What's your Civ 3 Achilles Heel?

[CommandoBob]

With SGs this is not a problem but in solo games I have a tendency to just coast. I should be getting ready for war. I should be building something important. I should MM the cities.

But...

End of turn. Hit Enter. Repeat.

I need to Plan My Work and Work My Plan.

 

[Desertsnow]

I manage cities extensively in the early going but in the endgame when I have a lot of cities to manage, and dozens of workers to oversee and more dozens of military units to command, I get kind of lazy in that area.

 

[darski]

I am finding that a major flaw in my games is in not completing the destruction of a rival Civ. I will leave them with one city or one area and it backfires. This is beginning to be a problem and I have to just get it done from now on.

 

[Aceman101]

^ You fell sorry for the AI??? . You do know it's just a robot?
Unless you don't feel sorry but don't finish your enemy off for some other reason.

 

[Turner]

The worst thing about playing slow, like you (and I do as well), is playing online.

I always get my butt kicked, when I try to play online, because of the timer.

The obvious solution is, don't play online!

Or do PBEMs. Then you can take as much time as you want.

 

[ajb civver]

I also play too slow, when comparing the GOTM, I am amazed to find most players take like under 10 hours to finish the game, while it takes me 60 hours, everytime i start to hit the space bar, i hesitate thinking there is one more thing i know i have forgotten to take care of and spend 30 minutes analyzing every civassist II screen and sometimes even cycle through every city not too mention looking at ... well you get the idea.

I also have a problem with longterm planning and sometimes when i try to plan for the future i make stupid decisions, like in the current GOTM i was holding off on capturing the last Aztec city, waiting for it to finish Sun Tzu's so I could get all those free barracks, the only problem was by the time that city got close to finishing the wonder I no longer needed any more units so those barracks would be useless.

And lastly, I sometimes will build up a force of 60 veteran cavs to take out 5 AI cities, when that AI is barely into the MA and has no iron or horses. I feel like after taking out the civ most of my cavalry units are looking at me and saying, "Uh, what purpose am I serving here? Do you have a job for me or what? I am still going to get paid, right?"

 

[Ozzy]

Making bigs maps that have 35 minute turns in late game and I get sick of them. Also, I build too many improvments and not enough military. I think why have a knight when I can have a market place for just a few turns more, and then I get invaded.

Corrouption is my main one though. I can stick demi-god if I get a start position that isn't crap, but only if corruption is below 50%.

 

[Ozzy]

I see there's a lot of wonder addiction...I used to have that when I played 2, but I got over it in three. The fact you can't rush wonders anymore (or get advanced notice of them about to be completed) made it too risky to spend 40 turns on something you might not get, espically on higher levels when the AI gets cheaper builds. The only wonder I ever really go for anymore is the internet. At first I felt naked without wonders, but it's far simpler to spend 40 turns building your army and then capturing wonders.

 

[pat4]

Building way too many units for invasion, not surpising to see me build a three to one advantage over a big civ

There is no such thing as building too many units the more units you have the quicker the war which is always good.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Almost all of the above, at one time or another. I think I was better 2 years ago than I am now, but then I never played above warlord, now I am at regent and dabbling with other levels in the got-em and caught-em (how I pronounce GOTM and COTM mentally) I haven't used any programs to help me, so maybe thats part of the problem....

 

[CommandoBob]

I haven't used any programs to help me, so maybe thats part of the problem....

By all means download CivAssist II and MapStat (part of CrpSuite), both are in the Utilities subforum of the Mods (not the true name) forum here. They don't default to any cheats but do keep track of culture points, details on trades, when cities get cranky, etc. Saves you from checking with each civ each turn to see who has what to trade and how much gold they have.

If you get the chance, join up with a Succession Game (SG). Most play at Monarch or above, but don't let that bother you. Each person only plays (usually) about 10 turns at a time, which means you would have to try really hard to lose the game in just 10 turns. Plus, the others playing will give you tips and advice, especially if you ask. This makes it easier to move up and get comfortable at a level before going solo.

 

[pat4]

What's civ assist II and mapstart?

 

[darski]

By all means download CivAssist II and MapStat (part of CrpSuite), both are in the Utilities subforum of the Mods (not the true name) forum here. .

none of the links for Crpsuite work at this moment (including the link to the offsite page with info). I got a not found error on all links.

Ok, I went back and peeled the URL and got to the Dianthus site that way

 

[Abegweit]

What's civ assist II and mapstart?

Check Turner's tagline for links. Excellent utilities.

 

[CommandoBob]

What's civ assist II and mapstart?

Both are programs designed to undo some of the tedium of checking things with each civ each turn (new contacts, possible trades, number of cities, new techs learned, workers to trade; dull stuff like that). They do contain spoiler information (somewhere, I'm not sure where) about the game but the default is no spoiler information.

Each of these can run while the game is open. Each can also examine any saved game you might have.

I play with MapStat running; others use CivAssist II. For me, MapStat is the better choice for in-game stuff. For out of game examinations I'll use CA II. This is also a function of my machine; it is old (500 MHz, 256 MB RAM).

Each present about the same data; CA II can do What-If calculations and it tracks trade details better than MapStat. It also takes up a lot more memory than MapStat.

Biggest use for me is the Cranky City Calculator (my name for it). Both of these will tell you a turn in advance which city will shut down the following turn. If London will be unhappy in 1300 AD (due to size increase, for instance) the game will inform you of that in 1280 AD, giving you the chance to play with the specialists or sliders to avoid the British melt down.

Download both and give'em a try. I think you will be pleased.

 

[rbigger]

I sometimes don't build enough military units in the early game, and then the other civs get pushy with me, and then I lose one or two early cities while I gear up for a war.

 

[darski]

Biggest use for me is the Cranky City Calculator (my name for it). Both of these will tell you a turn in advance which city will shut down the following turn. If London will be unhappy in 1300 AD (due to size increase, for instance) the game will inform you of that in 1280 AD, giving you the chance to play with the specialists or sliders to avoid the British melt down.

Download both and give'em a try. I think you will be pleased.

I tried CivassistII in my game today and it quit half way through. it is possible that I hit close [X] instead of Minimize [-] so I went back to the desktop and wired it up again but it did not and would not come back on screen.

It didn't warn me - when it was working - about the cranky city thingy. What have I missed?

 

[Aabraxan]

Watch the "Alerts" tab. If a city is about to riot, it will say "City X is about to riot."

 

[psweetman1590]

Actually, I think you have to set the preferences for the alerts to show you that....

Open civassist, and click on the alerts tab. There will be a long list of check boxes in which you can check off items that you want to be alerted of (city about to grow, city about to starve, other civ has lots of gold, city about to riot, etc.). After you do this, look in the lower left corner. There should be a button that says "show alerts". After you click it, a box appears in the upper left that lists stuff that's happened or is about to happen (the info that you selected previously from the list). This box will update every turn to give more info.

Sorry if you already knew that, just wanted to make sure we didn't miss any bases here.

 

[Aabraxan]

I didn't remember having to set those alerts, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen . . .