What should I expect on King

Prozac1964

Warlord
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I've been playing on Prince now for several months and I've had both a culture victory and a couple of dom vics. I'm thinking about moving to King level. I wonder what I can expect it to be like. In actual gameplay?

One example comes to mind. On prince a lot more prophets, workers and settlers got captured if they weren't escorted by a guard. That's just a small example.

What should I look out for in other parts of the game, and what are the key things to watch for e.g. happiness, gold, science etc. I'll want to win a dom and a culture vic.

Any ideas?? Thanks
 
Here are the differences between each difficulty.. Essentially the AI "cheats" and gets extra bonuses on King so you have to play more efficiently. If you aren't micromanaging your citizens, workers, build orders, etc then now is probably a good time to start.
 
War. Lots and lots of war. Long, tedious wars. Instead of the AI showing up with six units to attack you it will be twelve.

So you'll need to spend a LOT of time building military units. And money producing items to support them. So you'll find yourself falling behind in research, culture, wonders.

Yeah. Not so much fun to me, I'll stick with Prince.
 
War. Lots and lots of war. Long, tedious wars. Instead of the AI showing up with six units to attack you it will be twelve.

So you'll need to spend a LOT of time building military units. And money producing items to support them. So you'll find yourself falling behind in research, culture, wonders.

Yeah. Not so much fun to me, I'll stick with Prince.

Thank you Sherlock! I really appreciate the info. Wow, I thought I was already fighting tedious wars. I'm gonna try it and settle in on Prince too probably. It's my comfort zone. :D

Thanks again. :)
 
Sure, there are more wars on King, and the AI starts them earlier and brings more units, but it's not like you can't handle them. And I've had plenty of King games where I wasn't in a single war with anyone.

But there are exceptions--such as Shaka or the Aztecs starting near you, and the rushing you at turn 70 or so. Actually--I had a game the other night where Japan was near me, and attacked me early. And we had several wars, until I finally got artillery and DOW'd him and took all his cities except one crap one.

I find Prince too easy, and King is my comfort level. I can win on Emperor and have on occasion won on Immortal. But I like King level. Except when I lost to Venice last week (he got a diplomatic victory).

I personally think once you play a few games on King, that it will be your new comfort level. Challenging but something you can handle.
 
Generally King is similar to Prince except AI gets slightly higher advantages, I would say it didn't make too much differences. Some players might see more early wars, but if you got Shakas next to you, you will need to prepare on even prince anyway.
 
So you'll need to spend a LOT of time building military units. And money producing items to support them. So you'll find yourself falling behind in research, culture, wonders.
This was not true for me as I advanced up difficulty levels. I did not find myself building more units, I found myself using the few units I had more effectively. I did not running away with tech and culture like I did, but instead things felt more even. Yes, I had to give up Wonders through to the mid game, but that was really the only sacrifice. Had it not been for the necessity of passing on them, I probably never would have realized how marginal are most of the wonders.

Not so much fun to me, I'll stick with Prince.
For me, it is not fun unless I have a real chance to loose.

I find Prince too easy, and King is my comfort level. I can win on Emperor and have on occasion won on Immortal... I personally think once you play a few games on King, that it will be your new comfort level. Challenging but something you can handle.

Let me recast this:
I find X-1 too easy, and X is my comfort level. I can win on X+1 and have on occasion won on X+2... I personally think once you play a few games on X, that it will be your new comfort level. Challenging but something you can handle.

I submit that X works all the way up to Deity -- which explains why so many Deity players grouse about the game being too easy and focus on quick wins.
 
^^That's true. If I played more emperor, it might just become my new comfort level. And going up to Immortal, like you said. I was playing on emperor for quite a while, but I enjoy King level more.
 
For me, it is not fun unless I have a real chance to loose.

Well said beetle! I'm gonna just keep going slowly up in level and see how it plays out. I've come a long way from level 1...I think it's called settler..

Thanks for your insight.
 
I'm currently playing my first game on King and I find it quite easy. Not much different than Prince imho. Starting out was a little tougher and I had to catch up with the AI. But once I settled 3 cities I came up to speed and it's all good. I'm going for a Science victory but I'm already way ahead of everybody else, wiped out England and just started the Apollo program. I'm playing as Korea.

But I'll probably play my next game on Emperor.
 
Prince to King is actually not a very big step, not compared to the next couple steps up. I remember for a good couple weeks back before I started really playing seriously I would go Great Library rush every single game on Prince. I accidentally clicked king once without noticing, and I still managed to play the exact same game I would've on Prince.
There's not much of a noticeable difference from Prince to King, Prince to emperor is a more noticeable difference. Then each step after is noticeable. But if you really want to level up, maybe try a few games on King as sort of practice rounds and then bump up to emperor. The AI still doesn't carpet their lands on emperor, but at the same time you can't ancient era wonder rush and stuff like that, your game has to be a little tighter. Emperors the real step above Prince, then immortal and deity are both steps up from the previous level.
 
I'm also playing my first king game. It might just be me but I feel that the AIs start becoming smarter than on Prince, because as soon as I got a large boost in science from the Education tech and finished building a wonder or two, Carthage and the Huns both simultaneously declared war on me, as if they felt I was some sort of impending doom that needed to be dealt with. They were fighting against each other and made peace only 5 turns ago...
 
I don't remember the jump up to king being that much different so I don't think you will have much trouble adjusting. Moving up to Emperor however I found to be far more difficult and the amount of micro-managing needed exponentially increased.
 
I'm also playing my first king game. It might just be me but I feel that the AIs start becoming smarter than on Prince, because as soon as I got a large boost in science from the Education tech and finished building a wonder or two, Carthage and the Huns both simultaneously declared war on me, as if they felt I was some sort of impending doom that needed to be dealt with. They were fighting against each other and made peace only 5 turns ago...

As you go up in difficulty levels since the AI doesn't get smarter but gets bonuses which enable it to field a larger army and faster, and it is still constantly looks at your army strength vs. it's own, and if you appear weaker that's one red flag. Built some nice wonders your neighbors wanted? Another flag, built more cities than they each have? Another point against you :) Maybe you were an impending doom for them, how many cities and CB's (composite bowmen) or other defenders did you have at this time?

For king with no really bad AI nearby, 3 archers and your starting warrior should be good.

Beetles post is very good, sums up my game sort of; I hate giving up *my* Wonders on higher levels of difficulty, so try then fail to get them and the rest of the game is usually interesting but chaotic :crazyeye:
 
As you go up in difficulty levels since the AI doesn't get smarter but gets bonuses which enable it to field a larger army and faster, and it is still constantly looks at your army strength vs. it's own, and if you appear weaker that's one red flag.
To add ... when AI gets its Unique Units, it gets more brave. Its why Shaka gets in beserk mode when he get he's Impis.
 
Yes there will be a lot more warfare, and the AI will send a lot more units against you, bit you will still be able to beat them fairly easy even when vastly outnumbered. It's a nice way to get familiar with using the terrain to your advantage etc.

You will also, if I'm not mistaken, lose a bit of the bonus to combat strength against barbarians that you usually recieve. Been a really long time since I played on prince so I might be wrong here, but I think it will be a bit more difficult for you to clear barb camps on King. Nothing major though, it will just hurt you units a little bit more now.

And last but not least: You will lose way more wonders on King than on Prince. On prince you can generally get any wonder you like, while the AI can steal quite a few from you on King. This is also a very welcome change in my opinion since it makes for a lot more interesting gameplay in terms of planning out you tech routes, production orders etc.

I really think you should try to move up to King, and instead of focusing super hard on grabbing wonders and playing without an army you will now have to focus a little bit more on protecting yourself and your civilian units. As previously mentioned: Where's the fun in not being able to lose?

Best of luck and hope you enjoy moving up in the difficulty ladder!
 
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