What's the difference between Monarch & Emperor?

[Micky Onimusha]

Righto, it's a step we all have to make at some point .. and I'm getting owned .. a lot. For example, I just managed to lose my Capital to one Barb spawned by a hostile Goody Hut - but that's a humiliating story for another day (in all fairness, I thought my city defender would've won - defending a hilled city behind a river - but the Barb Orc had Combat III so maybe it was a more even battle than I had anticipated .. regardless, that's a 0 in my hall of fame .. I don't know whether to take it as a cautionary tale to never explore a goody hut with a Warrior or accept it as just dumb bad luck)

Anyway, I'd like to clarify what the differences between Monarch and Emperor are. I know there was a list somewhere but I don't know recall where - all I remember is that Monarch is when the AI and player play on even terms and after that, the AI get advantages to compensate - needless to say these advantages are doing a good job of making me feel like a big fish in a bigger ocean with krakens and other nasties in it.

 

[Lone Wolf]

all I remember is that Monarch is when the AI and player play on even terms and after that, the AI get advantages to compensate

Noble is as close to equal as you can get.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

The one huge difference is that on emperor, the AI starts with a free worker.

Then there are a bunch of really small things, like slightly cheaper build and research costs, a little less war weariness, a little less unit maintenance, an extra warrior and an extra tech at the start, a little more free EXP for units (but not enough for an extra level out of the gate).

 

[Micky Onimusha]

I guess starting with a free worker might be the difference maker. 10-15 turns + the speeded up growth (and I'm guessing they get some free happy points too so it can grow some more)

@Lone Wolf - I thought Monarch was when Human and AI were equal =S

 

[Micky Onimusha]

The difference between Emperor and Monarch ... Auric really is a god on this mode

I played better this time around as Rhoanna - a gal I'm more familiar with, unlike Hannah. Warcryed early, took a Sheaim city and the Grigori capital (I got a real bonus from the Bard/Harpy event getting me right next door to them so I could see when their garrison was weak), but in the corner of my eye I had my eyes on my other neighbour; Auric, whose score was double mine. Around turn 130 he declared war on me, took my Grigori "second best city" - a lucky break with the "Peace" event came along and bought me 10 turns to get Archery but he walked over my newly promoted Warriors with Cata/Axemen/Javelins and took my Capital and my third city with just two casualties.

All I can do now is turtle in my final, weakest (location wise) city right by the Sheaim. I've managed to get a decent Garrison of Archers - but ... I'm doomed. My score: 374 - Auric: 2354 - he did say to me I didn't deserve to see him ascend to godliness; and this rate I won't. He's taking his time decimating my final city; I'm not sure why. He has the same stack o' doom. Maybe he sees how crappy my city is and doesn't think it's worth taking

Edit: Oh that sick sick bastard - revenge is served... on really toasty undead zombies. He let the Sheaim take my last city - their city from 100 turns ago. I feel so.. owned. I went down with dignity though! I killed one of Auric's Chariots the turn before I was wiped; a bit of pay back...

 

[Breez]

newp Noble. Everythign after that they start to get advantages

 

[Turinturambar]

They have advantages even on noble.

Compared to a human, buildings cost only 85%, upgrades cost only 25% and they get a 25% bonus vs barbarians. In addition they pay only half for units outside their borders, get only half the inflation of the human player and get less war weariness.

 

[Secret_Squirrel]

If someone could summarise the advantages/disadvantages of every AI difficulty or provide a link to somewhere where its already been done, that would be great.

I have also always wondered what happens in multiplayer when players pick different difficulties.

 

[readercolin]

in multiplayer the AI gets the benifits from the lowest chosen human. I have discovered this by choosing emporer or deity (was playing with the sidar - of COURSE I want you to attack me with gigantic SOD), and my GF choose noble - her usual difficulty. From all appearances, everything was the same for her as for me, and the AI acted like it was playing at noble difficulty.

Now, there might be some advantages that they get. I didn't see any signs of it however.

-Colin

 

[Thrar]

I don't know if they changed in FfH, but I'm fairly sure that in vanilla Civ the multiplayer AI always plays at Noble difficulty (i.e. no difference from the player).
Choosing a difficulty setting in MP only affects the player's handicap. On low difficulties, you'd get health and happiness bonuses while on higher levels you'll be disadvantaged instead. It also affects how much money you have to spend on stuff like civic upkeep, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Sephi]

AI gets all handicap advantages in MP. I don't know though if they use the lowest human player setting, or an average of them.

 

[Tasunke]

nah, if some one chooses diety, and the other one settler, you can guarantee you will not see a single barbarian unit, or even a remote effort on the AI's part.

 

[popejubal]

The one huge difference is that on emperor, the AI starts with a free worker.

In regular CivIV, everything below Monarch starts the AI with scouts/warriors.

At Monarch, they get an Archer and the Archery tech for free as well. This significantly increases the amount of military you need to build in the very beginning of the game if you want to take out the AI's first city.

At Emperor, they start with a free Worker.

I've actually found some Emperor games to be easier than Monarch games exactly because of this. If I can use my initial warrior to steal the AI worker from a close neighbor, that will slow them down quite a bit while turning me into a blazing speed demon of fury and wrath. I'm not going to be taking out their city especially soon, but I don't need to since I now have a free worker. I'm improving tiles 10 turns earlier than I would have otherwise and my city is growing for the first 15 turns instead of pushing out a worker. Worker first is absolutely the right move to make in regular CivIV (unless you start with Fishing and a seafood resource), but warrior first with a stolen neighbor's worker is even better if you manage to make it happen.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I don't know if it's just the mods I'm using, but whenever I play FfH these days AI workers always have 1 or 2 warrior escorts on top of them, even in the really early game.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

Wild Mana and FF, I guess?

 

[heisenberg]

actually, one more big leap in emperor is the fact that AIs start with enuff XP for 2 promos instead of 1 in monarch.

 

[Sephi]

on emperor AI starts with 4 free XP and no free worker. (only immortal starts with one)