Civilization III Advanced Tips

[agonistes]

What do you suggest for AI aggression level in the future? I think I had it maxed out this game which was another(I know, again) big mistake for my game play style on Regent in archipelago.

Aggression level doesn't really matter much, imo, in regards to difficulty. In fact, a maxed aggression level actually might give you an advantage - it makes the AI more predictable. Know how your enemy will react is a positive.

Not too long ago I revisited SID, just taking a peek, and ended up with the Zulu, Aztec, and China (I think China) on my border, along with France. Aggression was great. Everyone was fighting everyone, so I could pick two cities from one civ, take 'em, then take two from the next, and so on. Only civ giving me trouble was France, who were harassing my exposed resource cities way out in no-man's land. Turned out to be one of the easiest SIDs I've played - I didn't bother to finish, but even before I had Monarchy, it was clear I was going to win.

 

[agonistes]

It is my impression that your main flaw is that you desperately try to avoid winning.

Love it.

 

[Kurgan117]

Thanks, but none of you gave a suggestion for the army that I just dropped off.
In the higher levels, is it also useless to have a perfect rep?
When I met everyone, I signed RoPs with them, making them all happy. But now I have been at war with every nation except for the Inca who have only one city.

 

[tjs282]

Thanks, but none of you gave a suggestion for the army that I just dropped off.

Use it to obtain the things you couldn't afford / didn't want to pay for? That is what militaries are for, after all...

In the higher levels, is it also useless to have a perfect rep?

Rather the opposite. If you think you might need to trade all the way through to the late game, e.g. to get StratRes like Uranium or Alu (needed for the Spaceship), you'll need to maintain a clean trade-rep to get the best deals.

If you DoW with units in foreign territory, it will blow your RoP-rep, but if an RoP was the only deal you blew, that won't affect your trade-rep. However, if you have an ongoing per-turn payment for one-time goods (techs, lump-sum gold etc.) and you break the deal by DoWing, your trade-rep is certainly toast, regardless of whether you abused RoP or not.

When I met everyone, I signed RoPs with them, making them all happy. But now I have been at war with every nation except for the Inca who have only one city.

RoPs may be cheap, but they're also risky, because the AI will abuse them.

Although it costs more than an RoP, building an Embassy will also improve AI-attitude (and if you're going to do that, it's best to do it as early as possible, because the cost appears to be related to the size of the AICiv). Gifting them cash/anything at any point, or signing an MA/ Embargo/ MPP (for which you need an Embassy anyway...) will also improve their attitude.

But kissin' don't last...

 

[Kurgan117]

What do you mean by "Love it.", Agonistes?

 

[agonistes]

I mean its an enjoyable quote to read.

 

[wuhjah]

^Seconded. I lol'ed. Justanick's comments are much appreciated. They're always informative and occasionally humorous.

Kurgan117, I took a quick look, just a minute or two, at your save. Here are a few suggestions that I would change, if it were my game.

Irrigate more
Grow cities - get hospitals
Dump some cities like Miami in order to grow other cities
Use luxury slider even if it means going negative for a while.
Don't use engineers in cities building units.
When cities go into revolt, use the clowns.

The key really is micromanagement of every city. It takes a longer on each turn, but the results are better.

I don't really use Republic. I'm a Monarchy guy, because I'm nearly always at war with someone or other, and it's good to be the king. War weariness really isn't a problem. With Monarchy you can also use units in cities as MPs.

I only do RoP when I need it.

Anyways, it takes time to get better, so just enjoy the game.

 

[Kurgan117]

tsj282, your army comment was not helpful.
My question was what should I do with them. Pillage improvements? Take Cities? A combo? What cities should I take. Should I raze them? I want to get out of war ASAP. Then, once I get tanks, I am going to mobilize my cities and just build tanks, transports, airports, and destroyer/cruisers. Would you suggest I switch governments or just use republic?
By the way the save file is in page 4.

 

[justanick]

I want to get out of war ASAP.

The safest way to end the war fast is to lose it. Mongolia has the imperative goal to conquer its continent, that is a major determant for its willingness to tolerate peace.

Thanks, but none of you gave a suggestion for the army that I just dropped off.

Am not sure what to do with it. If this were a high difficulty setting the risk of losing those armies might be high, so numbers seems so implausible small.

But apparantly there are many poorly defended cities, so simply take them with your 2 armies and your cavalry. Once the AI is losing it might be more convinced to give in to your demands. But that will take some time and also it takes some time till AI will be willing to negotiate at all. By the time you have Mongolia to agree to a favourable peace, and this could be much sooner than the 12+ turns you need till tanks, you can have an invasion force ready to take the rest of mongolia before your first tank can be ready. You are fighting a weak regent-AI after all. This is no challenge and as i happen to see now you have disabled the domination victory. So the best way to proceed would be to skip formal success here and abandon the game. Continuing is like beating up little children, challenge some more suitable AIs instead.

 

[Kurgan117]

Thanks, but I think I will be the stubborn person that I am and kill the Mongols and everyone else. If it is just like beating up little children, why isn't easy to kill them?

I figured out another game play that I am going to have to adjust. My naval power/transports. I am so used to playing on Pangaea that I rarely use navy

 

[justanick]

Thanks, but I think I will be the stubborn person that I am and kill the Mongols and everyone else. If it is just like beating up little children, why isn't easy to kill them?

Well, you do have to try. That really seems the be the key problem here.

Go into mobilization now or very soon, build mainly cavalry and use as many armies of 4 cavalry each as you can muster and then attack. You do have the military academy so an army of 4 cavs will have an attack value of 12 and at least 16 HP. Those will cut through riflemen like a hot knife through butter.

Tanks, unlike the german panzer, however are something that i like to skip. They simply are too slow. Speed is essential. So once you have combustion for a proper navy forget about research, cut it to zero and spend every penny you got into buying armies. Show the AI that you mean business.

 

[Kurgan117]

What about when the Mongols get Infantry?

 

[Immortal7777]

The wise ones here will tell you that getting out of despotism as fast as possible is one of the primary aims of the ancient era. It will be difficult to progress very far up the chain of difficulty levels as a despot. Your economy is hobbled. The thing which, in the long run, gives you the edge over your rivals enabling you to out produce them, efficiently building improvements and/or military units, will not be available to you.

It's not true in my case. With despotism I play on emperor difficulty and still manage to become the most powerful civ in the world and that power doesn't start to slip until half way through the industrial ages.

So I disagree with you and your "Wise" ones.

 

[Lord AJ]

What about when the Mongols get Infantry?

First of all there's really no reason to fear their infantry. They won't be able to produce many of them with no AI discount. But if you're still paranoid about losing just get 3-4 explorers and pillage every one of their resources, then luxuries (this will be the death bell for the Mongols since the AI can't use the luxury slider) and then bonus tiles. This'll give you sufficient time to prepare a nice army of cavalry. At this point I suggest you collect all your forces, except defenders, and March onto one of the border cities. Quell the resistance, let your units heal and move to the next city. Use artillery if you're afraid of losing too many units. Disband older units to get cavs and arty quicker.

 

[justanick]

What about when the Mongols get Infantry?

They will not. The likelyhood of them getting infantry in the next 40 turns is low. There really is no need to worry about that. Get up to a decent difficulty to make your worries more substantiated. Yes, i am stubborn, too

Edit: If this were a more substancial difficulty setting your best bet against infantry might be to cut of the rubber in the south near Ulaanbaatar using an army.

It's not true in my case. With despotism I play on emperor difficulty and still manage to become the most powerful civ in the world and that power doesn't start to slip until half way through the industrial ages.

So I disagree with you and your "Wise" ones.

I am one of those wise ones, i advise to leave despotism ASAP. The advantages of that are relatively huge, the price including the anarchy period is paid off fast. That however does not mean that is impossible to win as a despot at the lower difficulty settings including emperor. Quite on the contrary. I have managed to beat some AIs at demigod under some harsh circumstances. I did not leave depotism until way way too late in 740 AD. Still it was possible to catch up to AI and have a mighty communist empire outclassing those AIs, that for some time were 2 eras ahead in tech. So i have little doubt it is possible to win Deity with not leaving depotism for way to long, probably even Sid is not impossible. All that is not the point. With leaving depotism ASAP things get a lot easier, but for that you need to survive the transition period of anarchy and a few turns thereafter without too much harm. Usually that is possible, often at some ease. But sometimes it is not possible. You better donnot change government in the middle of a sufficiently existence-threatening war.

 

[walletta]

I have an advanced tip! Well, it's just something I thought of, dunno if it works yet. Later in the game, when subject to hostile amphibious landings, you can station elements of your fleet exactly three tiles out from your coast at certain strategic points. The idea is to induce hostile naval units to pass within range of your coastal artillery which can then redline them for the navy to polish off.

 

[Kurgan117]

I just took 3 cities from the mongols. Now he is listening in diplomacy and he said MY nation is about to be destroyed.

 

[wuhjah]

I don't know your plan for the mongols, but in two turns they're begging for peace.

Japan wanted to renew the ROP for furs, I got them to declare on the mongols as part of the deal.

Also, not sure if you're paying attention to the research slider ever turn or so, but doing this can be a better way to get your cash up.

Same two turns for combustion but bringing in more gold per turn.

 

[Immortal7777]

They will not. The likelyhood of them getting infantry in the next 40 turns is low. There really is no need to worry about that. Get up to a decent difficulty to make your worries more substantiated. Yes, i am stubborn, too

Edit: If this were a more substancial difficulty setting your best bet against infantry might be to cut of the rubber in the south near Ulaanbaatar using an army.



I am one of those wise ones, i advise to leave despotism ASAP. The advantages of that are relatively huge, the price including the anarchy period is paid off fast. That however does not mean that is impossible to win as a despot at the lower difficulty settings including emperor. Quite on the contrary. I have managed to beat some AIs at demigod under some harsh circumstances. I did not leave depotism until way way too late in 740 AD. Still it was possible to catch up to AI and have a mighty communist empire outclassing those AIs, that for some time were 2 eras ahead in tech. So i have little doubt it is possible to win Deity with not leaving depotism for way to long, probably even Sid is not impossible. All that is not the point. With leaving depotism ASAP things get a lot easier, but for that you need to survive the transition period of anarchy and a few turns thereafter without too much harm. Usually that is possible, often at some ease. But sometimes it is not possible. You better donnot change government in the middle of a sufficiently existence-threatening war.

Trying to make leaving despotism a priority only leads to the end of my civilization. Despotism keeps cost of military cheap and it lets me built up quick and secure my boarders. Even kill most of the nations in my general area. If I switch to republic I can't do it without war weariness and if I switch to monarchy I can't afford to keep up the army. So I prefer to stick with it. It works for me.

 

[wuhjah]

as i happen to see now you have disabled the domination victory. So the best way to proceed would be to skip formal success here and abandon the game.

Good advice. Work on city/micro management. Build lots of units.