The Great Persian and Chinese War (Civ 3 Story 2001)

 

Civilization III is one of those games in the series that truly represents how Civilization becomes big. Unlike in the latter games, there is no compromise here. There are no hexes getting in the way and one can clearly see civilization literally come alive on the screen.

The Late game in the Civilization series has been a point of contention for many players. Some dislike it, while others enjoy the nation state competition. I prefer the late game as Civilization III's obvious flaws of the AI cheating are smoothed out and competition can be truly entertaining rather a revelation of how the computer has taken yet another spot on the map from you with another settler. 

In this particular game, I was playing as China, my favorite civilization. I was playing on Warlord difficulty and still the AI was cheating here. I had to check the diplomacy screen to make sure I was trading techs and making trade deals with my rivals.

I made a solid ally with the Korea AI and the leader did not declare war on me once. They were reliable if not always seemingly ahead in science in tech. We were friends but I was stronger than him at least on paper so I was not threatened by his armies or culture.

Persia was another story in this game. Earlier on in the game, the Persian Empire was much further away. The land occupied past the mountain ranges in the northern part of the empire was dominated by the Indians and the Americans. Persia was not even close to my borders. India was even big rival of mine with its huge metropolises and impressive culture.

That began to change very quickly as soon as Persia began expanding here.

Persia ended up conquering both the Indians and the Americans. They were right up at my borders, and I knew that there was going to be war. 

What a war it was. Korea was of a great help to me as soon I launched an ICBM at one of their cities. The Persian Shah Shah launched a nuke directly on Beijing, which was one of my most developed and sophisticated cities. As soon as the attacks began, my workers began immediately cleaning the damage and radiation.

Persia was a tough nut and I trying to figure out a way to reduce the population advantage they had over me. I sent Nuclear Submarines with had tactical nukes on them and sent to the coastline. I attacked their captial and other cities.

They began attacking the Northern section of the empire, sending waves of Mechanized Infantry and Modern Armor over the mountains. I had building tons of fortifications and bunkers in order to repel the invaders. My TOW infantry were useful in this case as I missing important resources. Korea was of a great help here and I managed to beat them back here.

As the war went on, I realized that the attacks became less frequent, and it was clear the Persia was starting to stagnate and decline as my nuclear attacks on them was having an impact on the economy and the happiness of their citizens. 

The war continues but as in life one can never be but too careful in their relations with humans, nations and cultures.