What is the most primitive civilization you ever found?

[johncmcleod]

How far back from the rest of the world in technology have you seen another civ? This doesn't mean after you left them with one city after an invasion during the ancient age. I'm talking about finding a civ that was isolated and back in the stone age and you were way farther in tech. This never happens to me, but I heard that funny story (and screenshots) about the computer civ that started out on a tiny island and was finally discovered in the modern age and they were still in the ancient age. It might happen to me soon. All the civs in the world except one have been in contact with one another for a long time now. It's in the very early medievil age. We still haven't found Mongolia yet and there is a lot of land that's been discovered. I think they are on a very small island.

[justjake73]

Well, this goes waaaaayyyyy back to Civ I, but it was just me and the Zulus left. I went exploring, found them on a small continent, and they were still in the Iron Age when I was in the Modern Age. What was really weird is they had NO port cities. It was like they were hydrophobic. Naturally they declared war on me, but obviously without ships ya can't cross the ocean.

I haven't found it more recently because it's a lot less fun when other civs are so far behind, so I start over. Civs like that don't tend to last very long against the AI in CivIII.

[bobbo008]

perfect opportunity for me. i was playing with NO corruption, 300x300 map. I found TWO slam island civs all by myself, one in the ancient age, the other just entered the midieval age. it took about 4 turns or so to take each island, each with about 6-7 cities. no lost units, but two nice new productive colonies without land border with anyone else.

[Arrian]

I've encountered several pretty extreme cases:

I played game (posted here, actually, in a thread titled "A strategic choice") as the Ottomans, and started on a huge continent with 6 other civs. That left 1 island civ out there somewhere.

In the early industrial age... around 1000AD (while playing with Siphai on the mainland), I made contact with them (Carthage) and discovered that they lacked literature, and the entry-level medieval techs. So they had entered the middle ages, but had not as yet discovered any medieval techs (IIRC), and weren't likely to do much discovering without libraries.

Another case was a recent game of mine as Rome. I crushed my home continent (4 other civs: japan, arabia, persia, india) and later ventured over to the other one... where two civs had devoured the 3rd (Egypt & Zululand killed off the Celts). I eventually ended up fighting the Zulu. My Tanks & Mechanized Infantry versus their musketmen & cavalry. They didn't even have riflemen.

Both games on Monarch.

I don't think I've ever had a game where I was in the modern age and discovered a civ in the ancient age, simply because I would have discovered them earlier (soon after navigation/magnetism). If they were really weak compared to me, I probably would have invaded them for their luxury(ies). If not, I would have needed to trade them at least some tech for their luxury(ies), which would move them forward a bit.

-Arrian

[PeaSoup]

this tends to happen to me on large or huge island games where an AI civ is left without any lux or useful resources, or just stuck on an awfully small island.

As the world progresses, they tend to stay in the same age, and without the ability to traverse ocean or sea squares.

So what I like to do is to keep them backwards and relationships rocky hoping that they'll declare war so I can receive the happiness bounses, while knowing perfectly safe that they do not have the ability to reach me, or to buy anyone into an alliance.

[TheArsenal]

Originally posted by PeaSoup
this tends to happen to me on large or huge island games where an AI civ is left without any lux or useful resources, or just stuck on an awfully small island.

As the world progresses, they tend to stay in the same age, and without the ability to traverse ocean or sea squares.

This brings to fore one of the bigger advantages humans have over the AI in these situations: our willingness to risk galley after galley to make contact, and trade for luxs and techs.

[Rhothaerill]

Well, let's see. A few months ago I was playing a monarch game as Carthage. The Iroquois were on a tiny island that was almost completely jungle and only supported five cities. By the time they got map making everywhere else was settled. So throughout the game they kept declaring war on other civs and getting their butt kicked. No one would trade with them and they had no horses, iron, or luxuries. By the end of the Industrial Age for me they had two techs in the modern age. But they did have one interesting thing...on that tiny island were three (count 'em) coal sources and two rubber sources! Being that I only had one coal source in my large empire and coal is notorious for disappearing on me, sooooomeone had to relieve the Iroquois of their coal. A small tank and marine build-up ensues (I was playing with a mod that made the marine tech a necessity) and in one turn the Iroquois lands were mine. They were defending with spearmen still (and didn't get lucky ).