From Prince to Monarch (a Tale of Woe)

[EncasedMeats]

Why oh why does this keep happening to me? I win Prince games with very little difficulty. I barely need to micromanage anything and I'm usually in the top two Civs, winning by Domination (or Spaceship when I have that turned on). So Prince is boring...I need to move on to Monarch, right?

But then I try my hand at Monarch games and get CLOBBERED! Every gol-durned time! I've tried about twenty of these and, so far, I can't make it through the early A.D.s without losing (badly). I notice that I do better the more I micromanage but I'm really stuffed for more things to keep my eye on.

So I guess my questions are

1) What are the exact benefits the AI Civs get at Monarch vs. Prince?

2) Is there any way to ease myself into this level (settings, cheats, etc.). I'm really getting frustrated!

3) Do I have to bite the bullet and try a full on SE? I've been having enormous success with a hybrid economy but, again, only at Prince level.

[jbp26]

Re: From Prince to Monarch (a Tale of Woe)

1) depends on which game, vanilla/warlords is totally different than bts

2) playing with more civs makes the game easier, and no tech brokering if you have BtS. another way to ease yourself in is play prince with aggressive AI and raging barbarians.

3) you can beat monarch and above without using a SE.

[Blake]

What I'd suggest is varying the settings you play on at Prince level.

For example highlands gives a completely different play style (especially with raging barbs)
Also mix up the traits you use, and try to make use of the traits (ie if you tend to ignore Great People, play Philo and focus a bit on GP's).

Once you've got more experience with different facets of the game, you can move up a difficulty, initially using more familiar settings... (like the maps and traits you have the most experience with).

That tends to be the best way to learn - varying settings rather than increasing difficulty.

[Elhoim]

Yeah, it happens exactly the same to me... But I'll play in monarch with no tech brokering, and try to get better. Besides I always catch up later in the game.

[EncasedMeats]

Excellent advice, one and all!

Can't believe it never occurred to me to just ramp up the difficulty on Prince to give myself a challenge. Doh!