I really suck! Help!

[D4everman]

Okay....I've had Civ3 since the 30th and since I just moved back to the US and I'm on leave (plus the wife is with inlaws for a few weeks) I've played amost constantly on my laptop.

(Note: Curse you Sid Meier! I've neglected eating, sleeping and generally doing anything since I loaded this game! )

But I'm getting my ass kicked. The tech is so slow in the early game I get frustrated. Can't be helped much though, so I keep trying to survive. But my rivals constantly ask for stuff which is fine except they ask for too much. Trade maps? Fine. But why do I have to give you 20 gold too? YOU asked for the stupid map! AARGH!

Now maybe its because my civ is the americans, but what advantage can the others have that allows them to build wonders faster than I can even when I started before they have the tech? And why do the barbarians attack me all of the time?

Only once did I make it to the industrial age and I gave up after that. The Aztecs had the world monopoly of Saltpeter. Huh? No one else on the planet had it. How does that work? All of the saltpeter in the world is on one little stretch of land DEEP in their territory?

A big problem is that it takes forever to get out of despotism. This morning I was playing and everytime my cities went to about size six they went into civil disorder. All had temples though. Then I finally got to republic...changed governments and most of them went into disorder. Some destroyed their own happiness improvements! Then when the gov did switch I was losing money so fast that I had to lower my sicence to zero in order to correct the deficit...but I didn't have banking or economics and to my knowledge none of the others did either! AAARGH! This game is freakin' hard!

Well, I'm not giving up the game, but if anyone can give me some tips on how to do better I'd appreciate it. By the way this was all warlord level.

[Eli]

I'm ashamed to admit but I also got my ass kicked on Chieftain level.

Well, not completely but to the point that I decided that stopping 30 Roman Legionaries is impossible and started a new game.

[Ecthy]

Now since when have you got Civ3, Eli?

[Beau]

Arghhh

I got my ass kicked 8 times on prince level. The last time I thought I was doing great, I built the great library I had all the techs of the ancient times early then the stupid egyptians build a freaking city next to my colony of luxery item and 2 of my cities go into civil disorder I immediatly send 4 horseman to crush the city. Boy was that a big mistake not only did they attack me but the stupid trecherous greeks did to. Curse them

Needless to say it wasn't long before I got my ass kicked back to the stone age I just came out of. This game is so hard!

[CygnusZ]

Well, I can offer a few hints:

1. Make Friends-Give those that are weaker than you some gold and techs, keep them nice and happy. You'll earn their loyalty (hopefully) and they might just turn into your military partner. If you think war is bad at that age, just wait until mutual protection pacts!

2. Play on Chieftan if you don't know how the game mechanics work. Trust me, one full game on Chieftan and you'll understand how the whole thing works.

3. Expect to lose. It's going to happen, not every civ lasts forever.

4. Trade for resources. It sucks, it's expensive but yet it's worth it. I always stockpile a ton of gold to buy off whatever I want but excess luxury items can be sold for lucrative deals too. Especially strategic resources. You are going to be screwed and *WILL* lose if you don't have access to oil and rubber.

5. Be mean. Backstab your allies if it's to your advantage. I'm serious, taking over my contient was the best move I ever made. Sure, not all the cities are exactly producing.. well... anything (corruption) but I have strategic access to stores of Saltpepper/Coal/Oil/Iron (no rubber.. damn damn damn).

6. Early game expansion. Build a mine on the dimpled grass land damnit. Then build some defense, and time your settler so that they are formed on the turn your city turns size 3. Repeat over multiple cities to gain a huge empire.

7. Early game science. Trade trade trade. Make sure you trade your technologies, don't expect to leave anybody behind in the anicent age because it's not going to work. You're better off attempting resource denial tactics if you don't want an enemy gaining too much military power.

Please Eli, not that the Romans are going to be ***** cats once you roll your German Panzer tanks across their pathetic borders and RAZE ROME! (Ooops, were the Pyramids there?

[albiedamned]

You say your cities always go to civil disorder around size 6, and you lose tons of money and have even more disorder when switching to Republic. Both these problems lead me to guess that you may not be adequately developing your roads. You need to build lots more roads than just the bare minimum to connect your cities. You should have roads on every land square you work, because every road gives you +1 Commerce on that square. Under Republic, every square that procudes 1 Commerce produces 1 more. So if your square doesn't have a road, it gets 0 Commerce, but if it does have a road, it gets 2. That can make a huge difference in your cash flow as well as your science.

Also, you need to build your roads out to every luxury resource in your territory to help keep the people happy. And if you have more than one of a certain type of resource, add them all to your road network and trade the excess to other civs for other types of luxuries. By the way, make sure to build marketplaces when you get the tech. Not only do they give you +50% treasury, they also increase the effect of luxuries beyond the 2nd.

[Eli]

Question about the luxuries:
In some city I had 6 dye, one spice and a marketplace. Was I supposed to get 3 happy faces?

[CygnusZ]

Multiple dyes won't help you. The happiness bonus is only recieved once, so trade the excess.

At least I think that's what happens... somebody back me up here.

[Barry Brenesal]

Trade excess gold for techs, too. This works especially well on a two-culture continent during the early stages, when your opponent can't force build with cash. So he/she can sit on a nice pile of gold gathering dust, while you shoot ahead in the tech race.

Anybody know what the so-called "normal" level of difficulty (such of it as can be legitimately measured) between humans and AI? I've been playing my first few games on the Regent level, and am slightly behind the curve.

[Jason]

Regent is even, apparently, in terms of the AI and player getting an even challenge. The difficulty formerly known as Prince

I think it's possible that we may begin to see "standard opening moves" for tech, just because the stakes in early game tech development seem to be pretty high for those who aren't lucky, "Expansionist" or both.