Expanding your empire in Monarch level or higher

[MajorFallout]

How on earth can I get my empire to grow more rapidly, so that I can keep up with the other Civs in Civ3 (v1.21g)?

I'm an empire builder by nature, not a warmunger.

At the moment I'm in Monarch mode, and just got out of ancient times. However the year is 1200 AD, and most of the other Civs are in industrial era. *I have very little money coming in (150 gold, 10-20 gold per turn). Plus there is only about 6 out crops of gold on the land.
*28 workers on a fair sized (120+ squares in size) continent - fortunately I am the only one on it - I've explored the whole land.
*I only have 1x Iron, 1x horses and 3x spices.
*My forces consist of 27 Spearmen and 8 Swordsmen.
*I haven't been able to discover any wonders, everyone else gets them before me.

It's not fair. Bah hahhh!

 

[Aggie]

I would start here: War Academy

Cracker's article is one of the best, but the others are great as well.

 

[Grille]

You may also spy on the succesion games board (actually, there's a monarch training lesson by Sirp).
I'm currently playing on monarch level and I'm usually behind in tech at game start, although your handicap seems to be really hard... (just trade techs!)
Anyway, discovering industrialization (pre-build US), then aiming on ToE (get electronics) and building HD is almost always the pattern to get on top.

 

[MajorFallout]

Grille,
Excuse me for being a bit of a thickie, but what does HD, ToE and US suppose to mean? Thanks.

By the way, I'm playing as the English Civ. The land scape is a mixture of desert, tundra, some mountainous regions and plains, with some rivers from them. If that helps.

As I see it, the landscape is not very inhospitable, but it's not an ideal land to grow quickly. My continent is located in the top northern part of a large map.

 

[kryszcztov]

I'm not used to those abreviations, but I've found out :

HD : Hoover Dam
ToE : Theory of Gravity
US : Universal Suffrage

Tell me, anyone, if I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

 

[Generalissimo]

One of the problems you might have is that you are all alone. This can be good, but it can also put you very far behind in techs because you have no one to trade with until later in the game.

 

[jack merchant]

Almost right: ToE is Theory of evolution, which will give you the tech you are currently researching and another one. Most people use this to get atomic theory annd electronics, which are not just two of the most expensive techs in the industrial age but also gives you enough of a headstart to grab Hoover.
That being said, the tricky part is actually getting there. You may want to consider revolting to republic to increase your income (use the luxury tax to keep people happy) and build the Forbidden Palace if you haven't already.

 

[Grille]

nice wonders:
HD=Hoover Dam
ToE=Theory of Evolution
US=Universal Suffrage
Excuse me not to have written out. What I posted above was just a general experience on monarch level. As ai opponents like to put other research goals in theearly industrial age (like nationalism, therefor especially *avoiding* Electronics' path), you can catch up in tech race. You definitely want to get Atomic Theory and Electronics by ToE. Very expensive techs, selling them for techs and/or gold(-per-turn) to ai might finance your scientists in the near future. BTW, this works usually even for smaller empires. You're usually the first to enter modern age (go for Fission) and may achieve a diplomatic victory (if checked), reasonable for a smaller empire (assuming here, that a small territory won't provide enough resources/production capacities for space ship nor war to slow down ai).
But, oh well, in most cases the opening sequence plays the major role. So the 'war academy' is indeed a very good link, already posted by Aggie above. You should look for articles about fast expansion at the start. BTW, regarding England, a commercial civ has an improved OCN (optimal city number - important for corruption), so that trait should yield profit. Happy academy-ing & civing!

 

[Michael York]

If your total trade revenue is only 10-20 per turn, then you need to build workers and build road on every tile surrounding your cities. (might care to restart)
If your gold is 10-20, but you have some science, then you might not need to restart.
Your problem is that you don't seem to have anything to trade with the ai (resources, techs, gold) or reason for the ai to give such techs (demands for peace after a successfull military campaign) The best chance I see is to set research to 0%, and trade your gold & spices to the ai for techs. (On Diety and Emporer, I rarely get wonders so don't worry to much about that)

See if there is anyone else that is backward enough that you might be able to attack them and demand techs for peace.

 

[Michael York]

Interesting, I told you that you have nothing to trade and then I told you that you do. The gold & spices can bring a nice price. Be sure to always alter the amounts that the ai demands for techs. (they'll usually accept 90 gold when they ask for 100)

 

[billindenver]

Ouch. It sucks to be alone on an island. I had that happen to me recently, and by the time I could get mapmaking and meet other civs, they were all 10 techs or more ahead of me.

If you are going to keep playing that game, I would reduce your science research to 10% and try to buy techs.

You didn't say what govt you were in. Hopefully, you have changed over to Republic if you are out of the Ancient Age. If not, do so asap.

Also, build a harbor so that you can establish trade routes with the other civs. They'll probably pay you with a cheap tech or two for each of your spices.

 

[MajorFallout]

Yep. I'm now a republic, and I do have a harbour.
Also, I managed to contact all the other civs in a short space of time - they stuck a city in the tundra part of my land - yes, let em NOT grow.

I much prefer to be on an large island at the beginning and throughout the game, as other civ's attempts to attack me (which is quite often, and a major attempt to overthrow me as well) will always fail - due to only 8 troops or less per transport ship.

Thanks for the reduce science levels to 0% tip + workers, I think I'll follow that advice until my economy can support itself.

Thanks guys.

 

[MajorFallout]

Oops! Forgot to mention...
My island is alot bigger than 120 squares, it's more like approx. 1/12th the size of the total world map (it's a large map).

 

[NewDestroyer]

fall out if they get to modern times before u get to industrial age id restart. the industrial revousltuons they have will criple ur abilty to keep up. 1 tip i know for sure will help is go for the great library. and expand as fast as u can everywhere.