Civ 3's "Conquest" scenarios ranked completely (un)objectively

[@fungimancer9905]

i personaly like Sengoku the most, because you are closed on that island, and with music, Japanese names, unique units and technologies it just makes you dive deep into that atmosphere and feel like a real Shogun. And yeah, ninjas! Great video btw, gonna try that age of discovery scenario!

[@flibbernodgets7018]

In age of discovery I liked how corruption was reduced. I love colonizing all the little islands in normal games but I can never do anything with them and this fixed that. I also liked that I was able to make the Aztec empire into a catholic monarchy while still doing blood sacrifices. I can just imagine the implications of that: "Good news, Mr. Spanish missionary, I and all my people have converted to worship your god." "Yes, very good." "And so, if you will join us in witnessing our captured enemies die in the manner of Christ for our sins, we will be most gratified." "Wait, what?"

[@suedeciviii7142]

Agreed on both points!

[@MightyFineMan]

I know you ranked it somewhat mid tier, but I would love it if you could make a Sengoku Japan play through. I find it to be a historically fascinating scenario and the custom units make gameplay more diverse.

[@Quantumironturtle]

I agree, and the Shogun unit is in fact a fantastic example of risk vs. reward. It is by far your best scout, as it's fast and has increased attack and defense over the starting units, but is also an instant game over if it dies. If you're smart, you can use it to clear out the barbarian camps and resources before they become a problem and get a solid tech advantage for the first era by picking up all the nearby villages. The moment Ronin start to appear, though, you need to book it back home before they get you, then upgrade it to make it Ninja resistant. Making the King your strongest unit adds a lot of potential gambles to the strategy, and I find that appealing.

[@ztatiz6461]

I would like to request a re-evaluation of Rise of Rome on the basis of its custom soundtrack easily being the biggest banger of all of the Conquests custom soundtracks

[@wombatzzzz8446]

Idk sengoku has some lit beats, but ye its soundtrack is on pointtttttttt

[@ikesileth2270]

True

[@schuringleon3207]

There is an absolutely amazing modded scenario of it on Civfanatics

[@Tservator]

RoR soundtrack is S tier

[@Shelby-fq3eh]

@@schuringleon3207 What's it called?

[@btjandra6148]

Ever since I figured out how to use the editor and more importantly edit the civilopedia files I've been wanting to remake the Conquests scenarios. They're by far my favorite part of Civ3 and are far better than the Civ5 scenarios, but could use a few tweaks to improve balance and game pacing. Will likely upload them to Civfanatics if I ever finish, if people are interested!

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

How do you edit the civilopedia files? I've been trying to change the default model for the Japanese samurai to the Samurai warrior from the Sengoku scenario since I got the game years ago and I still haven't found anything that tells me how to do that.

[@snoxeri]

@@fiddleriddlediddlediddle I did this exactly when I was young and I'm sure it isn't super difficult. It is probably in an ANIM file of some kind if I remember correctly. I can take a look for you if you are still interested.

[@DonaldSjervenE]

Pretty good ranking. I've played them all at the time and over time. My 2 cents: best scenario at the time was Sengoku; most replayed was Rise of Rome; after over a decade break the Exploration one was what I picked first. But my favorite one was medieval Europe. I could still replay it now as almost any civ.

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

The best part of the conquests is the hilariously dated cutscene you get when you beat them all.

[@joshshepard4802]

Do you know if there is a KZbin video showing that clip!? I can’t seem to find it!

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

@@joshshepard4802 Yes. It took digging but I found it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/moLaZapvjMyLmbM For real, though: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zn6vfYd4bNx_nJo

[@zopheir5019]

@@joshshepard4802 I think it's this one kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5a4aWWjf65lmZY

[@TheBossKelso]

intresting. my fav game is playing on sid and reloading 10times to pass 1 turn to get best posebly outcome :)

[@nono4805]

I don't remember them well enough to rate any, but my favorite is Napoleonic Europe. Just wanted to say glad you still are touting Civ3.

[@rafaelsodre_eachday]

Bro, I play this game since i was young. I didn't know about this channel because i thought no one else still played it. When this game was published, _there was no internet_ , at least not the web we know today. Now I'm learning a lot from a Garlic Warrior. I play with Rome and I destroy the Celts everytime : ) I used to think Celt's UU were made to lose, I used to think "who wants to run around, I want strengh!" But now I've tried your methods, perhaps I can raise the difficulty level.

[@suedeciviii7142]

Oooh. Let me know how it goes :)

[@thatevildude]

Suede, would love to see you take on the Mayan challenge- where the goal is to conquer Europe with the Mayans on Age of Discovery.

[@suedeciviii7142]

I did Aztecs for a stream IIRC.

[@Слышьты-ф4ю]

Aha, that's how you put blood cult government in Europe

[@KeeperOfTheSevenKeys.]

"How would I know which is the purple civ?" Date, but only because I know about this period of Japanese history already.

[@mmcworldbuilding5994]

hmm interesting ranking and evaluation id rank them like this: 9rise of rome 8ww2 in the pacific 7fall of rome 6medieval europe 5mesoamerica 4middle east 3sengoku jidai 2napoleonic europe 1age of exploration (9 is worst, 1 is best)

[@wombatzzzz8446]

I love attacking with carriers

[@squatlebherz4434]

The main 3 I play are the 3 worst 😢😔

[@tralfazruk1]

WW2, Meso America sucks,Japan sucks, Discovery could have been alot better with a better map. Napoleonic is so-so, Fall of Rome is badly designed and huns units are to strong. Rise of rome and medival rome are ok.

[@ikesileth2270]

For a long time the only conquests I played were Mesoamerica and Sengoku. This month I played all of the rest for the first time except the WWII scenario, which is my last to try. I do want to try the age of discovery as the maya, but I’m worried it will be too tough to manage being sandwiched between the aztecs and the colonizers

[@thomasmynard9853]

These scenarios are incredible. Love them. I wish the Byzantines in Medieval Europe had a legionary unit or even just the legionary unit skin to replace their swordsmen. Would give them so much more flavour.

[@VonKrauzer]

I actually like playing as Ottomans in Napoleonic Europe. They are decently big, have multiple paths to expand and lots of resources, especially luxury. They have 5 out of 7 within their borders, except for sliks and spices, both of which they can either trade or conquer. Janissary are the weakest of the "guard" units, but you are going to use grand batteries en masse anyway, so their low stats don't really play that big of a role. Saving tons of money from having all luxuries and never facing a problem of rebelion is much more important.

[@RoastedPheasant]

Mesoamerica's scenario also has some of the best music in the game, which I believe is fully custom to the scenario?

[@Tservator]

Amazing thumbnail

[@maddslothii2532]

You made a video with the smallest map and 32 civs and could predict the actions of the AI, could you make a video about the AIs military tactics?

[@gbiebs5609]

I’ve actually only played age of discovery so I’m in agreement.

[@arvindhmani06]

I loved Age of Discovery mainly for the victory condition. It's a refreshing change when a Civ game does not revolve around military conquest.

[@yvessaintpige]

Agree with 2 of the other comments.. Sengoku was always my favorite scenario growing up. Would love to see a play through!

[@theequitableprose]

The image you created as the thumbnail for this is one of the most cursed images I have ever seen and I love it. UwU

[@TalostheCat]

that little slip at the end was a great way to finish off destroying most of these scenarios

[@ЙцукенПетрович]

As with many others here, Sengoku is my favorite. It is I think the most flavorful. And I do like the king unit, because it's so cool and powerful that you almost can't avoid using it despite the risk. It gives the game a bit of an RPG flavor. The 2nd is WW2 because of the balance and because of the best air combat in any Civ game ever. The 3rd for me is split between Mesoamerica and Middle Ages. Both were easy, but fun and novel. In Mesoamerica, I played as Aztecs and enjoyed the twist on the warfare. Normally, I build and use my forces with a lazer focus on taking and defending cities and avoiding unnecessary fights. The Aztecs scenario flipped it for me. In the Middle Ages, my most memorable playthrough was for vikings. I used berserks on longships to steal the artifacts and escape quickly to deliver them to Jerusalem and win by points before the coastal raid strat got hard. I even got an army of berserks at some point, which was utterly ridiculous. The biggest problem was the assassins in Jerusalem, which made me lose the city few times. Napoleonic Europe was good, but not particularly interesting. I remember playing as Russia, conquering Turkey, renaming Istanbul to Constantinople and winning by territory. Age of Discovery is rather boring. All you do is grab the resources and milk them till you win. There were some complications in the sea, but not enough to make a difference. With the remaining scenarios, I don't even remember playing them, even though I know I certainly did. The Wonders is the worst one for me, because it's basically early vanilla game, but with focus on wonders, which I don't like.

[@PD_Swag]

Hey Suede, can you do a video explaining the different ways to gain victory points? Maybe explain how your overall victory points are calculated and all the ways you can get more victory points? Thanks!

[@suedeciviii7142]

I would recommend playing with victory points off in single player, the game's not really balanced for it. If you're curious though, check the scenario properties section of the map editor.

[@PD_Swag]

@@suedeciviii7142 Awesome, thanks for the tip! 👍

[@ianokan9120]

The best imo opinion is the colonization one. I had the most fun playing the first time out of any other map because if u havent looked at the mapor tech tree it truly feels like you are exploring the world and the colonies arent complitely useless. But it got boring after the 1st time i played it. On the other hand the medival times map has the most replay value imo. Even tough it complitely ignores the rise of slavic nations(which as a bulgarian makes me sad) it still has alot of different countries and cultures you can play as. The Napoleonic wars is really dissapointing imo because it had the greatest potential but it just lacks smt idk what.

[@Quantumironturtle]

I find that one a pain because the military techs are geared strongly against direct land aggression (No unit has an attack equal to the strongest defense), but the A.I. never got the memo and will attack you anyway and destroy the spirit of the scenario.

[@ianokan9120]

@@Quantumironturtle which one. i havent played in a while

[@Quantumironturtle]

@@ianokan9120 The colonization one. That entire scenario is clearly designed to discourage direct attacks from one European power against another. The strongest defender is a musketman (3.4.1.) against a knight as the strongest attacker, (4.3.2.), meaning that going on the offensive on land isn't cost effective. On top of that, France, the country right in the middle of any would be conquerer's path, has musteeters (3.5.1.) which are even harder to kill, and most countries don't even have both iron and horses in their territory. Meanwhile, a bunch of units are amphibious and ship combat clearly favors aggression, thanks to the stronger attack ships have and their innate bombardment and privateer enslavement abilities. Because of these two factors, You're supposed to politely ignore your neighbors, focus on colonizing the rest of the map, and keep all wars off of Europe's soil. However, the Spanish never got that memo, and they have knights, so in every single game on a reasonable difficulty level I've had to deal with them declaring war on everyone. Not only do I not have the tools to properly fight back thanks to not having knights myself, but neither does anyone else. As a result, Spain conquers Europe, the national capitals get scattered all over the map right next to the treasures they're supposed to be collecting, and the whole spirit of the scenario (naval and proxy battles over gold shipments) trips and falls flat on its face.

[@ianokan9120]

@@Quantumironturtle Ah yes. Now i remember how after the game was finished i tried to take over france with holland(i had taken paris around the middle of the game) And i had stacked around 30 units(catapults, infantry and so on) and yet they destroyed my army with one city remaining. Lmao. So yes i understand you eccpecialy after the magic of exploring the first time u play is gone these things become really annoying

[@albertogomez6562]

Could try out the twlight of byzantium mod?

[@manaman9625]

Ngl Rise of Rome was my favorite but that’s because I just enjoyed the power fantasy of playing Rome

[@geuz186]

I would rank the medieval scenario higher if not for the assassins, imo they completely ruin the game.

[@Live01Legends]

I miss watching you play

[@suedeciviii7142]

Thanks, I miss playing

[@the_ogre1234]

Also do these come with the gold edition? I have the CD version that came with CivCity Rome (another good game)

[@theequitableprose]

Is that a fucking uwu in the thumbnail? Based.

[@joshuasutherland6692]

Some naval history giganerd had to program the cruiser caliber guns on Akagi and Kaga into Attack 2 carriers.

[@suedeciviii7142]

What a life

[@Taipei_103]

WWII is the most fun from what I remember.

[@Brucemagoose511]

Seems I might be in for a treat. I only ever played RoR and FoR as they were the most eye catching and multiplayer friendly (8x Civs limit in multiplayer). I was completely underwhelmed by both and never even looked at the rest.

[@suedeciviii7142]

Should be stated that I am the minority opinion on Sengoku and most people think it's amazing. Maybe give WWII a try as the commonwealth, that's also a fun one to get you started.

[@DudeHunder]

Can you make civ 4 content (if possible)? I can't find much good quality content on it

[@suedeciviii7142]

I've done one video on Civ 4 but I don't know the game very well.

[@Spoonwood]

The epic game.

[@the_ogre1234]

The thumbnail lmao 🤣

[@Azuciea]

beat them all on diety?

[@christopherkempf9853]

If you use the editor to look at Mesoamerica, there's actually a bit of Florida and Cuba included in the upper right of the map - but it is impossible for any unit to access those bits of land because of the intervening deep ocean. Not sure what the devs were thinking on that one - if you can build a "Great Acali" that looks suspiciously like a European caravel, why can't you get across the Gulf of Mexico?

[@suedeciviii7142]

Ocean isn't coded as impassible. As far as I know you can access these areas and plant cities. Just don't end turn in those areas. Or if you do, the boat only sinks 50% of the time

[@birthcontrolraccoon9785]

I edited Rise of Rome using a historical atlas so there would be more cities.

[@munsters2]

I have not played them all yet, but so far I like WW2 in Pacific the best. Just wish the map was bigger with more land to settle or conquer in USA and China.

[@suedeciviii7142]

Yeah definitely. I think ideally, smaller map but covering more area. That would make the pacific ocean less massive too.

[@Squaretable22]

Hmmm maybe I need to finish my ROR overhaul 🤔

[@ulle85]

What is your all time favorite custom scenario?

[@woodchipdust]

Hey Suede, have you found a way to play multiplayer with more than 8 players? I’ve been wanting to try the Middle Ages scenario with another person, but the player cap makes it pretty lame

[@suedeciviii7142]

Not without reprogramming the game from scratch.

[@MrAbgeBrandt]

There is a tool for hotseat/pbem. Nothing for a live game though :(

[@josiahferguson6194]

I like Napoleonic Europe better than middle ages, though that might just be that I have played napoleon more. Easiest ones to beat on Cid difficulty (IMO), ( I've beaten 5 of the 9 so far, working on the rest). Easiest to hardest: Age of Discovery, WW2, Napoleon, Mesoamerica, Rise of Rome, Middle Ages, Mesopotamia, Fall of Rome, Shogun.

[@suedeciviii7142]

Fall of Rome isn't that hard. Because of city elim, you can pretty easily manipulate the AI into dying. Agreed about Mesopotamia and Shogun though. Although apparently assassin strats are strong in Shogun.

[@josiahferguson6194]

@@suedeciviii7142 I haven't had success yet with Fall of Rome, but you are probably correct. I was thinking to use trade pillage exploit to stack gold and use mass upgrades. Shogun I have a good expansion strat but not a great solution midgame or how to close it out, might try that assassin strat. Mesopotamia I think I have a decent set up but there is a lot of RNG in AI behavior that can really mess up the strategy.

[@josiahferguson6194]

1.5 years or so later, have now beaten 8 of 9 on Sid difficulty, only one lacking is fall of Rome, and I haven't been working on it recently. Shogun I won with good expansion strat, then abusing trade for gold bug, to mass upgrade, to domination victory, -- couldn't stay ahead in tech for diplomatic victory. Mesopotamia, I finally got good rng, Middle ages I finally got by exploiting berserk for early city conquest's to get required VPs,

[@dariusmite1562]

Noice

[@NeoWasami]

I have been watching your videos for a week now and already I have started feeling bored of Regent but on higher difficulties and even in lower difficulties I have problems dealing with civ threatening all the time, attacking any city that is either unguarded or has a poor defense unit. How do you keep the AI scouts out of your areas cause those are the ones that randomly decide to start the 300 year wars which suck all my resources into defense against multiple enemies? I have even been advised that I have more units than everyone and still get that.

[@suedeciviii7142]

The AI doesn't often just walk up and attack you. Usually they threaten you first. When they do, do you give them what they want, or do you say no?

[@NeoWasami]

@@suedeciviii7142 The last two games I played The russians kept threatening me and then declaring war when I said no. As to the walk up part I had two ai just slow walk a few warriors right up to a city or in one case a resource and attack me even though I had a massive hill of archers literally right next to them. I had rome decide to attack my calv protected city with his ancient calv even when we had multiple trades going on and I was way ahead of the tech tree.

[@suedeciviii7142]

@@NeoWasami Then don't say no! And don't leave your cities empty near enemy units.

[@NeoWasami]

@@suedeciviii7142 I am supposed to give in? and they walk across my land to find those cities which are normally the behind areas. That is why I wondered how you keep the random wandering scouts out.

[@suedeciviii7142]

@@NeoWasami Yes. Absolutely. Give in. Sometimes you can wall them off with warriors. If you have a narrow choke point consider that. Even a not so narrow choke point hahah The AI doesn't just go into your land for no reason. Either they're escorting a settler, they're going to kill barbs, or they're going to fight an enemy. Usually just settling all the land near you will get rid of the first 2 motivations. Sometimes they'll path towards one of your undefended cities too, but usually only border cities or your capital.