The Wimpy Warlord Seeks Training

Fellow Civers, I am only a warlord, and the computer whoops me at Regent.

Does anyone have any guidance or tips for me to use to get to the next level? Also, the computer always gets at least twice as many techs as me in the first five minutes, it drives me nuts.

Thanks

Hard to give any specific advice without save or screenshots...
I play on monarch and with a normal start always stay ahead of the AIs...
When you build your first city, go to the F1 screen and adjust the science to 100%, then go and see which tech is going to take less time and go for it. This is the easiest way to catch up, or stay close. Also expand, expand, expand!!! On regent, you should be expanding like crazy, there should not be anything to prevent you from grabing as much land as possible. Keep those settlers coming and settle as much land as possible. I usually build a warrior as a first thing in a newly found city; that boosts my military rating and gets the AIs off my back to allow for peacefull expantion. Build at lest one worker per city; I usually build more, one after the warrior in every city, and if I have a good worker producing city, I'll keep on making them, untill there is absolutelly no need. Have 2-3 cities build barracs and produce military units to be sent to the border to keep an eye on the AIs and be ready to repel any attacks. Build roads everywhere! Roads mean faster movement for you and more gold. More gold means more units and more science!!!
Another tactic to consider is putting your research at 10% for Iron Working and accumulating gold to buy the techs from the AI. On Regent, they will not charge you an arm and a leg, so it there should be no problem with buying the techs.
Don't hesitate to go to war early. As long as you are well prepared and have a steady supply of units going, a successful war will bring you land, gold and techs.
Choose your government carefully, if you are going to wage wars on your neighbors, go with the monarchy (unless you plan on getting them to declare war on you), if you want to build and have all the land you want for the moment, go with the republic. Unless you are a religious civ, no point in wasting turns and switching the governments more then twice in the game.
Read the war academy articles on this site, they are good stuff!!!
Start a game and post saves and screenshots for people to look at and give you feedback!

Thanx, that really helped, klopolov.

BTW, this is my 100th post!

@klopov
i disagree on some points
I allways go for republic it good for wars just dont lose any citys and kill of any units that get in your teritory quckly and the WW will be low or you wont have it

10 % reasearch is not a good idea at regent. AI is too slow to reaserch you will probably do it faster yourself with minimal infrastructure

when you are laging behind it's mostly beter to reasearch MORE expensive techs and then broker it around. iv menaged to catch up lag of 10 techs in in IA by reasearching Atomic theory and Electronics most expensive techs in IA (which AI ignores for a long time) and get ~400 gpt plus a lot of gold with some trading.

Early war is a must have. i prefer to go for an archer rush in the early stage of the game to cripple or destory a neighbor CIV to get space for me. Never hesitate to destoy a civ they will 98% back stab you in a future

Dont automate workers and dont use governers

Make plans ( to invade, conquer, plans for expansion)
"If you dont have a plan you plan to fail"- somone said that (dunno who)

Well, prior experiences show that in Civ, there is no such thing as always. I found monarchy to be much more profitable on quite a few occasions (in PTW) with unit support when my armies would eat tons of gold in the republic.
While you are lagging behind, it's a good idea to go to war for techs if you can, if it's not an option, then you can either go for the expensive techs to trade, or the cheap ones to catch up. If you are 6-10 techs behind, you are not going to research the expensive techs that AI does not have, you will research techs that AIs have that will give you units to wage wars on the AI to get techs.
The 10% strategy should only be used on regent in the beginning to accumulate gold for the warrior upgrades. Sorry, I thought that was clear when I wrote Iron Working...
Overall, I guess people have different playing styles and one should listen to different opinions and choose for themselves.
Yes, definately do not automate workers and do not use governors!
Plans are good to have too, good point! I usually plan my wars as soon as I know where the other civs are...

@klopov

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that would be klopolov, quite different meaning, although both could possibly typical Russian last name, klopolov just happens not to be a last name...

Wow, thanks guys. This is very helpful. I'll have to put the advice to the test tommorrow (it's 10:15 PM over here). I'll post the results and any problems that would need further advice (with screenies hopefully)

All good advice. I had a bit of trouble. I think lower level wise jumping from Warlord to Regent is a bit of a challenge but as long as you keep these things in mind you'll be fine.

And always remember no matter what a smart human is always better then the programmed computer.

I have recently just made the transition from warlord to regent I lost the first game but the second game was my best one ever. I found the trick is to expand and explore. Build cities everywhere and on everything dont be fussy about it. Trade like mad. Attack your weaker opponents and take them over especially if they have resources and luxuries. When you trade take whatever deal they will give you, even bad ones. Final word expand above all else.

I recently made the jump from Warlord to Regent in order to play some of the mods designed for Regent-level. The mods, and the Conquests as well, actually helped to force me to think about playing in a different fashion. As people mention, you need to expand. Through most of the ancient age, you had better have a big lead or a really good reason NOT to be producting Settlers or Workers with all of your cities.

But for me specifically, it was less than perfect expansion. I love building my cities in perfect spots, with the right amount of hills, 5 squares away so there's no overlap, etc. That's not effective. Your cities can be 3 squares away. You can fit almost twice as many cities that way. I had to bear in mind that those apparently perfect spots probably aren't, and even if they are, they'll only really hit that sweet spot after they've been completely improved with workers and you get Sanitation and hospitals. There's about a hundred Knights to produce before that happens.

klopolov said:

Well, prior experiences show that in Civ, there is no such thing as always.

Click to expand...

WHAT were you thinking??? You ALWAYS build roads all over your territory, I know that "always" always holds in Civ3.

(Just ribbing)

I made the jump from warlord to regent after playing a couple of GOTMs. If you join in and play along with some of the greats (like SirPleb) and read the spoiler threads you will pick up some great tactics. It's almost like having a great player sat next to you advising you on everything.

Biggest and best tip.... TRADE TRADE TRADE! Try searching for Moonsinger's trading thread... it's gold dust!

I'm now playing at monarch

Me too. Once you get Regent down Monarch isn't that much worse. Now I'm just preparing myself for the big leap to Emperor.

BasketCase said:

WHAT were you thinking??? You ALWAYS build roads all over your territory, I know that "always" always holds in Civ3.

(Just ribbing)

Click to expand...

Prior experiences show us that no one can always be right...
I stand corrected, shame on me for forgeting this important exception to the always rule...

This is my first attempt. I'm China on a mostly water Pangea map. As you can see in the screenshot, I built at least one worker per city. The problem I'm facing right now is that a huge jungle just so happens to be blocking me from the rest of the world (This always happens). The good news is that because of my roads and faster expansion, I'm making 4 gp a turn and am equal if not higher in the computer in technology (This hardly ever happens). I was able to get a good start in technology by meeting the Zulus earlier in the game and getting two techs for one of mine. Then meeting the English, I traded one of the Zulu techs for the English one. After that I traded the English one to the Egyptians in exchange for theirs. Voila! I'm ahead! Whoohoo! I forgot to up the science to 100% (rats), but I will up it some as soon as I get back in. And there was both Iron and Horses right near my starting location (Just wait until the middle ages. ) The Zulus asked me to give them 30 gold and I accepting. For one I did not want to deal with impis and for another my empire wasn't in full production mode yet.

My questions are...
Should my settler build a city in the jungle in an effort to expand and take it before the computer? Will the computer settle in the jungle if I don't? And can you spot any problems with my game so far by the screenshot?


Thanks!

Problems: Cities too small. Building settlers will make them even smaller. Some cities can't even make settlers since they're so small, yet you are building them. Oh, and do, settle the jungle. Jungle has good potential.

EDIT: Are your workers automated? Your irrigated tiles should be mines and your mined tiles should have irrigation.

Tomoyo said:

Problems: Cities too small. Building settlers will make them even smaller. Some cities can't even make settlers since they're so small, yet you are building them. Oh, and do, settle the jungle. Jungle has good potential.

EDIT: Are your workers automated? Your irrigated tiles should be mines and your mined tiles should have irrigation.

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No my workers are not automated. I just thought that it's best to balance out the food and the production in each square so they are equally high. I don't know much about irrigation and mining.

As for the settlers, most of the cities that are making settlers will become 3's before the settlers are finished. But I suppose it would be good to allow the cities to become a little bigger. My strategy was the constant building of settlers for the early part of the game.

In despotism, never irrigate grassland unless there is a bonus food resource. The rule of thumn is "Irrigate brown, mine green".

As Tomoyo said, the cities are too small to produce a settler. They will produce a settler only when they reach size three, so untill then you are wasting your production in them. Build another spear in them while they grow, the Zulus are bound to bully you for a while, so extra defences won't hurt.
The AIs settle in the jungles only when the more suited land is taken up, so grab it while you can!!! Once your workers are done with your infrastructure, they can cut down that jungle pretty quickly (if you keep making some) and you will have a very nice green land (with some bonus tiles too!) that is already yours and will be the best part of your empire!!!
Irrigate the brown, mine the green!!! Your green tiles give you two food anyway, that is enough to sustain your population and allow for growth, mine it!!! Mining will get you shields and much faster production. You've irrigated to the desert, that's a good thing! Now you can irrigate the desert and mine those irrigated grasslands. That way you can have a few size two cities (with harbors they will grow past that, with Rail Roads they will grow all the way to size 21!!!) in the desert by your capitol.
I wouldn't space my cities 1 tile apart, much better to build them 2 tiles apart, on regent, you can even allow for three tiles in between.
I would build a city where your settler is in the jungle, there is also a good spot above and to the right of your capitol, where the bonus grassland is. But DO NOT build your cities on bonus tiles, the bonus will disappear (to the best ofm y knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong)
Yes, you got it, trading is very important!!! Buy a tech from one AI that noone else has and you got yourself a key to getting the techs you need from other AIs!!!
You could also start building swordsmen instead of spears and garrison them in your border cities, see if the Zulus try to demand anything then! As far as I was able to understand, when AI determines your strenght, attack units deter them much more than defensive units...
But definately mine those green tiles and you'll see your production more than double!!!

EDIT: typed too slow, slightly crossposted...

Tomoyo said:

In despotism, never irrigate grassland unless there is a bonus food resource. The rule of thumn is "Irrigate brown, mine green".

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As soon as I get Monarchy I'm going to let my towns grow into cities and then switch governments and stay a monarchy for the rest of the game.

BTW, this is on Vanilla.

EDIT: Also, I'm somewhat colorblind, not being able to tell some similar colors from each other (brown and green, purple and blue), so what exactly do you mean by brown and green?

Brown = desert, plains, flood plains. Green = Grassland, Hills.