Ignorance Is NOT Bliss and Other Hard Lessons

No victory this time, not even a time victory. I take pride in the fact that, though my civilization was weak, I was not conquered, but a rocky start hobbles the rest of your game, no matter how brilliantly you play it. And to be honest, I did not play brilliantly.

For a reminder, I played Persia, selecting that particular empire because of its geographic location and the supposed advantages to be derived thereof. A good theory, but in practice I was harassed by barbarians, constricted by neighbors, and generally prevented from building an empire "to stand the test of time," as the game says at the beginning. Once I'd finally secured my borders from barbarian attack, I became caught up in the blood lust of my neighbors (who kept asking me to join with them in declaring war on some third party) and foolishly declared war on Mongolia. I was in no financial or technological position for any large-scale conflict and, realizing thin, I quickly signed a peace treaty with Genghis Khan. Not long after this, Greece declared war on me. In my one clever move of the game, I persuaded Egypt, China, India, and Rome to declare war on Greece. Thus, Alexander was distracted, my empire was saved from destruction, and Greece was conquered. It pays to have good relations with your neighbors.

After Greece was subdued, I began rebuilding my damaged infrastructure. This didn't take terribly long, but it cost my already small, weak empire precious development time. I was still recovering when Germany achieved a space race victory. And so ended my third game of Civ, the first game in which I did not achieve some manifestation of victory. This was no surprise, and at least by the third time around I was able to accept the now-expected comparison to Dan Quayle without indignation.

Going through my scores, I cringed at my poor performance: Number one in no category, only one city in the top five, only twelve cities built. Embarrassing. However, when I finally reached the Hall of Fame, I realized that the game's difficulty level was listed as "Noble," not "Settler" as I had intended. I must have forgotten to change the difficulty when I was setting up the game. Seeing that, everything clicked: The constant harassment wasn't just because of Persia's position; it had to do with the increased difficulty. And my less than stellar performance was the result of a flawed premise--my belief that I was playing "Settler" level. . . . I managed to rack up an unprecedented number of stupidity points this game.

I know I've rambled on somewhat about how and why I lost, but my mediocre game reveals an important economic concept. In the chapter on the Industrial Revolution (Chapter 4), Heilbroner talks about the importance of saving and investment. "Saving is the releasing of resources from consumption; investment is the employment of these resources in making capital" (pg 74). According to Heilbroner, rich societies with unemployed resources can build capital without decreasing consumption; however, poor societies with little or no unemployed resources must somehow decrease consumption. This is a difficult feat and results in slow growth. Though Heilbroner does not explicitly say so, slow growth would also lead to slow recovery were the society's fragile economy to experience some kind of hardship. My game clearly displays this: Repeated barbarian attacks caused Persia serious economic setbacks during the crucial formative stages, and it never truly recovered from these setbacks. Growth was always slow, placing the Persian "empire" behind others and leaving it even more vulnerable as a target for conquest. The slow growth is pointedly illustrated in one telling comparison: In this game, I reached the Industrial Era in 1914; last game, when I played China and was able to develop virtually unmolested, I entered the Industrial Era in 1680. I never realized just how difficult growth can be until this game.

In sum, the important lessons learned from game three are:
1. Ignorance is not bliss; knowing things like the difficulty level are key in planning strategy.
2. Do NOT declare war on another empire if you do not have the means to achieve victory! You'll just wind up draining your resources and embarrassing yourself.
3. If a more powerful empire declares war on you, try to persuade friends (who are hopefully even more powerful than your enemy) to declare war on the offending empire. Hint: This works much better if you have good relations with your neighbors.
4. The beginning of the game is arguably the most important for the development of your empire. Focus on expansion, but also on defense. Expansion will do you no good if your outlying cities are constantly ransacked. The beginning is the period to get ahead, so make the most of it!

I think I have imparted enough Civ wisdom for one night. In my next game, I think I'll go back to playing China. I had great success as China, and I have a soft spot for Qin Shi Huang. . . . Or maybe I'll play Germany. Germany seems to begin in a rather out-of-the-way, isolated position. But then, so does Japan. We'll see.

References:
Heilbroner, Robert L. and William Milberg. The Making of Economic Society. 12th ed.