Warlord to Regent...Making the transition?

[PRIMEMOVER]

Those of you who have made this or other transitions in skill level...I need your help.

Having achieved a few victories (hist., U.N.) at Warlord level, I decided to make the step up to Regent.

To put it frankly, I'm getting my ass kicked! Playing exclusively with China (who I tallied my other wins with) on a large map with six other civs, I've started three new games, having never finished them.

I'm a little overwhelmed by the difficulty of the next level and can't imagine what it takes to succeed at higher levels. I feel my strategy to be sound...grab land, build population, arm and fortify, grab the great library, expand borders, etc.

Anybody with some tidbits of advice to a frustrated player? All my neighbors appear hell-bent on my distruction despite my early passiveness. I understand that AI is motivated by weakness, so I've armed myself as quickly as possible, but found it wasn't fast enough before the AI poured over the borders. Even the $@*! Indians.

Perhaps I should start with fewer AI? Maybe I'm just getting bad placement...I'm always sandwiched between two well-developed civs.

I just need some pointers from you pros who have experienced similar problems when advancing up a skill level.

 

[WildFire]

The biggest jump from warlord to regent is the citizens born content. It goes from 3 to 2 which can really hurt in the long run, and the AI is a lot more aggressive. Try to build the Great Library to stay equal in techs, and play defensively if u wont win any wars. And try to get lots of luxuries so you wont have to worry so much about the citizens going in disorder.

 

[DaveMcW]

China is fun and easy to win with if you take advantage of their militaristic trait. Build 4-5 towns with barracks, get 20 horsemen, and use a combination of settlers and military to grab the biggest territory on the planet.

 

[zagnut]

The feelings you express are normal and will pass in time as you get more experience. You may have felt the same way on Warlord level at first. There are two secrets for becoming a better player: Play a lot and read the advice in the War Academy. The War Academy contains many strategy articles written by some of the better players. It is in the left sidebar on the main page or go here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

For the problems you are currently having, I would recommend that you read the article entitled “Faster Expansion - A Key Element of the Early Game.” After you finish that, read the two articles by cracker. “GOTM9 Japan Campaign Site” will show you how to plan, and effectively wage, a war. His “Civ3 Opening Plays Site” is the bible with regard to making the right choices about developing your land in the early game. Cracker is a top player and also is in charge of the Game of the Month (GOTM). His articles are very detailed and take a while to assimilate. However, they will vastly improve your game. I know they did mine. After reading his 2 articles and playing a few games, I am now doubling my score. I am sure you will also.

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by PRIMEMOVER Anybody with some tidbits of advice to a frustrated player? All my neighbors appear hell-bent on my distruction despite my early passiveness. I understand that AI is motivated by weakness, so I've armed myself as quickly as possible, but found it wasn't fast enough before the AI poured over the borders...

Your question reminds me of what I went through a few months ago. Regent is really the level where "real" Civ 3 begins. You're playing the AI on equal terms. Some tidbits I picked up...

1 - You may not be keeping your military as strong as it needs to be. "Early passiveness" is not a good thing. You have to assert yourself both militarily and in negotiations. The right early war can be a good thing. Smelling blood of a weak civ is the primary cause of the AI's running over you. The number of units you need to build just to defend your cities takes a pretty big jump when you play Regent. Plus you need a "mobile defense" stack of your best offensive units to counterattack if the AI comes at you anyway.

2 - Interact with the AI's. They like to trade and conduct diplomacy. New players seem to gravitate toward isolationism - I certainly did. At the lower levels you can ignore the AI's, seldom trade, never grant ROP's, kick the AI out of "your" territory and get away with it. It's harder to do as you move up in difficulty. Trade is essential - not just for your own benefit, but for good diplomatic relations. Remember that you want to fight wars when and where you choose, not let the AI's make the choice for you. Search for some of the threads on diplomacy.

3 - You may not get and keep the tech lead like you did at lower levels. Don't worry about it. There are ways of dealing with it. Your gold may be better used for other purposes.

Find the tutorials in the CFC War Academy as Zagnut suggests. They're very good and will improve your game quicker than any other single thing I can suggest.

 

[Grille]

If you are 'sandwiched' very early in game, don't worry and go to war. In the early game, ai builds settlers all the time and it's not too hard to cause some trouble even with 10 or so archers. If you wait for a long while, they will count you out. Maybe you try Iroquois or Romans, they've got a nice UU early for that objective.
You gain some experience and then try your fav. civ. And as mentioned above, war academy articles help a lot.

 

[Aggie]

Build roads to connect cities and resources. Trade. You make neighbours polite with you if you trade with them. And it helps you too. You get money, luxuries or technology and their gratitude. This is pricesless in CIV3. Be the first to trade a new tech and trade it to as many civs as possible (if they pay a nice price for it).

Getting the Great Library is a great thing. Having aquired this, you can choose to lower science to 0% and get a lot of cash. This can be used later in the game, to buy new improvements or research faster once the Great Library gets obsolete. On regent you can also choose to research to Military Tradition in the Middle ages and let the AI do the research to education. This gives you a huge advantage. Cavalry is a great unit to win wars with.

If you get attacked: get other civs to gang up against the agressor with Military Alliances. Pay if needed to ensure that you're not alone.

In wartime: build lots and lots of units before actually going to war. When I prepare for war with Knights or Cavalry, I make sure to have at least 40 units to invade the enemy.

 

[Darkness]

A good start is half the game! I think you should read crackers' guide on opening play sequence (it's in the strategy articles section)... You'll figure it out, the biggest problem is only 2 citizens are born content... So get your luxuries hooked up and don't be afraid to use the luxury slider.

 

[Rabid Pop Tart]

Well, there are a couple of things you can try, and i can empathize with you because I had a tough time with the transition as well.

1) Focus purely on expansion for awhile. Being the Civ III cultural type, I really dislike this part of the game, but it's key. If you get a bad starting location, start again, or you will never keep up. if population growth is a problem, build a granary. It hurts to wait but it more than makes up for itself in the end.

2) Build a few core cities, then pump up the military. This works well with Rome and Persia. Make Iron Working your first researched tech, then build up your military while others build cities around you. Then, take over those cities. Build the FP in the subjugated capital and then you've successfully established yourself as a world power.

3) Do a combination. I have learned the value of early wars, and they're not to be underestimated. Build 4 or 5 archers and send them to a fringe city of a rival civ. Take or raze the city, and take what units are left and send them deeper. In my first regent game, I took out two Japanese cities...they never rose to power, and I finished off their spearmen in the industrial ages with my tanks. Conversely, I didn't mess with France, and they rose to be a greater power than me. Plus, with early wars, you can extort techs, which really helps you to keep up.

Hope that helped. ~ Brendan

 

[MadHatter]

Remember to keep the worker population abreast with the number of cities; try to minimize the number of citizens who work undeveloped tiles.

Pack your cities in a little tighter to maximize the number of low-corruption tiles worked. In the early game, cities can only grow so big, the rest is wasted if spacing out cities with no overlap.

As has been said before, build up military, don't let them smell blood!

 

[Txurce]

Primemover, learning players should avoid developing tendencies, and I would encourage you to fight yours. Given your preference for large maps and six AI civs, you seem to want to avoid war, and play a peaceful builder game. To be able to do that, you first have to learn how to defend yourself. Why don't you try playing on a standard map with a standard number of civs, and then deal with the consequences? If you follow Dave McW's advice, you'll kick butt. Do that a few times, and you'll learn how you can take your foot off that gas pedal, but still hold your own.

I lost my first game at chieftain, moved up and lost at warlord, moved up and lost at regent, then moved up and won on monarch. I think this worked for me not because I mastered a level - I obviously didn't - but because I learned the minimal balance needed to research and fight. For me the game becomes different only at emperor, where it's hard to be peaceful and stay even technologically with the AI from start to finish. But monarch isn't that different from the lower levels, in that you can balance your game any way you want, and still win. You need to learn some sort of balance, and the next step seems to be employing an effective military.

 

[PRIMEMOVER]

Originally posted by zagnut
The feelings you express are normal and will pass in time as you get more experience. You may have felt the same way on Warlord level at first. There are two secrets for becoming a better player: Play a lot and read the advice in the War Academy. The War Academy contains many strategy articles written by some of the better players. It is in the left sidebar on the main page or go here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

For the problems you are currently having, I would recommend that you read the article entitled “Faster Expansion - A Key Element of the Early Game.” After you finish that, read the two articles by cracker. “GOTM9 Japan Campaign Site” will show you how to plan, and effectively wage, a war. His “Civ3 Opening Plays Site” is the bible with regard to making the right choices about developing your land in the early game. Cracker is a top player and also is in charge of the Game of the Month (GOTM). His articles are very detailed and take a while to assimilate. However, they will vastly improve your game. I know they did mine. After reading his 2 articles and playing a few games, I am now doubling my score. I am sure you will also.

Thanks Zagnut...big help. I'd encourage those of you who haven't read these to do so. In lieu of a true CIVIII strategy guide, this is the best stuff out there. It made an immediate difference for me the very next game. Once you learn the basics of initial city building and how to efficiently manage production, it makes a huge difference.

I was especially impressed with the detail of this information and how it was presented. If you ever want to learn how the AI thinks and what it's 'thought process' is to building it's cities, that's all in here. The examples that are contained in this information provide numerous early city building strategies and compares these strategies to "How the AI would do it"...Great Stuff!! These are very basic, sound strategies that apply to any strategy, any scenario with any Civ!

 

[Bismarck]

One big adjustment that you need to make as you advance in difficulty levels (although this applies more to Regent->Monarch than to Warlord->Regent) is to think preemptively. If you're weak (or even on equal footing) militarily with the AI, you will get attacked!

So, prepare for this eventuality. Learn to anticipate the AI's mood swings (beware especially when it suddenly refuses to make gold-per-turn deals with you -- that's a good sign that it intends to attack). Fortify your borders with strong defensive units (preferably stationed on hills). Maintain a large standing army for deterrence.

Also, you said that you win most of your games by U.N. vote; I'd suggest that you need to win more conquest victories in order to become a well-rounded Civ3 player. War is an important part of the game, and pure builders usually won't survive on the higher levels.

 

[Tiger_Nation]

This could just be my own preferences but I must have either commercial or scientific in my civ-specific-abilitys and if you get caught out early on maybe the greeks or carthaginans could give you an extra defencive boost.

 

[greenie]

I have recently made the step up from Warlord to Regent, although I must admit I haven't been having as much trouble as you seem to have had.

The main differences for me are firstly, as mentioned, the 2 content citizens, so you cant expand and leave cities undefended like the lower levels. At least one unti is required to keep Martial law, and usually 2 by the time you need a size 6. So temples are more important.

Other than that, for me it's mostly nickel and dime stuff. The Ai beats me to a few wonders that I'd like. The scientific civs are always a step ahead of me, not always in important techs but you can use a superior chasflow to buy it off them, or even better, trading youyr valuabvle tech for their worhtless ones plus gold.

And since you're on an equal footing with the AI they will expand quickly, so you will sandwiched. But having units capable of attacking, even slowing them down is all good, because by the time you have stabilised whose land is whose, then you will be in a better position to wage war.

If you're still having trouble, then a suggestion is to play on a smaller map and therefore with less opponents.

Help that helps!

 

[zagnut]

As you go up in difficulty one thing you will notice is that it is harder to be ahead in techs. This is clearly demonstrated on Deity level where the standard starting strategy is to set the science slider at O% or 10% and just build up your supply of gold. You then trade the other civs for their techs with all the gold you have.

The effect of being behind in techs starts to kick in at levels below Deity. At Regent I wouldn't be surprised if you are behind in the early game. I usually play at Monarch and above and have gotten used to being behind at the beginning. I usually catch up during the Middle Ages and pull ahead to victory.

One good way to catch up is to go to war with another civ. The human player is head and shoulders above the AI when it comes to the strategy involved in waging war. If you can take a couple of the other civs cities then you can sue for peace and usually get their techs as part of the peace treaty trade. It is not always necessary to destroy them.