The Nightstar Zoo

Well, I finally ordered it. Sid Meier is a vengeful god and punishes me for waiting so long to buy his fabulous game. He gives me short nights of fitful sleep and long days of excruciating waiting. Damn him.

Anyway, which is your favorite race? Any tips on which to play? And just a general sounding off for all of Sid Meier’s games and why everything he touches turns to gold.

Yay Civilization!

I love it so much I'm considering rewriting it.

Vorn

I just wish I had the money for the expansions.

For races, it's all up to the bonuses they get. I like expansionist civs when playing large maps with few civs, so I can spread through the world like a cancer with no resistance. I also like religious civs because they don't experience periods of anarchy between governments, but most especially I like industrial civs, because their workers get things done licketty split.

For tips- well, everybody plays differently. I play diplomatically, so I rarely or never go to war, which is a style of play that almost no one else uses, I think.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sidpirates/index.html

Check the interviews with Sid himself as to why his games are so successful. True, these interviews deal with Pirates!, but the general idea applies to all his games really.

As for which civilization is best. Depends on the type of world you're playing and your playing style. Me?? I tend to have few cities, not that many units, but highly advanced ones. So while my opponents are still tinkering around with chariots and/or musketman, I've got tanks and bombers defending my cities.

I go for the diplomatic way usually, so if someone is stupid enough to go to war with me, next turn they usually find that i've bribed all their other neighbors into declaring war on them.

I am very excited about the next Pirates! game. It is shaping up to be possibly the best game he has done yet, making it the best game ever. (In my opinion at least)

The one time I got to play, I was the Romans. During the course of my game I only discovered the Greeks and the Egyptians on my map. At first I tried to be diplomatic, and with Alexander it worked fine. But Cleopatra just wouldn't budge on any deals I proposed to her, including offering writing for pottery. So I got frustrated and killed her.

I will try to have more patience in the real game, because shortly after that Alexander got a little bit more wary about me.

Although he did agree to some pretty bogus deals out of fear…

I'm very wary of the dancing mini-game myself. The alteration of the fighting system will also take some getting used to. Rest seems very doable. Should be able to get a double peerage again.

Certain civs are a lot harder to deal with than others, especially militaristic ones. Civs like the Aztecs and Zulu will rarely bargain with you, and if they think you have so much as a city or colony that they can easily take, they'll eagerly declare war on you with no warning. If you're on the same continent as one of them (the AI absolutely sucks at naval warfare, or for that matter exploration), you need a strong defense no matter how diplomatic you are.

I usually ignore diplomacy and all that, just concentrating on getting technological superiority. Then eventually the others declare war on me and I stomp them with laser cleats.

Vorn

I can't wait until Pirates returns... it's been one of the best games ever, and it's only fitting that it gets one of the best sequels ever.

If you're talking about Civilisation III, the easiest to play with are the Babylonians, because they're both Scientific and Religious, and most of the progress comes from those two influences. The best special unit is the American's F-15, but it comes very late in the game, by then it's less important.
What I will recommend is that you edit the rules in the map editor, and fix the stupid things like Swordsman and Ironclad not being upgradeable.

While waiting for Civilization III, I decided to start a new game in Alpha Centauri. I had forgotten how completely addicting that game is. I already have been elected councilor and have managed to conquer two of the other factions and am close to a third. The Morgonites, Spartans, and Peacekeepers are all that will be left after those simpering Bible thumpers fall. And I started it today.

I have figured it out. Sid Meier doesn't make games. He makes electronic crack.

Heh, I figured that out with Pirates :)