The "I think I might be losing this one, what do I do?" thread

[vmxa1]

Could be considered an exploit, I rarely use it so I never gave it much thought.

[Thrar]

This one is giving me a hard time at the moment.
It's on Demigod, playing as the Chinese (random), my neighbors are mainly Rome, and a bit further away the Aztecs. As things stand now, all land is settled, i have about as much land as i can use productively with one core, but just one lux and no horses. In addition, i'm at least 3 techs behind Rome/Aztecs, and there seems to be another continent even further ahead, we don't know them.
Here's an overview over the whole situation:

[Thrar]

I fought one war so far, against the romans, who had sent a large portion up north against the Indians at that time (i have their contact, but dunno where they are). That gave me Byzantium (south), Hispalis, Hangchow (founded by me, flipped, recaptured, flipped again not long ago. ) and Veji (flipped back as well).
My culture is roughly the same as Rome's, there's not much i can do about those flips.
However, there is no way i can go to war again soon. Rome now has iron (they didn't have until the end of the first war), and all their troops are in their homeland i suppose, since they are at peace with everyone now. A couple of legions, pikes for defense, and MI, maybe a few archers or horses left from earlier. I'm researching Feudalism at 50 turns (21 left), but until then, they may even have knights. I think the slow research was a mistake, otherwise i might have it now or very soon, although i wouldn't have the gold i have now.
I just switched to monarchy a turn or 2 ago, when i noticed that i can't build much more military for support reasons. With just one luxury, and another traded from India, i don't think it's a good idea to build aqueducts everywhere and go to size 7, so i think i'm sort of stuck here. Ravenna looks really yummy, and i also would like to recapture Hangchow and Veji, but i don't think i have a chance at it.

Here's the save, if anyone wants to take a look:

[vmxa1]

You look to be in good shape. Why did you get flipped? Did you have enough troops garrisoned? Did you put everyone on entertainment?

I see some furs, do you have themas well? If not that would be a nice target to work towards.

I would still build a Duct when I get a chance. I would rather have it in place and use specialist, than not have it. I would pick an choose the cities that gets one though.

As China, I would be for getting to Chiv and get some Riders to do bunch of regulating. So I would probably speed up my research for those few techs. Being able to bust Romans now is worth a lot. They look to have a less then well defined empire.

I am just going by the screenie though.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by sabrewolf i do this too and maybe i'll be burned as a heretic...
but isn't this an exploit?

Just about anything useful the player can do is exploiting the AI or game mechanics. If you feel something ruins your fun in the game, don't use it.

Not really worthwhile to worry about whether something is an exploit or not outside of that consideration. Unless you're running some kind of comparative or competitive game where it's necessary to give everyone an even playing field.

[steoc4]

Hi
I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for my game. It's my first attempt at the second difficulty level, after easily winning the easiest difficulty level it's gotten surprisingly harder. I had been doing very well, the strongest of all my local civilizations, but then the Japanese came out of nowhere and conquered germany and egypt(I actually got them to ally with me against them but they wiped out the opposition before I could take any cities), and declared war on me. I'm slightly more advanced I think, but they've a seemingly never ending army and I've little or no military because I'd been focusing on infrastructure. So any suggestions to quickly mobilize an army, or to try and weather the storm and hit them back later because I think I'm ahead in technology as long as I survive.
It's Civ 3 Conquests by the way, and I'm quite new to it so I've probably done a lot of things wrong. Any advice would be appreciated

[steoc4]

Here's a screenshot. I'm the Koreans in the middle, with the Chinese(at peace) to the south and the Japanese to the north. Japan's main cities are all to the west, the ones to the north are the land they've taken from Germany and Egypt. I'm in anarchy by the way because I was changing from a Republic to Democracy, after reading the above posts maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

[Cerbykins]

Democracy + war usually works out, -IF- you can keep the war short and not lose any cities (or at least, only 1-2 + get them straight back).

That japan has 'loose cities' on the edge of it's empire is good for you. You might not be able to kill the japs in one fight, but you should be able to 'strim' cities off their border, if you can get the units together.

The best policy for actually fighting battles, is to keep a couple of attackers in each region (just in case the japs decide to take a swing at you) and focus most of your force in one big stack. If you can, drag the Japs neighbours into it too, and perhaps the Chinese before the Japs get the idea of bringing them against you.

Hope it helps

Edit: I'm gonna have a go at this, and see if I can get something out of it. If I can, I'll repost the save so you can see how I got around the problem Japs

[Cerbykins]

EEEEEKKKK!!!

This game is, unreservedly, the hardest I've EVER seen
Doesn't prove a lot, because I normally chicken out as soon as it gets tough

Anyway...

Democracy is OUT OF THE QUESTION. Monarchy chosen instead.
We had good and bad luck. We lost some HORRENDOUS dice rolls, BUT - we got a leader and your lost city culture-flipped - so I hung on to it for a while before they got it back.

The leader has been used to produce an army of Musketmen. Considering your predicament, entirely appropriate
The good thing about this army is, it can also be used to pick on attackers daft enough to leave themselves open to a shot or two. And if you need it, you have a -FANTASTIC- defender you can have run to any city you need it at.

Your tax rate has been changed to 90%. You -DESPERATELY- need this cash for rush jobs and upgrades. Forget science - if you don't survive this, science is no use to you.

I've used your tech advantage to get the Dutch into the war and to get the Chinese back in. Apparently you betrayed the German badly, and no-one's forgiven you. SO badly, in fact - they wouldn't accept any 'per-turn' deals or right-of-passage agreements. Tip - don't betray folks in future. Yes, the AI does it - but that's why you need 'per-turn' deals - so that whatever you offer it stops being given as soon as the deal is broken. If you give a lump sum or tech (as I had to) there's nothing to stop the AI betraying you in turn. As it may well do later on.

Most production jobs have been scrapped in favour of units. You have a decent shot at Sistine and it would REALLY benefit you, so I've left it on.

I've changed some of your tiles to mines, due to the fact you need units BADLY, and the quicker you can produce them - the better.

Your culture-borders are holding up the hordes long enough to make counter-attacks. Nice job - it's saved you several times

I've ordered the governor to take charge of citizen moods. This means it's in charge of allocating tiles and keeping the city out of disorder, but otherwise won't interfere. Change it if you like, but personally - I think you've got enough problems to worry about

Japan is now at the stage we call "Killer Civ". And it appears to have got there not through it's own effort, but through several failed attempts to kill it with other civs. Probably the cause of the betrayal - you called peace in the middle of the alliance with Germany. If you are to stand any chance in this game, Japan HAS to be stopped.

In future, have a military force handy. Your defenders were good but I had very little to fight back with, and no way to stop pillaging. If you lose those horses - you're in SERIOUS trouble. (no more knights!)

The save is still at a desperate point - but at least now you have a chance (albeit a slim one) of survival. If you wish, if you still can't come back from here, I can make another go at it...

Oh - and 'Metal Mickey' is the ex-Pikeman you have to thank for your army

It has to be said...I've learnt a lot from this one game...but hopefully you'll learn even more

Edit: Fixed typos - also noticed you already talked about some of these points earlier, like how Japan got so big. Disregard those bits
Anyway, I want to see if I can win this game, so I'm gonna plough on regardless. I don't yet see a path to victory, but if I can get one it'll help when my own games get into nasty states like this (part of the discouragement is losing sight of victory...)

[Cerbykins]

The Japs are on the run! (sort of )

The secret? I got enough knights now...

BTW, your Sun Tzu and Knights Templar are much appreciated

Anyway...for an example of what I was blathering on about as regards spreading your forces and having one big trouble-maker stack, here's the latest save for you.

You'll also notice that I feel safe with most cities only having one defender. Yes, it's true, one defender could NOT hold an assault off. But then, that's why you have the trouble-maker stack. The free unit support won't stretch to several defenders for ever city, AND a standing army to keep troublesome civs like Japan in check/under-foot (choose as appropriate )

Don't be afraid to go over your support limit, it's not wasting cash. In fact, it's wasting cash if you DON'T go over the limit, because you're not getting the free support you're entitled to. It's like gold you never got to collect.

Anyway, that wraps up my boring lecture for the day. It's coming to 8 am and then my net connection gets chopped (some of us do still only have off-peak dial, y'know )

And did I forget to mention? MORE MILITARY! AGAIN!

[vmxa1]

First thing I saw was that it was 10xxAD and you knew very little of the map. This mean no contact with Mayan/Celts/Arabs/Vikes/India and maybe others. I don't know how many are in the game and how many are left. I suspect Mayan civ is gone.

The lack of contact is costing you research and trade.

You are in anarchy, why? Did you switch governments in the midst of war? You should have been in republic long ago and not need to switch. Being in despotism and now anarchy is very expensive.

Japan declared war as you have very little in the way of troops.
1 crusader 1 MI 6 muskets 18 pikes 1 spear according to the advisor. These are basically defenders, so how can you carry out an attack? You are starting to crank out some knights and that is good, but you should have had 10 or more horses already and then upgraded them to knights and turn the lights on some of the japanese cities.

Keep and eye on your advisor to see if you are weak compared to other known civs. If so build more troops. Once you have enough experience to ignore the advisor, you can think about skimping. In the mean time the AI willbe making attacks and demands if you are weak.

No where near enough mines and 8 workers and 6 slaves is a bit thin as well. I see cities that have citizens on irrigated land getting 2 food and 0 shields, while a tile with a mine on a grassland is not worked? It would yields 2 food and 2 shields.

Early game requires food and shields. If in doubt mine. Be careful about mining mountains, save them for last. They take too many worker turns to finish.

[Footballgod128]

i just wanted to see if theres anything i could do to improve my game, just look at my save please and tell me what you think i could do, im playing a regent, pangea 70% map with i think everything default, i am the persians and i went to war with the mayans earlier and got a few cities and incense and about to go to war again when i get some knights built.... thanks for the advice before hand, i really love this site, i think it helps me out alot, if you need anymore, info or anything, just ask

[Cerbykins]

Ok.
Minor tech deficit, a bit of smart trading will keep you in the running

Yes on the knights before your next attack...in fact...it's what I was thinking myself
BUT - be careful who you attack. Carthage will still be rife with their UU, while the Zulu Impi/Pikeman will be easier to deal with.
Alternatively, you could call in the Zulu to help fight Carthage?
Remember to continue to use your immortals, even if only as second line troops/fortification to keep the flips at bay.
Be careful with war under republic...remember the problems you get if it goes wrong

This map looks frighteningly like the one the last guy posted (in shape at least)

Oh yeah, and the big vets are no doubt not impressed, but I'm enjoying stamping on the Japs. Even if it were only to see how/if it could be done so far in
Joint biggest area with Japs now. They -WILL- be mine

[steoc4]

Thanks for the advice! I'm downloading that save now to have a look.
I know I skimped on military, I thought as long as I was at peace with everyone it would be better to build up my land and cities and I'd be well developed enough to be able to build a superior army when wartime eventually came, I really wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly. Won't be making that mistake again anyway.

[Cerbykins]

I learnt the hard way, now you too
Anyway - the best path to follow now, is to forget ever letting the AI get it's way and from now on to beat it's head into the nearest wall
At least, that's how I live