Noob Questions......

[Sic_Brutality]

Hello everyone. Bigtime Noob here. I have a whole 2 days of playing Civ III under my belt and no previous experience with the game at all. I played Sim City on SuperNES when I was a wee lad and of course the infamous 'Risk' before the video game days.

Anyway, I've been playing since Tuesday. I've tried a couple games just to learn the flow of things and so far it's going sorta OK. Lost a couple tries on Chieftan with the Germans. Last night, I started the Mongols around 8 pm, and by 2:30 am, was doing rather well (Game year: 1830). In those few games I noticed a couple things I didn't understand.....

In one game, I got Horseback Riding. Now, where/how do I get horsies? In the 2 games as the Germans, I got Horse Riding, and my Rivals had units on horses, but I couldn't figure out how to get them.

Also, what has to happen to a unit for it to be upgraded? I have barracks in every city, but I have yet been unable to upgrade a unit.

And lastly (for now), I've made a few poor choices for where I build new towns. I put one in a desert spot and after a few turns, I saw "Starvation and Markirunka". Then the town stopped producing units and I kept seeing the message "Markirunka is not growning. What do you want to do: Abandon City, etc...." Question is.... how can I get it growing again so that I don't have to abandon the entire city?

Thanks.

 

[Drakan]

First things first, welcome to CFC Sic Brutality


Horses are a resource. Once you have Horseriding, look in the map and an icon with a horse will be in a tile somewhere. Build road to it from your capital with your workers. Connect every city of yours to the capital and you will be able to have "horsies" built in every city of yours.

Upgrade your units ? Perhaps you are lacking iron as a resource. Look in the city splash screen and see what resources you have hooked up already. Build roads ASAP to connect all your cities with each other or to any luxury or resource.

Yeop. If you build a city in the middle of a desert this might happen. Notwithstanding, oil might pop up there in a few hundred turns or perhaps saltpeter even sooner, you never know. So it's not a poor choice, it's a long term strategical place/investment, think of it that way.

 

[sealman]

Drakan is right. To build horse units, horses must be connected to your trade network. This means that you need to build a road to the horses and, if they are not withing your cultural boundaries, you may need to build a colony on it. To do so, move a worker onto the horse icon and click on the colony icon. (You shold also place a defensive unit on the colony to help protect it.

Regarding upgrading. A unit must be in a city with a barracks, you must have access to any required resource for the new unit and you must have enough gold handy to pay the upgrade cost.

When a town suffers starvation, it just means that it uses more food than it currently has available. You should still be able to build units unless they are workers and your current population is "1" or settlers and your current population is "1" or "2".

And, as my Spanish friend said. Welcome.

 

[alamo]

Most people learn by playing, as you're doing now.

There are several good articles and threads if you like to read first, though.

Basically you have discovered the resource problem - techs give you the ability to see and use resources, but you must find them and get access to them. Luxuries are always visible, but you still have to get access to them.

You should know that your opponents know the location of all resources, from horses to uranium. In the early part of the game they all grab as much land as possible, starting with the prime resources and luxuries.

I wouldn't worry about growth-challenged towns too much. It can just sit there and take up space. Just keep the food and shield potential in mind when founding a town.

You should glance through these articles so you know where to look for things as they come up.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

 

[Sic_Brutality]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to answer my questions. It's all been helpful. I am sure I will have more in the future.

Most people learn by playing, as you're doing now.

Yeah, I read through parts of the manual, but man.... it's talking about air raids and stuff and I was just learning how to move around and all that.

You should know that your opponents know the location of all resources, from horses to uranium. In the early part of the game they all grab as much land as possible, starting with the prime resources and luxuries.

See, now THAT I didn't know.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3academy.shtml

I will have a looksie.

 

[punkbass2000]

Just a quick correction:
You only need The Wheel to see Horses, not Horseback Riding (though you will be able to see Horses by then.)

 

[Drakan]

Wooops, my mistake !!

 

[Tomoyo]

Welcome to CFC!

If you want to learn the game quickly, you can lurk in some of the SGs (Succession Games) in the SG forum. You can read some of the games that the best (better?) players play, as well as some training day games. Escpecially GK2, if you aren't as afraid as me of long threads.