Although I can play higher, I generally stay at Regent because I prefer roleplaying to optimal play. From little things to building colloseums instead of cathedrals when playing as Rome, to not conquesting my way out of boxed in starts if I am playing as a pacifist civ.
If you're importing luxes, you probably have good trade rep. Why not go for a Diplomatic victory? In that case, using that SGL on the UN would have been nice.After thinking about this I started a Monarch level game to see if I was actually telling the truth after all this time (all randomised settings on a small world with 6 opponents) and once again rolled a pangaea map as the seafaring Byzantines. I was boxed in and my peaceful expansion phase resulted in about 8 cities, 1 luxury and 0 strategic resources. It's the industrial era and I have a slight tech lead now, but don't see a victory condition here aside from a monumental grind towards domination (which I generally find a rather tedious task).
My personal highlight was using a GSL to 1-turn rush JS Bach's Cathedral in an otherwise pointless size-2 city on the edge of my territory, which as a result flipped an enemy city 2 turns later, and then a 2nd one ~6 turns after that.
A nice takeaway is that you lost significant population to disease and still have a tech lead at this level.That's pretty bad. I'm playing at Monarch/Byzantines/Continents. Not quite as bad, but every time I got close to popping another settler a town lost a citizen to disease (I was mostly in jungle) and that crippled my expansion ... happened 4 or 5 times. Even with my tech lead & few res/lux, I'm thinking of just tossing the game and looking for a better map to start on. Haven't decided yet.
True ... I'm about even with the Celts, but ahead of the others (Standard map). Still, my position is so ridiculously compact I think I'll just start over and try for a better position (and will go for 4BY or 5BY instead of 3BY ... way too many mountains in the way of everything).A nice takeaway is that you lost significant population to disease and still have a tech lead at this level.
The downside to that is that 2 civs have been eliminated, leaving only 4 left, and I would probably have to ruin my trade rep in order to become large enough to qualify as a candidate. I've (probably wrongly) calculated that I might have a slim shot at a cultural win, so I capitalised on my 1/2 cost universities and went for Free Artistry to get Shakespeare's Theatre. I guess I'll see what happens.If you're importing luxes, you probably have good trade rep. Why not go for a Diplomatic victory? In that case, using that SGL on the UN would have been nice.
Or, when playing as Japan, resist the use of firearms and hold onto Bushido as long as possible, as per my current game:Although I can play higher, I generally stay at Regent because I prefer roleplaying to optimal play. From little things to building colloseums instead of cathedrals when playing as Rome, to not conquesting my way out of boxed in starts if I am playing as a pacifist civ.
Japan is such a fun civ to use. One of my favorites cause I like to conquer most of time. Samurai are so versatile as well.Or, when playing as Japan, resist the use of firearms and hold onto Bushido as long as possible, as per my current game:
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While it is only 1772, the world has cavalry and modern infantry, yet I am persisting with samurai for as long as I physically can. Incidentally, that samurai army on the far right cut through 5 Mongol riflemen and cavalry to protect my Scandinavian allies, and the remaining dishonorable Mongols actually ran away back to Erdenet.
Overall the Samurai are somehow holding their own against all technological odds and it's one of the most fun games I've ever played.
I also suspect Emperor may be the highest suitable difficulty level for more casual players like myself who happily have city governors manage happiness etc to streamline the game.
I think we can promote this suspicion to common wisdom.