I try to never break my rep, regardless of the game. They need all the help they can get.
I don't get this game-I'm still losing...
- Thread starter joe6778
- Start date
I would suggest starting off on a tiny map with 2 other opponents. The AI is really bad at playing tiny maps, and only 2 opponents should give you a good amount of room. I would also suggest sticking to pangea for now. Playing continents or islands adds uneeded complexity to the game when you aren't even winning yet. Warlord is the right difficulty for you right now so stick with that. You still have advantages, but they aren't as significant as cheftain.
I've only been playing this game for about 2 weeks, but I'm now winning on regent so I'll offer you some advice that really helped me go from quitting games after 100 turns to winning games.
- Explore! Always be exploring until you've explored all you can. Knowing what is around you, where the luxuries are, where the strategic resources are, and where the best spots to settle are is KEY to winning.
- Expand as fast as you can. On the easy difficulties you don't even need to build a single 'real' (not for exploring) military unit until later in the game. While you will at harder difficulties, right now just focus on pumping out workers and settlers at the start.
- WORKERS! Always try to have 2 workers per city or more. You need them. Build roads everywhere and mine every grassland tile you can. I made the mistake of irrigating everything when I first played because I did not know what mines did and did not know about the despotism penalty. Roads are really key, build them everywhere, and make sure you have the fastest possible routes between cities
- Keep your tech bar as high as possible without going into a deficit at all times
- TRADE! trade all the techs you can at the start of the game. This will help you get a tech lead, because on warlord, you have bonuses the AI doesn't. If you don't trade, they will simply trade amongst each other, which will allow them to build tech faster than you can even with bonuses. I made the mistake of never trading with the AI early on.
- Micromanage your cities. While this is not crucial, it really helps in the early game. Zoom into a city and use the next city button to cycle through them. Make sure you have enough improvements around them so they are always pulling from an improved tile. If they are pulling from unimproved tiles, improve them ASAP.
Thats all I have for now, and its what has helped me progress in this game quickly. Listen to everyone else though, they are much more experienced than myself.
I've only been playing this game for about 2 weeks, but I'm now winning on regent so I'll offer you some advice that really helped me go from quitting games after 100 turns to winning games.
- Explore! Always be exploring until you've explored all you can. Knowing what is around you, where the luxuries are, where the strategic resources are, and where the best spots to settle are is KEY to winning.
- Expand as fast as you can. On the easy difficulties you don't even need to build a single 'real' (not for exploring) military unit until later in the game. While you will at harder difficulties, right now just focus on pumping out workers and settlers at the start.
- WORKERS! Always try to have 2 workers per city or more. You need them. Build roads everywhere and mine every grassland tile you can. I made the mistake of irrigating everything when I first played because I did not know what mines did and did not know about the despotism penalty. Roads are really key, build them everywhere, and make sure you have the fastest possible routes between cities
- Keep your tech bar as high as possible without going into a deficit at all times
- TRADE! trade all the techs you can at the start of the game. This will help you get a tech lead, because on warlord, you have bonuses the AI doesn't. If you don't trade, they will simply trade amongst each other, which will allow them to build tech faster than you can even with bonuses. I made the mistake of never trading with the AI early on.
- Micromanage your cities. While this is not crucial, it really helps in the early game. Zoom into a city and use the next city button to cycle through them. Make sure you have enough improvements around them so they are always pulling from an improved tile. If they are pulling from unimproved tiles, improve them ASAP.
Thats all I have for now, and its what has helped me progress in this game quickly. Listen to everyone else though, they are much more experienced than myself.
Thanks to the help I received at CivFanatics, I was able to improve my game. I started a new game as the Americans on Warlord difficulty with default settings and random rivals.
I tried to use CxxxC spacing as much as possible and create a lot of workers/warriors/settlers from the start. I see now how city spacing connects my civilization and keeps enemies from building between my cities. In past games I was giving too much room to future expansion.
I didnt try to build all my city improvements from the start, but Im slowly switching from building military units to city improvements as the battles are dying down and Im expanding.
I was able to eliminate the Indians early on (although I lost a lot of warriors trying to take Delhi, the capitol.) I then picked a fight with my next nearest rival, The Japanese, and I currently have a peace treaty with them after taking four of their cities. I hope to finish them off after I take care of the Mayans who attacked me. Im trying to clear my land area of any rivals, so any future attacks will have to come from the sea. My victory points are actually within striking distance of the Mayans now.
I still have a long way to go in the game, but Im off to my best start in Civ III.
I tried to use CxxxC spacing as much as possible and create a lot of workers/warriors/settlers from the start. I see now how city spacing connects my civilization and keeps enemies from building between my cities. In past games I was giving too much room to future expansion.
I didnt try to build all my city improvements from the start, but Im slowly switching from building military units to city improvements as the battles are dying down and Im expanding.
I was able to eliminate the Indians early on (although I lost a lot of warriors trying to take Delhi, the capitol.) I then picked a fight with my next nearest rival, The Japanese, and I currently have a peace treaty with them after taking four of their cities. I hope to finish them off after I take care of the Mayans who attacked me. Im trying to clear my land area of any rivals, so any future attacks will have to come from the sea. My victory points are actually within striking distance of the Mayans now.
I still have a long way to go in the game, but Im off to my best start in Civ III.
Smooth, we knew you could do it. Now you just have to keep up the smart moves and avoid the mid game depression that often gets new players. By that I mean you get to Industrial Age and decide they are now too strong.
Good empire managing will prevent that. Good luck.
Good empire managing will prevent that. Good luck.
Don't worry, it takes a handful of games to understand the basics. But once you've mastered that level, you are ready to move on to the more advanced stuff that can be found in the Military Academy.
And of course the threads that darski provided above are a great way to improve and pick up new tips, tricks & strategies!
PS: and before I forget: the "Regent Tutorial" that vmxa has linked in his signature is great as well! I read it completely (even though I consider myself a Demigod/Deity player by now). Very instructive while at the same time avoiding to overwhelm the newbie player with too many advanced/too difficult details. He put a lot of work into that tutorial.
CommandoBob
AbstractArt
This is indeed much better than the first save you posted.
More Things to Consider
In Washington and some other cities, you have hired Entertainers. Generally, those guys (clowns) are the worst choice to make when you hire specialists. Washington is at size 12, so it cannot grow, though it does have a lot of extra food. Here, by firing the clown and working the last grass tile, commerce from the city increases from 45 to 50 and the gold-per-turn from Wasington goes from 28 to 33. In turn, your gpt overall increases by +5 gpt. More money in the bank.
In Austin the situation is different. This city is corrupt (netting one shield per turn at size 6) and it has a clown, too. It is building a Longbow, but has no barracks, so that Longbow will be a regular unit, not a veteran. A better build would be a trebuchet, which are unaffected by barracks, and cost less than a Longbow. This city has all the improvements it needs, since it is too corrupt to be really useful. It would be a good science farm. Even now it produces 3 extra food. If the citizen on the tobacco works the irrigated grass tile, it now produces 4 extra food. If the clown becomes a geek, that geek adds 3 beakers to turn to your research, which drops Gunpowder down to 8 turns from 9.
In New York, which is moderately corrupt, you have a barrcks and are building a Longbow. The city nets 4 spt and starts with 9. A courthouse might be in order after the Longbow, to reduce that corruption a bit.
Philadephia is building a colosseum. You really won't need that build. As you get more adept at city managment, you will become better at keeping your cities happy and productive, and the need for the colosseum will go away. The city already has a market and doesn't need a courthouse. A granary would help grow it to size 12 and you would only lose 13 shields.
Flagstaff is a renamed city captured from Maya. All the citizens are Mayan. Here, make everyone a geek and don't worry too much about the rioting. I would change the settler build to a worker, since this will be a Worker (Mayan) (a slave) and cost you nothing in per turn upkeep. As a settler, when it becomes a city, the first citizen will be Mayan, and right now with a Mayan war, you probably don't want that. In later turns, I would let let the city get one shield invested in the next worker and then rush that worker for 36 gold. I would only use enough citizens to keep the city from starving; everyone else would become a geek to help with research. Keep doing this two turn cycle and the city will soon be down to size 1 and much less likely to flip back to Maya. And you have a bunch of slaves to help your workers. They are slower, true, but they can be grouped into stacks of 6 or 8 to road/irrigate in one turn.
You have an MGL, Washington, outside of Lagartero of Maya. Washington is fortified. Umm, not a good idea. As long as you have one acitve MGL, you cannot generate a second one. Veterans will promote to Elite (I think) but Elites will not become Elite*. Wake up Washington and move him into Flagstaff and then build an Army with him. It can be filled later. Once Washingto is used, you have a chance to get another MGL and form another Army.
You have a lot of jungle in your core. That has got to hurt. As IND jungles take 16 turns to clear. I would group 4 workers into a stack and have them start clearing the stuff out. Four turns to clear a jungle tile is pretty good.
Once every few turns, whatever feels right to you, cycle through all the cities and look for ways to improve their output. For a science farm, which only nets one shield per turn, it makes no sense to have a citizen on a mountain when it could be on an irrigated grassland helping the city to grow. At first you won't see much you can do to make things better but eventually you will.
Summary
Once again, this is a much better game than the prior save. And what I have noted are some things that you are probably too overwhelmed to consider. I know how pressured I felt when I left Chieftain. Scarey! But you should be up to Monarch/Emperor in no time.
More Things to Consider
In Washington and some other cities, you have hired Entertainers. Generally, those guys (clowns) are the worst choice to make when you hire specialists. Washington is at size 12, so it cannot grow, though it does have a lot of extra food. Here, by firing the clown and working the last grass tile, commerce from the city increases from 45 to 50 and the gold-per-turn from Wasington goes from 28 to 33. In turn, your gpt overall increases by +5 gpt. More money in the bank.
In Austin the situation is different. This city is corrupt (netting one shield per turn at size 6) and it has a clown, too. It is building a Longbow, but has no barracks, so that Longbow will be a regular unit, not a veteran. A better build would be a trebuchet, which are unaffected by barracks, and cost less than a Longbow. This city has all the improvements it needs, since it is too corrupt to be really useful. It would be a good science farm. Even now it produces 3 extra food. If the citizen on the tobacco works the irrigated grass tile, it now produces 4 extra food. If the clown becomes a geek, that geek adds 3 beakers to turn to your research, which drops Gunpowder down to 8 turns from 9.
In New York, which is moderately corrupt, you have a barrcks and are building a Longbow. The city nets 4 spt and starts with 9. A courthouse might be in order after the Longbow, to reduce that corruption a bit.
Philadephia is building a colosseum. You really won't need that build. As you get more adept at city managment, you will become better at keeping your cities happy and productive, and the need for the colosseum will go away. The city already has a market and doesn't need a courthouse. A granary would help grow it to size 12 and you would only lose 13 shields.
Flagstaff is a renamed city captured from Maya. All the citizens are Mayan. Here, make everyone a geek and don't worry too much about the rioting. I would change the settler build to a worker, since this will be a Worker (Mayan) (a slave) and cost you nothing in per turn upkeep. As a settler, when it becomes a city, the first citizen will be Mayan, and right now with a Mayan war, you probably don't want that. In later turns, I would let let the city get one shield invested in the next worker and then rush that worker for 36 gold. I would only use enough citizens to keep the city from starving; everyone else would become a geek to help with research. Keep doing this two turn cycle and the city will soon be down to size 1 and much less likely to flip back to Maya. And you have a bunch of slaves to help your workers. They are slower, true, but they can be grouped into stacks of 6 or 8 to road/irrigate in one turn.
You have an MGL, Washington, outside of Lagartero of Maya. Washington is fortified. Umm, not a good idea. As long as you have one acitve MGL, you cannot generate a second one. Veterans will promote to Elite (I think) but Elites will not become Elite*. Wake up Washington and move him into Flagstaff and then build an Army with him. It can be filled later. Once Washingto is used, you have a chance to get another MGL and form another Army.
You have a lot of jungle in your core. That has got to hurt. As IND jungles take 16 turns to clear. I would group 4 workers into a stack and have them start clearing the stuff out. Four turns to clear a jungle tile is pretty good.
Once every few turns, whatever feels right to you, cycle through all the cities and look for ways to improve their output. For a science farm, which only nets one shield per turn, it makes no sense to have a citizen on a mountain when it could be on an irrigated grassland helping the city to grow. At first you won't see much you can do to make things better but eventually you will.
Summary
Once again, this is a much better game than the prior save. And what I have noted are some things that you are probably too overwhelmed to consider. I know how pressured I felt when I left Chieftain. Scarey! But you should be up to Monarch/Emperor in no time.
Ah, I forgot that I downloaded the sav. Since Cbob has made a report, no need for me to look. Some of the things I tried to mention in the tutorial was what/when/where and how to manage towns and cities.
The key thing is what Commando was pointing out. Check for growth, if none do you want some here? If so how best to get it. Rarely is a granary the way to go as the remote towns can just grow normally.
You can move citizens from hills/mounts and poor food tiles to better food tiles. Irrigate tiles and rail them, when you get that knowledge (in towns that do not have use for shields). This makes those corrupt towns sweet science farms.
Having more specialist allows them to be happy with no structures.
He also mention do not make troops without a barracks, after the early ones. That extra HP is important. I would add be leery about LB. They have a defense of 1, so they are very vulnerable. MDI is a better unit and comes sooner.
Knights are better still. Fewer stronger units is better in most cases. Less unit cost and more likely to win.
Alway form an army with an MGL, unles you have better use or not enough towns. As he said, it does not hav to be filled at that time. If you cannot form an army and you cannot use it on something worth it, then hold back those elites, if you can.
The key thing is what Commando was pointing out. Check for growth, if none do you want some here? If so how best to get it. Rarely is a granary the way to go as the remote towns can just grow normally.
You can move citizens from hills/mounts and poor food tiles to better food tiles. Irrigate tiles and rail them, when you get that knowledge (in towns that do not have use for shields). This makes those corrupt towns sweet science farms.
Having more specialist allows them to be happy with no structures.
He also mention do not make troops without a barracks, after the early ones. That extra HP is important. I would add be leery about LB. They have a defense of 1, so they are very vulnerable. MDI is a better unit and comes sooner.
Knights are better still. Fewer stronger units is better in most cases. Less unit cost and more likely to win.
Alway form an army with an MGL, unles you have better use or not enough towns. As he said, it does not hav to be filled at that time. If you cannot form an army and you cannot use it on something worth it, then hold back those elites, if you can.
I'm not real sure what some of the abbreviations used are referring to. For instance:
MGL, or MDI.
I used entertainers in those cities because they were revolting and I thought that that was the way you could calm individual city unhappiness. I also wanted to build settlers there because I would reduce the troublemaker populations.
I still have a lot to learn!
MGL, or MDI.
I used entertainers in those cities because they were revolting and I thought that that was the way you could calm individual city unhappiness. I also wanted to build settlers there because I would reduce the troublemaker populations.
I still have a lot to learn!
MGL = Military Great Leader
MDI is the maceman. Some use MI, but we have that for Mech Infantry.
Jokers give more happiness than other types. In some cases any specialist will be enough to make the town balanced. This is due to the specialist not actually working. So try taxman or Scientist and if that is not enough the actually effect of the joker is required.
Settler will drop the size, but they need 30 shields, while a worker only need 10. Hence you can drop the pop faster with worker. You can short rush workers cheaper.
Slaves can be put to use, foriegn settler may be a problem. It depends, you may be be able to found towns safely with them, maybe not.
MDI is the maceman. Some use MI, but we have that for Mech Infantry.
Jokers give more happiness than other types. In some cases any specialist will be enough to make the town balanced. This is due to the specialist not actually working. So try taxman or Scientist and if that is not enough the actually effect of the joker is required.
Settler will drop the size, but they need 30 shields, while a worker only need 10. Hence you can drop the pop faster with worker. You can short rush workers cheaper.
Slaves can be put to use, foriegn settler may be a problem. It depends, you may be be able to found towns safely with them, maybe not.
Sometimes I build a few "foreign settlers", if I plan a war some time in the future and need combat settlers for that war. You can keep the foreign settlers on stock, as they don't require unit upkeep, and also the foreign nationality doesn't matter that much, as the "combat towns" usually get disbanded quickly anyway.
Fiddlin Nero
Prince
So are you still looking to soak up all this good information at once? It's a lot to take in! Keep reading, keep playing and keep looking for ways to improve your game, it's still coming pretty slowly for me, I look more to surviving than necessarily to winning. Focus to much on winning and you miss out on developing a good civilization that can support a win.
Snarkhunter
Prince
Here's another you may see from time to time: SGL = scientific great leader. You can get these if you are the first to learn a tech (though odds are low). You use them to rush anything a town is building, but typically a Great Wonder, as this is the only way to rush those & they tend to take some time. If you have an unused SGL, you can't generate a MGL, so if you are in a war, you need to think hard about holding back on this.
And just to make it absolutely clear, once you get rails, a town of 6 can often support 4 scientists with just 2 cits working food tiles--that gives you 12 uncorrupted beakers a turn for your research. Multiply that by 40 or 50 towns, & you'll see the time required to learn a new tech drop by leaps and bounds. That's why science farms are so powerful: 12 good beakers is almost always more useful than 1 shield. (You can also make the beakerheads taxmen if you need some cash instead, and you can flip them back and forth between the two if you micromanage assiduously.) Even without rails, you can usually get a couple of beakerheads out of a town.
kk
Ive made some more advances against my two mainland rivals. Once things calm down in my cities, Ill move on and try to eliminate them.
I have more questions:
1. How do I eliminate wasted shields?
2. How do I keep captured cities from going back to their original country?
3. Should I have my governors manage cities?
4. Its been suggested that I should create science factories in some of my less productive cities instead of using entertainers. How do I do that if the population is unhappy?
I have more questions:
1. How do I eliminate wasted shields?
2. How do I keep captured cities from going back to their original country?
3. Should I have my governors manage cities?
4. Its been suggested that I should create science factories in some of my less productive cities instead of using entertainers. How do I do that if the population is unhappy?
Sparthage
Fighting Tyranny
I think that what you want to do is, instead of entertainers, you assign scientists.
CommandoBob
AbstractArt
If by wasted you mean red shields (corrupted) the only recourse is to build a courthouse to reduce corruption. But that is only useful sometimes. Where there is little to no corruption (capital city, for instance) a courthouse is not needed. Where there is a bunch of corruption (9 red shields out of 11 for instance) a courthouse would be wasted; it won't reduce corruption enough to make the city reasonably productive. Those are the places to have science farms instead of 'normal' builds.
Generally, a courthouse is effective and worthwhile when the city is from 25% to 60% corrupt, but those are ballpark numbers.
If, on the other hand you mean you need only one or two more shields to complete a build, but the city is producing 5 to 8, well, those shields are just lost. Depending on what is being built, the city could be fine tuned to produce fewer shields per turn in order to have no wasted shields at the end, but that can be a headache to maintain.
Quelling resistance helps and so does getting the size of the city down. Big cities with a lot of foreign citizens are more inclined to flip than large cities with lots of your own people.
On the turn a city is captured, it cannot flip back to the owner, so that is the time to load a lot of spare units into the city to stop the resistance. After that it gets a bit tricky. Any unit in the city when it flips is lost, so after the first turn move some units out of the city so that they can retake it if it does flip.
You can either starve a city down by making eveyone becomes a specialist and have no food coming in or rushing workers, as I mentioned earlier.
No. You can do a better job.
As you hire the specialists and change their assignment (clown -> taxman -> geek) you will see how that affects the happiness of the city. By hiring these specailists you are changing how happy/unhappy the city is.
"joe6778"
"1. How do I eliminate wasted shields?"
Do not worry about them in totally corrupt towns, just flip as many as you can to specialist. If it is a town that you expect to be productive enough to improve, you can build a court. I would not do it, unless it going to be making troops or it is near core.
Later you can use police. These are the most common and not the only ones.
"2. How do I keep captured cities from going back to their original country?"
In short, reduce the pop and build culture. You have to determine, if it makes sense to build culture. Easy way is to just take it back. My favorite way is to eliminate that civ.
"3. Should I have my governors manage cities?"
no
"4. Its been suggested that I should create science factories in some of my less productive cities instead of using entertainers. How do I do that if the population is unhappy?"
They cannot be unhappy, if all are specialist. So it is just a matter of flipping to science as many as you can feed and also be happy. flip all and let starve, if you have.
BTW I posted the Warlord roadmap in the Strategy forum. It is intended to be used as a timeline to see what milestone you could aim at. To give some concepts used that may be unknown to newer players.
Not proof read and probably has many omissions and errors, but better than nothing. (I hope).
"1. How do I eliminate wasted shields?"
Do not worry about them in totally corrupt towns, just flip as many as you can to specialist. If it is a town that you expect to be productive enough to improve, you can build a court. I would not do it, unless it going to be making troops or it is near core.
Later you can use police. These are the most common and not the only ones.
"2. How do I keep captured cities from going back to their original country?"
In short, reduce the pop and build culture. You have to determine, if it makes sense to build culture. Easy way is to just take it back. My favorite way is to eliminate that civ.
"3. Should I have my governors manage cities?"
no
"4. Its been suggested that I should create science factories in some of my less productive cities instead of using entertainers. How do I do that if the population is unhappy?"
They cannot be unhappy, if all are specialist. So it is just a matter of flipping to science as many as you can feed and also be happy. flip all and let starve, if you have.
BTW I posted the Warlord roadmap in the Strategy forum. It is intended to be used as a timeline to see what milestone you could aim at. To give some concepts used that may be unknown to newer players.
Not proof read and probably has many omissions and errors, but better than nothing. (I hope).
I'm in the process of trying to eliminate the civ, but for the time being the captured cities are on the verge of revolt. A couple of cities already turned and I had to recapture them.
So should I make all citizens tax collectors/scientists in a newly captured city? Or should I make them all entertainers to make the citizens happy first?
So should I make all citizens tax collectors/scientists in a newly captured city? Or should I make them all entertainers to make the citizens happy first?
If you make them jokers, what do you get? Nothing really. What happens, if you make them all tax/sci? You gain gold or beakers. Do not confuse resistance with happiness. You cannot affect resisters, you have to pacify them with troops or leave them.
Playing Warlord, it is very hard to have unhappiness. You get 3 content citizen. In a town, less than size 7, you should be looking good with a lux up to size 5.
Playing Warlord, it is very hard to have unhappiness. You get 3 content citizen. In a town, less than size 7, you should be looking good with a lux up to size 5.
Hellfiredoom
Warlord
Joe, after capturing a city, I leave a stack of units "overnight" for a turn or two to heal a bit and quell resistors. Once all resistors are quelled, I set all citizens to scientists and build workers out of the city until it is reduced to size 1. I usually even rush the workers every other turn (to reduce rushing costs) because I'm too impatient to wait for a normal build time (ie having to babysit the city for 10 turns for each worker).
Or you could just say "screw it" and raze the town when you capture it.
Or you could just say "screw it" and raze the town when you capture it.
I was able to wipe out the Mayans, so I rid my island nation of all other civs. The Japanese have one city left (that I havent found yet.) I think there are four other rivals left.
The Persians and Byzantines have both declared war against me.
I am building barricades all around the coast of my homeland. Is this worthwhile? I figure if I place a musketman in each one, it will be very difficult for anyone to attack me.
Since its very difficult to take enemy cities, should I attack my rivals or just sit back, build up my defenses, and try to win another way? Am I on the right track?
The Persians and Byzantines have both declared war against me.
I am building barricades all around the coast of my homeland. Is this worthwhile? I figure if I place a musketman in each one, it will be very difficult for anyone to attack me.
Since its very difficult to take enemy cities, should I attack my rivals or just sit back, build up my defenses, and try to win another way? Am I on the right track?
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