SCENARIO: Age of Imperialism; 1895-1924, Deluxe Version

[Virote_Considon]

The easy answer to that is to try and play as one of the more interesting second- and third-tier civs.

For example, rather than playing as Germany, why not try Austria-Hungary? They've got all the possibilities which Germany has (a good amount of unit variation, colonial potential, etc.) but are objectively worse off - they start with no colonies, their units are worse etc. Playing as Scandinavia too could be an interesting challenge. They've got a couple of small colonies, but aren't in much of healthy position - and Russia poses a very large and very real threat to them too! Spain and Portugal also offer interesting games - IIRC it was them whose homeland military is only about as strong as their colonial militaries?

Some of the non-colonial civs can be really fun too. Argentina, Chile and Brazil have got many of the trimmings that other European powers have (some decent unique naval unit builds, for example) but also have chronic problems with lack of workers and infrastructure, and of course they can't join the colonial game.

 

[Aleenik]

The easy answer to that is to try and play as one of the more interesting second- and third-tier civs.

For example, rather than playing as Germany, why not try Austria-Hungary? They've got all the possibilities which Germany has (a good amount of unit variation, colonial potential, etc.) but are objectively worse off - they start with no colonies, their units are worse etc. Playing as Scandinavia too could be an interesting challenge. They've got a couple of small colonies, but aren't in much of healthy position - and Russia poses a very large and very real threat to them too! Spain and Portugal also offer interesting games - IIRC it was them whose homeland military is only about as strong as their colonial militaries?

Some of the non-colonial civs can be really fun too. Argentina, Chile and Brazil have got many of the trimmings that other European powers have (some decent unique naval unit builds, for example) but also have chronic problems with lack of workers and infrastructure, and of course they can't join the colonial game.

I shall try some weaker civs out as you suggested. I'll try Austria-Hungary next, but I think that it'll be easy as well. I'll invade the lowlands early on, acquiring 5 easy vp locations and possibly letting Germany become stronger in Africa. I'll then head for either the Balcans or Central/South America. I'll go after both, so it's just a matter of which to go after first. Victory should be easily secured after that. I'll try a South American civ out after Austria-Hungary. They do seem like more of a challenge, but I shall see how much more of a challenge I guess. In all of my games so far that I've been on track to win, I didn't turn in most of my resources and just let them sit around anyways. I almost never run convoys. I just let the raw materials pile up and gather them every few years, taking them to my capital where they then sit around there as well because I like to stockpile them for the heck of it. I'm unlikely to finish any games though as the turns take too long to complete eventually and once I know I'm going to win I grow bored. The farthest that I've gotten in the tech tree was the end of era 2. And this was with all the free tech wonders and researching all techs except for my first one in 4 turns, so it was only like 1906 or so when I got there.

I know I could play someone like the Cuban Natives and likely never even get close to winning, but I don't really find them interesting and skipping out on the big powers kinda defeats the purpose of the mod/scenario I think. Everyone is interested in the more prominent powers, or at least I am (I find Britain, France and Germany all very interesting historically) but they just aren't a challenge to play. The strength of my military units really isn't of that much importance to me. Imo it really only matters a lot early on. I pump out artillery and/or battleships and redline units before attacking anyways. As for Russia posing a threat to Scandinavia, maybe early on, but not at all later on as a human player. Since the AI just throws units at your cities, you really don't need that many defenders, comparatively, to hold a city against a hundred or so enemy units. I've seen that in South America multiple times.

Honestly, I am a pretty bad Civ player. The AI is just too stupid (Not El Justo's fault at all of course) to put up much of a challenge while playing many of the civs. Maybe setting the AI aggressiveness to a higher setting would help make the game more challenging. Though it might actually just make the game easier, with states weakening themselves and thus becoming ripe for the picking.

 

[Fredeye]

The civs that I find the most interesting, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia are all too easy to win as (I only play on the hardest difficulty, Admiral) making playing as them fairly boring to me after a short amount of time.

That's funny...me too. As a matter of fact, I just finished my first game recently and I've been playing for quite a while. I played Austria and quit after conquering Italy and France (they started it).

To make it more difficult as the U.S., I make a congressional dice role before going to war with modifiers for what type of government (liberal, conservative, anti-imperialist, etc.). Sometimes I even place ridged Rumsfeldian controls on troop levels. Once as Russia, I imposed a successful naval blockade of Britain.

AoI has ruined my interest in the other scenarios because of the artillery thing. I am no longer use to throwing a stack of infantry (warriors, swordsmen) into the melee without a good artillery prep.

 

[pvincent100]

Played all those Civs mentioned above, I like the unique units (in a huge game playing Britain at the moment)

- try playing Turkey - I found that really quite a challenge... Taking care of the balkan and Arabs - staving off the might of the Russians. - competing in both the Mediterranean and Black Sea (?) vs Russians.... I found it pretty tough, expanding is essential but the nature of Civ 3 has your best ally declaring war against you at the drop of a hat..... Plus they have some ok units, but European & Asia production limitations increase the difficulty as well... Let be know what u think

 

[Fredeye]

It is an up hill battle all the way with the Turks...even with a stack of Peashooters (artillery). I've read some books about WWI in South West Asia and supposedly the British claimed the Ottoman Infantry were their equals.

 

[pvincent100]

Turks - in WW1 it pretty much came down, I think, to their excellent on field commanders - Attaturk the father of modern Turkey is an excellent example - (the country politicians were a corrupt rabble (IMHO).... Turks are good fun, prepare for endless nights with little sleep in this Senario

 

[Leobon]

The easy answer to that is to try and play as one of the more interesting second- and third-tier civs.

For example, rather than playing as Germany, why not try Austria-Hungary? They've got all the possibilities which Germany has (a good amount of unit variation, colonial potential, etc.) but are objectively worse off - they start with no colonies, their units are worse etc. Playing as Scandinavia too could be an interesting challenge. They've got a couple of small colonies, but aren't in much of healthy position - and Russia poses a very large and very real threat to them too! Spain and Portugal also offer interesting games - IIRC it was them whose homeland military is only about as strong as their colonial militaries?

Some of the non-colonial civs can be really fun too. Argentina, Chile and Brazil have got many of the trimmings that other European powers have (some decent unique naval unit builds, for example) but also have chronic problems with lack of workers and infrastructure, and of course they can't join the colonial game.

I second the Scandinavia suggestion; one of my best games was Scandinavia. It can be frustrating or even annoying at first, and you might have to contend with sacrificing mainland Denmark if some of the mainland European powers think you smell bad in the beginning of the game, but you have a lot of opportunities for success. If you keep your colony in the Caribbean well defended, and you spend money on creating a cavalry force, you can overrun part of South America and start down the road towards conquering the whole thing. You can also take advantage of Russia being at war with Germany or whatever by continually building up your forces in Scandinavia proper and overwhelming Finland and beyond once they're a little spread thin by war.

If you guys are a little bored beyond this, you can try China. It can be pretty frustrating but if you try to manage your garrisons, spam artillery, and try to work a little on railroad infrastructure, you can go pretty far. I've only played China once but I remember taking over colonial Asia before starting a new game. It just helps, as in the case of Scandinavia, to bide your time and wait for an opportunity to exploit the colonial powers at war with each other. You can manage this, and then you can set your sights on the Japanese Home Islands. The thought of occupying Japan as China is pretty tempting.

 

[pvincent100]

I played China and thought it was a blast - sing Korea, I was able to carve out a huge empire against the Soviets going all the way to the Urals - battling the Japs was tough, you really need to lure out their navy and destroy it with air power - all the while taking French & British territories

I also played a game as Mexico, I goes pretty badly for you if the Yanks take a disliking to you early on, otherwise divide and conquer South America, (do all the costal cities first) your production powers will then overwhelm the U.S.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'm curious, has it ever been considered to make Australia or Canada their own countries? Given how the two countries became effectively independent barring foreign policy and defense prior to the scenario's timespan, I always thought the idea would have some merit (they'd merely need a locked alliance with Britain).

I mean, I remember reading there were plans to make Romania independent, so it sounds like the next AoI has a lot of options for new nations.

Never mind mechanically, Canada's status on an Industrial continent means the British can very easily double their Industrial base, whereas the Australian continent being isolated naturally is its own country in a sense anyway.

 

[Bowsling]

No, making the dominions independent would make no sense historically or from a gameplay perspective. Plus, it'd be a waste of two good civ slots.

 

[El Justo]

we though about separating them at one point but thought it easier to keep them together. the fact that we could isolate their builds (ie australian infantry, canadian etc) had a lot to do with it too. fwiw, i did separate the british commonwealth civs in my latest project, ww2 in the pacific

 

[Tani Coyote]

No, making the dominions independent would make no sense historically or from a gameplay perspective. Plus, it'd be a waste of two good civ slots.

From all I've read the dominions were effectively self-governing outside the fields of foreign policy and their militaries by the 1890s. This is easily represented through a locked alliance.

In all honesty my main concern would be Canada; if the British AI takes Mexico all of Canada will become industrial, doubling the British industrial base and making them even more deadly than they are already. Australia's effectively its own country in the game's mechanics anyway with its own line of units, so is negligible.

Though as memory serves, only Mexico City has the Industry resource of Mexico's cities now, which I suspect may have been specifically for this reason. Gotta keep the Brits from conquering the world somehow.

I just felt if Romania can get special consideration, others could use it as well. Obligatory vouching for Mahdist Sudan as always. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Britain crumble in AoI!

Which reminds me, I really need to play that customised game I had set up where Britain lost most of it colonies to foreign powers... (I'd be Britain of course because I'm a masochist)

 

[El Justo]

down with the tommies !!

 

[Tani Coyote]

Though when one thinks about it, conquering Britain actually isn't TOO challenging, given that the human player knows very well how to exploit local superiority while also putting machinegunners in the colonies to keep Britain at a disadvantage.

What would probably be most challenging is occupying all of Russia or the United States... has anyone actually done this? Would make for an epic conquest!

 

[Virote_Considon]

I've seen people take Russia many times - once you've hacked away at their European core enough, they shouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

The US would be harder. I'd probably try to take Mexico and Canada first, and try to get a bit of an industrial base built up if at all possible.

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'd just presume Russia's a pain to take simply because of the distances involved. Progress into the country gets sluggish once the European part is taken... but then again from a practical perspective there's no reason to push deeper than that to begin with.

 

[pvincent100]

Hey SonicTH,

I have conquered the Soviets a I've done this from both East and West - yes it takes a lot of time... Im currently carving up the US (Im just outside of Washington). Both of these guys are really similar - their initial assaults are overwhelming, you need for them to come to you, have lots and lots of defensive unit and artillery units (or bombers if going against the US (using the bomber/artillery swing strategy - you'll have endless wars in the Med and Africa and need to move your large bomber force to keep on top of things).

For me, taking on the Soviets you need two large infantry forces (20+), backed by 150+ artillery - with your cities connected by railways - hold of their couple of huge waves off attacks, then start taking cities, they will probably never recover (try and create a beachhead of 3-4 cities, sue for peace, heal & rebuild then attack with 10 turns before they rebuild too much.

The US - you have to break even again their huge land attack (and not lose any Canadian Cities), but make sure you draw their navy out and sink most (if not all) of it. The US is tough and complex (the Soviets are just tough)... you can make conquest by taking out the Philippines - this is quit a lot of fun as you have limited resources from the Far East, you need to bring on the Anzacs to bolster number)... once the US navy is gone, the PI's secured, make you move down the Eastern Cities of mainland US.... it'll just take time (be prepared to loose some Cities in the Caribbean

 

[jimmygeo]

Down with the Tommies, indeed! I have just completed a game as France (VP victory in 250 turns) and have humbled Britain. She no longer had a single colony in Africa, East Asia or So. America. Germany and Austro-Hungary were completely eliminated as were the Cuban and Philippian Natives. Conquering European Spain and Portugal gave me an easy entry for raw materials from Africa. And acquiring several wonders that gave free techs put me well ahead of the competition.

 

[El Justo]

nice. a jimmygeo sighting

 

[jimmygeo]

El J, When I had Windows 7 I couldn't load Civ 3 so couldn't play this my favourite Civ 3 mod. Recently I got a new computer with Windows 8 and - surprise! - Civ 3 installed just fine. So I'm back!

jimmygeo