My first regent game

[smith]

I played my first two Civ III games at the chieftan level and it seemed pretty easy. So for my third game, I decided to play regent. What a difference!

1)Deficit spending : while playing chieftan, I was almost always in the red. While playing regent, I started using the same approach. Big mistake! As you probably know, you start losing stuff when spend > income.

2)Tech trading: In my chieftan games, I blew the AI away with technology. I was rolling through their cities with tanks and they still had knights. In regent, there was around a 5 turn lag time between the AI getting a new unit and me getting it. I need to learn the tech trading game.

3)Wonders: In cheiftan, I built them all. In regent, I only got Sun Tzu and only (I think) because I rushed it with a great leader.

4)War mongering: Xerxes tried bullying me at the chieftan level, I chuckled. At regent, I cave. Him and Cleopatra..........


5)Starting: Maybe it was an isolated incident, but in my regent game, I ended up starting off in the middile of a dense jungle. Without exaggeration, it takes one worker 20 turns to clear one hex (square) of jungle.


Needless to say, I learned a lot in my first regent game. I spent a lot of time reading the FAQ and war room here and that probably had me better prepared.

thx

 

[dojoboy]

Keep on, keeping on! I must've played a dozen full games at Chieftain and Warlord before I attempted Regent. I won my first regent game after two failed attempts. I definitely recommend aggressive expansion --- some are able to succeed w/ out warring. I'm not they're, yet. Also, try a civ w/ a mobile UU early, like Aztec or Zulu. They're cheap and, in large numbers (6 - 10 attacking a city), very effective.

At the moment, I'm struggling to win my first regent game w/ the new patch (mac-beta 1.21f - we just got it.) "Something wicked this way comes." [punch] Unfortunately, those are my teeth!

 

[CeasarSalad]

You're right about the jungles -- starting in a jungle-infested area is a major handicap. It's just not possible to win every game of Civ3 at higher difficulties, at least that's what I think. Starting location has such an impact and it's totally random what kind of location you'll get, and your opponents will get ...

It makes for a good challenge though.

 

[smith]

I hate to agree. What fun is playing a game you win all the time? If I just wanted to pwn the whole thing, I'd stay at chieftan.

I think I should have started off with fewer civs. I'm playing with 7 others on a large map, 3 fairly large continents....OH, check THIS out.

Babylonians(me), egypt, germany, persia on one continent. Romans and russians on another. Greeks have a smaller island, but get ships waaaay too early. and the Aztecs get a whole continent to themselves......WTH?

Overall, not an ideal situation. But what the heck...if it wasn' challenging I wouldn't play.

 

[Trabpukcip]

Personnaly I found regent just ok to win everytime. Monarch is, however, more like a good challenge.

 

[cracker]

A compromise approach that works well is to look at the factors that impact play on the difficulty level you have been playing ta and then compare them to the factors that impact play on the difficulty level you may wish to move up to.

Understand what these factors do and you will be light years ahead.

On warlord and cheiftain, the factors handicap the AI players by making everything cost more for the AI. EVERYTHING included people food costs, unit costs, upgrade costs, improvement build costs, spies, embassies, EVERYTHING.

Using the lower difficulty cost factors is really just like whipping on a one legged horse because it can't run fast once you know the rules.

Regent is the level where the cost factors are basically equal, but the AI gets some other unit bonuses that can initially give you trouble.

I would not hesitate to recommend that you play Cheiftain or Warlord with the cost factor set to 10 so that those levels would be just like Regent but with no AI unit bonuses.

The difficulty levels also impact the AI to AI trade rate and the barbarian attack bonuses for you the human player (noe: we do not yet know whether the AI players also get the barb bonus or not).

In the big picture, I would not recommend that you play full games until you get the game opennings down pat on Warlord, Regent, and Monarch levels. You are expected to win in most cases on these levels and everything in the game depends on how well you expand and position yourself in the first 100 to 200 game turns.

You can play lots of these openning games to hone your skills and compare how your starting positions mesh with the strategies you chose and the trait advantages that belong to the civ you are playing.

If you can play openning sequences that place you in a good position by 10AD, and you can do this from diiferent start positions and with different civs then you will do well and enjoy complete games. If you are getting spanked more than 50% of the time on any given difficulty level when you just look at the opening sequence, then the rest of the game will usually be somewhat like self flagellation on a grand scale. There is an element of randomness in outcomes in the game, so you can still win or lose in many cases, but all the game relies on the opening strategy combined with the middle ages wonder progression.

 

[Catt]

Originally posted by smith
5)Starting: Maybe it was an isolated incident, but in my regent game, I ended up starting off in the middile of a dense jungle. Without exaggeration, it takes one worker 20 turns to clear one hex (square) of jungle.

Have a lot of fun! Winning (or even being competitive) on that higher level for the first time is quite a rush!

With respect to point 5 above, I'm pretty sure this is totally random. I can remember unfortunate starts on lower levels and have seen fabulous starts on higher levels.

 

[Knightblade pDM]

I've played many games on Chieftain only ever since I got the game many months ago. I never even attempted Warlord or even Regent..until last night. I skipped over Warlord and went to Regent.

The Barbarians swarmed me, my progress building was staggered by the raiding. Techs came to me slower than the AI and I found myself outnumbered when I charged enemy cities. My workers seemed less..efficient. I'm in the middle of a game now and lagging in my army and productivity. This game isn't a pushover Now at least I have a challenge...time to go to the War Room

 

[God]

To get the wonders start building them immediately after you get the tech. Also have a city start on palace 20-30 turns before, and so it will finish the wonder in short time.

 

[smallstepforman]

Sometimes I envy the newbies. When I got Civ3, I started on Emperor, and these days I only play Diety/Emperor. I'm a Civ1 old timer. I've never played the lower levels, and have no idea how they play.

As I said, I envy the newbies since they can enjoy an easy game of Civ3. It's like watching a comedy vs a tense drama/horror. On higher levels, you're always biting your nails, nervous, anxious of every AI move.

Lower levels must be less stressful.

Have fun.

 

[Knightblade pDM]

Yeah the lower levels are less stressful as I'm not worrying about 2 or 3 AI opponents coming after me unless I trigger it. I basically know what to expect..already on the higher levels, I'm like "WHOA!! I reject a trade with France and they declare war on me?!?!?" So you're always on the edge of your seat not knowing what in the world to expect. So long live higher levels...time to truly master this game. I can't wait for PTW

 

[Grey Fox]

In my first Chieftain game I never changed the Science Rate

and I was always in the lead.

I never changed Government either... haha

And I still got ALL wonders, even without the Palace trick.

You can learn much from playing harder diffs... now I'm playing Emperor-Diety.

 

[bobgote]

Yeah, the first time on the next difficulty is great.
The fact that you started in the jungle is a huge disadvantage too. Very difficult to expand. Try Warlord first, don't skip levels at all. My first on Regent, i lost, but won the second. The golden age is a lot more crucial, so try playing with a civ with an early UU. It really helps you get the upper hand. I'm just starting on monarch, I just lost my first game there. I was robbed tho. They went and beat me to the space race even tho I was by far the best civilization. It's hard to beat someone in the space race when you're at war the whole time, and experimenting with commmunism too.

Then it said i had lost disgracefully i was sad

(EDIT):
Also i forgot to mention that you need to build military faster in higher levels. Makes a huge difference as to how other civ's treat you. Try a militaristic civ. Try like the zulu or someone. They have early UU too.

 

[Shevek]

I won my first monarch game yesterday [dance].
Man, was I proud. Started the next one right away. But this time I am struggling.

Last game I had great starting position, river + 4 cows.
You can't beat that.

Starting position is important. I always restart game when I end up in the middle of a big jungle (is that cheating?).

Higher levels are a challenge. But lower levels can be fun when I just want to beat the AI and then gloat at them.