Tips for Cramped Opening

[cgannon64]

Everyone hates cramped openings. Especially me. I'm starting as France (I don't really like them, but I do Random Civ, large map, random everything). After early exploring, I find I'm on a peninsula (sp?), at the tip of it. England is blocking off the mainland. Continued exploring reveals that I can fit maybe a good 7 cities before running into England. Seven is NOT enough cities for me, and I find that early wars slow down science at critical times and give others civs a chance to take a tech lead. What are your tips/strategies for this type of opening?

 

[sabo]

Hit escape, choose "yes", then click "new game" that would be my tip

 

[JohnGalt]

Build a couple galleys and flank the English. Start a colonizing effort, overseas or on a different section of the world. Start a war for the express purpose of getting a GL - if their military is good enough, then just have your city closest to them be on a hill and massively fortify it, their attacks will eventually produce a GL for you. Take the GL and build a FP in your secondary expansion area. Make peace.

It's tricky, but it can be done.

 

[Maple]

Originally posted by JohnGalt
Build a couple galleys and flank the English. Start a colonizing effort, overseas or on a different section of the world. Start a war for the express purpose of getting a GL - if their military is good enough, then just have your city closest to them be on a hill and massively fortify it, their attacks will eventually produce a GL for you. Take the GL and build a FP in your secondary expansion area. Make peace.

It's tricky, but it can be done.

Wow! Great idea! Is that your complete idea for cramped starts or is it an abriged (sp?) version? If so, you should write it up, and send it to TF for the war academy!

 

[Masquerouge]

Originally posted by sabo10
Hit escape, choose "yes", then click "new game" that would be my tip

Yu. That's the fate of 3/4 of my games.

The thing is, I like huge maps, and many civs, but I HATE to have a civ near me. There should be an option, "Other civs start as far from you as possible".

 

[D9phoenix]

You can change the distance between civ's in the editor Masquerouge. I once for kicks set it to a distance of like 500 on a 256x256 map.. it was quite awhile before anyone made contact.

 

[Masquerouge]

Yeah, I know I should toy with the editor to have "ideal" games.
BUT... Aren't you obliged to do this every time you start a new game ?
Or when you've made your changes, they are now valid for any future game ?

 

[Level]

Any changes you make to a BIC in the editor will be used any thim you use that BIC including Civ3Mod.bic which is used for Quick start and Start new game (it is suggested you don't change it though)

 

[provolt]

I think that the the best plan for cramped beginnings can be summed up in three words:

:tank: WAR! WAR! WAR! :tank:

Attack early, attack often, and attack with lots of units.

 

[Baleog]

I agree with war. In civ 2 it would prevent science IMHO, but in civ3 it's great. Only if your pitted against the Greeks or the Romans is it a problem.

Of course if you've no iron you're in trouble.

 

[Higher Game]

Jump your capitol. Try to make a city at a river in the mainland. Once you establish your capitol where you want it, try to get some other civs to attack England. Then continue to build and go to war.

 

[murewa]

if you don't go to war they will anyway (they themselves don't like being cramped) and may take you by surprise. early war is the only key.

 

[D9phoenix]

One other strategy you can do when your cramped in, in my last game i played i had enough room for 1 city between me and england. They of course went for settler production, so right out from the gate i bypassed the barracks and went straight for archers/warriors (spears if you have bronze working).. once you get 3 or 4 rush there capitol and use it to build the barracks.. then just keep cranking units out there and switch your capitol to barracks and keep cranking out units.. you can acquire quite a few cities really early in the game this way.

 

[murewa]

haha... i remember that one game with Paris less than a dozen tiles from my capitol of Berlin. I sent a constant stream of warriors to their deaths at the enemy's gates. never did conquer Paris. I was just sickened by such a bad start.

 

[D9phoenix]

Did you act en mass ? throwing units at a city is a waste of time and man. You have to attack with 3 or 4 units at a time to have any possibility of taking a city early in the game.

 

[murewa]

well, at least my starting rush consisted of 5 warriors who were easily defeated by 2 spearmen. After that each attack consisted of 2-3 units. I sent 5 waves before I eventually gave up. makes me wonder about that early warrior gambit. doesn't seem realistic in Civ3 terms.

most I did was confine France to only having its capital and nothing else. I took pride in that at least.

 

[Mullet Crusader]

I've recently discovered how useful Espionage is. Search their cities for ones that are defended poorly and attack those so you can start your Campaign with a victory. God i hate being cramped, the only way you can get more land after the start is fighting for it.

 

[D9phoenix]

Against spears you only want archers ... archers are the only ones strong enough to get the job done.
But you did manage to keep them to that one city which at the very least a victory in it's own sense. They weren't a problem for some time after that and you only lost a few warriors.. no biggie as they never made it to your capitol