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badams52
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near the magic kingdom
May 2002 time: 21:23
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ducki,
I can't tell you the best method for monarch level since I spend most of my time playing regent, but except for those pesky babylonians, I too almost always have the tops in culture. The early war mongering for me usually begins when my cities have nothing important to build. I tend to expand about 2-3 turns slower than the AIs and focus on taking their cities with swordsmen. Since I know the AI will work at the highest speed possible to expand, let him do the expanding for me and I'll just take over with vast army when I'm ready.
it also helps to only build units in cities that have a barracks. Don't underestimate 1 hit point in the early goings! Unless it's a border city, i'll hold off on the temple since the AI does the same.
my starter city (since it has culture and expands on it's own) looks like warrior, warrior, barracks/settler, settler/barracks, defensive unit...
following cities: barracks, spearman/settler, settler/spearman, temple?
once I go to war, usually because someone decided to declare war on me, all (most of) my cities begin producing military, and we don't stop till the other empire is in ruins. Maybe the AI has improved with PtW, but I've found his biggest weakness is his unability to stop a warmonger from taking his cities.
btw, you could cut down the amount of pages if you up the posts per page in your forum settings. I like fifty per page myself.
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alva
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Republic of Flanders
Sep 2001 time: 06:23
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ok, i'll continue to use this one then 
I staring to become top dog (still not leading on tech, but I'm getting stronger, while all the others are getting weaker 
- managed to steal Smith and build Seti
- I wanted to hurt to Persians first and hard, but I noticed the Indians started taking Chinese cities. And I couldn't figure out why (they should be much stronger) until I saw, they didn't have any oil anymore, duh.
- So now I'm shifting my attention towards the chinese, and deal with Persia later
- I had to switch back too monarchy though (WW)
- As I see it now, I should win (even if India changes sides). Unless I left 'culture victory' on (really can't remember)
- that's another reason to visit the chinese , as they are way the strongest in culture
(just took one their cities, about a size 17 (they all resisted but one this never happened to me on any other levels)
If want to see the save, just ask 
(more later)
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ducki
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I was going for both coastal - harbor, ships, Great Lighthouse, Colossus - and Defensive bonus.
This being my first Regent game, I didn't know how aggressive the AI would be, and I tend to leave my cities ungarrisoned for quite some time.
In my first attempt at a Monarch game, an AI warrior wandered upon one of my (as usual) unprotected early cities (my second city, IIRC) and sacked it just like a barbarian would. Oh sure, they declared war seconds before he raided my royal coffers, but I sure didn't expect that. So now I tend to keep at least one military unit nearby - if I have roads, I can often use a single unit to "defend" up to 3 cities with a good road network, but only up to a certain point.
So, if I were to play this over again, I probably wouldn't move to the hill on the coast - I'd be more likely to try to be inland by at least 1 square, preferably two, so I can let this city become a truly productive powerhouse.
I've only recently discovered the real beauty of riverside cities - sure, the extra gold is nice, but not having to blow production on an Aqueduct is probably the single most beautiful thing about rivers.
I tend toward an "optimal" city spacing, trying to avoid overlapped tiles as well as wasted tiles, but I'll readily put up with either waste or overlap if it means I don't have to build Aqueducts. I can use that same time to crank out two horsemen or more, or I can start a Wonder prebuild without worrying whether 6 citizens will be good enough for long enough.
Boy, can I ramble or what?!?
Anyway, Sunstone, I went to the hill for defense and on the coast for all the additional units/wonders/buildings that a coastal settlement allows for, even if I ended up using Heliopolis for most of that.
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ducki
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The only downside to the river is, you darn well better have some troops garrisoned there or you'll have a hard time keeping your citizens in line. Assuming you've got good food tiles, that is.
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DaveMcW
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Historically the river boost has always been great. The first civs all started on major rivers, and rivers still give modern cities an economic bonus today.
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ducki
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I'll take the free aqueduct and easy growth any time it's even remotely possible, too. Often "messing up" my "desired placement" plan.
That was just a warning to people that tend to leave cities ungarrisoned that the lack of an artificial cap at 6 pop means you could potentially run into Civil Disorder if you don't stay on top of things.
Besides, if you've hit pop 6, surely you can crank out a warrior or horseman really fast to make someone content, no? Odds are you're still in despotism at that point anyway, so the military police thing is still valid.
And now that warriors can upgrade all the way to guerrila(sp?), it's not such a burden to have a zillion of them, aside from unit upkeep. I love Medieval Infantry, btw, I just wish they kept up with my Knights. Of course, I generally have a few MedInf following my army around to play Garrison Duty until the Pikeman guards I'm working on in my production centers show up to take over.
Anyway, yes, if at all possible, found a city on a river, even if it is "non-optimal" placement. The free aqueduct is worth more than a few wasted or overlapped tiles, especially in the early game.
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