Moving up a level...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Alright, I can kick the AIs ass on Noble fairly thoroughly. I'm ready for something tougher. I'm thinking of skipping Prince and going straight to Monarch, so that I'll be forced to abandon all my bad habits instead of just some of them. (And if I get my lunch handed to me a few times, Prince will seem that much easier when I retreat ignominiously to that level.)

My question: What settings (I have the vanilla game, not Warlords) should I use to make the transition easier? I normally play on big maps, but will that just make it easier for the AI to expand while I'm constrained by cashflow considerations?

My typical gameplay style is to get 4-6 cities down fairly fast, have one early war for some lebensraum, and settle into builder mode with 8-12 cities until Cannons/gunpowder (and enough of an economy to pay for my conquests). I'm a cottage spammer and do a pretty lousy job of focused GP generation (my GP cities are always polluted with undesirable GP points, in other words). I'm fairly adept at slaving, but am not much one for slingshots.

I figured Rome for the Praetorians, but suggestions as to map size/type/game speed/number of AI/etc are what I'm looking for. Suggestions as to a better Civ to play are welcome, too.

[Solver]

Don't skip straight to Monarch. Instead, play a tougher Prince game - that is, Prince while NOT playing Rome, perhaps Highlands or Lakes as a harder map type.

The Prince-Monarch jump is a fairly big one. The AI gets a free Worker and some real bonuses on Monarch, so even someone who's comfortable with Prince can get his ass kicked at Monarch easily. I'd recommend you try a couple Prince games first

[LDiCesare]

I concur with Solver. The difference between Prince and Monarch is a very big one. Take a few Prince games before.
I couldn't play big maps till recently so I can't really comment on these. I find Inner Sea/Mediterranean type maps rather hard myself so you may give that a shot. Highlands is definitely a hard map type but I find it too ugly for my taste.

[DaveV]

I like highlands. You'll get a chance to see the higher-level barbs at work, the AIs probably won't be able to box you in at the start, and you don't need to worry about naval stuff. I like Russia (Catherine) or the Incas - financial can really help bring enough commerce so you can do at least a little research. Aggressive is handy for fighting off the barbs (and, later, the AIs), and Creative is good for staking out some land. The starts can vary tremendously in quality, though - you might start in the middle of tundra or the middle of jungle.

[mkorin]

I play a Prince until I am destorying everything, level up to Monarch, realize I'm getting my a## handed to me and I am no longer enjoying the game, thus I go back down to Prince and try new strategies until I'm ready again. Going to try the jump again, next week. You'd be nuts if you go from Noble to Warlord.

Mike

[Pinchak]

For higher level single player games I find using Washington helpful.

His traits (carasmatic and expansive) give free happy faces and health, which actually becomes an issue at the higher levels fairly early on.

[Robert]

Ah, c'mon, people should take much larger steps!
It doesn't matter if he loses big time a few times on Monarch. You learn more from losing games then from winning games.

I play at Immortal level only because I dared to play games where I lost all the time. Playing games where you win eitherd easy or barely aren't fun. It's much more fun if the game is really challenging.

I'd say: move to Emperor

[LDiCesare]

Washington helpful.

His traits (carasmatic and expansive)

Not in vanilla. Charismatic is Warlords only. Still, Washington is nice in Vanilla too.
CyberShy: Some of us get beaten on Monarch, I don't need immortal to lose.

[Swiss Pauli]

Re: Moving up a level...

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
Alright, I can kick the AIs ass on Noble fairly thoroughly. I'm ready for something tougher. I'm thinking of skipping Prince and going straight to Monarch, so that I'll be forced to abandon all my bad habits instead of just some of them. (And if I get my lunch handed to me a few times, Prince will seem that much easier when I retreat ignominiously to that level.)

My question: What settings (I have the vanilla game, not Warlords) should I use to make the transition easier? I normally play on big maps, but will that just make it easier for the AI to expand while I'm constrained by cashflow considerations?

My typical gameplay style is to get 4-6 cities down fairly fast, have one early war for some lebensraum, and settle into builder mode with 8-12 cities until Cannons/gunpowder (and enough of an economy to pay for my conquests). I'm a cottage spammer and do a pretty lousy job of focused GP generation (my GP cities are always polluted with undesirable GP points, in other words). I'm fairly adept at slaving, but am not much one for slingshots.

I figured Rome for the Praetorians, but suggestions as to map size/type/game speed/number of AI/etc are what I'm looking for. Suggestions as to a better Civ to play are welcome, too.

Your approach seems tactically sound. The only concern I have is that you don't articulate which victory you intended to play for. Without an overarching goal then there's the danger of distraction (focus on nice to have, not need to have, items) which has more impact the higher the difficulty.
(I guess this thread should migrate to the strategy forum.)

[Robert]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
CyberShy: Some of us get beaten on Monarch, I don't need immortal to lose.

I didn't say everybody should play at Immortal
But I advise people to play always on a level were winning is not a usual, or even a rare, thing.

[Pinchak]

Not in vanilla. Charismatic is Warlords only. Still, Washington is nice in Vanilla too.

Good catch. I don't even know what Washingtons traits are in Vanilla.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Re: Re: Moving up a level...

Originally posted by Swiss Pauli

Your approach seems tactically sound. The only concern I have is that you don't articulate which victory you intended to play for. Without an overarching goal then there's the danger of distraction (focus on nice to have, not need to have, items) which has more impact the higher the difficulty.
(I guess this thread should migrate to the strategy forum.)

That's the thing. I generally win domination victories on Noble. Which isn't really a victory at all.

I've only played a handful of games (1 on Chieftain, 2 on Warlord, 6 or 7 on Noble). I haven't even participated in a space race yet. I recall building the UN in one game and voting myself the winner - that was boring. I came close to a culture win once, but dominated first. But since I haven't really come close to losing yet... I figured a big jump might be worth trying.

Since I appear to be a megalomaniac bent on world domination in most of my games... what are the "nice to have"s that I should avoid?

[Swiss Pauli]

Re: Re: Re: Moving up a level...

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
Since I appear to be a megalomaniac bent on world domination in most of my games... what are the "nice to have"s that I should avoid?

Great Wonders are a distraction for the warmonger. Religions, too. Both can be conquered and their benefits (often) enjoyed. Blake's comments in this thread sum up the warmonger strategy very well:

http://apolyton.net/forums//showthread.php?s=&threadid=165139

[DaveV]

Rather than move up to Monarch, I'd recommend jumping to Prince and installing the BetterAI mod. The AI places its cities and workers a lot better, and provides a much better opponent overall. I learned a lot by observing where the AI put its cities, and even where the blue circles appear.

[Solver]

Oh yeah, definitely install the mod. How could I forget to mention it The Prince AI will be approximately as challenging as Monarch used to be...