I bought the Civ bundle when it came out and had an itch for some Civ so I installed Civ 3...

But damn it's hard. I don't think I ever played this one (I think 2 was the one I spent the most time with) and I'm really struggling.

I'm only on the second lowest difficulty (thinking that the lowest would be too easy) but I've started three different games so far and been quickly overwhelmed (not actually losing, but to the point where it doesn't look possible to win) as the computer just builds loads and loads of cities... they send out settlers like rats and settle everywhere.
I'm not sure if they are cheating (I can't see them being able to build so many settlers, warriors and workers so quickly legitimately...) but it's a bit annoying.

I've never had this much trouble in other Civ games, so I don't know if it's a specific AI thing in Civ 3?

Has anyone got any tips? Or mod suggestions that make it fairer if they are cheating?

this. take as much space, as you can. don't worry about corruption. in civ3 quick expand can't ruin your economy. in civ3 quick expand is vital. keep AI happy, give them some gold if they want.
don't waste your time to build some epic uber units to defend your cities, make warriors. AI see only 1 thing - amount of your army, doesn't matter what is this, 24 simple warrior or 24 swordsmen.
in early game i always "sacrifice" 1-3 of my towns, what build barracks->load of units, especially my mighty stack of horseman, or if i don't have horses - swordsmen/samurai. every another cities build settlers, workers, warriors. i do it before i have space to expand (15 cities on big pangea map, for example), and i place my cities like a "ring", around my capital (4-5 grids therebetween).
after this, i start thinking about invasion.
this is my XP from regent difficulty, i am not a pro :)

Thanks for the reply.
I'd read basically the same (that Civ 3 is a land grabbing quicker version of the franchise) elsewhere so decided to skip it for now and go to 4 instead which has a more sedate pace I'm used to.
Although even there my strategy of build 3 or 4 cities and then upgrade them to the max doesn't really seem to work brilliantly either.

I might come back to it at a later date and try a bit more of an expansion strategy to see if I can crack it.

Much of the complaint with CIV III was how unfair the AI was. CIV IV fixed a lot of the complaint. What were the complaints?

1. The AI tended to ignore your boundary. What a lot of people found frustrating was the way that the AI would find an opening in your territory and make a settlement there even if the AI's main territory was a good distance away.

2. The AI always had the necessary resources that kept up with its technology whereas you would gain the technology but have a difficult time accessing the necessary resource to utilize said technology.

Here's the thing. I've had my entire progression come to a screeching halt in a practice session (on my lonesome) because it turns out that in spite of having specifically picked Pangaea play, the game decided to be a complete rotter and spawn one strategic resource off on some distant island, and another on some arctic peninsula behind mountains in such a way that to access it, I had to specifically build a city on THAT side of the mountain range.

Only then, well into the late game, had I earned access to the amazing railroad, long after launching satellites and building an airport network.

Another time, I'm fairly sure I was screwed by the random chance that resources will just up and vanish without warning, possibly even before you've discovered them.

I decided to generate a map in the editor to see what the heck, and the results, as I mentioned in my thread were baffling.

You forgot 'A good distance away' AND has to pass by a million other clearly better places for starting a city, but ignore those places because of the urge to ram a city deep up the players arse.

But the reality is, I have never played any civ game or similar game like call to power or Alpha centauri where the AI does not try to ram cities deep up your arse for no logical reason..... seems to be some kind of sick demented joke of game developers across the board???
But, civ3 is too hard.

I solved the problem by building my own map with several large islands joined in the middle like a cartwheel. I then put a wall of mountains around each island in the ocean to stop annoying raids. the only point anyone can get to anyone else is through the center of the map.

ALL ANNOYING PROBLEMS SOLVED

Hi guys New here. Dose any one know were to download civ 1 thanks ben.

No idea... i never played civ1 because civ2 had me hooked, it would be like trying to enjoy watching Terminator 1 after watching terminator 2, not happening! lol

Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 are very different movies. T1 is a dark thriller, T2 is an action movie. Both are brilliant though.

I still hope that gog will bring us Civ 1 and Civ 2. Even though I have spent a good amount of time playing Civ 3, I still prefer Civ 2.

Go to the following link: " http://www.myabandonware.com/game/sid-meier-s-civilization-1nj". The link takes you to a web page that let's you download Civ 1. Comments on the site say you may need to use dos box to get the game to work.

The web site name is "myabandonware.com"


I have not used this website and do not know if it is safe to download from the site.

Yes and no.... Terminator 1 was a very good movie in its day but after watching terminator 2 and then go and try watching terminator 1 again, i am like "eeegads, this is horrid, cannot believe i loved this crap"

I disagree. I still love T1 and I don't think it aged as badly as you imply. And it is a very different movie compare to T2, but it is still really good. I rewacthed it many times and have it on dvd.

Btw, as a kid I loved T2, had it on tape and watched it countless of times. Have seen T1 much later and that did not stop me from enjoying it.

Just a matter of personal taste. Me personally, there are plenty of old movies i still enjoy watching but T1 just makes me cringe! lol.... possibly if it got digitally remastered, i might like it again?

I'm curious, which parts make you cringe? There are some parts which has aged but some parts are still great. For example police station shootout or the shootout in the bar are still great. I also love Kyle's dreams/memories sequences.

On the other hand, when I grew up the young John Conner started to annoy me in T2. Kind of typical Hollywood portrayal of annoying teenager. I still like T2 but less so than when I was younger.

Anyway, nothing wrong with having different tastes, makes the world more interesting :)

the two main things that made me cringe the most;

1) The quality of the audio and background music is horrendous.
2) the special effects have not aged well at all - you have to admit that rite?

That's why i say possibly a digital remaster might bring it back to being a good movie again?