strategies

[galahad1313]

i keep thinking to myself that either the AI cheats shamelessly or there's something seriously wrong with my copy of this game. i've tried to play the next lvl of difficulty after chieftain(name escapes me atm), and i found it impossible to play. asa i ran into a -3 income per turn, i started losing workers??? and quit as i was getting nowhere fast as the saying goes. so i restarted again, being VERY careful of my funds, playing with the slider for scientific research to keep a +gpt while balancing my military with workers to develop my city(ies) and only built settlers when i was actually ready to expand. well i found myself being surounded by 3 other civs b4 i ever got to 5 cities, i was about 10+ techs behind most of the other civs, and about 5-10 cities lower???? how in THE hell does the AI manage to accomplish that i wonder. so i gave up on that one as well as i was obviously going to lose in embarrassing fashion.
needless to say i'm not THAT bad at these games, so i find myself at a loss as to how to beat the ai in anything setting other than chieftain...and until i tried to create my own custom civ(something i accomplished by luck, and not very well lol as i discuss in another post and need help with), i was having difficulty at chieftain lvl. almost seems to me that the difficulty setting by default is wrong?? that's what comes from saving a few bucks i guess and d-loading from fileplanet using my founder points or whatever they're called.

oh the agony and embarrassment of losing to an ai(or quitting b4 i did)

 

[metamike]

Is this thread supposed to be a joke?

Funny perhaps?...Or witty?

...Am I missing something?

If you ARE serious, then I'm going to save myself the time and intellect I'd lose from reading that, and simply give you this link.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/

Enjoy. ~Mike edit:sorry, that was a bit too mean, but still, lrn2grammar

 

[vmxa]

galahad1313
"i keep thinking to myself that either the AI cheats shamelessly or there's something seriously wrong with my copy of this game. i've tried to play the next lvl of difficulty after chieftain(name escapes me atm), and i found it impossible to play. asa i ran into a -3 income per turn, i started losing workers??? and quit as i was getting nowhere fast as the saying goes."

If you are not in anarchy and have no gold on hand, then deficit spending cause units or structures to be sold off. So do not let this happen.

The level is Warlord, iirc.

" so i restarted again, being VERY careful of my funds, playing with the slider for scientific research to keep a +gpt while balancing my military with workers to develop my city(ies) and only built settlers when i was actually ready to expand. "

Ok expanding the the key thing and needs to be done as soon as you can, IOW immediately.

"well i found myself being surounded by 3 other civs b4 i ever got to 5 cities, i was about 10+ techs behind most of the other civs, and about 5-10 cities lower????"

If you do not expand quiclky the land will be filled by someone. At this level you should have no troubel expand at least as fast as the AI.

The techs is probably due to them popping huts and trading techs with each other, not out researching you by that much.

Read some fo the better training games in the SG forum for low levels, the ones that give details about what they are doing.

The AI has one big cheat, it know the tiles at all times and hence knows your troops locations and all resources locations. It needs this help as it would be too much work to make it smart enough to deal with things.

It is actually running at a disadvantage in this level as its cost is higher than yours at Chief and Warlord.

 

[Desertsnow]

Vxma is right, the level is called Warlord. The difficulty levels are, from the bottom up: Chieftain, Warlord, Regent, Monarch, Emperor, Demigod, Deity, Sid (only Conquests has Demigod and Sid).

It is a very complex game, with many factors to consider as you play. The consensus among players is that Chieftan level is the training-wheels of the game. You play it once and move up immediately before you become too reckless. One thing that Chieftain gives to your favor that you no longer get at higher levels, is forgiveness for letting your budget run to zero. If you have zero gold and negative income above Chieftain level, the game will disband a worker or sell an improvement.

Also for budgeting, check out your F1 screen. I don't know if you know how to use your Advisors, but this screen has a pair of sliders that will allow you to adjust what you allocate toward luxuries and science. Adjust these as necessary.

Another thing is city management. Make sure all your citizens are working on improved tiles, tiles with roads and either mines or irrigation. Roads will benefit your economy (by adding commerce), mines your production (by adding shields) and irrigation your food (self-expanatory).

As Vxma said, your opponents are probably popping huts. Send out a warrior (or if you're expansionistic, a scout) or other early unit for exploration, and send them into huts. Expansionistic civs will never pop angry barbs from huts. I do know for sure that the actual scouts are safe from this, though they are helpless if attacked (except for the Incan Chasqui).

Expansion is important, and for a good fast landgrab, you need Settlers of course. If you find a city that looks like it would be good for production (shields) and excellent for food, then you can set this up as a settler factory. With luck and a little management, and a granary in the city, you will produce a settler out of this city alone every four turns. There's an article in the War Academy (see metamike's link) called 'Babylon's Deity Settlers' or something like that. Give it a perusal.

Connect resources as quickly as you can after discovering them. In fact, it's not a bad idea to plunk down a city right on top of one. Otherwise build a road to it to your nearest city, and connect that city to others. If it's on a different landmass from where you started, build harbours at both ends. Trade any surpluses for their resources (strategic resources or luxuries), tech advances, cash, whatever you can get out of them.

Know which techs allow what improvements, units, or other things. Check the F6 screen (science advisor) and right-click any tech for the Civilopedia entry on that tech.

There are many useful articles in the War Academy. Check them out.

 

[AznWarlord]

hmm, Warlord shouldn't be that much harder than Chieftain. I actually think both levels are the same. Now Emperor cheats for sure.

Yeah and civs get ten techs ahead of you because somehow they always find each other before you even get close to them and they trade techs like crazy.

 

[AznWarlord]

And as far as I know civs get higher handicaps every higher diffulculties

 

[MAS]

Actually, the difference between Chieftain and Warlord is one of the biggest. From Warlord to Regent, and Regent to Monarch is less of a difference.

At Chieftain, the AI pays 100% more than you, at Warlord this is 20%
so the productivity of the AI is almost doubled!

For example at Regent the AI pays equal to you, and at Deity it pays 40% less. Also almost double productivity!

Though at Deity it has the additional advantage of getting extra settlers and units at the start.

Nevertheless, it is still at a disadvantage at Warlord.

 

[Pyrrhos]

Somehow, I recognize this tale from my early Civ I days...

Try Cracker's opening moves in the War Academy on the Civ Fanatics main site! Then play a few opening moves and as you run into the next snag, go back to the War Academy! Superb articles!

 

[Desertsnow]

The War Academy is definitely recommendable. I have learned immensely from it.

 

[civverguy]

Don't worry. I was losing on warlord also before I found CFC.

 

[Desertsnow]

I was losing on Chieftain level before I found CFC.

 

[Aceman101]

^ so was I. And more than once!