Your most embarrassing mistakes...

[Meffy]

Stupidest recent mistake -- nothing to do with gameplay.

Started the game without turning my sound card down after having fun playing synthesizer. (Each of my "speakers" is a 225-watt bi-amped nearfield studio monitor; they're driven by an M-Audio Firewire 410 sound "card.")

The good news is that everyone within a quarter of a mile now knows the beginning of "Baba Yetu."

 

[Lethalize]

what I'm about to write is not a mistake, but I think it'll fit well into this thread.
Alright, so I'm the French and I have the glorious ages of the Musketman era, I eliminated the English and the German, but a huge religious alliance of Saladin, Inca, Aztec, China and Mansa Musa stood in my way. My superior military force was too good for even all of them, so after payin China off and taking them to my side after converting them to my religion[confucianism], I started the huge crusade. I was doing pretty well but then oil appeared on the map and I saw that even though I conquered 2 nations, I had NO Oil on my map! So I had to declare war on Russia as well, who had some well Oil reserves and the oil supply of the other nations were too close to their capitol and I would lose the war completely trying to reach their capitol. I was holding Saladin and his friends, but when Russia got into the game with the tanks, I started losing badly. I retreated back to defend my cities, and after I had only 3 cities left on the map, the left side of the screen alerted me[a source of oil was discovered near paris!]
*shuts the computer down by plugging the cable out*

 

[Meffy]

Aieeee! =8-O Could you go back to a previous save, or did you have it set for a new random seed on each reload?

 

[Dueck]

hm, common one: rush pyramids and then forget to switch civics for 2000 years ^^

I'm guilty of that on numerous occasions.

Also, declaring war on a nearby AI to steal a worker in the ancient era.... neglecting to build a warrior or get peace for about 20 turns. By the time their warrior was in sight of my capital it was too late. No slavery, no defense. I laughed my ass off.

 

[Flotsam]

Not changing civics after building the Pyramids I've done a couple times.

Putting a GP to sleep for later use and forgetting about em.

Last night I left a city undefended because I wanted to confront a chariot to keep it from pillaging. Forgetting that chariots can move two spots, even in enemy territory, I lost my city the next turn and realized it was past my bedtime .

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

I got two related to flippin carriers.

1. So I had plans to invade a decent-sized island, and then use it for a launching point to a continent (going for domination). It would be like America invading Great Britain to preempt an invasion of Europe. The island was pretty far from me (coincidently about the same distance as America to Britain), and I prefer bombers to artillery so...I build three carriers and 9 bombers (see where this is going?). Send my carriers out and try to deploy my bombers to them just to learn...bombers cant use carriers unlike previous civ games. DoH!

2. So then say fine...I'll use the bombers later, but Im going to use these carriers, darnit! I build 9 fighters, load them up on the carriers. Send them with a couple transports filled with tanks. So I get to the island and the city that Im going to take has...3 crossbowmen. One transport of tanks would have been plenty. I never used one fighter in the attack. AND then I realized that I didnt even NEED carriers to transport my fighters...I can move them all in after capturing the city in one turn!


Needless to say, I havent built a carrier since.

 

[automator]

i should have checked the diplomacy screen. saladin and cesar had went for a defensive pack.

I did that once, and I'll never do it again. I'm now quite obsessive about the diplomacy screen.

Putting a GP to sleep for later use and forgetting about em.

Guilty as well. I tend to forget where they are, too. Once I had two engineers asleep, planning to use them for the Pentagon ... well, I started building the pentagon. About five or so turns into the build, I remembered the engineers. Got them to the city, used their powers, then had two turns left on the build. Next turn ... my biggest challenger build the Pentagon and I ended up with nothing but useless gold.

 

[bobtheflob]

Another mistake I've made plenty of times (and I'm sure most people here have) happens when I build workers early in the game. Sometimes I'll see that my city needs only a couple of turns to grow to a size 2, so I start production on a barracks or something so that I can grow before switching production to a worker. 20 turns later I remember and start banging my head on my desk.

 

[gettingfat]

Trade for Calender but leave the two silks, two dyes around my capital rotten for another 500 years. Same for Iron Work. Always forget to clean up the jungle.

At the beginning of the game, send a few archers outside the cultural border, fortified them on hills to stop the incoming barbarians. Considering everything set up, then focus on micromanaging the workers near another city to chop for the Stonehench (and ignore all warnings on the screen). Some turns later a barbarian warrior sneaks thru the defence and my unguarded capital is razed.

Discover the replaceable parts, but leave my 10 workers in the capital because I forget they can now build lumbermills.

During a war, send a great artist to a conquered city trying to drop a culture bomb, ignoring the possibility that the artist can be picked off by the enemy.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

In a recent game, I was going for a cultural victory. I had 5 religions in my little empire of ten cities; I built five temples in all of them. In my three culture cities, I built everything -- theaters, all five temples, all five monasteries, all five cathedrals, castles, universities, libraries. You name it, I built it. I switched to the right civics, boosted my culture rate, and was rocketing along at +500-600 culture per turn. The AI was rocketing along in science, though, so I wanted to speed my cutural victory along. To that end, I went into each of my cities and assigned as many artists as I could without going into starvation.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, I assigned as many merchants as I could without going into starvation. I great idea if I had needed cash, but a pretty lousy way to get a cultural victory. And indeed, one of the AIs launched his spaceship literally two turns before I would have won.

 

[thordk]

in the game i played last night i was alone on some medium island with 3 other civs on an island of my size near by. yay! easy conquering, just make sure to be alone on your island.

i noticed an english triere on my shores heading for some unsettled place with iron nearby. so i rushed a settler while keeping an eye on that triere.

after 3 rounds i realized i wouldn't plant the settler in time, so i cancled open borders with england... just to see the triere "beamed" right next to formentioned unsettled place and my source of iron has been lost.

and to the worst: while cursing myself for this stupidity, a japanese triere popped out of nowhere to the southwest and planted a city right next to my only source of bronze...

 

[Kurbads]

Just yesterday, starting serious Monarh game (huge map, epic and plan to win) everything is good. I move my hardly scrapped/chopped settler to build 3rd city. I move one tile, skip 2nd move, move worrior for cover, sice barbarians are numerous. At planned destination I spend some 10 minutes by myself, figuring best spot - many resources, many combinations. Figured out and laughed at myself - the best spot is so obvious, if push resource button and notice this cow in grass. This spot is actually better than capital! with joy I push the destination and settler moves 2 turns. warrior could do 1 turn only. You know what happened.

aaaaa, almost 20 turns lost! 20 turns in very beginning. aaaah. but I didnt reload, built the settler again. finished stonehenge still after.

after this discovered a scouting techique - worker that was building a road to barbarian city (punishment is a must! who cares about sense, logic and victory in some game?) was used to move one turn forward and then back if needed, to make sure that my warrioirs meet those archers in forest on defensive, not standing in middle of grassland. figured after Iron I will upgrade them to something. Ha, it costs money I dont have yet!

 

[Junichiro]

Not using those hard-built Pyramids have been done...as has that "oh, yes, I should have built those lumbermills". Occasionally those other civics are forgotten too...especially annoying if I even happen to play spiritual civ...

I too have become rather keen on diplo screen to see who is friend of who and picking my side early on...after having been burned by these "you attacked our friend" messages from people I really would have wanted to keep on my side (too bad there aren't any "+ you bathed in blood of our enemy, good job" modifiers...)

I never ever put GPs to sleep. Even if I don't use them immediately (I usually do) I prefer to keep hitting space for every turn because otherwise I would just forget about them (I forget ships and workers so GPs are just too easy.

 

[Jheronimus]

pressing ctrl-Q while having saved yet... Ok luckely there was a auto-save availible

 

[Junichiro]

Oh, yes, one mistake which wouldn't be so bad if it wouldn't be there to see every time I open hall of fame...
Started a game, went to see what this world builder thingie is, fiddled around for a moment (including deleting my settler ), then closed the world builder...and because I had no settler or city, I lost the game in 4000 BC. Calling me a Dan Quayle after that sure was a kindly exaggerated compliment.

 

[Meffy]

Sometimes I'll see that my city needs only a couple of turns to grow to a size 2, so I start production on a barracks or something so that I can grow before switching production to a worker. 20 turns later I remember and start banging my head on my desk.

You can queue up several items for production. This lets you tell the city to build the barracks first, then immediately switch to a worker without bothering you. Handy feature.

 

[Slip de Garcon]

Diligently spreading Christianity to most of the known world and forgetting to build the Church of the Nativity.

I thought I'd already done it, and used my great prophets for other things, until I realised my mistake in about 1850....

 

[Uiler]

Actually, that's not what he wants. What he wants is just to have the barracks building for the 2 turns it takes the city to grow and then immediately switch to the worker. He doesn't actually want to build a barrack...

And yes, I've done the "Oh, I'll build a barracks for two turns while I wait for my city to grow." 20 turns later...

You can queue up several items for production. This lets you tell the city to build the barracks first, then immediately switch to a worker without bothering you. Handy feature.

 

[nyonix]

Start a golden Age and right after discovering a new civic, "do u want to adopt it now?", "hell yeah!" , Anarchy for one turn!!!

 

[vinstafresh]

Using a great engineer to rush Taj Mahal...