[main menu screen]
Hello everybody! It is I, the Emperor, and this is the first tutorial on how to play Sid Meiers Civilization 3.
Today Im going to help you setup your first game of Civ 3. Youll see all these menu options, but this video is just for getting you into your first game, so I wont go into detail about them here.
So lets go ahead and double-click New Game.
[loading bar appears]
Itll load for a bit...
[world setup screen appears]
And were into the world setup screen.
Here you can define the type and size of the landmasses of your world:
A pangaea world will have almost all the land in one big glob, a continents world will have two major bodies of land, and an archipelago world will have many smaller landmasses.
Then you can decide what percentage of the world should be covered with water.
Down here, in the bottom left, you can decide on the climate of your world. Arid will lead to a very dry world, with a lot of barren terrain. Humid will do the opposite, giving you a very wet world with a lot of vegetation. Normal will give you a mix of both.
Here, in the bottom middle, we have some temperature options. A warm temperature will yield more deserts and jungles while reducing the amount of tundra and taiga forests. A cool temperature will do the opposite, and a temperate climate will give you a mix of both.
On the bottom right, you can select the geologic age of your world. The younger your world, the more tectonic activity youll have; which means more mountain ranges and more active volcanoes. The older your world, the lesser tectonic activity youll have; resulting in fewer mountain ranges and fewer active volcanoes.
Finally, you can determine the level of barbarian activity. Barbarians are uncivilized tribes of raiders who will attack anybody they come across. Choosing sedentary barbarian activity means that they wont come out and attack you, while choosing raging activity means that youll have to watch your back constantly. But dont worry; on the lower difficulties, barbarians are no match for your glorious, civilized forces.
Lets just leave all of these settings as they are, and lets continue to the next screen. Interestingly enough, the default settings for the world are based off of our own planet Earth.
[civilization screen appears]
Now, lets choose a civilization and set the rules for the game:
In Civilization 3, civilizations each have two traits, which give them certain advantages in different aspects of gameplay. The traits include Agricultural, Commercial, Expansionist, Industrious, Militaristic, Religious, Scientific, and Seafaring. Each has subtle effects that are better-understood once youve familiarized yourself with the game, so I wont go into detail on them here.
Each civilization also has a unique unit, which replaces one of the generic units with a slightly superior one only available to that civilization. As there are 31 civilizations in the game, an overview of unique units would take too long, and I wont go into them here.
On the whole, Greece, Babylon, Zululand, and Sumeria are good civilizations to play as a beginner. They all have traits that are beneficial early-on, and all of their unique units are available from very early-on in the game, giving you that competitive edge right from the start.
So, below the civilizations youll see the rules for the game. There are six ways to achieve victory by default. The first, conquest, is to eliminate all of the other civilizations in your game. The next, domination, is to control a certain percentage of the world area and population. These are both 66 percent by default. The next, cultural, is to achieve a certain amount of cultural advancement, either in a single city or in your whole empire. Next, a diplomatic victory can be won by being elected head of the United Nations. You can also win a Space Race victory by sending a completed spaceship to the star system Alpha Centauri. Finally, you can win a histograph victory by having the highest score when the turns for the game run out.
In the complete edition of Civ 3, two additional victory conditions are present. One is a wonder victory, which you achieve by building a certain number of wonders, and the other is a victory point victory, which you achieve by amassing the requisite number of victory points through various means. These are more advanced, however, and they are not checked by default.
The other options on the rules checklist all affect gameplay, but not nearly as much as the victory conditions, so I wont go into those here. Well just leave all of the rules as default.
Finally, select your difficulty. If Civ 3 is your first strategy game, like it was for me, then Id roll with chieftain difficulty. Theres no shame in humble beginnings. If youre a veteran strategy gamer, you might be able get away with a higher difficulty setting.
Anyway, thats it for this tutorial video! If you want to learn more about Civ 3, just visit civfanatics.com (link will be in the description); its a great resource for anybody interested in the series. I hope you enjoyed this video, and I will see you next time in my Opening Moves tutorial. Happy Civving!
A lot of the articles in the WA are for vanilla and ptw versions, maybe someone could update some of the articles to conquest as well. I also would like to see a walkthrough/overview of each civ in conquest, similar to the article that exist for vanilla. That would have been great!
