I'm new...

[Bob1475]

AO - Space Oddity answered the question about a warrior. You need one (really two) to go out and explore. You find other civs to trade with and you scout for good places to put your cities.

At the begiinning of the game you want to focus on growing your empire. So you focus on warriors,settlersand workers. Consider a granary if you have a good city for generating settlers. Now that is general advice, depends on your civ and your strategy. But growth is the key to almost any strategy.

No you don't always give them what they want, haggle a bit but in the end you need to trade and make a few friends (at least at higher difficulty levels). One key point - do your trading on your turn so you can trade to the other civs. If you give your map of the world to one civ they will trade to others before you can. If you give it to one on your turn you can trade to each of the other civs before they get it from the first civ. Particularly important for techs.

If the iron is within your cultural borders you don't need a colony - just connect via a road. If the iron is outside of your border than you need a colony. Most players put cities next to the iron (or other resource) so it is not lost when the AI establishes a city.

On techs - this depends on your strategy and your civ. As an example, if you start with Alphabet you have a lead towards Philosopy. If you are the first to get Philosophy (in Conquests, not sure about Vanilla) you get a free tech. Generally the AI goes for the techs along the top, if you go for the ones on the bottom you get to trade for the others. No "right" answer but have a plan. Are you going for Monarch or Republic.

 

[gmaharriet]

AO, what I'd suggest is to start a new game and post the save here for suggestions on what to do first. Then play 30 or 40 turns or until you get stuck, then post another save here...get more suggestions, and play some more until you get stuck again. I'm not saying every 30 turns, but often enough that we can see what progress you've made (maybe after 50 or 100 turns) and make more suggestions.

We've ALL been through the same learning process, and we can get a pretty good idea of what's happening by looking at the saves. After doing that with one game, you'll manage on your own pretty well with only a few specific questions. Also, you'll learn just from making mistakes and seeing the results, thinking, "I'll never do THAT again."

 

[Alpha0meqa]

Alrighty then, I guess i'll make a new game now, before i do how many workers and warriors do you think I should have before i make my second city?

Also, what is a good civ for a learning guy like me to start off with, been doing Japan since i've heard it's easy...but should i try some other civ?

What are some starting conditions good for me...IE Temperate wet...5 billion 4 or 3, and stuff like that

and also...if you open'd my second save, is there any clue or does anyone have any idea why I couldn' t make gun units....Or was it just the saltpepper?


Thanks it advance.

 

[namliaM]

All middle of the road settings are 'good'

Road + mine every grass (assuming you get a grassy start) tile you are (going to) working on with your population in the city. Up to 4 or 5, maybe 6 tiles. Judge that accoordingly to when the settler will be done.
Get 2 warriors out to explore
1 warrior maybe for MP
If you have forrest (or 2) around your capitol build a worker here if no forrest skip the worker
Granary (research or trade for Pottery! But if you start with Alpha do not trade that away!) Try to get a forrest chop in this build, more if you can!
Settler
Keep on building, but NO temple/court/market here (yet)... If your capitol does not have a food bonus add a barracks... but otherwise No buildings, just Settlers/Workers and if a barracks maybe some units.
NO wonders at all, or atleast untill you get the message "The people want a forbidden palace"

Try starting a game as the English. The english do not have a brilliant UU, but they start with Alpha and Pottery. saving you a headache....
Then research Writing => Code of Law (CoL) => Philo => Republic (and get your first Republic slingshot, Meaning get Republic for free.)

Do not trade at all till you have met atleast 2 civs!
Do not trade Alpha till you are under 5 turns from writing.
Do not trade Writing till 5 turns into Philo.

Put no more than 3 empty tiles between cities (CxxxC, where x is 'empty' tile)
2nd city depends a bit....
If it has a food bonus (COW/Wheat/Game/Flood plains) granary and build settlers/workers.
If no food bonus Barracks > Units + Workers (to keep pop down) Try to keep this town then on a size where it has (net) 5 shields per turn This means warrior and worker in 2 turns. Then build the worker on the same turn as your town grows.

Have atleast 1 town produce as many settlers as it can. Preverably one with a food bonus.

If i say units that means NO Spears! Preverably no archers either. Make Warriors/Swordman or Horseman.
Warrior upgrade to swordman and are cheap (for MP for instance)

Do not create entertainers! If you have trouble with unhappy people, get more MP (max 2 per town for depotism and 0 for Republic) or give them luxury in the F1 screen.

If you start to reach a point where you have more than 2 workers per town. Build some extra settlers instead of workers.

All that should get you thru the first couple of turns

Good luck

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Some of that advice is for Conquests. Since you have vanilla civ3, start with Iroquios and don't worry about being the first to research philosophy. You don't get a free tech in vanilla.

 

[Alpha0meqa]

This is my starting point...I put it on grassland, hope that's okay.


Will be posting more screenshots or saves as I play

Question: If i trade a technology to another civ, do I lose it?

 

[Aardvark]

It looks like you moved you settler one space NW from its original spot. That original spot would have been an excellent start position because it would have had two bonus grasslands.

I assume you are going to mine and then road the square under the worker.

You should adjust your luxury slider (F1). You do not need luxuries at this point, so you should accumalate more gold. You will want to build a road from the BG Salamanca, and then build a road to the ivory (Elephant). If you look at your city you will find that your worker is working the ivory square. Building a road there will give you another gold per turn.

Looks like a very nice starting location.

 

[a space oddity]

First of all, the Iroquois are a good choice. Scouts are better than warriors in scouting (duh) since they cover twice the ground. They have a real nice UU too.

It's very important in the beginning of the game to inprove only the tiles you intent to work. Your worker is on a bonus grass, which is a good tile to start. The only thing is that you can only work it when the borders of your city expand.

Founding on the river is good, it will add an extra gold to the tiles next to it and it will allow your city to grow beyond size 7 without any extra improvements. Your city has a good mixture of different tiles. Go to the city screen to see which tile is being worked with its' citizen. Notice the signs for food, production and economics. Try to put it to work on different tiles and see how it affects what you get. This tells you which tile is already the most productive. Put your worker to improve that tile. The general rule of thumb is: irrigate the brown mine, mine the green.

Notice also the minimap in the bottom-left of your screen, it tells you where you roughly are on the map. It's on the equator, so you're in a hot climate. If you look at the screen you can see the edge of the tiles still in the fog. East seems to be desert, south jungle. Those tiles are hard to work and need improvements before they become valuable. The best land seems to be west. For scouting purposes, the mountains are valuable so it might be good to go east for that.

As you can see, Civ is about making choices and there rarely is one that is singulary good or bad. This is what makes the game so interesting! So scout east or west rather than north or south, is what I would do, but the choice is up to you.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Trading techs is how you get more of them. You do not lose anything.

You should build a couple more scouts asap.

 

[Alpha0meqa]

Meh im on an island....So i cant scout anywhere really, until i got boat?

Updates---pics of around 210AD

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Suggestions for next game:

Build cities closer together. You can have more of them in the same land area. All the land between city radii are not being used.

Don't waste workers building colonies unless you absolutely positively *must* do so.

 

[a space oddity]

Looks more like a continent than an island to me... To build boats you need MapMaking, it allows you to build Galleys in cities on the coast.

You seem to have a lot of units in Salamanca, what are they?

Good to see that you have grabbed two luxes, note that you only need to attach one to get the happiness effect. Extra sources can be traded to the other civs when you have a trade-route. You automatically get one when you connect your roadnetwork to theirs. When you are in the Diplo screen (use for instance the small "D" in the bottom-right of the screen to enter it) the luxes will be enabled and you can use them in trade.

 

[Alpha0meqa]

wow i am really in a bad position...I am -12 per turn gold....I don't know WTH i did wrong ....I havn't done anything new other than making roads to the silk....and making chariots since i got horses and sold philosophy

 

[a space oddity]

I gather you're still in despotism, it really helps to get one of the goverment techs: Monarchy or Republic. Make it your aim in research and switch. Either one will allow to gather more gold from the tiles. Look again at which tiles the cities use and road any that are used but are not roaded yet. Notice that units and city improvements have upkeep costs. You need to only build what you need.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

from post 38:

1- your first 2 to 5 cities should have bonus food tiles nearby (wheat, cattle, game...) and produce settlers/workers regularly, so a granary helps them keep up in food.
For the other towns, barracks wherever productive enough, library likewise. Temple and colosseums if you can't keep up with happiness using the luxury slider (top of the F1 menu, below the science slider). If you have enough workers and road a lot of the tiles you work on, it'll be ok.

2- Only if your military is significantly worse than theirs. Otherwise they might declare, and you having an ok military will mean you can wage a successful war. Be sure you have archers/swords/horsemen to back your words up if you say no.

3- Yes. If the iron was within one of your cities' borders and was roaded, you would also have it. Another way to get it is by trade: once you are connected by road to another civ's capital, you can import/export excess luxuries and ressources. That way, if you connect 2 irons, you can make money by exporting the second for cash. This would also be a way to import saltpeter and make cavalries.

4- As for techs, several openings are "classic", like going straight off the bath for Code of Laws, then researching Philosophy and taking Republic as athe free tech (you get a tech free from researching philosophy 1st). Otherwise, the AI will tend to research wheel, Bronze, Iron, warrior code and Ceremonial burial pretty quickly - making it worth your while to research alpha/writing and trading them for other techs afterwards.

Make more workers ! And with them, work on high food tiles at the beginning of the game. Food is power. You had 2 workers in the screenshot, which is A1-good. However, making them improve the wheat (N-NE) and bonus grassland (S-SW) will make 2 food rich tiles more productive for you. This will mean a faster growth of the town (since they produce high food) and a better production/economy (since they will be roaded/mined).

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Each city allows you so many free units depending on the goverment you are in. Despotism is 4. Any units above that require you to pay support costs of 1 gold per turn. The military advisor (F3) tells you how many are allowed total and how many you have (and may be paying for).

Buildings also cost gold per turn to support.

You can adjust your income on the domestic advisor screen (F1) by adjusting the amount of income allocated to science and entertainment.

EDIT:
You will get alot of players telling you about a free tech from researching Philosophy 1st. This does not apply to you since you are playing vanilla civ3.

Unit support (above free units) for all goverments is 1 gold per turn (gpt) in vanilla.

 

[Alpha0meqa]

Could the fact that i was making pyramids, have screwed me up? I didn't even notice=/

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Too many units and or buildings messed up your income... adjust the sliders on the F1 screen. Try playing without building any wonders. It will increase your knowledge of the basic game rules.

 

[Alpha0meqa]

Here is where I am so far, any tips or should i be doing something differently o.o?

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

I just had a quick look... didn't really study it.

Not enough workers, too many units, especially warriors. Use some of your gold to upgrade to more modern units. Not enough commerce going to science due to the high unit support costs.

Irrigate the cities that are short on food.

Open the city screen on your capital and study it. Then cycle thru the rest of the cities using the arrows at the top of the display studying each city as you cycle thru them.