Trying to make transition to Monarch level...suggestions?

[Hokie13]

Greetings all---I've been reading these boards for a while but this is my first post.

I've beaten Civ3 on Regent level a few times and moved up to Monarch...I'm in my second game and it seems the transition is much more difficult than I had in going to Regent.

I normally play Large worlds, random on the continent set-up.

In Regent games I was always quickly in the science lead and stayed in the front of the tech learns. I'm definitely having problems with this one.

Do you guys put libraries, universities, etc. in cities ASAP to resolve this? My first build in a city is normally a temple followed by a library (other than a couple with granaries that spit out the settlers to expand). It seems like I just can't either keep in front in science, or I just can't afford to keep the nation running. I know that you have to find people to open up trading avenues, but when I come across someone it seems like they are already so far in front of me that I can't catch up.

I know, this is pretty general, but this site is great and I didn't think it would hurt to ask! Thanks all,

Hokie13

 

[Abaddon]

temples shouldnt be needed. Grab lux's or increase your luxury rate.

Pump out tons of settlers n workers.

Be a wimp, cave into demands etc to avoid wars

all those citys get worked and suddenly you can start the bashings.

~EDIT:

!WELCOME!

~EDIT 2 : Min research until middle age.. get meeting all the civs you can and be the tech broker, get heaps of cash for later in the game rushings

 

[gunkulator]

There are quite a few articles on this site to help but I'm too lazy to link them.

At Monarch level you can't out-research the AI. You need to make as many contacts asap. If two civs don't have contact, you can act as a tech broker between them. Trade/buy a tech from civ A, sell it to civ B for yet another tech or gold.

In addition, you can't out expand the AI either. You need to build units, units and more units, preferably the offensive kind, and veterans too. This does two things. 1) The AI perceives you as more of a threat and will bully you less often. 2) You can use them to squash your neighbors. The latter point is key. You need to do more fighting and less building. Why spend all those shields building libraries when you can beat techs out of the AI so much easier?

Finally, some pointers on AI bullying. In general you want to give in - unless it's some AI far far away or across the ocean in the ancient era. The cost of the "gift" is far less than what you will lose in the ensuing war. Next, don't put yourself in a position to be bullied. Don't collects gobs of gold unless you're planning a mass upgrade. Don't connect 2nd and 3rd resources unless you trade them immediately. Build offensive units in preference to defensive ones. The AI values them higher for purposes of military strength.

 

[nullspace]

Gunkulator is right, at Monarch you can't out-research the AI just beacause you want to like you could at earlier levels. Even if you're larger and more developed, the AIs will trade among themselves and match or beat your pace. You NEED to get in on the trading.

Make contacts ASAP. Your very first units (warriors or scouts) should go out exploring to meet other civs. Not just one or two, you need more like 10 on a large pangea. Build curraghs too, even on pangea and especially on continents and archipelago. Don't stop until you've met everyone; suicide your curraghs and galleys looking for ocean crossings if you have to. Shields are better spent here than on libraries if it gets you a useful trading partner that noone else knows about.

Then trade. Buy a tech that some civs know, and some civs don't. Pay for it with tech, luxuries, or money. Tech and luxuries in particular are great payments, because you lose nothing when you give them away. If you explored well, you should meet several civs before anyone has discovered their first techs, so you won't be behind. Then take your new tech and trade it to anyone who doesn't have it, and can pay you a little bit. Anything more than a few gold is worth it, since you lose nothing when selling the tech (the AI will eventually get it anyway).

That's basically it, though it takes practice to do it well.

 

[Brain]

At Monarch level you can't out-research the AI.

That's not true. At Monarch you can out-research the AI with a good infrastructure.

The general rules apply here. Make sure you road every tile. Go get luxuries as soon as possible so that you can have as much gold as possible. Research the techs that the AI doesn't research and trade for the rest. Get early contacts in order to be able to do this. In Conquests, going for the philo gambit is a good play. Research the techs on the path to Republic. You can get lots of techs and lots of gold from the AI by trading goverment-related techs and the AI usually doesn't research that particular path. Obviously, switch to Republic as soon as you get it. Also, wait until more than one civ has a given tech before buying it, as monopoly techs are very expensive. Build a few fast defenders instead of stacking units in cities so that unit support is low.

That's all I can think of right now.

If you want to go for the Great Library, then a strategy that is generally accepted to work well is to play a commercial civ (starts with alphabet), research writing at the minimum rate of 10%, trade for masonery, start pre-building with the palace, then philosophy at maximum rate, then get litterature as your free tech and switch the palace pre-build to the Great Library. After that you can set research to zero and wait for the free techs to come to you. But at Monarch you shouldn't really need to do all this. This is more useful at the higher levels.

In addition, you can't out expand the AI either.

In many games it's quite possible to out-expand the AI, even at Emperor level. Learn how to make efficient settler factories.

 

[gunkulator]

Yes, you can out-research some AIs at Monarch but not all of them - at least not all of the time. There's a lot of luck involved with finding resources, goody huts, early luck in war and what traits your opponents have. Monarch level is as good a level as any to start getting used to not being the tech leader all the time.

Similarily, settler pumps are a great thing, but I don't always get one every game.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

I'm in a similar position as you are . Just started my first Monarch game, English in PTW on an island map (sorta... I plan to start a thread on THAT later). Here's what I did:

Rush my research to Map Making. When it took 40 turns to research a tech no matter what (due to city size, etc.), I had my research set as low as possible. However, whenever my cities progressed to the point that a higher reasearch rate was beneficial in turns to research, I had my science set at the max (100%)

Once I got Map Making, I backed off. Set my research to 0, and started raking in the money. Built a galley, went around the world and started buying techs and maps. Now, I'm one of the most advanced civs and still have a fair chunk of change for new ones. Granted, I will never lead with this strategy. But I was always annoyed at Regent that I never felt I could get enough gold out of my tech lead to make it worthwhile.

One other thing that helped was my barbarian setting. I set it to random, but I think I ended up with raging (don't know how to check). The only units I had were going back and forth through the grayed areas, finding barbarian camps and dispersing them. Getting 25 gold fairly regularly definitely helped keep my coffers full.

 

[vmxa]

CivBeast can give you the settings. So can Civ3MultiTool

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

u think regent to monarch is hard.Try monarch to emporor.

What I do when i start a new era is go staight for philosophy then literrature.Then sit back and realax and use that time to horsemanrush your neighbor.

 

[JG99_Korab]

There are quite a few articles on this site to help but I'm too lazy to link them.

At Monarch level you can't out-research the AI. You need to make as many contacts asap. If two civs don't have contact, you can act as a tech broker between them. Trade/buy a tech from civ A, sell it to civ B for yet another tech or gold.

In addition, you can't out expand the AI either. You need to build units, units and more units, preferably the offensive kind, and veterans too. This does two things. 1) The AI perceives you as more of a threat and will bully you less often. 2) You can use them to squash your neighbors. The latter point is key. You need to do more fighting and less building. Why spend all those shields building libraries when you can beat techs out of the AI so much easier?

I have done both

 

[JG99_Korab]

On those upper levels I pick a civ that starts out with alpahbet learn writing then philospophie then I get literature for free then I build the great library. Always works

 

[eldar]

Indeed, Monarch to Emperor is a much sharper jump than Regent to Monarch. Generally what works on Regent will work on Monarch because the production bonus the AIs get is not generally enough to counter their poor city management, and wastage of shields etc.

For example they have a city producing 15 shields after corruption; that still builds a Knight in 5 turns at Regent (70 shields) or Monarch (63); or a Med Inf in 3 (40 vs 36).

They still do dumb things like build a Settler and sit waiting for a city to grow to size 3....