Licentia
Prince
I was enjoying a game of Civ III over the past several days. I was playing as India on a fairly large continent with America to my north and Sumeria, Carthage, Russia and the Maya to the South.
I had horses but lacked access to iron. The only nations with iron on my continent were America and Sumeria. America lacked horses while Sumeria had both horses and iron, and of course the AI always plays Sumeria well. Therefore, I decided that America was the easier and better target. So, I declared war on America and I proceeded to crush them quite easily using my newly developed War Elephant technology.
Carthage, on the other hand, had quite a large army according to my advisor but they lacked the ability to construct Medieval Infanty, with the Swordsman being their most advanced offensive unit (obviously Sumeria was supplying them iron.) When they decided to attack me, only 2 American cities had yet to fall under my control.
Complaint #1 - Russia was located to the North West of Carthage while I was located to the North East. Russia had recently lost one of their cities to my culture. That city had horses within it's vicinity. After the city flipped, Russia no longer had access to Horses, and of course they also lacked iron. Russia was a much more appealing and vulnerable target and a Carthaginian victory over Russia would have been easily achievable. Instead, Carthage attacks me despite my large army of War Elephants. Yes, I was still at war with America, but by then Lincoln was down to just 2 cities and he no longer had access to iron.
I had a choice of either making peace with America and moving my units south immediately, or asking Russia to join the war against Carthage while I finished the war up north. I decided on the latter option since access to horses was enough to convince Russia to join with me. This kept Carthage busy while I finished off America and moved my War Elephants the 4-5 turns south to my border with Carthage. Carthage was - of course - kicking Russia's a$$ all over the map by this point in time.
Later, after steamrolling over most of Carthage and giving Russia some of it's cities back, I decided that I'd had enough of the constant war, so I made peace and let Russia finish off Carthage. From there I decided to focus on updating my military (upgrades from Spears to Musketmen, additional Musketmen and more War Elephants.)
Of course, by this time I was undeniably the largest and most powerful nation on the continent. Consequently, I decided that I would be finished with war for this game and I'd just focus on winning the space race. But wouldn't you know it...
Complaint #2 - Rather than pick on helpless Russia or the fairly weak Mayans, the Sumerians march units into my land and declare war. What the f**k? Why attack me?
Gilgamesh, what in the world were you thinking? 
After peeling my palm off my forehead, I decided to quit the game.
What was Firaxis thinking when they programmed the AI? How in the world does the AI's behaviour in this game make any sense?
Can you imagine how much more enjoyable the game would have been if:
A) Carthage attacks Russia. Carthage wallops Russia and is now a large and very dangerous threat to myself and Sumeria.
B) Sumeria, who now feels threatened by two very large and powerful neighbours decides to attack the Maya and wipe them out, enlarging themselves in the process.
Wouldn't that make more sense?
The result of this more intelligent and completely plausible scenario would be 3 very large, powerful and competitive nations on this continent. Instead, I have one nation after another march into my land and essentially commit suicide by doing so.
Where's the fun in this? If I wanted to be the only nation on my continent I could have done so by being the agressor. But I didn't want that. Why was it forced upon me? I'm getting fed up with Civ III. It's almost gotten as annoying for me as Civ I did.
I stopped playing "Civilization I" because I was annoyed by the AI's silly behaviour. No matter what you do it is impossible to play a peaceful game in Civ I, because the AI is programmed to "sneak attack" you, even if you are 10 times larger and more powerful.
I guess it's time to boot up Civ 4 again. I've only played it a little. It sure is pretty but I was annoyed with the vassal system last time I played. Everyone - even large nations - became vassals of Russia, China and the Aztecs. WTF??? I no longer felt that I had any chance of winning because of this, so I quit that game. Civs shouldn't become vassals so easily. I guess this feature can be disabled but, who knows,
maybe with time I could grow to like it...
I'm so disappointed because other than this ridiculous problem, I quite enjoy Civ III.
I had horses but lacked access to iron. The only nations with iron on my continent were America and Sumeria. America lacked horses while Sumeria had both horses and iron, and of course the AI always plays Sumeria well. Therefore, I decided that America was the easier and better target. So, I declared war on America and I proceeded to crush them quite easily using my newly developed War Elephant technology.
Carthage, on the other hand, had quite a large army according to my advisor but they lacked the ability to construct Medieval Infanty, with the Swordsman being their most advanced offensive unit (obviously Sumeria was supplying them iron.) When they decided to attack me, only 2 American cities had yet to fall under my control.
Complaint #1 - Russia was located to the North West of Carthage while I was located to the North East. Russia had recently lost one of their cities to my culture. That city had horses within it's vicinity. After the city flipped, Russia no longer had access to Horses, and of course they also lacked iron. Russia was a much more appealing and vulnerable target and a Carthaginian victory over Russia would have been easily achievable. Instead, Carthage attacks me despite my large army of War Elephants. Yes, I was still at war with America, but by then Lincoln was down to just 2 cities and he no longer had access to iron.
I had a choice of either making peace with America and moving my units south immediately, or asking Russia to join the war against Carthage while I finished the war up north. I decided on the latter option since access to horses was enough to convince Russia to join with me. This kept Carthage busy while I finished off America and moved my War Elephants the 4-5 turns south to my border with Carthage. Carthage was - of course - kicking Russia's a$$ all over the map by this point in time.
Later, after steamrolling over most of Carthage and giving Russia some of it's cities back, I decided that I'd had enough of the constant war, so I made peace and let Russia finish off Carthage. From there I decided to focus on updating my military (upgrades from Spears to Musketmen, additional Musketmen and more War Elephants.)
Of course, by this time I was undeniably the largest and most powerful nation on the continent. Consequently, I decided that I would be finished with war for this game and I'd just focus on winning the space race. But wouldn't you know it...
Complaint #2 - Rather than pick on helpless Russia or the fairly weak Mayans, the Sumerians march units into my land and declare war. What the f**k? Why attack me?
Gilgamesh, what in the world were you thinking? After peeling my palm off my forehead, I decided to quit the game.What was Firaxis thinking when they programmed the AI? How in the world does the AI's behaviour in this game make any sense?
Can you imagine how much more enjoyable the game would have been if:
A) Carthage attacks Russia. Carthage wallops Russia and is now a large and very dangerous threat to myself and Sumeria.
B) Sumeria, who now feels threatened by two very large and powerful neighbours decides to attack the Maya and wipe them out, enlarging themselves in the process.
Wouldn't that make more sense?
The result of this more intelligent and completely plausible scenario would be 3 very large, powerful and competitive nations on this continent. Instead, I have one nation after another march into my land and essentially commit suicide by doing so.
Where's the fun in this? If I wanted to be the only nation on my continent I could have done so by being the agressor. But I didn't want that. Why was it forced upon me? I'm getting fed up with Civ III. It's almost gotten as annoying for me as Civ I did.
I stopped playing "Civilization I" because I was annoyed by the AI's silly behaviour. No matter what you do it is impossible to play a peaceful game in Civ I, because the AI is programmed to "sneak attack" you, even if you are 10 times larger and more powerful.
I guess it's time to boot up Civ 4 again. I've only played it a little. It sure is pretty but I was annoyed with the vassal system last time I played. Everyone - even large nations - became vassals of Russia, China and the Aztecs. WTF??? I no longer felt that I had any chance of winning because of this, so I quit that game. Civs shouldn't become vassals so easily. I guess this feature can be disabled but, who knows,
maybe with time I could grow to like it...I'm so disappointed because other than this ridiculous problem, I quite enjoy Civ III.
