Moving to Monarch

[wertyu70]

I'm going to start my first game at Monarch level, I'd like to get some advice from experts about what new difficulties I will face.
Now I can win easily at Prince (I just won with Incas on Earth18 map) but I fear a little the level jump.

Any suggestion about which leader is best for a first try?
I was thinking about Hatty or Gilgamesh, I got my best scores with them.

By the way, I usually play with Continents map, Large size, Epic speed and default settings.

[slnz]

The main difference is that the AIs start with Archery and some Archers so Warrior rushs are not going to work. Besides that they are just a little stronger in each area so well executed old tactics and old fav leaders will work for the most part.

[Ming]

Yeah... Prince to Monarch didn't seem like that hard of a jump. Yeah, it makes the early rushes a lot harder, but overall, the change isn't all that hard. Now, the next jump up above Monarch, that's the one that seemed like a big advance to me.

[rah]

Of course if you want to rush, try the incas

[wertyu70]

Well, I must confess I never did a warrior rush.
I think I'm going with Hatty and I will try to do a Chariot rush.

[Theben]

Gil works just fine at that level. Vultures are good at killing most archers with COM 1, and courthouses at Priesthood is just nuts. Of course this is probably why he always seems to do well as an AI.

[Blaupanzer]

If you do an Oracle strategy, you need it in 1 less increment to have a chance. On epic, If I go for it I generally make Priesthood my 8th tech on Prince, so maybe 7th on Monarch, gets lower to well nigh impossible as the difficulty rises. Gil's huge advantage is that you can choose MC instead of CoL and still have courthouses, and need fewer of those to be able to build the Forbidden Palace.

[wertyu70]

I started the game with Hatty and I'm amazed how well is going.
I shared my continent with Isabel (with me on south side), Pericles and Justinian (on North side).
I chariot rush Isabel, got Madrid and Barcelona (both Holy cities) and killed her,
then I expanded peacefully and got the south side of the continent.
I converted to Buddism (founded by Justinian) to share the same religion with my neighbours and keep them happy witrh me.
Now I'm researching Civil Service, I'm first in score, at tech parity with Pericles and
a couple of techs behind Justinian (Metal Casting and Feudalism).

By the way, it seems that so far all Religions are founded on my continents

Main differences i found with Prince level:
1) Barbarians: I noticed more archers. I could deal with them just because I have a nice number of War Chariot.
2) AI has more soldiers. Too many for me. Even if I have 10+ war Chariot, several Axemen and some Swordman, both AI have more power than me.
3) Overexpansion is harder to fight. I needed both Currency and Code of Laws to start recovering after expansion.

Could you please give me some general advice about tech tree at Monarch?
I read a lot about trying to get monopoly tech, but it is the first time I'm trying to really get advance of them.
Should I beeline to Education->Liberalism or going to Machinery->Optics and try to reach soon the other continent?

[wodan11]

You already discovered some tips about the tech tree. Currency and CoL are important.

Normally I'd say go for Education first but if you know all the religions are on your continent, then Optics is a better idea. Send just 1 missionary over... it'll spread that one religion all by itself, and you'll have a HUGE amount of free money coming in.

[slnz]

Like the AIs, barbarians start with Archery on Monarch+. This means that even the earliest barb cities are always defended by archers and a bigger portion of the wandering barbs are archers as you noticed.

[Blaupanzer]

If you are not using any mods, the barbs know any tech known by at least two other players, so them having archery is a no-brainer.

[Theben]

Normally I'd say go for Education first but if you know all the religions are on your continent, then Optics is a better idea. Send just 1 missionary over... it'll spread that one religion all by itself, and you'll have a HUGE amount of free money coming in.

MY games haven't had that occur. I've tried that more than once and what happens is the AI refuses to adopt the religion and nothing spreads until Astronomy.

[wodan11]

MY games haven't had that occur. I've tried that more than once and what happens is the AI refuses to adopt the religion and nothing spreads until Astronomy.

It depends on what AI you spread it to. Don't pick an AI that has Free Religion as preferred civic.

[Blaupanzer]

Creative and Spiritual civs are best to hit with a missionary first as both have internal mechanisms emphasizing culture. In most cases, they should spread it, at least to their own cities. I'm hard pressed to imagine any religious civic but free religion would be of any use to a civ without a religion. However, you should reach optics, in most cases, before the other continent is all the way to Liberalism, and get there with a missionary before they adopt Free Religion.

[slnz]

I'm hard pressed to imagine any religious civic but free religion would be of any use to a civ without a religion.

Theology can still be useful if you want to prevent someone from winning by AP. Theoretically Pacifism too for a SPI Civ for the lower upkeep with ultra-light military (in isolation for example). Then there's also favorite civics, Theo is pretty common, OR to a lesser extent.

None of this applies to the AIs of course though, they're not cunning enough