Should I be concerned about score?

[TyranusBonehead]

I am playing 1 on 1, I'm India vs Egypt, playing @ regent level.

I've been expanding as quickly as I can, with about 4-5 troops out exploring. I've come into contact with the Egyptians, traded some tech, established an embassy in their capital. I looked at the score and noticed I am already nearly 200 points behind. Should I be concerned? Have I messed up already so badly that it's hopeless? How should I proceed?

I'm playing CivIII/Conquests, 1.22

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Tomoyo]

Score isn't a very good indicator of success. The power rating is more accurate.

 

[vmxa]

Well score is not normally an issue, but 1 vs 1 on regent and down 200 is a problem.

I see you have only one road in the capitol and about 15 irrigated tiles. You only have 7 pop, so that is a huge waste of worker turns.

Cities are so far apart as to be very corrupt. Even a CxxxxC would be an improvement, but go with CxxC.

No sense in building the Gl, you need to have two other civs know a tech to gain it from the GL, save the shields.

No resource hooked up by 170AD? No lux either. This is a killer, fill in those spots and get them hooked up. To clarify, you have gems connected to a town, but the town is not connected to the capitol.


Getting cities connected to the capitol is about the top prioity. YOu would nto need three entertainers if you had gems and incense.

No horses in sight and iron is far away.

Cows not roaded or mined or even irrigated in one town.

 

[vmxa]

BTW if I were you I would change the wonder from Colos to MoM. The Colos will trigger a despotic GA with you making some small number of shields, it would most wasteful.

Switch most cities to workers, get more settlers and road.. Found a city on the hills near the lux and get a few temples in. Disband some of those roving warriors as they are so far away. I would even bring in that galley and disband it.

Cut down on your support, reduce corruption.

 

[morchuflex]

Score is completely irrelevant. Trying to have a high score is just another way of challenging yourself; it may be amusing in itself, but the main point is to win the game. Now, when you have played tons of games, you may decide to go for additional challenges, like trying to reach the highest possible score in a given situation...

And as Tomoyo pointed out, trailing in score tells little about how well you compete to the AI.
Religious civs will tend to have high early scores because they'll quickly build cheap temples and have a huge culture early on. But it won't help them much to dominate the world.

 

[Rohili]

It is my experience that if you are a strong nation controlling the most land and population, with productive cities, your score should also be quite high.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Thanks VMXA! This is exactly the sort of critique I needed.

I suck at CivIII but am still willing to try, it's either that or go back to DoomIII or Diablo II.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

The score bothers me only at the end game, because in the beginning I was remplacing the leader name with my own and I allways had a big brute warrior in the end to tell "Khan_Asparuh the Null".
Ever since, I never change the name so I dont bother about what the guy says. However, he seems to have understood my deception because no longer "The Null" is assigned - see my sig

 

[vmxa]

Thanks VMXA! This is exactly the sort of critique I needed.

I suck at CivIII but am still willing to try, it's either that or go back to DoomIII or Diablo II.

Hey I still play lots of LOD. I would look for crackers thread on opening moves. It is probably in the War Acad. This will explain how to use workers and evaluate tiles.

You can win this game, but I suggest to read that article and start a new game. Either play on a small map with maybe 3 civs or std with at least 4 civs. You just will not get a true picture of the game with an empty map.

If you play on, ignore all the land way beyond your borders for now. You have enough to do to back fill and improve the land you have. It is probably worth it to spot 2 more lux and think about getting going in that direction after some work is done at home.

Not have horses is a huge problem, but you have a UU that does notneed resources, so you can make do. Good luck.

 

[777]

Why I get loads of errors if I try to load game? I have same version as above.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I abandoned this game and tried it again, same thing basically, and at about the same point in my game checked my score, now only ~150 points behind. What I did differently this time was to put my cities closer. Still not enough of an improvement, but I have hope. I'm half-tempted to keep trying this until I can improve my score to the point where I'm leading. I think this excersize has the potential for teaching me alot about playing Civ.

I got pretty frustrated by the way, and was seriously considering quitting CivIII and going back to Diablo II. However, I realize that I can much better control playing time with Civilization, since it is turned based.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Why I get loads of errors if I try to load game? I have same version as above.

I have no idea. I do have CivIII/Conquests 1.22

 

[vmxa]

Post the current one and we can see what is needed. BTW you can expect to have a lower score than Cleo. She is going to out culture you for a time and if you are smart she will build wonders that you will ignore.

I would not worry about being behind in score as long as you are gettign more powerful than her. I could tell you have not done the minimal things to build and empire from the look of the first save.

Post a 4000bc save where have not taken any action and we can discuss some basics. I am sure many will jump in with help. It will not take long before you are getting the idea.

Anyway you have probably killed enough cows in hell to last a bit longer.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I'll post a 4000bc save here in the next day or so. I'm busy tonight unfortunately, so maybe tomorrow night

thanks again for the advice



oh yeah, in LOD I've slaughtered millions of cows, my kids always thought that cow level was hilarious

 

[hievery]

Yes, b/c it shows that your economy sux

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Yes, b/c it shows that your economy sux

Exactly! Give that man a blue ribbon.



Seriously, I know I'm pretty bad at this game, but I'm trying to learn. It's fun and I'd like to improve. However, I don't have alot of time. If I can't get the hang of it, I will gladly play something else, or go back to coding.

 

[Grohan]

Check out war academy. It has lot of good articles to improve your game.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

 

[bingen]

Dense city builds seems pretty unnecessary on 1-1, IMO. Then again I prefer CxxxC, mostly for aesthetic reasons.

For in depth help, check out the war academy or check out some succession games for the play by play.

Unless you are playing for score, it is irrelevant.