Beginning game strategy

[goodyhut]

I know we don't have the game yet, but wee know enought to have started thinking about our first game and what we will do.

I am thinking that I will play an explorative civ for my first game so i can get the free scout which I will imediately find the special resourcess around and build my first city to take the best advantage of those resources.

Even before I build my first city though, I will have my worker start building my road network.

I hope withing a few turns I can pop a hut or 2 and get more units or techs to help me build faster units. Anyway, I want to contact my first civ as soon as possible and build a road to them so I can trade goods. Beyond that I don't know yet, still contemplating...

<IMG SRC="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/panelec/flag-usa.gif" border=0> Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

 

[WarandPeace]

I don't think I would play civ3 too different from the way I'd play civ2.

 

[DaEezT]

I will propably start with russians. A scout to explore from the start on and scientific for faster tech advancement.
But I think like WarandPeace. The stragie wond differ much from civ2, just that i will now build the roads to goods earlier than i did in civ2 and i won't have to pack my cities so tight anymore to keep the enemy from founding a city in the middle of my empire.
I hope i get a fine island for me alone in the first game where i can found about 6-8 cities and the AI let's me live in peace

 

[duke o' york]

I think that I can safely say that everyone will play their first game as if they're playing Civ 2. It will not be until the third or fourth game that players will have fully grasped all the differences between the two and adapted their playing styles to compensate. I'd be interested to know how many people win their first game and how many jump in at a higher level than Chieftain or Warlord for their first game. Actually, I might post a thread about this nearer to the release date. Can someone please remind me when I inevitably forget. We should appreciate that while Civ 3 is not just a patch for Civ 2, there will be more similarities than differences, and most of the successful strategies you've used in the past will work again.

 

[Vinc]

I'll first play Romans. I will have the game manual with me to learn quickly how to play. I can't wait until that day :crazyeyes

 

[Scout]

1. The first city will take on more significance. Sometimes I waste turns looking around or hitting goodie huts, and pick a spot based on future considerations. In Civ 3, I figure your start better be quick and good.
2. I haven't seen the new tech tree, but getting the tech for temples (still Ceremonial Burial?) and libraries (still writing?) will be urgent. I wonder whether the tech tree will be set up so that you have to choose between aiming for monarchy and aiming for these two.
3. Expansion will be at least as important as before, but more difficult -- 40 food per population point and 2 population points per settler -- making monarchy more important for the expanded food gathering.
4. Given these priorities, it looks wise not to get involved in a military dispute early on. [I predict that it will be much wiser for war mongers to wait a bit.]
5. The need for a fast start should make the goodie huts more important than ever. Which makes the starting scout for an expansionist civ a very precious commodity.

 

[goodyhut]

Originally posted by Scout
1. The first city will take on more significance. Sometimes I waste turns looking around or hitting goodie huts, and pick a spot based on future considerations. In Civ 3, I figure your start better be quick and good.
2. I haven't seen the new tech tree, but getting the tech for temples (still Ceremonial Burial?) and libraries (still writing?) will be urgent. I wonder whether the tech tree will be set up so that you have to choose between aiming for monarchy and aiming for these two.
3. Expansion will be at least as important as before, but more difficult -- 40 food per population point and 2 population points per settler -- making monarchy more important for the expanded food gathering.
4. Given these priorities, it looks wise not to get involved in a military dispute early on. [I predict that it will be much wiser for war mongers to wait a bit.]
5. The need for a fast start should make the goodie huts more important than ever. Which makes the starting scout for an expansionist civ a very precious commodity.

Cool. Sounds like an expansionist/religous civ will help with those goals a lot!

<IMG SRC="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/panelec/flag-usa.gif" border=0> Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

 

[Vinc]

If I have a Civ that has his special unit early, I may explore and deal ressources. I'll try to know at least two or three Civs very early, be friendly with them. And them make my golden age, expand culture, population and territory a lot, so that I can dominate the world to the end of the game

 

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by Scout
2. I haven't seen the new tech tree, but getting the tech for temples (still Ceremonial Burial?) and libraries (still writing?) will be urgent. I wonder whether the tech tree will be set up so that you have to choose between aiming for monarchy and aiming for these two.

The tech tree has already been released.

If you check out http://www.civfanatics.com/cgi-bin/autoimage.cgi?/civ3images/science809.jpg you will see that if you go directly to Monarchy, with prerequisites Warrior Code and Polytheism (Ceremonial Burial > Mysticism > Polytheism), you get Ceremonial Burial, which allows the construction of Temples.

However to get a Library, you have to get Literature (Alphabet > Writing > Literature). Arrgh! They put Writing after Alphabet

 

[Serg]

Originally posted by Scout
5. The need for a fast start should make the goodie huts more important than ever. Which makes the starting scout for an expansionist civ a very precious commodity.

Exactly.

 

[Serg]

1. I will play my first Civ3 game for Russians. Big map, Warm, Wet, Continent, 5 billion years. Max count of Civs (7 or 8). Level: Prince.
2. Settler after brief searching founds first city and scout moves around for to find the goodie huts.
3. At first, if Civ3 gives a random contents of huts, I find some units there (Better with high movement rate). Further its units join to scout for searching the new goodie huts (found new cities and discover new technologies) and discover the map.
4. When enough part of the map will be discovered, will found 10-30 cities and disclose the nearest enemies, will begin the second step of game.
5. Now world is explored more quietly but systematic. Make the diplomatic relations with other Civs, develop own cities.
6. Build the main wonders, new cities, promote the science.
7. Change the government type to Monarchy->Republic->Democracy and get WLTKD.
8. To decide, which kind of winning is the best. I hope it will be the Cultural Winning.
This is only basic step of the game. Some details I probably miss.

 

[WUM]

The BEST strategy for the beginning of a first civ3-game in 10 steps:

1: choose a civ with a scout.
2: build a city immediately, but nót near a coast.
3: build a defender and then a settler, while your worker is building a road.
4: build a very large ring of cities around your capital.
5: while you do this, connect these cities and cities to be with a ring-like road (this is connected with your capital by your first road between your first 2 cities). This way you will have max.result in shortest time.
6: while you build the ring of cities and roads, your scout will roam the terrain in this circular way for goodyhuts and to find good city-sites.
7: find other civs!
8: build more cities within your ring of cities in an easy tempo.
9: new cities can be build outside the ring to enclose some cities of other civs. This way you can easily occupy these cities in time.
10: next: build a harbor in a coastal city as soon as possible and go to other continents to find other civs.

It seems clear that ambassies with all civs are VERY important, as is a good reputation...
And I guess graneries will be more important because citygrowth will mean you generate more resources so you can trade more, which in turn will give you an advantage over other civs.

Another thing: since chieftain and deity need very different strategies, please don´t start civ3 with a chieftain game. It will be a waste of time!
Start with prince and go up every game i would say.


This will work!

 

[DaEezT]

Hey WUM, you should get a Phd in Economy for that post

 

[WUM]

i probably choose the wrong business after all...

:grad:

 

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by JellyDonut
However to get a Library, you have to get Literature (Alphabet > Writing > Literature). Arrgh! They put Writing after Alphabet

As opposed to what?

I think that with regard to tech choices, most people will still play the same way: identifying their objectives and going towards them without concerning themselves too much with others. If you want a wonder to boost your research capabilities then you won't care too much about other techs that are unrelated, but everyone should bear in mind that you can't have industrialisation without pottery (eg) any more - you need to have a certain amount of all the Medieval techs before you can progress to Modern techs, etc. The fact that government forms are no longer directly related to one another should make things interesting though.

 

[WUM]

Hey!
very interesting, never noticed this stupidity!
Everybody know that people were writing stuff in pictures before the very abstract alphabet was used!
I wonder wether this is really a mistake or whether it has a unknown reason.

Originally posted by JellyDonut

you have to get Literature (Alphabet > Writing > Literature). Arrgh! They put Writing after Alphabet

 

[Stuie]

Probably the biggest change to my early game strategies from Civ2 will be the building of Granaries early on. With the increased food requirement for city growth and the 2 population point hit for a Settler unit, granaries will definitely go up a notch or two on my priority list. Which means the Pyramid will become that much more important as well (and it was already at the top of my Great Wonders of the Ancient World list....)

Also I'll be paying more attention to infrastructute (roads and such) to gain access to the now extremely important resources.

 

[JBearIt]

Another big change is that a number of the natural resource squares won't be visible until you have the right technology. Therefore, the old stragegy of placing cities to take advantage of 2 or 3 resources may not be possible early in the game.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Remember:
___________________________________________________

Civ3 has 3 types of resources: luxury resources, strategic resources, and bonus resources.
- Luxury resources are goods that improve the happiness of your cities.
- Strategic resources are needed to make certain military units (iron, for example, is needed to make the Swordsman or Roman Legion units) .
- Bonus resources are resources like gold that simply produce extra food, commerce, or shields
___________________________________________________

When you set up a city early on, you will still be able to place it so that it takes advantage of 2 or 3 BONUS resources. And if you cover enough ground with your civ, you should more than likely be able to then control strategic resources later in the game with colonies or whatever.

 

[JavalTigar]

I can't believe that some people are going to start on prince level. I think people are taking for granted the nature of this game. Just because Civ is the title, doesn't mean it is like Civ 2.
I really think all strategies are going to have to go back to the drawing board. For one thing, while you are all thinking about which advantages would be best to start with and how to use them wisely, it doesn't appear that anyone is analyzing the fact that your neighbor is an mil/sci Civ and is currently marching his faster special units straight for your jugular. I personally will start slow and let the computer tips give me the incite into the AI strategies.