Lord Malbeth
Emperor
Nothing like a two-year old bump, man! But I wanna join in here.
Recently, I started playing Civ3 again, trying to beat all the scenarios. When I first got the game, I played all of them, but only really beat about 3/4. I just abandoned the others because I didn't really like them. But now that I'm trying to beat them, here goes my ranking!
1. WWII - This is my favorite. Playing as Japan is fun but challenging, especially when you are being attack fro all sides. China, Commonwealth, and USA have a good challenge too. I have a few quibbles with this scenario, mostly with the fact that the US just gets a sliver of landmass, but that's OK. I modded this recently, in which I added more Chinese troops, the Aleutian islands, and more US mainland, among other things, to make it more challenging and fun. Maybe I'll upload it!
2. Mesoamerica - I love this period in history, so this game is pretty fun. The whole sacrifice addition is really cool. My only complaint is that the map is too small and that it doesn't last long enough.
3. Napoleanic Europe - This one is great. The diplomacy is crucial and even as France (who has a massive military advantage) you can get creamed if you piss off Austria/Russia while you're fighting Spain/Prussia. I do get a sadistic gleam from steam-rolling the Dutch and Italy after the fifth or sixth turn. That being said, Denmark is useless.
4. Rise of Rome - I'm a classics major, so this one is pretty fun. Historically, it's a little wonky (Augustus fighting the Carthaginians?) but still great. I like that they combined Alexander's conquests and Rome's expansion into one scenario, even though they weren't completely concurrent. I wish there were more barbarian civs, though. I can usually kill the Celts and Goths pretty darn easily, and Egypt gets funked up by Persia or Carthage early on, usually. Curse those Carthaginians and their ships!
5. Middle Ages - Pretty good scenario. I love playing as the Vikings, and seizing relics and returning them to Jerusalem. Weird, I know. The civs in this game are super aggressive, and it has a nice flavor. My only complaint is that by the end, the ENTIRE map is covered by cities that the civs spewed out. The AI LOVES to found cities, especially in this scenario, which can get annoying and old real fast.
6. Fall of Rome - This is a challenging scenario. It's not so difficult to make one side of the Roman empire fall (I can usually crush Rome as the Franks pretty easily), but it is darn difficult getting the other one before the time limit (for instance, as the Byzantines, they are a booger since you have to build ships to attack Turkey/Crete/Egypt/Middle East, or else go around the Black Sea). My big complaint with this scenario is that you can't play as the Romans. That would've made it challenging and fun.
7. Sengoku - This one is interesting in that its like a regular game of Civ3, only Japanese-centric. That's pretty cool. That being said, I'm usually able to lay waste to swaths of land in the beginning, but then three or four major civilizations emerge who are just buttholes to you. The UN victory is neat, but I ultimately always loss since I like war too much!
8. Age of Discovery - For some reason, this scenario just doesn't do it for me. I think it's a combination of too small of a map and not a very fun quest. There are only four "native" civs that you fight, when in reality, the Europeans made contact with a lot of different cultures. An African civ would've been cool, and I wish there were more barbarians/goody huts in America. Maybe knock the barbs up to actually be kind of a challenge to fight off.
9. Mesopotamia - This one is just too boring for me. While I like the tech tree (the ancient era is what vanilla Civ3 should've looked like IMHO), the limitations to what you can do aren't much fun, and the whole concept of building wonders only to win is kind of lame.
Recently, I started playing Civ3 again, trying to beat all the scenarios. When I first got the game, I played all of them, but only really beat about 3/4. I just abandoned the others because I didn't really like them. But now that I'm trying to beat them, here goes my ranking!
1. WWII - This is my favorite. Playing as Japan is fun but challenging, especially when you are being attack fro all sides. China, Commonwealth, and USA have a good challenge too. I have a few quibbles with this scenario, mostly with the fact that the US just gets a sliver of landmass, but that's OK. I modded this recently, in which I added more Chinese troops, the Aleutian islands, and more US mainland, among other things, to make it more challenging and fun. Maybe I'll upload it!
2. Mesoamerica - I love this period in history, so this game is pretty fun. The whole sacrifice addition is really cool. My only complaint is that the map is too small and that it doesn't last long enough.
3. Napoleanic Europe - This one is great. The diplomacy is crucial and even as France (who has a massive military advantage) you can get creamed if you piss off Austria/Russia while you're fighting Spain/Prussia. I do get a sadistic gleam from steam-rolling the Dutch and Italy after the fifth or sixth turn. That being said, Denmark is useless.
4. Rise of Rome - I'm a classics major, so this one is pretty fun. Historically, it's a little wonky (Augustus fighting the Carthaginians?) but still great. I like that they combined Alexander's conquests and Rome's expansion into one scenario, even though they weren't completely concurrent. I wish there were more barbarian civs, though. I can usually kill the Celts and Goths pretty darn easily, and Egypt gets funked up by Persia or Carthage early on, usually. Curse those Carthaginians and their ships!
5. Middle Ages - Pretty good scenario. I love playing as the Vikings, and seizing relics and returning them to Jerusalem. Weird, I know. The civs in this game are super aggressive, and it has a nice flavor. My only complaint is that by the end, the ENTIRE map is covered by cities that the civs spewed out. The AI LOVES to found cities, especially in this scenario, which can get annoying and old real fast.
6. Fall of Rome - This is a challenging scenario. It's not so difficult to make one side of the Roman empire fall (I can usually crush Rome as the Franks pretty easily), but it is darn difficult getting the other one before the time limit (for instance, as the Byzantines, they are a booger since you have to build ships to attack Turkey/Crete/Egypt/Middle East, or else go around the Black Sea). My big complaint with this scenario is that you can't play as the Romans. That would've made it challenging and fun.
7. Sengoku - This one is interesting in that its like a regular game of Civ3, only Japanese-centric. That's pretty cool. That being said, I'm usually able to lay waste to swaths of land in the beginning, but then three or four major civilizations emerge who are just buttholes to you. The UN victory is neat, but I ultimately always loss since I like war too much!
8. Age of Discovery - For some reason, this scenario just doesn't do it for me. I think it's a combination of too small of a map and not a very fun quest. There are only four "native" civs that you fight, when in reality, the Europeans made contact with a lot of different cultures. An African civ would've been cool, and I wish there were more barbarians/goody huts in America. Maybe knock the barbs up to actually be kind of a challenge to fight off.
9. Mesopotamia - This one is just too boring for me. While I like the tech tree (the ancient era is what vanilla Civ3 should've looked like IMHO), the limitations to what you can do aren't much fun, and the whole concept of building wonders only to win is kind of lame.
, but I hate how you can't build an empire the true size of Rome. If you conquer France, Germany and Spain, you've pretty much got domination.Though that was in the easiest difficulty, im only starting to move to harder difficulties after 5 years of playing 
Just completed the WWII in the Pacific as the US on Sid , though the difficulty wasn't much harder 
Im Irish, and love building a Celtic force to take over Western Europe and eventually dominate Persia, a boy can dream !! 
However, the Visigoths should start near Spain, and wouldn't mind the Huns starting closer to Europe aswell !!
