It's even frustrating on chieftain!

[Grumbold]

The key transition Civ II players have to make is their diplomatic relations with other Civs. You can't afford to live in splendid isolation any more. Every turn you should be considering if there is anything you need to talk to them about.

[Rasbelin]

I'll have to admit that I'm also frustrated on chieftain level. In Civ II I play on the king level, but now it's like playing prince in Civ II, when playing chieftain in Civ III. My British empire failed, the current German civ isn't going well too. But at least I'm alive with only 2 cities.

Apparently I'll have to learn Civ III from A to Z, and not just to easily change from Civ II to Civ III on the same level (king).

[Frito]

The key is knowing that you have to relearn it. The first week I had the game I kept playing on prince and kept getting hammered because I was convinced I could learn the changes on the run. I backed up to warlord/chieftain, learned the tricks and AI, and now am able to win on any level. It also helped to watch the build order of the computer on emperor level

[Bubba_B]

Shocking revelation..

What got me into trouble on my first Chieftain game was the AI's tendancy to rapidly expand. The AI would build cities in stoopid spots on the borders of my island nation so, I naturally take the cities out. Well eventually they were all pissed at me, and with the new combat system and war weariness, waging extended wars was impossible. I gave up around 1550 AD and started a new game. I adopted the Cultural concept of letting the AI build where he wants and soon my culture gobbles them up .
The big lesson I leared was that Civ III was not Civ II.

P.S. had to disable Culture Victory for Warloard and Chieftain level, my games always ended before Space Race.

[Dis]

as been pointed out the ai senses your military strength.

I believe the above statement is the most important factor in the game

I repeat the most important factor.

the rest of the game rests on the size of your gun . I mean military.

Even if you play peaceful you need a very large military. If you have a small one, the ai will punish you for being weak. And a large military helps immensely in diplomatic actions.

my only loss came from having too small a military. I said no to the ai, and have 4 of them declare war on me in about 10 turns. You cannot say no to the ai demands if your military is weak.

build more units

[Lorteungen212]

I think maybe the reason the others civs seem to leave me alone is because im way ahead of them in culture. Playing as the babylonians seem to have been a lucky first choice. As much as they like me they seem eager enough to gang up on my enemies tho. France, China and Russia all declared war on my enemy the Persians in about 3 turns and soon huge armadas of triremes (called something else now..whatever) from all 3 nations were leaving towards a single persian city. I have never seen that in any other game let alone a turnbased! Im really impressed by the AI even if this is my first game and im only on chieftain. This game is awesome. The game has a few bugs and annoying glitches in the interface but all games do. Atleast it doesnt have the huge bug that i felt civ2 and cctp1 & 2 had...it couldnt beat u...never even came close...the damn thing just wouldnt attack with forces larger than 3 units and all the games was pretty much the same. I cant wait to start my next game on warlord!!!

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Ludwig
The AI "massing" behavior seems to occur when the "strong" AI's find themselves with a victim within reach...if that victim is you, you're toast, and the rest of the AI's will jump on for the ride.

I noticed this as well in my first Chieftain game as the Egyptians. Fortunately, I wasn't the victim when the Romans, Greeks and Chinese decided to gang up on the Babylonians. I then jumped on for the ride and finished up taking most of the Babylonians' territory.

If the AI's are Polite or Gracious towards you, and you have good culture, they are less likely to attack you and will regard you more favourably in general. I had a huge tech lead, and I used it to give out generous gifts to the AI's every hour or so of play.

I was going for a culture victory, but finished up with a diplomatic victory. I built the United Nations, got the option to call a vote for Sec-Gen, and won when all but 2 of the AI's voted for me. (The Greeks voted for themselves, and the Babylonians abstained because they were still unhappy about my taking all their land).

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Dissident
build more units

Give me more soldiers, noble leader, that they may sheath their swords in the beating hearts of our enemies!

[Comrade Tribune]

My gut feeling about the solution for most above problems is : Attack!!!

The AI is a better attacker than defender; you have to throw it off balance.

Personally, I have mastered Regent, but am still struggling at Monarch.

[Skanky Burns]

The AI do tend to gang up on whoever is the weakest civ at the time. In my latest game, the Romans declared war on me. Fearing my civ being picked on by everyone, I asked the Persians to declare war on the Romans as well. The next turn, all the other AI noticed that the Romans were being attacked by two civilizations. ALL FIVE then declared war on the Romans.

This stopped them attacking me, even though I was militarily weak.

[Evil_Eric_4]

Im in my second game and Ive noticed a huge difference between CH and WL.
But I have been climbing the points charts and now stand at 2nd place ( after Rome ,India,Japan and France gang-raped the leader Cleo. It took them only about 5 turns too )
I barely had time to con her out of a nice little city on the coast complete with a rubber tile for some worthless techs and a peace treaty.
Soon ill be in first .But I dought they will try that with me.
My first panzers just rolled out of the factories