Help with my tactics

Ok could someone please give me some pointers for my tactics, below ill outline the 2 main strategies i use for games (they're all quite similiar it just depends on the start)... oh and I might mention I have the original Civ 3 not any of the expansions and I usually play 'large, pangea, maximum land, 12 random civs, wet, temperate, 4 billion years and like to pic civs with either the industrial or scientific traits (but never persians for sum reason) although I do like the Aztecs a lot for some reason.

Ok the first tactic is to make my first city build 2 warriors (1 for defence and 1 to scout with) and then all settlers. My second city will be founded so that there are no overlapping tiles and it will produce one settler and then all workers, my third city will build one settler then a barracks then all spearmen. All my cities after that will produce all settlers until some cities become so far away from my boarder (20 turn walk or more) that its no longer worth building settlers there and they start producing marketplaces/libraries/temples/courthouses and offensive units (swordsmen, horsemen/knights, archers etc.) With two or 3 more cities scattered around being told to build just workers to help build up my infrastructure, and some more cities building my best defencive unit to help protect my borders.

this one gives my cities more growth and my infrastructure is a lot better but i dont expand as quickly as i could

The second tactic is to make my first city build 2 warriors (1 for defence and 1 to scout with) and then all settlers, All my cities after that will produce all settlers until some cities become so far away from my boarder (20 turn walk or more) that its no longer worth building settlers there and they start producing marketplaces/libraries/temples/courthouses and offensive units (swordsmen, horsemen/knights, archers etc.) with two or three building whatever my best defencive unit is and sending those troops to occupy the undefended cities. Along any borders I build one cultural improvemnt, then walls and send defencive troops there to protect them.

this one is more effective for quick expansion but my infrastructure tends to lag behind quite a bit compared to the other option, however my military also tends to be a bit stronger but my production and growth end up slower then the other option.

Ok first of all which one is going to be more effective on higher difficulties (the furthest ive won on so far is warlord ) and also what could I do to either of them to improve my starts on higher difficulties. I've read all the articles in the war academy but I just cant find something which slots easily into my present tactics.

Also if anyone could help me with my overall tactics it would be much appreciated.

Ok whatever tactic ive chosen to start with my capital will usually start work on a wonder (usually the pyramids) once its built 7 or 8 settlers. Also I try and get every tech (even if i have to swap or buy some) and get into a tech lead by the MA. Also I won't choose to go into any early wars unless an enemy civ forms a road block between me and large amounts of territory. Once I get knights I try to pick a fight with the weakest civ and pummel them into the ground and develop their territory a lot. If I can keep a tech lead (which I find really difficult sometimes even on warlord ) I'll get Cavalry as quickly as possible and then use them to take out all my neighbours unless one of them is particularly strong. Once I've established myself as a world superpower I keep churning out cavalry, line them up on an enemy border in groups of 6 or 7 per city and just march in and take them out in a turn or two. Once i hit modern age I churn out modern armour as quickly as possible and slice everyone to bits.
On the industrial side I automate all my workers and keep producing them (most games by abotu the 1700's ill have upwards of 90 workers) and try and eliminate corruption with courthouses and police stations as well as making libraries and marketplaces high priority for economy and research. Also I won't build factories until I have the ability to build both mass transit systems and recycling centres because im paranoid abotu pollution, once I hit the late middle ages and beyond I try and get every single wonder (before that the only ones im interested in are the Pyramids, Sun Tzu's War Academy and the Hanging Gardens).


Ok if you need any more infomation then please ask... but please someone help me I really want to become a better player but my tactics just dont seem able to take me to regent and beyond!!!

oh and yeah... Tupac lives!

 

Welcome to CFC Tupaclives ! (escape now or it'll be too late once the addiction crawls all over you ... )

You play huge pangaea, 12 random civs, higher difficulty and haven't found a good article yet ???

Go read my article pronto !!: How to win on Deity Builder-style, step-by-step. It's in my signature (links to Apolyton site with saves that are helpful)and you'll also find it in the strategies section at CFC:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

Although it's an article/stretegy devised for Builders, you can easily change it round to warmonger mode once your cities are up and running in late middle ages (with Military Tradition and cavalry you can start kicking butt seriously). In fact my best warmongering has been following this strat albeit winning through conquest or domination and not through UNs or SS victory as the strategy states.

And it's gratis

 

Here are a couple of things I noticed that could help you...

Don't be afraid of factories and pollution. Pollution cleans up quick if you have tons of workers, and pollution isn't that bad until you have coal plants. Factories will increase production so much it's worth having a few extra workers around to clean up.

I quit automating workers long ago. They tend to irrigate everything, spend too much time crossing territory and wasting turns, and they clear the forests instead of using already cleared territory when the extra shields may come in handy later.

 

I think your problem is that you're either making every city build a settler before anything else or making your capital building settlers continuously without building a granary.

Look through the war academy in this forum to help you spot settler factories. This is a great guide that helps you find and build 4/5 turn settler factories so that you can dedicate one city to building settlers leaving all other cities to build other things like troops/workers/city improvements/etc. This helped me out a GREAT deal.

 

A comment on Granary.
My generic build order for large map is
1st city : Warrior, Warrior, Granary, Settler, Settler, Settler
2nd city : Granary, Settler, Settler, Settler...
3rd city idem 2nd city for large map ...+ a warrior from time to time.
4th city : Granary, Workers, Workers,
5th and 6th cities : barracks, unit, unit, unit such as horseman (depending on UU and timing of war. Defense units are useless)...
Following cities are specialized on units with barracks OR Workers (don't need a granary due to low shield production).

Once expansion phase is over, produce a few marketplace and / or library in core cities (depending on your research strategy). Then you can switch all your cities to barracks / units.

 

Well I skipped most of it (sorry, first day of school and I'm kinda tired) but it seems to me that you're stereotyping cities. Uhh, yeah.
What I mean is that instead of looking at the terrain and choosing how to have the city work from that (high growth-->workers/settlers high production-->units (settlers if also high growth) and high commerce--> improvements to multiply the commerce) instead you're preassigning cities to things regardless of terrain.

For instance wheat floodplains building anything except settlers and workers is wasting all the growth potential.

BG-heavy areas with bonuses have incredible shield potential, and they also have pretty good growth. This balance makes for good settler factories and later on you can build units there also.

Obviously you need some of both, but you can't just conform your cities no matter the terrain.

Oh yeah, granaries are good too. There's an article in the strategy section about settler factories, it's quite useful.

 

I can't speak for everyone, but I think we look at terrain before choosing where to place the cities so that we CAN decide whether it will produce settler or units. Except for the capital, the terrain is chosen as a part of deciding what to build.