Here it is, the (hopefully) climatic point in my journey versus the Sid level. 
Elear v. Sid
Pre-game thoughts:
Overview
I've done a lot of Sid attempts by this point, mostly starts that got nowhere. But I've had 3 games that got somewhere at this point. Two of three never made it to AD. The third of course, was well-documented by my last thread 'My newest milk run'.
I've talked about the hyper-expansion effect as well as patterns and trends that seem to make up an average Huge Sid game.
I've talked about factors that play into the milking and score that can be obtained, in relation to map specifications.
In the last few weeks, I've probably read every thread, every post, EVER posted on Civfanatics about Sid level. Below I will list some of the strategy I plan to use.
And also, I've ran mapfinder for way too many hours
In theory, I know everything I need to do to win. Now it's time to put it into practice against the toughest level Civ3 has to offer. Let's go.
Strategy:
Opening
In the opening, I'm looking for several things in particular:
--No AI civilization can start too close. This means no AI so close that my expansion is directly impeded.
--Must start on a river
--I want at least two cattle within very close range of my start. These cattle will be turned into dual factories.
--Outside of this close radius must be several other food bonuses, such as game, cattle, wheat, etc. for my core and surrounding cities to use.
--Alphabet on 50 turns, Writing on 50 turns. This gambit usually works in some way or form, as described a few lines below.
--After the first few cities, a coastal city is a priority. At least one city, if not two, should be on a prebuild for curragh by the time Alphabet rolls around.
--Writing can usually be used to slingshot to the medieval age around 500 to 600 BC. Sometimes if I am lucky, Pottery may be sold for some gold too.
--I want at least one luxury, and as many strategic resources as I can get. Horses and saltpeter are what I like best, and the more I have to buy any of these, the harder the game will be.
My build order for a start used to be similar to what Sir Pleb used in his opening:
1st: settler, settler, worker, worker, granary, settler, etc.
2nd: worker, settler, worker, granary, worker, etc.
etc.
However, I've refined this because I want to create a spiral or outreach pattern similar to Moonsinger's 81k start, to help speedy paths to make cities.
So, I have now refined it to:
1st: worker, granary, settler, settler, (workers/settlers), etc.
2nd: worker, granary, worker, warrior, (workers/settlers), etc.
etc.
It depends on terrain after that, but for each cattle/wheat city, I will make it a factory. I sometimes have set purposes (i.e. worker factory, settler factory), however I like just to make the best decisions given each turn. In general, I just want lots of settlers and workers!
The core spacing is important. I want each city to be 3-4 spaces apart. Rarely I might do a 2 tile spacing, but almost never 5 tiles.
As I get a little further from the capital I can afford to be tighter, since the cities are there for commerce, settlers, workers, and population (and thus happiness points).
However, either way, the opening is extremely important! The first 100 turns mean everything. By turn 100 I can know whether a game is winnable or not.
Trading and Banking
As I progress through the Medieval Ages I will be using a simple strategy that is effective in most games.
Trading:
Buy techs from the tech leaders and broker them around for more techs and lots of gold. I can make back all I spent, and often much more. If the tech leaders don't know each other, this strategy becomes particularly effective. This is nothing new, we all know how to do this. Often what happens is the two or so weakest civs get left extremely behind, in the early Medieval ages, even when I have reached cavalry.
Banking:
Whoever has a lot of lump sums will be recieving my gold per turn. Once I'm in a Republic and a bigger empire, and/or recieving money from other civs, I can really pump this up. It's important not to entirely focus your income on one civ when doing this. If you do, it is possible some civs will become entirely broke and you end up with only one trading partner. This trading partner becomes too powerful.
Warfare:
Ah, yes. Warfare. Anyone can build 50 cavalries and secure a beachhead, but it's how they are used which determines the win or loss of a game.
Leader farming and prebuilds for the army wonders are extremely important.
Depending on the geography of the map, I will build the Pentagon. If there's more islands to go around to, I don't want 4 unit armies to be stranded for hundreds of years on some cleared land. That's no good!
The most important wonders are the Heroic Epic and Military Academy. My highest shield producing city will usually build the Academy. I will then use much of my gold to be rushing armies. Another one of my cores usually builds the Epic.
As for armies themselves, it's crucial to see how important they really are! Armies have several phases:
1) Stack protection on a chokepoint or beachhead
When you create your chokepoint or beachhead, you will need to protect your stack from AI SoDs.
2) Manipulation of enemy stacks
AIs don't attack healthy armies. A funnel of deception can easily be constructed to have the enemy troops wandering back and forth forever. Then, the enemies can be picked off and farmed at your leisure.
3) Blitz
Once the enemy lands have been cleared to only a few defenders in each city and a few aimless wandering stacks, your armies can blitz several cities per turn easily.
In this manner, wars can easily be won in 15 to 20 turns each, or as it's often said: 18 turns per war. Half the time is spent emptying the land, and half the time blitzing (as far as I can tell). Each war should progressively make more leaders. The first war pretty much has to produce a few leaders (at least 3) or you will not get far with your second, often stronger, enemy.
As for artillery and bombardment: it is key to get large stacks as early as you can. A good goal for me is 50 cannons ASAP.
After all, with a half dozen armies, a few dozen loose cavalry, and 50 or so cannons, you can run the enemy back and forth whilest blasting them into oblivion. Then, simply start taking your few dozen loose cavalry, and attacking them. In no time, most troops should be elite, and producing leaders.
These cannons can be upgraded to artillery when possible. For the final showdown, it should be no problem to be even facing TOW infantry. 40 cavalry armies, and at least 100 artillery should easily handle whatever they have. Even if a few mech infantry are sighted, it is possible to deal with them carefully. A 16/16 cavalry army can take down mech infantry which has 1 hp left with fair ease.
In short, enough cannons, and later artillery is the key to getting rid of advanced AI that have riflemen/infantry as a large part of their force.
A good initial force will have a good mix of strong attackers and the best artillery available, as well as some of the best defenders of the time to help against seeping AI units until you have enough armies to form endless blockades.
Culture, Wonders, Forbidden Palace, etc.
My culture is always terrible. My cities often get some temples or libraries, but my culture is total crap compared to the AIs. This is okay. I try not to build too aggressively versus the AI. Keeps em happy, and makes sure I don't lose cities.
When I make a beachhead, I will raze the surrounding cities then retreat back to my beachhead, such as in this picture:
When I capture a city, I'll use workers to plant and chop forests ASAP. 9 squares in a city radius can take down a city by 6 population, and produce 3 settlers in 3 turns. This is usually effective but often a bit slow to start out. Once railroads are online, this is powerful. Very powerful.
How will I get these workers? Easy. You really get lots of slaves from workers that are sitting around during war time.
I don't plan on building any wonders, I need my core to be building lots of things.
Forbidden Palace will of course go in a city just outside the main core, in a location I see best fit.
Endgame
If I am able to destroy all the AIs, I'll milk the game. Some of my early decisions may play a bit into milking, but not too heavily. My theory is to catch the food before you plan how to cook it
The next post will be on map settings and current progress.
-Elear
Elear v. Sid
Pre-game thoughts:
Overview
I've done a lot of Sid attempts by this point, mostly starts that got nowhere. But I've had 3 games that got somewhere at this point. Two of three never made it to AD. The third of course, was well-documented by my last thread 'My newest milk run'.
I've talked about the hyper-expansion effect as well as patterns and trends that seem to make up an average Huge Sid game.
I've talked about factors that play into the milking and score that can be obtained, in relation to map specifications.
In the last few weeks, I've probably read every thread, every post, EVER posted on Civfanatics about Sid level. Below I will list some of the strategy I plan to use.
And also, I've ran mapfinder for way too many hours
In theory, I know everything I need to do to win. Now it's time to put it into practice against the toughest level Civ3 has to offer. Let's go.
Strategy:
Opening
In the opening, I'm looking for several things in particular:
--No AI civilization can start too close. This means no AI so close that my expansion is directly impeded.
--Must start on a river
--I want at least two cattle within very close range of my start. These cattle will be turned into dual factories.
--Outside of this close radius must be several other food bonuses, such as game, cattle, wheat, etc. for my core and surrounding cities to use.
--Alphabet on 50 turns, Writing on 50 turns. This gambit usually works in some way or form, as described a few lines below.
--After the first few cities, a coastal city is a priority. At least one city, if not two, should be on a prebuild for curragh by the time Alphabet rolls around.
--Writing can usually be used to slingshot to the medieval age around 500 to 600 BC. Sometimes if I am lucky, Pottery may be sold for some gold too.
--I want at least one luxury, and as many strategic resources as I can get. Horses and saltpeter are what I like best, and the more I have to buy any of these, the harder the game will be.
My build order for a start used to be similar to what Sir Pleb used in his opening:
1st: settler, settler, worker, worker, granary, settler, etc.
2nd: worker, settler, worker, granary, worker, etc.
etc.
However, I've refined this because I want to create a spiral or outreach pattern similar to Moonsinger's 81k start, to help speedy paths to make cities.
So, I have now refined it to:
1st: worker, granary, settler, settler, (workers/settlers), etc.
2nd: worker, granary, worker, warrior, (workers/settlers), etc.
etc.
It depends on terrain after that, but for each cattle/wheat city, I will make it a factory. I sometimes have set purposes (i.e. worker factory, settler factory), however I like just to make the best decisions given each turn. In general, I just want lots of settlers and workers!
The core spacing is important. I want each city to be 3-4 spaces apart. Rarely I might do a 2 tile spacing, but almost never 5 tiles.
As I get a little further from the capital I can afford to be tighter, since the cities are there for commerce, settlers, workers, and population (and thus happiness points).
However, either way, the opening is extremely important! The first 100 turns mean everything. By turn 100 I can know whether a game is winnable or not.
Trading and Banking
As I progress through the Medieval Ages I will be using a simple strategy that is effective in most games.
Trading:
Buy techs from the tech leaders and broker them around for more techs and lots of gold. I can make back all I spent, and often much more. If the tech leaders don't know each other, this strategy becomes particularly effective. This is nothing new, we all know how to do this. Often what happens is the two or so weakest civs get left extremely behind, in the early Medieval ages, even when I have reached cavalry.
Banking:
Whoever has a lot of lump sums will be recieving my gold per turn. Once I'm in a Republic and a bigger empire, and/or recieving money from other civs, I can really pump this up. It's important not to entirely focus your income on one civ when doing this. If you do, it is possible some civs will become entirely broke and you end up with only one trading partner. This trading partner becomes too powerful.
Warfare:
Ah, yes. Warfare. Anyone can build 50 cavalries and secure a beachhead, but it's how they are used which determines the win or loss of a game.
Leader farming and prebuilds for the army wonders are extremely important.
Depending on the geography of the map, I will build the Pentagon. If there's more islands to go around to, I don't want 4 unit armies to be stranded for hundreds of years on some cleared land. That's no good!
The most important wonders are the Heroic Epic and Military Academy. My highest shield producing city will usually build the Academy. I will then use much of my gold to be rushing armies. Another one of my cores usually builds the Epic.
As for armies themselves, it's crucial to see how important they really are! Armies have several phases:
1) Stack protection on a chokepoint or beachhead
When you create your chokepoint or beachhead, you will need to protect your stack from AI SoDs.
2) Manipulation of enemy stacks
AIs don't attack healthy armies. A funnel of deception can easily be constructed to have the enemy troops wandering back and forth forever. Then, the enemies can be picked off and farmed at your leisure.
3) Blitz
Once the enemy lands have been cleared to only a few defenders in each city and a few aimless wandering stacks, your armies can blitz several cities per turn easily.
In this manner, wars can easily be won in 15 to 20 turns each, or as it's often said: 18 turns per war. Half the time is spent emptying the land, and half the time blitzing (as far as I can tell). Each war should progressively make more leaders. The first war pretty much has to produce a few leaders (at least 3) or you will not get far with your second, often stronger, enemy.
As for artillery and bombardment: it is key to get large stacks as early as you can. A good goal for me is 50 cannons ASAP.
After all, with a half dozen armies, a few dozen loose cavalry, and 50 or so cannons, you can run the enemy back and forth whilest blasting them into oblivion. Then, simply start taking your few dozen loose cavalry, and attacking them. In no time, most troops should be elite, and producing leaders.
These cannons can be upgraded to artillery when possible. For the final showdown, it should be no problem to be even facing TOW infantry. 40 cavalry armies, and at least 100 artillery should easily handle whatever they have. Even if a few mech infantry are sighted, it is possible to deal with them carefully. A 16/16 cavalry army can take down mech infantry which has 1 hp left with fair ease.
In short, enough cannons, and later artillery is the key to getting rid of advanced AI that have riflemen/infantry as a large part of their force.
A good initial force will have a good mix of strong attackers and the best artillery available, as well as some of the best defenders of the time to help against seeping AI units until you have enough armies to form endless blockades.
Culture, Wonders, Forbidden Palace, etc.
My culture is always terrible. My cities often get some temples or libraries, but my culture is total crap compared to the AIs. This is okay. I try not to build too aggressively versus the AI. Keeps em happy, and makes sure I don't lose cities.
When I make a beachhead, I will raze the surrounding cities then retreat back to my beachhead, such as in this picture:
When I capture a city, I'll use workers to plant and chop forests ASAP. 9 squares in a city radius can take down a city by 6 population, and produce 3 settlers in 3 turns. This is usually effective but often a bit slow to start out. Once railroads are online, this is powerful. Very powerful.
How will I get these workers? Easy. You really get lots of slaves from workers that are sitting around during war time.
I don't plan on building any wonders, I need my core to be building lots of things.
Forbidden Palace will of course go in a city just outside the main core, in a location I see best fit.
Endgame
If I am able to destroy all the AIs, I'll milk the game. Some of my early decisions may play a bit into milking, but not too heavily. My theory is to catch the food before you plan how to cook it
The next post will be on map settings and current progress.
-Elear
![[c3c]](/images/smilies/c3c.gif "Civ3 Conquests [c3c]")
v1.22
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