Ok. I played Civ II for a long time...loved it. Was never the Civ master that some people become, but I was ok. I think I got up to Prince difficulty or so before getting obliterated at higher levels.
Anyway, on to this game. I have probably started somewhere close to 20 or 30 games in Civ III. How many have I finished? One.
Every other time I start, I can't seem to find a good place to start up my civilization. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don't like trying to start my civ with 25% desert, 25% jungle, 25% mountains, 25% plains.
Even when I do get a somewhat favorable startup position (wheat, cow, good terrain, etc), I find myself 9 times out of 10 getting into trouble early on. I'll build up to about 4-5 cities in decent locations (good terrain, resources, etc), but by this time the AI civs have often started spewing settlers to fill every nook and cranny of my civ. Little spaces I leave behind, they plop down on. Even crappy areas that are just desert or tundra, they'll throw down a city.
Another problem is that I've had multiple AI civs (not in a MPP) declare war on me early on in the game for no apparent reason. I tried to appeal to the English who loved me at the time to help, but I couldn't find any such option in the deal window. Usually there is the "Military" options or something in the list along with technologies or maps, but there was nothing. So I had to try to fend off an attack from Germans and Indians with nothing but a few spearmen as defense in my cities. Perhaps it's a symptom of my not-quite-aggressive-enough playing...but do you guys find yourself hitting Next Turn repeatedly from around 2000BC - 500 BC ? I usually in this time frame have expanded as much as I can (cities have a very low pop size and cannot build more settlers, or don't see many good areas immediately nearby since distance under despotism is a corruption magnet) and am trying to build pyramids or temples or additional workers to connect cities, etc.
I have this feeling that I'm doing something wrong.....in all difficulties past Chieftan, I find it very difficult to keep up with science leaders, and building a military to dominate aggressive civilizations like the Germans at the same time is quite difficult.
I've read through the basic tips posts, etc....but I don't see any golden nuggets that would help me in my situation.
Any specific advice? What am I doing wrong?? :-(
Anyway, on to this game. I have probably started somewhere close to 20 or 30 games in Civ III. How many have I finished? One.
Every other time I start, I can't seem to find a good place to start up my civilization. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don't like trying to start my civ with 25% desert, 25% jungle, 25% mountains, 25% plains.
Even when I do get a somewhat favorable startup position (wheat, cow, good terrain, etc), I find myself 9 times out of 10 getting into trouble early on. I'll build up to about 4-5 cities in decent locations (good terrain, resources, etc), but by this time the AI civs have often started spewing settlers to fill every nook and cranny of my civ. Little spaces I leave behind, they plop down on. Even crappy areas that are just desert or tundra, they'll throw down a city.
Another problem is that I've had multiple AI civs (not in a MPP) declare war on me early on in the game for no apparent reason. I tried to appeal to the English who loved me at the time to help, but I couldn't find any such option in the deal window. Usually there is the "Military" options or something in the list along with technologies or maps, but there was nothing. So I had to try to fend off an attack from Germans and Indians with nothing but a few spearmen as defense in my cities. Perhaps it's a symptom of my not-quite-aggressive-enough playing...but do you guys find yourself hitting Next Turn repeatedly from around 2000BC - 500 BC ? I usually in this time frame have expanded as much as I can (cities have a very low pop size and cannot build more settlers, or don't see many good areas immediately nearby since distance under despotism is a corruption magnet) and am trying to build pyramids or temples or additional workers to connect cities, etc.
I have this feeling that I'm doing something wrong.....in all difficulties past Chieftan, I find it very difficult to keep up with science leaders, and building a military to dominate aggressive civilizations like the Germans at the same time is quite difficult.
I've read through the basic tips posts, etc....but I don't see any golden nuggets that would help me in my situation.
Any specific advice? What am I doing wrong?? :-(