Idiot mistakes 101

[Sinapus]

I accidently used the group move command for my first settler and the archer I built to defend it. Didn't notice that the group move command moved ALL the units in my capital city until my 2nd city was built. Fortunately, nothing attacked my capital and I was able to get my defensive units back into place, but still... felt REALLY foolish.

 

[Meffy]

Warpstorm: Tnx. My brain's memory is the old kind, like 1950s computers used. Doesn't always hold its contents so well.

 

[TacNuke]

In addition to he stuff already posted. It was early in the game (about 1 AD or so) and spent several turns exploring near my cities....only to realize it was a worker unit and not the scout I had recently built. I have the worker bee-line for back home only to be unceremoniously killed by barbarian archers en route.

 

[george_manet]

Playing on a huge pangea map, I ordered my great merchant to the oposite corner of the world and then kinda forgot about him. A couple of turns later I declared war on Elizabeth and as it turns out, my GM was passing through the English countryside at the time. Oooops... that 2500 gold would've really helped me out.

 

[Celebithil]

In my first game I decided the time had come for some war. So I attacked the nearest (small) city of my most annoying neighbour and capture it. However it didn't have any culture (or something) and it was destroyed. So I start building a settler to grab the spot nonetheless. However another civ had a settler roaming about with nowhere to found a city and settles it right on the old city ruins.

So much for the "gaining land by conquering" technique.

 

[Crispin]

Celebithil: Haha I just did the same thing !

 

[paulfish]

I had a destroyer and a battlebhip on the same square and I didn't pay attention to who was up and attacked a battleship oops.

 

[skadistic]

Today i had huge random contanents game with montazuma and saladin salidin was next to me and monty was 1/2 acoss the world. So I declair war on the green guy next to me. Oooops wrong green guy so I'm at war with 2 guys now and my relations with 6 others are lowered and higher with 2 others. War is fun.

 

[Major Tom]

Having a revolution during golden age.

 

[scienide09]

Having a revolution during golden age.

Ouch. That really sucks.

 

[Lamrok]

I decide that the time has come to hit Saladin. I load a bunch of transports full of tanks and send them off. I take my bombers and base them in France, right next to Arabia. I declare war, use my navy to drop the defenses of my target city, and move my tanks into position to take the city on the next turn. I hit "enter" to end the turn.

I see a message - "Your bomber has been defeated by a Cavalry." Apparently, as soon as the war started, Saladin sent troops across his open borders with France and killed all my bombers in one fell swoop. d'oh!

 

[Meffy]

Lamrok: Eeeep! :-O Thanks for mentioning this. I'll try to remember not to fall into the same trap. Same goes for everyone else who's posted -- I still make plenty dunderheaded mistakes and am glad to see pitfalls pointed out just in case. *9_9*

 

[al_thor]

Attacking and destroying a barbarian city instead of letting it get to Size 2 and getting a free city and maybe even a worker or two.

 

[Andygal]

I am such a newb.

I even suck on Cheiftain.

I got two of my cities captured by barbs and then Montezuma got one so I tried to get it back from him and I got whupped. So I quit.

I suck at this game.

 

[puglover]

I am such a newb.

I even suck on Cheiftain.

I got two of my cities captured by barbs and then Montezuma got one so I tried to get it back from him and I got whupped. So I quit.

I suck at this game.

Don't feel bad. Just keep practicing, and read a few strategy guides we have around.

 

[Meffy]

Andygal: Absolutely what puglover said! All you need is some advice and some experience. Once you've sent a few world leaders scurrying home with their tails between their legs, you'll start to feel how it's supposed to be done.

Persistence, strength, attention, and hope: Those will get you a long way. I can't play at the high levels some of these other guys do, but I have lots of fun here in the shallow end of the pool. :-}

 

[The Last Conformist]

Was besieging Athens, for whatever reason. One of my catapults had just arrived to the scene, and I move it onto the same tile as the other catapult next to the city. Oops!, that was one of Alex's catapults. Predictably, my catapult lost the battle too. Too add insult to injury, I had lvl3 Elephant in the tile next to the fight, which could have made short work of the Greek catapult.

 

[mr foolhardy]

- I have lost multiple workers and even one city because I am so used to the "zone of control" rules from Civ2 (I never played 3) that I thought I was safe from having a military unit in an adjacent square.

- Missing multiple turns because I forgot I was in the 'city' screen as I was clicking the red 'end turn' button.

- The first few games I played I used all my great people as soon as I got them because for some reason I thought they wouldn't last more than a few turns. (Now I realize saving GP for strategic purposes is a must.)

 

[GenericKen]

Hitting "f" to tell several dozen of my workers to build farms. For about a hundred turns.

I was wondering where those guys went.

 

[BruceLeeee]

The dumbest mistake I made learning this game was carpeting every inch of land in my cultural border with cottage or farm. I was wonder why extra cottage doesn't help me. Three games later, I saw those blue ciricles in city screen. Doh!! I miss my 3 worker/city and empty cottages.