1735 AD launch in Deity

[solo]

Just barely managed to launch as the Babylonians ahead of the Iroquois at deity level. The game featured a tiny map, raging hordes, leaving other options at the defaults. I stuck with 5 cities which I developed to the max, and although my civ was well behind the AI in power, my 3 sets of good luxuries really made the difference. Another fortunate break was that I was able to absorb two Zulu cities fairly early by culture. During the game I was able to build Colossus, Isaac Newton's, and the SETI program before they were grabbed by the AI. A very profitable Golden Age, starting around 1000 AD gave me a good boost in the middle of the game, translating into a brief tech lead I was able to exploit. The only bad luck was that I had to trade for all strategic resources except for horses, iron and oil. It took some doing, but I come away from the game with a few useful strategies to try on a bigger map next.

[Skeeve]

Hey Solo,
Congratulations on your Deity victory!
I'm sure you had to concentrate on the Chess Match in order to accomplish this feat. Any tips for us aspiring Deity players?

[solo]

Thanks, Skeeve, but after reading here how others have been breezing to Deity wins with aggressive, military opening play, I've got to point you to the "three steps" thread and its approach of conquering the AI early and using them as vassals. This is the best way so far.

However, since I have taken a different path than most have to their deity wins, I will list the key things that I think helped me win in a peaceful game.

1) Aggressive placement of early cities at, or as near as possible, to clusters of luxuries. In a peaceful game, the best leverage you can get over the AI is by trading luxuries. My opening position had three gems, and I quickly settled another city near three sources of dyes. My third city was placed next to a Zulu one having 3 spices, so I concentrated on culture there and was lucky enough to have it defect early. With 6 extra luxuries for trading, I was all set, having a fresh luxury to trade about every 3 or 4 turns during the game.

2) I used 2 wonders, first the Colossus for religious, amd later Sir Isaac's for science, to time the beginning of my Golden Age at the stage of the game where it was needed the most. Both wonders were also quite useful in themselves for speeding research.

3) To beat the AI to wonders and spaceship parts, I used unbuilt small wonders to store up shields prior to the discoveries allowing the construction of the wonders or parts. It was the only way to beat the AI to Sir Isaac's and SETI, and was the key to launching earlier than the AI. The last spaceship part was pre-built when I traded for the advance allowing its construction. Launch was on the following turn.

4) I did not expand beyond 5 cities in order to limit corruption. Since 5 cities are all that are needed for minor wonders, and were enough to fill almost 1/2 of my continent, I was able to build up each one almost to equal strength. None of the cities were farther than 5 steps away from a palace! (Quite a bit later I did add a 6th city on a nearby island, but this was just for getting a private supply of oil.) Note that on bigger maps I would have to use more cities.

5) I kept the peace with minor game-long gifts to the AI, and I kept my own maps a secret from them. In previous games, it was never long after sharing maps that an AI would decide to attack me. It could be that they need a "roadmap" to "plan" their attacks, so I withheld mine, trading with techs and luxuries, instead. They never tired of asking to share maps, though. I never tired of giving them 5 or 10 gold, instead!

6) Later in the game, I had none of the vital strategic resources, so I decided on a mutual protection pact with the Americans, who were by far the strongest and who also had extra sources of all the things I required. I maintained this pact to the end of the game, and think my having strong partner discouraged the neighboring Zulus from attacking me.

7) When trading with the AI, I mostly went for "per turn" gold deals, figuring that the more the AI has to spend per turn, the lower it has to set its science slider in order to make ends meet. I doubt they are programmed to run a deficit! Except for the very beginning of the game, my research speed was on par with that of the AI, and I gained slight tech leads now and then by not going after unnecessary techs they stopped to research.

8) I made liberal use of other minor, but incredibly useful, tips found in this forum, such as "lumberjacking" for extra shields, etc.

[La Fayette]

Well done, solo!
(I won't compete before quite a while, since there is no news at all about this game coming to my place ; America! America! Why don't they have any game left for poor La Fayette?)

[solo]

LaFayette,

If you email your address, I can send you a copy of the game by mail.

solo

[Scouse Gits]

Good game Solo. I'm only 24 hours into Civ 3 and have much to learn!

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SG(2)

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by solo
LaFayette,
If you email your address, I can send you a copy of the game by mail.
solo

Thank you very much!
The only problem is that I couldn't read it since civ3 seems not to have been released here.

[solo]

LaFayette,

My email address is:

pmh@mediaone.net

It's a private way of communicating your mailing address, since I'd be happy to help you out by sending a copy of CivIII by mail, but would need your address in France, to know where to send it. It must be tough, waiting while everyone else is having fun getting acquainted with the game.

SG,

Nice to hear from you, too. I would be interested in your first impressions of the game. I'm finding it to be a lot of fun so far, but there are a few things they really need to change and update with patches.

solo

[Scouse Gits]

Hi Solo! SG[1] and I played for the first time on Friday night. The big problem is my poor old Pentium 350 just about copes with the game. Advisor screens are slooooow.

First impressions are generally favourable. Many of the innovations are sound. I particularly like the progression of unit status to elite. (As yet I have had no leaders created) The effects of culture and deeper diplomacy are also well conceived.

On the downside ... well somehow I don't feel in control! Waiting for borders to expand is fine - but the game does this and not me. I need a camel to make things happen. Much of this will be my ignorance of good playing strategies, but the main things I built in Civ 2 (early years) were Settlers, Caravans and Dips. The first is much harder and the other two don't exist!

I guess I should start playing Civ 3 not Civ 2.75

-----------------

SG(2)

[Matthevv]

Pentium 350? I'm playing OK on a 233 :-) Currently playing huge map and 16 Civs. I can make a pot of tea, mow the lawn and put the children to bed while the AI is cogitating :-) Only thing is I have to switch off the music, and make sure the C: drive is not ever fragmented.

I'm interested that someone else has the same idea as me to keep the AI Civs from attacking by not letting them see your maps. I also apply this theory. The AI values maps very highly I notice, and will always demand a map when it is doing its "give me stuff or else" routine. I've got all their maps in exchange for trading tech. The AI isn't programmed to keep its maps secret and will usually offer its territory map.

I'm intruiged by this "pop rush" thing. Wouldn't be much of a rush on my PC though, more of a stately procession :-) I think the AI will do this to build troops when in a war. I was swarmed by an immense number of Persians, and couldn't work out how it could build so many in the time, as they were about the same size as me. Now I have fought off this horde, I am invading them, and find that their largest city, in grasslands, is only size 8. I have several that have been maxed at 12 for some time.

[Bad Ax]

It's definitely a good idea to hold your maps in reserve for as long as practical. I tend to play on archipelago maps (as these are more suited to my insular foreign policy approach) and in that situation the withholding of maps is absolutely vital. First, it prevents other powers form colonizing any part of your own island, and second it prevents them from hitting any deserted islands you hope to claim. I've discovered that the power projection problem tends to minimize conflicts on archipelago maps, so the war thing is not as important. Still, it's quite useful in the early to mid game to hold tight to your maps. In the late game, it's not such a bad thing from a colonization standpoint to trade your map, because the AI has usually gotten its own exploration underway. From a strategic defense perspective, however, it might still be advantageous to guard them jealously.

[Dimension]

Come on, now... You can get a good mobo for $60 and a Duron 900 for $40... Is it worth putting yourself through the pain of Civ3 on a P233 or P2-350?

Memory seems to be the biggest issue with a clunky machine in Civ3, though. My roommate has a Celeron 450 that stuttered in Civ3 and units moved slowly with 256MB, but he upgraded to 640MB and things are smooth. Yeah, it's a ridiculous amount of memory, but two weeks ago you could get 256MB delivered for $20.

[Matthevv]

I'm not too worried about the speed of the processor, it just slows things down to the same speed as my brain works at :-)