I have a question.Can someone give me some tips on how to make off to a nice start after starting a new map on Civ III??what i want to know how to do is,How to get a nice head start in research,how to make a stable economy,and a nice decent starting military.How many cities must i build,etc,etc,?And what Technologies should i invest in 1st,2nd,3rd,etc,etc?Thankyou.
Huge Question!!!
- Thread starter Ether150
- Start date
sabo
My Ancestors were Vikings
Lots of workers help for science and $$
Parmenion
Warlord
The simple answer is, there is no simple answer. It's got to be a case of trial and error and only you can do this for yourself. You'll find loads of different threads with various tips and strategies on but it all depends on the world type, world size and the civ you are playing, aswell as dozens of other variable factors.
If I was to give you one tip though which always works for me and usually means the difference between success and failure, it would be to try out the warrior gambit. This involves your first city producing a few warriors (and archers if you have warrior code), seeking out your closest neighbour and attacking him. If this is successful you will not only gain yourself a handy extra city or two, but you will cripple that rival civ for a long time. This is the only tactic that works for me consistantly. Give it a try.
If I was to give you one tip though which always works for me and usually means the difference between success and failure, it would be to try out the warrior gambit. This involves your first city producing a few warriors (and archers if you have warrior code), seeking out your closest neighbour and attacking him. If this is successful you will not only gain yourself a handy extra city or two, but you will cripple that rival civ for a long time. This is the only tactic that works for me consistantly. Give it a try.
Bill_in_PDX
Grumpy Submariner
My first suggestion would be to review the many fine articles in the Strategy section of this site.
The key to a good start is understanding what kind of world you are on (many islands or pangea?), how many neighbors, and how close are they.
If no one is close, or if you are on a isolated island, then you can build and expand rapidly with minimal regard for defense in the early going. But that also might prompt you to beeline for Map Making before Iron Working.
If you have four neighbors crowded on a smallish continent with you, as in Tournament game 3, then you will want to be ready to defend your expansion.
Those basics tidbits of knowledge amount to early game survival and set up for victory a few thousand years down the road.
From there, you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your Civ. For example, Persians need to take advantage of their immortals early before gunpowder, but it my opinion, just before it, as a Golden Age there can be quite powerful.
Or perhaps you have a later day UU such as the mighty Panzer, which will alter your early strategies.
Even worse is a completely worthless UU such as England and US.
There are hundreds of strategies, and again do review the articles in the strategy section.
The key to a good start is understanding what kind of world you are on (many islands or pangea?), how many neighbors, and how close are they.
If no one is close, or if you are on a isolated island, then you can build and expand rapidly with minimal regard for defense in the early going. But that also might prompt you to beeline for Map Making before Iron Working.
If you have four neighbors crowded on a smallish continent with you, as in Tournament game 3, then you will want to be ready to defend your expansion.
Those basics tidbits of knowledge amount to early game survival and set up for victory a few thousand years down the road.
From there, you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your Civ. For example, Persians need to take advantage of their immortals early before gunpowder, but it my opinion, just before it, as a Golden Age there can be quite powerful.
Or perhaps you have a later day UU such as the mighty Panzer, which will alter your early strategies.
Even worse is a completely worthless UU such as England and US.
There are hundreds of strategies, and again do review the articles in the strategy section.
Lt. 'Killer' M.
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2001
- Messages
- 7,475
go to the Succession games forum (subforum of Stories and Tales) and read up on some games.
pompeynunn
Play Up Pompey!!
That's the beauty of Civ - there is no 'best way' to play it. The multitude of different ways to play the game, the game balance, and the different scenarios you can find yourself in, is what makes the game so special.
However, my little tip is to try to find a map to start on with easy access to a river, wheat and cattle squares for the first city. That should set you up nicely to compete from the start.
However, my little tip is to try to find a map to start on with easy access to a river, wheat and cattle squares for the first city. That should set you up nicely to compete from the start.
Moff Jerjerrod
Deity
IN the beginning of your games set your TSL (Tax, Science, Luxury) sliders to 8.2.0
Your goal in the beginning should be make a lot of money. Tile improvements are key here. Since you will have a large positive cash flow build up a strong army and go beat someone up. Then after taking a couple of their cities ask for peace but also ask for as much of their techs as possible. Then find another target, rinse, and repeat.
Once you've built up your infrastructure then you can readjust the TSL sliders and start to do some researching on your own.
Your goal in the beginning should be make a lot of money. Tile improvements are key here. Since you will have a large positive cash flow build up a strong army and go beat someone up. Then after taking a couple of their cities ask for peace but also ask for as much of their techs as possible. Then find another target, rinse, and repeat.
Once you've built up your infrastructure then you can readjust the TSL sliders and start to do some researching on your own.
bobgote
Trousers
I would say exactly the opposite actually.
. I set it so that i'm getting 1 gold per turn, and researching science a lot quicker. This is what the AI does and so i figure it is the best way. Don't get left behind.As to further tips, what i do is to aim specifically to take the best advantage of my traits and UU. For example, my favourite civ is the persians. They are scientific and industrious. Their UU is the immortals, a better attacking swordsman replacement that comes with iron working.
My sciences: Firstly, i'll get pottery as i need to expand quickly. As soon as i get this, i'll most likely go to iron working unless i find myself alone on an island. Next is alphabet, writing, then literature (for my scientific trait).
My Production: I build warriors to start with. First one to fortify in the town, then some to explore the map, until i can get my first settler as soon as i hit town level 3. I'll build stuff around the building of my settlers eg warriors and barracks. As soon as I can build a granary i will, as this will help my expansion no end.
In new towns: First i build a worker (if time it takes to grow <= time to build worker, otherwise i build a warrior, then worker). The worker first best serves my industrious trait. Then a warrior if the city has no defensive unit. After this I will build settlers as i can etc etc as above. As soon as I get literature, i build a library. This best serves my scientific trait. I will research quicker, and it will also expand my culture borders.
Adapt this to whichever civ you use, and you should then get the best growth that you can.
DaDoo
Prince
Moff's suggestion makes more sense. Try it. At the very beginning, slide that science rate up and down the entire range and you will notice no matter where you put it, it will take 40 turns to research your first 3-4 tech. So, what I do is set it as moff jerjerrod would, at 8.2.0 and use all the money I have to buy techs from all the civs I meet. At the science advisor screen, the very first tech I'd go for literature(and all the pre-req for this of course). As soon as I get the chance I'd start on a wonder in my capital. Any wonder will do at this early in the game. When the Great Library becomes available, I switch right away to make sure I get the GL. Once I got the GL, I put 100% into tax and hopefully I'd have horseback riding by then and just make a bunch of horsemen and wreak havoc!
Occasionally I'd beeline to republic after I get literature though.
As for build orders for this early in the game... hard to say... there are many combinations out there and they all work well in their own way... just make sure you have at least 2 defenders at most of your cities by the time you start attacking other civs.
Occasionally I'd beeline to republic after I get literature though.
As for build orders for this early in the game... hard to say... there are many combinations out there and they all work well in their own way... just make sure you have at least 2 defenders at most of your cities by the time you start attacking other civs.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27213
the above is a link to a post i made regarding the japaneese. you need to look at your civs uu and adjust your style to that civ. I like the japaneese or any religious civ...
the above is a link to a post i made regarding the japaneese. you need to look at your civs uu and adjust your style to that civ. I like the japaneese or any religious civ...
GhengisFarb
www.GhengisFarb.com
Personally, I think taking advantage of rivers and building roads is a major factor in success. These increase your trade output which is the source for gold and beakers(science).
By buiding roads you connect your cities allowing for faster troop movement, sharing of strategic resources/luxuries and generate more trade.
By buiding roads you connect your cities allowing for faster troop movement, sharing of strategic resources/luxuries and generate more trade.
Fistandantilus
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2002
- Messages
- 12
I agree with bobgote, mostly. once you got Lit, build the GL and you will get about 10 researches.
Building GL take too long? Start building it when you start Lit. Actually you are TECHNICALLY building the palace... but once Lit is finished just switch to GL and you have a 20 turn head start.
Building GL take too long? Start building it when you start Lit. Actually you are TECHNICALLY building the palace... but once Lit is finished just switch to GL and you have a 20 turn head start.
MightyMac
Chieftain
Research tip that i've found useful is to get as far forward on one tech tree as you can. All while using an 8.2.0 to buy the other techs you need.
Mad Bomber
Commander
There is no one strategy to win civ3. Strategies are defined by the map size, type of starting position, civ attributes, difficulty level, and personal preferences for playing. You should not be playing the same way on a pangea map as you would on another map. Nor should you play the same as the Germans as you would as the Americans. Experiment, find out what works & what doesn't. The strategy threads are great for this but your question is too open ended to answer with any degree of detail.
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
Where you set your science bar at early in the game depends on how many AI opponents you have. Techs get cheaper as you find more civs that have that tech. Buying Writing after 15 other civs already know it is a heck of alot cheaper than when only 1 or 2 other civs know it. So if you don't have alot of civs nearby it may be wiser to do your own research. Playing with 16 civs on a pangea map I set science to 0% until I think all the goody huts have been popped by the expansionist civs, and I am caught up to them. At the very start, you'll see that no matter where you set science at it takes 40 turns. But as you grow in size and add more cities that number will shrink. I would go with minimal science until you find out who your neighbors are. You don't want to invest a bunch of money into a tech you could have easily traded for. Alot of times the 2 techs you start with won't be the same 2 techs as your neighbor so you could swap techs with each other. Alphabet is a pretty expensive tech though, so you may need 2 techs for that 1 tech.
First, just build some warriors to use as military police and/or explorers to uncover the map so you can plan where you will put your future cities and to meet other AI (for trade, cheaper techs). The exploring/MP warriors don't really need to be veteran, so no rush to build a barracks right away (unless you play with raging barbarians!). I like to try and get the wheel as soon as I can, to build horseman. Going for Iron Working to get the more powerful swordsman is also an option, but on huge maps I need the faster units. Regular horseman seems to be much weaker against spearman than Veteran horseman so I build barracks in between the time I built the warriors and starting to produce horseman. Another good thing about horseman is they upgrade to knights, then Cavalry. Swordsman don't upgrade to anything.
# of cities you'll need depends on map size. Try and make sure every tile that a citizen is working on is roaded. Roads will help tremendously with commerce/research. Build on a river whenever possible.
squidd
Chieftain
a small clarification mr. bamspeedy. i think swordsmen upgrade to medival infantry and then to guerilla. aside from your point that mounted units are faster would it be correct to say the following?:
* the increment of attack increase of swordsmen to medival infantry to guerilla (from 2 (SM) to 3? (MI) to 6 (guerilla), i think) is minimal compared to the increment of improvement from horse to knight to cav? (2 to 4 to eight, i think) and this is why the upgrade of the swordsmen amounts to virtually "nothing"?
*another point is that horses eventually upgrade to three movement points.
one final point, can you please give a dividing line, for example... you use swords for tiny to small and then horses on standard to huge? sorry to be a bit puzzled as i have seen you wage a very effective war vs the AI with swords in the sample on your website.
as always, thank you for your thoughts.
squidd
Kaiser_Berger
Terran Emporer
Squidd
Check the date on Bamspeedy's post, and you'll see it was made in August of 2002.....long before PTW was available.....long before you were even a member of CFC. So, your clarification is unwarranted......i guess.....just though I'd point that out. Have yourself a good one.
Check the date on Bamspeedy's post, and you'll see it was made in August of 2002.....long before PTW was available.....long before you were even a member of CFC. So, your clarification is unwarranted......i guess.....just though I'd point that out. Have yourself a good one.
jeffelammar
Space for rent
Just as a general note. If you want to get better at the game, it really helps to compare apples to apples. As far as I know the best way to do this is to participate or lurk in the Quick Start challenge part of the Game of the Month.
GOTM : http://gotm.civfanatics.net/
GOTM Forums: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=49
By playing a QSC, even if you don't submit it, you can then compare what you did to some of the truely awesome Civ players like Bamspeedy, SirPleb, Alexman, Moonsinger, and many other "elite" players.
GOTM : http://gotm.civfanatics.net/
GOTM Forums: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=49
By playing a QSC, even if you don't submit it, you can then compare what you did to some of the truely awesome Civ players like Bamspeedy, SirPleb, Alexman, Moonsinger, and many other "elite" players.
