NOOB GUIDE! (for the sake of your own sanity)

[Gengis Khan]

You can still sorta get by self researching on Emperor, you just have to know when to break down & buy & more importantly when to sell.

 

[talismanjayuk]

I cant agree more about catapults!!!

Im playing scandinavia as a warlord in PTW

Im sluggiing it out with france, but am slowly taking their cities.

I have 10 catapults mixed in with my other units and have made every attack on a city i have made so far, succesful - they just wear down those defenders. My veterans mop up the survivors and have created about 4 - 5 elites so far.

One of my border cities is continually attacked by the french but as soon as those units get close to the city, my four catapults inside manage to wear the attacking units down.

I cant wait for cannons!!

 

[SolarKnight]

I have to disagree with chieftain being too hard, all you need to do to get a tech lead is build libraries, build universities and roads everywhere, then you will generate huge amounts of commerce, use courthouses I

In cities farthest away from your core to reduce corruption.

In vanilla civIII/PTW build the forbidden palace in an area far away from your original core to get another core.

In conquests, build the forbidden palace as soon as possible.

Oh yeah and as a general note, get out of despotism as soon as humanly possible, in general if you are a warmonger, strive for Monarchy, and if you are a builder, go for republic.

Of course there are exceptions, but that strategy will give you a good headstart.

EDIT: Also for the best advice, read the war academy articles, some of the best advice going is in those articles.

another place to look is the succession game forum, there are some truly great players on that board, especially but not confined to the realms beyond team.

Hope this has been helpful

Good Luck

SolarKnight

 

[SinisterDeath]

Originally posted by The Economist



So... if you really want to prepare yourself for the higher difficulty levels, you should force yourself to get virtually all your techs from the other countries- and to never count on the Great Library (as you're probably not going to be able to build it on the higher difficulty levels).

I disagree wholeheartedly. Before or during your research for literature start your capital on a shield intensive project such as a colosseum or cathedral. When you are finished researching education you can switch production to the Great Library and save a bunch of turns.

Without a doubt I almost always (95% of the time) build the Great Library and I play at Emporer level. Next to the Pyramids, Theory of Evolution and Hoover's Dam, I find it to be one of the most important wonders in the game.

Even if you don't end up getting any techs out of it (very rare, but I've heard of it happening), just keeping it from the AI and thus the AI gaining 2 free techs is worth it to me. A powerful AI with a tech lead getting the GL can be a death knell for you. A weaker AI getting the GL can bring them up to par with you where they can form alliances and use the techs to screw you over.

You gaining the GL = 2 free techs which = $$$$$ (if you trade), or a huge tech advantage leading into the era of riflemen and cavalry/sipahi (gotta love those Ottomans), and this is when I win most of my games.

Get the GL at any cost, just make sure not to chop forest or disband workers in the pre-build or you won't be able to switch to the GL.

 

[tmarze]

I always play as americans.what if you build 3 cities and have your strongest city to be your settler pump and when you get to
4 cities then 2 cities become settler pumps and the others for military and worker pumps and get your 5th city your largest city become your wonder pump.

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by tmarze
I always play as americans.what if you build 3 cities and have your strongest city to be your settler pump and when you get to
4 cities then 2 cities become settler pumps and the others for military and worker pumps and get your 5th city your largest city become your wonder pump.

Although I am not very familiar with the Americans, I tend to make my capital the "wonder city", since it doesn't suffer from corruption or waste (that is, if it is not somewhere near to one of the poles - in that case I would make my thoughts about moving it occasionally). And, it should be located next to a river for unhampered growth.
To have no waste may spare one turn of production and that way insure that you're the one to get that wonder. Furthermore, the "tourist" bonus will be completely yours.
Although I have to admit that I just don't know exactly if that bonus is added before or after corruption calculation. I'd think, it is added before.

As the palace will begin to add 2 culture rather soon, the capital is the logical place for going for the 20k victory.
So, at the end of the middle ages my capital typically holds 6+ wonders, makes some 100 gold and often is able to produce a cavalry or later, an infantry in just one turn. That is, if they do not have to build wonders there....
This works up to and including emperor level. Well, it works often....

 

[a4phantom]

Originally posted by SolarKnight
In vanilla civIII/PTW build the forbidden palace in an area far away from your original core to get another core.

In conquests, build the forbidden palace as soon as possible.

SolarKnight

I just got Conquests, will play it next weekend. What's changed about corruption or the FP?

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by a4phantom



I just got Conquests, will play it next weekend. What's changed about corruption or the FP?

Just have a look to the discussion in the Conquests forum. And, if I may advise you, get the 1.15 patch immediately, since C3C (of of the box) was full of bugs.

 

[a4phantom]

Done and done. Thanks.

 

[risingnewbie]

I don't understand catapults but whenever I tell them to bombard it always said it fails

 

[QuantumEleven]

(moderate newbie here, so someone more knowledgeable might want to correct me )

How many catapults are you using? The rule with bombarment units is that you want to use as many as possible (and because you tend not to lose them, accumulating large numbers of them is easier). The chances of doing damage with a bombardment unit works (a bit) like with regular units - compare the bombard value of your unit (say, your catapult) with the defensive strength of the opposition, and from that you can get the probability of doing damage. In the ancient age, most units have a defence rating similar or slightly lower than your catapult's bombarment strength, so, on average, you'd be expecting to hit about one time out of two (taking into account terrain).

However, IIRC being in a city increases a unit's defence against bombardment (someone confirm or correct this, please!), so it's more difficult to hit units defending cities with your catapults. Also, the citizens of the city and the improvements have "bombardment defence" values, so there's a chance that you could either kill some citizens, or destroy an improvement with your bombardment. However, I think that their defence strengths are quite a bit higher than your catapult's bombard strength, and you'll probably need to wait for Artillery before you have a good shot at destroying improvements...

HTH!