Regent level - No Hope

[RobyuanKenoby]

I've played just three times at regent level and I was cleared from the earth in every game....


In my best play I can be equal to the other civilization on my continent, until they decide to attack my country.
Then on the map you can see convoy of 8-10 squares and in every square there are 20-30 units, so this convoy enters in my dominios and go directly to the first city with less defence (this means less than 20 of my units in the city)...
I'm used to defend only frontier city with so much units!
So there is no hope for me to survive:
I can't stop them (8 squares * 20-30 units = 160-240 units vs 10 horse men & 10 babylon bowmans, if i try to stop them when they pass in the vicinity of my first frontier city)...
In all my other cities I use to put in defense only 3-4 units (spearman, babylon bowman)...

I want to know:

Is there anybody who can win (or just survive) at regent level?
How do you do?

 

[cutiestar]

If you only have 10 of horse and bowman, then either the game is very early and you just have 5 cities, or you don't have anywhere near enough units, the AI will attack you if it thinks you are weak.

I play monarch and never have had any problem like you explain.

 

[RobyuanKenoby]

I have about 30 city:
5:10 - frontier city with 20 units in.....
25:20 city with 4 units in...

I haven't resource like iron and gunpowder so even if I have the tecnology I can't build units like musketeers, and I have to survive only with horsemen, spearmen, bowmen....

But the real problem is:
Even if I had 40 units per city I can't see how I could defend my self from a such large scale attack:
If I moved some of my units to the city that is on the point of being attacked, the convoy turns his fury against the city from where the reinforcement come!

Probably I'm playing like an idiot, the only time I tried to raise my head to the oppressor I take his city (12 population) and the turn after they revolted and they (and all my military units) returned to his side.... All of you can imagine that now I want the blood of my worst enemy (Persian, Iroquis, Japanese and all who crushed me), until now I can't have my revenge....

 

[AUDoc]

Yes, regent is possible. Just keep at it! I've worked my way up to Monarch, and I'm #1 in points my first game there. Go to the
"Strategy Articles" section of this forum, there's some useful things in there.

Good Luck!

 

[Mr Spice]

Yes, I survive at regent and (mostly) at monarch level as well. From the information you posted it´s hard to say what I do that you don´t. It seems as if war is one of your issuses though, so I´ll give you a tip on this:

Use allies!

If you are either attacked or start a war on your own, your first move should be to sign military alliances with other civs adjacent to your enemy. This usually costs a bit (money, technology, lururies or whatever you prefer) but it´s worth it.

If you are in the ancient era and your enemies are THAT stronger than you, then perhaps you should try to develop faster. If your weakest city has "only" less than 20 units you waste way to much production on building units. Two units in each city is normally enough for me, plus a decent attack force just in case.

Here´s a few things that you could do:

Build temples early. Build a granary as fast as you can in at least one of your cities. Use this city to crank out settlers and grab as much land as you can. Make sure that you get as much of all different terrain types as you can. This will increase your chance to find resources in your own territory later. Also aim at resources (iron, horses) and luxuries.

Sign peace with your neigbours. Build some workers to improve your land. Build roads and mines to increase income and production. (You can always change a mine to irrigation later if you need more food.)

Research Ceremonial Burial, Iron working and The Wheel fast. It´s important to build temples and find those essential resources early.

Try to build roads to your neigbours so that you can trade with them. Sell the luxuries that you have. This will bring in some money, perhaps even technology, and also make them less likely to attack you.

With this strategy you should (usually) be able to get yourself a decent amount of territory, strong infrastructure and a decent economy. All essential things to succed in the game.

If Regent proves to difficult, practice a bit on warlord before trying again.

Good luck!
(And remember, this is only one strategy of many...)

 

[cutiestar]

I actually always research pottery first, need them granaries while you are still despot, and i never research wheel until I am forced to.

I agree 2 units per city, keeps them happy if for no other reason.

ok big tip, the attack level and defence level of your units mean a lot, for example the greeks start with Hoplite as special unit, it has 1 attack and 3 defence, never bother trying to use it to attack, it will defend brilliantly, but it loses it's defence bonus if you attack with it, so a 2 attack 1 defence unit is far stronger if you are the agresser. Just defend cities or take a defender along with your attackers incase you get attacked by them.

Once you got your libraries and temples, get out of despot as soon as possible, it is crucial. You will fail badly unless you do this, and build a road on every square your citizens are using.

oh and build mines everywhere, food is worthless to you untill you are democracy.

hope these help, i play monarch and have no problems.

 

[GeniX]

I generally play regent now. I dont usually come first in all areas. But Im nowhere near the bottom of the pile. As seems to be your problem, mine is also military! But I have been working at it.

The mass of units you speak of would probably do some good damage. I would *assume* that it is the result of you being left behind in terms of military strength earlier on in the game. I find a good guage is my advisor when speaking to neighbours, friends and even enemies.

You want to aim to see 'The xxx military is about the same size as ours'. Thats step 1 -- youre keeping up. Next is to threaten the weaker nations for what you can get out of them. If they are really difficult, weigh up whether it is worth it to go to war.

Generally I have a smaller 'internal' empire which contains my well irrigated, roaded, mined, improved land with huge cities. These cities tend to have a lot of improvements, and are the basis of my empire. My 'outter empire' consists of the smaller outposts, conquered cities, or those built later on in the game.

My outter empire sits on full-time military production. It also tends to be the areas the AI loves to attack more.

 

[Moulton]

IMHO, if you don't have iron and can't trade for it, quit.
Frustration = being japanese to try their Samauri--and having no iron. Germany was quite willing to sell it for one 20 turn period for only 800 gold. the next, however, was like 2 techs, 1 lux and 3000 gold.....
Iron = swordsmen. special units. Rails. ironclad,destroyer, battleship. tanks.
No iron== quit.

 

[Magnus]

If you can only get iron for 20 turns, then change ALL city production to Samurai for the 20 turns --- and then----- go out an conquer some iron with them!

 

[AUDoc]

I'd recommend, atleast once, trying to make it through a game with no iron.

Most of my best experiences in Civ 3 have come from being handicapped (because of a lack of iron, or any other resource) but persevering and coming out on top.

I remember one game I was dead last because I could never get any iron, but then I got Military Tradition and I had a monopoly on saltpeter on my continent. Neadless to say, my cavalry soon made sure it really was MY continent.

 

[Johndhus]

I'm having a prob with regent as well... in the previous difficulty its pretty easy for me to surpass the other civs' science as I can usually crank out cities about the same speed they do. Now at regent I get my ass whooped fast if I try to granary/settler factory, even if all my land gets improved fast with 2 wheat squares at my start point, etc.

My problem is that I don't neccessarily build tons of military and conquer an early civ because I'm too worried about falling behind. Then there are times where I know I'll never get ahead so I try to go full on war mode and pump units to try to overpower the enemy. The enemy promptly sends an army in my direction and runs right past me and heads for my size 2 town with no walls and 2 regular spearman at the gates.

What advice could you offer as far as what to look for when you start, build order, governer settings, etc? I can usually barely keep up with other civs' science level on regent, but they seem to mass a huge army while doing this and I can barely put 2 dudes on each city.

help . The only problem with the strategy postings here is, noone really posts like they were talking to someone who needed help. Rather, they write like they were conversing with a fellow diety. I mean what the hell would I know about the strategies of despot rushing etc if I can't even beat a standard size regent map?

 

[eyrei]

One of the best ways to keep from falling behind is to kick the crap out of your nearest neighbor at the beginning of the game. If you have horses, pump out horsement, if you have iron pump out swordsmen. If you have neither, you can try it with archers, but this can be really hard. You may feel like you are falling behind (which you are, but ony temporarily), and you should keep one city producing settlers. Once you have crushed the other civ down the one or two cities, sue for peace, and make sure they give you EVERYTHING they have, which will probably include several techs. Now you are right back in the running, with several conquered cities, and a large veteren military.

 

[pagh80]

First of all. Military is everything in this game. If you have a strong military, the other civs would´nt dare to attack you.


My suggestion to you is like this:


Pick a militaristic civ like japanese(my favorite militaristic civ is the japanese. My allout favorite is the danish ....a patch)
Take down 1 or maybe even 2 civs at start. In that way you get a pretty large amount of land. The way to do this is to build a lot of attack units. I never build many defence units. ONLY build the most important buildings temple... and REMEMBER barracks(very important because it gives you capabability of making veteran units.)

ONLY use taxes too luxuries and 0% too science. That way you earn enough money to BYE the tecnologies from your enemies..
(in 0 AD i earn 500 gold pr turn.... plenty)

The leaders you get from combat should be used only to speed up wonders( the most important is the GREAT LIBRARY). they can complete a whole wonder projekt in only one turn. :

When you go to war bribe the other civs to join you in the crusade against your enemy(s). NEVER EVER go to war with more than 1 a time because they produce REALLY fast.

When you got a good chunk of land (largest is recomended) Begin to make the improvements you need.

And offcourse... have a strong military

Myself is playing on a large map with max civs and emperor level and that is pretty hard but possible. My next game will be something like this..... on deity if i dare to do it



if someone want more information, feel free to ask..

 

[Sparrowhawk]

In my opinion, one of the worst things you can do is start a war
earlier than you have to. I use the following strategy generally:

Build ~10 cities as soon as possible. Make sure to connect them
with roads, and improve them with mines. Build lots of workers.
If you build more than 2 or 3 defensive units per city you are
wasting your resources. Research "strategic resource
technology" as soon as you can, followed by republic. Build
wonders with maybe 2 of your biggest cities. The great library is
indespensable, as are the pyramids. I always keep my science
at max, and use luxury resources to keep people happy.

Contact as many civs as possible. Trade territory maps with them
for free until they are willing to trade world maps for free.
Sometimes just 2 gold will be enough to loosen their pockets
with their maps.

Give in to minor demands. One technology is not worth losing
cities over, and really not worth losing the resources to research
more techs over. If you rival gets too demanding though, war is
basically inevitable. As soon as someone extorts money/tech
from you, start reinforcing that border. If you are attacked, get
other civs to ally with you. All of a sudden your enemy will need
to defend several borders at once.

After you get knights, find an enemy. With knights, you should
be able to kick some serious butt. Keep attacking when you get
cavalry. Stop as soon as your enemy is using infantry. No
matter how much artillery you have, cavalry can't take out
infantry. When you get tanks, you can start attacking again.

With regards to restarting, I don't bother continuing play if I don't
have iron. Everything else is negotiable.

I prefer playing as the egyptians or persians, and the americans
are another of my favorites.

I usually play and win on regent or monarch. This is the
histograph of my current monarch level game, at 1808 AD:

 

[cutiestar]

If you like playing persians, you should be researching iron working first and finding some iron, then pump out those incredible immortals and use them while you have the advantage.

I find on the top two levels of difficulty you have to have a very early war, because they will exapnd you out of the game , they just build a truck load of cities, and you'll find your empire is restricted to a village, and no luxuries or resources.

 

[FullofHoles]

The key is controlling your home island. The AI fights very well on land, but is abysmally bad at sea-borne invasions. If you can control your home continent, you can survive anything with or without iron.

I always attack in the Ancient times if there are any other people on my home continent.

I usually am dead last on the histograph charts until the late middle ages or early industrial ages but I usually win the game (if I survive the ancient era). (Emperor level, space race turned off.)

The importance of roads cannot be overstated. Mobility is the backbone of defense and with an internal road system that is good, you can defend yourself with a much smaller army. If I have my own continent, I field a military of about six units during peacetime. That is not six per city, that is a total of six. These six are fast, offensive units. The object is to never allow an enemy ground unit to survive landing and therefore to never be the defender.

If I am on a continent too big to take control of, I keep a military that is much larger.

On the other hand, when I am intending to attack someone, I build up a huge military before declaring war. Wars should be short and decisive. The only exception to this is when you are fighting solely for the purpose of generating great leaders. (The forbidden palace is essential to your longterm success and I'll be damned if I will pay for it myself, so I always need a great leader to found it.)

Artillery is very important, especially once you reach metallurgy. Navy, on the other hand, seems a waste of resources to me until destroyers (sometimes ironclads) are available. I find my home continent frequently under siege by navies so large that I can't possibly compete with them. I use cannon to damage the enemy ships. The enemy will send its damaged ships back to ports even though they are in no danger of sinking since I have no ships at all.

Because I generally make lots of enemies, I always build the UN. This allows me to suppress the voting of the UN and prevent anyone from reaching a diplomatic victory. (I could just turn off diplomatic victory, but I don't want to make things easier.)

 

[RobyuanKenoby]

Thanks to all

Now I've taken a short vacation from regent level (I'm playing at Warlord), but when I will finish this game I wiil return on Regent...
I've read some interesting strategies, my way of playing is the same I used in CivII, but It seems that don't work very well!
I usually play with the primary object of being the most advanced, this means I sacrifice my army and my gold...

Now I see that someone has suggested to play in the opposite way: 0 science and use taxes to support a huge army and luxes to make happy my people...
Another good things to do is clear the continent from any other civilization, also if this means war in the ancient time....

I hope I could survive until the end: my actually record is 1300AD..after this year the only things that remains of me his my memory...

 

[scavenger]

I play on Diety, but I am a Civ 1 and Civ 2 veteran, and often times I still get my ass handed to me I prolly survive a new game once in five times on diety.

 

[Dude]

This thread has been very helpful - I'm a civ and civ2 vet, but regent level in civ3 has mostly resulted in me getting schooled - the posts have been great. I'm especially glad to hear the posts about 'no-iron'. I was playing as the Babylonians (actually, I edit the names, etc. I play as "Dude" - the dialog is hysterical, e.g. "Dude, your troops near . . . ". Anyway, I was plodding along with my tech broker strategy - all was well, even with no iron. Until I couldn't build railroads . . . conveniently, the English had a close city with iron that they were extorting everything I had to get via trade. Naturally, I planned a quick op to take over the city and planned on suing for peace immediatly thereafter. Well, you know what happened: England had a mutual protection pact with our other highly powered neighbor, the Americans, who swiftly kicked my hairy sierra all over the continent. It wasn't even funny - in one of the bloody turns, they took over 5 of my towns. I quickly cast reboot on the world and will be taking some of the advice from the posts above. Good luck to us

The Dude

 

[GreenLantern]

Originally posted by RobyuanKenoby
I've played just three times at regent level and I was cleared from the earth in every game....


In my best play I can be equal to the other civilization on my continent, until they decide to attack my country.
Then on the map you can see convoy of 8-10 squares and in every square there are 20-30 units, so this convoy enters in my dominios and go directly to the first city with less defence (this means less than 20 of my units in the city)...
I'm used to defend only frontier city with so much units!
So there is no hope for me to survive:
I can't stop them (8 squares * 20-30 units = 160-240 units vs 10 horse men & 10 babylon bowmans, if i try to stop them when they pass in the vicinity of my first frontier city)...
In all my other cities I use to put in defense only 3-4 units (spearman, babylon bowman)...

I want to know:

Is there anybody who can win (or just survive) at regent level?
How do you do?

Well, I haven't finished my latest regent game, but it sounds kind of similar. I have a middle point on a long North-South continent. Babylon is below me. Every turn they start walking into my territory, and I tell them to get out or declare war. As the column clearly had about 40 units in it, and my border cities only had about one unit each, I decided to prepare. First, I built a wall in each border city under size 6 (or is 7 the magic number?). I built a Pikeman in each city. I pumped in 3-4 units in each city, and made sure they all had barracks. When the attack finally came, I didn't lose any cities, though it was close. Their columns broke on my walls and pikemen, and I was able to pick off the fringes with horsemen. Then I sent a small expedionary force into his territory to destroy the roads connecting him to his single iron and horse squares. Now I am about to go on the offensive (I had planned to do a totally peaceful game, but they won't let me). So I plan to do 3 things. First, I will take out the cities close to his strategic resources. Second, I will take any wonders. Third, in the end, I will make sure his capital has no roads in or out of if.

So, I haven't won on regent yet, but I did face an apparently overwhelming force and survive by using good tactics.