the beginning it is important to make diplomatic rounds almost every turn to catch up in tech. If you're playing on regent, chances are you're already aware of the importance of managing cities and workers directly, making sure every 'laborer' is working an improved tile.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. Vmxa, I will try Archipalego - I've now only tried continents and Pangea. I'd like to win a diplomatic win, but find that a lot of other civs don't vote for me... I guess trading is good here. I'll also look through the civs and try some easier ones, conquest with the persians doesn't feel like a "real" conquest! :D Those incredible immortals...

Smellincoffee, I've put a lot of work in understanding what tiles to work and city management via the War Academy and I also found a youtube-video that was quite good. I think maybe I have too much respect for the game, but it really is a lot to understand before one feels competent!

I'll try some more maps with weaker civs and then try monarch! :)
 
You could also try reading some of the "legendary games" threads in the stories and tales forum. Many of these games are SGs (succession games) played by players who still top the Hall of Fame lists. When I first discovered and read this treasure trove of great games I bumped myself up from a casual regent player to emperor/demigod very quickly.

You could also try playing multiplayer or a succession game with other players and watch what they do and ask questions as you go. Feedback from other players who have played with/against you can be a good way to improve your game.

Happy civing!
 
In addition to what's said above

If you beat regent you can also beat monarch. In my experience there is little difference between them. The only differences were:
1) A possibility that the AI will rush you on the very beginning, I usually gave in to demands until my attacking stack is ready, then they go to hell.
2) There may be some problems with getting ancient wonders and ancient research.
3) On continents/arch the AI counter-attack against invasion is much stronger because of free unit support (1 per city) so larger invasion force is needed.

Trading is not yet necessary after ancient, you can win in every way without a single trade and win diplomatically with one trade (build UN, eliminate all but 2 AI, make an alliance/MPP with the weaker of them and cause a war with the stronger, make the vote... It's working most of the time unless I ruined my trading reputation). If you aren't confident you may try winning culturally before the move to Monarch because cultural requires much different strategy. All other VC could be reached by achieving almost domination with a good tech lead, then there is no competition in space and diplo.
 
Wow, some really good answers there. I have some questions but I'll post them tomorrow as I've just played a concert and had a few beers too many. I live in Scandinavia so now it's like 4 o'clock in the night. Regardless, Civ3 forums is the first site I check on the web! :D Off topic, I find Civ3 to be terrible when hungover! Thanks a lot creamcheese and shl7070.
 
Alright, back in it... Creamcheese, does civ3 have a multiplayer where I can ask questions as you say? That would have been awesome. I have to get in on that.
shl7070: Hmm. Ancient wonders and ancient research have not been a problem for me yet, I normally keep research at 100% until I build a granary - which I build after two warriors, so it's the third thing I build - I then lower it to 90% and keep it 'round 80/90 for a good while. My biggest concern with research in regent was in the Middle Ages. Because of my huge military(when I think of it, I also built lots of temples)in my conquest wins I was falling awfully behind in research and had to keep the slider down to 10-20%, watching everyone else getting ahead of me. If I can't have a good research rate in the AA I guess I'll be in the stone age for quite a while, or I could build less units? But oh no, maybe not as AI gets one unit for free...
3: This doesn't apply to Pangea? If they get one unit for free pr city, it sounds like military victory is going to be very hard in monarch? Better go for domination or diplomatic?
I'll try to win a cultur victory in regent tonite, to see if I have what it takes to move up. And thanks for the tips on the articles CKS and aabraxan. I feel if I win a CV then read those articles two times, I'll try monarch tomorrow. Yeah! :D Great stuff.

PS! Here's the youtube video I was talking about. I found it quite good. Maybe it'll be helpful for others as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9Yg6hHEZ0&feature=related
 
AnthonyIII said:
Alright, back in it... Creamcheese, does civ3 have a multiplayer where I can ask questions as you say? That would have been awesome. I have to get in on that.
shl7070: Hmm. Ancient wonders and ancient research have not been a problem for me yet, I normally keep research at 100% until I build a granary - which I build after two warriors, so it's the third thing I build - I then lower it to 90% and keep it 'round 80/90 for a good while. My biggest concern with research in regent was in the Middle Ages. Because of my huge military(when I think of it, I also built lots of temples)in my conquest wins I was falling awfully behind in research and had to keep the slider down to 10-20%, watching everyone else getting ahead of me. If I can't have a good research rate in the AA I guess I'll be in the stone age for quite a while, or I could build less units? But oh no, maybe not as AI gets one unit for free...
3: This doesn't apply to Pangea? If they get one unit for free pr city, it sounds like military victory is going to be very hard in monarch? Better go for domination or diplomatic?
I'll try to win a cultur victory in regent tonite, to see if I have what it takes to move up. And thanks for the tips on the articles CKS and aabraxan. I feel if I win a CV then read those articles two times, I'll try monarch tomorrow. Yeah! :D Great stuff.

PS! Here's the youtube video I was talking about. I found it quite good. Maybe it'll be helpful for others as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9Yg6hHEZ0&feature=related
Click to expand...

I see the problem which is the medieval period. To research fast in medieval you need either of those:

1) Use republic government, build your non-corrupt cities with markets, libraries and aqueducts (and sometimes courts).I Generally use the early-mid medieval as a building phase and finish the warmongering at industrial. Generally I use 60% science and 10% luxuries during the era. With faster research you will be able to get most of the wonders- I suggest adam smith as a good idea to support the markets. Economics also enables improved wealth- the unneeded production can go to treasury and enable farther increase in science.

2) Stay in monarchy- keep the war going. If resistance is high (muskets)add some siege units to the stack, then conquer slowly and methodically with bombardment that will cause defense to be 1hp, then attack with medieval infantry (much cheaper to build then knights- if you have C3C). Usually the AI research is enhanced by trade, if you eliminate or weaken the AI research powerhouses (AI that have lots of commerce) you can extort them for technologies and slow the AI overall research. If only one rich AI remains it can't trade for techs and researches alone which limits the research rate. All other AI civs having nothing to trade will fall behind both of you.
While you make war use your corrupt cities as scientist farms- allocate as much citizens to scientists job as possible.

The free unit support is just support (no upkeep for those units), they still need to build the units normally, the amount of actually free units is three and are given at the beginning. Those units are usually warriors (science AI get 2 spears, militaristic 1 archer instead of that 2 or 1 of the warriors respectively) so that can be countered during the expansion phase. The effect of the free support is that AI left alone will have more units then a regent AI but if you overcome them (AI use them for mad counterattack) the AI will be as defenseless as on regent.

For the beginning try to reach the following dates for age advances (assuming no accelerated production):
Medieval: 300BC-400AD.
Industrial: 1000-1400AD
Modern: 1700-1850AD

Most of the players here are much better then me (they play deity or sid, I just play emperor) and achieve better then this but it's enough for starters. It's enough to out-research the monarch AI by an age around 1750AD usually.

As example I post two saves from a monarch game although they are very substandard by vxma's standard
 
AnthonyIII said:
Alright, back in it... Creamcheese, does civ3 have a multiplayer where I can ask questions as you say? That would have been awesome. I have to get in on that.
Click to expand...

Look in the Stories and Tales--->Succession Games forum for cooperative multiplayer games, and look in the the Multiplayer forum for competitive games.
 
Though he didn't mention it, if you really understand vmxa's My attempt to make a tutorial for struggling Regent players, monarch should be no problem, either. The major difference I can think of is you might want to run the research at the low end for one additional tech before cranking to max. But if you heed the advice about the quantity of military units, checking with the military adviser periodically and building units when he says you are average, monarch shouldn't be too tough.

[EDIT]Oh, and look around for threads about granaries. Unless you have a really good spot, I think a granary is a waste. Last night's game, I built my first granary about the time I was building Modern Armor, so I could pump offensive settlers faster.

Seriously, even at Emperor, unless you have a great spot, I think those shields and 1gpt are better spent on something else.[/EDIT]
 
One area that has been touched upon here is trading, and I'll add a couple of comments. At Monarch and below, the AI will not have much to trade. Nonetheless, it's a valuable skill to practice, and can make higher levels much easier. Clever trading can provide significant income, in gold, resources, luxes, techs and workers. It's a good way to relieve the AI of theses things.

Workers are one of the areas in which a human player has a significant advantage over the AI. It consistently fails to build enough of them, and fails to use them well. I tend to aggravate that weakness by buying or capturing AI workers every chance I get. Try to keep 2 workers per city on hand if you can. This can get expensive and one of the ways that you can alleviate that is to utilize slave labor as much as possible, because slaves cost no upkeep. They work half as fast as native workers, but that ceases to matter if you keep enough of them.:devil:
 
I'm overwhelmed by the great response, really good tips and answers here. Up to now I've only really used Monarchy, even when not in a war. I played as Japan now and won(still regent), it was a new experience to try republic. Thanks for clarifying the unit-thing, shl7070. However, I was nowhere near reaching medieval by 300BC-400AD... Gonna try a different approach on that tomorrow. I don't care if you don't play deity, you obviously know your game and your post is excellent for me! :) I tried to open the saves, but got an error. Are they c3c saves? Or PTW/Vanilla?

Creamcheese, thanks I found them. Reading now.

Skullsplitter: I'll read the article and try to be more methodical with the slider. Really, no granaries? It might just be me, but I have read some threads and articles about granaries and seem to recall it's of vital importance to build a granary in one or two of your cities rather early on - to get a settler factory going? It is a lot of turns beeing used in the beginning on the granary, but doesn't it pay off well? I've gotten into building two warriors, then a granary in my capital always and then I try to get a granary in my second city early as well. No good?

Aabraxan: Good points on the workers there. I always try to build two per city and never automate them. I have a long way to go when it comes to trading though... Seems to me that while regent is about learning how to make the most out of every tile, settler factories and how to fight clever, monarch is much more about learning to balance your slider, have enough units while at same time getting ahead in tech so one can learn and master trade.

EDIT: Think I'll fire a one up, monarch-style, just to try. Edit2: 1600BC, I've got 4 cities, England 3, Egypt 5. Equal with Egypt on points, next settler in two turns. Bought Iron working off Egypt for communications with England and Alphabet. What do you think? I try to build cities cxxc. This is vanilla btw.
 

Attachments

AnthonyIII said:
I'm overwhelmed by the great response, really good tips and answers here. Up to now I've only really used Monarchy, even when not in a war. I played as Japan now and won(still regent), it was a new experience to try republic. Thanks for clarifying the unit-thing, shl7070. However, I was nowhere near reaching medieval by 300BC-400AD... Gonna try a different approach on that tomorrow. I don't care if you don't play deity, you obviously know your game and your post is excellent for me! :) I tried to open the saves, but got an error. Are they c3c saves? Or PTW/Vanilla?

EDIT: Think I'll fire a one up, monarch-style, just to try.
Click to expand...

The saves are C3C (civ 3 complete). I tried to show two elements
1) Horizontal research- I researched medieval techs from monotheism to economics without researching even engineering, I hoped to trade for the other or at least to use the lower costs of known techs mechanic to get the rest quicker.
2) Invasion stacks (on continents), I used 15 full galleons landed at once to strike at the strongest AI core. Later war weariness stalled me for two occasions but in each war I gained several cities until I had tanks. The moment I had tanks I disengaged from my artillery stacks and having 6 luxuries stopped caring about war weariness.

The AI made the fatal mistake at the beginning of over-expanding without making much roads. I built 6 cities and started gathering a 20 archers stack which made strike on their capital and core. At that stage they couldn't bring reinforcements because lacking roads and the reinforcements arrived unit by unit and were destroyed. Later before almost wiping them I extorted all their techs, then waited 20 turns and finished job. This strat is viable even on Emperor most of the time. If out-expanded on monarch you can concentrate resources towards an offensive stack and then strike at the core (and capital), their only infrastructure is there and with loss of the core they are doomed and you gain the needed space for your own expansion.

Regarding your save: I opened it and found something that I believe is a mistake.
You have 3 cities building temples, two of them are size 3 (Persepolis,Suza) and can build settlers
You should switch them to settlers or better reload earlier save and set them to settlers. The third city (Pasargadae) can't grow past two. To make it grow you need to build a worker there and irrigate the plain squares near it (chop the forest)- I suggest to finish the temple before building a workers as there is a flip threat. If you need happiness increase luxury rate to 10%, better research literature and build libraries for culture if needed because for Persia they are cheaper then temples. After settling the southern river basin connect the Iron, build swords and strike at their capital which is near Pasargadae and clear the Egyptians off the map, until you are ready yield to every demand, after you are ready you will exact a retribution for their every deed.

Meanwhile pull the archers in, they can weaken the chances of a flip and are less vulnerable to a sneak attack. Also I believe researching mapmaking is also not the best- the map seems like Pangea or continents, better research literature and trade it with Egypt for Mathematics or research mysticism-it's fast. You don't have horses so you don't need horseback riding either. If it was C3C I would suggest philosophy but since it's vanilla there is no point for that.
 
AnthonyIII said:
This is vanilla btw.
Click to expand...

You should definitely look to get Conquests/Complete if you can. PTW and C3C are great expansions and add a lot to the game. Also, a lot of the great mods and great advice pertains to them.
 
Shl7070, thanks for explaining the saves. I'll try to open them once I get back my conquest version, I've borrowed it to a friend. I have it, creamcheese! :) But I see where you're getting at. 15 galleys, that's nice and must have been quite hard work to set them all up! :)

Hmm... Yes, at least one of those cities should be building settlers. It not a mistake, because while my tactic on this try is early swordsmen conquest of Egypt(can't build immortals even though I have both Iron working and iron, must be a bug) I also like to lead on points and make my people happy. Thanks for the info on Pasargarde, I was not aware of that. Too bad I saw this a little to late, I would have switched to libraries and dropped map making - yes it's a continent map. Great info on the archers, gonna do that now. This is actually going much better than I can imagine. I've been using most of the tips from this thread and articles and now it's 110AD, I'm in the MA, 5 turns before monarchy, Egypt is demolished and exterminated, I'm way ahead of England in points and that's without Immortals, woho!! :D I'm very happy now.

persia110ad.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Sure can. I checked in the editor, persia has got Immortals there... I don't know what's going on. Maybe a reinstall will do. Gonna go to sleep and hopefully finish this tomorrow. Thanks again for the good tips, everybody! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Alternative campaign-The Russians
Replies
8
Views
903
kaskavel
K
S
How am I doing? (Monarch, Pericles, Toestra map)
2 3
Replies
55
Views
4K
pigswill
pigswill
K
Alternative campaign-The English
Replies
5
Views
763
Fergei
Fergei
trexeric
The Norse Thread
Replies
1
Views
359
trexeric
trexeric
D
Ukraine as playable civilization in Realism Invictus (instruction how to make it playable)
Replies
0
Views
265
Delagardi
D
Back
Top Bottom