Question: What was your 1st CIII game like?

[vulture]

I was one of those civ2 veterans who decided to be cautious and start on chieftain. I think I ended up with Rome by accident, on a standard everything map. I ended up on a virtual island, nicely placed in the grassland belt, but with a total absence of fresh water. There was a 1 tile necj of land to a vast jungle to my west (it seemed vast, compared to the size of civ2 jungles anyway), which lead on to mountains to the south before getting to the next civ. So I had a huge amount of space for myself. Did pretty well, and won quite a few wars before the game ended with a crash - the old civ is wiped out, but is still around due to having a settler in a boat somewhere, and some other civ just sunk the boat which has crashed the game bug. I remember spending quite a long time trying to figure out why the gold resource I'd connected to wasn't giving me any luxury benefits

Never gone back to playing civ2 since. I think the lack of resources and well defined national borders would annoy me too much - not to mention the total lack of challange from the AI.

[Paddy]

I loved Civ when ity came out... and have playe most of the versions... I really got caught by the hype for CivIII... It really was looking fantastic... then to get it and play the game,,, interesting.

I have to admit to being disapointed by the action and quality of the game....

The various patches, and PTW have since helped a lot.

Oh yeah, I still had fun in that first game...

[Theseus]

I played the tutorial, and even though I was doing all sorts of Civ2-ish stuff, and a massive lead by the time I got to Tanks... I started rolling over the remaining civs that were still on my continent, and quit.

In fact, I don;t think I finished a game for the first six months I played.

[Specialist290]

I'm a recent acquirer of Civ3 (regular, not C3C or PTW), and my first game is still going on. Germans, Chieftain (OK, I'm a wimp, have been all my life). Currently 650 AD.

First war was against the Russians. Found them around 600 BC, razed a city and captured 2 others in first phase, paece, captured last 2 cities around 200 AD.

My empire now has around 11 cities, and I have so many units I don't get free support for 'em all! Fortunately, I'm in Monarchy, so I can afford to keep a large army and a fast tech rate and still have enough left over to make a profit.

[Shogun Gunner]

This is a great thread...I don't know how I missed it earlier....

Anyway, my first game was with the Japanese. I wanted to see that Samurai unit!!! Being a Civ I and Civ II veteran, I quickly dispensed with the manual and thought that Monarch sounded about right. I selected the Goldilocks options, (not too hot, not too cold - not too wet, not too dry) every was "just right".

I made a cup of coffee and got right at it!

The first thing I noticed was how long it took to build city improvements...30 turns? Geez, what was I doing wrong? Perhaps it was all that irrigation that I didn't need, when I needed MINES! I started REXing, just like in Civ 2, with the perfect spacing - not even one square overlaping! Of course later, I learned from this mistake. Ignoring that first iron deposit didn't help me out much either

I ran into the French and thought... hmmm, I hope the French aren't always PINK. No, Firaxis wouldn't do that, it would be too easy to identify countries without even seeing there units!

I lost way too many workers and settlers sending them out solo - to their deaths, not realizing there was that barbarian camp out there just pumping hostile, more robust units out on regular basis. And damn it, what is that barbarian boat doing just hanging around my ONLY port city?

I didn't win, those mean Germans did us all in, but I was in the running and had a blast! I can still picture my first river, my first mountain range, etc.

[zorbop]

Originally posted by dojoboy
Being a Civ2 veteran, I started on Chieftain!

So, I was a coward.

Same here.
I played as the persians. In addition I had iron in my starting city. Needless to say, i became very powerful very quickly. I think I got bored, never finished the game, and went to play on monarch instead.

[Brundlefly]

Edit: Sorry accidentaly posted in wrong thread..

[Gangerolf]

I don't remember

[Flight]

i had played a little civ2 and a lot of ctp2 so i had a vague idea of what i was doing. probably played as english out of patroitism and on warlord. I think I won rather easily with space race...who knows

Then I found apolyton and learnt how to actually play the game properly. I'm still someone who can't be bothered to micromanage very much or follow tactics and strategies to a high level of detail but with a vague idea of where I'm going I normally come out on top. Frankly I should put more thought into my strategies and not just play turn by turn..too late

Still, it's fun and even though i'd left the game for months i'm back once again to start another epic game (wanted to play on marla's but I can't get the starting positions to change properly )

[Arrian]

My first game of CivIII:

I was a long-time CivII player, and was quite good at it, but I had by this time discovered 'poly and knew that CivIII was going to be different enough to cause me trouble.

Therefore, my first game was on chieftain, and I picked Greece. I was playing as a peaceful type, but I distinctly recall deciding I was going to kick Shaka's ass. So I took 1 Hoplite and attacked (yep, attacked) the Zulu. I won. I took a city. I marched on. And won more, and captured Zimbabwe. WITH A 1-ATTACK footslogger! Looking back on it, what I did was patently ridiculous. But it worked.

I worked my way up to regent before I realized a) I was still trying to play CivII; b) Greece really isn't very good; c) I needed to pay some more attention to my military.

-Arrian

[TheArsenal]

About two and a half years ago or so, I actually said something to the effect that “I will never play a computer game, it’s just not my thing.”
So ... yes, I can remember my first game as it was less than a year ago (I can’t believe I am going to own three versions of this game in less than a year).

An instant CtP2 addiction meant I had played a large amount of CPt2 before and some CtP. I knew very little about CIVIII other than it was TBS and had no concept of this game whatsoever. I gave it a tutorial run playing at Chieftain as Rome and found myself trying to apply a CtP2 play style. That, of course, does not work at all.

Overall it was an exceedingly peaceful game, notable only because I don’t believe I fought a single war. I also remember being very impressed with the concept of culture and corruption. I was not impressed with the lack of stacked units.

[kermit_the_frog]

the first game i entered suck...... i didnt even find out how to build my first city so i quit..... and came back some days later and played a loosing battle on cheftian.....

[zorbop]

Originally posted by Arrian
My first game of CivIII:
I was playing as a peaceful type, but I distinctly recall deciding I was going to kick Shaka's ass. So I took 1 Hoplite and attacked (yep, attacked) the Zulu. I won. I took a city. I marched on. And won more, and captured Zimbabwe.
-Arrian

Hmm. I remember the Zulu were my first victim also. I signed a Right of passage and moved immortals next to all the zulu cities. I declaired war (i was counting on their being an Eifle Tower type wonder) and quickly beat them.

[Gramphos]

I don't really remember my first Civ3 game. I guess it didn't make the same impression as my first Civ game ever, which I still remember quite well.

[Jamski]

I just remember trying to play like Civ1, and going for Mathmatics and then attacking with masses of catapults. That war went REALLY well Of course the whole stack was captured, and I was quickly overrun.

-Jam

[Asmodean]

My first game, I played the Iroqouis on regent, and i totally ruled. I remember thinking how awesome the game was, untill later in the game, when the speed issue set in. That is still the main reason why I don't play Civ3 as much as I would like. My next game was the English on Monarch, and I got stomped.

Asmodean

[pedrojedi]

My first Civ1 game was played with the romans, or chinese... I only played on the EARTH map, and thought that to build a empire, I had to build 1 city at a time, to maximum improvement level possible. I played a lot of games being like a Cingapura civ. Eventually, I learned about the blessing of more cities, so I started build some... 5. Heheh, the cities had memorable names like Egou (pronounced "E -go"), South Egou, North Egou, East Egou, West Egou, Far Egou, Egou Beach, Egou Fortress...

My first Civ3 game was played with the Romans, and, like many others, I used Civ2 tactics and started at chieftain. I lost the first games, mainly because I quitted (why this AI keeps making cities so close to mine? Why so many cities? Why does he keep his cities so close to each other?), and thought that a good location for the FP was a few cities away. And I thought that building soon temples, cathedrals and colosseums was a waste of money. I lost lots of production and games because of this, and had suffered many culture flips. One of the most memorable moments of joy was the first time that I managed to culture flip a city.

Anyway, the games that I did not quit, I was utterly destroyed.

[Rasbelin]

My very first Civ III game was err... a complete disaster. As I wasn't yet into Civ III and the changes for a longtime Civ II player like me were quite major, I had to get back to the basics with the game. The first game did, as I now recall it, end within a few hours as I was wacked badly by barbarians. My first proper game was as the Persians and it was a quite good success. However Rasbepolis, my capital, was badly located and the growth was thus poor. Haven't played much Civ III since Dec 2001.

[Tassadar500]

My first game was quite surprising. At that point I never really played Civ 2 that much but I liked it so I went to buy Civ 3. I didn't want to try the easiest level so I played a game at regent. I made war with everyone and suprisingly enough I made it to the industrial age. I was playing my favourite civilization the Persians. And I had two enemies left. The Romans and the Germans were left. I lost because I didn't know how to Railroad and I fell behind in technology when they discovered tanks and MA.

[ceroomaster]

...scary?
...a shock to the system?

There was NO WAY that I would adapt my Civ2 tactics. They are right; I'm sticking by them. But that didn't win me any games, so I slowly learned to change my ways...

Edit for bad spelling

[Ljube]

I remember wondering in my first game why a size two city won't build a settler. When my city grew to three and built the settler finally, I realised the sad truth: Settlers were costing 2 populations now.

I also remember my excitement when I got my first great leader (yes guys, it was in my first game playing Romans, and yes guys, I am a warmonger). I got two more in my first game and destroyed Greeks and some other civ (I remembered Greeks because of their hoplites!!!! ). But then I got stuck, cause while they existed, they pumped me with techs and money, and when they were gone I couldn't research anything on my own. So I quit the game when the others started to develop strange advanced techs and build wonders I didn’t have prerequisite for.

Ah yes, I didn't know at that time great leaders can be used to rush wonders, so I used them for armies exclusively.

I can’t remember the difficulty level but it was either Monarch or Emperor. I moved to Deity soon after.

[dexters]

My first Civ 3 game was the tutorial. I played Japan or Rome and when my city went into riot, it was the first time I saw the smoke effect and I thought it was just typical effects and the city was burning incense. How stupid of me.

I had several early false starts and they were all a blur to me. I remember a relatively early game where I played a 2 civ map (special settings) and basically owned one continent but due to my inexperience (in warlord no less) was behind the tech and in every aspect vis-a-vis the AI. Back then, I had no clue about the importance of things like luxuries and other tricks of the game so that game helped me feel out Civ 3.

I think my next game was chieftain on large and continents but with only 8 civs instead of the standard 12. This was the pre-patch Civ 3 and I recently revisted the game to discover how different the AI was back then. Because of the tremendous amount of space to explore and relatively few civs, the AI actually didn't REX very well and clumped its civ in a compact area, leave large swaths of the continent unclaimed, and this was well into the modern age. I don't think that would ever happen post patches, and especially not in PTW.

Needless to say, I experienced one of my first shocks in that game when it came to warfare. I was used to the Civ II humpty dumpty AI tactics which involved send small numbers of outdated units to attack me, and usually do nothing but sit around and be picked off by my army and then my diplo armies of doom would start buying off their cities with impunity.

I discovered that in Civ3, not only is this strategy unviable, the diplomacy had a sense of grandeur and importance. It had big words like Trade Embargo, and I knew I was onto something neat. The wars themselves, as I noted in a very early post, were something to behold. They were much more of an event than in previous Civ games. Once war is declared, enemy units poured out like water.

Consider again this was in the early days when cheap exploits to beat AI rushes wasnt't widely known. I remember when I went to war with the Aztecs, streams of JUNGLE WARRIORS just kept pouring out, and while they were outmatched by my artys and riflemen, I had to chase them around, and their pre patched retreat ability made many of them nearly indistructible. I was awed really by the numbers and difficulty in which I faced fighting a relatively backwards civilization. I only got hold of the situation, and subdued the Aztecs by building a series of forts on the border backed up by riflemen with 2 artys. The artys bombard the incoming units and my riflemen picked them off. If only I knew how effective cavalry was... I won that game on space race.

But those are my early game experiences. There are a few other bad starts that isn't worth talking about. But that's pretty much my early game experiences.

[Jon Miller]

I remember my first (two) games of Civ1

I didn't know how to change governments or anything and got beat in the tech race

don't remember many other games

Jon Miller

[Solomwi]

I forgot one aspect of my first game: In my eagerness to experience every new aspect of the game, I got really frustrated when I couldn't colonize the cows next to my first city. So I skimmed the manual entry, and picked up on one aspect I had been overlooking, that colonies were for resources outside your borders. Okay, let's go colonize that wheat over there then...