Newbie tips

[edLobster]

Hi eveyone. Im pretty new to the civilization games, I owned Alpha Centauri but never really got into it. I think it was because of the futuristic units which never really got me immersed into it. Anyway, I'm having some trouble with my Civ III strategy.

I can only repeatedly beat the computer on the easiest level and I usually get 2nd or 3rd on the second easiest difficulty setting. I'm not sure why I am so bad at the game...

I start by building a settler when my 1st city will reach 3 pop, and I try to expand and build as many settlers as posible until I hit anothers border or land runs out. I have a problem with money, I never seem to have enough to move my science rate above %50 and I can't afford to support more units. The other civs are almost always ahead of me in military and tech by mid game. What am I doing wrong?

 

[eyrei]

Trade technologies with the other civs. They will trade rampantly, and you will fall very far behind if you do not join in. Also, make sure you build a road in every square your cities are working so that they generate commerce.

 

[mtagliaf]

you don't have to wait until city is 3 until you start to build a settler - start when pop is (2 + number of turns till expansion) < (number of turns to build settler). This will help you build them faster.

Example: city is size 2 but will expand in 7 turns. Settler takes 10 turns to build. Go for it! Settler takes 8 turns, wait.

 

[Jens_Rasmus]

I'm plyaing Regent, but i have some problems too.

I have no idea of how to win in a war! Most of the time, the other civilizations allie, so instead of fighting one enemy i'm fighting seven. When i speak with other civs i can't offer an alliance. How do i do this?

How do you get a big army, while still having advanced cities with most of the city improvements? For me it's like i can't have both, it's either advanced cities or great armies.

 

[Protaxis]

To get an alliance I believe you need to establish an embassy at their capital first. You can do this by double-clicking on the star on your capitol's little status window (the thing that lists city size, name, etc. on the field map).

 

[edLobster]

So trading is the key then. How come the computer will sometimes demand outrageous trades, like they want one tech for another + gold and other things. I assume this is because they are more powerful than me or their culture is better or something.

It always seems like I start out doing good, then slowly fade away.

 

[edLobster]

Oh yeah... Is it a good idea to just keep pumping out settlers from my capital or should I use it for making wonders? Should I just make a high growth city whose soul purpose is to make settlers? Also, when you found a new city do you make a worker when you have a pop of 2 or do you wait until it is around 5 or 6? Thanks.

 

[4Lorn]

I claim no great knowlege but concentrating on expantion until 1000 AD or until all available space is taken for either you or any surrounding civ. Plan ahead.

When any civilization becomes contained, has no place to expand, they will take the path of least resistace and attack the weakest surrounding civilization.
1) Be prepared with stacks of units, walls, etc.
2) Don't be the weakest surrounding civ.

This seems to be the way things go. All smiles and trades until crunch time. Then wham. Sorry son. You seem to be inhabiting my land.

 

[Byzama]

If you want to survive, you must have very strong army.

For example: Build your capital some good place, then build military unit until your city reach pop 3. Put settler under construction and when settler is ready build another settler (believing that you have city pop 2 or higher). Deploy your settlers to good places in strategical meaning and also near good resources (cattle, gold, iron, horses etc.).

While you are doing whole this thing, scout nearby areas and try to find other civ's. After you have found them, build embassy with them. Try to visit them in every 5th or 10th turn and trade with maps and techs. If you are stronger than another civ, demand gold for your peacetreaty. It works very well. In one of my game's I got 75 gold from other civ's. It's pretty good goldsource.

If your neighbour starts to expand through your territory, show them who is making the rules. Destroy if have to, but not while civ is paying you gold. After when your deal closes, demand more and if they don't accept declare war. I found that very good tactics .

I'm not saying that this the only way to win and get gold from other civ's.

 

[ajohn505]

playing Warlord...

It always seems that I run out of city improvements to make during some periods in the game.... I use this time to crank out units that can be upgraded. I have a crapload of catapults that eventually become Radio Artillery, spearmen that become Mech. Infantry, etc... thusly no time is wasted on Wealth. As long as you're trading techs with the AI, you'll never need to have cities on Wealth for money.

By the time you're in the Industrial age, you have a huge army that you've upgraded by using gold the AI gave you.

 

[titch]

HELP!!!!
ive got a big army but still i carnt beat them
i got at least 10 cites but they seem to be every where!!And when i am doing well they have a war and i get f***ing drawn into it some how!!!

 

[Arrian]

Hey all,

I've had a number of successful games on Regent, and am finishing off a victory on Monarch (admittedly, Monarch has also soundly trounced me several times, so I'm no master). Let me see if I can help out with a few things:

First off, expansion. Clearly, the AI is programmed to do a damn good impression of a rabbit on viagra. On Regent and below, you can keep pace, and even out-expand them. Above regent, it gets pretty tough to pull that off.

Choose a civ based upon your style of play. If you like to play a mostly peaceful, builder-style game, I strongly suggest the Babylonians. If you like to be aggressive, I suggest the Aztecs or Japanese... or even the Iroquois (NASTY special unit).

Trading with the AI is CRUCIAL. This means several things. Early on, your science rate is terrible because you have very little commerce. There is a cap, however, on how long tech research takes - no longer than 32 turns. Thus, early on I would suggest putting your science rate down low (like 20%) while you are just punching out settlers. This, coupled with money you will get from huts and dispersing barbarian settlements, will allow you to buy tech from AI civs. This will generally cost you 30-100 gold per tech. Obviously, you can trade your starting techs (usually the AI will want some gold, too, and even though it doesn't seem fair, just roll with it).

Trading with the AI also means trading resources. I am generally very careful about trading strategic resources, but luxury resouces are another matter. You can get all sorts of stuff out of the AI for luxuries. Tech? Sure. And the deal lasts 20 turns, after which you can get more (if you're still behind, for some reason). ALWAYS renegotiate after 20 turns! You will notice the AI does. They will also pay handsomely for luxuries. The larger the AI civ, the more valueable lux. resources are to them and the more they will be willing (and able) to pay. This should help any money woes you have, and hurt the AI's budget.

I usually switch to republic asap, and when I do, I'm often losing money. The best way to counteract this, from an internal standpoint, is to develop currency and build marketplaces. Banking is on the way to democracy, so go for that too and build some banks. Once you've build 5 or 6 banks, you can build Wall Street, which I HIGHLY recommend, because it will give you 5% interest on your treasury, up to a max of 50 gold per turn.

The forbidden palace is another essential thing. If you're lucky enough to have a leader, I would suggest using him to build this small wonder in a city far from your capitol that is centrally located with lots of other 99% corrupt cities around it. Those cities will suddenly be productive, and you will find tech research will speed up and your finances will improve. If you don't have a leader, build the forbidden in a city with enough production that the wonder doesn't take forever, but that is located in as good a spot as you can get for corruption reduction (this can be tough, I've spent time agonizing over where to put the FP).

Explore, explore, explore! If you're playing on continental or archipelago (sp?) maps, this means building a galley or two and trying to find the other continent(s). Once you do, and once people discover navigation and have harbors, you can trade with the civs "over there" as well, which should help you even more. I often will trade strategic resources to civs on other continents, as I'm less worried about them building troops and using them on me.

As for fighting, the AI is more challenging early on. I usually fight one ancient war and then hunker down, work on my empire, trade, etc. until the industrial (or even modern) age before fighting again - unless an AI civ picks a fight. The AI may well pick a fight if it thinks you're weak. This means it simply compares how many units it has vs. how many you have, and if it think it has enough, it may start demanding things or just flat out attack you. This is why it is a good idea to maintain a solid army. I know it costs money, but believe me, it can be done if you build up your infrastructure and use the money-friendly governments (republic, then democracy).

Anyway, I could probably go on for a while, but I'm starting to lose focus... so I'll stop here. I hope this helps ya out.

-Arrian

 

[Paeanblack]

Make sure you don't switch from Despotism too soon. Usually, when you first get Republic or Monarchy, that is WAY too soon. Crack the whip (don't be afraid of it) on your citizens to build those marketplaces before you switch out of Despotism.

Keep in mind that after you switch, every unit you have out there suddenly costs 1gp per turn to maintain. Switching before you have the marketplaces in place will make you lose tons of money.

Look at the unit count on the military screen and ask if you can afford to lose that much gold every turn. Usually, you can't, so wait with the revolution.

 

[Byzama]

Titch my friend. Your problem is simble even you have big army, but compared with your citys I think that your game is f***ed up. YOU NEED MORE CITYS AND FAST!!!! Ten ain't enough. One of my friends who is also playing Civ 3 had 45 citys in 355 A.D. and I must emphasize that those citys weren't captured. Short way this hole message could be said: more you have city, much bigger your army is. *sigh* Still missing Fundamentalism and Fanatics.

 

[shadill]

Hello people,

I'm having a problem with civil disorder everywhere here. How to avoid this problem? I'm quite new to this game so I don't know how to do it.

 

[RAL2000]

Here are a couple of newbie type tips to help those who asked out....

Trade/Diplomacy is probably the single most easily overlooked part of the game and there is plenty of misinformation floating around out there.

Here are some observations:

1) When you have something to trade, plop it out on the table and ask what they will pay for it. You won't believe how good some of the deals can be. Not every time, but keep trying. This is FAR better than trying to set up deal by yourself, i.e. here is my resource and this is what I want.

2) When they make a demand you don't want to honor, 90 percent of the time they will listen to a countproposal. Take their demand off the table and offer them five bucks for free (or the territorial map) and they will go away with a smile on their lips. This not only keeps them happy but avoid having to form alliances that come back to bite you.

Contrary to what has been posted many times on these forums (and what you might think using common sense) you do not need a strong army to get good trading deals. Nor will the AI automatically attack you if you are militarily weak.

I have played several games, including at the highest levels, with nothing more than 1 or 2 unimproved warriors guarding my cities and never been attacked and gotten great deals at the table. Once I got over 7000 bucks in one turn plus resources and tribute this way.

I'm not recommending this as a newby strategy because it is tricky, but the point is you don't necessarily have to panic because you are falling behind militarily. Unless of course you have made enemies already.

Of course marching in and ripping up their Civ can be a lot more fun ;-) if you can pull it off!

 

[shadill]

Thanks for the great tips, RAL2000!

By the way, does anybody know what's wrong with making more cities, roads, mines..etc? Yesterday, suddenly I was defeated and disgraced without any wars or attacks. Have I done something wrong?