Xerxes is a jerk!

D4everman · July 10, 2002, 12:45

I know this has probably been discussed before, I haven't played in awhile. I decided to check out the latest patch and give it another whirl. While I can't say I haven't been enjoying the game, I can say that I am completely sick of the Persians!

Every single game of Civ3 I've ever played Xerxes is the fly in my ointment. (ok, occassionally its the Zulus, but they're relatively easy to beat) Persian Immortals are tough and they swarm in numbers like bees! In the game I'm playing now I'm barely keeping up tech wise, even as the Babylonians. Early in the game when everyone was still claiming territory I had to plop some cities in a jungle to (A.) Claim it for myself. I knew that my only real chance of finding any coal or rubber when it came available was to stakeout that area. Also the And (B.) Cut off the russian expansion. Fortunately the russians were between me and the Persians. Unfortunately the Japanese and the Germans cut of my eastward expanse. I knew it would take centuries to make any city viable in that area but Only source of iron within my reach was there. It took a long time just to get roads connected so I could exploit the iron, and right on time, here come the immortals. grrrr. I hate doing this, but I didn't want to let hours of planning go to waste so I went to a previous save and shuffled every available unit to my jungle cities. ("city" would be more appropriate. Since the AI knows where your troops are the Immortals made a beeline STRAIGHT for the least defended jungle city....bypassing the one with the iron which was closer!) Guess what The immortals didn't even show up this time. Fine, I went back to trying to maintain a tech rate and improve my cities while also building a better military.

No big shock here....later on here come a swarm of persian riflemen and some immortals. So now I had to do what I hate doing! Make a mutual protection pact with the russians and give the Right of Passage.

I hate doing that because then I get dragged into someone elses war eventually. (I understand the irony of that statement....I'm dragging the russians into my war.) The perisans however started kicking russian butt and took two cities bordering my land! I got scared at that and made alliances with the germans and the japanese (costing me a lot of gold!Grrr!) From what I can see the germans ain't much help, but the japanese sent a ton of samuria and cavalry pouring into the fight. The russians took one city back and I took the other since I could redirect my troops to it. (the japanese took on the closest stack of persians to my iron city.) I even found that the persians had a city on a nearby island with iron on it and captured it. But now, as a democracy my cities are going bananas. Is there a way to tell how long my alliances are right now? I don't want to break my word and make the others mad at me, but I need to stop the war now and make peace or I'll only start falling behind. (the russians made peace with Xerxes! Traitors!) I need to achieve peace while I still have an admittedly slim chance of winning. And why are the Persians always jack***es?

I'm really just ranting and venting but any advice or tips would be appreciated. Take care all! By the way, the game is regent level...I'm not a pro at this game!

Jethro83 · July 10, 2002, 19:25

Indeed, I once had Persia as a neighbour, and didn't enjoy the experience at all. I also had the misfortune of also being next to the Zulu and the Greeks (both of which were complete a-holes BTW). After punishing Zululand for declaring war on me, and punishing Greece for sneak attacking, I could only look in horror at the hordes of Persian immortals, riflemen and infantry swarming at the borders. They sent quite a few through my territory. I was relieved to know that they were actually after Zululand, and later Greece. But once those two were no longer an issue, I began to be very afraid. Suddenly, two swarms of their units came pouring through two areas in the northern border. It took each of the two stacks five whole minutes to move in. It was at that point I cursed the fact that I was only in the Industrial age, and as such didn't yet have access to nukes. Zululand couldn't help because they were reduced to a pitiful town on an island of tundra. Greece were also reduced to tundra towns on the southern part of the continent.

The problem with Persia is that they are hard to beat early if they get their iron, and they're hard to beat later because they build swarms of military units. Even with their decent infrastructure from being Industrious, I can't possibly see how they can afford them all.

Wittlich · July 10, 2002, 20:42

Wasn't this thread moved once already?

Sabre2th · July 10, 2002, 22:02

It's not generally good to remake threads that were already moved...

Jaybe · July 11, 2002, 01:31

I am sure that if the PLAYER were Xerxes, that the AI would definitely think that Xerxes was a jerk!

Duddha · July 11, 2002, 01:48

I don't like the persians either. Always starting wars.

D4everman · July 11, 2002, 02:04

Whats that supposed to mean Jaybe? Are you calling me a jerk?

GeneralTacticus · July 11, 2002, 02:43

Quote:

Is there a way to tell how long my alliances are right now? I don't want to break my word and make the others mad at me, but I need to stop the war now and make peace or I'll only start falling behind. (the russians made peace with Xerxes! Traitors!) I need to achieve peace while I still have an admittedly slim chance of winning.

Go into diplomacy with the Germans and Japanese, and click on the 'Active' button near the bottom of the screen. You can then see how long your alliances will last for, and if they have expired, you can cancel them.