Advanced tips/rules from the Masters (And Others)

[jackreese2004]

It's true in every career,skill,hobby. Once you do something over and over you accumulate experience,shortcuts,little things that make you exceptional at what you do.
Here is my idea.
Please post a tip/rule that you adhere to that you have gained through your experience with Conquests.
For Example- I just read the following tip in a thread and it seems like great advice."Note that Barracks is after those first 3 units,(In first city) but ALWAYS before all other military units, unless barbs come knocking"
That is a Tip that the average player might not learn for awhile. So, if you have a little "Tidbit" of Wisdom that you would like to post. Please do! and remember, if you DISAGREE with any posts, write back explaining WHY you disagree.
Suggested Topics-
1) Developing your Cities
2) Negotiating Strategies
3) Governments (When do you switch? Or should you?)
4) Which Techs? (Which to research FIRST?)
5) Units (Which units for escort in land/sea) Which Units for attacking (Combinations)
These are just a few ideas...Please feel free to post any tip/rule that you have learned from your years of experience.

 

[jkp1187]

1.) City Development

I start off the game by trying to expand as much as possible, until I run up against a natural frontier (mountains/sea) or can't progress any more against an enemy civ. Typically, my first city alternates between settlers and defensive units (warriors and spearmen), with an occasional offensive unit thrown in. I typically don't try to fight an early offensive war (although many people do this successfully from time to time, especially if they have a civ with an early UU).

With the new cities, I try to specialize them initially. One builds a barracks and starts alternating between defense and offense units; another becomes a worker pump, a third becomes a settler pump. I'm pretty flexible about this, though...if there's territory that needs to be grabbed, and none of the other cities can get a settler out there quickly, I'll switch production. My initial emphasis is always on expanding.

(Of course, NEVER send an unescorted settler. Except MAYBE ONE, before 2000 BC. The Barbarians will be waiting for them, and the game WILL "cheat" and provide one to kill your foolish settlers if you ignore this rule!)

2.) Negotiating. Be patient. Try a high number, try a low number, then try to hit a happy medium. If you're playing a multiplayer game and are limited in time, try to hit a range, and if the price looks good enough, go with what your gut tells you. Don't be afraid to trade techs....you can get a LOT of money for them....and the AI WILL catch up to you, especially on higher levels, so you might as well sell 'em.p

3.) Switch out of Despotism as soon as something else becomes available. (Feudalism or Monarchy, usually). A Despotism-Republic switch can be done, but you have to be ready for it. Too many units/not enough temples/marketplaces and it'll make things worse. In my current multiplayer game, I did such a switch, but I was fortunate in playing England which had a medium-sized island all to itself, and I had no fears of invasion, so didn't need a big military at all. Usually, this will NOT be your situation, and a switch to Monarchy or Feudalism is preferred. Monarchy is better, but researching Feudalism will come easier to you, since it's on the "normal" tech route.

4.) I love playing seafaring, commercial, and scientific civs, so this usually puts me in a position to head straight for Philosophy at the get-go. But this also depends on your goals...in the aforementioned game, I needed mapmaking before EVERYTHING ELSE, once I realized I was on an island.

 

[FM_Freyland]

This is what the War Academy is for. Many people were kind enough to put lots of time into making it an excellent resource.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I think he means one liners like:
"irrigate green, mine brown"
"2 workers per city"

 

[morchuflex]

This thread won't be useful if posters don't start by saying on what level they gained their experience. On chieftain, almost any strategy is likely to win, except maybe hitting random keys, and even that one cannot fail by much.

 

[jkp1187]

I think he means one liners like:
"irrigate green, mine brown"
"2 workers per city"

Umm...I think the poster can speak for himself, n'est-ce pas?

 

[Tomoyo]

Playing on Deity and slight varients (and suiciding on AW) of Deity.

Most players find MMing very tedious, because you have to check every city. Here's a tip that I have discovered for myself: Train yourself to be able to look at a city and its surroundings, and be able to tell, by the finish times of the growth and build queue, how the tiles were arranged by the governor, like if Marseille was size 2, with a grassland wheat and at least two BGs (nothing improved), and the growth is in 10, you know that the stupid governor either had the citizens working two BGs, or, more likely, has one working the wheat and a forest or something, because the governor thinks that there is too much food. Similarly, if a city doesn't seem to be producing at its peak, you can check it.

And checking for riots is just a plain PITA.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Playing a bit of everything.

Go to the creation and customization forum, there you will find:
Dianthus' CrpCiv Replay suite, or something to that effect.
Ainwood's civ assist.

Both of these are in the utility programs subforum, and can save you a LOT of time and effort. Neither will actually arrange the tiles for you, but they will warn you of trade opps, and cities about to riot, etc. Basically, they're mutually exclusive, as they have many of the same features.

While you're there, drop in to the graphics/interface library, and download a smileyheads mod. This allows you to see at a glance how many happy, content, sad, and resisting citizens you have in each city. (note that the two utilities also show this info, but I still find the smileyheads useful)

Here's my little gameplay tip:
Artillery. Lots and lots of artillery. This is the great equalizer in civ. Whether it be cats or radar arty, the ai just doesn't know how to handle an attack by a stack of units that has a large number of arty. Of course you also have to keep them protected....

 

[morchuflex]

I think he means one liners like:
"irrigate green, mine brown"
"2 workers per city"

One-liners are wrong, and you know it. Good players don't need them because they think while they play, and beginners shouldn't want them because they make you play like a robot and hamper your learning curve.

For instance, I'd agree that "have lots of workers" is sound advice. But "2 workers for city" means nothing. If I start on a 90% jungle island, I'll probably build 10 workers before I even found my third city.

As for irrigating / mining, you can't choose automatically. Good advice would be "mine or irrigate depending on your city needs".

Same goes for building queues. I am simply appalled when I read some people's posts saying they always follow the same sequence (like: "I always build two defenders, then one explorer, then a settler...").

There are many pieces of good advice to give to beginners: explore a lot, trade a lot, use artillery extensively, don't get obsessed with WoWs..., But none of them should be too specific.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Yes, but good advise takes pages, articles or even books. Those are around here already.

 

[microbe]

Here is a tip and I'm sure it will help you: read first, ask second.

Not just read the war acadamy. Go to SG forum and read people's games.

Then try to join some games. Learn through play and discussion.

Don't just sit there and ask, hoping people teach you how to play by feeding "tips". When you have to ask, ask *specific* questions, not ones you just posted.

 

[André Alfenaar]

TIP: After engineering 'always' first put forests on grasslands/plains and chop them before irrigating those tiles!

 

[DementedAvenger]

Is that for the shield benefit Andre?

 

[jackreese2004]

First of all, thanks to all who took the time to post a message.
Let me give a example and hopefully that can aid in knowing my original intent. Say you want to learn Chess, I'm sure you would agree that it is a very complex/skilled game. Many books have been written about strategy from opening move to middlegame to endgame. Sure it would be great to read EVERY book on chess, but wouldn't even ONE tip/strategy help? How about this tip, a great first move would be move your kings pawn two squares forward. To all you seasoned Chess people YOU can see the value in that simple opening move! Sure, you can respond...well "I like this opening move..." and thats okay...but CAN YOU SEE HOW THAT SIMPLE OPENING MOVE CAN ACCELERATE THE LEARNING CURVE OF A BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE CHESS PLAYER?
That was my intention, if you have a valuable piece of advice/tip that will really accelerate the learning curve of a player. Please post it ! And to all you veteran skilled players. Share your ADVANCED tactics as well! If you want to post a single line of advice, Do so! If you have a detailed bit of advice that will benefit us all, Do so!
Now some mentioned go read the "War Academy" or some mentioned to paraphrase "Every situation is different, I wouldn't/couldn't give advice like this" Here is my response.
Sure, the War Academy is Great! I read a lot of there articles/tips. But you know what...after reading a few PAGES of tips/articles, I boiled it all down to one or two sentences! Now, I ask you, wouldnt that help all of us? (If it was all boiled down to a couple of sentences?)
I just read a few of the postings so far in my thread, and to be honest some are Awesome!
So again, if you have some great advice/help for the Civ Player, share your knowledge/skill.
"Knowledge is Power" (I stole that quote off some TV show once..hehe)

Jackreese2004

 

[Paradigne]

Opening move: Always move your worker to where you want him to road BEFORE planting your city. You might find a lux/bonus/coast square that would make it beneficial to move your settler.

 

[Arathorn]

Here's a simple tip -- nearly all simple tips are wrong more often than they're right.

Civ3 is a complex game. Playing it by rote may get you up to regent level, but you'll struggle to advance further. Thinking and responding to the unique situation of each game is what distinguishes great players from adequate players.

Go to the SG forum and read some games. When people explain their actions (find some people playing deity for the first time or something -- generally avoid Sid-level games as players at that level generally have little need to explain their actions -- they can be seen from results), you learn a lot. The thought process is infinitely more important than the eventual result.

That leads to my second short tip -- learn to think for yourself.

Third short tip -- have a good reason for every action. "I did it last time" and "It's the generic advice I got" are not good reasons. "This city can reach 4 fpt but if I irrigate, I can get 5 fpt and crank workers" is a good reason, in many circumstances.

Arathorn

 

[sandmandh]

jackreese if you want the universal tip that has held true from the original civ1, it is: EXPAND FAST - build as many cities as you can in the opening stages of the game - and then fill every available spot if you can - every new city adds way more benefit than the turns wasted in improving current cities - and thanks to many guys on these forums, there is much written about this, I have learnt a lot

 

[André Alfenaar]

Is that for the shield benefit Andre?

Yes, indeed!

 

[socralynnek]

How to become a better player?

Well, I learned alot from playing (and winning) an OCC. You learn how to negotiate and to keep AIs happy or to get them to fight each other instead of fighting you.

 

[Tomoyo]

To me, OCCs are mainly luck. Either you get crushed or you live to see the end. If you live, you win. There is a certain amount of skill involved, but a guide to win a OCC one level below the level of the writer can be fit onto a few pages.