Civilization III Advanced Tips
- Thread starter Kurgan117
- Start date
one of the easiest ways to make extra money is to lower the taxes 3, 2 and 1 turn before you research a tech. So if you see you will get it in 3 turns and you dial it back from 80% to 70% and it STILL says 3 turns, then put it at 70%.tsj282, I only have 902 gold in the middle ages, so you are right I don't have any money.
Fine I give in. Here is the save file.I use Civ III complete, so you will need conquests or complete to open it.
I was just back stabbed by the Vikingswho helped me when the Chinese back stabbed me.
Now the Chinese have an MA with me against the vikings.
I signed ROPs w/everyone, so the Vikings, Chinese, and Egyptians reps are all trashed.
Next turn; same thing.
(only possible in advance mode, not in quick-reply)
Go to attachments, upload the .sav file, then select it in attachments.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
Do you mean that you can't find the savegames on your computer?
Spoiler :
EDIT: X-post, disregard Spoiler.
A quick look into the save shows me that you are in the industrial age already. You are ahead in technology, you are economically far stronger than your opponents and your military outclasses most opponents aswell. The main conclusion from this savegame is that you are heavily underchallanged. So please skip monarch and move on to emperor so there it at least a chance that you will struggle.
There still is a great amount of imperfections and i will detail some of them in a while. Those however might still be forgiveable if you only play emperor. Emperor is enough of challange to shed some of the bad habits you might have adopted at the lower difficulty levels but it will still be easy enough.
There still is a great amount of imperfections and i will detail some of them in a while. Those however might still be forgiveable if you only play emperor. Emperor is enough of challange to shed some of the bad habits you might have adopted at the lower difficulty levels but it will still be easy enough.
I don't need to see the save to answer that, especially as justanick has confirmed you're well ahead in technology.
Isn't the answer obvious? Get rid of a few workers (by adding them to cities), reduce your science funding and build lots of military units - job done.
Why are you not seeing this automatically?
Well, that answers your question anyway, as for how to play every detail of the game to it's maximum potential to mind-numbing detail levels, well, if that's what you want then justanick is certainly your man
As I said in my initial post on the first page, with Republic you'll struggle with military for a while but if you hang in there then you'll soon outpace the AI. So, to answer your question that I've already answered... yes.
You can buy units in Republic, you don't have to 'build' them. Once you've got a significant technology lead you can put science to 10% the second you want to start militarising and just buy units every turn if you want. Or, what I do, produce Units in high production cities and buy them in low production cities (after they've got a few shields first to help reduce the cost a bit).
so 6 productive cities making Kinghts every 3 turns + 6 outliers with low production making knights every 9 turns (but bought every 3 turns) means you will have 12 knights every 3 turns.
If it turns out you want to change your mind about having the war you can always disband your army and put science back up.
...it sure wasn't pegan at the time...
Anyway, you are in republic, so you don't need to have any units in your cities that don't need defending.
There is 0 need for Boston to have any units stationed there.
You're still under the unit-cap so you're ok there, no need to get rid of them.
But it's quite close, so go to war - more cities means more unit support, the conquered luxuries will outweigh the war weariness problems.
Get maybe some luxuries from other countries?
Also, if you get another civ involved in the war, that will soften up your enemies. Maybe, if your friendly civ loses a city to the enemy, then you can take that city later on.
Dallas should be building the Forbidden Palace asap.
I am not sure that there is such a thing as normal, but yes, at demigod and above there is a tendency that AIs enters the middle ages long before the human does. It takes till the late middle ages to mitigate that backwardness and in the early industrial age the human player can reach parity.
That may be so, but reducing the amount of regulary units is the purpose of those wonders, so in a way that is fine.
As for your original question Buttercup has answered it sufficiently. If you want to have a bigger military simply build it. You donnot lack the means. You lack the will. There is nothing wrong with that if your military suffices to keep the peace. Big militaries can be expensive, having to pay few 100 Gold per turn for it is not unusual. You donnot even pay a penny for it so there is plenty of room for more military.
Once you increase the difficulty level you need to tighten your priorities. Many projects like temples will receive no resource allocation for quite a while. Important projects such as military units however tend to be finished much earlier due to simply necessity. At the higher levels AI is more likely to use its military and it will have much more units to use.
As for the savegame one thing that catches my eye is the huge amount of gold you have stockpiled. 5628 Gold could have been used for faster research. By researching at 100% you could have used up the gold and reached the industrial age 15 to 20 turns earlier. 15 to 20 turns earlier at railroads is quite an advantage for production.
Many tiles have not been properly improved. In most cases deserts need to be irrigated as food is a bottleneck for development. Also harbours are important for this bottleneck. They increase to food from sea tiles and thus get more towns boyend size 6. Getting towns beyond size 6 to make them cities is a top priority in the late ancient age and the early middle ages. Having a food surpluss between 3 and 5 in towns, 5 and 7 in cities and 5 to 10 in metropolises can be a good choice while there still is capacity for growth. Once the capacity is almost exhausted(lack of hospital etc.) the food surpluss will need to be reduced to zero or near zero. Making irrigations into mines decrease food in favour of more shields. Making mines into irrigations decreases shields in favour of food.
F2 shows that there are many luxuries you could import. Do it as it allows to either lower the luxus rate or as in this concrete case to use less clowns and thus use more tiles. All you cities appear to be managed by AI. Do it yourself and efficiency can be increased a lot.
The late ancient age and the early middle ages tend to be good point in time to determine where your gameplay can be improved. Citizens, workers and money are short, so proper management is essential. That is also the time when the forbidden palace need to be built.
Ok increase science for a few turns.
Carthage just declared war on me which caused the mongols to declare war on them. I am losing the war right now. they have taken one of mine and I have razed two and taken three little ones. One of which was taken back and finally I have secured control of again.
Carthage just declared war on me which caused the mongols to declare war on them. I am losing the war right now. they have taken one of mine and I have razed two and taken three little ones. One of which was taken back and finally I have secured control of again.
Why do the Carthaginians have a city named lol?
Believe it or not, it's modern day Cherchell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherchell
Puppeteer
Emperor
Real city name. Capital-I, lower-case-L.
Online game map: http://civ3.bigmoneyjim.com/hack-a-map/2015-11/30-22-08-56-z.SAV/
I haven't had a chance to look at the save file yet, so I don't know the war situation. But war has to be managed, especially in Republic. Taking cities just because someone is at war with you is not always the right move.
Your conquests should have a purpose. Maybe getting a resource or denying it to someone else, or to consolidate territory and make more defensible borders. Or sometimes you just roll a neighbor.
But in these dogpile wars sometimes the thing is to skirmish with the troops they send at you. There will usually be an initial surge of troops and then they trickle in after that if at all.
Online game map: http://civ3.bigmoneyjim.com/hack-a-map/2015-11/30-22-08-56-z.SAV/
I haven't had a chance to look at the save file yet, so I don't know the war situation. But war has to be managed, especially in Republic. Taking cities just because someone is at war with you is not always the right move.
Your conquests should have a purpose. Maybe getting a resource or denying it to someone else, or to consolidate territory and make more defensible borders. Or sometimes you just roll a neighbor.
But in these dogpile wars sometimes the thing is to skirmish with the troops they send at you. There will usually be an initial surge of troops and then they trickle in after that if at all.
You have nationalism, you can draft riflemen in cases of emergency. Also you can use up your money like Buttercup suggested. Soon your military will be clearly superior and then you can easily win the war. Make sure you have enough cavalry for attack and make sure you have them where you need them.
Puppeteer
Emperor
I just opened the game save. It looks fine. You're managing happiness with the slider and not clowns, you are way ahead in tech are are top of all the stats charts. I could nitpick about temples in general and corrupt cities with temples, libraries and/or markets, but this game looks fine as-is. (And markets might still be a good idea if you have lux and can get to WLTK day.) Well, except for the Forbidden Palace. You need to build that. It will increase the number of productive cities.
It's easier to consolidate territory radiating outward from your capital.
Those Southern Carthage islands you're fighting over is probably not a power move. They are too far away to easily defend, and unless you go Communist they are hopelessly corrupt. If you want to keep China around you could gift those cities to China and later clear their capital off your close island. Or maybe gift them to Japan increasing the likelihood that Japan and Carthage will end up in wars over the shared islands.
Tatung...its location could be a strategic point to invade Japan, but I'd sell its buildings because they're not really going to do you any good unless you want to cash-rush troops, and in that case keep the barracks. On the other hand, it's a flip risk with the cultural pressure...might be wise to gift it to Carthage.
If you want to expand your territory I would try to take over entire islands...boot China off your island. Take Nagoya and Izumo to take the entire island. Take Abydos and Bybios to narrow the border against the enemy and relieve cultural pressure.
The beachhead cities on Mongolia and Japan would be a good idea if you were about to start a massive invasion. As it is, I would probably keep them but realize they are a flip risk and try not to keep many valuables (troops, buildings) in them.
And don't take all these cities at once, of course. Prioritize and do minor wars where you take a city or two then make peace. During that 20 turns of peace go pick on another victim. War weariness is per-rival, so rotating wars is also a good way to keep a Republic happy.
But I wouldn't say that you're losing a war. I'd say you're expending a lot of time and resources on land that isn't worth spending time and resources on in the foreseeable future.
Richmond and New Atlanta...those are liabilities. Nothing worth defending, hard to defend, and about the farthest point in the world from your capital. The time and resources spent on settling and defending all these far-off islands would have been better spent taking half of Mongolia or Japan which are closer and have potentially productive city spots and resources.
TL;DR : Build Forbidden Palace. Don't try hard on distant lands when there are better pickings closer to home.
Edit: The bigger Southern island with Orlando I'd keep. It's big enough and not so terribly far away so maybe WLTK day or police can make it produce anything at all...but no money buildings except market, and that only for happiness. And it shouldn't be too hard to defend. I wouldn't have fought to take this island, but I wouldn't give it away, either, unless it's too hard to defend or if you want to relocate China to there where they would actually become a decent research partner on higher levels. It will need some more troops, though, to keep it.
Edit 2: Core cities: Boston: Clear some forest from around there and grow it bigger. Irrigate the desert. Chop and irrigate that fur tile in St Louis' range to grow St. Louis a bit. Chop some forest around New York. You'll likely find a bonus grassland or two and not lose shield production. You can always replant forest or mine the mountain if you have too much food and not enough shields. Courthouse and aqueducts in Dallas and the cities to the SE on the main isle. (Well, not a courthouse in your FP city which will probably be one of those.)
E island: Courthouse in San Diego instead of library. Then maybe an aqueduct. Cleveland and LA are food poor until Electricity, so no aqueducts or money buildings for them, but yes to courthouses. Courthouse in Phoenix before even considering if aqueduct is a good idea there.
Egyptian isle: No money buildings there. Stop that. Waste of shields and maintenance. Courthouses for them, and hopefully the FP is completed on your main isle. Then see if these cities are uncorrupted enough to be worth an aqueduct. Pi-Rameses is a flip risk. Its lands are nice and closer in game terms than much of the Mongolian isle...hmm might want to take the surrounding cities and consolidate ownership of the green parts of that isle. The desert and the rest can wait until after the conquest of Mongolia.
It's easier to consolidate territory radiating outward from your capital.
Those Southern Carthage islands you're fighting over is probably not a power move. They are too far away to easily defend, and unless you go Communist they are hopelessly corrupt. If you want to keep China around you could gift those cities to China and later clear their capital off your close island. Or maybe gift them to Japan increasing the likelihood that Japan and Carthage will end up in wars over the shared islands.
Tatung...its location could be a strategic point to invade Japan, but I'd sell its buildings because they're not really going to do you any good unless you want to cash-rush troops, and in that case keep the barracks. On the other hand, it's a flip risk with the cultural pressure...might be wise to gift it to Carthage.
If you want to expand your territory I would try to take over entire islands...boot China off your island. Take Nagoya and Izumo to take the entire island. Take Abydos and Bybios to narrow the border against the enemy and relieve cultural pressure.
The beachhead cities on Mongolia and Japan would be a good idea if you were about to start a massive invasion. As it is, I would probably keep them but realize they are a flip risk and try not to keep many valuables (troops, buildings) in them.
And don't take all these cities at once, of course. Prioritize and do minor wars where you take a city or two then make peace. During that 20 turns of peace go pick on another victim. War weariness is per-rival, so rotating wars is also a good way to keep a Republic happy.
But I wouldn't say that you're losing a war. I'd say you're expending a lot of time and resources on land that isn't worth spending time and resources on in the foreseeable future.
Richmond and New Atlanta...those are liabilities. Nothing worth defending, hard to defend, and about the farthest point in the world from your capital. The time and resources spent on settling and defending all these far-off islands would have been better spent taking half of Mongolia or Japan which are closer and have potentially productive city spots and resources.
TL;DR : Build Forbidden Palace. Don't try hard on distant lands when there are better pickings closer to home.
Edit: The bigger Southern island with Orlando I'd keep. It's big enough and not so terribly far away so maybe WLTK day or police can make it produce anything at all...but no money buildings except market, and that only for happiness. And it shouldn't be too hard to defend. I wouldn't have fought to take this island, but I wouldn't give it away, either, unless it's too hard to defend or if you want to relocate China to there where they would actually become a decent research partner on higher levels. It will need some more troops, though, to keep it.
Edit 2: Core cities: Boston: Clear some forest from around there and grow it bigger. Irrigate the desert. Chop and irrigate that fur tile in St Louis' range to grow St. Louis a bit. Chop some forest around New York. You'll likely find a bonus grassland or two and not lose shield production. You can always replant forest or mine the mountain if you have too much food and not enough shields. Courthouse and aqueducts in Dallas and the cities to the SE on the main isle. (Well, not a courthouse in your FP city which will probably be one of those.)
E island: Courthouse in San Diego instead of library. Then maybe an aqueduct. Cleveland and LA are food poor until Electricity, so no aqueducts or money buildings for them, but yes to courthouses. Courthouse in Phoenix before even considering if aqueduct is a good idea there.
Egyptian isle: No money buildings there. Stop that. Waste of shields and maintenance. Courthouses for them, and hopefully the FP is completed on your main isle. Then see if these cities are uncorrupted enough to be worth an aqueduct. Pi-Rameses is a flip risk. Its lands are nice and closer in game terms than much of the Mongolian isle...hmm might want to take the surrounding cities and consolidate ownership of the green parts of that isle. The desert and the rest can wait until after the conquest of Mongolia.
Add a courthouse to a FP and maximum corruption is reduced from 20% to 10%. Add a police station to that and it is reduced to zero.
Courthouse and FP do often work fine together, that is especially so if in order to complete the FP soon corruption has to be decreased first.
Donnot build the FP too close to the capital. That will reduce the distance corruption reduction near the FP and it may mean that the rank corruption in the FP-City is near or below 10%, therefore reducing the maximum corruption to 10% will do little to no good.
albatros13
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2015
- Messages
- 37
I opened the save file. I don't know how you did so good(in regent difficulty(actually, i haven't played a game in regent difficulty for a long time, so i don't exactly remember how hard/easy it is)) without managing your citizens manually and many other glaring problems done with workers. Like forests... Okay, forests are good for micromanaging or when you have population 12 and can't go higher, then you can use 2 forests to make food even(making workers with surplus food is a better choice though). But so much forest in your example is just limiting cities growth.
Of course, you have 5.6k gold... totally unused
And no forbidden palace. Yes, so many people already told you that and i tell you that again.
Other people told that cities far away are useless. They aren't. Everything can be used, especially when you get civil engineers. Hopelessly corrupt cities can use irrigated tiles and then civil engineers, but... since you don't manage your citizens manually, that advice is hopelessly in the trash bin.
You told that you are losing the war with carthage. You said you lost one city and razed three and occupied some others. That's.... losing?
Anyways, you are far ahead of others, so if you want to win in regent difficulty, then you just keep going. There is really no problem. You can lose a city or two, gift a city or two and still win a space race far earlier than any other civilization can build any parts(Actually, i don't remember if your game allows space race victory).
Try monarch difficulty and then come back.
Of course, you have 5.6k gold... totally unused
And no forbidden palace. Yes, so many people already told you that and i tell you that again.
Other people told that cities far away are useless. They aren't. Everything can be used, especially when you get civil engineers. Hopelessly corrupt cities can use irrigated tiles and then civil engineers, but... since you don't manage your citizens manually, that advice is hopelessly in the trash bin.
You told that you are losing the war with carthage. You said you lost one city and razed three and occupied some others. That's.... losing?
Anyways, you are far ahead of others, so if you want to win in regent difficulty, then you just keep going. There is really no problem. You can lose a city or two, gift a city or two and still win a space race far earlier than any other civilization can build any parts(Actually, i don't remember if your game allows space race victory).
Try monarch difficulty and then come back.
