Stupid mistakes that cost you a game

[Jawa Jocky]

I just suffered a humiliating loss because I wasn't paying attention.

I always build the UN so I don't lose diplomatically. Unfortunately, when the vote box came up I just hit enter. And just like that the game is over. My useless diplomatic advisor should have asked, "Are you sure you want to vote? Because your only one tech away from SS, and everyone hates your guts."

Does anyone else have a stupid mistake that cost them the game.

[nato]

Thats an interesting question ... one wrong big decision that can wipe out countless correct small decisions made up to that point...

I'm sure the most common one of that sort would be declaring war on the wrong civ at the wrong time.

I have one ... I was playing a great game for a cultural victory. I was doing a good job of it, and ahead.

I was super peaceful, but the Persians attacked me for no reason, even though we had no common border. With some effort I got France to declare war on them and fight for me. For good measure, I got everyone else to declare war too. The AI feeding frenzy ensues, and Persia is doomed ... but France gets almost the entire Persian empire. My solid lead was destroyed and all of the sudden France was huge, and I never caught up. All because I had to get everyone to tear Persia apart instead of put up with a little fight.

Well I'm sure thats a fascinating story, but convincing France to declare war definitely completely changed the course of that game, so it qualifies.

[Spec]

Well, this is not a mistake that cost you a game but it really pisses me off. When I go on the trade screen cuz I want to make a trade, I click what I want to offer and then I click on "will you accept this gift" instaed of "what would you care to offer for....".
I gave techs, money, luxuries and ressources for free that way!!

Spec.

[randommushroom]

Well let's see. There was the time I was playing and I saw the Egyptians were building the UN. Didn't bother me none, until they built it and I was told that Cleo won the UN vote. Ever since then, I've always built that damn thing.

[Ethelred]

Unfortunately, when the vote box came up I just hit enter.

I did the same thing. The next thing I did was hit RELOAD and finished the game way it was supposed to go. I removed the loss from the high score list too. I am no accepting a loss due to one of the dumber interface mistakes in the game. That vote question should default to NO.

I took care of this in later games. I turned off the Diplomatic LOSS option. I don't want to win that way and I certainly don't want to lose that way. Its a broken victory condition. Too easy to win if you want to win that way and there is no recourse if don't control the UN if lose a vote. You could have half the territory be allied with the number two civ and be one turn from winning by Space Race and poof you loose because three week civs vote against you and your ally after one of them built the UN.

Its like all the third world countries saying to the US and our European allies "You lose and must submit to us because we picked a Secretary General you don't like". Rubbish.

[Inverse Icarus]

i didnt have a mistake that cost me the game, but i had a mistake that was extremely costly. i'm playing marla's world map as america, with real starting positions. i took out the aztecs early on, and south america was mine to colonize. anyway, in my explorations of northern canada (the islands up there and stuff) i fortified a swordsmen because the trimere that brought it there was searching somewhere else.

i intended to pick up the swordsmen and head to europe.

whatever happened (i think i quit for the night and loaded it up again later) i forgot all about the swordsmen and the trimere left.

MUCH MUCH MUCH later, now with globe traveling galleons, riflemen and calvary, i get a message from the Iroquois abot removing units from their territory. i checked around the US-Canada border, i had a few workers in there. So i moved them out and thought that was that.

next turn, Hiawata comes back, and he is "furious". He demands that i move my units or declare war, and i said to myself, "i dont have any goddamn units in your territory. i'm not going to accept". Why, i dont know. turns out they colonized one of those all ice no resource islands in northern canada and the borders engulfed my swordsmen.

it also turns out that they were amassing an army for just this occasion, and took over new york .

then they got half of the world to fight me.

i didnt lose, and i'm still playing it out.

should be fun.

[David Murray]

Well let me see...some of my most stupid mistakes....

For a start, playing in Warlord and, not for the lack of trying, falling well behind almost all the time because of bad terrain placement and an ability to churn out settlers at the rate that the AI does.

Also, whenever I wage war; I end up losing quite badly. Very stupid. Those spearmen are tough.

[steelehc]

I had a great plan to destroy the number 1 (Greece) and 2 (Russia) civs, (1 was 3), so I (America) allied with number 2, and dropped a nuke on St. Petersburg. However, St. Petersburg was a Greek city, and I ignored the advisor saying "Are you sure, this will result in war..." and found myself at war with my erstwhile ally, and soon the rest of the world. I launched my remaining nukes (9 or 10) and sat down and died.

Steele

[Playa del Carmen]

If I remember right, I have made a few mistakes, but none of them too game-threatning, other than losing some gold or a few units in combat, mercifully.

Originally posted by Spectator
Well, this is not a mistake that cost you a game but it really pisses me off. When I go on the trade screen cuz I want to make a trade, I click what I want to offer and then I click on "will you accept this gift" instaed of "what would you care to offer for....".
I gave techs, money, luxuries and ressources for free that way!!

Spec.

Yes, if I remember right, that's something that's happened to me once or twice. I can just remember me accidentally giving spices to some undeserving nation. I just want to say, "No! Give those back! You have to pay for them! You don't deserve them you big losers!!!!"

[nato]

The funny thing is, I can just see the AI, after getting a free luxury, saying "This is highway robbery, but I'll grudgingly take it."

More likely they would insist you throw in some gold per turn before they accept, given the fact that you have more cities and all...

[ALPHA WOLF 64]

I was engaged in a war with the Chinese and aztecs. On distant front, the French started making demands for techs which I refused. they declared war but I wasnt in the position to fight on 2 sides fronts so after looking at all the MPPs, i asked the English for an alliance against the french. the only way they would was if i included a RoP, so thinking it was harmless, I agreed. The next turn, 5 English cities popped up all over my interior as the English used my railroads to get to 'available' land. The only saving grace was that the english kept the french occupied long enough for me to defeat the Chinese and Aztecs.

In another game, I gave up lots of gold and techs for the french and english to help me fight the germans. Within 2 turns both had signed peace treaties with Germany. Talk about highway robbery.

[Playa del Carmen]

Oh, I thought of something else.

I was (probably) on a small map. I was on this landmass with England and Japan. (I think were the only civilizations.)

In the beginning of the game, I was worried about the English, who had their capital right on the other side of a mountain range from one of my cities. But, we get along fine. On the other side of the English on the west side of the landmass (I had pretty much tied up the east side of the continent) was the Japanese. They seem nice enough...at first. Eventually, they start demanding stuff and I NEVER give into demands. So they declare war. The Japanese are more war-mongering than I, but I have built up a pretty good army during my tenure, so I'm not in any danger. But fighting a war can be hard work! So I decide to do the diplomatic thing and get the English in the war on my side. The English are fine with that. What's the harm? After all they're the empire I feared in the beginning...

Not the greatest of ideas, though. I can handle the Japanese even if I don't actually do anything. I'm getting calvary and riflemen. The English on the other hand are being slaughtered and the Japanese are making big territorial gains at the English's expense. I take back the English cities from the Japanese and occasionally the Japanese take them back from me (though they were never stupid enough threaten a city I settled and garrisoned riflemen in) and I give the old English cities back to the English, since I don't want them to completely vanish and I don't exactly feel like nurturing them during war.

But the English don't keep these cities long. The Japanese just keep taking them again. Soon, there are only a handful of English cities, then a couple, then one, then they respawn, then I give the English a city, and the Japanese take it and finally....the Japanese take the last city. Now I'm alone in the world with the absolute psycho Japanese and no English to get in the way of their advancing troops. I just gave up on that game...I don't want do think about what the future would've been like.

[nbarclay]

My very first game of Civ 3, I built the U.N. When the game asked if I wanted to hold an election, my thought was, "Okay, it's the default, so it should be reasonable, and I'll be interested to see how the vote splits out among all these civs." (There were probably thirteen total at the time.)

The trouble is, I hadn't read about the U.N. closely enough to realize that with that many civs and none besides me all that dominant, it was inevitable that only one other civ besides me would be elegible for the election. And as something of a warmonger in that game (the reason the number of civs was down around 13), I wasn't exactly in a good position to win the vote. Oops.

So count me among those who believe the default should very definitely be "NO!!!!" for the "Do you want to hold an election?" question.

Nathan

[Giovanni August]

I know this is extremely stupid but....

I was Rome (as usual) and I was fighting The Egyptians and brought the Aztecs to my side.
The Aztecs were huge, they conquered all of America and half of India and were a good 4-5 technology stronger than me, even after I took the Iroquois territories.

I move my knights towards the city of Pi- Ramesses attacked and distracted I don't care about the messagge "this will cause war with the *****", I was distracted and pressed enter.

Pi - Ramesses was one of the newly occupied Aztecs cities

I still remember the Aztecs Cavalry running around the streets of Rome and Antium chasing my last legionary (I always keep a couple of Legionaries in Rome even during the modern time)

Saluti

[punkbass2000]

That's funny, it seems to me that the default is to not go to war, but I may be mistaken.