..opening gambit...

[soujourner]

So much is in any game, whether it be chess or civilization III, with the opening. That is getting off to the right start. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Any varied approaches to Ancient Times segment of the game?

 

[timerover51]

Hmm, probably my bottom line is having fresh water within one tile of starting position. Not there, reload and try again. That is if I am playing the standard random map game. I also prefer a coast location to try and get the Colossus for the commerce boost. After those two items, I see if there is Iron nearby. No Iron, reload the map. The problem in Civ3 is that, unlike chess, you have a random starting position if using the standard game map generator. So, it is hard to make a general rule, although I am certain that you will get lots of advice from the forum.

Apparently with MapFinder, you can look for maps that fall within a specified range of variables to limit or remove the randomness. Not sure exactly how it works, as I am for the most part on Macs, and the program apparently works only on Windows.

 

[pickle]

I generally play whatever start I am given. the key for me is to get a few cities up and running with at least the best tiles improved as quickly as possible, once I have can research and build at a decent pace I set about exploring and meeting the other civs

 

[soujourner]

I have toyed with the idea of turning my first city into a "settler" factory...after building a warrior to defend then keeping turning out settles until I dominate but have not done so yet. I rather like the idea of building on the powerbase of food production to fuel my early exploits.

 

[timerover51]

I am not a fan of settler factories, unlike most of the forum. I went by what resources were readily available. Decided after playing a while that if resources were not in the area, no desire to continue. Every one to his or her own style. I no longer play the standard game, prefer developing my own maps or using some of those posted online.

 

[Northen Wolf]

Whatever the landarea is, I always play it, it gives more challenge (yeah, even being on 35 tile isle with 2 vulcanoes near good city spots). I often find, having no 'important' resources near, usually 1 lux, no iron, no horses. Later in modern ages there is usually rubber or oil nearby

I like challenges, even if get beaten.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Usually, the game is kind enough to put your opening spot on a river or adjacent a freshwater lake.

If there's goody huts withing your initial starting spot - bonus. Lux within your eventual border, double bonus.

I sometimes (not a lot, though) reload the start if the spot totally stinks - like in the middle of a desert or jungle, or surrounded by mountains or on a skinny little strip with like 3 workable tiles.

I also don't like flood plains in the opening spot. Too heavy on pop building and light on building anything else, but if my second city has flood plains, great.

 

[darski]

Generally speaking, if I get to IW and I have no iron in any reasonable distance, I restart. Now I have altered my game's chances of getting Iron because there were several maps with only 1 iron source for the entire pangaea.

However, I still reload if I am stuck in the middle of 7 million miles of jungle. it just isn't worth all that work to clear jungle while the AI is claiming every good tile on the planet.

I do think the starting location is the major factor in a game. it is not all that matters but it does matter.

 

[soujourner]

I like this Philo slingshot as a way to advance to the Monarchy more quickly. Also, during the first few cities, I will be stressing food production. So therefore, terrain will be evaluated more thoroughly in regards to how much food can be produced. Early on two settlers per city will be produced to stimulate the production of cities. I will let you know how it goes with periodic reports.

 

[soujourner]

Played through unitl 1415 AD and am now in the middle ages.

Using the Philo sling, I felt that I had a definite course of action. However, there was a gap. From mathematics to monarchy, 47 turns; so at that point I allowed the scientific advisor to choose.

I was able to successfully obtain both horses and iron. Through establishment of a town and colonization.

The advantage of having each town produce two settlers before give it free reign. This was somewhat muted during my starting location. The known world is a semi-circular island with my nation at the southern tip. For me, it is ocean on one side and the Arab culture on the other. Likely candidates for military conquest are Japan and Korea, both of whom lie on the other side of the Arab culture. Thus, adding another variable into any plan for military expansion. Thus far, the military option has been passed upon.

Next up, it is time to explore the caravel and find the unknown portion of the world.

Any ideas? Thanks for your time.

 

[timerover51]

You do not say what civilization you are playing, so it is a little difficult to give hard advice. I tend to micromanage my cities, and not give the governor AI any initiative at all. Also, you should not be waiting for caravels to do exploring, but use your galleys as much as possible since you are on an archipelago or continent map. If you have Mapmaking and maybe have built the Great Lighhouse, get your galleys checking out every sea tile leading out from the island that you are on. Typically, what you will find is sea tiles that connect to another land mass or island cluster that leads to another land mass. As you have horses and iron, the faster you find out where and who everyone else is the better off you are. If you find a nice island, with a food bonus or two, and maybe a resource, grab it for use as a future base for expansion. The AI is not the greatest when it comes to amphibious invasions.

 

[soujourner]

...thanks ...the sea tile thing I have not thought of..

 

[Puppeteer]

I don't reload for lack of resources, but I may reload if I have a lot of desert, jungle floodplain or plains with no fresh water in a reasonable distance. Generally I play what I'm given, but sometimes you work too hard. Jungle is a double-edged sword; it's awesome land once you clear it away, but sometimes I'm not in the mood.

I've had a couple of fun games where I made a mad archer rush against either a Numidian Mercenary or Hoplite (both 3-strength defenders) to annex iron or horses. I've also managed to do without, and sometimes iron spontaneously appears in your area.

As far as opening moves, check out Cracker's Opening Moves site. In summary, find your most productive tiles and prioritize improving two tiles per city assuming you're going to be building settlers as you hit size 3.

More generally my goals are explore and expand. I want to see all the tiles in the nearby areas to choose my next city sites, and since you can't trade maps in C3C until the late middle ages or trade contacts without Printing Press I try to explore the entire continent and meet everyone and map the continent before the AIs fill it up with cities. That knowledge helps plan wars since I'll know what land to, um, acquire first. I try not to double-back over explored areas as that wastes turns.

So early on I build warriors (or scouts, sometimes a Curragh or two if I start with Alphabet) and settlers. I try to fit a granary or two in to make a factory and after 2-4 cities depending on the surroundings build barracks and offensive units. (I find the best defense is a good offense. Spears can defend the city itself, but the barbs or enemies will tear up your improvements and kill a worker or two on their way there. Better to meet them where they're coming from and attack on my schedule.)

As I get barracks built I only build warriors as fillers between settlers if my food production is slower than my shield production. Then I put them on MP or exploration duty until Republic and then disband them.

I'm actually a bit fuzzy on the "best" way to balance settlers, military and workers. I think I'm going to pick a map and play the first 100 turns several times over and get a feel for how to most quickly expand. Then I'll pick another map and do the same.