My civ3 strategy so far...

[kenoyer130]

Ok I played Civilization 2 like a fiend and just got Civilization 3 and like to play on reagent mode where the computer in theory does not get more resources. So far I have been getting totally smashed for about 6-8 games, with the computer having a decisive lead at every point. Here are some things I have tried through trial and error, most of them being changes from preconceived ways that the game worked from Civ 2.
I am playing the Iroquois so this strategy is aimed at a religious, expansionist civ.

First off focus on culture! My standard build order is warrior (got to have something to defend the place), then a temple, then a settler. This allows me to beef up my culture level quickly. Every little pop 1 civ at a contested border spot gets a temple to push the other civs borders back. I have decimated the Americans with my expanding borders leaving them isolated from each other without even going to war. Also about half way through the first age my culture rating was equal to all the other civs combined! This seemed to stop the AI from wondering through my land and also made it much easier to sue for peace. I would attack a single city the AI had planted in some strange location, defend for a bit against the counter attack, and then offer peace with a pittance of gold. Before I focused so intently on culture the AI would stomp all over me, and wars would drag on forever with the AI demanding a city to stop. This is different from my Civ 2 strategy of not building any improvements until later in the game.

Second build mines on grassland! In Civ 2 I would focus on irrigation and only have a few mines per city. The AI in Civ 3 always had a huge army. Half way through a game I noticed that what I had thought was bad AI (littering their land with mines) might help so I ripped all my irrigation up and replaced it with mines. Suddenly my cities were pumping out units every 2-3 turns! I also noticed that even though I think the manual says if you irrigate grasslands it increases the food production by 1 it didn’t seem too for me, so irrigating grassland was just a waste of time. Instead I focused on just irrigating enough so that growth didn’t stop and everywhere else I planted mines. My shields went through the roof and I had a big enough army to undertake wars without the computer steam rolling me. Also due to my large army and high culture, when I went to war with one civ the others didn’t all gang up on me as they did when I was weak.

Now the game is still challenging but with these two simple changes I feel much more in control and a player on the game scene, instead of being some backwater third world country like before

 

[cph]

I totally agree on the mines. I thought the AI was doing it wrong at first as well. My new stategy is once I have a decent base of cities near my capital, I convert some of them to Wonder Producers by quickly mining the complete area, or at least the 12 spaces they use when they are fully grown before hospitals. I then pump out wonders like nothing.

Speaking of AI, I thought I saw somewhere the ability to change worker's automated actions. But I can't find it now. How do you bring up the screen to change the priorities of automated workers?

Another startegy I found, never noticed it in civ 1 or 2 but it may have been there as well, is to trim science research every turn. Once I enter modern age, I start each new research at .7-.9 for 5-7 turn completion. I then lower it each turn as much as I can while still keeping the same research speed. I generate so much more cash this way b/c by the time research is at one turn I am making 200-300 gold in taxes. Sometimes I choose my worse tech and sell it for multiple mulla per turn. Make surre you listen to your advisor to get the mose possible. And if you sell your a tech to one civ, might as well sell it to all or else they will!

I still haven't found a convincing strategy of beating corruption yet. In one huge game, I was stuck on an island with the Iroquois. I was able to pin them to a very small part, and so I quickly out grew, cultured, and armied them. Then I took them out. Corruption was totally check on my island, until I started looking around for a place to expand. I found a very rich section of the main land that none of the other civs had taken advantage of. I sent 15 settlers or so to start up a nice second soceity. However, b/c of the distance, no matter how much the cities grew, how much the cities produce, they only received 1 shield per turn. I wanted to build a forbidden palace there, but how could I wait 300 turns! I've run into similar scenarios since and have yet to find a viable solution. Any ideas?

 

[spiky82]

well, since u can't obviously wait 300 turns, why not rush build them?

1) use one of ur GL if u have any.
2) Force labor rush...
3) rush with gold (buy it off!) since u got a large sum of money...

 

[Doomsday]

You cannot rush build the Forbiddin Palace.
Some sort of rule.

Rush build temple-courthouse hopefully you will get atleast 2 shields out of that, maybe 3. Just get your city big then worry about it. Support it with land units from your homeland.

 

[cph]

I would use a GL, but I find them hard to come by. Anyone know of a solution there?

Force labor? can you use that in a Democracy or Republic, how?

 

[Alexander I]

Originally posted by cph
I would use a GL, but I find them hard to come by. Anyone know of a solution there?

Try using civ specific units. I played my second game as the Persians and by 500BC I had gotten two Great Leaders. I don't know if it's just coincidence.

 

[cph]

Well dang, I like the Americans (I like the exploring/industrial culture bonuses). My special unit is the F16. And it's a long time until I get those. Maybe I should look into other civs.

 

[Gray]

If you are in despotism, rush build temples and courthouses using your pop. The only way to rush the Forbiden Palace is with a Great Leader... The quickest way to get great leaders, is 1-use a Militaristic civ. 2-Produce units in cities with barracks so that they are vets. 3-send them out to fight fight fight. Killing barbs will get you up to elite quick. I created a vet spearman-moved him to a hill near a barb village and right after that they sent out their wave of 8 horseman. My spearman was elite in one turn... However, I have never gotten a GL from killing barbs (only from killing Zulu and Japanese to date).

The mines on grasslands thing is good, but once you move out of despotism, irrigation allows you to gather lots more food (in despotism it doesn't have any effect as far as i can tell). So you have to balance growth with production.

 

[LKendter]

Well I tossed out my first game after having a settler killed early
Second game going. My guidelines so far

1 - Military unit with a settler.

2 - Military unit with a worker (unless way inside your borders).

3 - Build temple ASAP. Until you expand your borders the first time, you can only work *ONE* square around the city.