Your favorite civ3 game?

[johncmcleod]

What is your favorite game of civ3? Have you played any games where there was a lot of personality to them? Games that you'll never forget?

My favorite game was this one game when I was the England. It was very late industrial age. I had sort of beelined for amphibious warfare because I was on an island and when I had to go to war I would probably use marines. War with Japan was inevitable. I was on an island but I had plenty of territory way overseas, where I got my resources from. I was rich and had a decent size military, but I had built too many ships and planes and didn't have as much of an army as numerous I would have liked, and most of it was protecting my overseas territory. This was because I couldn't afford to lose my resources. I wanted to get as much cash as possible and I sold some techs to Russia, which was a weaker nation. I didn't think they would affect the outcome of my game, but I was wrong. I had made a big mistake. Russia of course traded amphibious warfare to Japan. So Japan built marines and now could invade me much easier, because before I had units on almost every coastal square. Now they could land their forces wherever they wanted to. I no longer had control. A few turns later, they declared war on me. I was scared because "compared to these guys, our military is weak!" Their navy was on the prowl around the world and was the first to attack me. I had large naval and air battles (they had a lot of planes on carriers), but I fought well and destroyed much of their navy and air force.

When their transports came afterwards, my navy had the upper hand and was able to wipe out a lot of their invasion force before it landed. They landed on several different spots around the coast. At first I held off their attacks very well. But after they took a few important cities on the coast, they started making a lot of progress. They sent in more troops through the newly captured cities and they started taking a lot of the interior. I seriously considered quitting the game, but decided that I would fight this game to the death. I regrouped my forces and began a counterattack. This was the turning point. I gained ground, slowly at first, but then I began taking more and more cities. All while this was happening, Leeds had been cut off from the rest of my country. They took the cities around Leeds during their offensive, but Leeds didn't fall. So it was surrounded. I couldn't reinforce it. They attacked the city for several turns. The defenders miraculously held the city until I recaptured the area around it. After many very bloody battles I finally forced them off the continent.

That was my favorite game.

[vmxa1]

Good story, I wish I could remember more than a few choice parts of better recoveries. I still remember how much time it took to finish AU408 or what ever the huge one was.

[Dr. A. Cula]

My favourite game has to be one where I moved all my neighbours on the world's largest continent to remote 1 or 2 square islands, then proceeded to invade the other 2 continents at the same time. An interesting situation presented itself on one of the continents, when the Romans came up to me (Germany) and asked for MPP. 2 turns later, when I looked for roman cities, there were none left. I then noticed a roman caravel heading for the last unoccupied spot on my continent. After I put a city there, they just stayed where they were until I started making progress on the other continent. Feeling generous, I gave the Romans a couple of their old cities back, which they proceeded to lose instantly to hordes of iroqouis knights (the sames knights that were crashing against my infantries, making them elite). For a few centuries, I just watched the progress of the roman caravel, returning home for a few turns, then stopping until I returned to take back their cities. On the other continent, it was even more hilarious: Cleopatra sent dozens of war chariots every turn against my infantry and refused any peace talks that didn't involve me paying her an arm and a leg. It was funny how everybody had TONS of ancient units just lying around, even though they were on my tech level and had enough resources available. Even the romans were getting an infantry in their restored cities (I gave them rubber).
I had fun with this for a few centuries, then I got bored and built the spaceship. By that point, it was Modern Armor and Mech. Inf. against Cavalry, but still they kept attacking me and demanding outrageous tributes for peace.

Oh, and johncmcleod: you should have renamed Leeds to Stalingrad.

[Arrian]

Hmmm.... my favorite...

Tough call. I'll go with the last game I played before PTW came out.

Egypt, Emperor, Standard/8civs. Though I asked for "continents" I got a near-pangea. I was in the North. America was *really* close, crammed between the ocean and me, to my North. Germany to my East. Aztecs to my South. Iroquois to the S/SE of Azteca. Japan West of Azteca. Zululand NW of Japan. Yeesh.

Anyway, the start position was, um, nice. Though Thebes had nearly all plains tiles to work (plus 3-4 desert and 1 hill), FIVE of them had cows on them. I built my 2nd & 3rd cities such that they could use the outlying cows on either side of Thebes.

Very early on, I beat on America. I think I used 2-3 warriors to hit a settler team and then kill a couple of units. For peace, I got a couple of techs, a worker, and some gold. Mmm.

I think I beelined for Monarchy. I hit America again with swordsmen, this time leaving them with only 1 city, and again got tech and gold for peace. Then, having built a ton of WCs, I unleashed Hell on Germany. While my WCs were eating Germany, my remaining swords crushed the Aztecs (they were pretty weak). Then I went builder for a bit, working on the FP in Tenochticlan.

Then the Iroquios decided they wanted a piece of me. I thought I was screwed. I had WCs and Swords to fight Mounted Warriors.

I actually managed to take 1 border town and then fight them to a standstill. It was a nasty fight. But I do remember 1 extremely brave little War Chariot. He killed a MW, and ended his turn on a forest tile (I couldn't pull him back). I had written him off for dead. But when attacked by a MW the next turn, he held, with 1hp remaining, and was promoted to Elite. I think I could hear the AI raging at the RNG.

I built up, and decided to hit the Iroq again with Knights. They had the Pyramids and Sun Tzu, so I really wanted Salamanca. I hit them with all I had, but I was unable to take them out. I captured several cities, but just ran out of troops. The casualties were horrible.

So I had to come back later, with Cavalry, to take their final 4-5 cities (including the jewel called Salamanca). This I finally did.

Shortly thereafter, Japan hit me. I had worried about that for a while. Luckily, I had a strategic advantage. Japan & Zululand's territory was connected to the rest of the continent by a fairly thin bottleneck. I stationed all spare musketmen & cannon in the city on my side of the neck prior to the war (like I said, I was worried).

I dealt with Japan's attack, and then counterattacked. I had managed to accumulate a large number of Cav by this time, so even Japan's rifles couldn't stop me. I gutted them.

Then, just as I finished off Japan, Zululand hit me. I responded by destroying roughly 1/2 their empire (razing all the way). I had infantry/arty now, so I was invincible.

And then I just stopped. I had 7 luxuries, a tech lead, military superiority, and nearly all the wonders. I had met the 8th civ (England, on a largish island), and they were of no concern. So I figured I'd play out the SS win.

But nooo! Elizabeth had to be a *****. So, in response to a pathetic sneak attack, hordes of Egyptian troops sailed for England, spearheaded by 3 3xTank+1xMech Inf armies. I captured 1 city (for the luxury) and then set about razing everything else. Everything. I actually destroyed the entire continent (except for that 1 city), and was set to hit the last English island city when I accidentally triggered domination (I forget how). EDIT: I remember now. I had left the Americans alive, with 1 coastal city up north. They decided that they should attack me with their 1 longbowman. This irritated me, and I ended their existence. That triggered domination.

I was proud of that game. Near UP on Emperor. Mmm.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Top on my list of most-remembered (and therefore favorite) games are the AU courses and PBEM games. The former because of they're created to be interesting and AARs are always a blast, the latter because the time it takes to play one turn means you have a lot of time to think about the game and how you're possibly going to beat these "beyond Deity" opponents.

But my truly favorite game is not among these. I played the Japanese, on Emperor (probably my first or second attempt at that difficulty). I won via Domination earlier than I ever had before, somewhere around 1500AD (and consequently beat my personaly highest score). I would be lying if I were to say these things did not matter to me then, but at least there's more to the story.

I was directly in the middle of a very fertile Pangea map, with the AIs expanding and denying me land from all sides. I was sure I was going to lose this one, but I stuck with it and just built a horde of Samurai, and tackled each opponent in a perfectly counter-clockwise fashion (starting with the Zulus directly South and going around through the Romans, English, Egyptians, Persians and finally Greeks...not sure about the other civ).

The game was constant warfare from Chivalry onward, but was never a foregone conclusion because the AIs started ganging up on me at some point. It also felt very cool to take on a large chunk of the world with Samurai (the coolest UU).

The game was a series of "firsts" for me, since I felt I had to use every trick I knew about to keep up.

1. It was the first game I stopped being squeamish about placing cities closer than OCP; I felt I still needed Workers at some point but could not stop producing military units, so I created a couple of Worker camps on Flood Plains between my "perfectly-placed" cities. This worked wonders. Of course, I disbanded these cities rather quickly, because they "looked bad". How I've changed as a player!

2. It was the first time I ever brought Workers along with my military units to patch up the tiles I had pillaged (another first).

3. It was the first time I allowed myself to get behind in tech in order to focus on warfare.


I'm sure there are other "firsts". Suffice it to say that I felt I was pushed into a corner, and I used all my abilities (obtained through 'Poly, of course!) to get out of it and prevail. For me, that's fun.


Dominae

[johncmcleod]

Oh, and johncmcleod: you should have renamed Leeds to Stalingrad.

I actually though about that, but I was very mad at Russia at the time and I didn't want anything Russian that had to do with my empire.

[Spiffor]

My favorite game started like this

(this of course is genuine)

[Arrian]

What were the settings on that game, Spiff? And who where you, Russia?

I remember an old game as the Iroquois on Regent that involved a River and 5-6 grassland cows (all w/in the capitol radius!!!). That was just insane.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

Son of SVC, for me.

I loved every part of it... Roman Legions, an adverse start, early IC invasions being a necessity, TOUGH opponents, and a massive late game IC invasion to win.

There have been a lot of others, mostly from AU. I remember situations more than whole games... the inverted T that inspired that inspired "Care, Feeding, and Death", a massive Maginot Line that I created across a mountain range, the first time I used huge numbers of Arty, my first IC invasion combining Sammies and Cavs, an Army that survived with 1 hp...

These are a few of my favorite things.

[Arrian]

I can hear Julie Andrews now...



-Arrian

p.s. It was her, right?

[Anaximander]

Hmmm...my favorite game was one as France. There was one part of that game that I still think back on and smile. My starting continent was one the small size so I looked to overseas expansion. I had captured about half of a good sized continentsized continent which I shared with the Iroquis. The Iroquis were the worlds super power, with me running a close second. As such I took great caution with them, heavly defending our border with huge numbers of calvary. I also placed three calvary units on a transport, setting off the Iroquis coast. These units were to hurrass the enemys rear while our armies duked it out on the border. Well, the expected confrontation ended up not happening right a way and a cold war of sorts developed. During this time both sides developed technologically. Calvary became outdated and my large border army was replaced by tanks, and then Modern Armor. I still had those three Calvary units in that one transport though, sitting off the coast waiting for a war that I thought would never come. Finally, the Iroquis picked a fight. We were pretty evenly matched in the field in the begining, but then I landed my secret weapon, those three calvery! Two of them were destroyed shortly after landing on the beaches. But the third fought on bravely! Open combat was suicide so I focused on pillaging the Iroquis reasource network. I was able to cut off access to several vital resources and generally make a huge mess of their road network, all in the middle of the Iroquis heartland. His efforts, combined with bombing attacks to the areas of the continent that he couldn't reach, turned the tide of the war against the Iroquis! The brave calvary unit survived for about 10 turns before he was finally cornered and destroyed, but his legend lives on to this day!

[vmxa1]

I remember some of the situations, but not the game. One of my early Regents games before PTW and maybe the first or second patch.
Anyway the thign I remember is that I was in some trouble, but about holding my own. The problem was I did not have old and tanks were starting to pop up. I had just invaded. I spoted some oil tucked next to a friendly city and some barely open patches between cities to get to that location. So I was able to sneak asettler next to the city an found my city to get oil and finally hook it to my invasion city. I was very proud of the tactics I used to get it.
It was nothing special, but I just enjoyed the idea that I had to stop and figure out a way to get the oil that did not involve trade or war.

[Theseus]

You got it, Arrian.

[-proletarian-]

The game I'm referring to here was finished just a few days ago, actually. I was the Egyptians, playing on standard map, pangea, 6 enemy civs, and it was on Monarch difficulty setting. I had the most land on the western hunk of the pangea, the russians were on a sizeable penninsula on the far east, the aztecs were to my south and east, and the Persians, Chinese, Greeks and Iroquois were muddled in the middle (my east).

The Greeks were the first to go, the poor bastards didn't even last to the middle ages.
A coalition of the Aztecs, Persians and Iroquois had taken care of them. They didn't have much land to expand early on, and it proved to be their downfall.

The Persians were the first Civ to give me a migrane. We fought several wars during the ancient and middle ages over the lands that would eventually make the northern half of my holdings on the west of the landmass. It all started when he poached two prime spots that I intended to settle. I tolerated it for a while (okay, until I had control of the region! ) then let 'em have it. There were only two cities that I wanted (the two they had planted there) so I had no problems taking them with 15 or so vet swords. I then made peace as soon as I could. (Lucky for me they had no iron, I made sure of that before going to war with x-man )

A few more wars came and went with the Persians in the early middle ages, they took a city back, I took it back again.....and promptly renamed it from "Ghulaman" to "Victory City".
That was all the trouble I would have from them. During our third and final war, I signed up every single other civ against them. Ha. That'll teach 'em to squash my tamater! (Simpsons joke ) Needless to say, they folded like cheap lawn furniture. Unfortunately, I had given rise to a beast in the process.......

The Aztecs. They had taken 90% of the spoils of the great "screw over the Persians" war I had initiated. They now surrounded me on my south (their original starting region), east and northeast. I had to do something.....I waited until I got cavs, then let rip. Unfortunately, they had recently researched nationalism (they were a tech or two ahead of moi) so my war sputtered. I took no cities, and my invasion force of 30 cavs were turned away from their major cities. I pulled back. Made peace without a city being lost. Phew!

In the meantime peacetime I completed my railnet. All was going well. I had gained the tech lead. Then it happened......I had put "show friend moves" off because I was sick of watching the AI's incessant patrolling turn after turn (didn't 1.27 fix that supposedly?) but was shocked to see 3 SOD's of cavalry, infantry, and a smorgasboard of obsolete medievil infantry, and longbowmen, about 120 units in total, all deep within the heart of my territory, heading to my lightly defended interior cities. They had bypassed my heavily fortified border cities and were going right for the heart of my empire. I realized that I could't take the stacks on head-on, as they were defended by infantry (my best attacking units were cavalry, it was mid industrial age) and were taking a mountain route. Then it hit me. I would fight as the Russians did in ww2. Let the enemy in, allow them deep into your territory, then engage them in a war of attrition, taking advantage of being in your own land and all the benefits that come with that (unlimited movement, cities with barracks, an easily accessible front). I assembled all my cavs in El-Ashumein, a city surrounded by grassland, as that is where the cavs appeared to be heading. I was correct. Their 3 movement left them (25 or so cavs) within a square of the city. On the next turn my cavs atatcked before they could. Hoo boy. I slaughtered them. That was the offensive, fast-moving element of their invasion force dealt with, now I was left with 3 stacks of infantry. I assembled all my artillery in the city closest to their mountain range excursion through my lands, and let rip. Turn after turn. 50 artillery blasting away at them without remorse every turn. They got bogged down, in a constant cycle of healing, then being bombarded again once taking 3 turns to get healthy. The cycle kept the SOD's at red health constantly. The stragglers I mopped up with cavs and infantry.

Angered (and having a lot of fun! ), I decided to punish them for their nerve. I instituted the game's second "screw over the -insert civ name here- war" and signed up everyone against the Aztecs. Ha.

Bottom line; The Aztecs got slapped down in that war, and after a short war ensuing between me and the chinese and russians (the bastards turned on me after they got sick of beating on Monty's men) I made peace; researched rocketry and fission and nuclear power, then went on a huge buildup of ICBM's. I then proceeded to nuke the living hell out of the remaining 4 civs on the planet.

I won a conquest victory.


Sorry for the rant, I just enjoyed that game so much and felt like sharing it with all you fine gents.

[Theseus]

proletarian, you are my kinda guy.