Help with Monarch

[Golden Bear]

OK, so I have been a wimp all this time. I stuck with playing on Regent because I could learn and refine my strategies. Over time, I have come to favor the French as my civ of choice - only partly because of the sound the the Musketeer makes!

I decided to be a stud and step up to Monarch. First game went OK but since then, I just cannot keep up with tech development, etc. I am thinking about giving up my investment in tech and trying to make enough cash to buy techs. My question is about whether this strategy will work, and how to make it work. Can it work in mid game?

One of my problems is that neighboring civs are much more aggresive on Monarch. In my current game I started out next to the Zulus. I used my standard early game strategy of building horsemen to cripple them when they picked a fight (it is easy to get Zulus to declare war). Later, I was about to finish off the Zulus when the Egyptians, of all civs, up and declared war on me. In between, I had to fight off the Japanese (there is a race that I HATE to have on a continent with me). So I fought off the Egyptians and then had to surrender a tech to keep the Japanese from attacking me.

I just cannot seem to get that edge up. BTW, it still pisses me off (can I say that?) that 3 or 4 AI civs will swap every new tech advance but will not accept ANY offer from me. Tech whoring is still not right.

Anyway, I've read lots of strat posts, I have played this game from the first week it was out (no, really I have). I could just use some help with getting over the hump to competing on Monarch. I cannot imagine going back to Regent but I would like to win 50% of my games here.

One last thing. I have not posted in a long time because I have that work thing that gets in the way - I play CivIII on my laptop when I travel. However, it seems to me that the quality of the posts has really improved from a few months ago. The unreasoning whining is almost non existent (Yeah!!!) and the posts are, by in large, pleasant and instructive to read.

Carlos

[vmxa1]

Well I am playing a monarch game now and was strand on an island and could not make contact for a long time. One way to get by if you can not attack someone early is max out your shield production. I suspect many players automate workers or do not use them fully and maybe even do not have enough. Be sure to mine any tile that is being worked by a cirizen and not work tiles that are not worked, except to road out to a useful location such as the next city or a resource or lux. Do not irregate any tiles until it is the only way to allow a city to grow. That alone should get you more production than you are use to and allow you to adjust your sliders. At monarch I am not fond of doing my own research in acient times and will keep my science low untl I buy trade steal or whatever, enough tech to get close to the rest of the civs and then up my slider.

[Kingof the Apes]

Also remember that your reputation is one of the most important tthings in the game, especially if you want to turn of the science meter and buy techs.
Another tip is to try different civs. Who knows, You might find a civ who you like better than the French.
About tech whoring: leave 2 civs alone, dont attack them, and then get the Great library. After that, you can turn the slider off.

[Theseus]

Carlos, post a SAV.

[alva]

Please do as Theseus says ,
It's quite difficult to help/guide/hint from just a few lines of text.

Post a save, someone will take a look a it. And then maybe he can give some individual advise.
There are plenty of general tips/tactics/strategies around, just look around abit, maybe go back a few pages.

[Nemesis]

Take a look at Cracker's Civ3 Opening Plays Site at

http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/civ3_starts/

and see if you have to improve your opening game.

Especially on Monarch and up where the AI gets bonuses
you can counter that by beeing smarter and by getting
every worker-move and action right.

If you want to fight, I'm a peacefull builder myself, do try
to pick one fight at the time. Make it short. Capture one city
thereby cripling one Civ, lick your wounds and get ready to
pick another fight (oscillating wars).

Try playing on small or tiny maps to get a hang of it in a
fast way. Also try Persians and go for Ironworking. Their
UU will give you an edge. Or maybe try the Egyptians and
build quick temples to boost your culture. The AI tends
to be less aggressive when your culture is high.
The Egyptians are also quite suitable for your
standard early game strategy with horses btw.

Try to get the GL.

[Golden Bear]

Hi again. I can try to post a save. I am not really sure how. I am at work now, so I will give it a try.

Thanks for answering my rambling post.

Things have moved on in the game. I have used GLs for Sistine Chapel and Bach's Cathedral. My real problem is that my early game strategy of badgering the Zulu led to overexpansion. Being a big believer in geographic diversity and land area, I was reluctant to give it up.

I applied my previously stated idea of stopping research and putting it all into cash - about 420 bezants each turn. Guess what? The Indians and then the Egyptians started lining up to sell me tech at discount rates. What I have been doing (it is early Industrial Age and I missed Suffrage) is saving up a couple thousand and then researching my path for the +2 Techs Wonder (I forget which one that is- it needs Scientific Method). I just traded Electricity to the Egyptians for Wine and Spices, Medicine and some cash. Cities are all connected by Railroad and I am filling in around my core cities. I am still low on workers and have many acres of jungle to clear.

One of the things that I have a tendency to do is to put my FP out too far so that it takes forever to complete. I do not like the time, but I like the results because it has maximum effect when far from the main Palace. Anyway, the FP will be complete in about 7 turns, finally, now that I sent the railroad crews out to develop all the hills, mountains and farms around it.

I think that things have stabilized and I am on a path that may give me a chance to pull the game out. Perhaps my difficulty with Monarch is that I need to realize that I could actually LOSE once in a while! That is pretty much impossible on Regent.

Some details about the game - default climate etc., large map, raging barbarians, non-Culture linked starting, large continents. I may turn off goodie huts in the future because they are just too imbalancing. For instance, I hit about 6 tech huts and without them would probably never have caught up.

Carlos

[vmxa1]

Sounds like you are on your way. I envy you getting leaders, I have had only 1 and it came in 1940, now at 1956. Isolation hurts. Plus I must have turned off the traits as I never got to create Immortals and did not get a tech for age changes. At least I now have a few cities on another land mass. The US is doing its best to bomb and rush off the contientent.

[Laertes]

If you have an expansionist civ near you, you will be behind it in techs for the whole ancient age, as those scouts just run around like crazy tipping huts that are:

- friendly to them (ie more tech, no barbs)
- not available to you because they got there first.

Zulus, Russians, ENglish and I think Americans have this trait, so they are always a pain, and always war-like as well.

I have recently moved up to Monarch, and have been having mixed results, as you would expect. In Civ 2, you had to unlearn a lot of practices from the easier levels to succeed at Deity, and this game is probably the same (I just have not figured out which bits to unlearn!)

I have had a win or two as the French, but they have a late UU and the Commercial aspect does not start to pay off until you are in Republic, have lots of marketplaces and have built the FP, because then the money rolls in while the science gets cheap.

My experience is that you have to work a lot harder at the diplomacy, sop them off with minor gifts and excess luxuries at regular intervals, have a lot of military units prepared to defend against sneak attacks (usually 2/3 barracks cities spewing out nothing but defenders), a couple of cities always on palace/wonder building.

And I keep getting killed by cities growing into disorder, just my own indiscipline at micromanaging.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Fergus Horkan
I have had a win or two as the French, but they have a late UU and the Commercial aspect does not start to pay off until you are in Republic, have lots of marketplaces and have built the FP, because then the money rolls in while the science gets cheap.

After the commercial trait has been fixed, the French are incredibly powerful. As you described, being commercial and industrious becomes a cash mashine from the medieval age on, as soon as the FP and marketplaces are built. The lower corruption is a nice asset for the builder as well as the warmonger. In all of my games as other civs, the French are powerhouses. In my current game as the French, there's no powerhouse among the AI's. And the UU is not late, but comes right for the buildup of a good infrastructure (universities, banks) and some of the medieval wonders (Leos, Bachs, Magellans). Just don't waste if for unit building in a war, that's the worst you can do with your GA.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Fergus Horkan
If you have an expansionist civ near you, you will be behind it in techs for the whole ancient age, as those scouts just run around like crazy tipping huts that are:

- friendly to them (ie more tech, no barbs)
- not available to you because they got there first.

Zulus, Russians, ENglish and I think Americans have this trait, so they are always a pain, and always war-like as well.

The names listed reinforced my lack of respect for expansion trait. These civs do not seem to be around at the end of the games I play. This at least suggest the AI does not play that trait as well as it does others, if not that the trait is over all not that great.

[Golden Bear]

I like the French in great part because of their late GA. It usually kicks in just at a good time to build Cathedrals, Sistine Chapel, Bachs Cathedral. It makes it easier to get through the later game because I am rolling in money... if I spend too much, taking a turn away from tech research usually gains enough to allow accelerated research.

Most of my good wins come with the French. However, my biggest (score) wins have come with the Egyptians. When I use the Egyptians I have to avoid behaviors that will trigger an early GA since I feel like an ancient GA is not as useful as springing one after your opponents have used up theirs and are sucking wind.

Carlos