Need help, I'm in a fix

[Neurospasm]

Hey everybody, this is my first post here, so if I say something stupid or ignorant, please forgive me. This may be a long post, but bear with me here.


I come from being a long time player of Civ2. I tried Civ3 a while back, and now am playing it again, so I'm by no means a newb, just somewhat inexperienced.

Anyway, I started a game on regent. I picked the Germans (it's really a shame you can't customize your own races like in Civ2). There are basically two main continents. I lie on the smaller one sandwiched between the Iroquios and the English. The other continent has 3 civs.

Basically, in early game I waged small wars (usually defensive ones), but when I got knights I launched a massive campaign against the English. This was one long ass war! Eventually they got cavalry. Understandably, I faced tough times until I got cavalry. Then came my hardships -- the English got infantry. By now I was so behind in tech it was ridiculous. Nevermind the fact that 90% of cities size 6 and up had libraries, and my science rate was at 60 or 70% (I was a monarchy). By the time I got cavalry, the chinese on the other continent had already finished the Manhattan project (between 1800-1850?). Over the next century I captured all but one english city (I'd use it to make them sue for peace and get tech) using 2 cavalry armies, assorted cavalry, riflemen, and cannons (which are complete crap; they weren't worth the shield cost).

Now, I sorta have a problem. I converted to Democracy in order to somehow catch up in tech and try to build my infrastructure, when completely without warning, the Iroquios to the north attack me. This is like the U.S. invading Iraq. Tons of infantry/marines/tanks, and even some mech. inf. units! They completely disregarded my border, and although I can keep them from taking more cities, I can't stop them from pillaging me to hell.

No one will sell me any techs (so how the hell did all the comps get it?) unless I'm at least 5 turns away from getting it. I switched from normalcy to war-time. Yet, my ******** citizens are unhappy, despite the fact that a few turns before they were celebrating 'we love the president day' or whatever. I can't build anything without setting luxury rate to like 50%, and thus I can get barely any research done!

This depiction of war weariness is so absurdly unrealistic that it's maddening. Also, my war with the English was worthless. In Civ2 you were at least rewarded with techs for capturing cities. All I can do now is reload 20 turns earlier, and try to mass infantry/artillery and be prepared to jack up luxuries once they inexplicably declare war.

Any suggestions?

EDIT - Also planning to build a fortress on my rubber/oil resources so I can keep producing infantry and so that once I get panzers (if ever) I can set up an offensive.

 

[DaveMcW]

You're probably falling behind in research because you don't build enough roads. Build roads everywhere! And have 1-2 workers per city building them!

When you do get a tech the AIs don't have, sell it to them for cash and other techs. You can't hoard all the techs for yourself like on the earlier levels.

 

[Neurospasm]

Believe me, I have plenty of roads.

 

[Shillen]

If you post a save I'm sure I or someone else could figure out why you're having tech problems. Other than that it's really too hard to guess.

 

[newbiebad]

Well... from what I can pick up you are squashed between two decent sized countries on the smaller of two continents. I'm guessing that the other 3 are also of decent size. From this setup I just think that the AIs kept trading their research back and forth and left you in the dust. The problem might just be that you don't have enough cities to keep up with the other civs. If they are all friendly they can sometimes research several times faster as a group especially if they all of decent size. It sounds like (although im not sure) you may have hurt your reputation earlier and techs are hard to come by.

If I were you I would try to get tanks any way possible (beg, borrow, steal). Amass tanks and artillery (50+) and just conquer your neighbors.. sue for peace, gain some techs, repeat. AIs can't handle artillery at all.. with tanks you can take several cities every turn. Research only the key techs and try to extort the rest. By the way... get outta democracy now.. a republic will probably work as long as you do a quick decisive campaign.. and sue for peace quickly. Also, to slow down the pace of the techs initiate some some wars you manipulator you. Try to get the civs on the larger continent either on an alliance on your side or just have them fight each other. I doubt that the English will listen to an alliance offer but try to keep them from joining the Iroquis.

 

[Ralph-x]

If you go to war make sure you take the world with you, use lots of protection pacts and alliances so everyone fighting. That way noone will run away on techs while you fight, as the AI really cannot research and fight at the same time.

The AIs love to trade techs and it is very rare for only one of them to have one. To keep up research a tech none of them have then sell it to them all on the same turn, starting with the strongest. This way you should get a few techs and stuff and none of them get anything out of it. Try to go for techs thatthey tend to have trouble researching. The AI always seems to go for some techs and ignore others until the end of the age. Research these because you have a better chance of getting them before the AIs. After a few games it you should be able to work it out but the bottom trees of the 2nd and 3rd age are good places to start.

 

[Neurospasm]

Thanks for the input everyone.

By stacking infantry/artillery on fortresses I was able to beat their advance (comp kept retreating to friendly territory to heal) into submission. I was even able to take out a few tanks/mech inf. In a few turns I'll be able to build Panzers and then I'll start a war of conquest .

My problem was that I totally underestimated artillery. It has a much better range, accuracy, and damage than I could have guessed from the effectiveness of cannons.

 

[West German]

Good luck, you sound like your doing fine.