New to Civ III need advice

[gunslinger6792]

First off i'm not new per say to civ games i can play on emperor with civ5 gods and kings and i've played civilization revolutions on the iphone. that said I know that civ3 is a different animal so if anyone could give me advice on how to better play the game that would be great since my civ5 tactics don't seem to work here. For instance building a city on a hill in civ5 is great but is it still great in civ3? Where,when, and how many cities should i build? In civ5 i usually build 3 to 5 but in civ3 that seems to leave me in the dust. Also what about combat I've heard about stacks of doom but how would i best use them and in what numbers.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

 

[MysteryX]

Check out the Civ III War Academy.

When it comes to the number of cities to build in Civ III, typically, the answer is as many as possible.

The main driving force behind where to build cities is what access they give you to resources. All other things being equal, building on a hill gives the troops inside the city a defensive bonus vs. building on other types of terrain. But that would not be my only consideration on where to build.

The other two basic pieces of advice (which may or may not be familiar in a Civ 5 game, which I've never played) are (1) improve the terrain your population is working as fast as possible, and (2) move out of Despotism to either Republic or Monarchy as fast as possible.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Welcome to civ3! Sounds like the idea of rapid early expansion (REX) is new to you. REX is about building cities until you run out of land or into an AI civ. It's about your core cities where corruption is minimal and getting borders out there to minimize attack options for the AI. Any land you don't claim the AI eventually will. Stacks of Doom or Death are an AI thing, late in the game they can come at you with over 100 units piled up in one tile. You can block/trap a SOD with an army(s.) Eventually a SOD will splinter into smaller groups that can be picked off. These days I just nuke them if I can. Lots of details to learn with experience. May your learning curve be enjoyable!

 

[wazzzuup]

Here try this http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/introductory_courses

 

[Theov]

Play some more games, then do a search and then ask some more specific question.
Yes, add cities till they are not productive anymore.
Yes, lots of units. Stacks of doom are from the AI. They stack A LOT and then attack. There are tactics on how to defeat them.

 

[Quintillus]

Stacks of doom aren't just the AI. They're quite usable by the humans, too. You probably won't want 100 units on one tile, but it's usually more effective to send 3-4 offensive units plus possibly a couple defensive ones in at once than to spread them out where they're easier to pick off.

You're right that, except perhaps on a Tiny map, 3-5 cities is not going to be enough in Civ3. Whereas in Civ5, your citizens are more and more unhappy the more cities you build, in Civ3, people in general are happier and happier the more cities you build - because it's less overcrowded where they live. Civ5 will eventually de facto stop your expansion because your people are too unhappy, but Civ3 won't make you stop expanding because your people are too happy. The cities will become more corrupt, but it's more a case of diminishing returns (but still positive) than the negative returns that new cities provide for many centuries in Civ5.

"Keep going until there's no more land" is a decent rule of thumb. It might not always make sense to take worthless tundra or desert, but even so, if the alternative is the AI taking the land, you might still want to, just without as much hurry to do so. "Where" varies - as MysteryX said, resources are a primary motivator. Hills give a 50% defence bonus, which is significant, but only really useful in areas where you suspect you might be attacked - in Civ3, your core cities generally won't be attacked, so building on hills there isn't a big advantage.

Also, roads give you money in Civ3, instead of taking away your money like in Civ5. The idea is that increased commerce is going to more than offset the cost to keep the road in decent condition. So build roads wherever your citizens are working tiles, and don't be sparse with them.

In general I'd say Civ3 is also more difficult than Civ5. I can trounce the Civ5 AI on King, and could even in my first game, and I suspect I could probably beat it fairly well on Emperor, too, though I haven't tried. But a Monarch (equivalent of King) game in Civ3 is a challenge and I sometimes lose, whereas an Emperor game is a big challenge and I usually lose. So, I wouldn't expect to necessarily be able to reach Emperor level in Civ3 particularly soon.

 

[dilettante]

REX... REX like crazy. REX like your life depends on it (it does).

Armies are awesome. Whatever you do, try to keep the army alive (and put your best veteran guys in the army).

A stack in Civ3 means 5-10 units. A stack in Civ4 means 20. /smh why civ4 why?

If you get rubber/oil, get to industrialization/motorized transport, you rule the world... march accordingly. If you get tanks first, crush your neighbors quickly (the advantage disappears quick)

As mentioned before by other civ3 fans, roads do help rather than hurt.

Diplomacy will be more familiar coming from Civ5. The AI in civ3 have looong memories and there's no AI memory decay. Alliances are tough to come by unless you've been friends a long time.

 

[gps]

It might not always make sense to take worthless tundra or desert, ...

But this is where oil appears in later game phases, so take it anyway.

 

[Northern Pike]

Here try this http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/introductory_courses

Of the tutorials in this link, the most important by far is Babylon's Deity Settlers. As other posters have said or implied, Civ III is all about rapid early expansion, and this article gives the mechanics of how to do it. In a nutshell, you should get all your early settlers out of one high-food city with a granary, almost always your capital.

Another general tip is that the player shouldn't try to build every improvement in every city--experts are very selective. Strong players will win many games without ever building a colosseum or cathedral, for example.

Don't place much weight on the defensive value of your first city site. If you're defending your capital you're losing anyway--it should almost never happen.