Help me with Warlord

[KevinRuddPM]

The only other victory I had was a time victory after 540 turns, kinda sucked though, I just got bombers and I wanted to blow up some stuff. I got such a low score as well, like 200

BTW, is there anyway to make the game unlimited turns? I don't like this limited turns gameplay




Moderator Action: Split from the Interesting Screenshots thread. --Padma

 

[vmxa]

The max is 1000, but you could have played on and used your bombers. Just take the Gimme one more turn option.

 

[KevinRuddPM]

and that was the first time I got into the Modern Era too

 

[thetrooper]

Don't want to sound like an idiot, but you need some help/guidelines to research faster Kevin.

 

[KevinRuddPM]

I am on chieftain though, I was ahead by miles in technology. Plus I just started playing Civ3 PROPERLY. I could use a little help though.

I just started a new game with Aztecs on Warlord. The other civs (Dutch, Germany and Mongols) are ahead of me in everything. Suddenly, the crazy dutch declare war on me for no particular reason at all. I contact the Mongols, knowing that they are warmonger, hoping they would join me in the battle. They did, but I had to give them Monotheism. Then all of a sudden, the Germans joined me as well. Apparently they teamed up with the Mongols to bring down the Dutch devils. 3v1, this has got to be a victory. The only thing I'm ahead of is Culture. I'm thinking about building a whole lot Cathedrals and such then all the cities would convert to become mine.

Also, are there ways to get the technological edge here?

 

[thetrooper]

Ok, You have to do 'all' research yourself on chief and warlord. The AI will 'help' you to some extent at regent. Monarch and emperor AIs are decent wrt research.

Your research capacity is mainly a function of the gold you generate.

You generate gold by working rivers, roads and commerce bonus tiles (think gold hills, ivory, furs etc).

Some govs are better 'gold makers' than others. Republic and Democracy are the best in that apartment.

There are multiplier buildings for both commerce (markets, banks and stock exchanges) and research (libraries, universities and research labs).

Do you have tons of (useless) units like warriors in middle-modern ages? They do cost you in most govs.

Trade with the AI to your advantage.

Do you build every improvement in every city? This is not necessary nor cost-efficient. Dead corrupt cities will only generate one gold and one shield no matter what improvements you build (this is not entirely true but use it as a guideline).

You may use specialist citizens (scientists, taxmen, hardhats) in those dead corrupt cities to gain something.

That's just a few tips. There are certainly others but I don't have the time to post more right now.

 

[Spoonwood]

Also, are there ways to get the technological edge here?

My advice: post a save.

On Cheiftain techs cost barely anything at all. On a tiny Chieftain map I've done 6 turn research in the modern era with but one city. *That's* how much little techs cost on Chieftain. The AIs progressively get better and better in terms of research capcity, but I generally don't find them all too helpful until Demi-God level, but maybe that's more a reflection of play style than anything else.

 

[KevinRuddPM]

Well, here is my save

 

[Optional]

Prime Minister, having had a look at our wonderful Aztec empire, I am left with a couple of concerns:
For a successful war against the Dutch, we lack some offensive units. We have 13 spearmen and 4 pikes, yet we have only 2 knights. Our knights will have a hard time facing the Swiss Pikes of the Dutch, with their sturdy defense. We need to increase their numbers, and what we could also do is to build more trebuchets, to support our troops. More of our knights will be victorious if we could harm our enemies first with artillery units.
Perhaps another tactic we could follow, since we mainly possess defensive units, is to pillage the enemy's resources. We know the Dutch have an iron resource near Middelburg, close to our border. If that's their only source of iron, pillaging it will mean the Dutch can't build or rush their pikes anymore. I would advise to upgrade our spears to pikes; we have the financial resources to do that.

Another matter I would like to address is our form of government. We are currently a Despotism, yet more modern forms of goverment have been discovered by us, and I feel one does usually best by not remaining in Despotism longer than needed. We know of Monarchy and Republic, and perhaps a Monarchy will suit us best at the moment.

Furthermore, it would help us if we would increase our workforce a bit more. Currently only two workers are under contract by us, that's not much for an entire empire, wouldn't you agree?

But my conclusion would be that we're doing well, and I'm confident the road we are following will lead us to success. Hail the glorious Aztec empire!

 

[Aabraxan]

. . . . Also, are there ways to get the technological edge here?

My advice: post a save. . . . .

thetrooper posted lots of good advice, and Spoonwood pointed you to the best way to get specific advice for your game.

Well, here is my save

I'm woefully short on free time to look at saves, but I will suggest that you start your own thread for this. There are lots of "newbie needs help" threads around here, and lots of good players willing to look at the save. They're more likely to see your save if you make your own thread, though. It's probably going to get buried in this thread.

The save that you posted is from 1220 AD, which is going to be somewhere around turn 200 (?). There's a lot of ground between 4000 BC and 1220 AD. It's going to be difficult to tell what has gone on in the turns leading up to that. I would suggest perhaps starting a new game and then playing maybe 100 turns, then posting that save. To help other players narrow their advice, I would also suggest including things like: (a) map size; (b) whether it's archipelago, continents or pangaea; and (c) desired victory condition. A player looking for advice to get a 20k win on a standard-sized archipelago map needs to do things a bit differently than someone shooting for conquest on a tiny pangaea.

 

[Dumanios]

You could always go after the Zulus/Mongols/Other Yellow civ.

 

[KevinRuddPM]

I could, but their ever growing military would overrun me for sure. Same with the Germans, but their army mainly consists of Elite Warriors and a few medieval infantry. It makes it even harder when I'm squashed in the middle, but i'm sure culture can fix that, I don't know if anyone noticed, if you opened my save but the town of mine on the top left corner of the continent was formerly mongolian...

 

[Spoonwood]

We do need to break this off to another thread, as Aabraxan suggested. But, thanks for the interesting screenshot and commentary on it Optional!

 

[Padma]

Moderator Action: Split from the Interesting Screenshots thread.

 

[vmxa]

I can't look at the save right now, but I do have a detailed game for players with your issues in the strategy forum.

It pretty much comes down to the same problems. Lack of workers, lack of proper use of workers. Lack of expansion. Too many structures in places that can little benefit from them.

Other things that have an impact are trading and wars, that could be not having them or not prosecuting them well.

 

[vmxa]

I finished my turn set, so here is a little input.

Wow you pretty much match up to what I said. You have a mere 8 towns and half of them have a clown. You make 96 gold at 4/6/0 and have 95 maint cost. That tells me you have too many structures and too few towns. Too few roads likely.

First place I looked at Teotihuacan has starvation, with no road or water on four worked tiles. This is costing you at least 4 gold and a lack of food. A joker is sitting on his butt doing no good at all. At least he could work the unused mine.

Speaking of which, if you read my tutorial, you would know that you want to not waste worker turns. What is the point in making a mine that no one is working?

You should sell the granary, you are size 11 anyway and not making workers or settlers. If you want to make some here, then keep it. Another thing I mention is DO NOT make colosseums. It has a wall, this is a core city and should not need to worry about wars.

I see Tlaxcala is making a cathedral, another structure not needed at this level for std VC's. I may make one is a metro in the modern era in a conquest game, but not often even then. Use the lux slider, it is cost effective and all those shield would have let you make troops to take and hold land.

It has a lib, but is making only 3 beakers. You could get that from a scientist. Saving 80 shields and 1 gold of maint every turn.

Worse of all it is size 6 with an aqua and not growing, that is crime my friend. Another issue I address in the tutorial.

Texcoco has a granary, you do love them huh. It is a +1 food town, do no spend the shields for a granary, let it grow at its pace or at least get water to the worked tiles. Here again you have 2 tiles worked that do not have a road. 2 gpt lost.

The biggest no no of them all was mentioned, you are in despotism. I grant that a person could play using that the whole game, but it will hurt.

I see a galley going up, what is the plan for it? It looks like you have seen all the land that matters for now and met all the players. You are at war. It is just another waste of shields.

One more thing I talk about often, do not play with so few nations in the game. It distorts it and is too easy for the human. Learn to handle the default civs and then mess around with more or less numbers. It is fine to move up to the next level after you are playing Monarch or emperor and drop one nation, but much more and you
will not learn the level.

Someone already mention the worker issue, 2 workers. You need about 1.5 per town.

One last thing, watch out for getting the biggest nation in on your war. They may just get bigger.

 

[Rodrig0]

I took a look at yor save too. There are a couple more things you could do. Here's my $0.02. First, change government. Monarchy will support me through a long war, as it looks it will be against the dutch. Upgrade a spearman on any city who doensn't have a pikeman yet. Disband the others. Build a harbor in Erdenet. Disband colosseums, temples and cathedrals in all my cities. Disband granaries. Take Eindhoven with the troops stationed at Xochicalco, and build slaves there. With those same troops and the next ancient cav, take Middelburg. By now I'm out of anarchy, switched to monarchy, alliace with mongols ended and I didn't renew it. Sell iron to mongols, they'll pay a lot for it. Sign ROP with mongols and send some of my workers to road their furs and dyes, so I can trade with them. That's what I'm doing so far, I'll keep you informed how did it go.
As I see it, you're afraid of war. That's why you were left with so little room. And that's why you build so much culture, instead of military. You try to flip cities. Well, don't be afraid of war! Let THEM be the ones afraid of you, not the other way around. Become a machine of destruction Just think... how many cities have flipped despite all your temples, colosseums and cathedrals? One? And how much have you paid for maintenance? And the shields those improvements costed? COnvert those to knights, and you can conquer easily 10 cities. War is more effective than culture. In this case, the sword is mightier than the pen.

 

[Rodrig0]

Here's 300 years later. The dutch were kicked out of the continent. Now it's for Germany or mongols... the germans are weak and may fall easy, but mongols are getting strong and I'm paying a lot for their luxuries. It wouldn't hurt to have some of those luxes for ourselves The germans are also too far to be useful, and don't have anything I want. Once I finish those banks, I'll start building more cavalries and decide which one I will attack. I may switch gov soon for republic, or wait a little more for communism. Either way, the game won't last until the middle of the industrial age. I'll have railroads soon and after that, BEWARE!!

Here's what William paid for peace. Actually made me feel bad... I left him all beaten and angry, and he didn't even do anything to me!
View attachment 218098

View attachment 218097

 

[KevinRuddPM]

Here's a progress report:

Following everyone's advice, I changed my government to Monarchy and trained 10 more Knights and I got some Ancient Cavalry from the Statue of Zeus, plus some trebuchets to soften them up. I ended up taking 2 dutch cities.

 

[Optional]

Yeehahrrr!!! Swiss mercenaries on their bottoms!