Hi, new to civ III with questions

[yavoon]

another good followup for all u kind ppl is how far away should I try to build my forbidden palace? since where I'm trying to build it now it will never finish w/o a great leader.

 

[Obormot]

Well, once you fall behind you cannot get to any techs first and thus you won't be ablke to sell it for a good price. The solution is not to fall behind even at teh start. You seem to be doing well in terms of growth, so your problem is choosing the right techs. Ai i said you should look for the article on AI priorities. But briefly: in the AA go for techs like writing, literature, math and currency. In the MA go for engineering, then the top brnanch till education, then chemistry, physics, ToG and trade for the rest.

I'd say 3 of my core cities have built pretty much everything under the sun. I've lost all the wonder battles thus far and they are my big shield cities so unless I want to make enormous armies I end up just puting up more city improvements. the rest of my core cities aren't like that though.

Well, as i said you should not build everything, but only the most usefull stuff. Quite often you can actually win buy just building nothing but barracks and units to conquer more land. Also going for wonders slows you down quite a bit because they are so expensive. Most wonders are not worth what they cost, especially in the AA. And if you really want to build a wonder, you should use prebuilds to start building them before you have the tech. Start building another wonder (or Palace) and then switch to the wonder you need when you discover the tech. You can also join some workers to the city that is building it. But really there are not many wonders that are worth it. It is usually a good idea to capture wonders though.

 

[Sashie VII]

Personally, when my core's fully developed I'd start building up my military and go trash someone for a leader or two (and a city or ten) nicer if I can capture a useful wonder as well

EDIT: Crosspost again. ToE and Hoover's are definitely worth going for IMO

 

[yavoon]

Personally, when my core's fully developed I'd start building up my military and go trash someone for a leader or two (and a city or ten)

EDIT: Crosspost again. ToE and Hoover's are definitely worth going for IMO

perhaps thats what I should do, but by the time I build and gather my army its quite likely they'll be outdated. perhaps I should build for an industrial age war?

so am I to assume that once ur big cities are done with the good improvements its time to try to kill someone? peace is no longer efficient?

 

[yavoon]

Well, once you fall behind you cannot get to any techs first and thus you won't be ablke to sell it for a good price. The solution is not to fall behind even at teh start. You seem to be doing well in terms of growth, so your problem is choosing the right techs. Ai i said you should look for the article on AI priorities. But briefly: in the AA go for techs like writing, literature, math and currency. In the MA go for engineering, then the top brnanch till education, then chemistry, physics, ToG and trade for the rest.



Well, as i said you should not build everything, but only the most usefull stuff. Quite often you can actually win buy just building nothing but barracks and units to conquer more land. Also going for wonders slows you down quite a bit because they are so expensive. Most wonders are not worth what they cost, especially in the AA. And if you really want to build a wonder, you should use prebuilds to start building them before you have the tech. Start building another wonder (or Palace) and then switch to the wonder you need when you discover the tech. You can also join some workers to the city that is building it. But really there are not many wonders that are worth it. It is usually a good idea to capture wonders though.

by the time I met someone I was behind. like I said I had a few opportunities where I had techs they didnt, but was never able to squeeze anything even moderate out of them for it.

as for joining workers to cities, I'm definitely behind that plan, I've probably joined 40 workers so far. I think my capital went from size 2 to size 12 in 4 turns.

 

[Obormot]

most of my cities are pretty leveled out now in terms of how far they can grow. either reigned in by corruption or availability of food or both. I do have a decent amt of specialists up where I was originally gna put my forbidden palace(before I realized it would never finish).

That is great. You should maximise food and reach size=12 ASAP and then max-out production. FP is nice to have, but it actually doesn't work like another palace in C3C. It used to be so in vanilla/PTW then the best way was to rush the FP with a leader. In C3C you can build it close to your palace. It reduces corruption around the FP city, but only a little bit, so if you build it far those cities will still be totally corrupt. It also has an effect of slightly reducing corruption everywhere which is considered most important. It is best to build it near your capital towards the direction you are going to expand most. But the exact location doesn't matter that much, so if you have a city that can build it much faster then any other, build it there. Faraway cities will still be totally corrupt, so hiring scientists as you did is the best use for them. You should also irrgate everything there so that you can supprot as many as possible.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

another good followup for all u kind ppl is how far away should I try to build my forbidden palace? since where I'm trying to build it now it will never finish w/o a great leader.

That depends on what version you have:
Vanilla/PlaytheWorld: The FP will give you a second core, which should be quite some distance. You will need a leader for that obviously. (Alternative: Built FP in your original core and move palace)
Conquests: Works differently, and I don't know how.

 

[yavoon]

That depends on what version you have:
Vanilla/PlaytheWorld: The FP will give you a second core, which should be quite some distance. You will need a leader for that obviously. (Alternative: Built FP in your original core and move palace)
Conquests: Works differently, and I don't know how.

yah I got vanilla I suppose. and how is that palace a better idea? wouldn't it take pretty much as long to finish?

 

[yavoon]

That is great. You should maximise food and reach size=12 ASAP and then max-out production. FP is nice to have, but it actually doesn't work like another palace in C3C. It used to be so in vanilla/PTW then the best way was to rush the FP with a leader. In C3C you can build it close to your palace. It reduces corruption around the FP city, but only a little bit, so if you build it far those cities will still be totally corrupt. It also has an effect of slightly reducing corruption everywhere which is considered most important. It is best to build it near your capital towards the direction you are going to expand most. But the exact location doesn't matter that much, so if you have a city that can build it much faster then any other, build it there. Faraway cities will still be totally corrupt, so hiring scientists as you did is the best use for them. You should also irrgate everything there so that you can supprot as many as possible.

yah i got vanilla. and I realize the awesomeness of getting an FP far away, but have no way at present to pull it off. seems to me right now war is a pretty damn good idea.

 

[Obormot]

You can move the palace by disbanding the capital after build the FP near it if you don't want to rely on leader luck.

If you are really using vanilla you should also build cities in rings arounf your capital and the FP to reduce corruption.

 

[yavoon]

You can move the palace by disbanding the capital. If you are really using vanilla you should also build cities in rings arounf your capital and the FP to reduce corruption.

hrrrm well I guess I got rings. I got a lot of cities and most of them have 2 empty spaces between, with some fudging for land features.

and this disbanding of the capital, ummm I like my capital? what would be the brilliant idea of disbanding such a large city?

 

[Obormot]

Rings means that your cities should be at the same distance from capital (Diogonal moves count like 1.5 of a move and the sum is rounded down).

If you plan to build the FP by moving the palace you should not grow the capital big and you should not build many improvements in it. It is best to do after a succesfull early military rush. If you don't want to disband your capital, wait untill you get a leader

 

[yavoon]

once u got all the workers u want from ur corrupted cities whats the best thing to do? rush a barracks and start meakly pumping units out? just switch them to wealth?

cause I'd say right now I have 15 or so totally ganked cities.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

yah I got vanilla I suppose. and how is that palace a better idea? wouldn't it take pretty much as long to finish?

It is just an alternative to get a second core. In any case you will a leader (OK, apart form palace-jump).

If you are in Vanilla, you can do Ring City Placement though, which has the potential to give you a large number of good towns only 'supported' by your palace.

An example:
First ring at distance 4/4,5 from palace. In ideal cases you can place 8 size 12 towns and still have enough tiles for them to work. They will all have the same, minimal corruption.
Second ring at distance 8/8,5. In ideal cases a dozen and more towns with acceptable corruption.
They have to be on the rings though.

Around the FP it works a little bit different.

 

[yavoon]

It is just an alternative to get a second core. In any case you will a leader (OK, apart form palace-jump).

If you are in Vanilla, you can do Ring City Placement though, which has the potential to give you a large number of good towns only 'supported' by your palace.

An example:
First ring at distance 4/4,5 from palace. In ideal cases you can place 8 size 12 towns and still have enough tiles for them to work. They will all have the same, minimal corruption.
Second ring at distance 8/8,5. In ideal cases a dozen and more towns with acceptable corruption.
They have to be on the rings though.

Around the FP it works a little bit different.

I have more or less ur situation except my continent does not allow that kind of exacting geometry. I have a bunch of cities 3-4 spaces away from my capital and a bunch more 6-8 spaces away. beyond that it gets brutal for corruption.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

once u got all the workers u want from ur corrupted cities whats the best thing to do? rush a barracks and start meakly pumping units out? just switch them to wealth?

cause I'd say right now I have 15 or so totally ganked cities.

Irrigate everything and turn them into specialist famrs. Improvements only if it is a military necessity (heal, upgrade, defense). And pack them closely.

 

[yavoon]

Irrigate everything and turn them into specialist famrs. Improvements only if it is a military necessity (heal, upgrade, defense). And pack them closely.

specialist farms still make 1 shield. what should I do w/ it?

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I have more or less ur situation except my continent does not allow that kind of exacting geometry. I have a bunch of cities 3-4 spaces away from my capital and a bunch more 6-8 spaces away. beyond that it gets brutal for corruption.

They have to be the same distance* to be treated the same wrt to rank corruption. Placing one or two at distance 4, some at 5, a few at 6 is not going to help you much here.

* diagonal tiles count 1,5; fractions are rounded down.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

specialist farms still make 1 shield. what should I do w/ it?

Wealth, workers, settlers.

 

[yavoon]

They have to be the same distance* to be treated the same wrt to rank corruption. Placing one or two at distance 4, some at 5, a few at 6 is not going to help you much here.

* diagonal tiles count 1,5; fractions are rounded down.

help me much in what respect? I assume the ones that three are less corrupt then the ones at four. but I dont see why that is the end of the world or anything.