Moving to Monarch

[rah]

Unless I'm spiritual, I rarely use Theology. In fact I can't remember the last time when I wasn't spiritual. And I think that was during a 12 turn golden age where I slipped in and back out at the end.

[wertyu70]

Thanks for your advice.
I went on with the game and now it's 1370 AD and I have just discovered Rifling.
I'm the tech leader but Justinian (friendly with me) is first in power and score and he has Chemistry and Military Science (but I have Printing Press, Replaceable Parts and Rifling).

I beelined to Education, won the Liberalism race and I took Nationalism.
Then I researched toward rifling, using tech trading to backfill.
Now I'm planning to attack Pericles (3rd in score and techs) with my rifle army using drafted riflemen.
I'm a bit scared he could become a vassal of Justinian during the war, then Justinian probably will run out with the game.

The other continents is tech backward (no religion, I'm sending a missionary now,
it's late but I got optics only recently) but Toku managed to get Ragnar as vassals
and got a big empire, now they are at war with Shaka which is the worst in this game.

I noticed to two other differences with Prince level:
- It's very hard to get tech parity with peacefull AIs, even with good tech trading.
Maybe things will be better later, but so far I find this game very challenging.
- It's very hard to get Power parity. Even if I'm constatly building some units, I have less power then Pericles and Justinian (and they are peacefull), I managed to keep them friendly/pleased and I think I saved my cities from their invasion.

[wertyu70]

The game is nearly over, my Rifle attack went well,
Pericles capitulated after I conquered two cities and his capital,
then I attacked Justinian as soon as I got cavalries.
In spite he had cannons, he didn't use them well (they stayed in a city)
and I managed to conquer his capitol with my rifle stack while my new cavalry stack conquered other cities in the border.
After his capitulantion, the game is won, the other continent is tech backward,
I think I will attack Shaka or Toku (Master of Ragner) with Tanks while they havent rifles yet.

About missionaries, I send one to Zulus and one to Vikings.
Both converted immediately but Zulus didnt spread religion, while Ragnar did, but only to his own cities, not to his master. And Toku didnt allow me to enter his land.
In the end I just got 4 or 5 gold per turn.

[wodan11]

Zulus don't build missionaries, you're right. I think it's programmed into their behavior. On the other hand, they will quickly and often convert religions, to whatever religion has the most in their cities.

[Blaupanzer]

Toku adopts Theocracy as soon as he has a religion. He almost nevetr opens his borders unless you and he are in a military struggle with some third party. Within the limits of the AI, he is as hostile and military-oriented as they can get. He is not as suicidal as Shaka or Montezuma, but he is much more closed up.

[rah]

Yeah, I hate it when he is blocking me when I found a religion. It's tough to spread if the only path goes through a civ that won't open borders with you. And the worst thing is you try to be nice and accept all his demands and crap, and it doesn't matter, eventually he'll come at you. But since he always does, when he declares is usually my signal to eliminate him since you're silly not to be prepared for it.

[slnz]

Connect your road network with him (or get Sailing + explore the coast if both of you have coastal cities), autospread works through closed borders and if yours is the first to get there he'll adopt your religion. Or just gift a tech or two for +4 fair trade and maybe a resource to get him to Pleased (that's when the idjit opens his borders).

[rah]

Just a religion isn't enough, and with tech trading off, it's hard to gift a tech. So unless you have a lot of extra resources, it can still be difficult.

[wertyu70]

Yesterday I finished the game, easy Conquest victory (my tanks vs grenadiers).

I learned a lot about Monarch from this game and the differences with Prince level.

It seems to me that all the difficulties are in the early stage, you need to recover the gap with the AIs, good tech trading is required, and you need to use diplomacy to avoid DOW. But after Rifle age the game is about as easy as at Prince level.

Today I will start a new game, I'm going to play Incas and try a Quecha rush (I never did it at Prince against warriors)