Difficulty Levels

0:00 Civilization 3 has six difficulty levels in the 2001 game and eight once Conquests is installed; the Complete manual (pp. 30-31) lists them as Chieftain, Warlord, Prince, Monarch, Emperor, Demigod, Deity and Sid, from easiest to hardest. Each step up gives your cities fewer content citizens, makes the AI build and research faster relative to you, and makes the AI leaders craftier. Sid, added by Conquests in 2003, is described by the manual as "the most punishing AI difficulty level ever seen in Civilization".

Quick facts

Source: Civilization III Complete manual, pp. 30-31; Prima's Official Strategy Guide, pp. 15-16.

The eight levels

The Complete manual (pp. 30-31), which describes the game with both expansions, gives each level a line. Difficulty adjusts "the general level of discontent among your citizens and the average craftiness and intelligence of the AI leaders", it says.

Source: Civilization III Complete manual, pp. 30-31.

The names differ between sources for the middle levels. The 2001 manual and the Complete manual both print Prince and Monarch for the third and fourth levels (2001 manual, pp. 162-163), while Prima's guide (p. 15) prints Prince and King. Many players search for "Regent" as the third level; none of the manuals or Prima's guide prints that name, so this page uses the manual's.

5:48 In the game itself the third level is called Regent. Suede's video on the levels, which plays one map to 1000 BC on each, names them from Chieftain and Warlord through Regent and Monarch to Demigod and Sid, and calls Regent the level at which the AI plays by "the exact same rules" as you; GamerZakh picks Regent on the Player Setup screen of his 2024 retrospective. The manuals' Prince and the game's Regent are the same, third, level.

Demigod and Sid came with Conquests. GameSpot reported the two new levels when the expansion went gold on Oct 24, 2003, and 2K's page lists them beside Deity. Demigod sits between Emperor and Deity, and Sid above Deity.

What changes at each level

2:30 Prima's guide (p. 15, Table 2-3) gives the numbers behind the six levels of the 2001 game.

Source: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, p. 15 (Table 2-3). No printed source read for this page gives the figures for Demigod or Sid.

3:28 Content citizens are the citizens each city starts with who are not unhappy; every citizen beyond that number is born unhappy, per Prima (p. 15). On Deity a city's second citizen is already unhappy, so temples and luxuries matter from the first turns (see Happiness and War Weariness).

4:55 The AI's rate is the time it takes compared with you. Prima explains that 200 percent means opponents "take twice as long as you" to build units, improvements and Wonders and to finish research (p. 15). On Prince the AI works at your pace; on Deity it needs only 60 percent of your time.

Prima lists further effects that rise with difficulty (pp. 15-16):

• Gold shortfalls: on Chieftain and Warlord, units are not disbanded and buildings are not sold when you run out of gold.
• Free units: your first few units need no support on every level, and several more are free on Chieftain and Warlord.
• Corruption increases with difficulty (see Corruption and Waste).
• Goody huts are more likely to give a reward on lower levels.
• The AI is more lenient in negotiations and less aggressive, and less likely to break treaties, on lower levels; in every other respect it plays at Prince level.
• Starting gold is 10 on every level, a change from earlier games.

Which level to choose

1:37 The manual tells players of earlier Civilization games to start one or two levels lower than they are used to, because of the new features; "New players don't need to worry, as they have no bad habits to break", per the Complete manual (p. 30). Chieftain is its choice for a first game, and Monarch is where "experienced and skilled players often play". The Beginner's Guide covers the first turns of a game at any level.

13:49 Prince is the level where the numbers even out. By Prima's table (p. 15), Prince is the first level at which the AI builds and researches as fast as you, and the AI plays at Prince level in everything the table does not cover; above it the AI is faster than you.

Conquests made the AI tougher on every level. GameSpot's Conquests review (Nov 18, 2003) found that the AI "seems to play a bit smarter" even on the lower levels. Strategy for the top levels is on Deity and Sid Strategy.

Setting the level

3:36 Difficulty is chosen on the Player Setup screen, the second of the two setup screens, beside your civilization, your rivals and the game rules, per the Complete manual (pp. 25, 30). Conquests also added an Adjustable AI Aggressiveness setting on the same screen; "Normal" leaves each tribe at its default aggressiveness (p. 33). The rest of the setup is on Game Setup and Maps.

Frequently asked questions

What are the difficulty levels in Civ 3? Civilization 3 Complete has eight: Chieftain, Warlord, Prince, Monarch, Emperor, Demigod, Deity and Sid, per the Complete manual (pp. 30-31). The 2001 game without Conquests has six, without Demigod and Sid.

What is the hardest difficulty in Civ 3? Sid is the hardest Civilization 3 difficulty, added by Conquests in 2003; the Complete manual (p. 31) calls it "the most punishing AI difficulty level ever seen in Civilization". Before Conquests the hardest was Deity.

What does difficulty change in Civ 3? In Civilization 3 a higher level means fewer content citizens per city (4 on Chieftain, 1 on Deity), an AI that builds and researches faster than you, a smaller bonus against barbarians and more corruption, per Prima's guide (pp. 15-16).

Is Regent a difficulty in Civ 3? The Civilization 3 manuals name the third level Prince and the fourth Monarch, and Prima's guide calls the fourth King, per the Complete manual (pp. 30-31) and Prima (p. 15). None of them prints "Regent", but the game itself calls the third level Regent, as Suede's and GamerZakh's videos show.

Does the AI cheat on Deity in Civ 3? On Deity the Civilization 3 AI takes only 60 percent of your time to build and research, and your cities start with one content citizen, per Prima's guide (p. 15). Prima says the AI otherwise plays at Prince level.

What difficulty should a beginner play in Civ 3? The Civilization 3 manual recommends Chieftain for first-time players, and tells veterans of earlier Civilization games to start one or two levels below their usual one, per the Complete manual (p. 30).

Sources

• Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete manual (Steam-hosted PDF), Atari and Firaxis Games, 2005
• Civilization III manual, First Edition (archive.org copy), Infogrames and Firaxis Games, Sep 2001
• Sid Meier's Civilization III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (David Ellis) (archive.org copy), Prima Games, 2001
• Civilization: Conquests enters golden age (Tor Thorsen), GameSpot, Oct 24, 2003
• Civilization III: Conquests Review (Jason Ocampo), GameSpot, Nov 18, 2003
• Sid Meier's Civilization III, 2K, read Oct 22, 2026
• How To Play Your First Game Of Civ 3, Suede, Feb 12, 2020 (video)
• A Civilization 3 Retrospective | Prepare For Civ 7, GamerZakh, Aug 17, 2024 (video)
• Explaining The Difficulty Levels Of Civ 3, Suede, Jul 27, 2019 (video)