Sid Level
- Thread starter Batis
- Start date
Yes, it's possible. I've seen several ways...
Archipelago - It keeps the AI seperate from each other much longer, and you could build/steal the UN.
Pangaea - A bit more action intense. Hope for an isolated start, and have the AI fight each other. Have settlers ready, because the AI WILL raze cities left and right more (it seems that way in a few Sid level games I've tried).
Archipelago - It keeps the AI seperate from each other much longer, and you could build/steal the UN.
Pangaea - A bit more action intense. Hope for an isolated start, and have the AI fight each other. Have settlers ready, because the AI WILL raze cities left and right more (it seems that way in a few Sid level games I've tried).
ReZurrecti0n
Åñçíèñ† Øñè
I remember playing the most difficult level, Emperor, for Civilization I on the super nintendo... This is how I was introduced to the Civilization world period, but anyway, I never finished the game because I started Civilization 3, but I was killing them on the most difficult level for Civilization I. I just recently started the sid difficulty level for Civilization III Conquests, but my computer runs too slow under that level for some reason, but I played about 20 turns or so which I find is possible to win, but extremly hard. Its like a fatal chess game, one false move will bring you down. Even something as stupid as moving a worker to work on "this" piece of land instead of "that" piece of land, etc. Whether you build a road first, then a mine, or the other way around... This difficulty level will make you think about every last detailed move you make cuz it might be your last if it's the wrong one. Forget about building any great wonders, steal those wonders if possible instead. First thing I would build is working up your army and defense even if it is rather small... It's not easy at all, but only slowly will you beable to slaughter them and also alot of lucky strikes, but best of luck with that level, but it is still very much possbile for the most intelligent of people, lol. Hope this helps at least a little bit :^)
Sorry...
My english is very weak.
What you mean when write "build/steal the --*UN*--(?)".
Does it possible to win in the hardest level using the standard rules? Or, in another words, allowing "cultural victory" and "points victory" too?
Ah... What you think about Huge maps working with Deity and Sid levels?
Thanks
Batis
My english is very weak.
What you mean when write "build/steal the --*UN*--(?)".
Does it possible to win in the hardest level using the standard rules? Or, in another words, allowing "cultural victory" and "points victory" too?
Ah... What you think about Huge maps working with Deity and Sid levels?
Thanks
Batis
ReZurrecti0n
Åñçíèñ† Øñè
I would say your english is good, but Chieftess means build the great wonder UN or steal it by taking the city that has the UN if it has already been built. I don't play the game with special victory rules, I just play until the end, which I never make it that far anyway. But I am guessing you could win that that... I use the huge map with 30 other civilizations, my goal is to crush them one by one. But if you want to make it a bit easier, I guess you could select a huge map with not so many other civilizations in it.
sabo
My Ancestors were Vikings
And it also helps to set your settings to "No Barbarians" no sense in letting the AI pop goody huts for techs when all the human player would get is barbarians.
SesnOfWthr
True Believer
This game hasn't actually been won ..... yet. This is a HoF thread by SirPleb, look it over, it's a great read. 
SirPleb - Sid
SirPleb - Sid
ReZurrecti0n
Åñçíèñ† Øñè
Sid shall one day fall to the hands of ReZ, mwa ha ha ha... All I gotta do is put some more effort into it, hehe. Best of luck for all those playing the sid level though, at least its being tried...
dreamvirus
Tai Chi Master 1(1).12.1
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 201
I've made 2 unsuccessful attempts at sid level so far...I was doing OK in the first one but I had the worst start in the world - my entire island was jungle, hills and swamp. I abandoned the game when I was still in the early Middle Ages and other civs were into the Industrial ages. I would have played on but it had taken me so long to clear all that jungle and my cities had grown so slowly that I don't think I stood a chance.
My second attempt was a disaster. I was sharing a small island with the Zulu and by the time I'd built my 1st settler they'd colonised half the island. I abandoned that one when I lost 3 settlers/ships in a row trying to settle a nearby island separated by 5 sea squares.
My 3rd attempt is going much better. I had a dream start - my first 2 cities had a cow grassland and tons of bonus grassland, and there's a lake right in the middle of my continent which is giving me fresh water for several cities. On top of that, I discovered after sending my curraghs and warriors out exploring that I was alone on my continent! Because I am playing a seafaring civ (Byzantines) and I'd rigged the deck a little (no other seafaring civs, large archipelago map) I've been able to stay equal on tech all the way up to the early Middle Ages with some clever trading and 1 or 2 successful 50-turn research gambits (literature, theology).
A couple of the other big civs are now starting to steam ahead in tech but I'm still pretty hopeful. I have a large empire (only 3 other civs managed to settle a single city on the edges of my continent, and I can capture them any time I choose). I have stacks of dromons that I can use to defend my coasts when I decide to declare war to trigger my Golden Age...soon). The dromons and the fact that I am on my own on my island should be enough to let me defend if anyone close to me declares war because I can sink their galleys and bombard any troops that actually manage to land, then finish them off with my land troops.
Did I mention that I am the only one with Ivory, and therefore managed to build the Statue of Zeus? Like I said, I had a dream start.
If I manage to win from here - which I could pretty much guarantee on any other level - I'll update the thread with the result.
My second attempt was a disaster. I was sharing a small island with the Zulu and by the time I'd built my 1st settler they'd colonised half the island. I abandoned that one when I lost 3 settlers/ships in a row trying to settle a nearby island separated by 5 sea squares.
My 3rd attempt is going much better. I had a dream start - my first 2 cities had a cow grassland and tons of bonus grassland, and there's a lake right in the middle of my continent which is giving me fresh water for several cities. On top of that, I discovered after sending my curraghs and warriors out exploring that I was alone on my continent! Because I am playing a seafaring civ (Byzantines) and I'd rigged the deck a little (no other seafaring civs, large archipelago map) I've been able to stay equal on tech all the way up to the early Middle Ages with some clever trading and 1 or 2 successful 50-turn research gambits (literature, theology).
A couple of the other big civs are now starting to steam ahead in tech but I'm still pretty hopeful. I have a large empire (only 3 other civs managed to settle a single city on the edges of my continent, and I can capture them any time I choose). I have stacks of dromons that I can use to defend my coasts when I decide to declare war to trigger my Golden Age...soon). The dromons and the fact that I am on my own on my island should be enough to let me defend if anyone close to me declares war because I can sink their galleys and bombard any troops that actually manage to land, then finish them off with my land troops.
Did I mention that I am the only one with Ivory, and therefore managed to build the Statue of Zeus?
Like I said, I had a dream start.If I manage to win from here - which I could pretty much guarantee on any other level - I'll update the thread with the result.
ReZurrecti0n
Åñçíèñ† Øñè
Sounds like a awesome start dreamvirus... Best of luck :^)
Eyeoftiger
Warlord
Yes, that game "Scouting Sid" was an unbelievable success. I remember reading it and wasting about 4 hours here at work! And you all did it with all the bugs intact.
dreamvirus
Tai Chi Master 1(1).12.1
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 201
I also spent half a day one weekend reading the "Scouting Sid" thread...
dreamvirus
Tai Chi Master 1(1).12.1
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 201
My sid game has taken a slight turn for the worse. I had another succesful science gambit and got Music Theory which I traded around to the other civs to make me equal on tech to everyone except the Zulu (who are now in the Industrial Age...argh). The Zulu wouldn't trade me anything for it, and then in between turns they demanded it in tribute, depsite the fact that we have many trades going for luxes etc...I thought for a long time about it. The thing is, the Zulu had been building every other wonder in the game, and I really wanted J.S. Bach. Also, because the Zulu are so far ahead of all the other civs in strength and techs, I knew I would have to go to war against them eventually anyway. I decided to refuse tribute, figuring that I could use my dromons to keep them from landing on my continent, and maybe take out one of their coastal cities.
They declared war and nothing happened that turn except that they landed lots of troops on a couple of my island colonies. I abandoned one that I couldn't defend, rushed a couple of troops in another, and bribed all the other AIs to declare war on the Zulu, figuring that an 8-way dogpile would keep them occupied. I landed what I thought was a reasonably large stack of knights and medieval infantry on a mountain square next to their iron-resource city and waited to see what happened.
I have never gone to war against a powerful sid-level AI before and if I had to do it again I would definitely just give the Zulu Music Theory and wait for a better moment to make war. An almost infinite number of cavalry, riflemen and med inf, plus a stack of crusaders, appeared on the horizon and took out my landing party with ease. The only thing I managed to do before they all died was to pillage the iron. Yay for me. A massive fleet of frigates also appeared to engage my dromon stack, and 3 cavalry landed next to the city containing my only source of horses, which I'd left undefended...doh.
My dromons took out most of the frigates but suffered heavy losses. I managed to take back the horses city but it took 10 turns because the Zulu piled in 3 riflemen as well as the cavalry. My production was killed by war weariness (I'm in Republic), which I found very odd since they declared on ME...I lost another small corrupt coastal city and took that back pretty quickly. I lost 2 more island colony cities, though luckily none of the ones with resources.
My "allies", meanwhile, were all getting rightly pasted by the Zulu, with Russia, who share a continent with them, getting it worst and losing about half their cities. They all started making peace with the Zulu, and I suddenly noticed that MY reputation was suddenly shot! No one will enter gpt deals for tech with me any more!!!
I eventually made peace myself. The ONLY good thing that happened was that I captured a city that the Zulu have had on my coast for centuries. The rest of it was an unmitigated disaster. I've recently started playing with a "no reload" policy, otherwise I would be seriously considering going back in time and just letting the Zulu have Music Theory after all. The game isn't lost, I still have a good empire, but I can't see any way now to keep the Zulu from streaking ahead; they are already a half an age ahead of everyone else in tech, and have an absolutely GIGANTIC military.
I would appreciate suggestions from any experienced players as to how to proceed from here. It will take me centuries to build my military up to a point where I might be able to do some real damage to the Zulu. I don't see a way to play for a diplomatic win from here because the Zulu will DEFINITELY get to Fission and build the U.N. before me. I could try going to war against another civ but it will take a LONG time because we are all on different continents and my military is in a pitiful state compared to theirs, and in the meantime the Zulu would be blasting into space most likely...the only two approaches I can think of are
a) get industrialized and get to Replaceable Parts as soon as possible, build HUGE stacks of artillery and infantry, go to war with the Zulu again, and hope for the best (I would probably be fighting hundreds of Bombers, MA and MI at that point, not to mention the possibility of nukes...yuck)
b) wait for the Zulu to build the U.N., try to capture it, and go for a diplomatic vote. This is what they managed in the "Scouting Sid" SG. I am skeptical about whether this would be possible but I'll give it a try if it's the only way to win...
They declared war and nothing happened that turn except that they landed lots of troops on a couple of my island colonies. I abandoned one that I couldn't defend, rushed a couple of troops in another, and bribed all the other AIs to declare war on the Zulu, figuring that an 8-way dogpile would keep them occupied. I landed what I thought was a reasonably large stack of knights and medieval infantry on a mountain square next to their iron-resource city and waited to see what happened.
I have never gone to war against a powerful sid-level AI before and if I had to do it again I would definitely just give the Zulu Music Theory and wait for a better moment to make war. An almost infinite number of cavalry, riflemen and med inf, plus a stack of crusaders, appeared on the horizon and took out my landing party with ease. The only thing I managed to do before they all died was to pillage the iron. Yay for me. A massive fleet of frigates also appeared to engage my dromon stack, and 3 cavalry landed next to the city containing my only source of horses, which I'd left undefended...doh.
My dromons took out most of the frigates but suffered heavy losses. I managed to take back the horses city but it took 10 turns because the Zulu piled in 3 riflemen as well as the cavalry. My production was killed by war weariness (I'm in Republic), which I found very odd since they declared on ME...I lost another small corrupt coastal city and took that back pretty quickly. I lost 2 more island colony cities, though luckily none of the ones with resources.
My "allies", meanwhile, were all getting rightly pasted by the Zulu, with Russia, who share a continent with them, getting it worst and losing about half their cities. They all started making peace with the Zulu, and I suddenly noticed that MY reputation was suddenly shot! No one will enter gpt deals for tech with me any more!!!
I eventually made peace myself. The ONLY good thing that happened was that I captured a city that the Zulu have had on my coast for centuries. The rest of it was an unmitigated disaster. I've recently started playing with a "no reload" policy, otherwise I would be seriously considering going back in time and just letting the Zulu have Music Theory after all. The game isn't lost, I still have a good empire, but I can't see any way now to keep the Zulu from streaking ahead; they are already a half an age ahead of everyone else in tech, and have an absolutely GIGANTIC military.
I would appreciate suggestions from any experienced players as to how to proceed from here. It will take me centuries to build my military up to a point where I might be able to do some real damage to the Zulu. I don't see a way to play for a diplomatic win from here because the Zulu will DEFINITELY get to Fission and build the U.N. before me. I could try going to war against another civ but it will take a LONG time because we are all on different continents and my military is in a pitiful state compared to theirs, and in the meantime the Zulu would be blasting into space most likely...the only two approaches I can think of are
a) get industrialized and get to Replaceable Parts as soon as possible, build HUGE stacks of artillery and infantry, go to war with the Zulu again, and hope for the best (I would probably be fighting hundreds of Bombers, MA and MI at that point, not to mention the possibility of nukes...yuck)
b) wait for the Zulu to build the U.N., try to capture it, and go for a diplomatic vote. This is what they managed in the "Scouting Sid" SG. I am skeptical about whether this would be possible but I'll give it a try if it's the only way to win...
unscratchedfoot
War is a good thing.
dreamaboutvirus, Go for a conquest victory, not a weak diplomatic one. In the wise words of... um... unscratchedfoot, remember my son, a hard fought victory has so much more flavor and personal reward than a cheap and cowardly one. You had the goods to take on the Zulu once, so be a man and fight them toe-to-toe again. And then let us know how it goes. 
dreamvirus
Tai Chi Master 1(1).12.1
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 201
Well, things weren't as bad as I'd feared. The Zulu seem to have slowed down since entering the industrial ages for some reason and I'm catching up on tech, I was first to Economics, Medicine and Sanitation and was able to trade them around for other techs so I'm now equal again with everyone and probably 2 or 3 techs behind the Zulu which is much better than I thought I'd be. I'm building my factories and cannons and when the time comes I'll have an ungodly number of artillery to make life difficult for the AIs. I'm also making a run for Scientific Method and doing a pre-build for TOE which would probably make me tech leader if I pull it off.
The only bad thing that happened was that due to a cultural flip on one of my islands I lost my only source of coal!! I'm having to buy it from the Zulu. They'll regret it though. Muhahahaha.
UPDATE: this is unbelievable. Now an island city with my ONLY SOURCE OF IRON has flipped to the Zulu despite the fact that I had a temple, library and university built in it. I would be considering the old monitor-out-the-window trick if it wasn't for the fact that I am able to get iron from the Arabs by giving them tech, as I am a little bit ahead of them. Grr...
'Nother update: I wasn't first to scientific method, but the fact that I'd rushed a factory and coal plant in my most productive city and then started a pre-build using Battlefield Medicine meant that I was able to get Theory of Evolution! I traded around Atomic Theory for every tech going and all the AI civs' money, and kept Electronics for myself, so I'm now tech leader and richest civ on the planet, and have a pretty decent research speed going too. No oil, though. That could be tricky. I think it's time to build up a little raiding force and go resource shopping...
The only bad thing that happened was that due to a cultural flip on one of my islands I lost my only source of coal!! I'm having to buy it from the Zulu. They'll regret it though. Muhahahaha.
UPDATE: this is unbelievable. Now an island city with my ONLY SOURCE OF IRON has flipped to the Zulu despite the fact that I had a temple, library and university built in it. I would be considering the old monitor-out-the-window trick if it wasn't for the fact that I am able to get iron from the Arabs by giving them tech, as I am a little bit ahead of them. Grr...
'Nother update: I wasn't first to scientific method, but the fact that I'd rushed a factory and coal plant in my most productive city and then started a pre-build using Battlefield Medicine meant that I was able to get Theory of Evolution! I traded around Atomic Theory for every tech going and all the AI civs' money, and kept Electronics for myself, so I'm now tech leader and richest civ on the planet, and have a pretty decent research speed going too. No oil, though. That could be tricky. I think it's time to build up a little raiding force and go resource shopping...
dreamvirus
Tai Chi Master 1(1).12.1
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 201
Well, I've managed to keep up in tech - the pace is murderous, but through some clever trading and my scientific-civ slingshot into the modern era, I am now equal with the Indians and the Zulu - I have Fission, they both have Rocketry (and Amphibious War, but who cares about that). I'm not going to trade Fission until I build the U.N. - my reputation is shot though, so I'm not sure I can get a diplomatic win. My only chance at that would probably be to declare war on the Zulu the turn I build the U.N. and get everyone else to ally against them with me and bribe the heck out of them. I don't know, though...that seems like a very cheesy way to win. I'd prefer to try for a spaceship win, which if I switch from Republic to Democracy I think I can do. I don't think I can win by conquest but what I'm going to do is try all three. I'm going to make a save file at this point or a bit later and when/if I get one kind of win I'll go back and see if it was possible to win another way, for my own interest...I'd be especially interested to see if I can beat the Zulu militarily. They will have absolutely insane stacks of infantry, cavalry, tanks, bombers etc but I've already seen in this game how tactically atrocious the AI is (I took out Egypt's entire vast primitive army of longbowmen, pikes and med Inf with a modest stack of infantry, artillery and cavalry, only losing 2 units - 2 UNITS!!! I just sat my infantry and artillery on a mountain and bombed them to bits and took them out with my cavalry then retreated again. If they'd thrown their entire force at me I might have lost, and would certainly have suffered heavy losses - but they just left my stack exactly where it was and let me butcher them).
I'm thinking of doing something similar with the Zulu. Our continents are right beside each other. I already know I can defend my coasts from any landing parties, I am mainly worried about hundreds of bombers destroying my infrastructure, but if I build tons of fighters and flak I may be able to hold off the air assault. Meanwhile I can land a couple of big stacks of infantry and artillery on mountain squares on the zulu coast and let them attack me. I don't know how to make an exact estimate of their losses but I know that an infantry on a mountaintop is a 20 defense unit, more if fortified, plus with the artillery that defense is boosted any more, so they would probably lose 2 or 3 tanks, or 5 or 6 cavalry, for every infantry of mine that they killed. That would quickly reduce their advantage in numbers and production, and then I could pick my moment to land all my tanks and start razing cities. On the other hand they might use their bombers; so maybe I should include flak in the stack; hmm, so many decisions. Lots of fun ahead.
I'm thinking of doing something similar with the Zulu. Our continents are right beside each other. I already know I can defend my coasts from any landing parties, I am mainly worried about hundreds of bombers destroying my infrastructure, but if I build tons of fighters and flak I may be able to hold off the air assault. Meanwhile I can land a couple of big stacks of infantry and artillery on mountain squares on the zulu coast and let them attack me. I don't know how to make an exact estimate of their losses but I know that an infantry on a mountaintop is a 20 defense unit, more if fortified, plus with the artillery that defense is boosted any more, so they would probably lose 2 or 3 tanks, or 5 or 6 cavalry, for every infantry of mine that they killed. That would quickly reduce their advantage in numbers and production, and then I could pick my moment to land all my tanks and start razing cities. On the other hand they might use their bombers; so maybe I should include flak in the stack; hmm, so many decisions. Lots of fun ahead.
bingen
Prince
Dream, it seems you are fairly large and powerful. In this situation I think a Spaceship victory is almost a lock for a win. Just remember to use the almighty spy to steal techs for an edge in the race. Good luck.
