Welcome to this special AI game! As a regular on /r/civaigames, I've really enjoyed watching your creations, and now it's time to give back how I can - with a 12-year-old piece of software that leaves a lot to be desired, but I love it.



An overview of the loading screen which gives you information about the civs, winning conditions, and the handsome face of the leader of the Observer Civ, Mr Maya himself.



Most civs are just renamed vanilla civs (Italy was Rome for example). Others that didn't exist, like Austria, Serbia, etc, are rehashed vanilla civs that have been altered for this game in the ConquestsEditor. I'll explain Unique Units as I go.

Welcome to our sub. Volcanos are the only impassable terrain in Civ 3 so I've hidden myself behind some. No-one can position any radar-owning troops near enough to spot me either.

Our first civ and one of only two off the coast of Europe is Ireland. Lead by Brennus of the Celts and recoloured to a better green colour, his UU is the Gallic Swordsman - a nifty early unit with the ability to move two squares at once (remember in Civ3 most ground units only move one tile at a time...)

And joining them is Elizabeth I, in England. I wanted them to be red, white, or blue, but sadly so does every European nation! Their UU is the Man-O-War, a powerful boat, which I also made available to other nations after some testing. For the next game, I'll give them a land-based UU or at least allow them to access the MOW a few techs earlier to allow England some advantage. One quick note - I gave every civ with a capital city on the coast a free galley: carries two units across coast tiles only and hopefully allows coastal civs a better chance at conquering across water (as units can't embark themselves like in Civ 5, they need boats to be built for them...)

Joan d'Arc leads the French from Paris, recoloured into the same blue colour Napoleon uses in the scenario I based this map off. Their UU is also the Gallic Swordsmen, and they also build the musketeer later on - a good defensive unit of the time that requires the gunpowder resource.

In Iberia we get Spain, lead by Isabella, in Madrid, and Portugal, lead by Henry, in Lisbon. Henry, like Elizabeth, has a Unique Unit in boat form which is also accessible to other nations. Their Carrack is stronger than the standard troop transports of the era. Isabella gets Carthaginian War Elephants (rehashed Indian UU but kinda accurate). We'll meet them later.

Italy is lead by Caesar and sports a beautiful dark red colour. SPQR is a militaristic civ with an easily-defensible start, and can build both Legionaries and Hoplites (pretend they're Phalanxes instead but the Romans did have spear units...)

Rounding off the Mediterranean are Greece (Alexander) and the Ottomans (Selim). Greece gets the Hoplite while the Ottomans get the Sipahi, a devastating cavalry unit that I have to nerf a little bit to make it fair.

In Central Europe we see Austria and Serbia. Serbia doesn't have a UU, because I wouldn't know where to start with making one or naming one, but they have a very productive location with all those hills and mountains nearby. Austria gets a unit called the Winged Hussar and shares that with Poland. Here is where my modding skills start to fall down, because at present the Winged Hussar shows as a Babylonian bowman, but pretend there's a horse underneath the guy and we'll be fine.

The Netherlands (William) gets control of Swiss Mercenaries, a good defender of the Medieval Era. Germany (Bismarck) gets Panzers, a tank replacement. Denmark, led by Harald, gets Berserkers, a longbow replacement with amphibious attack. In Civ 3, units cannot attack from the sea, and melee boats cannot attack cities. Instead, you must land your troops on a free tile and attack from land. Amphibious units however can attack directly from boats, making the Berserker a great tool for conquering England, for example. Copenhagen is misplaced but helps form a canal instead. Unfortunately in Civ 3 only Danish units can go through Danish cities so for everyone else the Baltic Sea is completely cut off, but I needed a landbridge to even out the size of nations in this region.

Sweden rounds out Scandinavia. I gave them a Carolean, a gunpowder unit, although I cannot remember ever seeing them build any...

Poland (Casimir) also gets the Winged Hussar. They're in a more spacious region of the map and if they get settlers out quickly they're in with a shot of expansion.

The Ukraine are a rehashed Mongols, supposedly with a Keshik-style unit that they never get round to building. I thought it was because of a lack of the horse resource but I added some in. I'll investigate some of these errors before my next game, I think. They have a lot of room to expand.

Russia (Catherine) has the most room to expand, and a perfectly-timed unit in the Cossack, with its great speed (3 tiles!) it can conquer territory quickly.

Serbia has already got its second city, and the Ottomans are heading off for the hills and good production. How fast cities grow depends on the terrain around, and the rich grasslands around Belgrade are helping. Settlers require a city of three population (and the little number next to the name indicates how many turns until the city grows), so Istanbul has some time to wait before that Settler will be built. The AI loves wasting production like this.

Every single time the Ukraine sends their settler too far away, slowing progress and wasting tiles. Cities can only work 20 tiles that surround the city so settling far away wastes tiles.

Denmark and Sweden both head away from each other, despite the good spread of resources between them. Only one city will fit in the Malmo Gap, so whoever gets there first will likely succeed in this region.

I've forgotten to mention Switzerland yet! Led by Dufour, a name I took from all the Civ 5 mods, and with a similar colourscheme to them too. They also have the Swiss Mercenary as their Unique Unit because of the name. I should say I took city names from Google, which I think are ranked on population size, hence the capital of Switzerland in this game is Zurich, not Bern. Every test game has Austria and Switzerland both trying to settle the same lands, and it's the same this time around too.

Portugal hasn't sent their settler very far, perhaps fearing their yellow enemy to the east.

Salzburg wins the race so SWZ sends their settler north instead.

Portugal must be really scared. They're not settling at all! Sometimes the AI wants a melee unit to guard the defenceless settlers (who can be easily captured) and won't move. Yet there's no wars yet and no barbarians either. Spain already has two new cities settled...

England is trapped in the south and the Midlands while Ireland hopes to settle Scotland and the North. Ireland, if I remember correctly, ordered their worker to join their city's population (worth one pop) to make building settlers quicker, although infrastructure suffers as a result. Other civs did this too but I couldn't work out a pattern.

England uses their free galley to settle Hastings in a position where William the Conqueror doesn't need boats to attack. It's a great stepping stone to the continent and England must defend this well to stand a chance of any gains. SWZ get their second city, Geneva, down. Eventually.

Finally, Portugal is inspired to go forth and now they're trying to catch up.

This is the colourful stats screen! Score is based off three things - how happy your citizens are, how large you are, and if you've researched all the technological advancements in the game and have reached Future Techs. At the moment scores are not indicative of the how a human would rank each civ's chances but some are already starting to show as powerful nations.

...and Portugal is last because it's a scaredy-cat.

"Powerful is an alagam of cities, gold, culture, advances, resources, military strength, nuclear weapons, and wonders." It also tells us how likely one nation could stomp over another... England and Serbia are off to good starts! DEBUG - the Observer Nation - leads at present because of my nuclear submarines keeping a watchful eye over precedings.



There's another screen that deals solely on culture but at this stage everyone is the same level as everyone has only a palace and nothing else so I've left it off. It features next part.



So. Here we finish for now! I hope you've enjoyed it. Any questions, answers, or comments please find the thread at /r/civaigames! The next part will appear in two days hopefully.