Best Strategy To Win

[Everpeace]

Looking at it, I say there are numerous numbers of strategies to winning Civilisation III, espcially when there are different abilities for different civilisations, and also different ways of winning, such as 'Culture Victory', 'Domination Victory' and the rest.

However, what strategy do you think is the best? Also, which civilisation and type of victory would that strategy work for?

Personally, I would some sort of follow a usual cycle for every turn I make, besides the movement of military units and 'waging war' with other civilisations. Look below:

1. Found a city
2. Build 2 defensive units
3. Build a settler and send it to found another city
4. Build a worker and send it to improve on that city's terrain
5. Build a wonder (if city is supposed to be an important one)
6. Build a temple, followed by a marketplace.
7. Build an adequact (if needed) followed by a bank
8. Build a hospital, followed by factory and important improvments
9. Wealth!

However, sometimes I change the wealth to offensive units for certain 'military powerhouses' when I am preparing myself for an all-out war! Also, it works for all types of victories after testings, and is most suitable for the Chinese and Germans due to their abilities.

 

[Tiger_Nation]

You would not believe how paranoid i am.

 

[Beanzy]

As many have said before, no single plan can work for all games. It all depends on who you are (your civilization, that is), where you are, who your opponents are, what victory conditions are enabled, and hundreds of other variables. Flexibility is the key.

 

[stratego]

Offensive for me.
Most of the times I don't even have defenders in my inner cities, but I have plenty of fast offensive units for attacking. My ratio of attackers to defenders is around 7:3

 

[bippukt]

I agree with Beanzy. You have to be flexible. Early on , I use a balanced approach. As the game progresses, I just do what the situation demands until I am powerful enough to create situations myself. If I become too powerful, I go on the offensive. But since I have a lot of money then, I try to have as many allies as possible. I usually choose an enemy who is on the other continent, agressive and preferably surrounded by atleast two other civs. Then I sign MPPs with as many civs as possible. I slowly make him furious and extract a lot of tribute. Finally, when he begins to refuse paying up, I declare war (after cancelling all other pacts of course). I take a worker or two near him and he captures them and BOOM! Almost everyone else declares war on him. After that I send 30-40 of my ironclads or whatever else I have to finish off his navy and if needed, block all his harbours so that he cant trade with anyone who has not joined the bandwagon. After that I sign military alliances with them. And gift a few techs to them to ensure that they are ahead of him (I have a lead of 8-10 techs by now). I pump gold to his neighbours to ensure that they are better off all the time. Then I begin to destroy his coastal improvments by bombarding them with my navy. I just sit back and enjoy. After about 20 turns my allies make piece with him. Then I land an advanced medium size invasion force and capture 2 or 3 of his cities. Within a few turns he begs for peace and I return the useless cities for a huge payoff. In this way I make sure that his progress is severely affected and that of my allies as well. I repeat this process 2 or 3 times and by then have an unassailable lead. Then I usually go for a complete one by one conquest of my rivals by razing most of the cities I capture. I dont need any allies or even friends now.

But if I dont have a big lead over the others, I just play according to the situation and go for either diplomatic or space race victory.

I play on regent . And I suspect that the first strategy would be very difficult to execute in Monarch. On emperor and deity, I dont think that it would work at all.

 

[Everpeace]

Looks like I am one of the few people who actually wins without any allies at all. But there is always a trick somewhere that applies to all levels, and since I have found that 'trick' all games that I play, it is definite that there is also one in this one.

Perhaps the easiest way is to first of all play one or two games on the diety level, and study how the computer actually conducts its move as much as you can. Next, try applying all the good strategies you noticed to your game and you will see why it is actually quite easy to win on diety level.

Of course, you must also look for any possible blunders by the AI and exploit them!

 

[Gengis Khan]

The best defense is a good offense!

 

[Kaiser_Berger]

My ingame strategy varies, but as for a starting building queue, it's usually like this.

1. Warrior (or scout if expansionist) for exploration
2. Warrior to garrison capital (for emperor and deity level mostly, due to increased strains on happiness)
3. Settlers, settlers, and more settlers. Perhaps a granary at some point depending on what my food situation is.

As far as the rest, most of my new cities produce a defender and a worker, in whatever order is most efficient. After that, its whatver is needed. Your production plans need to bend to your current situation.

 

[Gainy]

I dont have strategies. I build as many settlers as i can in the early stages. Once my cities are fully developed then i will attack. Plain n' simple

 

[Daedalus420]

Actually you can plan your strategies before you play. First know your Civ's strengths. Second know the area they are in, if you're European 9 times out of ten you'll be next to a European. Third know all your nearby civ's weaknesses. I am usually Greece and I have ALWAYS been either on an island by my self, or next to Rome and Egypt. I can pillage all I want in the beginning from their Civs with my Hoplites, no begining ancient unit can attack and win on a regular basis to a Hoplite. This weakens them to a Swordsmen Invasion.(I can't wait for Macedonian Horsemen, Swordsmen are so....not greek...

 

[RX2000]

Originally posted by Daedalus420
I am usually Greece and I have ALWAYS been either on an island by my self, or next to Rome and Egypt.

If you leave culturally linked starting positions turned on, then you will start out near the civilizations that are in the same culture group in the game. If you were Aztecs, you'd start out by the Americans or Iriquois, for example. Its been said that civs in your same culture group are more lenient toward you, although I dont know if thats 100% true or not. But if it is, you could make the game easier or harder by turning that option on and off.

 

[Daedalus420]

Thar is the point... If you have it on you know who you'll be up against. For Rome and Egypt I always Hit them fast and hard, both for different reasons. Rome will be a threat when they get Iron, if they afraid of me they won't attack. Egypt however usually focuses on improving Infrustructure so they'ar weak to attack.

 

[Darkness]

I try to play offensively, but on the higher levels (deity/emperor) that's very difficult and then I have to resign myself to stretches of peace, before I can start another war...

 

[The Last Conformist]

I can't recall any game I've won without wiping out at least one AI civ. I usually take over my continent, and then decide whether to go for Conquest/Domination, or for Spaceship.

 

[dreamdeferred]

I fight when I have to, build my infrastructure when I don't, and usually go for a tech lead for the SS. I usually war for resources, more space, or a permenant strategic weakening of my opponent. Then I consolidate my gains with building periods.

 

[mreineck]

I've only played a couple of times on the easier levels but I always take over 1 civilization as soon as I find them. This give me a leg up on everyone else because I have more cities. From there out I build every cultural thing possible. I place a city every where I can regardless of resources and plow the culture into it. Pretty soon I have cities jumping to my side all over the map. It's not unusual for 1/3 of my cities to be ones that switched to me voluntarily. Because I'm bigger I can develop technology faster and keep a step ahead. I sell of the technology to get money to build more culture and develop more science. This strategy wins for me every time at the easier levels. Don't know about the harder ones yet.

 

[Don Uittone]

Originally posted by dreamdeferred
I fight when I have to, build my infrastructure when I don't, and usually go for a tech lead for the SS. I usually war for resources, more space, or a permenant strategic weakening of my opponent. Then I consolidate my gains with building periods.

This is exactly what I do too.Also cultural victory is one possibility instead of SS if for some reason AIs are far behind you.

 

[Yaype]

Genghis is right--The best defense IS a good offense. Why defend your inner cities when you have offensive units on your borders killing any invading units? And better yet, why rest on your laurels when you can simply destroy your enemy? Once you are the most powerful civ in the game, then you can go off and be peaceful and launch a spaceship or whatever; or you can just finish the job. :rocket:

There sure are some violent smilies.

 

[Arathorn]

2 defensive units per city? Same build order for all cities regardless of its unique individual strengths? Sounds like a losing strategy to me, for higher levels.

Watching the AI play on deity isn't going to help. The AI doesn't get any smarter, it just gets bigger bonuses. It's still dumb in how it develops.

If you want to read/watch, go to the SG forum and read some of the deity variant victories or training day games. Those are immensely helpful.

Each city has strengths and weaknesses. Maximize the strength while trying to hide the weaknesses. If you have lots of floodplains, build ALL your workers from that city. Try to set up one or two cities that can do a worker/turn or a worker every 2nd turn. Got shields but little food? Military producer.

I build almost exclusively offensive units and artillery. A few defensive units, of course, maybe 1/city but not necessarily. When war comes, use the offensive troops IN YOUR OWN TERRITORY to play defense on his attacking troops by killing them before they reach your cities. Once they're gassed, take those same troops (after healing, of course) on the offense.

Arathorn