Hopeless situation?

T

Torrence

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
18
I recently restarted playing civ3 (got conquest...).After a few tries I think I got the hand of it again : I can find my way to victory on monarch AS LONG AS my starting location is not an handicap,which is in my present game...

To make a long story short :

-atm (1900 ca.) I rule (Greeks) a little continent-island,with few cities low culture and waaaay behind in tech (still res. physics while the ai is building bombers...)

-since 1430 (Navigation)I am at war in the big continent : first against the Americans (wiped out) and now against the Iroquois (the leading civ ).The last remaining civ (Atzecs) is busy expanding on the land I have freed .

- I couldn't manage to find the manpower to establish new cities,so I opted for a " barbarian " strategy :stacked a couple of armies and some 30 cannons-trebuchet and went conquering-razing cities, trying to trade peace for techs (I set research to nothing to sustain my military).

-problem is I simply don't have enough time-turns left to eliminate both opponents (prob not even one ...)

My guess is I cannot win this game, but if anyone has tips about how to handle a situation like this (let's say :how to expand from an island to a continent with strong advanced civs) please let me know! :) (I have a save at 1430 and could still try some other strategies...)
 
what turn are you currently in?
maybe is n ot to late to build the spaceship.
or you can give some money to other civs to declare war on your enemies.
 
Thx for the reply ,but I don't think your suggestions are feasible:

-I am around 1900 and researching physics :even if I stipulate peace (and I know it wouldn't last) it would take to long for my meager "empire" to build the spaceship,even setting the research slide to 100 and driving a def economy.

-don't have enough gold to bribe them into war.
 
From a philosophical point of view, there are no hopeless situations, only hopeless people.

But from a more pragmatic sight, you played so bad that you have already lost and next to no chance to turn the tide.

But you should upload the save - there are always players interested in a challenge, and perhaps your situation is not as hopeless as you think, referring to my first statement! :)
 
...and this is a save at 1430 ,when I had cleared the island ,got navigation and was going to try to expand to the continent...
 
The save errored when I tried to open it. I take it you haven't patched Conquests to 1.22?
 
I have the euro version of conquests updated to 1.22. Don't have any mods installed either...
 
I have been looking at the 1902 save and...
It's going to be tough to win on time.

There are several major problems I see with yout gameplay IMO.
Firstly, you are still in Despotism, the main objective of the ancient age is to get out of this horrible government type. In most cases Republic is the best choice(you don't even know this tech) but if you like warring Monarchy is great. However, you must learn to play to these governments strengths.

Secondly, you have a huge dilemma. To conquer infantry defended AIs, you need a large military, especially bombardment units. You have quite a large military, but it is absolutely killing your economy. It seems it took a while to conquer the Incas in the south of your island, the cities there have virtually no infrastructure. Yet these cities are building more units which you cannot pay upkeep for. If they had more infrastructure, and you were in Monarchy, you could allow them to grow to size 12, earning you a lot more money, larger production and greater unit support. I also think you have too many defensive units, you only need a couple to defend your artillery.

I would advise keeping the cities you take instead of razing them, this would alleviate unit support costs, or somehow build new cities of your. If you are afraid of flips put units directly outside the cities and not in them.

I am not sure how winnable the 1902 save is as I cannot really remember how strong Monarch opponents are. To win the AI has to collapse like a paper tiger. In theory cavalry and cannons can conquer anything but probably not in time.

I hope these late night ramblings actually help.
 
I have also looked at the earlier save and I can guarantee a win form here. Personally I am a peaceful player and would do the following.

1. Buy republic and change to it
2. Disband most of the armies and focus on infrastructure
3. Build more workers to irrigate to speed growth, then remine
3. Be a trade broker
4. Win with UN or space

Or if I felt like conquest.

1. Change to monarchy
2. Build more workers
3. Build at least market, courthouse, library, harbor, aqueduct before military
4. Bring settlers along with the conquering armies
 
Torrence: I took a look at the endgame.sav and my suggestion would be to start a new game. You're way behind the AI in tech, land & pretty much every thing else. You can only go so far with Cavalry/Cannons as I see the AI has Infantry. You're are better off starting a new game and using what you learned in this one. If you had a good core of cities, I'd have suggested hanging in there.

Things that I noticed:

- You're way behind in tech and don't have basic city improvements (barracks, granary, temple, etc.) in some of the cities. Looks like you got caught up in wars, focused on military units and forgot about city improvements.

- You're in Despotism even though you have Monarchy. Despotism is the worst form of govt in the game and you should change as soon as you get Monarchy or Republic.

- You're running a defecit at 0 research and have 35 gold. That's the nail in the coffin.

I also took a look at the 1340AD save (it's not 1430) and this game is probably winnable at that stage. If I was starting from that save, I'd swtich govts first (to Monarchy or research Republic and then switch), capture cities from other civs, move the palace over there and go from there.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help (I should be studying for the finals rather than posting ;)) and I'm sure some one else will come along and give you a more detailed feedback. Btw, the saves loaded fine with Conquests 1.22.

edit: Looks like bingen already gave you some good feedback. Good luck.
 
Thanks all for the advices. I usually stick with despotism till I can switch to communism (or democracy, if I feel safe) ,'cause I find rushing production in monarchy very problematic ,and don't like losing turns with anarchy.

I'll give a try to the 1340 (!) save ,switching to monarchy and trying to get a better foothold in the continent :) .
 
Originally posted by Torrence
Thanks all for the advices. I usually stick with despotism till I can switch to communism (or democracy, if I feel safe) ,'cause I find rushing production in monarchy very problematic ,and don't like loosing turns with anarchy.
Click to expand...

Try and change this strategy. You will lose more during the extra time under despotism than you would with anarchy to republic/monarcy and then again to democracy/communism.
 
Hopeless? Never say hopeless.

I have saved "hopeless" games before, two of which are documented in threads in my signature. I suggest reading them.

I am not on the 1.22 patch of C3C yet so I can't look at the game but let me say this:

1) In 1900 there are still 125 turns left right? This is about 25% of the game. You may not win but you can sure change the tide if you make the right choices.

2) It is not too late to get out of despotism. The fact that you are in the game at all is amazing to me. I guarantee that even with the time left you will make up more than the 7 or so turns of loss, even if you go to monarchy. I am sure this will help you cities grow as well. If you have been at war for a long time, republic might not be a good choice for this game.

3) If you start any more wars, do not raze the cities. After you take a city, change production to temple and set the citizens who are not resisting to civil engineer. If the temple gets built before the city flips your chance of keeping it is very good. Keep starving the city down to size 1 to reduce the number of foreigners who might cause it to flip back.

4) Build settlers. Drop them in any nook and cranny you can find. This will help reduce the cost of your current army. Give each city about 9 tiles - hopefully each will have a few nice grasslands.

5) Make sure every tile worked by a citizen has a road and is either mined or irrigated. Make sure cities are not stuck at a certain size with extra food going to waste. You may need more workers - at least 2 per city.

6) Find one citizen you can switch to scientist. This will allow you to move forward on one tech at the minimum rate. Build up gold to start buying techs. This means not building more military units - build up your infrastructure instead - marketplaces, banks, culture, libraries, etc. At least you will get a free tech when you get to the next age. And your first industrial age tech should be steam power.
 
Okay, I really don't have anything to say, but it seems no one has posted since the forum came back up, and I'm just checking to see if everything is working OK. Here goes nothing . . .
 
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