Apologies if I've missed something in this thread but I consider this game is entirely winnable and I'm surprised to see people say you should bin it as I consider you have done the 'hard yards'.
I consider that the default Civ3 difficulty is broken and if you can get past mid-medieval anywhere remotely in the same league as the leading AI on territory, tech & population then victory should never be discounted. The AI is not a late game beast until Deity difficulty. Catching up on tech is entirely do-able if you aren't too far behind and it is so easy to dogpile the AI with Military Alliances and Mutual Protection Pacts once you get caught up on tech. The only exception to the above is when your leading AI competitor is impregnable on a large landmass of their own.
As above, 6k gold, +132 gold per turn and 90% science - so teching in 6 turns in modern era. Trade reps can improve fairly quickly. I caught up with all Civs except Iroquois on tech (although just 2x techs behind him in the turn screenshotted above) and could easily orchestrate a dogpile against him once his MPP with Arabia expires. Space Race victory seems highly questionable unless Iroqouis are decimated. So military campaign is required. With a dogpile you may not need much navy though given the reasonable strength of the other AIs.
The strengths in your save game
- You have an excellent range of resources and luxuries and willing buyers, in part due to your conquests (not bad for someone on their first game at this difficulty and reluctant to fight).
- You have successfully prevented a killer AI on either of the 2x main continents. There is no runaway leader and this makes playing catch up so much easier.
- You are in touching distance on tech and are scientific, so once you overtake an AI on tech they should not be able to get back infront of you. So at that point the AI bankrolls your military and city modernisation.
- You are industrious, so managing pollution and upgrading to railway should be fairly swift and inexpensive in terms of unit support.
- Nobody seems to hate you and/or your military is sufficient to deter the AI from attacking you.
What I did and would recommend (if you are happy to go for a space race victory)
- keep paying for coal until you have railed everywhere.
- take any RoP you can get to bolster your diplomatic relations.
- MPP Iroquois in short term and Celts & Byzantines in the short to medium term (the way to lose this game is to be attacked by one of your neighbours). Once you think Celts, Byzantines and yourself are able to defend (e.g. all have TOW infantry and/or Mech Inf) do not renew MPP with Iroquois.
- tech trade with Greeks and Byzantines and get to Modern Era as fast as possible for your free tech at which point you may be able to tech trade with Japan, Arabia & Celts (no teching optional techs).
- trade resources you only have 1x or if you aren't going to use them (e.g. saltpeter, horses). You need the money!
- focus on scientific buildings for culture, borders and teching purposes and utilise your scientific trait. Focus on libraries for any conquered city at risk of flipping.
- on core / productive cities also prioritise factories so you are in good shape when war and space race comes.
- race to minituarisation and focus on commercial docks, offshore platform and commercial buildings if you have time before Iroqouis look poised for a Space Race victory.
- don't decrease your military, it isn't too expensive and is a good deterrent.
- don't worry about a culture flip or two at your expense but stick as many units as possible (out of your existing ones) into border cities that are at a risk of flipping. Especially if they have a luxury or resource.
- build civil defence, SAM battery on key cities and those bordering Iroquois.
- ensure Celts & Byzantines in particular have every resource they might need to have a modern military before you go gangbusters on the Iroquois.
What I would do after 1762
- build a basic navy to enable transfer of defensive units to colonies just prior to war, but do not overly invest in defending any of these unless they have a critical resource attached.
- TOW infantry and Mech Inf your border with Iroquois, and probably a few defensive submarines.
- wait until Iroquois have no MPP with a major rival and MPP with Byzantine, Celts as a must. Japan and Arabia also highly desirable for a MPP as they will pick off Iroquois's navy and colonies, but it may be much cheaper to get a military alliance with these two once war is declared.
- make sure you have no active trade deals with Iroqouis and declare war by cancelling your peace treaty (under 'active' deals in the Iroquois diplomacy screen). Then fortify a couple of defensive units on your side of the border at different points neighbouring the Iroqouis (so he attacks you on your territory and activates your MPPs).
- if it helps to convince allies into an MPP and/or military alliance try an embargo against the Iroquois. The AI do so love embargoes for reasons that aren't abundantly clear.
- hang in there and don't worry if you lose a city or two as some of your ones on the Iroquois border aren't great. Once you have enough defensive units get bombers and strong offensive units on line to destroy any foes before they got on your land, but really the goal for me in this game would not be to take as many Iroquois cities as possible, but to keep my economy strong and be pushing for the space race whilst the rest of the world descends into utter chaos.
- Keep teching so you can bribe any reluctant ally that makes peace with Iroquois back into the fight.
- get Iroquois curtailed to such an extent that they are not a threat in the space race, then pick that victory condition for yourself.
- try not to go into a score lead as that will result in the AI starting to hate you and increase the risk of war.
- get governors to manage unhappiness and emphasise production (save your brain power and energy for war and diplomacy and make the end game less of a chore)
