Civ 3 GOTM 7 *Spoilers* Thread

[Lucky]

Under normal circumstances I´d agree that 1870AD suggests a really fast research rate, but after experiencing tanks around 1000AD and Mech.Inf. around 1200AD I have to say it is slow!

I just wanted to say that in my game the rate was much faster.

 

[Grey Fox]

Originally posted by Lucky
Under normal circumstances I´d agree that 1870AD suggests a really fast research rate, but after experiencing tanks around 1000AD and Mech.Inf. around 1200AD I have to say it is slow!

I just wanted to say that in my game the rate was much faster.

There was Tanks around 1000 AD in my game aswell... not everyone had them though... and especially not me.
I don't know when Persia first had Mechs though.. (gonna check a a save now ) Persia had Infantry at 1210 AD still, but they were in the Modern Age, so they might have Computers... only that they hav't upgraded or/and built any yet. But I agree, you techpace seemed a little faster, maybe it was because I took out Russia and Germany so early... God I really hate to face the scientific ones on Deity...

 

[Grey Fox]

I must point out that I almost never researched a tech, just some at 10% or with 1 scientist (Democracy and Printing Press), and Syntethic Fibers I researched as fast as I could (loosing like 300Gold per turn or so...).

How did I get my techs then? Well, I demanded them for peace, and I bought them for money. When in a democracy you can earn a lot you know.

 

[Lucky]

I know, I did the same of course, no other way to keep up.
I only researched 1 or 2 in the ancient era myself, in the medieval era only 2, one of them being Mil.Trad., which I researched as the only one therefore getting Cavalry as the only one, at least for a few turns!
In the industrial era I had to research 3 or 4, one of them being Scientific .. to build the Evolution wonder and 2-3 others to get tanks asap. After that I switched back to 10% and was promptly overtaken by the AI by some 4-5 techs.
In the Modern Era I was big enough to research at 4-5 turns rate, and I needed to do so to keep a 1-2 tech lead in front of Rome, to finish the Spaceship before them. My treasure at that time crumbled from about 10000 to roughly 1000, but then I launched the ship!

 

[BobFargo]

Submitted last week, but haven't had time to write anything up until now.

The first thing I did when I saw that it was a diety game was play a few practice games because I'd never played a diety level game before. My goal was just to get a feel for how the initial build should go. I used the same settings as the GOTM (basically everything random). The biggest problem I had was with barbarians, so I was happy to not see any of them in this game. This helped a great deal. Not enough to actually win, but enough to make me think I had a shot... for a while.

I settled in the start position and started building a scout for exploration. Sent the first one south, then east and met Russia, Germany and Persia. The next scout went south then west, and eventually met Rome. At that point I traded contacts for techs and money. I probably should have waited with this because I certainly could have gotten more if more was available. I didn't want to risk losing the opportunity, though. I got enough cash to buy the next 2-3 techs, but at that point I think I should have put a little more into research, because I just couldn't keep up enough to buy them.

While this was happening I was expanding, slowly but steadily. I grabbed the horses and then settled the northern peninsula and part of the desert to the east when disaster struck. I was sending a settler to build a city on the choke point to the south when Russia landed a settler and took it. All of a sudden my expansion options were severely limited. It's at this point that I believe my game was lost. I built a galley and started ferrying settlers to the lands towards the west, but that was very slow and I only got 5 cities before all that space was gobbled up. There was still space on the continent to the south, but I had no way to get a settler there.

At that point I thought my only chance was through military action, so I built about 20-25 mounted warriors and went after Russia around 50AD. Persia joined Russia and I convinced Germany to join me. Russias two nearest cities to the east fell to my MWs as well as the city on the chokepoint, but in another (probable) mistake, I razed that city thinking I could put my own there, but their cultural boundary still controlled it so that plan backfired. At that point their conter-attack was getting near, so I sued for peace and managed to get 100 gold from them. However, I had forgotten about Persia...

Many turns later, Persian troops began trickling in. I defended the first couple of waves, but then they began pouring with Riflemen. I lost the two cities in the land I had taken from the Russians, abandoned my horse city (this turned out to be a good move) and lost another city before I was able to buy peace from the Persians. I was able to re-found my horse city but at this point I knew that my military options were gone.

I pretty much just existed from then on. I started building up my western cities and planned on trying to gain some ground culturally from Rome, who was the only Civ I was culturally superior to. However, in 1100 AD, Russia decides she wants retribution and declares war on me, getting Persia to join. I desperately try to get someone to help defend me but no one wants any part of it. I pull some troops back in an attempt to buy time, but Russian and Persian troops roll over my cities. In 1150AD Japan and Germany decide to get in on the action, and in 1170AD England joins just in time to watch me suffer a humiliating defeat.

Even though I didn't win, this was probably the most fun game I've had. It was always a challenge, and I survived longer than I thought I would, and even believed I had a chance for a little while. I did some things right, but too many things wrong, and it seems like any mistake on Diety can kill you.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Most of higher scores were made by early successful wars. I knew that on deity that the AI had many advantages. So rather than try for an early war I focused on finding the best city sites. I reasoned that if I could find city sites that would produce food at accelerated rates that I would be able to out produce the AI at some point. This plan did work and I was able to do a very peaceful expansion by settling the two western peninsulas and the large track of land in the south. I was able to jump my palace down to the south (by ensuring that all my other cities were smaller than size 4) to a city that had the three haystacks and hills for production. The early wars were the best tactic but for this GOTM but I pretty much steer away from early war gambits cause an early defeat would result in a loss of the game.

Finding tactics that work at the deity level can really enhance your game. A strategy that works well at deity will most likely work even better on the lower levels. This deity GOTM was an excellent training ground and I'm sure that everyone that participated ended the game with some new knowledge.

CB

 

[Zur]

early war gambits cause an early defeat would result in a loss of the game.

I have a feeling the good players don't treat this as a gambit, but have prepared for war in advance to such an extent that there is a good probability of victory or at least of reaching limited objectives.

A strategy that works well at deity will most likely work even better on the lower levels.

Though at lower levels, there is also a greater range of (riskier) strategies available to the player which could work fine on lower levels but not on higher ones.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

Originally posted by Zur


I have a feeling the good players don't treat this as a gambit, but have prepared for war in advance to such an extent that there is a good probability of victory or at least of reaching limited objectives.

A Gambit implies there is some chance that the player will lose. SirPleb marching his warriors against Russian in GOTM VII was definitely not an example of a gambit. I'm referring to moves that people write up involving one or two units against an unknown force, and lets face it, early in the game most forces in cities are really unknown (you might guess that only a single unit defends a city but it's a guess at best, and that is definitely a gambit), especially at higher game difficulties.

CB