Researching Steam Power in 10 BC.

[SleeplessNights]

Hi,

In my current game (Deity, standard rules all around, 1.17), I now stand shoulder to shoulder with the AI players as far as techs go.

Mind you, most of my cities are size 2 to 3, and all are guarded by 1 warrior per city (lol). I have managed to produce 3 workers up to now.

Got lucky at the beggining of the game, having 5 ivory and then 3 gems in another city (just got there, 1 to 2 turns before the AI did). Been trading them like crazy, even the one's reguired to keep my people happy. Some have offered 4 techs for one luxury.

The problem now is, who will I pee off first. If this was played between human players, I'd be long gone. I only survive because they let me survive.

Never have I gone up in the tech tree with such a nose bleed velocity. I'm playings as a Russian, so I'm building barracks to try and get the cossacks/golden age - if attacked.

My possition is almost laughable as far as my army strenght goes, but then again I see plenty of archers and spearman wondering around so maybe there is hope.

Okay, my point is, trade your luxuries as much as you can.

But still, for the AIs to be in the Industrial Age prior to year 0 is just too good ?

Cheers

06.03.02, the epitaph......

I played my heart out, signing few MPs and then declearing war on the most powerful, Greece. Got few cities. Then I made a mistake of not accepting the German MP offer. At 55 p/turn it way not cheap, but I could have afforded it. It just did not click. (I was trying to 'save' a lot, for purchase of cathedrals etc latter in an attemt to catch up culturally)

So it was Greece that signed with them few turns latter, and when I saw the panzers rolling in, I knew my time was up. (Around 500 - 600 AD, from memory.)

In hindsight a silly 'error' really, but the game was still out of reach as I did not manage to get a leader and the UN must have been just few turns away. I was 'tech advanced' but nothing to back it up. Had few tanks, and the Greeks were well and trully on the back foot, though defending their bigger cities well.

All in all, by being a 'frequent trader', every nation was either polite or gratuitous towards me, a point worth remembering imo. That saw me hanging around with a slim chance. If I was playing German instead of Russian, I could have been a contender.....

I've won few games on the standard/large 1.16 deity, but this one on 1.17 was well and truely a strugle, with the AI way too good for me.

Cheers

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by SleeplessNights
But still, for the AIs to be in the Industrial Age prior to year 0 is just too good ?

Actually, the Greeks were on the verge of inventing steam power, but with slave labor there was little need (so they thought). They actually used steam power to open temple doors -- as a novelty.

With the fall of the Greek Republic, the concept died out for 2000 years. Perhaps in your history, well, that's what Civ is all about!

 

[Dutchman]

And they used steam for heating rooms, by channeling it tru hollow walls and floors!

 

[marshal zhukov]

So what if the greeks used the steam power to open little doors the point is that they failed on evaluating the potencial of steam power just for the fact that they crawling on laws of motion and that would have made all the diference.

In other news

I didn't know that one is supposed to trade all the luxuries that one can, just because luxuries dramatically increases the points of the player( happy citizens ), so unless the offer is good I don't trade them just because the IA will be getting something very important for the price of nothing,
Never forget that with the marketplaces one luxuries might be worth 4 happy faces for the IA. So the offer has to be good for me to sell a luxuries, something in the order of 35 gold per turn would be a good price.
On my most recent game I have a total of 5 incenses that are not being traded just because the IA ( 9 in total ) do not want to pay the price I am asking for

Never underestimate the power of the luxuries

 

[spincrus]

Well I am not so positive on Greeks using steam power to open temple doors, since it sounds more like hydrolics to me rather than simple mechanics.

However, it is true that the Greeks used steam channels and complicated stuff like that to warm houses, baths, etc. Then the Romans got this from the Greek, and the Turks got this from the Romans.

Thats why such steamy baths are called "Turkish Baths" hehe

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by SpincruS
Well I am not so positive on Greeks using steam power to open temple doors, since it sounds more like hydrolics to me rather than simple mechanics.

Using steam to change heat energy to mechanical energy is steam power. Hydraulics merely transfer mechanical energy from one place to another.

 

[Richard III]

Look, the point is that 1.17 is turning Civ3 into Call to Power!!

Omigod!

 

[MrFrodo]

I didn't know that one is supposed to trade all the luxuries that one can, just because luxuries dramatically increases the points of the player( happy citizens ), so unless the offer is good I don't trade them just because the IA will be getting something very important for the price of nothing,

Excess luxuries of the same type do not do you any good for happiness. So if you have 5 sources of incense, you could sell 4 of them and still get the same happiness effect (as long as your cities are interconnected by roads/harbors). Therefore, there is no reason to hold out on selling them, unless you think you might get a better offer in the next 20 turns.

However, do be aware that if you sold all 4 extra luxuries, then you lost your fifth one to another civ (perhaps they built a city over your colony), the one that gets lost is the one that gives
you happiness, not one of the ones you sold. So I sometimes keep one source in reserve to avoid disorder if all my luxiry sources are not well inside my cultural border.

The last game I played I had 1 of all 8 types of luxuries for a while, so a city with a marketplace had 20 happiness just from that. Plus I was selling all my excess luxuries for major profit
and sometimes techs. But I would sell excess luxuries for
almost nothing if that was the only civ that was buying or even give them away to make the Civ like me better.

Anyway back to the subject, I don't think I'll ever try Deity level if the AI gets to Steam Power before 1AD. It just sounds more like an excersise in learning to exploit the weaknesses in the game's design rather than strategy and empire building. Maybe if the other civs just used their steam power to open temple doors instead of building railroads...

 

[Bamspeedy]

But I would sell excess luxuries for almost nothing if that was the only civ that was buying or even give them away to make the Civ like me better.

Keep in mind that you are making that civ more powerful. With more happy people that civ will be able to have more citizens working the fields and build stuff faster (perhaps building a military to attack you!, as soon as you take the luxury away). I would never give them away for nothing unless it was a real small civ that I didn't have to worry about giving them some aid.

 

[MrFrodo]

Good point Bamspeedy. I should probably be a little more careful
about giving away my luxuries to civs that I might go to war with in the future. Unless there is another civ that offers it as well.

 

[alexti]

Originally posted by MrFrodo

Maybe if the other civs just used their steam power to open temple doors instead of building railroads...

That's approximately what they do

AI is really weak in usage of transitional phases. Most
of my Deity games are very similar. I am well behind
until invention of Military tradition. Then I buy it,
convert horsemen into cavalry and conquer nearest
enemy civ. When Steam Power and Industrialization
are discovered I buy them too and quickly build
(and buy) railroads and factories. ( I keep money and
workers specifically for this purpose). Now infantry
and artillery are close and at this point I can easily
outproduce AI inspite of their bonuses (because they're
still constructing their first railroads and factories).
At this point I destroy most powerful civs and the game is decided.

Alex.