I am an novice at this game what would you suggest?

[Matrix Fan]

What would suggest like:-

• What kind of land? Like 3, 4, 5 billion and what type of land
• What is the best start you can get
• What is the best country to use
• How many other countries should there be?

 

[Apocalyptic]

Start on Chieftan, 5 billion for land. the older the earth is the less rocky mountains it will have. 3 billion and you'll end up with lots of mountains and volcanoes. You don't want that. Pick 5 billion. Start with Pangaea and standard size. sedentary barbarians. Good civ to start out with? Well I liked Persia. There as far as I can tell not any best civilization. My favorite are Sumeria, Maya, Persia, Russians at the moment. Germans are good too. I suggest play the game a few times and read the manual. Then after doing all that read articles in the War Academy on this site. Above all....ASK QUESTIONS IN THESE FORUMS!!! No such thing as a stupid question unless its something you already know.

 

[MikeH]

I agree with Apocalyptic that there are no best civs, but as a beginner you might want to avoid Spain, Portugal and America, as their unique units aren't very good. Also if you are playing a Pangea map, Seafaring is not a lot of use, so it may be best to avoid those civs. My own recommendations for a beginner would be Greece, India, Babylon or Persia, but if you prefer fighting you might want to choose one of the militaristic civs.

The best start is two or three cows on grassland next to a river, but don't hold your breath .

I'd leave the number of opponents on the default setting.

 

[Tomoyo]

For beginners I suggest:

1) 5 billion
2) The best start is one with a river, many grasslands, and 20 cows.
3) Some industrious civ excluding America
4) The maximum

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Of course, if you make a better more fertile world, it will also be like that for your opponents.

An option to abuse that is by using an agricultural civ and have a dry world. You can benefit from irrigated desert like they were plains. The non agricultural AI cannot.

I am not sure if you ask for settings that make the game as easy as possible though. I hope not to offend people, but you have to be pretty braindead to have problems with the lowest difficulty level on an average map.

I had a friend of me come over and play his first ever game yesterday. I explained him the basics and within an hour, he was at least a a level to play monarch (and have good victory chances.)

Maybe you should state your goals. What victory type would you like to go for, and what is your playstyle?

If you want to restart games for a good start position, restart until you have at least:
-A river
-A food bonus (cattle, wheat or game)
-A low amount of useless tiles (desert, glaciers, mountains, jungle, marches)

The best trait is undoubtedly agricultural.
The second one to choose with that is not so certain. Oppinions differ here.

The best civ also depends on your goals. If you want to beat Sid, the Netherlands have everything you ask for. On low difficulties however seafaring us much less valuable and their UU is useless.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Whatever you do, if you really want to dive into the game, never play below Regent. Except for the basic concepts, you learn nothing there (and for the concepts, that's what 'Tutorials' are for). Better play into it on Regent, and loose/retire when you're completely stuck.
My suggestion: Pangea, Celts, reroll until you have at least a River Cow.

 

[Chieftess]

20 cattle would be overkill. I'd have 7 settler factories pumping out settlers and workers like no tomorrow! BTW, you wouldn't be able to use those 20 tiles until you get hospitals.

Ok, some basics:

1 - "Mine green (grassland), irragate yellow (plains)". Exceptions: You can irragate any food tile (cattle, wheat, game, wines, etc.). Don't settle on a food tile. Unlike Civ2, you'll lose that food bonus. Despotism also has a food penalty, so irragating grassland (without bonus tiles) doesn't have an effect. (same for mining a cattle on plains - already has 2 shields).

2 - Never automate (this includes governors).

3 - Always trade. Also, keeping the AI at war will lower their trading, thus keeping them behind you in the tech race.

4 - You only need 1 defender per city, and 2 defenders in your border cities.

5 - You don't need every wonder and improvement in the game. i.e., you really only need walls in border towns, and at that, if an invasion/war is emminent. Coloseums are really expensive, and you don't need them unless you lack the luxuries.

6 - Use the lux slider instead of entertainers. That way, you don't waste shields.

7 - Never attack across rivers. They give a +25% bonus to the defender.

Also, read up on the strategy guides. It's a great place to find info. (Remember that some may be for vanilla Civ3, PTW and/or C3C).

 

[Tomoyo]

BTW, you wouldn't be able to use those 20 tiles until you get hospitals.

...which is why you build more cities to use them.

 

[Dragonsbain]

2) The best start is one with a river, many grasslands, and 20 cows.

Holy cow.

 

[hoplite505]

I played my first game as aztecs. Military is nice and religion rocks. but i played 60 p land it was awesome my hordes of jaguars took over my continent by invention

I recently played aztes on emperor it was awsome i controled 61 percent by musketman I was awesome i got my third GL in 270 BC Nobody had iron so my ancient age archer annihailation overran everybody. I would have normally quit this game early but i had the statue of zeus and a ton of units. the dutch had swiss mercenarys before i had writing!!! but i continued to played and the dutch wasted a whole stack of units on my sword army So the game was onesided. It was so much fun to be rocking the AI on emporer

So i reccomend the aztecs or Japan

 

[hoplite505]

Of course, if you make a better more fertile world, it will also be like that for your opponents.

An option to abuse that is by using an agricultural civ and have a dry world. You can benefit from irrigated desert like they were plains. The non agricultural AI cannot.

I need to try this on Demi God
Thx

 

[viper275]

Archipelago, 80% water or Pangaea, 60% water, Both 5 or 4 billion.

20 cows, a river, and ivory. But you'd have to be very lucky to get that.

Look at the civ traits and what they do, reminding yourself of the map. Find out who has traits you like, then look at the UU and see if you like it too. You can pretty easily decide which civs are your favorites by doing that.

Less civs is usually easier, but there are exceptions.