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

[aneeshm]

Ah yes , the first game . In civ 3 , I won my first game as Persia ( I assure you , I had absolutely NO idea that they were so powerful ) . In the early game , the first to be eliminated were the Babylonians (because they started next to me ) (it seems strange that most people do that now , only intentionally ) .Later , I fineshed the Iroquois , and some others I can't remember . I wanted to try out the new feature offered by razing , so most of the enemy cities were toast . Won by domination sometime in the 20th century .

 

[sela1s1son]

My first games of Civ I (when I was 7 or 8 is before I can remember). Civ II is kinda faint in my memory as well (well the first game is). My first Civ 3 game, however, I can remember. I played on the huge Earth map (Not Marla's) that came prepackaged in the game). I played as the Romans, as they seem like the right civ to play in your first game. I started somewhere in Argentina. I built a few more cities and found the Japanese to my north. I conquered them, with Legionaries ( :-D ). expanded in settelers, and found the Germans to the North East and conquered them with a few more Legionaries that had been added to my force. Soon India (Colombia area) was conquered, somewhere in there I think there was another civilization. I blasted through Mexico (I think it was occupied, but I'm not sure by who). The Iroqouis were Eastern USA and I forget who else was up there. I conquered the Iroqouis first, and eventually conquered all of North America. I secured, and strengthened up the continent (and by the time I was done conquering I had rail roads... I think). I then invaded Southern Africa and bea France down. I don't remember much beyond that point, I think I won a cultural victory as I tend to build most buildings in my city, and with the Americas under my control... culture builds up fast. I may have also quit as I was using my old computer which had a AMKD-K6 2/300 Processor, a RAM I had upgraded to 25X MB. In other words, it was pretty pathetic... but I sacraficed music, and I had been degragmenting it twice a week. Now I recently (before I got this lap top) tried to degragment but weeks later it was still at 2%. Thankfully for the last year and a half before getting my lap top I've been using my dad's computer.

 

[DruguLa]

Wow, my first Civ game was...interesting.

I just clicked the good ol' "Tutorial" button, and it was a standard map with 8 civs (still curious on some of them ) I was Rome and I started in the middle of the jungle, but I had no idea what a jungle was (I'm not much of a manual reader..) I had two cities at the BC-AD change, and I was getting excited hehe

Oh but of course Egypt, my closest rival, had about 20 cities (at the least!) and all these chariots and geez it was firghtful. They declared war on me, and I think I lasted 15 minutes.

I won my first game 2 months later hehe...

 

[ninti]

I have played so many Civ1 and (especially) Civ 2 games there is no way I could ever remember the first one. Probably played more hours of Civ II then all the other games I have ever owned combined.

Got Civ III immedately after it came out, hoping it would continue to feed my addiction. Started as Romans I believe, in Chieftain. I was doing very well, expanded dramatically, took out the nearest civ to me, then started discovering how bad corruption was in the game. I am an Empire Builder, that is where the fun is for me, and the corruption (and unhappiness) in Civ II was always what I hated most. The fact that it is so much worse disheartened me greatly so I uninstalled it and put it back on to a shelf to sit and continued playing Civ II.

...until about 2 weeks ago, when I heard from someone online that you could edit the rules. After increasing the optimal number of cities variable and a couple of other small corruption tweaks, the game is actually fun now. I am now about 3 days into my "real" first game where my Greeks control Europe, Asia, and Africa and are working on kicking Ghandi out of Australia. Alas, even with the tweaks I have made to the corruption factors, trying to take over the Americas is probably not going to be feasable. Oh Well.

Edit: Didn't matter anyway. Before I could beat Ghandi, I won a cultural victory.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I typed a long message, but, for some reason, it got deleted, so here it goes again.

I don't remember much about my first civ game. I was playing Civ2 at school (when I was about 8). My friend had the game, and could help me out. Eventually I got the game myself, and felt I was fairly good (not that I played above chieften).

I think I'm lucky, because I got civ3 late (Last Christmas). Because of this, I had time to familiarize myself with all the changes. But what I didn't prepare myself for, was myself.

Because it was new, I wanted to try out the new global trade concepts, and keep peaceful. However, in Civ2 I was almost at constant war. Playing as China, I expanded as much as my flawed Cheiften Civ2 strategy, but without going to war (keeping my city count small). I was constantly in money problems and never rose my science above 40%. My tech rate was very poor.

I was China, in the East. To my south was India, who I traded well with. To my west was Rome, another good trading partner. Greece was to my north, and behind them was a giagantic Babylonian Empire. I traded a second source of iron to Greece, and immediately regretted it, as I didn't want Greece, who wasn't a useful trading partner, to get any advantages. I canceled the trade by pillaging the road between us, and preparing for war.

My war startegy was a 3-pronged attack. One Horseman camped directly next to a Greek city. Another was prepared to attack another, and 2 more would attack the closest city. I felt my 4 Horse army would be great because I would take out 3 cities at once (I don't think I had such a pitiful army in civ2, but I can't remember). I declared war the same way I did in Civ2, I attacked the city (as opposed to using the diplomatic menu). All four Horses retreated without killing a single Hoplite. I attacked with my damaged Horses the next turn, and they all died.

I realized Hoplites were pretty tough to deal with (now I can kill them really easy with the Iroquois, Egyptians, Aztecs, or regular Horses, but I wouldn't be able to do it with those numbers). So I decided to target only one city. First I sent any new units to attack that city, but these Horses couldn't do it alone either. Then I prepared a massive attack strategy. I built swords instead of Horses. Any remaining Horses would pillage roads, mines, and irrigation. After my first turn, Athens went into dissorder. Then I moved Swordsmen and Catapults right next to the city and bombarded it. After a lot of bombading, the once proud city (I think it was Delphi) was a size 1. Its Hoplites were damaged, and my Swords attacked. I captured the city, because I didn't want to destroy a wonder (I thought it had one). I found out it didn't (I didn't know they would have told me if it did). I tried to abandon the city (I heard you could) but couldn't figure out how (I don't think you can with pre-patched Civ3). So I removed all my troops from the city, waited for Alexander to take it back, and then re-captured it and raised it to the ground.

Alexander didn't like me too much any more. The year was 1400. I had just entered the Middle Ages, and, although I would finally get my Riders, was sick of my money problems and tech problems. I quit the game right there.

It was actually a little while before I won a game of civ3. I would usually tire of a game, and start a new one. Finally I played as the Americans and had a lot of fun. After 2 sessions of bad luck with the Aztecs (I loaded a previous save after they kicked my ass, and after they flipped several of my cities). I finally defeated them with Knights (and the help of my trustworthy Zulu allies ), then I defeated the Iroquois with Cavalry (and Zulu allies), then I went to another continent and destroyed the Russians (with German help), then I killed the Zulu, captured a German city, and got a Domination victory!

 

[handy900]

I had never played any civ version before I bought CIV3 in 2003. My first game was at the easiest level. I don't remember alot about my first game except the ending! I had built the United Nations and the advisor asked if I wanted to hold a vote. I thought sure, why not? Well, you can guess the result, I lost big time! I had no idea the game could end that way.

That was before I discovered this web site & the war academy.

 

[blix]

Well my first game wasn't very good.I played the Romans and at first I wasn't interested in expanding or exploring only interested in dignifying my cities.Bad mistake.The average amounts of city the AI had was 5 and I only had 2.And eventually it came to the end of the game and I only had 3 cities.I lost and got a pathetic score of 98 in Chieftan.But now I've mastered Chieftan and now I consider any AI who wars with me a foolish pushover.

 

[baldeagle]

My first Civ game was a Civ I game about six or seven years ago. It went quite well for a while, I had some sort of alliance with the Japanese, and together we took out the other civs. Sometime around 1840 there were only the two of us left. I thought my research was fine, way ahead of "real life". In 1850, however, Japan came along with air planes, and I realized that this game was in no way like real life! I was, in fact, awfully backward, and when the Japanese grew tired of me and declared around 1900, I didn't stand a chance.

I played three more Civ I games and won them all.
After that I switched to Civ II and eventually managed to "beat the game".

Bought Civ III as soon as it was available and was awfully beaten in my first games (Warlord). I stopped playing for almost six months, then read the manual, discovered this web site and got back to the game. Now I'm comfortable on Regent and play mostly Monarch, which is "painful but interesting".

 

[redstoner]

My first game of CIV was way way back with the original version. My mom bought be the game because I aced a math test. (I STUNK at math in school, so she was very proud)

I don't really remember the FIRST game specifically, but I do remember trying to learn to play. I'm one of those people who doesn't read the book, I prefer to just figure it out myself. I'd figured out the basics, (build cities, units, improvements, etc) but I couldn't figure out why the enemy could just walk into my cities and capture them (I didn't realize you had to fortify units in them), how they got that cool blue stuff (irrigation) around their cities, and other things like that.

Finally I got so frustrated at losing the game al the time I almost gave it up. But then I finally sat down and read the book and ever since, I've been kicking ass and taking names.

 

[dannyevilcat]

I remember bits and pieces of my first game of Civ3. I well remember being caught off guard at how different it was from Civ2, that I no longer could manipulate the AI the same way.

Disastrous events followed, sparked by the first time a Russian settler marched through my territory and parked a city in my arctic region.

Meanwhile I'd built a lone city on another continent next to the Chinese before they joined with the Russians and attacked me. They kept storming it, but I kept holding out by the skin of my teeth. Got my first Great Leader ever, and immediately evacuated him just before the city fell (one of my most memorable Civ moments).

Back at home, I built him into an army full of whatever units I could scrounge together, and pitted it against the Russians, only to have it die to a lowly archer in it's inaugural battle. After that, my cities were slowly being lost and ominously the end was nearing. Unlike Civ2, the AI just wouldn't make peace with me!

So, like Hitler in his bunker, I began cursing at the monitor for a while... anger turned to frustration, frustration gave way to fatalism, and eventually I just gave up.

I'd played Civ2 for about a year before Civ3 came out, was playing right up until the day before it was released, and I was soundly defeated.

 

[ss3goku]

The first civ game i'd ever played was Civ3, Chieftan with the Romans. I expanded pretty well, not knowing anything about defensive units........India was to the N, Greece to the NW, Egypt to the S, and Germans, Russians way to the west where i couldn't see them. By 1000 AD, i was the top dog, and i built catapaults for fun, thinking they wouldn't be captured cause i guy has to be operating them. I left my capital without a unit and was appalled when a German ship left a musketman and he captured the capitol! I took it back and learned to build an army, i hated Gandhi so i attacked with the Greece. I was appalled again when War Elephants took out my musketmen. I tried many times to destroy India with a few cavalry, but the cities kept culture flipping. I won, but not without a 3 front war against the Egyptians, Greeks, and Indians.

My second game, i had the smallest country, Russia to the S, Eng to the N. I built up a huge army and slaughtered Russia. Then, i pushed the Egyptians back to a 2 tile border. Crushed the English even though i lost 13 cavalry to culture flip. I took the continent only to find the Aztecs were ahead of me in everything. I took an island nearby, built an airport and transports, nuked a few cities before world conquest.
Now i play on Warlord.

 

[Lord Talon]

1st game on CivI was spent entirely on despotism level - I just assumed that the game would pick the best government as they were discovered. I don't remeber for sure, but I think I won it on a space race victory.


Don't remeber the first CivII game, but it took a while to get used to the 3d screen layout after playing in 2d.


First CivIII game I was bottled up on a peninsula trading cities with the Russians. The Egyptians showed up w/ a huge stack of chariots and started taking the Russian cities back (after I refused to bow down to them). Eventually beat back the Russians to their last city and started to go out and meet other cultures. After the Egyptian episode, I tried to give everybody whatever they wanted. I pretty much was resigned to the fact I wouldn't win the game when I finally was able to beat someone to building a wonder - The United Nations. As soon as I built it it asked me if I wanted to hold a vote. Not knowing really what was going on, I said ok. I almost voted for a competitor by accident, but I realized I needed to vote for myself. I ended up winning by a 1 vote margin.

 

[Mano3]

Originally posted by Kan' Sharuminar
On my first game I took far too many of my Civ2 experiences with me - especially when it came to expansion and combat.

I feel your pain... How quickly I learned how different CIV III is from CIV II!

 

[IbnSina]

I don't remember much about my first Civ game - I lost with a whimper - not a bang. I -do- remember trying to make the jump from Chieftain to Warlord. I tried to do all my own research, and never bought any tech, and I never made granaries because I didn't understand the point. The AI quickly outstripped me in tech and population, and then annihilated me militarily. This happened time after time. There was a time when I could not imagine that I would ever play on warlord, let alone higher levels...

 

[oogabooga22]

In my first game of Civ III, I played on a huge map for some reason, on Chieftan. It was a world map, and I started out in Southeast Asia near Malaysia or Singapore. I was way behind the other civs in technology, and I only had a few cities. Eventually I got bored and declared war on anyone I could find and lost the game.

 

[123joanna321]

My first civ game was on the 1st civ (in 1998) at my cousins, he didn't own the game, just browweder, anyways, I don't rember much from it, all I rember was, I named all cities to Candian names (and wonder why Canada wasn't in there :hmmm: ) and that I met my 1st civ, the mongolians, who had tanks when I had phaixln, and TRYED to kill them, 3 turn later, gave up... funny, but I don't rember my 1st civ2 or civ2 games.... :hmmm:

 

[MarineCorps]

I played as the Americans and sold just about all my cites, used spearmen as attack units, I was still in the middle ages by 2050 (not joking), shrunk my military to almost nothing,changed goverment every five minutes, and abused the ROP so much that if I even passed through some ones country even by sea they would declare war on me.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I clicked on the tutorial button and got Rome, on what was actually pretty good land(I didn't know that at the time though) I found a few cities, and discovered Greece to the north. I declared war on him and attacked with archers, warriors, and spearmen(I hate Hoplites). I actuallly captured Sparta, and left with one city. I signed a peace treaty, and continued to build 2 more cities(for a total of 5). I declared war on Egypt to my south(they were ten times bigger than me). And lost the game.

 

[Mr Black]

My first ever game was in CivII. I just moved my settler around the map and thought, "cool I'm discovering new land."

After awhile though, It got old, just moving my settler around and I quit.

On my second game I discovered the "built city" order.

Several games after that, I understood what building meant.

As you can see, I had no manual.

 

[lz14]

My first chieftain game I was just trying to settle right next to AI borders, seeing I can steal land that way. But very quickly WAY too many AI cities flipped to me. At first I was happy then I got bored and quit.