Going against the trend of critics

[SoHappy]

Going against the trend I have to say I enjoy CivIII, granted the first couple of times I plugged her in my blood pressure went up through the roof with the AI dumping cities all over me like they were on some seriously good speed, and then my bright shiny steel battleships being sunk by wooden frigates on a regular basis. But then after playing a bit and learning how it works you get the hang of it and now I have just finished one hell of a good game with my borders respected, world wars being played out, diplomacy ruling the waves etc etc blah blah ….

This is because I found if you concentrate on power, not military but pure industry might, add it with research brains and culture, then this makes the AI terrified to even think of entering your space. I now build a power base of 15-25 cities massed together to form a dominant “culture continent”. I also find you progress better with a weak military as you don’t waste time or money building cavalry when you can build tanks when you need them. Security is done instead by hardball diplomacy, in particular the mutual pacts, as this can keep your opponents under control with a good health combination of back stabbing and war manipulation. The other key for me is to dominate a continent, if from the start I share my continent with others then I clean them out early. This slows you down at the start due to military spending, but once I have a continent to myself and no opposition on my land then I can forget serious military spending to play catch up and then leave them for dead with industry and associated cultural power.

Have to say I am impressed with CivIII and am enjoying playing it. One of the best things I think that has been added is strategic resources as this is both realistic and adds a lot of strategy to the game, as unlike the predecessors Civ1, Civ2 and SMAC you now have to reach out.

[MrB]

Pretty much my thoughts exactly SoHappy. All the new little changes probably add layers and layers of new strategy that people have hardly even begun to scratch the surface of yet.

As a newbie to these forums my best guess is that many people are *so* annoyed just 'cos they hate change. The legitimate annoyance at bugs accepted of course, but I'm confident that a good company like Firaxis will see us OK on that front.

[cavebear]

I'm learning about cultural dominance, and I think it is great. Everything I wanted from a game! Suits me perfectly. (so far). LOL!

[GodSpawn]

Yes, I am enjoying it too. Ok, there are some bugs which will annoy everyone (hopefully to be fixed in the patch), and there's no MP (but I couldn't care less about that, myself).

It seems that whether you like it or not depends a lot on your playing style. Military types seem to be having a harder time. I really like the cultural approach myself.

[Peterk]

Played 4 games already and all 4 have been tense, tightly contested affairs, unlike Civ2 where I started winning easily much earlier. Love the game so far too - although there have been lots of valid complaints and good suggestions on the board (...mixed in with the whining )

[redcloud]

Originally posted by MrB
Pretty much my thoughts exactly SoHappy. All the new little changes probably add layers and layers of new strategy that people have hardly even begun to scratch the surface of yet.

As a newbie to these forums my best guess is that many people are *so* annoyed just 'cos they hate change. The legitimate annoyance at bugs accepted of course, but I'm confident that a good company like Firaxis will see us OK on that front.

More likely many people are *so* annoyed because they expected more, and feel as if some of the changes didn't go far enough (combat), were poorly implemented (colonies), or are just plain buggy (air superiority).

Saying that, I still think it's a good game, just think some things could be done _far_ better.