Link: how to win at Civ III

[Theov]

There's not much else to say that this guy has found a way to win at Civ III at higher levels.
Enjoy, I think he redefined the way to simply prey the game.

http://www.sveinbjorn.org/civ3tactics

 

[Spoonwood]

At higher difficulty levels, you can forget about cultural victories or building space ships. Only relentless, perpetual warfare will lead to victory.

*laughs*. Seriously, it's actually *easier* to win a spaceship victory at higher levels than to win as he proposes. It appears that most players don't care about that too much, because they'd rather bash the AIs. But, seriously, most players who have played all sorts of different VCs at higher levels think non-military games easier than military ones.

When you start the game, your choice of civilizations is essential. Picking a civilization with a late-game special unit or civilization-specific abilities related to faster development is out of the question. While the tactic I am about to describe can in theory work with any civilization, I recommend that you play the Iroquois, Chinese or Japanese.

Not only does he contradict himself, but it's also interesting to note that the Ottomans have the fastest SS victory on any Deity table... and that spot tops the Demi-God, Emperor, and Monarch tables as well (though they aren't necessarily comparable). Not much later of a UU than the Sipahi.

Assuming that you're playing Monarch, Emperor or even Deity (which is very hard indeed), this tactic is your only recourse.

Laughs some more.

Once you've used up the area around your capital, expand aggressively in all directions -- build cities, build cities, build cities!

As if no one ever won a 5CC or OCC upper level game.

It goes without saying that you'll want to stick to Despotism throughout the game. None of your cities are going to grow above the size of 5 or 6 anyway, so the benefits of alternate forms of government are irrelevant. It's possible that Communism may be suitable at a later stage in the game (with its Forced Labour), but if you haven't won at that point, it's unlikely that you will. If your enemies manage to develop rifleman defense units, your chances of winning drop to almost zero.

Almost falls over laughing. Plenty of players have fought almost all of their wars against rifleman. Heck, in Moonsinger's 80k game she faced ToW infantry with artillery, cavalry, and cavalry armies.

And it is. But the fact of the matter is that it is impossible to win at higher difficulty levels by being a "nice guy". This is a shortcoming of Civilization III as a game.

Not only have I won games at higher difficulty level playing as a "nice guy", I have a first place HoF finish or two *where I haven't fought a single war*. No doubt his ideas can work, and have merit to them as *a* strategy. But, that his tactic work as *the only possible* way to win simply comes as laughable.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

What, no Feudalism love?

 

[vmxa]

I did not read the thread as it is for Civ3 and I have not played it in some time. I will refrain from any nay saying as I think it is good that people take the time to put forth what works for them.

It is often not a good idea to be dogmatic and to state this or that is the only way to go though. I will say that the line about staying in despotism is an eyebrow raiser. I have mentioned playing a sid game in despotism all the way to conquest, but I would not suggest that is the best idea.

 

[EvilConqueror]

If a horseman retreats after a failed or successful attack, make him wait until all your attacks have finished. If you captured the city, move all your wounded horsemen into it and make them heal. This will make all your units fit for combat again in the space of a couple of turns.

Unless the city flips back and you lose all of those units.

At every opportunity, you should try to negotiate peace with your enemies by forcing them to hand over civilization advances -- don't bother with gold or stuff like that. It's useless to you anyway, since you won't be wasting shields or effort on expensive city improvements. Of course, you should always press for the hardest terms -- if you can get him to hand over cities, then go for it. And of course, the gold you get from him may be useless to you, but at least it's gold that he's not getting.

It tends to be very difficult to squeeze techs out of the AI. There have been times when I've reduced an AI to one city and they still wouldn't hand over a tech for peace.

And gold is essential to keeping some kind of decent research pace. And for buying techs from other civs.

Almost falls over laughing. Plenty of players have fought almost all of their wars against rifleman. Heck, in Moonsinger's 80k game she faced ToW infantry with artillery, cavalry, and cavalry armies.

Yeah, I just finished a game where I had to face rifleman and then infantry with cavalry/artillery. And I didn't lose!

 

[IvanDolvich]

Interesting: I didn't read the thread, but I have to agree with Spoonwood: There are many ways to win at higher difficulty.

It sounds like this one method becomes totally useless if the AI gains sufficient Tech for Rifles..... very limited indeed.

It might prove useful to read through some of the classic games and then re-evaluate the one way to victory idea.
Legendary Games here is a great place to start.

 

[RickDuzEnuff]

I didn't read the thread, but victory and not score seems to be the order of the day....personally, I can't WAIT to get out of Despotism...but that's me...