"Leapfrogging galleys across ocean"

[capnvonbaron]

Semi-moderate CivIII Vanilla trick (by request):

Note: This is to take advantage of being able to see an extra water tile out when fortifying naval units.

1. Best way to make this work is to get the Great Lighthouse so that your galleys can travel sea tiles without sinking. This will give you the best benifits of the trick. However, if that is unattainable, you will have to wait for caravels.

2. Build a few boats and load them up with settlers and defense units

3. Sail out to the furthest sea tiles you can in a direction where it makes sense for other continents to be. If all that you meet is ocean, then...

4. Fortify. On your next turn, the distance your boat will "see" out into the ocean expands another square.

5. Hopefully, three tiles out you should see a sea tile. Sail to it! If you get to a dead end and see nothing, move on and try again.

Sometimes you can find several little single-tile spots of sea that allow you to jump some distance into the ocean and on to other continents. The earlier in the game that you can make this work, the better. You will have more time to colonize the other continent and meet other Civs to use as trading leverage against the Civs you have already met. Also: be stingy with your maps after this point. The AI can (I believe) use the route you did once it knows it exists, and the advantage will be lost quickly. This trick works pretty well on continents and archipelago... pangea, not so much.

 

[Argetnyx]

that might be very usefull...
i usually just let them sail out and if they sink, send another out

 

[Taras Bulba]

I believe alot of people on this site refer to that as suicide galleys (whether or not they have settlers/units on)

 

[capnvonbaron]

right... suicide galleys is if you just send them across oceans. Do it my way and you won't lose any. That, and for some reason my version won't even allow me to move galleys into ocean squares until navigation becomes available (at least, I haven't figured out how to yet)

 

[Taras Bulba]

right... suicide galleys is if you just send them across oceans. Do it my way and you won't lose any. That, and for some reason my version won't even allow me to move galleys into ocean squares until navigation becomes available (at least, I haven't figured out how to yet)

ooh... I just skimmed the first little bit and assumed the rest was along the same lines

that does help... but I've had lots of games where even 3 tiles out you can't find... its why I like to send out suicide galleys so that you can explore faster

plus, you can always manually move onto the ocean tile, and if you don't see any sea, you can move back, and try in a different area...

easier than fortifying it everywhere

 

[Argetnyx]

I believe alot of people on this site refer to that as suicide galleys (whether or not they have settlers/units on)

i call them kamikazes

 

[Taras Bulba]

i call them kamikazes

to each his own

 

[capnvonbaron]

I assume by "manually" you are referring to the num pad?

If that works, yeah I might be more prone to do that. I've gotten the three-tile-jump-to-nowhere too, and its kinda stupid. Sometimes I'll even see a mass of sea tiles and when I get there... its just a mass of sea tiles in the middle of the ocean

 

[Taras Bulba]

I assume by "manually" you are referring to the num pad?

If that works, yeah I might be more prone to do that. I've gotten the three-tile-jump-to-nowhere too, and its kinda stupid. Sometimes I'll even see a mass of sea tiles and when I get there... its just a mass of sea tiles in the middle of the ocean

number pad or just pulling it into one tile at a time, instead of stretching it the full 3 move spots...

I'm pretty sure both work

 

[Argetnyx]

i know they work, i dont even think that galleys should be able to go into oceans.

 

[Taras Bulba]

i know they work, i dont even think that galleys should be able to go into oceans.

all just little faults of the game

 

[Argetnyx]

there seem to be a lot of them. i think they should make a new version of civ3. i just cant figure out how to ask.

 

[Hasdrubal Barca]

Actually, the galley not sinking in ocean sometimes by "luck" i snot a flaw, i believe it is designed this way to simulate the real chances that happens in real history, don´t forget that remains of phoenician and roman galleys have been found in very remote locations....

 

[Argetnyx]

what i meant was they should not be able to go into the ocean safely once navigation is discovered

 

[capnvonbaron]

...don´t forget that remains of phoenician and roman galleys have been found in very remote locations....

Not to mention the Norse vikings. They made it (alive) to Nova Scotia, after all.

Yeah, I think they should be upgraded before being let into ocean safely. The idea is that they aren't capable of surviving ocean voyages intact because if they run into storms, they are ill powered to make it out. Although if that was the case, then you should lose any ship once in awhile to the ocean... perhaps with less chance value than a galley, but hey, a modern armor will die fortified in a jungle just as well as a warrior

 

[Argetnyx]

i never thought of it that way

 

[Taras Bulba]

what i meant was they should not be able to go into the ocean safely once navigation is discovered

Not to mention the Norse vikings. They made it (alive) to Nova Scotia, after all.

Yeah, I think they should be upgraded before being let into ocean safely. The idea is that they aren't capable of surviving ocean voyages intact because if they run into storms, they are ill powered to make it out. Although if that was the case, then you should lose any ship once in awhile to the ocean... perhaps with less chance value than a galley, but hey, a modern armor will die fortified in a jungle just as well as a warrior

but also think of the way they went... for the most part, I'd imagine they sailed from Scandinavia to Iceland to Greenland to Canada...

that's like following coast for the most part of the game, and going into sea tiles 2 times maybe, at most....

I don't think that civ accurately (or even has the capability) represents the way sailing is in real life....

but that's just my opinion

 

[Argetnyx]

civ doesnt accuratly represent a lot of things. i think a new version would be nics

 

[Taras Bulba]

civ doesnt accuratly represent a lot of things. i think a new version would be nics

this is true... but I doubt a new updated Civ III will ever be coming...

the best bet would be to try to push for it in Civ V

 

[capnvonbaron]

I don't think that civ accurately (or even has the capability) represents the way sailing is in real life...

Which part?

How a 5 knot top speed galley travels half as many squares in a turn as a 25kt top speed destroyer?

That it takes even the fastest battleships 10 years to cross even small ocean gaps?

That only AEGIS and subs can detect other subs, despite technology advances that basically allow ALL naval vessels (and even aircraft and helicopters!) to see subs in the later stages?

That ironclads chug across oceans without problems?

Yeah, not even close Sid.