Looking to graduate from regent to monarch

[bjsiders]

I've been playing on regent and I recently kicked butt, barely. I play with all Civs on, all random, huge world, highest aggression for barbarians, everything else on 'average' setting.

I won on regent, but barely. I had about 2 techs left to finish my space ship when all hell broke loose. The ENTIRE planet had been completely peaceful for about 4000 years. There was one war early on and NOTHING for the rest of the game except what I instigated. Then in about 1850 or so, the world erupted into war, and I got the hell nuked out of me. I managed to finish my ship and launch it and win, but it was close.

Now I'm trying to graduate to monarch, without much luck. My basic strategy is to found my city immediately, unless there's a compelling reason not to (e.g., luxury nearby, or cows or something), and then make 1 warrior and start exploring with him. I usually go for the huts, hoping for tech, and after about 3 warriors I can make a settler, who founds my second city and starts the same process all over again.

The problem is, by the time I have about 4-6 cities, the AI has 10-15 and is well into the feudal period, has built almost all the ancient wonders, and I don't have libraries yet.

I usually set my science slider to 20% until I get 1 tech then max it out to catch up. This works well in Chief, warlord, and regent, but it's not getting me anywhere in Monarch.

I'm just getting out-grown and I'm not sure how/why. I see people just trounce Emperor games easily.

Some tips for managing Monarch/Emperor games would be terrific. If you have specific questions on my strategy and what I do, please ask, I'll try to answer so you can figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[Aqualung71]

It's a bit hard to give too much specific advice without seeing a save game - if you can, post one here....probably around early AD's would be good.

Generally though, it is often better to sacrifice the early settler or two for a Granary, which will provide faster future growth than without it. This will mean you will fall behind the AI in terms of size in the early game, but is usually well worth it as you can grow faster and pump out settlers faster later. Also, early workers are very important, since you want to make sure your tile improvements match your growth. You don't want to be working any unimproved tiles, as that stifles both research and production. One way to assist this is to use reasonably close city spacing so tiles can be shared between towns. If you're having trouble building enough workers, try using an Industrious civ.

Meeting and trading with civs fairly early is also important for keeping up in research. I see you build early warriors for exploration, so you're probably already doing this anyway.

As for wonders, the higher you move up, the more difficult it will be to snare ancient age wonders. If you have your heart set on one, you should start a pre-build of a palace or expensive improvement before you get the wonder-enabling tech and then switch over later. However, wonder building in the early game really just ties up your most productive cities and prevents them from producing what you really need - settlers, workers and defenders. At higher levels, wonder building needs to be very selective. The Pyramids is an obvious choice, but difficult to get at higher levels since it becomes available so early. Don't use entertainers if you can help it. Use the luxury slider to keep them happy, which will be more effective if all your city tiles are improved. Rivers and gold hills are expecially useful for this.

That's just some general thoughts. Post a save or at least a screenshot and someone will have a look and give you some more specific advice.

[vmxa1]

Yes an easrly save is useful. We can then see what the cities look like and the land. What the spacing is and how the improvements are handled.

It is often the case that players will have quite wide city spacing and a lack of workers. This will make you under productive.

A bit better management is needed to do well at Monarch.

[vmxa1]

BTW I should have mentioned that when you get to the end game, the AI has little choice but to come after you.

It does not make sense to sit around while you launch, if it has any options.

[bjsiders]

Well I re-read some strategies here and tried my hand again. This time on Monarch, maximum barbarian aggression, all civs random. So far, so good. Started out and bumped into the Aztecs almost immediately. After trading up some techs I let them build the Great Wall and then took Technochtitlan, then raided most of their cities easily. I didn't have iron, so my Gallic swordsman wasn't available, I had to do it with archers and horsemen. I finally got some iron during the final strokes of the war and finished them off as I entered my G.A. Little earlier than I would have liked, but oh well.

So far I'm the #1 Civ, although the Iroqouis are next. I never once have played a game where the Iroqouis were not one of the top 3 Civs throughoug the entire game, or until I crushed them.

[vmxa1]

Well I guess we will see. One of the things that can happen is the AI will trade each other and if you do not get your empire under control, they will jump past you in the next age, when research gets more expensive.

[bjsiders]

Well I've got the Greeks and Iroqouis nearby. The Iroqouis are the #2 Civ, I'm going to need to deal with them quickly, probably as soon as my G.A. is over I'll build up and move in on them.

The major thing I did differently this time was to build more workers and go to war early. I almost always avoid war as much as possible and don't build up enough military.

[bongo]

If everything else fail, start a war

Well, a ill-timed war might as well get you killed, but those who win on sid(I'm not one of them) win because the AI cannot handle armies. They don't build them, don't use them and avoid them like the plague if you got them..

Nuff said about armies. You can also defend the AI to death. After a war is declared he will often come at you with just about everything he got. Ideally you would have roads/positions/forces in place already. Normally though, you just fall back to strong posistions and awaits his arrival. When he gets there, pick them away one unit/stack at a time. Try to keep the frontline short, but not too short as the AI will concentrate his forces more(concentration of force is not something the AI understand very well). You need practice to get this right. Once you master defensive war you can easily force the AI into suffering losses 5-10 times higher than your own, even when on tech parity.

One way to win a war against a stronger AI is to declare war, take a few select targets before he can react, dig in and wait for the counterattack, wear down the counterattack with defensive war, then push forwards when his strength is exhausted and your own troops has gotten reinforcements.

[bjsiders]

I haven't gotten any leaders yet, so no luck on the armies, but that's part of why I wage war early - to get a leader and start some armies.

Normally what I do is expand quickly and then build up cities, but I think my big mistake was not using granaries. My civ didn't grow quickly enough and we couldn't keep up. I had thought that granaries weren't worth the time to make, same with workers. I was wrong A nice crew of workers has really made the difference.

[bongo]

A couple of granaries in select cities can work wonders, you also want tons of workers. I've yet to be in a situation where I honestly can say I have too many

Normally you would want 1-2 workers per city, but it largely depends on how you expand, develop etc.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by bongo
A couple of granaries in select cities can work wonders, you also want tons of workers. I've yet to be in a situation where I honestly can say I have too many

Having tons of workers can be a problem for a young C3C Republic in a modestly-sized empire. Without lots of cities and before aquas are built to assist with unit-support, hordes of workers can get very expensive at 2gpt each, and too many can slow up the early-middle-age research effort.

[bjsiders]

I have a 3-4 tech lead on the AI right now and I'm not even the biggest (i.e., most populous) Civ. I'm having to shell out techs to keep up some luxuries though, so I'm planning a few small wars to grab more land and secure some necessary resources (I don't have any saltpeter!)

I'd post a save game but it's going very well for me now, I may move up to Emperor after this game. Thanks for the tips! I wasn't focusing on individual city growth enough.

[Theseus]

Hmmm... again, please post a save, as we are all commenting in a vacuum.

My guesses:

At what size are your towns completing their Settlers?

What is your city spacing?

How many luxuries do you typically have by the time you hit 6 towns?