Tell of your very first Civ game—before you learned how to play

My first game I could only move in four directions - I was playing on a laptop (contracted keyboard, hence no numpad) so thought you could only move in those four directions, which struck me as pretty stupid. Was playing on a big map with 2 other civs tho', so did ok-ish. Kept wondering why I couldn't get my cities very big - I started building granaries in them all, but I hadn't worked out how to irrigate!
 
I had watched a friend play before my first game so I knew some of the tricks. I knew horse were immensely powerful since they would always retreat and heal (the only exception being if both units were at 1 hp). (You remember when retreat chance was 100%? They fixed that "balance problem" really quick).

I played my favorite way which was to build large number of cities. Corruption was horrible (pre-corruption patch) and maintainance was high so my science was really slow. I was near the modern age when out of the blue a message comes up. "You Win". I was totally confused as I hadn't done anything special that turn. It was a tad anti-climactic. I was also miffed that I hadn't gotten to try the neat modern techs.

It was a culture win of course.
 
Decembar 2002.

Germany. Chieftain. Standard,Continents Map.

Oponents:Russia and England on my(big) continent, +Egypt,Rome +Japan,India and China(which I never met since they were destroied by Japan and India before my first contact).

And the barbs level was raging (probably - well I deleted this game:( ).

I didn't know anything about game but I like the graphic and idea to rewrote history:D

Some of stupidities that I made (I didn't have manual at all):
The cities were too close or too far of each other so allthe time English try to send the settlers in the middle of my territory were was a empty place surround by my cities with probably some of luxuries (I did not know at all the importance of that stuf as for the others recourses I just looked were is gold assuming that is a good place to make city near by

:blush: )
I didn't know for "fortifie" units so my turns were veeeery long
:arrow:
Whenever I discover a new tech or units I was delightfull.
When I had first Great Leader I was confused didn't know how to use him so I press one of comand an he was improved a library in that city:blush: .

I manualy comand all my workers and made roads, irg.,mines only were I was thinking that is good (you can imagine my "infrastructure" :( .

When I reach Railroad near 2050 and sow that is only 0 movement need I was thinking it is some error in the begining.

And bonus:
I was all the time in despotizam and all the time in war with Egypt,Rome and England.:eek:

I finished the game winning by historyograph with about 9 hunderd something points in mid industrial time!!!

But I like the Game SOOO MUCH so I play it still with passion!

regards
ALONE:beer:
 
Bought around 2 years ago, but quite the first game (the reason was because It looked totally different with CivII. So only 2 turn). Then around 3 months ago my brother called and asked me to play CivIII. So, I didn't want to loose with my brother. Practise time before he comes (but after my first game, I have enjoyed this game more than others).
everything standard and chieftain, rome. I could only have 5 cities.I totally behind everything compare to other civs. My closest neighbour was egypt, and she kept attacking, but i didn't loose any city or gain any city (just loose a lot of warriors :mad:
The good thing was, my first game produced a GL quite early (I think before starting AD). The bad thing was I never used it for the entire game. So my GL was just sitting inside one of my city for centuries, since I didn't know what the GL was for :hammer:
For the entire game, I couldn't even been able to produce tank (I think because I lack of science or resource), didn't open embassy, but never accept any thread from other civs and still survive (although I lost at 2050...)
The other funny thing was (or the good thing for me), when my brother came, we couldn't play civ3 (it was not for multiplayer :))
and I just realized after being a member of this forum. Well, don't bother to buy multiplayer, since I know my younger brother can beat me easily in any level (he has been played for at least more than a year).
 
My 1st Game...
Well, I lost to the Zulus. I was innocent... and America...
Within five minutes I had declared war on them and disaster was reigned upon Washington, New York, Boston, and Chicago (my only four cities by 1000 BC). I obviously lost... it was embarrassing and horrible... I deleted the save file in frustration... ha ha...
 
My first game was in civ 1, and it was way back in the 90s. I guess 1992. I started as the Romans on a medium to small island. However, for some reaso, which I do not understand anymore, I couldn't build a second city. I mean, I did build one, but it was always in civil unrest. So, I concluded that building more than one city was not wise. (What a strange conclusion, one can draw.) But, thanks to my remote location, I pretty much survived while other nations bloomed. At some point, one of the Greeks (I believe), approached my horsemen / phalanx or whatever in his tank or mechanized infantry unit and demanded al my money. Of course, I refused. Thus, he NUKED me. I quit and asked my friends for advice for the next 1000 games of civ.
 
i played my first game of CivIII 4 months ago. at first i don't know how to build your second city, so throughout the game i only have one city -- my capital. Also i didn't know what they mean by burning my city in fire. In anarchy times my city stopped all production, so that made my military very weak. soon the japanese captured my city. it only lasted a few minutes, and i got the lowest score, 28.
 
I bought civIII 6 months ago, I played on chieften on a tiny pangea map, I was the Germans playing aganst India, Babylonia and greek. I managed to destroy Babylonia and take all ther contry in the middle age after many short wars in the ancent age. After that I was a peaceful player. I then won the game via space race around 2000.
 
Originally posted by Alone

Germany. Chieftain. Standard,Continents Map.

Oponents:Russia and England on my(big) continent, +Egypt,Rome +Japan,India and China

Unbelievable!!!
Same start for me that was, a couple of years ago ;)
Ended up crushing the English and the Russians, claiming all the continent to myself.

Landed on the other continent. Crushed the Romans, and prepared to invade Egypt (i had infantry to put against their Chariots).
India was at war with China, so i left them on their own.

Won by culture victory (which was a surprise to me as i did not understand why i won at first) :confused:

But one thing i surely remember is that i kept switching Palace places between Berlin and Bremen for ages, thinking it was a bug that made the palace disappear in Berlin, once it was finished in Bremen, before i understood the meaning of changing Palace location. :D

Edit: the reason why i remembered it is because i have a small civ-dedicated copybook on which i list the events and draw my plans for each and every game...
Talking about being a civ-fanatic, huh?
:love:
 
My 1st game, I bought the game last October 2002 and I played after reading some of the manual without ujnderstanding much of what I had read.

I started as the Aztecs and I lost conquered. Although I did manage to take a few cities and eventually was wiped out by America, I had really almost wiped out germany by then.

I had no Idea how anything worked in the game, I had workers building roads out in the middle of nowhere so I could get my troops to the front lines faster and really did not improve the home terrain much.

Anyway this was on Chieftan and standard pangea.

I think my final rabking was a new 1....... Montezuma the Moron!!:lol:

I have come a long way since then.
 
A friend made me a gift: it was Civ3. I had never before played a strategy game on PC. Anyway, I chose tutorial mode with Greece(to honor the glory and the memory of the Great Alexander) at Chieftain. As I was building Hoplites and city improvements, I saw that an England spearman was crossing my borders, and as I was a new player, I didn't knew how to deal with him, so I attacked! Before I knew, England and Egypt had signed aa MPP and were both attacking me from everywere!!! Although, my Hoplites gave their heart and soul to defend my glorious empire, the game had been already lost; soon after the entire world was at war with me.
The second time, I won on Chieftain(again with Greece), although I was still learning the game...
 
King Alexander, my second game was my first win, and yes, I was Greece. I won on points because the Chieftain game dragged on to 2050. After which, I proceeded to pound India into the dust like a madman, drunk on the thrill of victory.
 
I remember I got Civ II at some point in time and actually had it for about 6 months before I actually played it. (I do that quite often with computer games. Buy them on a whim and never play them). I finally loaded it up and of course never bothered with the manual. I figured out how to build cities and slapped a few down (can't remember the civ) and figured smart stuff (like alphabet and literature) would be something to shoot for.

All I can really remember is I ended up with a HUGE sprawling network of towns, most of them not connected with roads. Some with a defensive unit, others without. I also recall that my biggest problem was that at times my entire civilation was on fire as my cities were in revolt and I had no idea how to make them happy. Eventually everyone declared war on me and I quit the game in frustration that my horsemen couldn't beat even my neighbors riflemen. I was hooked though and found the damn manual and actually read it and done better the next time.

All I can remember about my first Civ III game was getting about 7 or 8 cities down in some god forsaken jungle/mountain area in the middle of some large continent. I had no military to speak of, nor science, culture or money come to think of it. I was surrounded by other civs that swarmed all over my land which was quite shocking to me. Turns out they were their settlers with escorts but I was surrounded by some fierce looking units like those Aztec Warriors in my mountains and those crazy Persian sword guys and some wild Zulu's Impi's. Russians eventually declared war on me and wiped out a few of my better cities and I once again decided maybe I should read the manual.
 
Ahh my first game of Civ 3. Seems like it was only yesterday.. (actually it was)..

Chose the standard size map, as the Greeks... Well really had no idea (now that I am in game 2 I still have no idea but more than before).

I built the cities, expanding a little, bulit some roads - but no rivers so no irrigation, and I didn't think to mine.. All the civilizations found each other quickly, and it was a mad rush to grab land....

Civ's against me, which all formed an allegiance to destroy me were the French, Persians, English + Russians.

Luckily the Americans, Aztecs + the Native American one (what ever it is called); didn't join in..

By 1570 AD I was obliterated from the map; but the civilization really was quite pitiful - as these opponents honestly would not be anything special.

This was on Cheiftan level too, so that pissed me off a bit - as I don't recall ever being whiped off the face of the earth on Civ 2 on this level.
 
My first game went pretty bad, but not because of anything I'd done (I'd been a Civ II player for a while, so I knew the basics). I was playing the Americans, and after a bit into the game I found out I was stuck on an island! Only enough room for 6-7 cities. Worse, it seemed I was on an island, in the middle of a sea, surrounded by the main continent, where all the other civs were. By the time I learned how to build ships there was nowhere for me to get a beachhead, and the AI were all way ahead of me in tech, plus I had no resources on my lil island.

I gave it a go, and tried to conquer some land on the mainland, but in the end I had to give up :(
 
I had the civ II game for a long time. My friend John gave me a copy and said I would like it. Civilization? Did not sound exciting to me – so it sat for a couple years.

I finally started playing civ II late in 2002. Civ 3 was going to have a real multiplayer that could be played by email. I wanted the competition with my friends so I had to learn the game. I was way behind already!

With civ II I had no manual. In the first game I think a barbarian killed my settler after just a few minutes. I played a couple more games after getting some basics from John and was able to hold my own on chieftain. I was hooked.

Then I bought Civ3. I studied the manual. Man there was a lot to learn! I played my first game as the Americans. It just felt patriotic. At the time I couldn’t imagine wanting to play another civ. I played the default settings (middle setting for everything, except roaming barbs.) I had a lot of trouble defeating the Greeks. I don’t think I quite understood the relative attack and defense powers of each unit. I think I might have lost a great leader thinking he WAS the army. On the next leader, I could not figure out how to build the army. I also remember fortifying workers in colonies, thinking they defend at one (thought the last digit in ADM was defense!). I was so paranoid about AI walking in my territory, I would always say “remove your forces or declare war”, so I had unnecessary wars. I also had a lot of trouble with burning cities, as I had not yet figured out how to have the governor take care of that. I might have started building tanks around 2020. Anyway, I slogged through the game and ended with a histograph victory in 2050.

Shortly after that I found this website, because the manual left a lot to be desired. I discovered the Persians and they helped me through monarch level. Then the Zulu helped on emperor - and I thought the Persians were great for war! I came back to America and they helped me win my first deity game.

The best part – my friend John can barely beat the game on monarch. He will see what I have learned in the PBEM games we currently play.
 
in my first game, i was new to the whole civ3 concept. i saw it at a store and thought that this game would be awesome and that it was the type of game i was looking for. then i loaded in the game after i bought it and started playing as greece. i didnt know the difference between defensive and offensive and started building units to conquer. so before i tried conquering, i tried building mines on the strategic resources thinking that they had to be mined before you could build the higher units. i never actually connected them with road. so i declared war on some civ and then they and a bunch others teamed up againstme and destroeyed me. it was a sad defeat for mother greece ...
 
In my first game I "tested" the retire button.
:lol:
 
my first game was civ2, i built my cties 2 quares apart! ;)
 
I chose France, as their unit is a nice middle of the game unit, I told myself. I played on the standard earth map that game with the game, and two other civs: America, and India. So, I built my capital (forget what I called it, as I used to name my cities), and started exploring with warriors. I finally understood sheilds and food, and gold, but the problem was, my capital was on Panama. Somehow (probably popped a settler), I got a city a ways south. I did what the manual said, and connected it to my capital with a worker. Soon, I was fighting for my life against barbarians, and not worrying about building new cities (I had two, still). When I got the message "The Angels have sneak attacked you" (Angels are a barbarians tribe), I thought I was at war with the Angels. Soon I discovered America and India. I traded Military tradition (went strait up that path) for chivalry, and soon got into a war with America, and India. The game soon ended because of time limits.
 
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