Beginning Strat Help.

[scorpy]

Hello all, I'm new to the forums so bear with me if this is the wrong place to put this question. Anyways, I've just started playing Civ3 and the other day had a pretty decent game for a new guy. I was scientifically advanced but my military was lacking because I thought no one would dare mess with someone who discovered electricity in the early 1700's...boy was I wrong. For no reason, a nation that I supposedly thought had good relations with me declares war on me. I thought I could stand my ground with my musketmen and cannons but come to find out there Medieval infantry put the whoop on me. To add to my butt kicking they ally with an even bigger country that I thought I had good relations with. Anyways, needless to say I lost horribly, but it was fun! Now that I have gave my background of my first game I was wondering what I did wrong. Should I capitalize on my military A.S.A.P. or maybe wait a little bit? How many cities should I roughly have. When I play the game I don't want to be a war hungry leader, all I want is to be a very scientifically advanced nation with a powerful enough army to hold my ground and maybe take a little bit of it too. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and again, I apologize if this was the wrong spot to place this message. All in all the community looks awesome and the game is so fun to play. Cheers! .

 

[Jamesds]

Well, I'm not an elite, but I can spot a couple of problems:

1) You need to defend your cities, AI's are always looking for little civs they can easily conquer. Depeneding on your difficulty, you may need 1-4 units per city.

2) Having a technological lead is not always a 'war-deterent'. The AI may want to get your techs with your cities!!!

You never usually do good on your first game though, keep at it, and you'll find you learn alot! I'm very scientific, but like the war part near the end!! The War Academy on the CivFanatics main page is great too. Keep looking round the forum also!

 

[sorky]

hi, i'm new here too :à)

I'm a newbie but i have one big tip for u ^^
READ !!
there's thousand of good tips in strategie forum, or here :
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

have fun

 

[Renata]

I'm guessing you could have survived even with your weak military (and by the way, musket men should do quite well on defense against medieval infantry, so unless the enemy was coming in very great numbers, at least some of your problem was just bad luck). Next time someone declares war on you, look for military alliances. With your tech lead, you'd have had no problem bribing 3 or 4 of the AI civs into fighting with you against the initial aggressor. AIs do terribly fighting multi-front wars - chances are the attacking units would've slowed to a trickle immediately and given you a chance to build up your defenses.

So next time, make sure you have embassies with all the neighboring civs, and if one of them declares war on you, get all the rest to declare war on *them*!

Renata

 

[Jamesds]

Yeah, maybe a bit was just bad luck! But musketmen are a little powerful, maybe you should've tried upgrading? But my first game didn't turn out the best, I did win though, by spaceship.

Alliances are very powerful, try them next time! (Nice idea Renata!) I neverneed to do that, I always keep powerful. Though I play on lower levels.

 

[GI JOE]

Were they veteran musketmen? if not build barracks early on.
I would skip cannons all together.
have 2 or 3 def in every city then build off units and amass them in a border city or 2.
Never trust any ai civ.

 

[Rik Meleet]

scorpy: It depends on the pre-game settings. On what level where you playing? Also the map-size is important and the "history" of wars. If you play on easiest level, the AI tends to be not so aggressive to you. The smaller the map, the sooner the space is gone and the AI will attack if you have, in the AI's eyes a weak military. A war for 'lebensraum'. Also if, especially on easier levels, have never waged war, the AI will also tend to be friendly, but if you have waged war, the AI is more likely to start even a chanceless war.
And do upgrade your units and have more than 1 fortified in your cities. Especially at your borders.
On the easier levels and your 'non-warmonger' style of game, you do not need to focus on military, but do NOT neglect it. At least 2 or 3 veteran upgraded defenders should keep your cities and also have a retaliation force of knights or other fast units to strike back when striken. And if war starts make sure you can respond to it quickly and strongly. Don't let them smash you. One way is to start alliances and isolate the agressor, like Renata points out.

Have fun playing Civ3 PTW.

 

[Nad]

I would certainly NOT skip the cannon as someone else suggested above. But we all have our own ways of playing the game.

Couple of suggestions. First of all, each game is different so many tactics only apply in certain circumstances. However...

1) Think onion. Onions are great because they have many layers, each one smaller than the outer until you get to the central core. It sounds from your description that your empire is established and you're coasting to a science victory. Therefore treat your empire like an onion. The most vulnerable part and the first line of defence is the outer ring (the "skin" almost). Defend the outer ring heavily. Build walls in cities, concentrate your forces and have plenty of bombardment here. Cannon are great, they can fire twice a round on attack and defence and can weaken the opposition without risking defeat by actual attack. If muskets are your best defenders, ensure you have 2 to 3 in all the outer cities. You can get by with fewer (or no) defenders in the inner parts of your empire because the enemy have to attack the outer layers first.

2) Use terrain to your advantage. Avoid attacking opponents on high ground or across rivers. Understand how the different modifiers work so you can gauge whether an attack is safe or risky.

3) Try to avoid exposing weak defence units. Use fast units to pick off opponents so that your units can retreat to a city after attacking and do not suffer counterstrikes