Can anyone help me in my game?

[GoToParaguay]

I'm playing as Sumerians the settings are [Civ 3 conquests, most recent patch] domination/conquest/space race victories, 1000 turns in game and we're about half way through, 80% water standard size map, continents, monarch difficulty level.

I've got to the point where there are only two civs left, however as can be seen on the screen shot the Mayans have over half the territory, my cities have low populations and I just a couple of turns before the screenshot lost a few cities to the mayans and then made peace. I am behind in tech, however most of my cities have good infrastructures and I have access to all resources.

Is there any chance of winning this game or is it a lost cause if anyone could giive me some tips I'd be more than grateful, I feel that if I could capture the few cities he has on my Island then I could be in a much better position from which to rebuild, and with the imminent arrival of 'motorized transportation' I should be able to benefit from tanks, however I don't feel at the moment I am in any position to go to war?

Any help would be really great, I'd love to win this game from this position!

 

[VladTepes]

How many workers do you have? If it were me, I would concentrate on building forts on those hills and mountains. Once you get MT, build tanks everywhere! Also be prepared to seize those Mayan cities on you continent - they're too much of a thorn in your side! What kind of a navy do you have? Sorry I don't have time now to look at the save.....

 

[GoToParaguay]

my navy is non existant (except for 3 galleons) and my money situation is bad :S. I have a few workers, not a huge amount I guess

I attempted to play on from this, managed to sort out my money after a few turns so it was coming in along with research, and built some battleships and tanks while transferring my armies from that little isand onto the mainland, I attacked him took one of his cities and killed another.
Then it starts getting bad, he bombards all the rest of my units into little bits every time I go anywhere near his cities and he takes mine with no problem :|, if anyone can win this game I'd be very impressed!!

 

[Brain]

It's 1983 and you're only at motorized transportation?

Well, there must be something you were doing wrong so far. From the screenshot I would say you definitely need to build more cities and grow population. I can look at your save later and see what I can do.

 

[Dreadnought]

Also build up your navy for both defense and bombardment

It's 1983 and you're only at motorized transportation?

Its a 1000 turn game! So basically he's doing really good if halfway through the game he has MT! Can you have MT at turn 250

 

[VladTepes]

my navy is non existant (except for 3 galleons) and my money situation is bad :S. I have a few workers, not a huge amount I guess

I attempted to play on from this, managed to sort out my money after a few turns so it was coming in along with research, and built some battleships and tanks while transferring my armies from that little isand onto the mainland, I attacked him took one of his cities and killed another.
Then it starts getting bad, he bombards all the rest of my units into little bits every time I go anywhere near his cities and he takes mine with no problem :|, if anyone can win this game I'd be very impressed!!

Do you have bombers? Flight? You really have to get him off your landmass. Honestly, though, I can't figure a winning strategy. This map has such a small amount of land. I would never play on these settings myself.

 

[nullspace]

I'm usually optimistic in situations like this, but . . .
Size 1 cities!? All that irrigation and so few mines! Cities building marketplaces in 1983! Wealth!?!?

Ok, I'm going to have to try this.

 

[Brain]

Okay, I took a look at the save and it doesn't look very good. You need to grow more population. Look at the AI. It has some size 32 cities, while your largest is size 8. You used the draft WAY too much. All your cities are down to a very small size and your citizens are extremely unhappy. In some cities it's not even possible to get one happy face with 100% luxury slider. Speaking of the luxury slider, you should use it instead of using entertainers. You're wasting half of your population to entertain the other half. Also, if you want to win a war you should be building tons of artillery, not drafting infantry.

It might still be possible to win this, but you need to drastically change your empire management.

 

[GoToParaguay]

Thankyou for the replies guys , I used draft loads yes, if you went back about 30 turns I had many huge cities, similar in size to those of the Mayan's, but when Maya went to war with greeks who were on my landmass, I declared war on the Maya in order to attempt to prevent Greece being wiped out. It didn't work though, Greece was quickly crushed and I was facing barrages of planes and tanks while myself being on much lower tech. Only way I could think of surviving was to draft men. I did this for a long time because every time I tried to sue for peace thhe Mayans would not acknowledge my envoy, and by the time I finally achieved peace many of my cities were hugely unhappy and the populations plummeted.

The reason why so many of my cities have few upgrades is cause it was only about 50 or 60 turns ago when I had a war with the babylonians (I think) who were on the same continent as me and captured many of their cities, but have not yet had time to develop them.

I haven't discovered flight yet which is pretty bad

Anyone who tries this, I wish you good luck! , let me know how it goes! Any more tips and stuff are welcome
I though artillery was mainly offesnive though? How would I use it effectively in defense?

 

[cleverhandle]

I though artillery was mainly offesnive though? How would I use it effectively in defense?

Take advantage of the AI's stupidity in withdrawing damaged troops. Say he's got a stack of 6 infantry 2 squares away from your city. Fire on them, but not enough to damage all 6 units. Stop after maybe 3 or so. The three wounded ones will withdraw and the 3 full strength ones will advance. Now focus your fire on the full strength ones, redlining them if possible, and then bring in a couple tanks to finish them off.

 

[nullspace]

Here goes.

Turn 1: The economy is ruined. Building maintenance is higher than uncorrupted income, and the army requires support even though we're communist, but the army is 95% conscript infantry. Some cities were drafted down to size 6, then starved to size 1 because they were so unhappy. All other cities are about size 7 with only 2 or three people working. Selling ALL improvments in the unredeemable cities gets some positive cash flow and capital. Motorized transport will finish in 2 turns. Many conscripts are disbanded and turned into artillery. 12 will finish next turn, bringing the grand total to 12. Workers unautomated and shipped to the island that needs rails. Others plant and chop forests. Units on island shipped to mainland.

Turn 2: Artillery and armies (with conscripts in them ) prepare for assault on Thermopylae to recover a useful city.

Turn 3: Spy-plant fails and war is declared. Eliminate some tanks. Production switched to tanks, mobilized for war.

IT: Hit by 16 bombers, which destroy the wall of Bad-tibira, 3 armies are destroyed by tanks. Ouch.

Turn 4: Artillery and infantry eliminate the tanks that attacked Bad-tibira. There's shouldn't be many more on my continent.

IT: Bombers seem to be based in Athens, but I have nothing to attack it with. I've seen a Mayan marine, and there's transports sailing around.

Turn 5: Get my first tank. Kill off some more enemies.

Turn 6: Bombard Athens, but there's too many conscript TOWs to attack it. Huh? I thought it was impossible to draft other civ's citizens.

Ugh. I think I'm going to give up. I'm not really losing the war, but my civ simply isn't producing anything. The population is too small and unhappy and it can't grow. I'm researching flight, but it will take about 18 turns at 100% and I'm losing 105 gold every turn. There's just no way I'm going to overcome the military, production, and tech disadvantage with this impotent civ. Rampant drafting absolutely destroyed this civ beyond any repair. The game would be salvageable if I could actually put people to work.

Edit: I wrote this before Paraguay's last comment, which explains a lot (like why there are conscripts in Athens).

 

[killercane]

I played 40 turns. I got MT and shut off research. Built artillery out the wazzoo, tanks, and transports. Sold off all the useless stuff (libraries, unis, colosseums, cathedrals, well really almost everything besides a marketplace or two and factories). In 2008 I fought a short war to gain control of my island, but had to delay invading the Mayan continent until 2020 bc I didnt have enough transports. The cities I took were WAY productive; how about that communism huh.

Invaded Maya in 2020, and Chichen Itza will in all likelihood be destroyed next turn, along with their 4 part spaceship. Its pretty well won but I dont see any reason to continue since I hate bombarding things 40 times in a row and really dislike modern warfare. Sorry for the big picture size.

Those small cities? Yeah theyre still unhappy after 40 turns; I guess that draft weariness stacks or something? You did a LOT of drafting. Posting an earlier save game for tips would probably help the best.

 

[GoToParaguay]

Thanks for trying the game null and cane , it was an interesting read, and congrats on etting onto his island cane I'm v impressed, especially given the huge tech disadvantage! How did you deal with his planes?
i'll look for an earlier save, but I think the first time I saved the gae was actually in 1980 so not significantly earlier :S

 

[killercane]

I completely ignored the planes. The AI only had about ten according to my spy, and I think some were destroyed during the first war when their cities on my continent were destroyed. The important thing was to build a large stack of artillery and bombard the mech infantry down to 1 hp; those cities that are building buildings and wealth and things could produce artillery relatively quickly. I added mines and such in places where the cities could use them, and they could probably have used a lot more. The other island was also only one transport route across so with 10-15 transports you can quickly reinforce any position. The Maya still have about 100 mech infantry, but they really shouldnt pose too much of a problem.

"i'll look for an earlier save, but I think the first time I saved the gae was actually in 1980 so not significantly earlier :S"

I mean start a new game and get feedback on your early game. Early game success translates into late game success, if it goes to the late game. Offhand I would say you're building too many improvements overall, and only use the draft if you really, really need it.

 

[GoToParaguay]

I'd love to do that if you were willing to help me and perhaps review the saves and my playing style, what sort of year/tech level should I send you the save if I were to start a new game?
I never build artillery, ever, which I guess is bad? Also I tend to build every improvement in every city. Is artillery useful in early game, or only in late game? When should I start thinking about encorporating it?

 

[killercane]

Just post on here and plenty of people will pitch in some info , tips, argument, and everything else over your save. Try posting something like 1750 BC, 1000 BC, and 10 BC saves.

My artillery rule is twofold: 1) build incrementally more the higher in tech you go (I cant figure out a way to really put that succinctly, but I build very few in the AA (maybe more if starting next to a Greece or Carthage), a few more when trebs come along, a few more when cannons are available, and lots more when artillery is available if I am behind in tech) and 2) the higher the difficulty level the more you will need. Read moonsinger's article in the war academy on artillery usage. You might not need arty sometimes but it is nice to have lying around, and corrupt non barracks cities can contribute the occasional artillery which is good.

Try concentrating on granaries in a few cities, barracks, and marketplaces as your main buildings, with libraries thrown in for research help and culture. Building everything really hurts the economy for often very little to no benefit.

Oh and play the GOTM/COTM. You will learn tons there as well. The current one is released tomorrow and is India on Monarch with a nice starting location.

 

[GoToParaguay]

heya, I was again doing another game as you said, but forgot again to save until 1595AD, I enclosed it here incase it will tell you anything.

Basically it is the same setting as the other game except on archielago. At the start I was on a pretty useless Island as its too far from there to any other Island without risking the sinking of a dromon. I also had the portugese on my Island, however no natural resources :|. The Dutch seem to have everything going for them, and I'm pretty sure this is a lost game now, but just at the point of the save I was at war with the dutch and bribed everyone else to go to war with them too whil capturing a couple Indian cities, but I think we are too weak and I am about to lose a city to the dutch. I did not build artillery because it seemed with such low transport capacity on boats it was better to fill them with cavalry.

My tactics up to this point was to build and keep up in techs while picking off the few smaller civs that fall behind tech wise. Is this a viable strategy? I think in this game the Dutch really have the better of me, if they succeed in capturing my iron/horse/saltpeter/forbidden palace island, then I've got no resources to fall back on :|

Any help would be appreicated again, and sorry for not posting an earlier save

 

[namliaM]

You have loads of defenders, some that i can see are outdated.
I bet you are spending a ton on unit support.
And you are building more muskets as well as a temple and a colloseum.

Skip the temple and colloseum build, make it a Lib if you need the culture there.

Disband them Spears and pikes.

Naissus and Nicomedia and them towns there are probably pretty corrupt and are not pulling in a lot of commerce. None of them seem to have a harbor but do have a barracks. Further more they are building yet more defence....

No harbor means they get only 1 food from the water. They have a lot of water to work. Give them a harbor instead of more defence.
The barracks will not be (as) efficient. Sell them on that island and build infra only for a while. Harbors, Ducts, Markets, Libs, Courts more or less in that order.

Dont be so affraid of the AI particular in Archipello. They are not that good at doing landings. Just keep a few (5 to max 10) offensive and up to date units on that Island (Cavs in this case I guess), keep 3 fortified on them 2 hills and moutain in the south. So they cannot land there and get the defensive bonus.
I cannot see any other hills but do the same there. You have then 3 in the south. Put 2 or 3 more cavs in or around the FP city and 2 or 3 more up north.
Thats all you will need (till flight) but keep them up to date. So replace them with tanks or so when the time arives.

Sardica is crying out for (more) shields i think. Mine that land and get a harbor in there for the food.

Suggestion: If you had taken seperate sceenies of your islands you could have cut them to fit on the same screeny you posted. Except for all that water, which is non to intresting anyway.

Hope that all helps...

 

[killercane]

I completely agree with Namlia. Libraries over temples for sure as the Byzantines, as it is 40s vs. 60s by virtue of being scientific. Why are you building the Forbidden Palace in the North in a place that wont grow and cant produce many shields? The benefit to the surrounding cities would be marginal at best.

Never build a colosseum. Their maintenance cost is high for marginal happiness effect. Use the lux slider in lieu of any colosseum you want to build.

City spacing looks pretty good, except some overcrowding on the northern island. Load up some cavalry and take some more land if the AI doesnt have rifles yet; you might want to cull out the defenders eating up your treasury. Post earlier saves next time. You're looking alright.