Question: What was your 1st CIII game like?

[Jaybe]

My first game of Civ3 wasn't a game -- it was the tutorial! (You know, the Chieftan game as Rome). Not really a game, learning the mechanics of the game. I think I won, but a really low score.

[bruno321]

I did something pretty similar to what you did. I was used to the typical B&B AoE type. I HAD to read the manual, because I felt attracted to the game. Normally, I'd dump it... After reading the game I started playing. Then, of course, I started attacking everybody I was seeing and in no time I was attacked by a zillion units I didn't understand ANYTHING, anything... With time and a lot of practice, I got along with the game. Now I love it

[Rhothaerill]

Hmm, well my first game was played about two years ago, but I do remember a bit about it. I played as the Americans on a huge map at regent level and didn't understand anything of how to play a good game yet. I built cities like crazy (this was unpatched vanilla civ so corruption was horrendous); I irrigated every tile I could to grow my cities as much as possible; I thought sanitation was the most important industrial age tech; I never bothered to trade techs or much of anything with the other civs thinking I should research everything myself; and when I finished researching steam power and discovered I had no coal I quit the game because I figured I wouldn't be able to wage effective war without railroads.

I've improved a bit since then.

[G'Kar]

It was chieftain and I got crushed; the AIs are much more aggressive (and better programmed) than in other 4X games.

[Swissy]

I playeda chieftain game as America with default rules. Had to fight my way out of a peninsula thruogh the Iroquois and found myself basically leading thru the whole game. Became so engrossed with checking out all the stuff you could do and the changes from Civ2 that I lost track of time. Suddenly a pop-up came up saying I won the game as the 540 turns had run out.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Hi, All I can remember about MY first game was that I tried to play using my old Civ2 tactics-and got soundly THRASHED !!! It wasn't that I lost, more that I was sooo far behind everyone else, and stuck in a horrible losing war!!! I slowly started to adapt my play style, and was doing much better when CRASH-one day my computer died, and I haven't been able to play Civ3 since ! I have an older computer, though, and I was playing Civ2 ToT a lot, but it just wasn't the same !!! In particular, I keep expecting to see my borders and get strategic resources ! I will have a new computer in the new year, however, and plan to get C3:C as soon as that happens!!!

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

p.s.: Even in it's earliest stages, I was VERY impressed with the new AI, as compared to that of civ2 (another disappointing step backwards for me, as I keep overvaluing the AI's 'intelligence in ToT!!) If what I've heard about the AI improvements is anything to go by, I think I'll be even more amazed when I start the game anew!!!

[notyoueither]

The game fascinates me. Tell something about your first experiences w/CivIII. What did you expect? What went right or wrong? Why did you stick with it?

I was cocky and tried Deity. I can still see the civ replay with the AI cities popping up like weeds compared to my puny 1 or 2.

Nothing went right, but at least I was consistent.

I turned it down to Regent until I learned how to spank the system. Never have liked Deity since, though.

[Solomwi]

I'm pretty sure this was my first game, but I played Russia on Warlord, choosing them based on traits alone after skimming through what was new in the manual.

"Expansionists get a unit NOBODY else gets?!? COOL!"

"Scientifics get FREE TECH?!? Somebody pinch me! No way there's a better civ combination than these!"

The rest of the game went as could be expected. I kept using my Civ 2 tactics, and getting frustrated when they wouldn't work, but still in awe of the improvements over Civ 2. I remember just south of Moscow was a large desert, and on the southern end of that attached the bulk of my continent, with a large jungle separating me from Lizzy. I put my FP just two cities south of Moscow, with no intention of ever moving the palace, and sent a lone settler deep into the jungle to claim a patch of Dyes. Not long after that, I saw an orange SOD (swords and longbows, mainly), and no matter how many Riflemen I rushed, couldn't seem to find the end of her forces that were hell-bent on taking that city. I had a worker already building a road to it and tried to rush Cossack reinforcements. IIRC, though, I was rushing one at a time out there, so that was a LOT of help. I don't think I played much past that point, as I just HAD to keep that Dye city. I wish I had kept a save of that game.

I just fired up old school Civ 3 and loaded one of the few saves I have left, one of the first games I won (I think), on Warlord, with Babylon. I own over half the world on a huge map and have eliminated the Iroquois, Americans and Zulu. I also obviously had no cxlue what I was doing. Though I own all of my home landmass, I've still got considerable garrisons in most of the cities there. I've built no marines, one paratrooper, two helicopters, 18 artillery units and nearly 200 each of MI and MA. I scanned the map, and was aghast at my neophyte brute force tactics and abysmal force concentration, no style whatsoever. Also, it's 1964 and I only have 6 luxuries (with a 7th just one battle away)! Probably the most jaw-dropping aspect to me was having only three cities producing over 100 shields, even with manufacturing plants, and only one of those producing over 105 (Persepolis at 141). Then I looked at my core and saw why. Babylon is size 41 and growing. Ugh.

Actually, checking the HoF, I think my first win was with America on Chieftain, and it was Diplomatic with a whopping score of 936. I don't remember anything about the game, though.

Lord, this is like looking back at all my goofy middle school yearbook pictures. Thankfully, I've shed the Civ 2 mindset, learned many finer points of the game, and developed a sense of style to my empires and war plans. Probably 90% of the credit for that goes to 'Poly.

[Aramis]

Originally posted by Solomwi

Lord, this is like looking back at all my goofy middle school yearbook pictures. Thankfully, I've shed the Civ 2 mindset, learned many finer points of the game, and developed a sense of style to my empires and war plans. Probably 90% of the credit for that goes to 'Poly.

I give 'Poly a lot of the credit, too. Early games were mostly disasters (tho' fun) even AFTER I read the manual. Winning strategies developed soon after and were fine-tuned by what I read in different threads.

[Jethro83]

It was a lowly Chieftain game, playing as America on a huge Pangaea map. I was completely hemmed in by both the Aztecs and Iroquois (attributed to building up improvements and wonders at the expense of settlers, and my being located on a peninsula in the south-west corner of the map).

I might have continued, and gladly made a stab at wiping the Aztecs out had my computer back then not been a lowly PII 350mHz PC with 64MB RAM and unable to manage huge maps.

Most games after that, I kept winning Cultural victories playing as all the Industrious civs (since back then I was addicted to the Industrious trait and had difficulty managing without it).

Upon moving up to Regent, the real fun of this game began.

[asleepathewheel]

ugly


very ugly

My egyptians got roasted on monarch.

[nuther]

The first game I can remember was a standard continent monarch game, I was france. I had spain and scandinavia on my continent. I took half of spain and stopped. Then culture flipping took away some of their cities. Scandinavia was number one so I built cavalry, muskets and cannon and invaded before they got way too big. But, I didnt know how to fight and I lost the war becuase they had riflemen. Then I gave up.

[dojoboy]

Being a Civ2 veteran, I started on Chieftain!

So, I was a coward.

Played as the Iroquois, remember my first war was against the English. When an English horseman came out after me, I was stunned, thinking, "Wow!" I ended up winning a histograph victory.

[Egbert]

The first try of a new game can be the most fun (although certainly not the most successful). One does whatever "seems like a good idea at the time" and so much is new. Later, one learns strategy and feels obliged to do the sensible things which is more satisfying but less fun in another way.

I vaguely remember my first Civ1 game! Played as the English at lowest difficulty level and IIRC lost. It was my first computer game ever. I had no idea what I was doing. That was one hell of a fun game, got me hooked and here I am after all these years still playing Civ.

[Panzer]

I remember my first game of Civ2. It was me (Romans) versus the Greeks and the Mongols on Chieftain and I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing! My city spacing was....errr.....interesting to say the least. I did not build roads.....nor irrigation.....nor mines (okay, I actually did build a mine....about 10 tiles from the nearest city radius). I remember being puzzled about how to explore (I started building city improvements first), so it took me the larger part of the BC years before I finally built my first unit. I attacked the Mongols with knights but the offensive bogged down after I took one city. I discovered Gunpowder, so I immediately built some Musketeers and used them to assault Mongol cities (Well, they've got guns, don't they?!). After that offensive failed (gosh, I wonder why? ) I played for a few mote turns, then started a new game, in which I fared a lot better......though my city spacing remained atrocious for a lot of games .