Civ3 is not an easy game...

[stwils]

Civ3 is not an easy game for me. But I am completely addicted to it! It is beautiful, and it is a very deep game. I can't stop coming back to it.

The crazy thing is, despite studying the manual, and reading here, I still don't win. Maybe winning is not that important.

I love the music (especially the Middle Ages) and I love the graphics. And little by little I am getting better at it. But I am not "there" yet.

Most of you here seem to understand the game so wonderfully well. I wish someone here would write a new strategy guide... there is so much information here not in the manual.

Anyway, are there any readers on this forum who love this game and still feel it is just a little bit beyond their reach?

I guess that is what a good game is though: a little bit beyond one's reach.

stwils
:jump:

 

[seat]

since i began to play civ3 i believed that you had to be really really good at the game to be any good at it. there are just so many little things to understand i still think this is true

 

[The Last Conformist]

stwils, at what difficulty level are playing at? Unless your already playing at Chieftain, going down one level for a couple of games can help alot - you'll learn plenty of little things that'll help when you go back to the earlier level.

Are there any specific things you have trouble with - does the AI simply out-build you, or do you get whipped in combat? Do you get eliminated or do you simply lose to AI Space/Diplo/Dominance/Cultural wins?

 

[stwils]

I am playing at Chieftain (except once on Warlord - lots more barbarian and combat there.)

I get to the Middle Ages , and I just seem so far behind, that I stop.

When I look around (even though the map is semi dark) I see my opponants have lots of cities and are out there waiting to destroy me.

stwils

 

[Japher]

The game kicks my butt!!! And I love it!!! Yes, sir, may I have another?

I have been getting better though. I try not to go down a dif., but instead go up a dif, if I am having problems... Sometimes the starts. that you learn by getting you butt kicked at a higher level can be used to do the same to the AI at lower levels.

My best advice for getting better at this totally awesome game is go read the succession games, expecially the training day ones... They walk through their games turn by turn and tell you what you they do, and display the results... Very helpful. Also, if they do something that you don't understand why, search through the strats to see if you can find out why, and if not ask them... Sometimes that one little thing that you have over looked or just haven't been doing can make the world of difference, and there are a lot of those little things in this game.

 

[ChickinSht]

Have you tried the tech broker strategy?

 

[Gastric ReFlux]

Yes, Japher is right about reading the Succession games. Some excellent players in there and often during the games, you can read them having discussions of reasons why they did certain actions or strategies.

 

[stwils]

Where do I find the "succession game strategies?"

stwils

 

[philippe]

stories and tales forum,i think

 

[Maple]

stwils-

When I first started playing, I didn't have much luck either. Try playing as civilizations good for new characters (Iroquois, Persia) and playing against civs that have mediocre bonuses or bonuses that come late in the game. (England, America)

 

[sabo]

stwils,

There is no way to keep up with the opponents techs unless you trade, buy, and steal...


There is one othe way, my last game I just happened to be lucky enough to be on a huge island continent by my self, even though I am a little behind in techs I think I'll STILL win because of my shear size, after I get done building my infrastructure for my cities I'll build up my army and kick butt, don't be discouraged, I agree with japher if you are not already at cheifton level go down a level or two and then you can learn how to beat it at the level you're at now...

 

[Evincar]

Originally posted by sabo10
stwils,

There is no way to keep up with the opponents techs unless you trade, buy, and steal...

Don't make me laugh!! it's chieftain, so of course there is!! I can take the tech lead in the late mid-ages on Monarch (probably I will not be able to on Emperor), so don't tell me they research fast on Chieftain.

Build roads everywhere, go republic, build Libraries wherever you get a decent amount of gold, Universities in your best cities, and, if possible, research Wonders and Adam Smith.

You'll get far ahead of them, you'll see.

 

[Zouave]

"Civ 3 is not an easy game".

Let me put it this way. If I was playing computer chess and suddenly the computer gave a bishop the moves of a queen, or allowed pawns to also take going straight ahead, I'd have problems with that too. So the Civ 3 AI cheats.

But, you should be able to usually win at Regent. And have at least an even chance at Monarch. If not, read more threads including the archived ones. (I assume you haven't played Civ 2 as many strategic concepts are similar).

 

[JFL_Dragon]

I found the major difference between Civ2 and Civ3 is that you must be more agressive, especially on higher levels.

If you are having trouble, try for early war to get some more land

 

[konigstiger]

Originally posted by stwils
I am playing at Chieftain (except once on Warlord - lots more barbarian and combat there.)

I get to the Middle Ages , and I just seem so far behind, that I stop.

When I look around (even though the map is semi dark) I see my opponants have lots of cities and are out there waiting to destroy me.

stwils

Seems like you didn't expand well, I had this problem too when I began, unlike in civ2 (chieftain level) I could win the game playing england with the euro map and just stay there until I build my spaceship. In civ3 this doesn't work anymore, I don't have the sense of expanding, it's like I'm "afraid" to try this new approach, but i just have to try it, expand or annihilated. Took me about a week of practicing expansion, until I beat chieftain. There's a lot of strategies about it in the war academy , read it, practice it, and you'll succeed .

Or, you can find a decent player and see him how he play, worked well with me in my previous strategy games. I used to suck bad ass in this game called "L'empereur" , it's a napoleonic game by koei. So, when i found a friend who actually beat the game I went to his house and see him played, sed out a lot of lights to me and I beat the game with ease ever since. Sometimes I just want to sit behind Aeson SirPleb and GreyFox and see how the hell did they beat deity , but I guess they'll just tell me to get the fock out . Keep trying man, you'd get there

 

[konigstiger]

Originally posted by Evincar


Don't make me laugh!! it's chieftain, so of course there is!! I can take the tech lead in the late mid-ages on Monarch (probably I will not be able to on Emperor), so don't tell me they research fast on Chieftain.

Build roads everywhere, go republic, build Libraries wherever you get a decent amount of gold, Universities in your best cities, and, if possible, research Wonders and Adam Smith.

You'll get far ahead of them, you'll see.

Ditto to this, it sound impossible when I first played civ3, but after I keep beating regent and monarch and came back to chieftain, I don't even know why I kept having trouble playing it back then. I mean the AI is severely handicapped in research, production, gold, and everything, in my case I was isolated until 1000-1500 AD, and when I found the first civ, I was almost in industrial age while they're still in mid- middle age with spearmans and horseman running around.

 

[smallstepforman]

1. Build roads. Everywhere. Irrigate and mine everything.
2. Always negotiate. Buy, sell, it doesn't matter, you must not allow yourself to lag technology wise.
3. Defend all your cities with units proportional to what the AI may attack with. Especially border towns. For coastal towns, figure out how many troops ships can transport, then organise appropriate defense.
4. Build every improvement. Start with Temples.
5. Accumulate a massive number of units. They should be of each kind (attack, defense, bombard). They need to work together.
6. Organise a coordinated attack on a strategic enemy. Get another AI to partner with you.
7. Rinse, repeat.
8. Victory!!!!!!!!!

This works on every level - including Deity.

 

[Reboot]

My usual strategy in CivI and II is to pump settlers quick. The first time I played CivIII at Chieftain I was completely floored by how fast the AI is pumping out settlers!

But its is possible to gain a brilliant tech advantage in Warlord and Chieftain levels. (and possibly 1 level above that... I never tried) The idea is NOT to trade techs (unless you're going to crush that civ before it gets in contact with other civs), push every cent you have to technology, maintain peaceful relationships with AI civs whenever possible (unless you need that Oil resource really bad), and build Libraries/Universities when you can afford the time/money.

Usually I manage to reach Modern Age when the rest are still mid-medieval in Chieftain, early-industrial in Warlord. Left to themselves, AI tech research is pretty pathetic. In a Warlord game, the Babylonians were "trapped" (no contacts, no trades... and that's on a random map) on this island with 7 cities and when I hailed them with my Destroyer they're still in Ancient (and still w/o the techs Republic, Construction, Monarchy)! ("Agh! Its the fire-breathing Leviathan, Great Hammurabi! Save us, o King!" )

[edit: what I mean is never sell your techs. Buying techs from Civs is useful... so long as you don't give them a tech for it. Also, the Babylon example shows that the AI is reliant upon tech-trade to gain its tech advantage... at least in the easier levels]

 

[Sullla]

The issue of succession games came up earlier in this thread... Anyone who is new to Civ3 will likely find my training day game SUL4 to be a useful read. It's essentially a strategy guide of how to play the game, using a specific game as an example. This game's on Emperor, and we're kicking some serious butt at the moment. The game can be found at this address.

Zouave is also welcome to come and read about how easy it can be to beat the "cheating" AI on Emperor with good strategy.

 

[Gastric ReFlux]

Probably the big thing that Zouave calls cheats are, in effect, compensation for two deficient areas of the AI. The AI really can't form a good long range strategy, especially in military. The other thing the AI sucks wind on is worker management and its consequent productive capacity of the cities.

People sometimes joke about how it seems that the AI evaluates your military strength by counting in the number of your workers. In a strange way that is true, because if you discard the automatic workers and take control of them, you can outproduce the AI even at levels above Regent.

At Monarach and above, the AI gets discounts for building units and city improvements, plus extra units with which the AI starts the game. Those discounts are given precisely in compensation for the crude and lousy strategy with which the workers work. That same strategy is the one which you will use if you automate your workers.

The message of that is rather clear.