Why is Prince to Monarch such a huge jump

[mystyfly]

I never played a Prince game, now I play Emperor.
Difference Prince-Monarch:
2 Free Units less
On Monarch Barbs have full strenght
Prince AI: Extra Scout/Monarch AI: Extra Worker + Defence Unit + 1 free Tech (no extra Scout??)
AI Cost x0.9 instead of x0.95
Research x1.15 instead of x1.10
... and other small stuff

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About REXing:
Build many Settler ASAP (On Emperor I first grow to happy cap while building Archers) and block land to backfill. The new cities should start building a Monument first (if not creative). Work a 2F tile (if no 3F tile is available) and whip the Monument as soon as you reach size 2.

You don't need to wait till the Industrial era for an attack: Read one of Acidsatyrs games, he is one of those players who needs about 10 turns to build conjure up an army, leaving crippled cities behind but that new army instantly gained a few more cities. Meaning you can beeline Maces and attack with them if you like, you also can swordrush. Just watch your expenses carefully, F2 is your friend there.
Keep in mind that on Monarch, any game can be won without a single war. The more you REX, the less you need to be warring. Score doesn't matter. You can minimize that list by clicking on your name (I recommend that). It has a slight influence thought: If you're the scoreleader, the AI demands less tributes from you and give in more easily than if you're last. But it doesn't reflect the current situation.

 

[DMOC]

Prince to Monarch wasn't that hard. Monarch to Emperor I'm finding impossible.

Every level jump presents challenges, and it increases exponentially when you increase in difficulty level. Immortal to Deity is the hardest jump.

In order to advance a level, you must change some aspect of your game style. To the poster, my advice, is to pick a few of the strategies that worked well on prince and try to stick with them in monarch (pick only a few, not all of them. if you both axe rushed and tried to REX in prince and that worked well, do only one on monarch).

 

[mystyfly]

I forgot to mention the most important thing (me thinks) for improving one's game: Read read read. In this community, there are so many fantastics (fanatic ) Civvers who wrote so many good articles. Read your way throught the war academy. Read Walkthroughs. Check out ALCs (seems you already did). Here you'll find many more links (check out post #4, Miscellania, there are many great links) and read some of the SG games which can be very educational.

 

[BigDaddyOttawa]

I personally didn't find a big jump in between prince and monarch. But I did need to make adjustments.

One of my main changes was that in Monarch I needed a tech plan, which was beelining liberalism, getting nationalism free, while backtrading to fill in the banking line and beelining rifles.

once I got rifles I couldn't build a huge stack of city raider II macemen and then lower my research slider to upgrade them to rifles. I couldn't afford to get behind in tech by doing that, and it takes too long. So instead now I switch to nationalism and draft them instead.

I also discovered the power of the great library, which I never used to build on prince.

What victory conditions do you go for? A 20,000 point victory on prince really isn't that great for domination, but is decent for a peaceful space race or diplo victory.

I always beeline Literature and usually build the Great Library with a Great Engineer. An academy with GL plus library, university and observatory and some settled Great Scientists makes for a whack load of beakers.

Victory conditions for me are usually space race or diplomatic. I usually play continents, so getting a navy big enoug to move my stacks overseas is usually enough of a pain in the butt for me to go the diplo or space route first.

The top save game is a 25600 point diplomatic victory on Prince, Standard, Normal, Continents.

 

[mystyfly]

Do you want to upload a save now?

 

[TM Moot]

I struggled initially with the Prince-Monarch switch. I found I had to focus and specialise every city, also only build what was needed rather then every city having library/barracks/temple etc..

Pick a leader who fits your game style best and once mastered then move on to Unrestricted etc..

 

[raketooy]

A little off topic, but which mod that is?

 

[BigDaddyOttawa]

A little off topic, but which mod that is?

It's the BuG mod (Beyond The Sword Unaltered Gameplay) and I love it.

Let me see if I have an older Monarch save game and pop it in.

 

[BurN]

Tbh I found prince to monarch pretty hard as well, I played on prince for quite a while. But as soon as I really understood the point of the game and started steam rolling monarch, it went pretty fast from there on. I pretty much skipped emperor and went straight for immortal.

 

[vicawoo]

I think your happy cap goes down by 1. It also goes down on emperor->immortal. Pre-BTS, monarch they get a worker, which is almost like a 15 turn normal speed advantage.

 

[mystyfly]

Difficulty cap modifiers:

difficulty/health/happy

Settler/+4/+6
Chieftain/+4/+6
Warlord/+3/+5
Noble/+3/+5
Prince/+2/+4
Monarch/+2/+4
Emperor/+1/+3
Immortal/+1/+3
Deity/+1/+3

 

[BigDaddyOttawa]

Difficulty cap modifiers:

difficulty/health/happy

Settler/+4/+6
Chieftain/+4/+6
Warlord/+3/+5
Noble/+3/+5
Prince/+2/+4
Monarch/+2/+4
Emperor/+1/+3
Immortal/+1/+3
Deity/+1/+3

Well, from a health/happy perspective, there is no difference between Prince and Monarch.

So I suppose the AI getting a defensive unit, worker and extra tech off the bat really does have a major impact.

 

[mystyfly]

So I suppose the AI getting a defensive unit, worker and extra tech off the bat really does have a major impact.

The most important of these bonuses is definitely the Worker. One more (captured) Worker early can do wonders to your economy. The Def unit is just to avoid being rushed so easily. This is why Warrior rushed don't work. The free Tech is just the icing on the cake.

 

[JujuLautre]

Don't forget all these handicaps are for Vanilla and Warlords, and the OP is playing BTS

 

[mystyfly]

Don't forget all these handicaps are for Vanilla and Warlords, and the OP is playing BTS

what I posted in post #21 & #31 is BtS too

 

[paulthebug]

Reading through the ALC's, the concensus I've always read was to keep your first few cities fairly close together to keep the maintenance from being cripling.

Hi, I used to do that but now I try to settle as far away as possible to block AI expansion. I recommend you to read the "Justinian's University: Defeating the Deities" threat (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=242211) To hell with maintenance cost, u will recover later. Btw, I just finished my first emperor game last night.

 

[JujuLautre]

what I posted in post #21 & #31 is BtS too

Sorry, I couldn't believe this
I checked into the BTS guide, downloadable in the BTS forum, and it says the same as you (perhaps you take that info from here); since I was sure that was changed, I checked into my CIV4HandicapInfo.xml file of BTS, and it seems I was right. At least for some points (message #31).

I checked only the base happiness/healthiness, and they give 6/4, 5/3, 4/2, 4/2, 4/2, 4/2, 4/2, 4/2, 4/2 (which correspond to what I read somewhere, "the base happiness/healthiness are the same for all level, excepet the first ones"). I did not checked the rest though, did not have the patience; I hope you will forgive me

 

[mystyfly]

The BtS guide you mention, is this the Reference guide? This is where I took the data. I wanted to add this when I typed the caps out but it seems I forgot.
Caps: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond the Sword Reference Guide English Version patch 3.13 updated, page 74

 

[JujuLautre]

Yep, exactly the same as I looked; if you did not tell them yet, I will post for this feedback on the thread

 

[mystyfly]

you're free to do so