Civ3 GOTM #1 *Spoiler* talks

[Cubanmoogle]

Before you all say I suck, I'll just admit to it. I suck. I made peace with the Aztecs when I met them, but they declared war on me when I asked them to leave my territory or declare war (I had to do this, they were expanding into my territory) I took one city with a bowman (pre-Immortals era) and then was ritualistically beaten into submission by the Aztecs . Reading your posts just makes me realize that I'm gonna have to get a whole lot better in this game if I wanna compete next month. We'll see what happens in that game

 

[Smash]

I have reached 10AD and am doing ok.I have 16 cities.Only 6 were built by me
I went for Iron Working first to get iron and Immortals.Only 1 immortal victory is needed to trigger a golden age.
I built my cap 1 square over so I could reach the fish my worker exposed.Then I built a warrior while I made some roads to furs waiting for size 2.The warrior then found a hut containing a nomad.Yes..they do exist.This great luck was followed by another settler speeding the process along by adding my worker to the cap.3 of the first 4 cities built barracks while the other built some workers to road and colonize 1 resource.
Iron appeared but 1 square out of range of city #2.A temple was built so I could expand by cultural influence.A road was built to the iron after 10 culture points expanded the workable area and immortal construction began.
2 barb encampments gave me lots of gold to work with.Attacked the Aztecs and triggered my golden age.
Then I just worked my way down island capturing cities and workers.Along the way I secured the Oracle(built by Aztecs) and the Pyramids(built by Babs).
I'm getting the hang of moving into the square you attack which is different than civ2.Although early immortals make it easy.

 

[Callahan]

A couple of tips to help out those who seem to be having trouble with GOTM1, based on my experience:

1. There's not nearly enough space to grow and win this one peacefully in any reasonable length of time. Get stuck in early and often, and use your immortals like the disposable shock troops that they are. Otherwise you'll still be stuck negotiating with the aztecs for resources in the 20th century.

2. The aztecs will give you all kinds of grief with those damned 2-move jag warriors. I was successful in containing him, after losing a stray warrior in the open, by putting a spearman next to his capital, fortified atop a hill. This kept him agitated enough that I was able to expand twice and get iron, buying me time to kick his butt with the immortals.

3. Bust out da whip. Early, often, and especially in just-captured cities where them defecting may be an issue.

4. When attacking with immortals, try to do it in waves instead of singly, and keep back 1 or two healthy ones to protect the victorious ones that have lost health. I never wound up getting a leader because the AI kept swooping in and assassinating wounded elite units that I left exposed.

That is all I have for now.

Cheers,
Callahan

 

[Nelson Minar]

Domination victory, Year 1640, 2547 points.

Subdued Aztecs 390BC.
Subdued Babylonians 380AD.
Subdued Zulus 570AD.
Subdued Americans around 1350AD.

The most important thing was where I put my capitol and my Forbidden Palace. I got lucky with Leaders, which helped a lot with the building. I rush built my Forbidden Palace on the Aztec capitol, Tenochitlan. Then I stupidly lost my own capitol for a turn, which placed my new capitol right next to the Forbidden Palace! Didn't fix that until I conquered the Zulus and rush built a new Palace way down south in Ulundi. Then almost the whole continent was producing efficiently for me.

Reforesting helps a lot, as did Democracy. Once I got railroads I was unstoppable. The Americans picked a fight with me and I got a third leader just then. Universal Suffrage makes war in Democracy a pleasure.

Immortals definitely 0wn in this game - I was using them even when I had Riflemen! Other tricks I use - let the computer build wonders, then take the city. And don't kill the enemy entirely, leave them with one city and practice extortion.

 

[LeSphinx]

I've played a long time this WE.

Right now, I'm in 1930 AD.

I will go for the Space Race victory. Indeed, I do not like specialy the war. I've made it at the beginning (Artecs, Babylioanans, and Zulu) because I had no way in order to expand and have a good land for my cities. No way wining (for me) by domination or by military war!

The Diplomacy will be hard (Zulu and Aztecs do not like me!). Even the cultural victory : I only have around 47000 cultural points. So I think I will go for Space race vitory.

I just constructed the Appolo Program small wonder.

The next step is to prepare to buil properly my space ship.
Hope to finish the GOTM 1 during this WE and before the WE.

LeSphinx

 

[knowltok]

1st Game of the month and I won. I can't believe I never knew about this site before. I lucked out by sending my first exporitory expedition south as opposed to north. Once I found the Aztecs I put a city on the choke point and had the north to myself. IMHO if you don't use the immortals to make war in the early game you are misplaying the persians. I could have done a better job rushing things, and am practicing that on a new game. I had much success by having a war, taking a few cities, then asking for peace and demanding one or two of the cities at the bottom of the AI's list. They usually give them to you, and they are the last ones founded, so they are likely to be their island outposts. The island outposts don't touch anything so they don't culture revolt. I still need to work on when to raze and when not to raze.
To sum it up: Conquest victory
1822 AD
1,748 points.
Early industrial. I can't wait for the next GOTM. Kudos to Matrix and all involved for the work and the concept and all.

 

[S.P.Q.R.]

I'm not that successful... my game will probably end with a histographic victory for me... I'm in 2030 now...800pts. The next strong has about 650. My problem was that my conquest in my first, agressive period were always stopped by permanently reverting persian cities When I stopped this useless strategy, I was a bit behin. So there wasn't much use of great conquests. I conquered only a few American and Babylonian outposts... and now I'm capturing a few Iroquis cities by Propaganda. All in all a rather peaceful game, not as successful as I had hoped, but I think its o.k. for my first game of civ3

 

[kwhit]

Let's just say that I didn't even make it to 1 AD. This was my first GOTM (I didn't know about this site when I played Civ2) and it killed me.

Those Aztecs are mean SOBs!

 

[LeSphinx]

I just finish my GOTM 1.

I win by building the SpaceShip.
I built it on 1976!
I had 25 cities and a total popultation around 62 Millions people.

I'm happing about my first GOTM game!

LeSphinx

 

[donsig]

The GOTM is my second Civ III game. (Got a cultural victory in the first - at the easiest level.) I was very wary at first, did not even go after the huts until I had good protection for my new capital and second city. I had a warrior posted on a southern hill watching the hut there. Saw that the barbs were being attacked so I new I had neighbors close by. Not much room for Persia and no rivers!
I soon had a skirmish with the Aztecs and easily took one of their cities. Then they built another city between Persia proper and my captured city! I took this and then they came at me with swordsmen. Had to kiss some Aztec butt.
Both the Americans and Iriqouis built cities just north of my capital and I took them swiftly. Found Seattle on a small Island and captured it. The Thousand Year War against the Aztecs started in 300AD. The Persian monarchy used catapults and immortals to capture two cities in 1000 years. (They each had to be captured more than once because of cultural reversion.) The main benefits of this war were then many captured workers and the irrigation projects I was able to undertake in Persia thanks to the Aztec irrigation.

 

[Berhaven]

That's basically it.
And let me tell you I'm sorry for that: I was going to prepare a huge army of armor to invade the Americas defended by musketeers/pikemen. Just a couple of turns to get the armor tech.

BTW the game was fun and excellent

I crushed the Atzec with the immortals, build the second palace in Tenochwhateveritis and gone for the Babs who where building a new empire in the northwest.

Trade was good, the only annoying thing is the absolute crazyness of overseas folks regarding trade. Americans and Iroquis had excess wine/spices but asked for like three luxuries, iron and some tech. I left them with their stuff!

Bye

Berh

 

[donsig]

The Thousand Year War did have two other benefits. First, midway through the war Darius the Great formed the first legendary Persian army. This is the army that captured the Aztech capital. The other benefit was yet another Aztec city that was added to the Persian empire by the Peace of 1300 AD. This was really an insignificant little Aztec settlement far from Persia proper. Yet, it would play a role in Persia's later history...

After the Peace of 1300 the Persians gained the right of way through Aztec lands. Darius's successors had a great army but no war so they marched on a Babylonian city and captured it. The city was held against the Babylonian counter attack but a band of renegede horsemen from Zululand attacked and destroyed the weakened Persian army. Thus, Persia was back to its 1300 AD borders.

Persia was to sink a bit lower. The evil Americans attacked and captured Chicago to the north and the old Aztec capital to the south. Chicago was eventually recaptured but the old Aztec capital was never taken from the Americans. The people rose up and rejoined the Aztec nation!

During the American War there was continued harassment from Zulu horsemen. In the once insignificant Aztec settlement across the sea Cyrus the Immortal defeated a Zulu invasion force and built a great palace. Cyrus's victories led to the Persian conquest of a Zulu island to the east of Persia in the recent Saltpeter Wars.

 

[knowltok]

Berhaven:

I've noticed the same thing about trade from the AI. They've got 3-4 extra, but won't give me a trade, even at better than fair terms. I'm with you though, screw'em if they want to play that way, I'll get my luxuries one way or another.

 

[donsig]

My trading in this game has been minimal. So has my map trading. I think the latter actually prevented much of the former as I had to explore to find sea routes to some other civs. Trading opened up a bit more once I could make caravels.

My settler and city building has also been very limited. I have founded only three cities. Haven't made many workers either. I have many foreign nationals working for me for nothing. I had captured a Zulu worker during the Saltpeter Wars and was taking him back to Persia to complete a 'set' but my galley was lost at sea. (Never play Civ III when your wife is in the same room ranting and raving. It's tough to keep track of what you're doing!)

 

[Lian Purge]

Well, i lost about 20 turns worth of building time to the coruption thing, sigh.

I drove south early with a force of Immortals and took many Aztec cities and then drove the Babylonians off the center island and eventually killed them. All without Iron in the 2nd half of the war i might add...my source dried up.

But I found a solution to the coruption problem.
I had about a 4 tech lead in science, went to Republic early to combat corruption...didnt work...so i lowered Science to 0% and just took in money and it about 15 turns i hurried a ton of Courthouses and then my Forbidden Palace finished around then and since then it's been off to the races. I'm on 3 islands and in compelete control.

Not sure how I will win though.

 

[WUM]

WWWWWHHHOOOOOEEEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

I just achieved victory!!!!

Total military conquest, not even 1 city remaining in 680 AD!!!
It was my third complete civ3-game overall and i had the best score so far (won before histographical on chieftan and via spaceship on warlord).

i say my first regent-game and my first gotm-game ever are a succes!
I´ll go for Monarch next...

I wander why i didn´t win a copple of turns earlier though, by Domination. Anyone know when that happens? Some seem to have won through domination when they only had to conquer a copple of the last cities. But i had to conquer 'em all and LOVED it!

[dance]

 

[donsig]

The Wars of Expansion began in the 1800s. There were some initial successes in taking cities on islands. Babylonian cities fell easily, Aztec cities not so easily. The renewed campaign against the old Aztec capital has faltered again while the Aztecs have captured some of the recent Persian island conquests!
The Persian Kingdom now has riflemen but this technological edge may not last long. Always looking after the happiness of his subjects the King struck a deal with President Lincoln wherein Persian military advisors taught the Americans about riflemen in exchange for American wines. The evil Americans no sooner passed their final exam in riflemen technology and then signed a mutual defence pact with the Aztecs! Of course the evil Americans cancelled the trade agreement and declared war on the Kingdom of Persia. It it good for them that America is so far from Persia!

 

[BlueMax]

The game went well for me, I had a lot of luck with my Immortals. My score was 3949 with a conquest victory in 900AD and a total culture of 3651. I think I got quite a few bonus points in my score for winning somewhat early, since my point total before I captured the last American city was around 400.

Like many of the other posts I've read the Aztecs came at me early. Luckily for me the spearman by their capital defended himself well and managed to take the city on the first turn of the war. Around 2000BC I built my first Immortal and found out how great they were in battle.

Around 500BC I started using the rush build with popualtion to dramatically inrease tha number of Immortals. The added side benefit was with all of my captured cities around 1-3 population I didn't have too many problems with disorder.

Since I was having such success with the rush building masses of Immortals and temples I never changed from Despotism and just kept attacking the other civs. My most common tactic was enter into diplomacy to see how many cities the next enemy had and then go after them. If a civ still had cities that I couldn't locate I'd sue for peace, trade maps, and then move my armies into position to capture them.

I only had two cities revert back to there former owners. This may have been due to my culture, since I would often rush build a temple right after I captured a city.

Well that's all folks.

 

[minderbinder]

Wow 3900+ points, sounds like I should have gone with my first instinct and keep rolling after I captured the starting island. After the initial burst of conquest I had a large army that I just wasted on guard duty. If nothing else I really should have pushed the attak so I could get a darn leader to rush a forbidden palace. Instead I placed a pretty peaceful game of colonization and eventual won by domination in 1904 with ~2000 points. I am still perplexed by how the other Civs kept up with the tech research? Do they steal alot? Is there anyway to prevent theft of tech before you have spies?

As others mentioned corruption is a huge problem. Do courthouses really work? I rushed built one in the aztec capital to help me produce a forbidden palace but after several hundred years the city still lost 12 of 13 shields.

Last stupid question, when you take over an enemy city and rush production or make workers how do you make sure the captured citizens are used and not ones from your culture?

 

[searay0]

Gee, I felt pretty good about my game (Domination victory in 1865 AD with 2040 points, 952 before victory bonus, and 17857 culture) until I saw what some of you did. Warmongers, all of you.

Well, I played somewhat conservatively. I held back my Immortals until 1000 AD when I felt my half of the continent was mature and I had just switched to Monarchy. Then I thought the time was right for the Blitzkrieg. I had a two stacks of Immortals ready to take Aztec holdings simultaneously on the continent and the main island east of us. The combined productivity of the Monarchy and the Golden Age after my first victory allowed me to keep the reinforcements coming turn after turn.

I was surprised that, during the conquest of the entire continent south of the isthmus, none of my elite victories ever produced a great leader. Not one. This made it unfeasible to make a Forbidden Palace south of the equator. Major bummer. But my military conquest was sweeping in scope and quickly extended to the entire world short of the American-Iroqouis continent and a few small islands. And just before I was about to tighten the noose on the evil empires the computer gave me the Domination win.

Presumably, I could have been much less conservative on defense and attacked with my Immortals earlier, thus getting a whole lot more bonus points at victory. But in a non-competitive sense, I felt it was a solid game that any leader bent on world domination would have been proud of.