I've been playing CivIII since it came out (never played nor knew about CivII before that), and I just discovered this forum a couple months ago. Since I've been reading alot of articles and threads here, I've really started to notice how much I suck at the game. I cannot, repeat, cannot efficiently micromanange, it's just to confusing of a subject, I tend to leave out or forget about very important things when I'm actually playing, I can't strike a balance between military and buildings, etc. I'm debating going back to Cheiftain and go from there to ease myself back into the game without the pressures associated with Emperor such as keeping up with the AI with cities, tech, etc. I will re-climb the difficulty latter starting at Cheiftain (beating a game on difficulty level with every Civ) hopefully becoming better at the game. What do you guys think about this? Is it a good idea?

Nah, after all, a challenge is a challenge, you'd just be a coward if you go back to chieftain. Also, playing at chieftain ruins your good habits, because those techniques are not needed to win, you will tend to forget about them.

There is a thread in the SG (Succession Game) forum that is for a monarch level game. A couple of more expierenced players are leading some newer players through the beginning of the game and discussing the whys and wheres of the opening moves of the game. There is a lot of good information and ideas being passed around and lurkers are welcome.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE THREAD (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81351)

I have been playing HOF games for a couple of months and while waiting for C3C patch 1.20 to be released I have been playing 20 K culture fastest finish games. I started at Chieftain on tiny worlds and went through Warlord on small worlds. I'm now at Regent on a stardard world and at every level I have learned something new that playing at the higher levels I missed. So I say it would be a good idea to go back start over but keep the worlds small and try for conquest wins as fast as you can. This will give you lots of practice starting and and playing the initial moves. How fast you can win really starts with the opening moves.

Take a look at boogaboo's thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76085) on this very subject.

You said you have been competing at Emporer level. If you have the conquests upgrade, try doing Most Agressive Regent level. Lots of fun, lots of war and you can keep up with tech without micro managing or doing trading every turn.

On that level, i get the governer to manage my citizens happyness, set all my workers to auto and just concentrate on conquering.

Originally posted by NewbieHere
Nah, after all, a challenge is a challenge, you'd just be a coward if you go back to chieftain. Also, playing at chieftain ruins your good habits, because those techniques are not needed to win, you will tend to forget about them.

Yeah, but what if I have all bad habits that are causing me to lose? I could go back to cheiftain and form good habits in a non-stressful environment.

Originally posted by Svar
So I say it would be a good idea to go back start over but keep the worlds small and try for conquest wins as fast as you can. This will give you lots of practice starting and and playing the initial moves. How fast you can win really starts with the opening moves.

That sound like a good idea, I'll try that.

play to have fun, if mm is not your thing then don't do it, who cares what level you play on as long as you are enjoying the game, just a few hardcore here who may burn you at the stake but WTH

my opinion of the levels (and my opinion only - no flames)

chieftain - a game where you want to build perfectly and can just be god, can be played in very few sittings, i can still enjoy this

warlord - another lazy game but still enjoyable, similar to above

regent - level pegging with the AI, just need to do enough

monarch - enjoyable but be careful from time to time

emperor - beginning to get stressful, games begin to last longer lots of care and thought required

demi-god / deity - extreme stress, mm every turn, squeeze this, mm that, workers so methodically managed, games last months, feels like work not play sometimes, just a few turns a day / week is enough, if i want to try this sort of play i'd rather do 10 turns in a SG and pass it on

sid - back to enjoyment - all but a handful of people know they're going to lose, just see how long you can survive

i just choose the one that suits my mood,

Thanks, guys. I've decided that instead of just moving back to Chieftain, I'm just going to climb down a few rungs back you Regent. Maybe I'll be able to get better at the game by doing this, rather than going back to Chieftain. Thanks for your advice, guys.:)

this seems to be a good decision you have made, chieftain would be too easy if you have tried for emperor, already.
let me do a little remark:
Originally posted by homeyg
beating a game on difficulty level with every Civ
i've read about this approach more than once, of players trying to win with every civ. it doesn't seem very useful to me.
instead, i would suggest to take on every victory condition. try to win a conquest victory, a domination victory, cultural, diplo, space race ....
each of these conditions requires a different strategy. as a result, you will improve in all aspects of civ, warfare, empire building, culture, science ... and find out how they work together.
choose a civ that fits your victory type you try for.

@zurichuk: good characterization of difficulties :)

Homey Don't give up, I play on large or huge maps so micromanaging throughout the whole game is out of the question. I would say DEFINATLY micromanage in the beginning, then what I do after I've gotten the terrain pretty much improveed the way I want I Shift-A most of my workers and I'll micromanage certain cities that are building important things like wonders. I play Emporer, Demigod, and Deity, and I haven't had too many problems with it. I set my Gov's to manage citizens moods. Keep an eye out if you're in Dem or Rep though, if you see you're cities pop in red it means too much WW. Your cities won't riot if you have the Gov manage moods... If you want you can email me a save and I might be able to give you some pointers (sabo10@yahoo.com) good luck!

Sabo, thanks for the tips. Here is a save of the current Emperor game I'm playing. If you can find anything I'm doing wrong (besides the lowsy military), let me know!

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Mursilis_of_the_Hittites,_790_AD1.SAV

Originally posted by sabo
if you see you're cities pop in red it means too much WW.
:confused: I thought it meant not enough food?

It does mean that there isn't enough food, thus that means that they are starving.

I think what Sabo meant is that the governor will keep using entertainers to avoid a riot. When at war in Rep or Dem, the ww builds and the governor has to use a lot more entertainers, thus lowering available food and starving the city. He's basically just using it as an indicator of excessive amounts of ww in those govts.

Well guys, I stuck with Emperor and I won diplomatically! I guess I don't suck as much as I think after all (you are your worst critic)! I even beat the score of my first Emperor victory. Here's a screeny-

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/2nd_Emperor_Win.JPG

good one!!! and i thought i didn't do much mm'ing, only 13 hours is similar to my last emperor win, 15 hours ca 1900AD

dang u won in 1768 my earliest was 1933

The tech progress on Pangeas seems to happen way too fast; I was in the Industrial Age in that game in 960 AD.

Homey: I think you are wasting our time here if you can turn out 13 hour wins on emperor ;)
My advice: move up a level :lol:

Yeah no kidding Homey!! THere's nothing wrong with a diplo victory on emporer, you're political skills must be very good to keep all those nasty emporer-level AI's happy with you.

Do I hear a demigod game in the distance?? Let me know if you need any help, I'm playing a demigod, huge map, max civs, right now. I'm kicking butt in military and science but I'm afraid Maya is going to win by cultural if I don't think of something fast :(

After seeing your abysmal performance, I think you should start out on Chieftain, play with every civ, then go to Warlord, do the same, write an article about the great step from Chieftain to Warlord and then you should do the same on Regent.

:)

I forget a lot of things, I even let the governor mood-manage 99% of my cities - and I am on winning Demigod right now. Well, at least I would wonder if they beat me now...hehe.


So what is the problem? I would rather say play something different than Civ, this will free your mind. :) You are playing better than around 50% of all players, those that never made the jump to Emperor.

Why are you complaining about your lack of micro-management?

Milking and excessive micro-management are obsessive, not everyone has the time nor the mood to waste his time on such things. You are doing fine as you are!!! What do you want more?

Are you a builder-kind of player or a warmonger? IMO it is much easier to be a warmonger because humans are so smart. I cant keep up with the AI unless I conquer lots of land and keep the Ai fighting each other.

Originally posted by Longasc

I forget a lot of things, I even let the governor mood-manage 99% of my cities - and I am on winning Demigod right now. Well, at least I would wonder if they beat me now...hehe.

So what is the problem? I would rather say play something different than Civ, this will free your mind. :) You are playing better than around 50% of all players, those that never made the jump to Emperor.

Why are you complaining about your lack of micro-management?



I never let the governors do anything to my cities, but, I still sometimes have the occasional (try routine) civil disorder when it slips my mind to MM the cities for happiness. So, I guess you could call me forgetful, too.

I wouldn't say that I am better than 50% of the people here, but hey, who knows. There are always people better than you at something.

About playing something besides Civ- I can't play anything but CivIII right now, I need to break the horrible addiction first. :)

About the complaining about my lack of MMing- I guess I'm just overreacting. Maybe I don't suck at MMing as much as I thought, I'm just having a bad attitude do to all of the past Emperor losses.

Originally posted by grishnak

Are you a builder-kind of player or a warmonger? IMO it is much easier to be a warmonger because humans are so smart. I cant keep up with the AI unless I conquer lots of land and keep the Ai fighting each other.

I would say I'm a builder with minimal warmongering. I only start wars of extermination if I'm going for a Conquest or Domination victory. Otherwise I never try to start wars unless I need a resource I can't trade for. I can usually keep up by by not starting wars, but it is very difficult.

Originally posted by sabo
Yeah no kidding Homey!! THere's nothing wrong with a diplo victory on emporer, you're political skills must be very good to keep all those nasty emporer-level AI's happy with you.

Do I hear a demigod game in the distance?? Let me know if you need any help, I'm playing a demigod, huge map, max civs, right now. I'm kicking butt in military and science but I'm afraid Maya is going to win by cultural if I don't think of something fast :(

Sabo, can you post a save of your demigod game that you were talking about? I'm just interested to see what it's like on demigod (I don't think I'll be moving up yet).

Homey, I'm in the middle 1800's right now, I can post that or an earlier part of the game if you'd like. I'll post it tonight when I get home from work, stay tuned :)

Well Im' home now and I haven't heard from you so here's my latest save.

Sabo's demigod Huge Map (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Sabo_demigod_huge_map1850AD.SAV)

Keep in mind Homey this is conquests ver 1.15

Thanks, Sabo! I'm going to check out your save now. I do have 1.15.

I just checked out the save. Wow! I could never do that good... I have a few questions:
1. What victory condition are you going for?
2. Would Demigod seem much harder than Emperor if I decided to jump up now?
3. Is this your first Demi' game?

Well those are my questions, and talk about a monster AI! Those Mayans were huge!

Random thought on your topic:

You beat the game on emperor? None of my buddies have beaten the game on emperor! A couple of them can win on monarch.

Maybe someday they will find this website and put it together!

You win on emperor in 13 hours?! What size map? If standard or larger, I am not sure how you can expect to win every time playing that fast.

Originally posted by homeyg
I just checked out the save. Wow! I could never do that good... I have a few questions:
1. What victory condition are you going for?
2. Would Demigod seem much harder than Emperor if I decided to jump up now?
3. Is this your first Demi' game?

Well those are my questions, and talk about a monster AI! Those Mayans were huge!

Homey don't sell yourself short, actually this IS my first demigod game and I haven't noticed that much difference between that and emporer, keep in mind though that I had alot of room to expand at first and I was lucky with the Lux's and resources. To answer you quiestions:

1. I'm going for a Diplo victory, the mayans culture is awesome so I have the UN building in Herroit?? right now. I have since created MA alliances with everyone in the world against the Mayans so everyone SHOULD vote for me. I have Space Race turned off.

2.Read above, I haven't noticed much difference.

3. Yes, it's my very first Demi game, but I've played and beaten Deity before so maybe that's why it wasn't too much of a shock ;)
I like the Emp/Demigod level. I can't keep up with science on Deity unless I beg, borrow, and steal techs, I want to be able to keep up on my own on Deity before I really start to like it.

See that bottle neck I control down south? I've bombed all the roads and rails back two squares, and the AI is so stupid it just kept sending tanks at me and coming up short on my city :lol: I've knocked down there armor force from about 170 tanks to about 70 now, and I've blown away about 120 MA too. I've played about 15 turns since this save and I now control the three of there cities that were closest to the bottleneck.

Originally posted by zerksees
Random thought on your topic:

You beat the game on emperor? None of my buddies have beaten the game on emperor! A couple of them can win on monarch.

Maybe someday they will find this website and put it together!

You win on emperor in 13 hours?! What size map? If standard or larger, I am not sure how you can expect to win every time playing that fast.

To answer your question, I did win on Emperor in 13 hours on a standard size map. My games always last around 12-13 hours and no matter what I do extra, they never exceed 14 hours. One exception though, my first Emperor win took somewhere around 20 hours to complete, however, that was a large archipelago.

I still remember that you took around 144 hours to complete the game in your sig. How do you do that?

And Sabo, that's good that you took out alot of the units in that bottle neck. They had alot of units in there.

reserved

Originally posted by homeyg
I still remember that you took around 144 hours to complete the game in your sig. How do you do that?

Many ways. I always choose what my cities will build. Post RR era during war I always group units together at a central location, sort out healthy/injured, put injured in cities to heal, put the workers to work, and then do attacks. Lots of artillery take time to use.

I had over 1000 units late in the game!

I always choose what my cities build manually, but I guess my games don't last that long because I don't usually get into intense wars intending completely destroy the opponent...