The Peon
Chieftain
I've lurked here as a guest for a few months and just wanted to thank all of you kind and sage folks that run and contribute to this forum. The way I see it , advice and suggestions are tools , and the more tools I have the better prepared I am for any eventuality. Thank you , for all of the informative posts, articles and help , you people are awesome!
My first exposure to Civ came back in '94. I went to a party one night and while there was beer and other party stuff, there were three computers in the apartment and one of the guys was playing a game he told me was Civ. I had played Risk, Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, Stratego and other board games since the late sixties and instantly thought this game looked like a blast.Unfortunately. I wouldn't own a computer for another decade.
I picked up a copy of Civ 3 vanilla ($5.99) at Big Lots in about '03 and while I didn't have a chance to play it very much, I loved it. I snagged C3C a few years later and enjoyed the gameplay additions , but again too much real life to immerse myself in gaming , which I love to do. Having recently become single and with a reduced work schedule , I went to find my old C3C disks and found I was missing one. I ordered a new set from Amazon for $8.50 , paid ten bucks
for overnight shipping and have been gaming blissfully for about 10 weeks.
In my earlier gaming I had always played the simplest two difficulty levels , never more, and almost always as the Babylonians or Persians. Generally going for 160K wins, always huge map, 15 opponents. Since reading the War Academy articles and many of the other incredibly helpful bits of advice on this site , I moved up to Regent, won handily with England ( loved those men-o-war!) , playing huge map, 15 opponents and archipelago ( with England as the only seafaring civ). I attempted to skip Monarch, went to Emperor and got thrashed twice.
The first time I was the Persians, had a nice core of about a dozen cities and had one culture flip to the Sumerians ( I'm used to getting the culture flips , not losing them, quite a shock) so I bagged that game. Second try I was the Scandinavians , invaded France for a lux, with berserkers and musketmen and watched with horror as the troops poured out of towns right and left, a stack of 27 here, 16 there and so on 
, so after my offensive was thwarted I bagged that one also.
Currently, I am playing as Carthage on Monarch, huge map , 15 opponents , I am the only seafaring civ and should win by domination. It's 1650 , 6 civs are eliminated and I have just upwards of 40% land and about the same population. After this I intend to try Emperor again , with huge map and 15 opponents. I use default settings for barbs and AI aggression. Other than the map size and number of opponents I'm flexible about any other settings. I've read ( and will re-read) the article on the jump from Monarch to Emperor. I go for Republic(slingshot if possible).
I would say my biggest hurdles , from my brief experiences with Emperor , were the size of the AI's military, being behind in techs, having to use the lux slider more than I'd like and being behind in culture, other than that I was doing fine.
Any suggestions as to a civ to play , map type et al much appreciated! Thanks to Spoonwood, VMXA, Ataxerxes, PaperBeetle, Lord Emsworth, Aabraxan, CKS, Raliuven, darski, Elephantium, Theov, creamcheese , any other active posters I may have missed and the many kind contributors who are no longer active/ as active. Let me say it again, you guys rock!
My first exposure to Civ came back in '94. I went to a party one night and while there was beer and other party stuff, there were three computers in the apartment and one of the guys was playing a game he told me was Civ. I had played Risk, Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, Stratego and other board games since the late sixties and instantly thought this game looked like a blast.Unfortunately. I wouldn't own a computer for another decade.
I picked up a copy of Civ 3 vanilla ($5.99) at Big Lots in about '03 and while I didn't have a chance to play it very much, I loved it. I snagged C3C a few years later and enjoyed the gameplay additions , but again too much real life to immerse myself in gaming , which I love to do. Having recently become single and with a reduced work schedule , I went to find my old C3C disks and found I was missing one. I ordered a new set from Amazon for $8.50 , paid ten bucks
for overnight shipping and have been gaming blissfully for about 10 weeks.In my earlier gaming I had always played the simplest two difficulty levels , never more, and almost always as the Babylonians or Persians. Generally going for 160K wins, always huge map, 15 opponents. Since reading the War Academy articles and many of the other incredibly helpful bits of advice on this site , I moved up to Regent, won handily with England ( loved those men-o-war!) , playing huge map, 15 opponents and archipelago ( with England as the only seafaring civ). I attempted to skip Monarch, went to Emperor and got thrashed twice.
The first time I was the Persians, had a nice core of about a dozen cities and had one culture flip to the Sumerians ( I'm used to getting the culture flips , not losing them, quite a shock) so I bagged that game. Second try I was the Scandinavians , invaded France for a lux, with berserkers and musketmen and watched with horror as the troops poured out of towns right and left, a stack of 27 here, 16 there and so on , so after my offensive was thwarted I bagged that one also. Currently, I am playing as Carthage on Monarch, huge map , 15 opponents , I am the only seafaring civ and should win by domination. It's 1650 , 6 civs are eliminated and I have just upwards of 40% land and about the same population. After this I intend to try Emperor again , with huge map and 15 opponents. I use default settings for barbs and AI aggression. Other than the map size and number of opponents I'm flexible about any other settings. I've read ( and will re-read) the article on the jump from Monarch to Emperor. I go for Republic(slingshot if possible).
I would say my biggest hurdles , from my brief experiences with Emperor , were the size of the AI's military, being behind in techs, having to use the lux slider more than I'd like and being behind in culture, other than that I was doing fine.
Any suggestions as to a civ to play , map type et al much appreciated! Thanks to Spoonwood, VMXA, Ataxerxes, PaperBeetle, Lord Emsworth, Aabraxan, CKS, Raliuven, darski, Elephantium, Theov, creamcheese , any other active posters I may have missed and the many kind contributors who are no longer active/ as active. Let me say it again, you guys rock!
I hope you enjoy your posting as much as your lurking.
, and understanding how cultural flips happen are the biggest remedies really. You could try a 0% science game for a quick and dirty lesson in how to trade well. Don't be too bummed about the lux slider, it is better than riots! 
Oh, and artillery; artillery make the game much easier. 
