XF Clohvn
Chieftain
I've been playing Civ 3 Conquests on and off for a good while now (as well as lurking here 
), but I've been hitting some roadblocks that are keeping me in the low difficulty levels. I'm by no means a good player (yet ) and usually play on Warlord, with the occasional Regent game. I'm finding that my current game is a prime example of the problems I usually face, so I thought I'd ask for some advice.
My current game uses standard rules, standard size map, and 70% water continents. I'm playing this game as the Vikings. The expansion phase went fairly well. I was able to set up about 6 cities in relatively good locations, before I found myself walled in by opponents. I quickly discovered I had the Mayans to the south of me, Aztecs to the east, and further east the Americans. I decided in order to get the production power I wanted, I was going to need more land. Naturally, I would have to claim this from one of my neighbors. The passage east was a fairly small (4 tiles at its narrowest) bottleneck, so if I could secure the west side of the continent, my position would become far easier to defend. Also, the Mayans had recently stolen some spice tiles I had hoped to claim.
Setting the Mayans as my target, I began producing forces. I was lucky enough to have iron near one of my main cities, so swordsmen would form my main attack force. By this point I had a large tech lead over the other civs I knew of (not hard on Warlord I know), but my city count was relatively low due to being prematurely cut off from expansion. I launched my attack in the late ancient age, and by the end of the war I was fielding medieval infantry. The war went fairly smoothly, and the Mayans were wiped out. I quickly settled the open land, and now feel I have adequate space, although more cities wouldn't hurt.
The Aztecs are fairly close in tech to me now, and are still slightly larger. I've also recently contacted the Iroquois (on a different continent), who are also about the same in tech, but with many more cities. I'll soon have printing press, so I'll be able to contact the civs on the other continent to see what the situation there is. I'm eyeing the Aztec's land, but I also don't want to fall behind in tech from continual warfare. I also fear they could drag the Americans into the war.
This is where I usually begin to encounter problems. I used a leader generated by the war to rush a FP at the ex-Mayan capital. I am currently in Monarchy in order to support my large, if somewhat outdated army. I have been able to get a good amount of wonders (Pyramids, Oracle, Great Library to name a few), but I don't know what to do next. My empire seems to decay at this point. With nothing to build except for various improvements or troops, I tend to go for the former, and improve all my cities. However, the upkeep from all these improvements begin to drag me down, and with no overall goal to my building my empire falls apart. I don't want to leave my cities producing wealth, but I also don't want to drown myself in upkeep from improvements.
Any advice, or criticism of my game so far would be very appreciated
), but I've been hitting some roadblocks that are keeping me in the low difficulty levels. I'm by no means a good player (yet ) and usually play on Warlord, with the occasional Regent game. I'm finding that my current game is a prime example of the problems I usually face, so I thought I'd ask for some advice.My current game uses standard rules, standard size map, and 70% water continents. I'm playing this game as the Vikings. The expansion phase went fairly well. I was able to set up about 6 cities in relatively good locations, before I found myself walled in by opponents. I quickly discovered I had the Mayans to the south of me, Aztecs to the east, and further east the Americans. I decided in order to get the production power I wanted, I was going to need more land. Naturally, I would have to claim this from one of my neighbors. The passage east was a fairly small (4 tiles at its narrowest) bottleneck, so if I could secure the west side of the continent, my position would become far easier to defend. Also, the Mayans had recently stolen some spice tiles I had hoped to claim.
Setting the Mayans as my target, I began producing forces. I was lucky enough to have iron near one of my main cities, so swordsmen would form my main attack force. By this point I had a large tech lead over the other civs I knew of (not hard on Warlord I know
), but my city count was relatively low due to being prematurely cut off from expansion. I launched my attack in the late ancient age, and by the end of the war I was fielding medieval infantry. The war went fairly smoothly, and the Mayans were wiped out. I quickly settled the open land, and now feel I have adequate space, although more cities wouldn't hurt. The Aztecs are fairly close in tech to me now, and are still slightly larger. I've also recently contacted the Iroquois (on a different continent), who are also about the same in tech, but with many more cities. I'll soon have printing press, so I'll be able to contact the civs on the other continent to see what the situation there is. I'm eyeing the Aztec's land, but I also don't want to fall behind in tech from continual warfare. I also fear they could drag the Americans into the war.
This is where I usually begin to encounter problems. I used a leader generated by the war to rush a FP at the ex-Mayan capital. I am currently in Monarchy in order to support my large, if somewhat outdated army. I have been able to get a good amount of wonders (Pyramids, Oracle, Great Library to name a few), but I don't know what to do next. My empire seems to decay at this point. With nothing to build except for various improvements or troops, I tend to go for the former, and improve all my cities. However, the upkeep from all these improvements begin to drag me down, and with no overall goal to my building my empire falls apart. I don't want to leave my cities producing wealth, but I also don't want to drown myself in upkeep from improvements.
Any advice, or criticism of my game so far would be very appreciated
