Confession. I suck at Civ III.

[SlowwHand]

Maybe it's because I greatly prefer MP, but I absolutely suck at Civ III.
The damned thing was a gift, but I broke down and bought the Stategy Guide, now I understand the game better. I still suck.

So all of you are great at it?
Beat the AI's as each Civ at the highest level?

[Apocalypse]

I don't play it very much so I never completely a game at diety.

[ChaotikVisions]

I'm decent, play around Regeant and Monarch every now and then. Never gone up past that really since for me the AI is still pretty tough. There seems to be a good amount of people around here who are very good at it and play at Diety.

[SlowwHand]

I can't imagine.

[nato]

I used to be very mediocre myself. I was able to win culturally and diplomatically, but conquering the world was out of reach.

My last few games, I've changed my playing style, and what a difference! Now I feel fairly tough. Monarch at least is easy... I'm going to see if Emperor is any different.

It has really changed my view on a lot of game issues ... things I used to consider problems are simply not an issue anymore. Thats what I'm trying to say kind of ... I feel so different gamewise, a lot of issues are totally different to me now. We may all be almost talking about a different game because of different play style/skill levels.

So probably I have jumped up to average, due to large change in play style.

[Paalikles]

I think it has to do with practice.
My first civ3 game was on chieftain level. I played with civ2 settings: 7 civs
and I completely underestimated the new gameplay - like resources. I actually read several chapters in the manual to calm myself down.
AND it took 3 attempts before I finally managed to complete a game (2nd time: program encountered a fatal error)
when I first completed the game I came in second (meaning that I lost)
what I lacked in skills with civ2 showed off clearly in civ3: now I need to EXPAND & improve.

Recently, I moved up from chieftain level after winning every victory condition. I am at warlord - will stay there untill my strategy improves, though in my last game, I won cultural victory (100 000) and got about 2200 points.
It is my addiction that drives me forward. I don't play for many hours a day. I don't play every day. But I play - and I haven't got bored yet

[SlowwHand]

Maybe that's part of my problem. I've never tried playing below Regent.

[Arrian]

Sloww,

Start with warlord and work your way up. I started out on chieftain even though I regularly thrashed CivII on Diety. My first couple of games at Regent didn't go well, and my first few games on Monarch kicked my ass. I'm still playing Monarch, but no longer consider it difficult to win. I still play it, though, because I've come up with a different definition of what I consider to be "winning." I'm kinda experimenting now.

Go on over to the strategy forum, and check out some of the ideas there.

A couple of quick pointers:

Civ choice is key. Match up a civ with your preferred playstyle. If you are a "peaceful builder" type, play Egypt or Babylon. If you are a raging warmonger, play Japan (personal favorite), the Aztecs, Persia, the Iroquois or China (it all depends on what you prefer in terms of UU, golden age timing, etc.).

Understand the power of resources, both strategic and luxury. The best way to defeat an opponent without overwhelming force is to deny him resources.

Unit upgrade paths are important to consider when chosing what units to build (I prefer horsemen to swordsmen for several reasons, but this is a huge part).

Mobility is power in war - CivIII's mobile ground units are much more powerful than their a/d stats may indicate.

Even if you wish to avoid war, remember that the AI will attack you if it perceives weakness.

Starting location is hugely important. Unless you are a "ironman" type who cannot stomach it, don't be afraid to utilize "ctrl+shift+q" if you find yourself in the tundra.

-Arrian

[Panzer]

I consider myself to be a decent player. I started at Warlord and I'm now playing at Regent (I know, I move slowly, but I want to make sure I master one level before going up to the next). By now I'm always the supreme power in the game so I may decide to move up a level pretty soon. But I notice the real difference when I'm playing Civ2 and SMAC. Those games are EASY now!!! I have to play at Diety or Transcend before the AI becomes even remotely chalenging. I already was pretty good with Civ2 but I never played on Transcend before and now I'm blowing the AI away. And I think Civ3 is the cause . And I used to play (and still do) those games 'by the book'. So I don't use massive amounts of crawlers, ICS or something like that.

[SlowwHand]

Yeah, I'm going to turn down the level I guess.
Picking the Civ, that's another stumper because I can see how each is important.
I've about decided Militaristic/something, so the Unit's experience level goes up quicker.
I did finally build a Wonder, by taking a Leader to the build site.

[planetfall]

SlowwHand-- If you want more help you are going to have to give us more information. You can't suck at everything, what parts of the game are giving you trouble?

General guidelines:
1. make sure patched to 1.21
2. check out forum articles on strategy
3. search for topics that are giving you trouble in both strategy and general
4. review summaries in war academy on civfanatics
5. don't be afraid to use the editor while learning the game. It is available so learning will be easier.

Personal experience, I got the game at Christmas and never played a civ game before.
The learning curve on this game is one of the worst around. Take small bites.

A strategy that is working well for me:

1. start at settler level
2. play standard world, easier than small
3. start with only 3 other civs. Select them so you know how each AI acts and what they do with their UU.
4. If having trouble with concept of corruption move slider in editor between 50-70%.
5. If you have trouble with a unit or game play, post the problem as a new topic.
6. Start with sendentary barbarians

Now I am playing at warlord level vs 7 civs and looking to either jumping to next level or 16 civs. Just for fun. Warlord is getting boring.

[SlowwHand]

I jumped in at Regent level. Normal settings on all.

I think one thing was trying to be too nice and cultural.
Probably also mixing strategy with Civ.

What I'm thinking now is Japan, China, or maybe Persia; and playing them as they were meant to be played.

[planetfall]

Too nice does not work with civ3. I just learned the value of ancient era war. I had been waiting until Modern and that is both more boring and lower scoring. {I turn off culture win because playing nice ends the game too soon with a culture win. My culture is usually between 150-200K}
Somewhere here there is a thread on ancient era war.

[SpencerH]

CIV3 is unlike earlier games where the only test was deity (after you'd learned the rules). Civ3 can be tough in the early game even at monarch or regent. For me deity tends to be a luck of the draw affair, with the right starting conditions you can win but too often I'm swamped by 20 aztecs or impis before being able to build up any infrastructure. Emperor is a more reasonable level for me.

[SpencerH]

I forgot to mention I go my butt kicked in my first game at regent -no iron too slow expansion.