What's your favorite difficulty level for fun playing?

[Kumquat]

Monarch/large/60% archipelago warm/wet/5 billion
That is probably my favorite setting for a nice easy relaxed game. You can slack off, build any wonder you want most of the time, and pick when you want to have a war. Emperor isn't that hard but you need to be ready to go to war often and at the drop of a hat...I just feel like building stuff most of the time It really stresses me out when I find that my neighbor has something I need on Emperor because as soon as you find out you have to drop everything else you were doing then attack him.

 

[jlrsi]

Monarch/huge/70% archipelago cool/wet/5 billion
My favourite settings...MONARCH FTW!!

 

[Dumanios]

I don't play the game much...

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I play Monarch, with a COMPLETELY random map and RAGING barbarians (with the NoAIPatrol = 0 setting so that the Barbs are more challenging).....

I rarely, if ever, play the standard Epic game anymore... Mostly I play my Final Fantasy mod, Age of Imperialism, and other mods....

In scenarios and mods, I play the same difficulty level and try some challenging/unusual faction... I.e. the Boer Republics in AoI, the Malacca Pirates in Rise and Fall of the Mughals, the Aztecs in the standard Age of Discovery Conquest, etc....

 

[dexters]

mods are fine, but I think its fair to note that the game was balanced with the epic game in mind. So Monarch on a mod would be a lot easier or harder than monarch without one.

 

[Rodrig0]

Monarch as everyone. I like Regent, but I've played at that level for ages, so every time I play it feels like jumping back and makes me feel guilty. So I play Monarch, though I still haven't got any rapid expansion. I lagged on expansion even on Regent, now even more on Monarch. Though eventually it will all be mine.

Oh what the hell! I confess, I play on regent. I've been playing that for almost 3 years. And I like it. And don't expect to move up to monarch anytime soon.

(If anyone asks, I'll say they tortured me to make me confess , so it has no credibility)

 

[pickle]

monarch, huge, continents, normal, temperate, 4 billion, raging barbs with swords, 31 civs.
rapid early expansion at the very start is almost impossible, have to fight your way through hordes of barbs and only get a few cities down before further expansion means war

 

[Theov]

I voted regent, but then I thought "I beat that all the time" so I guess my fun level is monarch.

 

[Sicarius]

Normaly Regent, but if I'm really about to have a hard match, I choose emperor.

 

[DS_Legionary]

Emperor on any map type any start w/ random civ. I'll play Demi-god occasionally if I want a challenge, but I'm a bit more picky about my starting location (usually fresh water at the very minumum).

 

[Desertsnow]

Monarch, generally--sometimes Regent but more often Monarch. Standard or large map, and 70% water and continents or 60% water and archipelago.

 

[darski]

I still like my quick games so I play at warlord - pangaea - tiny - sedentary barbs.

My best finish by time was under an hour.

I used to be pretty good at Regent and did a couple of starts at Monarch but gave that up when I got Complete. I just can't seem to make Complete work and play well with others.

 

[Spoonwood]

I think you mean Conquests Darski. Complete refers to the packaging of PTW and Conquests.

 

[Sid]

Mostly Regent/60% Continents/Raging Barbs. If I get challenged by a particular mod/scenario, I might drop back to Warlord to get my own back.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Modified Monarch: I've got a .biq I've modded so much in the past five years that I don't know what it's like to play a standard game. Some modded elements make the game easier, some more difficult. (Scouts can turn into outposts, for instance, but barbarian secondary units consist of a "Horde" that is harder to kill than the average unit.)

 

[dexters]

Emperor on Large maps are a lot of fun.

 

[del62]

I think that a lot is dependent on the sort of game you want to play and the CIV you choose, a strong CIV and a good starting location means you can play on a higher level, the other thing I have found (at least on emporer) is that turning off goody huts means that you dont get behind on early techs, easily allowing republic slingshot

 

[Allacalander]

Monarch/large/60% archipelago warm/wet/5 billion
That is probably my favorite setting for a nice easy relaxed game. You can slack off, build any wonder you want most of the time, and pick when you want to have a war. Emperor isn't that hard but you need to be ready to go to war often and at the drop of a hat...I just feel like building stuff most of the time It really stresses me out when I find that my neighbor has something I need on Emperor because as soon as you find out you have to drop everything else you were doing then attack him.

I must be playing wrong. I've never found this combination easy or relaxed. I never take a breath, am lucky to get one wonder (luckier if it triggers a GA) and usualyl find myself hoping no one will attack me!

 

[bob rulz]

The Monarch to Emperor leap has always been a bit too much for me to overcome. I might be able to win an Emperor game given ideal circumstances but for the most part it's too hard for me. Monarch can provide me with a challenge but I'll still have a lot of fun playing unless I get terrible starting conditions. Anything below Monarch is too easy for me.

I also prefer playing on Pangaea large maps. Pangaea is a bit more challenging because the AI is more challenging at land than sea and it's harder to keep up in the tech race with so much trading going on, which keeps me on edge and alert. I also love watching the AI's fight each other and a runaway AI always provides a nice challenge for me to overcome (although playing a continents map and finding that 1 civ controls the entire thing is always fun). I don't like small or tiny maps that much, but lately I've been starting to play large or huge maps with less than the maximum number of civs (like a large map with 8 instead of 12).