Help During Start of Games

[KiNGd0M]

Hey, I'm not new to Civ 3, and I can play well on Regent. I have trouble during the first 10 or 20 turns in the game though. Not with city placement, but what to build. I also struggle with the land grab phase. Any tips you guys? Any help would be awesome.

-KiNGd0M​

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, KiNGd0M.

What you want to build depends on what VC you want. If you're shooting for conquest or domination, in the first 10-20 turns, a warrior, maybe two, perhaps a worker or get started on a rax.

As far as the REX phase, I'd suggest hitting the War Academy for Cracker's Opening Plays. There are other articles on settler and worker factories that you might also hit.

Hope this is of some help.

 

[KiNGd0M]

Thanks Aabraxan, I will go look at that. I hope this will help in the game!

 

[Drift3r]

Generally, unless i feel the need for an early war, i usually go warrior > settler >warrior. by this time (10-20 turns roughly), my worker has improved a couple squares, ill granary and start settler expanding. or ill skip the 2nd warrior and go right to gran.

my personal philosophy is to grab as much land as early as possible; i play on monarch level atm, so this may not work on the higher levels, but i do just fine.

just one opinion, hope it helps

 

[Daeron]

Generally, unless i feel the need for an early war, i usually go warrior > settler >warrior. by this time (10-20 turns roughly), my worker has improved a couple squares, ill granary and start settler expanding. or ill skip the 2nd warrior and go right to gran.

my personal philosophy is to grab as much land as early as possible; i play on monarch level atm, so this may not work on the higher levels, but i do just fine.

just one opinion, hope it helps

Personally, I've really come to enjoy the benefit of early scouting. That extra warrior before a settler makes it a lot easier to determine your city placement and whether you should hurry towards another civ before he grabs too much land.

 

[KiNGd0M]

Here is a pic of the landgrab phase in my new game as the japanese. I am the dark green.

I have 14 horseman waiting to be turned into knights when they can, and I have 11 worker to cultivate my mass of land. My strategy for new cities was build a warrior then temple then granary. Did I do a good job?

 

[The Omega]

Building a temple isn't always the best idea. Sure, the extended borders do help, but you can just as easily extend those borders with settlers.
I've also noticed that you have a lot of cities building wealth. That's something you should definitely avoid. Unless the city is worthless production wise, or your treasury is going down horribly even at 0% science, wealth is rarely worth it when you can have the city building other things.
With 14 horsemen, there's no reason I can see to wait for knights. You could probably grab a few of those cities to your south with them.
Wonder building is usually something else that's not always a good idea. Most of the time, you should focus on having your cities production build other things, and just take the wonders from the AI later on (Unless you're going for a peaceful victory).

 

[Aabraxan]

What VC do you want? What kind of map is this? Continents? Archipelago? How large? Unless you're shooting for a culture victory, or playing a variant of some kind, there's no reason to have 2 of your best cities on Great Wonders at this point in the game. With that said, since you're only 7 turns from finishing the ToA, better to finish it than to dump all those shields.

I agree with the Omega. Wealth at this point is not a great idea. I see 5 cities with raxes building wealth. So you're paying for the raxes, but not getting any benefit out of them. I don't see any iron, but maybe you have some that I can't see. Clearly, if you have 14 horses, you've got horses. Don't wait to upgrade them. Go take down Sidon and maybe another city or two.

Edit: Also, the best way to get good feedback is to post a save.

 

[SeriousCaller]

I'm no expert, but I can normally beat monarch and sometimes emperor, usually by domination. Of course the build order varies depending on how much food a city is producing, but I usually go warrior>warrior>worker>settler with the capital, then try to pump out as many settlers as I can until all the land is taken.

Each new city tends to get a barracks and granary, its own worker, then spears or swords or horses. I don't normally go looking for a fight until I have a bunch of swords and/or horses, unless I need to fight to get the iron or horses. On monarch I can usually aim to take down the first civ with swords, the next with knights and the next with cavalry. Then I'll see how much of a roll I'm on. I try to pick my fights so that I know I can pick up a lux in the process, which mitigates war weariness (I'm usually in republic).

 

[Sashie VII]

Above posters covered some important points regarding wealth and builds, so I won't go there.

Since you have 14 horses already, why let them sit around doing nothing? That should be adequate to take/raze a few Persian cities. And if the Persians don't have iron... Based on the small square map, I'd expect to get at least 3 towns out of the war, peace treaty goodies aside (I presume this is Regent/Monarch?)

 

[Spoonwood]

Except maybe for a very careful 100k game, there's very little reason to build both temples in your cities AND the Temple of Artemis. If you want a conquest or domination victory, you only really need to defend border towns, and maybe a city or two near the edge of the opponent you've decided to go to war with. Wealth also rarely makes sense.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Early game strategies depend on your VC and warmongering desires. I focus on expansion with just enough defense to deal with barbarians. I can usually keep good relations with close neighbors to avoid wars unless I'm forced to for resources (rarely). I avoid war at all cost until I'm aware of the strategic situation I'm in, who do I share borders with and how big are those borders.