First Time!

[Sweetchuck]

Not that I was going for it or even expected it, but first time I ever got this at any level (this one was Regent):



Lost my high score virginity.

 

[darski]

Way to go!!!
I love to see that one come up ... when it (rarely) does.

 

[Bllasae]

I've only gotten "Worthless", although I do good sometimes lol. If I say so myself, of course.

 

[ecuwins]

Very nice! Keep up the good work.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Yay! Everyone likes to see that one! What was the VC, BTW?

 

[Sweetchuck]

Yay! Everyone likes to see that one! What was the VC, BTW?

Domination - it's the only VC I use lately.

I've been playing regent but I'm going to try a monarch game with space race added next I think.

The one thing that's helping me at higher levels is my non-tendency to want to build wonders. I pick and choose them now and it makes the game so much easier to operate.

I try to build the pyramids and Sun Tsu, and after that - everything's gravy. I was hung up on building Artemis' Temple, but you still have to build temples later on, so I bagged that one ultimately.

 

[Spoonwood]

Sweetchuck,

As something to at least try... find or a develop a spot which will have 5 extra food and 5 blue shields pre-size 7. Train nothing but workers from this city. It's usually easiest to do this as agricultural, but industrious can help here... and possibly even commercial (for corruption), or seafaring or expansionist if you have some lovely fish.

Edit: you said wonders, not workers.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Sweetchuck,

As something to at least try... find or a develop a spot which will have 5 extra food and 5 blue shields pre-size 7. Train nothing but workers from this city. It's usually easiest to do this as agricultural, but industrious can help here... and possibly even commercial (for corruption), or seafaring or expansionist if you have some lovely fish.

Edit: you said wonders, not workers.

Yeah, the turns would go a lot faster without workers.

 

[capnvonbaron]

@ Sweetchuck:

Trust me on this one: bag the pyramids too. I can't remember the last time I built them (I even generally skip them on 20Ks), and I do fine on monarch. Essentially, the pyramids are such a HUGE shield sink for that early in the game that for the same cost you can build a crapload of horsemen or swords or settlers (about 14, to be exact... more if you can chop forests for them. 14 swords will murder just about any AI civ in the AA on middle difficulties). Granaries are really cheap to build individually, and definitely do not need to go in every town. If you get an empire later where the amount of granary maint. you have to pay becomes a draw on the economy, you are probably large enough to just march over to whoever built it and take it from them

Even STAoW is too much of a sink for me... I'll only build it if I have a substantial lead over the AI. Again, rax are cheap, and not every town needs them. Convenient later, sure, but always conquerable. You can build 8.5 knights for the cost of STAoW... or better yet, crank out 20 horsemen and upgrade them to knights!

 

[Sweetchuck]

@ Sweetchuck:

Trust me on this one: bag the pyramids too. I can't remember the last time I built them (I even generally skip them on 20Ks), and I do fine on monarch. Essentially, the pyramids are such a HUGE shield sink for that early in the game that for the same cost you can build a crapload of horsemen or swords or settlers (about 14, to be exact... more if you can chop forests for them. 14 swords will murder just about any AI civ in the AA on middle difficulties). Granaries are really cheap to build individually, and definitely do not need to go in every town. If you get an empire later where the amount of granary maint. you have to pay becomes a draw on the economy, you are probably large enough to just march over to whoever built it and take it from them

Even STAoW is too much of a sink for me... I'll only build it if I have a substantial lead over the AI. Again, rax are cheap, and not every town needs them. Convenient later, sure, but always conquerable. You can build 8.5 knights for the cost of STAoW... or better yet, crank out 20 horsemen and upgrade them to knights!

This is where I sort of draw the line in the CivIII sand. Yeah, I could cookbook strategize the game and probably win at any level, but like Darksi said once "I build them because I want to".

 

[Yoda Power]

Why build wonders when you can capture them?

 

[Sweetchuck]

Why build wonders when you can capture them?

One of my couple other tendencies that doesn't help win games but it's what I like to do (or not do) is to not capture cities. I prefer to raze them. Too much hassle to starve them down or build slaves and those pesky citizens get all up in a tizzy when I'm at war.

 

[capnvonbaron]

This is where I sort of draw the line in the CivIII sand. Yeah, I could cookbook strategize the game and probably win at any level, but like Darksi said once "I build them because I want to".

I can relate. There are later wonders I get extremely upset about losing, but in general I don't care for early wonders. My REX skills are still a bit weak for my liking and wonders only impede that.

On another, somewhat related note, I had a first of my own. I managed to obsolete 5 wonders before they were built I was just in the mood to mess around, and put myself on a warlord small pangea as France, along with Greece, Russia, Russia, Germany, and Germany (yes, I just learned that little trick ) Well that didn't pan out to anything interesting, but after a spectacular start, I managed to hit the IA by around 1000AD, all the while gifting the AI up to my level and robbing them of their free techs at the change of eras. I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm going to see how early I can launch a space ship.

 

[Spoonwood]

You might want to build wonders for culture. You might also want their benefits before you capture them. Capturing them and then holding onto to them doesn't also work out as so easy either.

Capn', you can't draw a free tech as France, nor build libraries, universities, and labs as easily as a sci. tribe can. So, no doubt, a sci. tribe will on average launch faster than France.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Capn', you can't draw a free tech as France, nor build libraries, universities, and labs as easily as a sci. tribe can. So, no doubt, a sci. tribe will on average launch faster than France.

Well, sure, but space race only became my objective after I started the game. Its been awhile since I've stepped back to warlord and I forgot how fantastically easy it is once one gets used to monarch. No doubt in most scenarios a sci civ is better for the race. As it stands, though, I've been researching everything in 6 turns or less since I got Republic around 1100BC, and have bought three free techs off the AI (saving me at a minimum 12 turns, probably closer to 20 here). Massive commerce lets me keep the science slider up around 90%, and multiple luxs keep the people happy (which isn't an issue on warlord anyways) so I'm doing pretty well for myself. Still haven't finished the game, but I'll let you know how it ends.

I'm not joking when I say this start was unbelievable. Just to give you an idea, my start included within the fat cross: four floodplains, one with a wheat bonus; a couple BGs; one mountain and one hill; several forests, one of which had a game food bonus; and not least of all, a goodie hut that popped a settler when my borders initially expanded. After I built/chopped a granary, the build order became settler-settler-settler-worker-warrior-repeat . No one has died of disease yet either, amazingly