Sid game - advice

[bonhomme]

sid

I'm new to Apolyton and to Civ III. There's a lot of abbreviations used and I get confused. Could some one tell me what SID stands for.
TIA

bonhomme

[vmxa1]

It is the highest level of difficulty in Conquest. It was named after the originator of Civ. It is not in vanilla Civ III or the first addon PTW.

It is only in the last addon Conquest. Note there is a topped thread for abbreviations is you need a quick answer, you can probably find it there.

[Egbert]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Iroq is my fav for Sid. UU very good at handling barbs too.

I never go above Deity, unless first using the editor . I get caned on Sid unless I do a bit of editing to "even things up a bit".

I have won on Deity without using the editor but I can only do that with England, for the UU, on an archipelago map starting on an island by myself. I build like hell to increase my up my cash flows and my productive capacities. About half way through my middle ages the wars start and never end. I usually get the Man of War just in time to battle the invasion fleets. Men of War versus battleships is much less ugly than knights attacking tanks landed on my island. The Man of War lets me live long enough to get cavalry which can beat tanks after a bit of softening up by the Men of War or artillery. A big stack of Men of War are great for soaking up bomber attacks from a nearby island. The AI bombs the ships instead of my cities and I just cycle the damaged cities through my nearest city to heal without any losses, I have no tech for air defenses or fighters for a long while. The big stack of Men of War are great for shore bombardment and on an archipego may a large proportion of land squares are on the coastline thus giving a good chance of being able to bombard the enemy resources.

I form an alliance versus the biggest civ and keep my allies in permanent war (If I can't keep up with the Jones's then I want to drag them down to my level). I steal from the leading civ and sell to the other civs to finance further stealing (that gives me the problem of beating my allies in the spacerace but that problem is solved if I can get them to trade nukes with the enemy). Of course I may need to change enemies or form a grand alliance against a second civ which makes diplomacy expensive. When nukes arrive I sell the tech to all allies, build a couple of nukes and ensure my allies get uranium so hopefully they will nuke my enemy (I may sell all of my uranium for a while). Nothing like a general nuclear war when I am not participating in the nuking, particularly if that leaves me as the only power still connected to the resources needed to build a spaceship (by this stage the war has usually been going on for over 100 turns and allies have been bribed to break their peace treaties with the enemy so there is some real hatred between the AI nations). Of course, I try to grab certain resources during this general carnage (once again stacks of free Men of War escorting transports in interesting places helps no end).

It seems very rare for the AI to nuke the human player first so this may be an exploit.

Yes, I did say I play England for the UU!!

Edit. I did win one Sid game without editing. Island start, archipelago map, England, extremely brutal and long war versus a killer AI, much stealing etc etc. The AI threw nukes around like confetti but not at me.

[vmxa1]

To tell you the truth I have not played a deity C3C in some time and only pkayed a few of them as I prefered to play Sid.

So I am not sure if my impressions are valid or not. That said I think the game is actually easier on Sid archi maps, because they will get things built sooner and turn to troops sooner.

This puts them in a bind soon as they reach their caps on support. Yes they have more troops and better ones, but they will go broke sooner.

They are slow to nuke, but so am I. I want to have eliminated many of the civs before it gets to bombers, let alone nukes.

I am not sure I understand how you survive bombers? In C3C bombers are lethal and will sink ships. Are you not playing Conquest?

The only way to survive bombers is to have more ships than they can bomb to death.

My best way of dealing with bombers is to kill them first, then if I cannot do that, I want tocut of the resources need to make them.

This is not hard on Sid island maps as they probably have no workers to put roads back up once you cut them.

Invasions can get very tedious though with socres and even hundreds of units to deal with on Sid.

I never used English, but I did play a few turns in an SG at Sid using Dromons. It was an easy game with those on an island map. You just sink ships before they get out of the port and cut all tiles on the coast.

Bang down any troops in range and capture loose workers. Finally land an invasion force and beat them back. They never get any battleships.

[Egbert]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I am not sure I understand how you survive bombers? In C3C bombers are lethal and will sink ships. Are you not playing Conquest?

The only way to survive bombers is to have more ships than they can bomb to death.

My best way of dealing with bombers is to kill them first, then if I cannot do that, I want tocut of the resources need to make them.

I am playing Conquests. I survive the bombers by, as you said "having more ships than they can bomb to death".

A few spare Men of War are sent off to bombard any resources which happen to be on the shore line. If I have marines the big stack of MW can escort transports to the offending city, bombard it and the marines take care of the bombers (and raze the city if it can not be kept).

I agree with your observation that the gme seems easier in some ways on Sid on an archipelago map. The AI research seems a bit slower presumably due to excessive numbers of troops with no place to go.

I also find it more likely that several civilisations are relatively backward with some more backward than others. This presents a "ladder" of technology levels for me to climb when I am very backward. I might have something to trade with the most backward. I can buy from the second most backward, trade techs with the most backward and thus get two techs for the price of one (I have to give a it of cash to the second civ). If there are no tech trading opportunities vailable I start buying from the most backward civ which can then use the cash to buy at the huge AI to AI discount. This increases the number of civs which has that tech thus reducing the price I will have to pay. Later, when I have caught up to most civs, I start stealing from the leader and onselling to my "friends" (I am in a permanent warfare with the leader by this stage). I find it is actually easier if a killer AI emerges because the diplomacy is simpler.

[vmxa1]

Fairly early I will get to the point that I will not buy anything form anyone. I just do not want to feed them.

I would rather save up to steal, that way no one get the gold. Archi maps have another beneifit in that you can be at war will a lot less consequences. You can play a semi AW style.

The difference is that you are allowed to accept peace anytime and of course it won't be long beofre they declare again.

I sort of miss it now that I am playing IV. The two AW civ4 games where very different from III. At least you do not have to deal with offers of peace in 4, the AI knows no peace in that mode.