Civ 3 - Which expansion?

[shpeka]

Hello there everyone.

A Civ1, 2 and 4 veteran needs your help.

Which Civ 3 expansion would you recommend?

One of my PC's is too slow to run conveniently Civ 4 (and Civ 5, but that never hooked me up) and Civ 1 and 2 don't bring the excitement anymore. I would recommend both the original Civilization and its sequel but they are just too easy.

So, what is your verdict?

 

[Aabraxan]

As old as inexpensive as Civ 3 is, I'd suggest just grabbing Civ 3 Complete. It has all of the expansions.

 

[bigFRANK]

Yep I bought a version of complete for about £3 back in November.

 

[shpeka]

Yeah, getting all the expansions should be no problem.

Which of the expansions would you recommend from gameplaying point of view?

 

[EvilConqueror]

Yeah, getting all the expansions should be no problem.

Which of the expansions would you recommend from gameplaying point of view?

Conquests. Has the most tribes and greatest variety of units.

 

[Skullsplitter]

I switched back to vanilla recently and think I like it better than Conquests. Yeah, curragh, less civs, specialists not as good, etc., but I find that the AI doesn't use them effectively. For instance, a science farm in obviously makes 3x as many beakers as one in vanilla, and unless I have crappy luck in choosing which cities to investigate, AI evidently doesn't use science farms, even when its really the only thing a town is good for.

Maybe in player v. player, but Conquests makes it much easier to bully the AI.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Yeah, getting all the expansions should be no problem.

Which of the expansions would you recommend from gameplaying point of view?

Another vote for conquests. But, seriously, Complete is so cheap now I'd just get that. It includes conquests.

 

[timerover51]

If you get Civ3 Complete, you can play the original version, Play the World, and Conquests, and decide which version you like the best. I play Conquests, because of the Seafaring trait and the curragh. However, there are points to both the basic game and Play the World.

 

[GamezRule]

All the versions are pretty unbalanced, but Conquests is much smoother.

Get Complete like me, so you have all three versions.

 

[shpeka]

Thanks for the answers, guys. I will get the complete pack and start up with Vanilla; hopefully that would decrease the slope of my learning curve.

Later I would jump straight up to Conquests.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Thanks for the answers, guys. I will get the complete pack and start up with Vanilla; hopefully that would decrease the slope of my learning curve.

Later I would jump straight up to Conquests.

Minor point. In Vanilla Industrious is such a good trait it spoils you. In Complete the traits are more balanced. The scenarios in Conquests are worth looking at.

 

[GamezRule]

If anything it would increase you're learning curve, just start on chieftain conquests.

 

[Ataxerxes]

If anything it would increase you're learning curve, just start on chieftain conquests.

OP: He's right. There are a lot of small differences and if you ask for help, 90% of this forum doesn't play vanilla anymore. Conquests isn't more difficult and is a better game.

 

[CommandoBob]

If you get Civ 3 Complete, Conquests is the default game. Just play it. Start at Chieftain to get a feel for the game and then find the difficulty level you are comfortable with.

I started with Play the World but once I got C3C I haven't gone back to it. The game isn't that much different from one version to another but Conquests improves upon the other two.

 

[shpeka]

OK, I haven't had time to get the game these last days.

Otherwise one of my friends reported that he was able to win his first ever game in civ 3 on Deity, so I guess Emperor would be a nice challenge for me.

I will start digging up the forums for good civ 3 advice first though.

 

[Aabraxan]

There are plenty of good articles in the War Academy. Cracker's Opening Plays and Warmongering 101 come to mind. That's not an exhaustive list, by any means, but it's a start. There's also an archive of Training Day Games in the Succession Games forum, which is linked in my civ.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Speaking from playing PTW I got with the Gold Edition, go with Conquests. Most of the material around the website is for C3C. For all I can figure PTW mostly just added a few units and civs. Conquests changed a lot more, making it difficult sometimes to contribute to the discussions having only played PTW.