Negotiate

[Capitalist]

Okay being a total beginner, am offering this advise to other beginners of Civ III.

Negotiations:

Since I started to play C3, I used to go along pretty much with whatever the ai players offered or threatened.

Then the Chinese demanded that I give them my extra ivory (or else). I didnt like the sound of that, but normally I would just hand it over since my advisor was saying that their army is larger, and we fear one of their troops.

But I decided not to hand it over, and called his bluff. I then during the same negotiations offered them ivory and asked what they would give me for it, and they came back with a butt load of stuff, like 25g/turn, wine, coal etc. etc. etc. etc.

This also happened with the England AI player, only she never threatened war, but rather I asked what she would give me for my xtra silk, and she also came back with a lot of stuff to offer.

So, in short, see what you can get in negotiations, see if you can call the ai players bluff, and dont be afraid of the big bad neighbor.

 

[Sentinali]

Given your situation, a weaker army and an agressive. large, opponenet, You actually got very lucky in your first negotiation. In my experience when the army is bigger and they are close, there is only a 10-30% chance of them not declaring war. If you armies are equal or you are bigger the odd seem to be almost reversed.

 

[D. Boon's Ghost]

Good points, Capitalist.
You will hear terms like 'tech brokering' and 'luxury brokering' in these forums, basically (from what I gather) it is exactly this. Negotiate with rival civs as often as you can - sell off those extra luxuries, those researched techs. Use the gold gained (hopefully when you sell, you can get gold per turn deals) to up your own science and entertainment rates to get the tech you are currently researching quicker.
Once researched, you eventually repeat the process of negotiations.

I use this whenever a game allows it.

(edit: Forgot to mention...all gold per turn deals last 20 rounds. To check on their status, in your negotiation screen - towards the bottom, are a 'new' and an 'active' listing. By default the screen that pops up is a 'new'. Click on 'active' to see how many turns are left in your dealings.
Doing so will enable you to renegotiate without the loss of income appearing on the turn after it expires.)