Every now and then I decide to look through my pile of CD-ROMs for a game which has seen it's 15 minutes come and go to give it another whirl, just for the fun of it.
Civ 3 is my latest resurrection. It was the 3rd full version in a series that has always been tops on my list of favorites, so, in it's heyday it saw a LOT more than 15 minutes of fame. This series of games from first to most recent has been the number one consumer of my free time bar none.
The first "Civilization" came out in 1991, but was for IBM-PCs or Macs. I had a now aged Commodore 64, but it had bit the dust a few years earlier. No matter, they weren't really making any games for it by the early 90s anyway. When I got my first PC a year later (Mildred the First...woo hoo! A used 386 series 30-pound behemoth, weight not including it's 13 inch monochrome monitor!) I soon swapped out it's monochrome monitor for a CGA monitor, simply in order to play this game.
When Civ 2 came out a few years later, I was ready for it with a new machine, plenty of spare time and lots of coffee and Diet Pepsi to keep me playing hours on end.
2001 saw the release of Civ 3 and my upgrade to Mildred IX was timed to occur just before it's availability so I'd be able to run it well. I salivated over the PC Gamer pre-release reviews.
I upgraded my computer again in 2006 since Mildred IX or X couldn't handle the graphics of the now available Civ 4. After upgrading and getting Civ 4 and later both it's expansion packs Warlords and Beyond The Sword, I played this version for many countless hours.
But now we are getting into the time frame of this blog. I posted how I felt about Civ 4 back then and though it was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, the graphics blew me away, the gameplay was, well, somewhat different.
As you know, a couple months ago I turned Ric on to Civ 3 Conquests and gave him my copy. He now owns the former Mildred X and she can't handle Version 4, but I wanted a Civ game to play multiplayer with Ric so I gave him my version of Conquests and we played Hotseat for a while. But while playing Hotseat is fun, since you are competing against another human, it is waaaaay too long and tedious.
So I went and bought a new copy, now being sold as Civilization III Complete Edition, which includes Civ 3 and all it's expansions.
So actually, it's not a game pulled from the neglected pile, as the CD-ROM is pretty much brand new. But still, it's the old game.
Currently I'm playing a mod which expands the Earth-based map to "Giga" proportions and started with 32 civs. It's the year 1000 AD and though several of those starting civs have been conquered (by both me and the AI) there are still 28 civs with about 250 cities, and the city count is rising as new lands still have yet to be exploited.
Mildred, so far, is keeping up well with it, but the massive amount of number crunching the 'puter has to do each turn is starting to show, just a bit. (At least it's not like Civ 4 which Mildred doesn't handle very well at all, even for normal sized games)
Circa 50 BC
Circa 1000 AD
In the stunningly-rendered MS Paint "hand drawn" maps above, I am the cyan-colored China. The mod had each civ start in it's historically accurate locations, and with it's relative advantages/disadvantages accordingly. Also, I played a version of the mod which allocated the first few cities and units to you on start up, similar to Civ 4's "Advanced Start" feature. I picked China since I knew it would have a huge early advantage...and as you can see it paid off, I nearly have all of Asia already.
I was able to conquer first Mongolia around 1500 BC, then Korea very soon after. Next came most of Cambodia, circa 300 BC (only a single colony-turned-capital city exists now of them on the island of Celebes). Turkmenistan (aqua) was an easy pushover, they were reduced to a few backwards villages. Once I had my superior Rider units in the 2nd century AD, I charged on to eliminate India (lavender). Only fragments of them remain, most notably, and irritatingly on Sri Lanka. Japan (maroon) fell relatively quickly under the hooves of my Riders in around 600 AD. Only their single tile island (thus un-conquerable until "marines" are discovered) city of Okinawa exists.
Meanwhile, you'll notice, I have successfully colonized much of Alaska and the North American west coast, both by shipments of settlers and military acquisitions from the Aztecs (purple). This will eventually be united in one long strip, important to hold the "New World" powers of the Iroquois (dark green) and the Incas (blue), and even the now injured but still potent Aztecs.
Tibet is the thorn in my side (red). Even it's Siberian colonies are very difficult to conquer despite my overwhelming unit numbers and technological superiority. The mod, I guess with a nod to the tenacity of the Tibetan independence movement, has made them a special Warrior Monk defensive unit with stats of 1-5-1 (this is using classic strategic wargaming unit stats where the first number is ATTACK strength, the second DEFENSE, and the third MOVEMENT...this format was standard even in the days I used to play "paper games" with Bouchard in high school.) And when this unit is fortified in it's mountain city, as all of the Tibetan "home" cities are, even my Calvary with stats of 6-3-3 can't knock them out! I just keep killing off my units while promoting theirs to Elites, with an un-godly number of "health" pips! And they seem to be able to crank out an endless supply of these suckers. Thus is why the red blob exists still, though almost completely enveloped by my cyan home empire.
So as I look to the next millennium in the game (which so far is about 34 hours of gametime...yikes!) I will need to work toward discovering a more "modern" government (most of my rivals are Republic but I am still Monarchy in order to accommodate my huge standing army and nearly-constant state of wartime), conquest of my current "friend" Persia (bright green) and "petite" wars with Europeans to "clean up (ie: conquer)" the (dark blue area) mess in Siberia on my northern and northeastern borders.
I predict the "late game" with "modern" armaments (battleships, tanks, artillery, bombers etc.) will be between me, a "united" Africa of the Songhai Empire (yellow) a still-fragmented Europe though dominated by Germany (blue), Greece (orange) and Russia (brown), and maybe some vestige of the Incas, simply due to distance.
I would expect to focus my wars on three main fronts until then.
1. The Asia Front (in 2 phases): Phase 1: Final elimination of Tibet, it's colonies and those other assorted Siberian foreign colonies (dark blue area). The cleansing of Siberia will likely cause a "world war" since it is colonized by virtually every other European or Asian power. I haven't seen any Africans there yet so I may be able to stave off war with them for the next couple of centuries or so, if they don't have many mutual protection agreements with the Europeans. Phase 2: Take on Persia. That'll be fun. They are #2 right now in power and my Military Advisor says they are about equal to me in number of units.
2. The Conquest of the Pacific: Elimination of the Indonesians (pale orange) and colonization of virtually-unpopulated (black) Australia.
3. The Creation of a Sleeping Giant: I will quietly filter shipments of units and workers to the American colonies in order to prepare for a late game "quickie" war in The West. Once I have all of Asia secured, I'll cut deals with the Europeans and Africans so I can then wake my "sleeping giant" and rip out the hearts of the vast, but technologically retarded Amerindian empires.
I could probably go all "Cortez" on their asses now and be done with them, but it would require too many resources from "home", and with galleons, it's a long voyage (10+ turns) across the vast Pacific.
And the powers on my butt in Asia are starting to look at my regular "gifts" of free silk (since I have like 14 of them, LOL!) sideways and they aren't as easily delighted by them as they used to be. The AI doesn't like the fact I'm so big. Especially since the only victory setting is "conquest", so, they know, they have to try to "take me out" before I really become too massive and advanced.
To that I say defiantly: "Bring It On!" (doing my little Neo-from-"The Matrix" gesture)
Civ 3 is my latest resurrection. It was the 3rd full version in a series that has always been tops on my list of favorites, so, in it's heyday it saw a LOT more than 15 minutes of fame. This series of games from first to most recent has been the number one consumer of my free time bar none.
The first "Civilization" came out in 1991, but was for IBM-PCs or Macs. I had a now aged Commodore 64, but it had bit the dust a few years earlier. No matter, they weren't really making any games for it by the early 90s anyway. When I got my first PC a year later (Mildred the First...woo hoo! A used 386 series 30-pound behemoth, weight not including it's 13 inch monochrome monitor!) I soon swapped out it's monochrome monitor for a CGA monitor, simply in order to play this game.
When Civ 2 came out a few years later, I was ready for it with a new machine, plenty of spare time and lots of coffee and Diet Pepsi to keep me playing hours on end.
2001 saw the release of Civ 3 and my upgrade to Mildred IX was timed to occur just before it's availability so I'd be able to run it well. I salivated over the PC Gamer pre-release reviews.
I upgraded my computer again in 2006 since Mildred IX or X couldn't handle the graphics of the now available Civ 4. After upgrading and getting Civ 4 and later both it's expansion packs Warlords and Beyond The Sword, I played this version for many countless hours.
But now we are getting into the time frame of this blog. I posted how I felt about Civ 4 back then and though it was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, the graphics blew me away, the gameplay was, well, somewhat different.
As you know, a couple months ago I turned Ric on to Civ 3 Conquests and gave him my copy. He now owns the former Mildred X and she can't handle Version 4, but I wanted a Civ game to play multiplayer with Ric so I gave him my version of Conquests and we played Hotseat for a while. But while playing Hotseat is fun, since you are competing against another human, it is waaaaay too long and tedious.
So I went and bought a new copy, now being sold as Civilization III Complete Edition, which includes Civ 3 and all it's expansions.
So actually, it's not a game pulled from the neglected pile, as the CD-ROM is pretty much brand new. But still, it's the old game.
Currently I'm playing a mod which expands the Earth-based map to "Giga" proportions and started with 32 civs. It's the year 1000 AD and though several of those starting civs have been conquered (by both me and the AI) there are still 28 civs with about 250 cities, and the city count is rising as new lands still have yet to be exploited.
Mildred, so far, is keeping up well with it, but the massive amount of number crunching the 'puter has to do each turn is starting to show, just a bit. (At least it's not like Civ 4 which Mildred doesn't handle very well at all, even for normal sized games)
Circa 50 BC
Circa 1000 AD
In the stunningly-rendered MS Paint "hand drawn" maps above, I am the cyan-colored China. The mod had each civ start in it's historically accurate locations, and with it's relative advantages/disadvantages accordingly. Also, I played a version of the mod which allocated the first few cities and units to you on start up, similar to Civ 4's "Advanced Start" feature. I picked China since I knew it would have a huge early advantage...and as you can see it paid off, I nearly have all of Asia already.
I was able to conquer first Mongolia around 1500 BC, then Korea very soon after. Next came most of Cambodia, circa 300 BC (only a single colony-turned-capital city exists now of them on the island of Celebes). Turkmenistan (aqua) was an easy pushover, they were reduced to a few backwards villages. Once I had my superior Rider units in the 2nd century AD, I charged on to eliminate India (lavender). Only fragments of them remain, most notably, and irritatingly on Sri Lanka. Japan (maroon) fell relatively quickly under the hooves of my Riders in around 600 AD. Only their single tile island (thus un-conquerable until "marines" are discovered) city of Okinawa exists.
Meanwhile, you'll notice, I have successfully colonized much of Alaska and the North American west coast, both by shipments of settlers and military acquisitions from the Aztecs (purple). This will eventually be united in one long strip, important to hold the "New World" powers of the Iroquois (dark green) and the Incas (blue), and even the now injured but still potent Aztecs.
Tibet is the thorn in my side (red). Even it's Siberian colonies are very difficult to conquer despite my overwhelming unit numbers and technological superiority. The mod, I guess with a nod to the tenacity of the Tibetan independence movement, has made them a special Warrior Monk defensive unit with stats of 1-5-1 (this is using classic strategic wargaming unit stats where the first number is ATTACK strength, the second DEFENSE, and the third MOVEMENT...this format was standard even in the days I used to play "paper games" with Bouchard in high school.) And when this unit is fortified in it's mountain city, as all of the Tibetan "home" cities are, even my Calvary with stats of 6-3-3 can't knock them out! I just keep killing off my units while promoting theirs to Elites, with an un-godly number of "health" pips! And they seem to be able to crank out an endless supply of these suckers. Thus is why the red blob exists still, though almost completely enveloped by my cyan home empire.
So as I look to the next millennium in the game (which so far is about 34 hours of gametime...yikes!) I will need to work toward discovering a more "modern" government (most of my rivals are Republic but I am still Monarchy in order to accommodate my huge standing army and nearly-constant state of wartime), conquest of my current "friend" Persia (bright green) and "petite" wars with Europeans to "clean up (ie: conquer)" the (dark blue area) mess in Siberia on my northern and northeastern borders.
I predict the "late game" with "modern" armaments (battleships, tanks, artillery, bombers etc.) will be between me, a "united" Africa of the Songhai Empire (yellow) a still-fragmented Europe though dominated by Germany (blue), Greece (orange) and Russia (brown), and maybe some vestige of the Incas, simply due to distance.
I would expect to focus my wars on three main fronts until then.
1. The Asia Front (in 2 phases): Phase 1: Final elimination of Tibet, it's colonies and those other assorted Siberian foreign colonies (dark blue area). The cleansing of Siberia will likely cause a "world war" since it is colonized by virtually every other European or Asian power. I haven't seen any Africans there yet so I may be able to stave off war with them for the next couple of centuries or so, if they don't have many mutual protection agreements with the Europeans. Phase 2: Take on Persia. That'll be fun. They are #2 right now in power and my Military Advisor says they are about equal to me in number of units.
2. The Conquest of the Pacific: Elimination of the Indonesians (pale orange) and colonization of virtually-unpopulated (black) Australia.
3. The Creation of a Sleeping Giant: I will quietly filter shipments of units and workers to the American colonies in order to prepare for a late game "quickie" war in The West. Once I have all of Asia secured, I'll cut deals with the Europeans and Africans so I can then wake my "sleeping giant" and rip out the hearts of the vast, but technologically retarded Amerindian empires.
I could probably go all "Cortez" on their asses now and be done with them, but it would require too many resources from "home", and with galleons, it's a long voyage (10+ turns) across the vast Pacific.
And the powers on my butt in Asia are starting to look at my regular "gifts" of free silk (since I have like 14 of them, LOL!) sideways and they aren't as easily delighted by them as they used to be. The AI doesn't like the fact I'm so big. Especially since the only victory setting is "conquest", so, they know, they have to try to "take me out" before I really become too massive and advanced.
To that I say defiantly: "Bring It On!" (doing my little Neo-from-"The Matrix" gesture)