I think it's been about 8 years since I posted a game on the forums. I have the game back now on Steam and am trying to shake off what amounts to a lot of rust. 7+ years will do that.
I am probably back close to emperor level on Vanilla. If there is someone out there that would like to join me in a game, I'd like to do plain vanilla Marla Singers world map with America on Emperor. All victory conditions enabled. That way with some feedback I can get an idea whether I can still play this game competently.
Vanilla as in, only 16 playable Civs? That's interesting, are you saying that Steam now includes a NoCD-Vanilla executable in their package?
I DL'd C3C from GamersGate in 2013[?], and got a civilization3.exe (v1.29) with that install-package (no PTW, unfortunately). When Micro$oft disabled secdrv.sys in late 2015, that file stopped working on my Win8.1 box; I had to DL a(nother) NoCD patch to fix it.
But when Steam — and GOG — also started selling Civ3 in 2017, they only offered the conquests.exe v1.22.
If there is someone out there that would like to join me in a game, I'd like to do plain vanilla Marla Singers world map with America on Emperor. All victory conditions enabled.
It's been a long time (2012!) since I played a vanilla game, so I'd be interested in this. But even if "vanilla" = 'unmodded Civ3 Complete', then I'd still be interested.
(Also getting a little bored/annoyed with having my butt handed to me on every attempt I've made at C3C Demigod recently!)
Am I remembering right that Marla's .bic (.biq?) is only a map, which uses the standard vanilla (conquests?) ruleset, i.e. I wouldn't need to DL any additional art-files to join this game?
Hello tjs282 and welcome. You are correct about the map, it comes in the basic C3C game and requires no mods at all. From what I've seen, it's not so easy to download mods for this game anymore as many old links are now broken. That's understandable for a game pushing 20 years old.
Turn 16 and a decision is needed. Declare war on the Inca in order to try and steal a couple workers?
Having played this map a little bit, I know that there is iron in our BFC as well as the marked tile. I plan on sending our settler there next turn and crank out more warriors.
But this is 'only' Emperor, so the Incans won't have had that many offensive (Warrior?) units to start with, will they? Maybe 3 or 4? And their starting Chasqui will likely be miles away by now (barb-hunting).
How many Axes do we have? Just the 3 I can see? So if we're already (nearly) matched with them, then I'd say yes, go ahead and grab those Workers. Early maintenance-free Slaves are too useful to pass up (especially for Industrious America), and by the time any other stray/ newly-built Incan units have made their way round Lake Erie(?) to arrive outside Washington, enough turns will likely have passed that we might even be able to sign peace already.
If you do go ahead and DoW Pacha, were you planning to send all Washington's Axes along with him?
Also, which variant of Marla's map is this? I got 2 versions included in my installation, both .bix files, and earlier this evening I started a game on the .bix with spawn-locations fixed*, but it turned out that that one only puts 8 Civs on the map in total. So are we also playing that .bix here, or the other one (which I didn't look at yet)?
Spoiler*And, yup, the pRNGods still hate me... :
I random-rolled all the Civs as per usual, and got myself lumbered with the Arabs, whose start-location really sux!
The .bix file I have is with 16 civs. We only have three regular warriors in total but that is what both cities will build after declaring. There are two in Washington that will stay in place. We can go for peace just as quick as we can get it. I agree that two free workers is a pretty hard thing to pass up.
I wardec the Inca, grab both workers and get away clean after pillaging the completed improvement. An Incan warrior is headed to Chicago that is planted on the iron tile I had indicated. We have one warrior in each city but can have two in each in a couple turns with a fifth on the road between the two cities.
I'll grab the save and start playing this evening (I'm in Germany, BTW: Central Euro Time = UTC +1h).
I guess the new Slaves are under the Axe on the Hill east of Chicago? If so, I'll road that Hill (if they're not doing it already?), then move to road (and mine) Washington's southern Wheat.
If I'm only doing 10 turns(?), Bronze likely won't come in on my set unless I can trade for it (or extort it from Pacha for peace?).
I'll keep the Scout exploring, maybe we can pop some more techs from Goody-huts, you never know...
If/when peace happens, start building another Settler out of Washington? Or another Scout to map southwards first, then a Settler?
Side-question:
Can I assume that you started this game using the conquests.exe? I ask because I found a few glitches in my solo-game so far (running Conquests, but loading the 'Locked start, 8-Civ' .bix-version via Civ-Content).
SpoilerThe 7-year glitch... :
(1) Upgrades are twice as expensive as they should be (upgrading a Warrior to a Sword should cost 40g under PTW, but it cost me 80g). At that point I remembered that I'd seen this problem in a previous game, when I loaded the civilization3X.bix via the conquests.exe (before I... erm... acquired a NoCD version of civilization3X.exe for PtW). I fixed it by opening that .bix in the Conquests Editor, then re-saving it as a .biq, but it also needed additional modding, e.g. to teach Workers how to clear Marsh.
(2) There are several points on the map (in the MiddleEast, probably also elsewhere) where a tile directly adjacent to a river does not register as having access to freshwater (i.e. a town founded there will need a 'Duct to reach Pop12). And guess where I built not one, but two of my towns, before I realised that (and before I got Construction)? Those 2 towns were also potentially good FP-locations, so I duly tried to build it first in one, then the other, only realising my mistake when both towns got stuck at Pop6 partway through the build (although the lost food was irritating, I could still switch to a Duct without wasting shields as well). Not sure why this glitch happened: I suspect that the river was laid first, but then the adjacent terrain was modified afterwards (there are also several points where Desert-tiles occur next to a river, without turning into Floodplains).
Here is the civ content start file and it is for 16 civs.
Warrior upgrades in this game are 60g.
As long as the city tile is parallel to the river I have seen no issue with the tile not having fresh water. If a river juts out at a 90 degree angle and you settle just beyond the "tip" then no, it does not show having access to fresh water.
Please play 20 turns since this is our first set. We will go to 10 next round. The three workers are indeed roading the tile east of Chicago and will be done in 2.
When we have the ability to safely get a settler out with an escort we should do so. The third city will need to go north northeast where we can pick up our first lux which is furs.
An example of the non fresh water tile is the BG 3 tiles southeast of Chicago. Although it appears to be adjacent to the river it is not considered to be. The tiles directly southeast and southwest of it are considered fresh water. In fact the southwest tile is where I would put city #4 which would make a good palace prebuild location.
T 20, 3000 BC (pre-turn)
Washington's gonna waste shields -- can't be helped IBT
Incan Axe heads for Chicago
Washington Axe --> Axe (4T, but Pop2 in 3T)
T 21, 2950 BC
New Axe sent to Worker-Hill, old Axe to Chicago
MM Chicago for more FPT, less SPT (Axe still in 2T)
Scout woken and sent S/W, Incan vAxe spotted NW across Lake Superior IBT
Purple Axe appears W of Scout
Incan Axe heads north again. We can dance all day...
T 22, 2900 BC
We meet Wang-Kon of Korea:
He won't sell Alph what we have
Masonry would get us Bronze+85g, but Masonry+95g (all we have) is 'close' to a deal for Bronze+WarCode, so I'll put a few more beakers into BW and try again in a couple of turns
Worker to Washington's Wheat, Slaves to Chicago's
Axe back to Washington; weird, we can already cross rivers without penalty?
Scout heads west IBT
Wang comes begging (Masonry for WarCode, pretty please?). Nope
2nd Incan vAxe appears north of Washington
Chicago Axe --> Axe (5T, Pop2 in 4T)
T 23, 2850 BC
Washington garrisoned with 4 rAxes
Scout approaches the Rockies
Workers begin roading
Wang's price unchanged
GAME SAVED IBT
Washington Axe --> Axe (2T)
T 24, 2800 BC
Scout turns south
Pacha will talk: he has CBurial, but won't concede it
It's only a matter of time before he trades with Wang, though, so...
Wang offers Bronze+85g or WarCode+43g for Masonry. Since we're only 6T from BW ourselves (and we've hit our free-unit limit), I take WC (Archers will build slower than rAxes, but hit harder)
Sign peace with Pacha, also taking CBurial+110g for WC
Back to Wang: (CB+235 = Alph, but that seemed too expensive, so...) CB gets us BW+42g
Begin research on IW (27T)
Chicago switched to Archer (6T, Pop2 in 4T)
Washington switched to Settler (8T, Pop3 in 5T) IBT
Inca Axes depart
T 25, 2750 BC
Worker begins mining Wheat
3 Axes from Washington redistributed: 1 to Chicago, 2 sent to scout/ block future city-sites north and south IBT
T 26, 2710 BC
Zzz.. IBT
Inca Settler-Pair appears north of Site3
T 27, 2670 BC
Zzz.. IBT
T 28, 2630 BC
Zzz.. IBT
Tiwanaku founded, 2 tiles NE of Site3
T 29, 2590 BC
Scout swims the Colorado River
Worker joins Slaves to finish mining Wheat IBT
Washington Settler --> Archer (7T, Pop2 in 6T)
Chicago Archer --> Settler (6T, Pop3 in 4T)
T 30, 2550 BC
Southern Axe spies Goody-Hut
Scout swims back to this side of the river, away from barb Axe IBT
Spoiler2510 BC to 2150 BC :
T 31, 2510 BC
Settler arrives at Site3
Workers to Wheat SE of Chicago IBT
T 32, 2470 BC
Boston founded --> Worker (10T, Pop2 in 7T)
The Illinois tribe teach us Mysticism! IBT
T 33, 2430 BC
Scout spies Pyongyang, just south of the Rio Grande IBT
T 34, 2390 BC
Scout explores Pyongyang... IBT
...and Wang asks us to leave...
T 35, 2350 BC
...so we do IBT
Washington Archer --> Settler (6T, Pop3 in 5T)
T 36, 2310 BC
Archer sent to Boston
Worker to BGrass near Site 4
Slaves to Grass near Washington IBT
Chicago Settler --> Archer (10T, Pop2 in 4T
T 37, 2270 BC
Worker + Slaves begin roads
Settler+Axe to Site4
Scout heads north again IBT
T 38, 2230 BC
Philadelphia founded --> Archer (10T, Pop2 in 7T)
IW now in 6T! IBT
T 39, 2190 BC
Zzz... IBT
Scout spots a Chasqui
Boston Worker --> Granary (60T)
T 40, 2150 BC
Boston's Worker 1S to chop Forest
Slaves to Wheat
Wang knows IW!
Handover:
We met the Koreans (they're in Mexico!), made peace with the Inca, and have 2 more towns up (on the correct Sites3+4, I hope?) and another Settler building in Washington.
Our empire:
Explored:
We're (nearly) at tech parity: we're up Myst on Wang and Pacha, but down Alph to Wang -- we could trade for it, but it's pretty still expensive (Alph = Myst+100g). He also just learned IronWorking, bringing us down to 3T to finish it (at SCI=100%). We could reduce SCI% to 90% and still get it, but we'd only make +1 GPT over those 3T: probably better to just reduce SCI% on the last turn.
Tiwanaku went up just before I could settle Boston, but I went ahead and founded anyway: we can use it as a jump-off point against Tiwanaku once we have Swords (and either raze it on capture, or Worker/Settler-abandon it).
The Granary queued in Boston can be switched to a Rax if you'd prefer, but then we should maybe build a Gran in Philly and/or Chicago instead, so they can spit out Settlers + Workers for us. I prepared a preliminary dotmap, founding on coasts/rivers for preference, avoiding BGrass and food-bonuses (and 'riverside-elbow' tiles that don't already show +1g!). Numbers 1-3 indicate suggested founding-order.
Feel free to modify or ignore as you see fit
(I also noticed that some of the terrain-rules for this .bix are different from the fixed-starts version: e.g. Deserts only cost 1 MP here.)
Playing now. So I want us to focus on taking down as much of the Incas as practical. It will leave Korea in a position to expand while we're at war, but these are likely the only two opponents on the Western Hemisphere. We need to cripple one of them sooner rather than later.
I wish Boston was 1NE, but it couldn't be helped. You did the right thing settling. I'm switching Boston to a worker and eventually we'll raze Tiwanaku, abandon Boston and settle in that hex between. I don't want Washington too squeezed for space. We are going to want four good ports on the eastern seaboard that will build most of our navy. We are going to want a strong navy regardless of what VC we settle on.
We can re-declare after 4 turns but we are not ready. I'm going to finish the settler in Washington and that will do for now on expansion. I want to pass on archers, get raxes up everywhere and get building vet swords. To that end I'm going to use the Washington settler somewhere but I want that place left disconnected from our trade network so it can build vet warriors we can then upgrade later.
After we get IW, I want to move onto Math for cats. I trade Wang Myst and 97gold for alpha.
First, sorry there is no proper turn log yet. Long story short my PC is in for repairs and the PC I am using doesn't have MS word. I will be getting my PC back next week and then I'll do the proper log.
I founded Norfolk on the coast that should remain disconnected from our trade network.
Our scout just made it to the Pacific.
We have math due in 10. We should go writing after that.
Both AIs have the wheel. Little good may it do them, there are no horses in the Americas.
Incas are sending another settler team east, presumably to settle on the coast. Just another city for us to burn later.
Boston can do a worker every 6 turns and expands in 6, so I just set the town to wealth for the first turn then switch to worker.
Chicago has a rax and is building out first vet sword. Washington rax in 2, Philly rax in 1 and Norfolk rax in 15.
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