Ok, Civilization III gurus, question

[Sunner]

Due to the lack of any good games in recent times, me and a friend decided to try out Civ IIITW.
So, we setup a usual game, second easiest difficulty level(Is that warlord?), me as Vikings/Scandinavians, he's Germany, total 8 civs.

Things go fine, Im on one continent with three other civ's.
Then out of nowhere, all three form an alliance against me for no reason whatsoever, even though I had good relationships with all of them.

Now, there are actually two questions:
For one, how come this happens at all?
They don't seem like warmongers since they never fight each other, there was no incentive for them to attack me whatsoever, just out of the blue.

Secondly, I was actually a fair bit more powerful than them, so I had a load of spearmen and swordsmen by the time they attacked, however, my guys absolutely suck compared to theirs.
I counterattacked a small city, only to see my 4 veteran swordsmen get their asses handed to them by one lousy spearman.
On the other hand, when they attacked a city in which I had 4 spearmen, and the city wall improvement, one warrior and 2 archers had no trouble taking all of my spearmen out without a single loss on their side.
It seems like the general formula for this game would be 5 of my guys ~ 1 of their guys.
Out in the open I actually stood my ground very well, so after a while, and some intense military production, I had considderably outnumbered their army, and I was kicking their asses out in the fields, but the secon we come to a city, no matter if Im defending or attacking, my guys just start dropping like flies, heck they could probably have beaten my guys with a bunch of peasants.

Anyone got an explaination for this? Or do they just flat out cheat? The statistical probability of this happening just by "luck" over and over, every time, would be damn near null.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I lost half a dozen tanks in an army formation to a single barbarian once in CivIII, they do cheat like hell. That said, when attacking or defending a city in the earlier ages the only units you want involved are spearmen(or pikemen) and archers. Swordsman will get slaughtered on either the attacking or defending side of the equation worse then the normal AI cheat.

There is a hack that you can use for CivIII that will make it so the battle will always be won by the side that should(ie- defense, offense, hit points and situation are factored and then there is a winner, no AI cheating), don't recall where you can grab it but I started using it after my unfortunate experience at the hands of barbarians. It won't change your issue with taking or losing cities if you are trying to use swordsmen, you will still need archers and spearmen which actually makes sense(how well could you hit someone who was either on top of a wall while you were on the ground or on the ground below you while you were on a wall with a sword? ).

 

[Czar]

Think it has to do with borders, unless you have alot of "influence" you will suffer a moral penalty when outside your own border

not sure, been a long time since I played civ3

 

[sandorski]

1) The AI gets paranoid of those who have become Super Powerful.

2) Building Barracks, Walls, and certain Wonders makes a big difference in battles. Also, make sure your city defense units are Fortified and have 2-3 Pikemen/Spearmen/city especially the Capital.

 

[WillyF1uhm1]

The AI does 'cheat'.... I remember reading about somebody who lost a battleship against a trireme....
btw, die you install the patches for Civ III.

 

[Sunner]

Thanks for the answers, can't say they made me happier, but at least I know Im not doing something really stupid now

Ben, thanks for the tip on that hack, I'll see if I can find it.

 

[dragonic]

Originally posted by: WillyF1uhm1
The AI does 'cheat'.... I remember reading about somebody who lost a battleship against a trireme.....

Well, that hardly can be called as an AI "cheat" becose it happens to everybody........not just AI..........
I know this becose I too read one players story about how his Warrior killed a Tank

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

The only sure fire tactic I've found to take a city is to batter it down to 2 population with a massive WW1 style bombardment. Then you send in as many of your most powerful attackers as you possibly can. Further, park your attacking units in a forest, on the other side of a river, in some hills or some mountains. That way if they counter-attack, you have a nice defensive bonus.

And yes, the game cheats. My personal favorite is how the game loves to start civilizations as far away from resources as possible.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: WillyF1uhm1
The AI does 'cheat'.... I remember reading about somebody who lost a battleship against a trireme....
btw, die you install the patches for Civ III.

Not necessarily. That can happen because the Attack/Defense of a Unit can be increased through various Improvements. The game only uses Attack/Defend strengths to determine outcome, so though a Battleship is clearly superior to a Trireme in real life, if the Trireme's strength is high enough it can win in the game.

 

[darkeneddays]

I have an extreme love/hate relationship with Civ3. Awesome game but between the A.I. bullsh!ting in battles and important resources NEVER being anywhere near me, it drives me mad.

Nothing like being the largest and most advance civilization but can't advance because all the oil/iron/salpeter etc is on another settled continent.

 

[WillyF1uhm1]

Originally posted by: darkeneddays
I have an extreme love/hate relationship with Civ3. Awesome game but between the A.I. bullsh!ting in battles and important resources NEVER being anywhere near me, it drives me mad.

Nothing like being the largest and most advance civilization but can't advance because all the oil/iron/salpeter etc is on another settled continent.

heh now THAT sounds very familiar

 

[Sunner]

Well, tried out Civ III Conquests this weekend.
Either I've just been real lucky(or maybe really unlucky up until now), but the AI isn't nearly as bad anymore, it's acting the same way so far, but I don't need to keep the 5:1 unit ratio to keep up anymore.

It's still constantly pissed off at me though, don't know why, in this game I started out in a really bad place, so there are 3 other civs that are more powerful than me, including my friend, but everyone still comes after me.

After I ran into the Zulu, it took them a whole 3 or 4 turns before they declared war, but I managed to fend them off, and eventually me and my friend destroyed them completely.
Then I ran into the Arabs, they managed to beat the Zulu record by declaring war 2 turns after meeting me.
Neither of them declared war on my friend though, even though he's slightly more powerful than me.

I guess everyone just hates me.