Post Short Single Player Tips Here

[chappers86]

Thanks for the tip, makes sense!

As a tip for other noobs, build roads!! Don't get hung up on improving every square of terrain around your capital before building single roads to outlying cities.
I've had good success in building a decent infrastructure before I start improving the terrain massively. The extra gold from the worked roads gives a boost to research and even on the low levels you can be researching techs every 20-30 turns if you get some good bonus squares, fish, gems, gold etc.

Don't know how well this works on higher levels, I'm sure the pros can tell me, but it certainly seems to help me and is a good way of learning your starting strategies.

 

[Meteor Man]

Roads do increase commerce on that square, so it pays off to build them (literaly).

 

[chappers86]

This may seem counter-intuitive, but research will go faster as you move up in levels. This is because tech trading is very valuable in Civ 3, and because the AI is handicapped at lower levels. At Chieftain, you have to research everything youreself. As you move up in levels, you can research some things yourself, while allowing the AI to research other techs, for which you can then trade.

With this in mind I've played a couple of games researching everything myself and this is where gold really comes in handy.
Build roads to help with the gold and scientific buildings (library etc) for science. You also need to keep corruption as low as possible so courthouses and a decent government are a good idea!

(As you can tell this is a tip for other noobs)

On the subject of courthouses - how much do they actually do?

P.S. I have managed to read through every post on this forum. Oh dear!!

 

[Snarkhunter]

Roads do increase commerce on that square, so it pays off to build them (literaly).

Rule of thumb from Old Salts is never move a worker off a tile until it has been roaded. . . .

kk

 

[EMan]

......Unless it's a Volcano!!

 

[NickyH]

More of an interface tip than a strategy tip: When fog gazing, you can use the clean map (Cmd-Shift-M on a mac, guess it's Ctrl-Shift-M in Windows).

It makes no difference for tiles that are just outside a unit's view, but if you don't have a unit there (i.e. areas that you've scouted earlier, but didn't take a close look at when your scout was there) you can see a little more of the tiles in the fog with the clean map.

 

[walletta]

I have found that if you build a fortress immediately adjacent to one of your own frontier cities (preferably on the side facing the likely direction of attack) and garrison it strongly it can greatly strengthen the defence. Damaged units in the fortress can be withdrawn into the city's barracks for repair and be replaced from the city. Units in the fortress can attack out, destroying stacked enemy units without having to expose themselves to counter attack by advancing post-combat (so long as one enemy unit in the opposing stack survives) or units like horseman can advance post-combat and then use their remaining movement allowance to sneak back in to the fort.

Sometimes the enemy has to work around the fort to get at the town and this costs time.

The ideal is to locate some artillery units in the fort (and in the city also) and blaze away with impunity at the attackers.

Large enemy forces can be kept at bay in this manner.

 

[GRAEMIKE]

I have a few questions: I play @ warlord/regent level, usually with a scientific Civ, usually go for Dominance win (warlike outlook).
What actions do I take to produce GL's? I rarely see them!!

Do more libraries/universities help me research techs faster as a civ? or just aid research in that city.

I seldom go for Wonders in early era's, prefer to capture them and maybe use their benefits that way; but what specifically does it take to 'build' my culture level?

I would like to use espionage more, like converting small towns on an island to my Civ; how do I use propaganda? Once I had a spy but couldn't spread propaganda on the small city of Dev. What do I need do??

And lastly, I may be interested in the internet play. The AI plays kinda dumb sometimes. Would be interested in playing people but am unsure how that all works. Any tips/answers are welcome. I am hardly a noob, but don't know bunches regards the computor.

Tanx in advance
Mike

 

[Aabraxan]

I have a few questions: I play @ warlord/regent level, usually with a scientific Civ, usually go for Dominance win (warlike outlook).
What actions do I take to produce GL's? I rarely see them!!

To produce MGL (Military Great Leaders), fight and win battles with elite units. Every time an elite unit wins a battle, there's a chance of spawning an MGL. I think the chance is 12% or 16%, but I'm not sure at the moment. For SGLs (Scientific Great Leaders), you've got to be the 1st to research a tech. If you're a scientific civ, you've got a 5% chance of getting an SGL; all other civs have a 3% chance. Bear in mind, though, that the computer checks to see if you have any GLs before allowing an MGL to spawn. The presence of any GL will prevent you from getting an MGL. SGLs don't suffer from this restriction.

Do more libraries/universities help me research techs faster as a civ? or just aid research in that city.

Libraries and universities aid research in the city in which they're built. Build enough of them and they'll aid your research as a civ overall. There's an article linked in my sig on how they work in terms of beakers. My article doesn't go into the culture aspect.

I seldom go for Wonders in early era's, prefer to capture them and maybe use their benefits that way; but what specifically does it take to 'build' my culture level?

You don't get any culture from captured Wonders, only from ones that you build. To build your culture, you've got to build the improvements that generate culture (temples, libraries, universities, cathedrals, etc.). For a more detailed explanation, you'll have to wait for better culture players than I to respond.

I would like to use espionage more, like converting small towns on an island to my Civ; how do I use propaganda? Once I had a spy but couldn't spread propaganda on the small city of Dev. What do I need do??

I don't know. I don't use espionage much.

And lastly, I may be interested in the internet play. The AI plays kinda dumb sometimes. Would be interested in playing people but am unsure how that all works. Any tips/answers are welcome. I am hardly a noob, but don't know bunches regards the computor.

Check out the Mutliplayer/PBEM forum. Those players will probably have some answers for you.

 

[Spoonwood]

Wonders can also help you speed up your research in that they become tourist attractions. Tourist attractions in more corrupt cities don't help as much, so there exist more benefits to wonders than just what you can get from capturing them.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

To produce MGL (Military Great Leaders), fight and win battles with elite units. Every time an elite unit wins a battle, there's a chance of spawning an MGL. I think the chance is 12% or 16%, but I'm not sure at the moment.

Come to think of it, both numbers are right. 12% is with the Heroic Epic built, and the 16% is otherwise. But both only hold for offensive wins. For defensive wins the chances are lower, I believe the chances are halved, i.e. 24% and 32%.

 

[DWetzel]

Methinks you mean 1/12 and 1/16 (and 1/24 and 1/32 for defensive units)?

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Yeah, I meant that.

 

[Calis]

Wonders can also help you speed up your research in that they become tourist attractions. Tourist attractions in more corrupt cities don't help as much, so there exist more benefits to wonders than just what you can get from capturing them.

On the positive side, the commerce from tourist attractions is not affected by corruption so you can benefit from it even in corrupted towns.

 

[Aabraxan]

On the positive side, the commerce from tourist attractions is not affected by corruption so you can benefit from it even in corrupted towns.

Really? That comes as a surprise, but good to know.

As to the chance if getting leaders, well, I guess I messed that up. I knew that there were 12s and 16s in there somewhere . . .

 

[Calis]

Really? That comes as a surprise, but good to know.

As to the chance if getting leaders, well, I guess I messed that up. I knew that there were 12s and 16s in there somewhere . . .

I just recognized that in my recent HOF attempt, where I captured Zimbabwe from the Zulu. I think it was the Mausoleum of Mausolos and it generated commerce which I could use for research or gold. The town was 90% corrupt, thus was not able to generate that many beakers without the tourist attraction.

 

[Aabraxan]

And just when I thought I understood corruption . . .

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Seems obvious now, but if you have Longevity and your food bin is full try eliminating surplus food for 2 turns. If you have enough production to generate a worker each turn you can pump out two workers before having to wait for the food bin to fill up again. Depending on your normal surplus food this can be a considerable wait. No since in wasting the benefits of Longevity. Not much benefit for towns but great for city and metropolis size.

 

[dexters]

There are 'interest' rates in the game.

That is you can lend an AI a lump sum of 100 gold and they can pay you back >5 gold per turn for 20 turns. 5 gold x 20 turns is 100 gold. Thus any amount gpt over 5 is profit.

Granted you want to lend to credit worthy AI civs who are not apt to take your lump sum gold and declare war before the 20 turns are up. Like real money lending there is risk of a default. AI risk of default also increases if they are tied down in high GPT payments to the human player and other AI civs and need a way out. So manage those GPT deals with the AI carefully.

 

[Meteor Man]

I found how you can get a land unit to stand on water. Here's how:

Fill up a transport totally with Enslaving Marines (only in a mod) and attack a city. If the Marine enslaves the unit he defeated, move the transport off the square. Because the enslaved unit can't load in the transport, it stays there on the water. I have not checked wheather it ca be attack be sea units however. Cool effect, though.