Help with Demigod game

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Apr 22, 2005
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Crivitz, Wisconsin, USA
This is my first attempt at a Demigod game. When playing Civilization III, I usually go with either scientific or industrious civs, but this time around I figured to go with a more challenging civ. So I chose Rome.

I figured my best bet (of course) was expanding as quickly as I could. I conquered my entire island some time in the early Middle Ages (using the old mass warrior upgrade into legionaries technique).

Problem: I was the only civ (well, the only major civ) in the Middle Ages by this time. The game's biggest powers, the Iroquois (current government is Fascism; third in overall land and population), the Aztecs (Communism), and the Indians (Fascism), were way ahead. In fact, it appears the Indians (who have the largest population and land) have run away with the game completely: I was researching Banking when they completed the Theory of Evolution wonder (and, knowing the AI, they probably already researched a few other techs ahead of the Scientific Method before starting on the wonder). I'm researching Metallurgy right now. God knows where they are. The just landed a small force of Infantry and Guerillas next to a city I captured from the Spanish (one of the civs I kicked off my home continent) on their now island home continent. I have about as many Knights and Musketmen defending it. I know they at least have Combustion because it was a transport that landed the units and there's at least one cruiser that's escorting it. They're ahead of me by almost one whole age.

Plus, no one wants to trade with me, because I sneak-attacked Babylon (one of the civs that were on my continent) near the end of the Ancient Era (it was the only way I could boot 'em off; I had to make peace earlier because they still had a relatively large force and I was overextended, and after I had built up my army in peacetime I couldn't provoke them into war because they were undoubtedly wary of me). India declared war on me shortly after I unified my continent, and I was able to secure alliances with the Iroquois, Germans, and Greeks against them. Unfortunately, this dragged me into wars with several other nations (well, simply put, pretty much the rest of the world), which hasn't been so good for me. I've got only a few luxuries to go by (three in total: two are mine, another from the Iroquois; originally, I had at least six, three from the Iroquois and one from Greece as well as my own, but after Greece went belly up and the Iroquois cancelled our MPP and RoP agreement, I lost them (with the Iroquois, I lost the two that were part of the MPP and RoP agreement).

The game's status as of now: Greece has been destroyed by the Aztecs; unfortunately, they shared the same landmass. I'm assuming Germany (a Republic) is a mediocre-sized nation (looking at their city count) and they are pretty backwards; they're about even with me in tech. Russia (a Democracy) was once a major power (though they didn't really have a whole lot of cities), though now it appears they've been pulverized by the Germans and Iroquois (looking at the cities each civ had); they only have a few cities left. The Chinese are a puny backwards island nation just off to the left of my core cities (I can see the faint outline of their cultural borders); only just recently did I figure out where they were. They'll be going down shortly. The Americans, another weak nation, are close by but they're pretty much dead (the Indians took over much of their original continent and the Zulus took a few cities too; I'm assuming they're off on a small island because they would have undoubtedly perished otherwise). Speaking of the Zulus, they appear to be a relatively small nation compared to what I'm sure we all know about them (something must have stunted their expansion). I don't know where they are, and they're friends for the moment, but that could change. They're one of the few nations behind me in tech (another is France, which have a pretty large army according to my military advisor; I'd consider attacking them but I don't know where they are either; I've been at war with most of the world for most of the game and I've only been able to trade embassies with my allies and a few other nations). In fact, my world map is pretty pathetic; I haven't been able to trade maps because of Babylon (they either reject outright or demand outrageous prices). I did get a map of Greece before they went under, however (though it's incomplete because I acquired it some time after the Aztecs took a few of their cities). I can only guess as to how big other nations are by looking at the number of cities they have in the Foreign Advisor screen.

I managed to raze one Aztec city on their homeland (capturing and holding it wasn't an option considering my small landing force and pathetic units compared to theirs) before their cavalry destroyed my landing party. I wasn't able to send more because they had frigates parading up and down the coasts of both our landmasses in that region. I'm thinking of making peace with them so that I can focus on the Chinese, but I don't want to anger the Iroquois, who have already cancelled the mutual protection pact and right of passage agreement I had with them. Ungrateful buggers. I'd say they are several techs behind the Indians. I know that the Aztecs, at least, don't even have Replaceable Parts yet (just Riflemen defending their cities, and with them being fairly large I'd expect their continent to have at least one source of rubber, or traded for it from the Indians or something). Even so, they're all ahead of me.

I'm the second largest nation in both land and population (and fourth in overall score behind the Indians, Iroquois, and Aztecs), but I'm also the most backward major power. I'm still a Monarchy, for a number of reasons: I have a lot of units, I have only three luxuries and no cathedrals, and I've been at war since the end of the Ancient Era (that is, when I was still in the Ancient Era, anyway). I'm thinking of heading straight to Communism when I learn the tech. I have no idea how I'm going to catch up significantly to change things to my liking (I mean, the tech gap seems impossibly vast). Advice would be desirable.

Geh, I tried uploading a saved file but apparently it's too large. I tried zipping it but it's still over the 500 KB limit by about 300. Any idea how I can upload it?
 
Yeah, well it's a bit too late for that. They have Infantry guarding their cities, while my best attacking unit is a Knight. I haven't even researched Military Tradition yet. I didn't even know about them until shortly after I had conquered my home continent, and they declared war on me shortly afterwards. They did establish an embassy before they did, but at the time I didn't know they were so far ahead; I think they were at the end of the Middle Ages then. I tried to get a bunch of nations to gang up on them, but I was only able to get help from the Iroquois, Germans, and Greeks. The Greeks are dead, the Germans are weak, and the Iroquois have their hands full. Hell, I can't even reach the Indians because the Aztecs are in the way. And of course, I'm either at war with everyone else or they're too weak to help. Once I got dragged into war with pretty much everyone else it made things difficult for me to even contemplate attacking the Indians.
 
I thought they had an upload function for those over 1mb, but I am not sure if they do and how to invoke it.

It is hard to follow all the events, but if you could have either done the sneak attack and then eliminate all civs that knew about, you would have a clean rep. We call that Arrians deception at Poly. So if it was you and two civs and they did not have contacts with the others, you have a free hand.

If you cannot elimintate them before that, then you may want to reconsider rep breaking tactics.

Being a whole age behind at this stage can be fatal. I would get into a no WW government and stay there. Then I could get into mobilization, if you have the tech.

Then make lots of bombardment units and defenders. Go into grind mode and hope you can make some steals as cash allows. If they get nukes before you can get back in the game, it will probably be lights as soon as MAD fails.
 
Yeah. The thing is, I thought I had destroyed the Babylonians, but apparently not. I don't even know where they are. Heh, at least I knew where the Spanish were before I booted them off; I've remained at war with them since I first provoked them into declaring war (heh, and for the record, there was one other civ on my continent -- the English -- who I destroyed outright). Again, I'd ask for maps, but no one wants to trade with me.

Mobilization is made available with an Industrial Age tech (Nationalism, isn't it?); I'm still in the Middle Ages. At this point, I'm sticking with Monarchy, and I plan on going straight to Communism, like I said.

I have a lot of units, but most of them are attackers. I actually have already started building defensive units (just Musketmen now, of course), but I was planning on landing a large force in Aztec territory. I suppose there's no point to that now considering their army would just slice me to pieces, so I guess I will abandon that plan.

Recovering from the rep hit will be a problem. Geh, you'd think they'd be over Babylon already! Plus, I've already had to declare war on several nations because of the MPP I had with the Iroquois. Bugger. What would you recommend I do at this point?

I had to switch my luxury slider to 10% after I lost those luxuries I was getting through trades so I can't get all the tax I want, but even with setting everything but tax to 0% I'm only getting 559 gold per turn. That's what I get for being in a Monarchy. At 10% luxury, it's going to be considerably less (I don't know exactly how much).

I wish I could just post the saved file here...does anyone know how I can upload a file with a size just under 1 MB?
 
Catching up should be easy enough...
Personally I would have built a lot more cities on my continent that you have done.. but since you are almost in industrial ages now it dont matter much
Spoiler trades :
lux and sci to 0%
make peace with spain and in peace deal get metallurgy, navigation, territory map, 25gold, 11gpt for physics
make peace with russia where they give theory of gravity and territory map, and you give 145gpt.
You are now in industrial ages.
spain gives Military traidition, world map and 1gpt for magnetism and Theory of gravity
you now have almost full world map
metallurgy and physics to germany.. they give economics, music theory, world map, 83gold and 24gpt
then give magnetism and theory of gravety to germany for democracy
germany gets steam power as free tech
I reneg peace deal with Germany.. give them Military tradition, horses, wines, WM and 71gpt for steam power
make peace with babylon.. they give 65gold and WM for gunpowder and theology.. this breaks the trade embargo between babylon and india vs us
I gift education, chemistry, metallurgy,astronomy,banking, physics, Theory of gravity and magnetism to babylon.
babylon got medicine as free tech.. give them economics, music theory, printing press, navigation and chivalry for medicine
sell medicine to germany for free artistry and 72gpt
make peace with aztecs.. they give electrisity for 334gpt
get silks, sanitation WM and 10 gold from iroquois for electrisity
sell sanitation to russia for 108gpt
sell wines to aztecs for 39gpt

You are behind india with several techs... aztecs, iroquois and russia has nationalism.
Ahead of or equal to everyone else.. and have full world map.

and all of this costed about 300gpt.. still have 273gpt left
 
Wow, that really does seem to be the ticket. I've never been in a situation in which I've had to do so much tech trading, so none of this even occurred to me. I've actually progressed through a few turns since I posted that file and things have changed significantly, but I can still follow this advice. Thanks for the help, Gyathaar.
 
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