New player needs help!

[tom123]

I am quite new to civ 3, having had it for only a few weeks. Right now, I am playing as the Maya, on a standard size, Pangea, 60% water map.

The civs on the map are as follows:
Maya-me
England
Zulu
China
Carthage
Portugal
Babylon
Celts-wiped out

According to my military advisor, I have a strong military compared to everyone else, so, soon after conquering the Celts, I attacked the Zulu.

I took one city on my first turn, using a stack of cannons and several medieval infantry.
I then tried to take the next city, which was one of mine which flipped. Attacking this city, I had at least 10 cannon, several longbowmen, and about 6 medieval infantry. However, I underestimated the srength of the defenses. My attack didnt work, although I did kill a few of them.

Then it was their turn. Somehow, a single Zulu medival infantry was able to kill 3 elite and 2 veteran medieval infatnry of mine, and capture all of the cannon. The longbowmen were on their own, and were killed by knights I believe.

I withdrew the other cannon stack from the Zulu land and back to my nearest city, as I didnt want to loose them as well. I rush bult a load of musketmen so that I now have at least 3 in all the cities near the border.

However, I did loose one city, due to the musketmen within not being able to damage the attacking medieval infantry even once!

Basically, I was wondering what to do next. if it helps, the save file is below. I have got several medieval infantry on the move towards Zulu land, and several cavalry being built in readiness to reclaim my cannon before they do much more damage.



EDIT: Since posting, I realised that I may have been a bit hasty. I realised that there were less Zulu than I thought. I got the Chinese and Carthagians to declare war on Zulu, which they did. I was able to take back the cannon, and a few more cities within a few turns. Then, the Chinese took the capital, killing the Zulu leader (regicide was on).
I then moved my artillery, about 20 pieces into Chinese territory, with an escort, and spent a few turns nibbling away at their defenses and killing units. Unfortunatly, the escort wasnt enough, and I lost my artilery. By now I was able to build tanks and transports. I sent 3 tanks to attack a Chinese city which was near the sea, captured it, and asked for peace. This achieved, I spent several turns rushing tanks, and shipping them over. When I had over 20 there, I noticed some Chinese knights near some of the border cities. I asked them to move or decalre war. They chose war.

I moved some tanks to defend the border, but I lost one city which was undefended. I realised I oculd build ICBM's, so I rushed one in my capital. By now, I had about 6 tanks utside Beijing. I launched the ICBM, but forgot that it would damage my units as well. All but one died, and it was left with 1 health. Needless to say it was killed in an assault by the defenders.
I rushed aother ICBM, launched it, and to my surprise killed all the defenders, including the leader. Three civs down.

Then, I moved my 20 or so tanks towards the Carthage capital. I rushed and launched another ICBM. I killed everyone except their leader, who I killed with a tank the next turn.
Four civs down.
My next move was to move the tanks towards the English border with my land. I rushed two ICBM's, just so I had a backup. The first ICBM took out London, wiping out England.
Five civs down.

The other ICBM was launched aganst Babylon. It took out their capital in one.
Six civs down.

I then rushed a final ICBM, and launched it at Lisbon, the Portugese capital. That hit and killed everyone.
Seven civs down.


Yay, my second Conquest victory, the first being one with Rome, which happened much earlier in the game due to elimination.
My rating was Smoke-Jaguar the Meek!
I was #1 in everything on the dermographics.

If anything, this game taught that all is not lost just because I lost a single city early in a war.

 

[Theov]

I'll take a look at the save this weekend.
Sounds like a good story. What was the government you had and on what level did you play? If you didn't play on regent, you should switch to that one asap.
.
You sure like your Nukes, they are a nice weapon, but you learned about the cons of them the hard way.

I didn't know what that regicide was... i've never turned it on.
Normal games posted here are with regicide turned off, because it's not the goal to simply nuke the capital and send some tanks...

 

[tom123]

You'll all laugh, but it was cheiftan. I know, I know, but I am new to the game, and I wanted a few wins before moving up!

The government was Republic. I used to always use Diplomatic, but then I read some stuff from the War Academy and discovered that Republic was better for war, and in general.

Really though, having won the game, what I want to know is if I played it right, ie if there were other of better things I could have done to have won earlier. (It was around 1700AD it ended)

 

[TheOverseer714]

Thats the great thing about Civ 3, you can always improve your game and you can always up the challenge level. I was a really good Warlord level 2 years ago, now I'm a decent Emperor level, thanks to all the stuff I learned here.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, tom123!

Believe it or not, we're not going to laugh at Chieftain. Just about everyone starts there. I haven't looked at your save and don't know if I'll have time in the near future, but I think I can safely say that there probably aren't any huge mistakes in there that haven't surfaced on these boards before. After all, you did win, right?

With that said, I would also recommend moving away from Chieftain as soon as you know where all the buttons are. It's easy to develop bad habits at Chieftain that will hurt you at higher levels. For example, if you run into a negative treasury balance at Chieftain, there's no penalty. Do it at any other level, and you start losing buildings or units.

Like I said, I haven't had time to look at your save. I did notice that you've done some reading in the War Academy, but I'd like to go ahead and suggest some articles that, IMO, are very helpful for beginning players:

• Cracker's Opening Plays
• Bamspeedy's Deity Settlers
  [*]Warmongering 101

Finally, I don't know how helpful it will be, but there's an article linked in my signature on banks, markets, and other multiplier buildings. You might consider checking it out, as well.

Good luck and happy civving!

 

[tom123]

Yep, I did win.

Thanks for the links and advice

But now I have another question.
In the last game I played,it was on Warlord BTW, I was on a small penninsula, with the Mayans right abouve me, and Hitites above them. Several other civs were on a different continent.
Korea declared war on Russia, (They were right next to each other). I think I had a ROP with Russia remaining from when I had explored their coast earlier in the game.
I had a MPP with Korea, so I was dragged in as well, though I only sent a few settlers and musketmen other to get some more land. Korea dragged pretty much every other civ on the map into the fight as well with alliances.
After Russia was down to one city and had signed peace with everyone, I wanted to eliminate the Maya, who had attacked me several times earlier in the game. I tried to get people to join me in an allience against them, but had to pay ridiculous amount to secure that alliance, all because I had a ROP with Russia when Korea attacked them.
What makes it worse is that all the other civs were in an alliance against Russia as well.
And the fact that the Maya attacked me because I didnt give them gems for free. I had been building up my militart near the border to attack when the peace treaty from their first attack ran out.

So, my question is, do the AI care about their reputation?

 

[TheOverseer714]

Very little about their own rep, but very much about yours. MPPs are something to enter into rarely, they tend to get you into unwanted wars. RoPs are risky too, due to the AI tribes backstabbing.

 

[vmxa]

Agree RoP's and MPP's are best used sparingly. MPP's, I would avoid. Alliances are much safer.

 

[tom123]

Alright, thanks. I seem to remember that there were only RoP's because first I was exploring their coast, and then needed to ship settlers through to secure saltpeter.

 

[Spartanism]

I would only enter a MPP a turn or 2 before going to war. be observant and watch and you will be abl eto predict when a nation is about to attack you. When you see that stack of 10 (insert unit) on your border its not a vacation.

Use the MPP to bring others into your war not let it bring you into theres.

 

[Turner]

Don't use MPPs. They'll draw you into wars that you don't want when you least want them, trashing your rep and making trade difficult. Use a military alliance to get allys in a war. It's almost guaranteed that they won't stay for the entire 20 turns (but it does happen) and it won't be your rep trashed. And, you'll have the allies you need for the war.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Don't use MPPs. They'll draw you into wars that you don't want when you least want them, trashing your rep and making trade difficult. Use a military alliance to get allys in a war. It's almost guaranteed that they won't stay for the entire 20 turns (but it does happen) and it won't be your rep trashed. And, you'll have the allies you need for the war.

I must say I agree, but then, I'll only use an MPP if I'm ready for war with the whole world, or to screw another civ out of their MPP if they have a resource I need. For example: Civ A has oil, which I need. Civ A has an MPP with my neighbor Civ B, and I am friendly with Civ B and wish to stay that way. So I sign an MPP with Civ B, probably for even change since they like me. Now, I make outrageous demands to Civ A until they are furious. I then demand that they get their dirty pikeman off my lawn, and they declare war on me. I hold off attacking them until they attack me and trigger the MPP between me and Civ B. This effectively cancels the MPP between A and B, and I can go merrily pillaging and conquering through Civ A's homeland without retribution. Just make sure to count twenty turns and end the MPP between you and Civ B, so that the MPP doesn't linger so Civ B has a minimum of time to drag you into another conflict. Ideally, you should even try and sign the MPP 5 or 10 turns before you get set to invade Civ A, so that you can duck out of the MPP with Civ B that much sooner.

As far as alliances are concerned, those are great... if you can afford them. Some civs want a rediculous sum of money or techs to go to war. Sometimes they just won't. GPT, IMO, is the best way to get the AI to stay in an alliance. If they break the alliance before 15-20 turns, they lose out on a lot of money. Also, larger civs and civs with governments not as prone to war weariness tend to stick to alliances more reliably, at least as far as I've noticed. Of course, if that civ is too powerful, it might just go on to wipe out the civ you are in an alliance against, which can be bad depending on the circumstances

 

[Bowsling]

The computer players tend to be quite shabby with you. There was one country that signed an rop with me, then signed a bunch of embargos against me, so I give them stuff for alliances against those other civs who i am at war with, and then in turn they sign an alliance with the civ they didn't sign an alliance against, and declare war on me. After making peace with Babylon, who had just rop abused me, they wouldn't sign a MPP with me because "I betrayed the americans in a similar agreement"

 

[aerisriders]

I am quite new to civ 3, having had it for only a few weeks. Right now, I am playing as the Maya, on a standard size, Pangea, 60% water map.

The civs on the map are as follows:
Maya-me
England
Zulu
China
Carthage
Portugal
Babylon
Celts-wiped out

According to my military advisor, I have a strong military compared to everyone else, so, soon after conquering the Celts, I attacked the Zulu.

I took one city on my first turn, using a stack of cannons and several medieval infantry.
I then tried to take the next city, which was one of mine which flipped. Attacking this city, I had at least 10 cannon, several longbowmen, and about 6 medieval infantry. However, I underestimated the srength of the defenses. My attack didnt work, although I did kill a few of them.

Then it was their turn. Somehow, a single Zulu medival infantry was able to kill 3 elite and 2 veteran medieval infatnry of mine, and capture all of the cannon. The longbowmen were on their own, and were killed by knights I believe.

I withdrew the other cannon stack from the Zulu land and back to my nearest city, as I didnt want to loose them as well. I rush bult a load of musketmen so that I now have at least 3 in all the cities near the border.

However, I did loose one city, due to the musketmen within not being able to damage the attacking medieval infantry even once!

Basically, I was wondering what to do next. if it helps, the save file is below. I have got several medieval infantry on the move towards Zulu land, and several cavalry being built in readiness to reclaim my cannon before they do much more damage.



EDIT: Since posting, I realised that I may have been a bit hasty. I realised that there were less Zulu than I thought. I got the Chinese and Carthagians to declare war on Zulu, which they did. I was able to take back the cannon, and a few more cities within a few turns. Then, the Chinese took the capital, killing the Zulu leader (regicide was on).
I then moved my artillery, about 20 pieces into Chinese territory, with an escort, and spent a few turns nibbling away at their defenses and killing units. Unfortunatly, the escort wasnt enough, and I lost my artilery. By now I was able to build tanks and transports. I sent 3 tanks to attack a Chinese city which was near the sea, captured it, and asked for peace. This achieved, I spent several turns rushing tanks, and shipping them over. When I had over 20 there, I noticed some Chinese knights near some of the border cities. I asked them to move or decalre war. They chose war.

I moved some tanks to defend the border, but I lost one city which was undefended. I realised I oculd build ICBM's, so I rushed one in my capital. By now, I had about 6 tanks utside Beijing. I launched the ICBM, but forgot that it would damage my units as well. All but one died, and it was left with 1 health. Needless to say it was killed in an assault by the defenders.
I rushed aother ICBM, launched it, and to my surprise killed all the defenders, including the leader. Three civs down.

Then, I moved my 20 or so tanks towards the Carthage capital. I rushed and launched another ICBM. I killed everyone except their leader, who I killed with a tank the next turn.
Four civs down.
My next move was to move the tanks towards the English border with my land. I rushed two ICBM's, just so I had a backup. The first ICBM took out London, wiping out England.
Five civs down.

The other ICBM was launched aganst Babylon. It took out their capital in one.
Six civs down.

I then rushed a final ICBM, and launched it at Lisbon, the Portugese capital. That hit and killed everyone.
Seven civs down.


Yay, my second Conquest victory, the first being one with Rome, which happened much earlier in the game due to elimination.
My rating was Smoke-Jaguar the Meek!
I was #1 in everything on the dermographics.

If anything, this game taught that all is not lost just because I lost a single city early in a war.

for new player check this save

 

[aerisriders]

for new player check this save

this play on PTW
i already have a lot of wonder, except 2 wonder i forget that
al ready have have a lot of army