Now, I've always tried to win Space Race, but the things that stop me from doing that are 1) I never seem to discover Aluminium or Uranium, and I know you need Rocketry to get aluminium, but even then i can't find it. and 2) I just never seem to get to Modern Times, in terms of Technology, quick enough to be able to get the scientific advancements, build the spaceship components, and launch.

Also, everytime I try to play above Chieftain difficulty, I always get my butt whooped by the other nations. Last time I played on Warlord, India took over all my cities. India!

Help would be greatly appreciated

My advice to you would be either keep playing and if you come up with a more general question ask away, or read the many threads that have torn the game apart, and looked at it closely... and learn.

It has been a long time since I played Civ3. I'm assuming you're playing Vanilla, not Play the World or Conquests? Most of us on here played the Conquests expansion mostly, but the basic game dynamics were the same. So my ability to comment is a bit biased by having played mostly conquest.

It is difficult but possible to win the game by being a non-warmonger at Noble level. You need to have some luck in the sense that: if you do not have iron available to you without warring, it will be very difficult to win without warring. Moreover, in the latter game, lack of the other key strategic resources can make it difficult to win without warring.

Most of us who seem to have climbed up to Monarch and Emperor difficulty I would say did so by taking advantage of the AIs tactical inferiority, and also the AIs inability to project what any given trade or diplomatic relation COULD mean in the future, whereas a human opponent will almost always do that.

Basically: to master the game at the beginning, it is a matter of learning the components. IMHO, mastering the next rung up on the difficulty scale is a matter of being active in designing your Civ, defending it, planning your techs, maybe even doing a bit of preemptive warfare.

The next rung up is about being PROactive, albeit perhaps more opportunistic than strategic. When you see an opportunity to hurt an AI you take it. When you see an opportunity to get a good trade you do it.

The next rung up (and as far as I can tell all the rest of them comprise this same basic cognitive shift, albeit requirsing greater and greater degrees of inclusiveness and accuracy as you progress up) is about ANTICIPATING things in the game, planning ahead, and being one-step ahead of the evil plans the AI has in store for you.

So you see Monteczuma over there 15 tiles to the east and Ghandi 19 tiles to the south. You can see that there are three irons smack between them (one of which is going to be off by itself, and the other two of which can be caught in a single cities Fat-X and also catch some other bonus tile e.g.,), and you do not seem to have any iron near your current cities. What is going to happen in the next 5, 15, 40 turns, and what should you do to maximize your prospects relative to this one strategic scenario. This is just one example of the nearly infinite set of scenarios you will need to appreciate, anticipate, and act accordingly; but the basic point is: what is likely to happen in the near future (next ~5 turns) the mid-term (next ~15 terms) and long-term (next ~40 turns) and what should you do given that.

Mastering the game at higher levels is about being able to read the situation (and not just in the map, or the resources, but in terms of which rivals are inevitable foes and which can be manipulated to your benefit [note, there is no such thing as a "friend" in this game], what Techs they will have for you to get a trade that saves you research time, what your civs traits are and how to leverage them, etc.) anticipate what is going to happen in the future, and act accordingly.