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I've been playing a few games on a standard sized map on Regent difficulty. I play random civs, and I set the terrain features to be random, as well. It's certainly a different game than the huge/16 civ games I had been playing. Here are some of my observations:
AI Behavior:
I have to add my voice to the chorus of praise for the AI. At first I was puzzled by some people who claim that the AI is impossibly aggressive, and others who said that it is completely docile. What's more, I've noticed both behaviors in my games. I studied the phenomenon some, and this is what I came up with.
It seems that the AI is strongly influenced by its early experiences. In games where I refused to share world maps, refused to trade technology, and was otherwise completely polite and well-behaved, the AI typically turned into a group of raging tyrants. On the other hand, when I traded frequently and yet was opportunistic and occasionally aggressive, these were the games where I could see 5700 years of peace. At this point it seems that if the player becomes the bad apple in the early trading barrel, to use a clumsy metaphor, it'll spoil the whole bunch relatively quickly.
The AI seems to place a large stake in willingness to trade. You might notice that sometimes a refusal to trade will even change a rival's attitude an entire step downward; say, from Polite to Cautious. So here are a few tips on forestalling AI aggression via trading:
1) If the AI wants to trade, do it! This doesn't mean you should accept those ridiculous late-game requests for mutual protection, right of passage, and 108 gold per turn. But trade something. My usual placation is just a token trade, such as territory maps, or even just a small gift of gold. Making such little gestures seems to keep the AI thinking of you as a friendly and viable trading partner.
2) If you see the AI getting ready for one of its ambush extortion gigs, where it builds up a huge military, requests a lopsided trade, then either goes to war when you refuse or sneak-attacks you the next turn, then you can still avoid the attack. When you see the piles of infantry gather just outside your border, and Alexander rings to ask for Sanitation, Flight and Radio in exchange for his World Map, offer a counter-proposal. Then do everything you can to arrange an alternate deal that involves per-turn payment. This seems to have two effects: first, the AI still regards you as a good trading partner, and second, the AI seems less likely to attack somebody who still owes them a balance of gold, or who is providing them with crucial spices.
3) Mutual protection pacts are a good way to keep a potential aggressor away. Find the biggest bully, and sign one with him. That way he's less inclined to attack you, and when war does break out, chances are you're on the winning side.
Finally, when your carefully-balanced millennia-long peace finally breaks down, there are a few things you can do. First, try to stay out of it if you can. Everybody else at war means that you've got a bunch of turns of production that they don't, and it means you're gaining ground in the Big Race. Unfortunately there is often a tangled web of mutual protection pacts in these games, and by the time somebody decides to be the turd in the punch bowl (so to speak) and plunge the world into global war, you may well be involved in one of these pacts. If so, then take any extra turns between the outbreak of hostilities and your own involuntary involvement to fortify your borders. Chances are you'll be fighting off two to seven civilizations, depending on world size and how the pacts shake out. Be prepared to lose some ground and keep your eyes on the long term goal - survival. You may even be lucky enough to be in a position that lets you do some serious land-grabbing right now. But be careful, and be ready to set aside some of your new cities as appeasement. Finally, keep in mind that it's usually pretty easy to sign a peace treaty during these conflicts. Not even the AI wants to fight several people at a time. If the pact that got you into the mess in the first place has expired, you can usually extricate yourself, and it pays to do this. I have found that the last couple of civs still engaged in the global war tend to stay in it much longer, for a couple of probable reasons: first, they've usually either gained or lost something significant, and they want to capitalize on the gains or recoup their losses. Then again, I may be anthropomorphizing, here - those are the reasons I'd stay in ;-) But this trend indicates that you should get your land-grabbing done quickly. By this time you have probably already got a manageable empire anyway, and there are only a couple of cities you should grab anyway: critical chokepoints, resources or luxuries, or perhaps a wonder.
Treaty manipulation:
Okay, so while we're on the subject of global war and far-reaching mutual protection entanglements, what if you're the fly in the world peace ointment? In a recent game I played the Romans, and the Greeks and the Russians each had a presence on my part of the continent that was too much to bear: each empire was right next to my capital, which made mine long and thin, and which made their cities potentially excellent ones if they belonged to me, for corruption would be minimal. Furthermore, the Greeks sat on vast oil reserves and the Russians had furs. Mutual protection pacts abounded, so I did some study and this is what I came up with:
When I just rode in and attacked the Greeks, I found myself at war with five other civs. The Greeks called in the Russians, who called in the Iroquois and the French (ironically enough), who negotiated with the Egyptians to put me down. Okay, not unexpected given all the pacts. But then I tried again, with a twist: I negotiated mutual protection with France before attacking Greece. Greece called in Russia. Now France is not involved, but they're sworn to protect both Russia and Rome. So who do they attack?
It turns out that they fall on the side of the defender, which was me. My forces were committed in Greece, so when Russia crossed the borders and attacked one of my cities, France declared war... and then got the Egyptians in on the deal, too. I couldn't stand to see the Americans idle, so I negotiated them into the mix, as well. But the point is that you can get past the tangled web of pacts if you're careful and clever.
Nationalism: a powerful tool
In another game I found myself using tanks to attack an England armed with Riflemen and cannon. It was here that I learned a painful lesson: conscription and mobilization are extremely effective defensive tools, and the AI is not at all shy about using them. The AI will ruthlessly rush-build, conscript, and mobilize in order to ensure its own survival. How do I know? Well, aside from the abundance of conscript-level riflemen that I killed, whenever I took a city it was ridden with unhappiness. When I checked to see why, aside from the predictable "Stop the aggression against our mother country!" business, there were also three other categories: "We can't forget the oppression you have bore down upon us" [sic] (rush building), "All we are saying is give peace a chance" (war weariness), and "Hell no, we won't go!" (conscription). Now, I hadn't been conscripting or rush building, so it seems that I inherited some discontent from the unlucky English.
Because this was such an effective tool for the AI, and because I am such a blatant rip-off artist when I see good tactics for the first time, I heartily recommend this. I have yet to fight much of a defensive war after the discovery of Nationalism, but I'm eager to be in the position so I can test the effectiveness of these tools. Now, to be sure, nobody wants to be in this position, but I enjoy playing a losing game to the bitter end as much as I enjoy playing a winning game to completion, so I would like to try. Perhaps when I start playing on Monarch or Emperor, I'll have a chance? ;-) Currently my T-REX (heh, cute name, Vel) style of expansion means that if I can forestall any serious AI aggression past the middle ages, I won't be seriously threatened militarily. Which, of course, explains why I have committed so much research into pacifying the AI.
Vel, I'm glad to read that you're trying the huge map/16 civ gig. Man, they can be brutal. I think you were right to sit out the early battle with the Aztecs... your massive culture advantage underscores the advantage of avoiding these wide-reaching wars, although preparing for an opportunistic land grab is clearly a great idea. I also chuckled at your account of contacting the 'other continent'... I think that scenario is always a shock to me, mainly because I've been planning and scheming and preparing for all the known enemies, and then suddenly 5-10 new factors are introduced to the equation. I find it interesting that you choose to bolster the underdog in worldwide conflicts. I do so, as well, in part just to encourage warfare and the corrosive effect it has on my rival's advancement, but also because I don't like to see other civs die - the more minnows in the pond, the less likely I am to be jumped, I reason.
Good stuff from everybody. On factories... being a perfectionist myself, I typically didn't build them until I had discovered ecology and recycling, but waiting can be a cruical mistake. At one point I had size 12 cities without factories (dutifully waiting for mass transit and recycling centers). I discovered electronics at least 20 turns before France, and started building Hoover Dam right away. She starts building it when I have 17 turns to go, and I think "no problem." Wrong. She completed it when I had 4 turns to go. How? She had a size 26 city with a factory working on it. Now, it was polluting the heck out of our planet, but that didn't bother her... and honestly, I had a ton of idle workers, so I shouldn't have let it bother me. Hoover Dam should have been mine, and I won't make the same mistake again. I now build hospitals and factories as soon as they're available, because the advantages they grant are fantastic.
Ok, I need to make the 3 hour drive back home before it gets too dark. I'm jonesing for some Civ3 tonight, I can tell you. I love Thanksgiving weekend, food is great, but... well, addiction is addiction.
AI Behavior:
I have to add my voice to the chorus of praise for the AI. At first I was puzzled by some people who claim that the AI is impossibly aggressive, and others who said that it is completely docile. What's more, I've noticed both behaviors in my games. I studied the phenomenon some, and this is what I came up with.
It seems that the AI is strongly influenced by its early experiences. In games where I refused to share world maps, refused to trade technology, and was otherwise completely polite and well-behaved, the AI typically turned into a group of raging tyrants. On the other hand, when I traded frequently and yet was opportunistic and occasionally aggressive, these were the games where I could see 5700 years of peace. At this point it seems that if the player becomes the bad apple in the early trading barrel, to use a clumsy metaphor, it'll spoil the whole bunch relatively quickly.
The AI seems to place a large stake in willingness to trade. You might notice that sometimes a refusal to trade will even change a rival's attitude an entire step downward; say, from Polite to Cautious. So here are a few tips on forestalling AI aggression via trading:
1) If the AI wants to trade, do it! This doesn't mean you should accept those ridiculous late-game requests for mutual protection, right of passage, and 108 gold per turn. But trade something. My usual placation is just a token trade, such as territory maps, or even just a small gift of gold. Making such little gestures seems to keep the AI thinking of you as a friendly and viable trading partner.
2) If you see the AI getting ready for one of its ambush extortion gigs, where it builds up a huge military, requests a lopsided trade, then either goes to war when you refuse or sneak-attacks you the next turn, then you can still avoid the attack. When you see the piles of infantry gather just outside your border, and Alexander rings to ask for Sanitation, Flight and Radio in exchange for his World Map, offer a counter-proposal. Then do everything you can to arrange an alternate deal that involves per-turn payment. This seems to have two effects: first, the AI still regards you as a good trading partner, and second, the AI seems less likely to attack somebody who still owes them a balance of gold, or who is providing them with crucial spices.
3) Mutual protection pacts are a good way to keep a potential aggressor away. Find the biggest bully, and sign one with him. That way he's less inclined to attack you, and when war does break out, chances are you're on the winning side.
Finally, when your carefully-balanced millennia-long peace finally breaks down, there are a few things you can do. First, try to stay out of it if you can. Everybody else at war means that you've got a bunch of turns of production that they don't, and it means you're gaining ground in the Big Race. Unfortunately there is often a tangled web of mutual protection pacts in these games, and by the time somebody decides to be the turd in the punch bowl (so to speak) and plunge the world into global war, you may well be involved in one of these pacts. If so, then take any extra turns between the outbreak of hostilities and your own involuntary involvement to fortify your borders. Chances are you'll be fighting off two to seven civilizations, depending on world size and how the pacts shake out. Be prepared to lose some ground and keep your eyes on the long term goal - survival. You may even be lucky enough to be in a position that lets you do some serious land-grabbing right now. But be careful, and be ready to set aside some of your new cities as appeasement. Finally, keep in mind that it's usually pretty easy to sign a peace treaty during these conflicts. Not even the AI wants to fight several people at a time. If the pact that got you into the mess in the first place has expired, you can usually extricate yourself, and it pays to do this. I have found that the last couple of civs still engaged in the global war tend to stay in it much longer, for a couple of probable reasons: first, they've usually either gained or lost something significant, and they want to capitalize on the gains or recoup their losses. Then again, I may be anthropomorphizing, here - those are the reasons I'd stay in ;-) But this trend indicates that you should get your land-grabbing done quickly. By this time you have probably already got a manageable empire anyway, and there are only a couple of cities you should grab anyway: critical chokepoints, resources or luxuries, or perhaps a wonder.
Treaty manipulation:
Okay, so while we're on the subject of global war and far-reaching mutual protection entanglements, what if you're the fly in the world peace ointment? In a recent game I played the Romans, and the Greeks and the Russians each had a presence on my part of the continent that was too much to bear: each empire was right next to my capital, which made mine long and thin, and which made their cities potentially excellent ones if they belonged to me, for corruption would be minimal. Furthermore, the Greeks sat on vast oil reserves and the Russians had furs. Mutual protection pacts abounded, so I did some study and this is what I came up with:
When I just rode in and attacked the Greeks, I found myself at war with five other civs. The Greeks called in the Russians, who called in the Iroquois and the French (ironically enough), who negotiated with the Egyptians to put me down. Okay, not unexpected given all the pacts. But then I tried again, with a twist: I negotiated mutual protection with France before attacking Greece. Greece called in Russia. Now France is not involved, but they're sworn to protect both Russia and Rome. So who do they attack?
It turns out that they fall on the side of the defender, which was me. My forces were committed in Greece, so when Russia crossed the borders and attacked one of my cities, France declared war... and then got the Egyptians in on the deal, too. I couldn't stand to see the Americans idle, so I negotiated them into the mix, as well. But the point is that you can get past the tangled web of pacts if you're careful and clever.
Nationalism: a powerful tool
In another game I found myself using tanks to attack an England armed with Riflemen and cannon. It was here that I learned a painful lesson: conscription and mobilization are extremely effective defensive tools, and the AI is not at all shy about using them. The AI will ruthlessly rush-build, conscript, and mobilize in order to ensure its own survival. How do I know? Well, aside from the abundance of conscript-level riflemen that I killed, whenever I took a city it was ridden with unhappiness. When I checked to see why, aside from the predictable "Stop the aggression against our mother country!" business, there were also three other categories: "We can't forget the oppression you have bore down upon us" [sic] (rush building), "All we are saying is give peace a chance" (war weariness), and "Hell no, we won't go!" (conscription). Now, I hadn't been conscripting or rush building, so it seems that I inherited some discontent from the unlucky English.
Because this was such an effective tool for the AI, and because I am such a blatant rip-off artist when I see good tactics for the first time, I heartily recommend this. I have yet to fight much of a defensive war after the discovery of Nationalism, but I'm eager to be in the position so I can test the effectiveness of these tools. Now, to be sure, nobody wants to be in this position, but I enjoy playing a losing game to the bitter end as much as I enjoy playing a winning game to completion, so I would like to try. Perhaps when I start playing on Monarch or Emperor, I'll have a chance? ;-) Currently my T-REX (heh, cute name, Vel) style of expansion means that if I can forestall any serious AI aggression past the middle ages, I won't be seriously threatened militarily. Which, of course, explains why I have committed so much research into pacifying the AI.
Vel, I'm glad to read that you're trying the huge map/16 civ gig. Man, they can be brutal. I think you were right to sit out the early battle with the Aztecs... your massive culture advantage underscores the advantage of avoiding these wide-reaching wars, although preparing for an opportunistic land grab is clearly a great idea. I also chuckled at your account of contacting the 'other continent'... I think that scenario is always a shock to me, mainly because I've been planning and scheming and preparing for all the known enemies, and then suddenly 5-10 new factors are introduced to the equation. I find it interesting that you choose to bolster the underdog in worldwide conflicts. I do so, as well, in part just to encourage warfare and the corrosive effect it has on my rival's advancement, but also because I don't like to see other civs die - the more minnows in the pond, the less likely I am to be jumped, I reason.
Good stuff from everybody. On factories... being a perfectionist myself, I typically didn't build them until I had discovered ecology and recycling, but waiting can be a cruical mistake. At one point I had size 12 cities without factories (dutifully waiting for mass transit and recycling centers). I discovered electronics at least 20 turns before France, and started building Hoover Dam right away. She starts building it when I have 17 turns to go, and I think "no problem." Wrong. She completed it when I had 4 turns to go. How? She had a size 26 city with a factory working on it. Now, it was polluting the heck out of our planet, but that didn't bother her... and honestly, I had a ton of idle workers, so I shouldn't have let it bother me. Hoover Dam should have been mine, and I won't make the same mistake again. I now build hospitals and factories as soon as they're available, because the advantages they grant are fantastic.
Ok, I need to make the 3 hour drive back home before it gets too dark. I'm jonesing for some Civ3 tonight, I can tell you. I love Thanksgiving weekend, food is great, but... well, addiction is addiction.
I think I could be much better. I need to work on my REX strategies and work around having no luxury. There was absolutely no luxuries or iron to have in the whole midwest! 
Only horses to be had. About having no luxury I did not realize how that really got to hurt on reagant level. If you use the whip to force build ganaries it is not possible without temples to have past size two without having third citizen become entertainer and you still will have to use two garrisons to keep size two cities full productive. You would have to build temple and two garrisons to have size three cities full productive. The citizens have a long memory! I used the whip and because of that, I had to build second garrison and a temple beside a ganary and I believe this slowed me down. Maybe it was just better not to use the whip and so I do not have to build second garrison and temple and I can have size three cities churn out the settlers fast enough for the land grab race for my second ring area. I did have the cattles and wheats and rivers to irrigate, plenty of them indeed, to help me. Another thing I think I should have was to build less workers as I am playing an industrious civ and my workers build more roads faster hence needing less workers at start. 
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