Cant get past regent difficulty

[Hookamenace]

Ive been playing Civ for a long time and recently decided to get back to Civ 3 instead of Civ4. I started on warlord to get used to it and beat that pretty easily, but i hit a problem with regent. I can beat regent maybe 50% or 30% of the time, it all depends on my start. Some of my problems are that i dont tech fast enough sometimes or get into an early war. So i would definately like to hear from everyone else how they start off.

PS i read a strategy that says to tech republic right off the bat. Alphabet -writing - code of laws - philosophy -free tech-> republic. Does this work on Civ3 complete

Thanks

 

[civverguy]

Hi.
Regent is where the AI is almost on equal footing with you production wise, but the AI isn't very good so you can still beat it pretty easily.
Can you post a save? Maybe we can anaylze your game.
How are you falling behind? Do you produce a lot of settlers or do you try to build wonders and improvement during the early game?
Also, to prevent early wars, build more archers. The AI values archers more than spearmen so they will be less likely to attack.
On regent, the republic gambit will work and it will only work if you have Complete or conquests. You can do this on regent though it works better on harder levels.

 

[vmxa]

Civ3 Complete has all three versions, so which one are you using? The last version and the best was Conquest. Conquest is the only one that allows a fre tech for the first civ to research Philo.

Most players have problems, because they do not make enough workers and do not use them well. Then they tend to make too many defenders and structures that are not really needed, in some towns.

The other issue is lack of expanding, but that is often as a consequence of the other things I mentioned.

As civverguy said, post a save.

 

[Hookamenace]

Here is my saved game. This one i did not do a good start. My strategy with this one was to build 2 warriors, a temple, then a settler, one or two structures, then another settler. I also start off by building 1 worker per city after the city settles down. I get irrigation, mines and roads on key arreas. I am pretty sure i use my workers wisely, but i do try to build lots of settlers and wonders at the same time. I just got out of war with the aztecs. They attack with quite a few units, but i saw it coming and got swordsmen at the same type, ugraded all the warriors and pretty much ended their attacking force. We declared peace and that is where i left off. In case you dont notice right away i have it on the quick civ scenario with accelerated production. Oh and i already went through my golden age (i usually rush for pyramids with the egyptians, but it looks like i am gonna start playing the babylonians.)


View attachment Cleopatra of the Egyptians, 1170 AD.SAV

 

[ecuwins]

Without going into detail as others will.

Explore, explore, explore. The lack of exploration is the root cause of many problems in your game.

 

[civverguy]

Here is my saved game. This one i did not do a good start. My strategy with this one was to build 2 warriors, a temple, then a settler, one or two structures, then another settler. I also start off by building 1 worker per city after the city settles down. I get irrigation, mines and roads on key arreas. I am pretty sure i use my workers wisely, but i do try to build lots of settlers and wonders at the same time. I just got out of war with the aztecs. They attack with quite a few units, but i saw it coming and got swordsmen at the same type, ugraded all the warriors and pretty much ended their attacking force. We declared peace and that is where i left off. In case you dont notice right away i have it on the quick civ scenario with accelerated production. Oh and i already went through my golden age (i usually rush for pyramids with the egyptians, but it looks like i am gonna start playing the babylonians.)


View attachment 176335

I haven't looked at your save yet, but I don't think you should build a temple that early. You could've build a settler or a bunch of warriors or workers instead. Don't build the pyramids that early either a Egypt. You will get a early and not very effective golden age.

 

[Northen Wolf]

I'm not good player compared to vmxa or other but these are my tips, that they gave me or I learned:

At the beg of game, build 3 warriors, use 2 for exploring unknown (dark areas). Build settlers, skip the part of building temples, they are not worth before town is size 5-6. Building settlers/workers lowers city pop, so those won't start revolting.

Do not build wonders, in capital, unless near end game, as Wonders only weaken you.

Wide spacing of cities is not worth it, try to place your cities in more compact way:
CxxC wherein C is city and x is tile. Advantage with this placement is that you can get more soldiers to defend and wide spacing will not get useful before industrial/modern age. Towns can grow to around size 12 without hospital, that is maximum and hospitals are faar away.

Not every town needs library and marketplace.

You got HUGE amount of regular units, whenever possible build barracks first then veteran units from there, that one HP counts ALOT.

Helipolis(size 9) with barracks is producing wealth, switch it to military unit.

You got 9 workers for 9 towns, you need 18 workers for 9 towns.

Try to improve the tiles that are worked upon with atleast a road, if no time to mine/irrigate. Road gives commerce, commerce gives money AND science.

In byblos, you got joker, Switching it into specialist (either scientist or taxman) does not hurt the town, it will still be content. Why to turn away of 2 gold or 3 science points?

Why is your capital building courthouse? No use, let it produce either workers or units.

I can see pyramids ´, I can see temple of artemis, I can see Statue of Zeus. Instead go and read the 4 rules of wonder addiction, in war academy (link at bottom of post too)

It is better mine the grasslands and irrigate the plains. (unless town is in half mountainy area.)

You have not explored, 2 warriors should be exploring to make trading contacts.

Your reasearch problems come from not having enough roads. Thefor less commerce and gc. You should have road on tile that is worked in city.



Al, almenia is not connected with roads, connect it. It also has a settler fortified into it. Wake it up and do something with it! You got plenty of area to expand to.

Id reccomend for you to change government into republic, once you can. Pi ramsess is producing a marketplace but it gives only 2 gold per turn, use it to produce workers, and road area around pi ramsses (that is being worked), that will give higher science and gold income.

Just notes for more advanced players to ramble about...

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/wonder_addiction.php read this, learn it, follow it. It is *HARDER* but in the end it is better.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/ Also read these.

 

[Aabraxan]

First, a question. What all has been modded? You’re getting 6 food out of irrigated grassland in despotism & 5 from a mined one. Even unimproved grass is showing up with 4 food. Coastal tiles by Thebes are showing 3 food, but I don’t see a harbor. Is that a result of the accelerated production, or have other changes been made. Also, it looks like citizens are eating 4 food per turn?

For 1170 AD, you don’t have nearly enough of the map explored. Getting more boats out means more trading opportunities.

Otherwise, here's what I see:

Too few cities;
Too far apart;
Too few workers;
Too many Wonders;
Too many improvements;
Too many spears.

You’re building lots of Wonders and culture, but Conquest is the only VC enabled. If you’re going for Conquest, go conquer. No need for every improvement in every little hamlet.

Your cities are way too far apart. I can see at least 4 spots where I could put cities inside your empire, without going beyond your current cultural borders.

More cities and more workers would have gone a long way to improving this game. I see at least 20 unimproved BGs inside your cultural borders.

Get out of despotism faster. That has hurt you.

In addition to the Four Rules of Wonder Addiction that Northen Wolf has recommended, I suggest you brush up on Cracker's Opening Plays from the War Academy.

 

[Hookamenace]

The mod i am playing is called quick civ, its a scenario avaible in conquest. Everything is cut down tremendouly so you can build pretty quick. And as abraxan has noticed you get alot more food per square, so growth is never a problem and this kind actually eliminates the need for agricultural civs. As for the what year is it, time actually movies much quicker than a normal game. So the year 1100 AD would actually be equivalent to 10 AD or less.

I started a new game, i had no neighbors so i didnt feel the need to cut too much down in terms of space. I did not get too many wonders and i worked on just getting up my infrastructure. I am just about to start attacking. My neighbor is the only one who is up to my level so i will start wipping him out. I did the republic strategy, it was hard for a little but i took the advice and explored ALOT and as a result i got a ton of techs from the goody huts. The strategy worked and i got my GA at the perfect time. It was tough in the beginning but right around the middle of the next age (which ever one is after acients) i really started booming.

Thanks a ton for the help and heres my latest save game, i have earlier ones of the save game if you would like to see that as well

View attachment Hammurabi of the Babylonians, 1900 AD.SAV

 

[schizerbone]

Quick question...

Do you guys suggest switching to Republic the moment you get it? It's probably the newbie in me, but I hate the anarchy stage, I feel so vulnerable.

 

[civverguy]

Quick question...

Do you guys suggest switching to Republic the moment you get it? It's probably the newbie in me, but I hate the anarchy stage, I feel so vulnerable.

Yes. The sooner you switch to republic, the less time your anarchy period will take unless if you're a religious civ.

 

[OThePestO]

I usually switch right after or right before a war but never at wartime.

 

[AznWarlord]

Here's how I start.

Build: Warrior - Settler - Spearman - Settler . . . so on in my first city.

Everytime I build a new city, the first thing I do is build a worker. I used to always build barracks and stuff, but now, I just race towards Sun Tzu. It's more important to get Settlers out. I never move Settlers with Spears, I build the city, leave it empty and get the Spears there later. In my new cities, after the worker, I might build a warrior, exploration is vital. I try to get a coastal city and put out 2-3 Curraghs. When trading, I will never give more techs than I am getting back. Never have entertainers. Its better to use the Lux slider, even though it takes from Science.

 

[vmxa]

The mod i am playing is called quick civ, its a scenario avaible in conquest. Everything is cut down tremendouly so you can build pretty quick. And as abraxan has noticed you get alot more food per square, so growth is never a problem and this kind actually eliminates the need for agricultural civs. As for the what year is it, time actually movies much quicker than a normal game. So the year 1100 AD would actually be equivalent to 10 AD or less.

I started a new game, i had no neighbors so i didnt feel the need to cut too much down in terms of space. I did not get too many wonders and i worked on just getting up my infrastructure. I am just about to start attacking. My neighbor is the only one who is up to my level so i will start wipping him out. I did the republic strategy, it was hard for a little but i took the advice and explored ALOT and as a result i got a ton of techs from the goody huts. The strategy worked and i got my GA at the perfect time. It was tough in the beginning but right around the middle of the next age (which ever one is after acients) i really started booming.

I do not see any scenario called quick civ. There is a quick start and there is AP. So it is hard to give much input when using other than a standard epic game.

AP distorts the game so much it not worth playing, unless you are doing MP. That is what it was mean for, speeding up MP games.

In any event, you can always afford to space CxxC, unless on an island. Wider spacing can be done, but it is going to slow you down.

 

[Northen Wolf]

Quick civ is in my scenario list too, have not played it tho, but like in most games, you should first play unmodded, then mod.

 

[vmxa]

I found it. I only looked in the Conquest folder. I never played any of the scenarios, they seem to have too many modifications for my taste.

 

[timerover51]

Modifications can be scary.

Scary but fun. Key is making sure that the AI cannot exploit them before you do. I have modded a couple of other games, and the problem is when the AI uses my mods it takes a lot longer to win.