Post Short Single Player Tips Here

[WeirdoJoker]

To get some Tips on how to improve your game skills, check out the Civ 3 Hall Of Fame Table. So, for example, looking at a Score Victory (Histographic) with the Mayans:
http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/game_info.php?entryID=3245
2 tips:
1. Click on the Files & Writeup Links and
2. Take a look at the HOF game using the utility program CRpViewer by Dianthus (2003!):
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/crpsuite-playing-aids-and-game-analysis-utils.52902/

(If you're having trouble with 1. and/or 2. above, I'm sure one of the Great Techies out there can help!...I still use CRpViewer.)

Thanks. I'll take a look when I get the chance.

I was not planning for a Histographic Victory to begin with (looking to build a Spaceship), so I'm not that concerned about my score as such. It's just mildly demoralizing to see myself in last place.

 

[Aabraxan]

Thanks. I'll take a look when I get the chance.

I was not planning for a Histographic Victory to begin with (looking to build a Spaceship), so I'm not that concerned about my score as such. It's just mildly demoralizing to see myself in last place.

FWIW, down in the Succession Games forum, there's "An Archive of Training Day Games." There's also a link in my sig. Those were games in which a higher-level player (usually DG and up) would act as a mentor to a bunch of us newbies. There was a whole lot of discussion about the "whys" of C3C, and they almost always went for space victories. That way, they got to go through the whole tech tree. It wouldn't be much of a Training Day Game if you just conquer the world with cavs. Anyway, I don't know if the screenshots or the saves are still available, but the discussions might be worth your while to look into. They were very educational games for me.

 

[justanick]

Very occasionally, if someone you know has beaten you to a monopoly tech by only a couple of turns, your already-gathered beakers may now exceed that tech's reduced cost.

This is one of the reasons why advanced players may tune down the research sliders 2 turns before finishing a tech. In order to finish a tech you need to have invested at least 1 beaker per turn in 4 seperate turns. The limit of 4 turns refers to turns of actual research. Also your total collected beakers for the tech need to suffice. If someone beats you to a tech that figure can decline and possibly decline a lot if the tech is traded a lot.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

How do you waste RNG without fighting?

I scouted out a place where I could get over seas in two turns, had thirteen galleys full of people and nine of them sank.

Poor bastards.

After some reloading, I accepted it and used what I got, but it still would be nice to know how you make the random number generator go forward by using the diplomacy screen, if you don't have anybody within reach to fight.

Do you have to threaten someone with "accept this or take the consequences"?

 

[justanick]

Before starting the game uncheck "save random seed". This means that outcomes are not saved in the game and will be new whenever you load the savegame. It kinda is cheating, though.

Regarding shipping over unsave waters the smart move is to use more than ample transport. If you use a ship chain you can limit your losses to the ships while the chargo does not need to drown.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

Regarding shipping over unsafe waters the smart move is to use more than ample transport. If you use a ship chain you can limit your losses to the ships while the cargo does not need to drown.

I know

I should've built more galleys and sent 2/3 (or whatever) of them to the other side first.

Please don't kill me.

 

[EMan]

Or, you could build The Great Lighthouse first and then move the Galleys safely.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

Or, you could build The Great Lighthouse first and then move the Galleys safely.

Spending 300 shields with the risk of someone else beting me to it? No, I prefer 10 more galleys.

The distance was 6 tiles from coast to coast, and 4 from sea to sea, so both was possible.

It didn't matter anyway, I sent about 35 cavalry later and got an entire new ring of cities in.. maybe only 15 turns.

All of them are now producing one shield per turn for me and I didn't even get to rape one of their women.

 

[justanick]

The Great Lighthouse is actually a sound choice. Else just waiting for Astronomy is practical. Galleys are not really meant for invasions of other continents.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

What if you captured or settled your first towns far away from the capital, built courthouses, and maybe marketplace/temple for we love the king day to get even less corruption, then build your empire in an inwards direction?

No more waiting 40 turns for courthouses.

 

[justanick]

What if you captured or settled your first towns far away from the capital, built courthouses, and maybe marketplace/temple for we love the king day to get even less corruption, then build your empire in an inwards direction?

No more waiting 40 turns for courthouses.

This makes no sense.

In the long run corruption is dominated by rank corruption, so this seems to be one motivation for your counterintuitive approach. In the short run distance corruption dominates. Only after you have left despotism(50% more distance corruption than republic) and have build a courthouse, distance corruption will be small. Also keep in mind that not being part of your trade network gives a malus of 20%. Those factor are multiplicative.

Say as a developed republic distance corruption is 20%(This happen to match 20 tiles distance on a standard size map). Without courthouse it is 40%. With Despotism it is 60%. Not having a road to connect your town to the capital will increase distance corruption to 72%.

In the early game you want high returns on your investments and you want them to be as immediate as reasonable possible. Your settlers should exist as few turns as possible, they should settle soon.


In the (semi)late game you can simply build 4 cavalry for 80 shields each and disband them to get 80 shields in total for a courthouse. This is an effective strategy once your inner core has been developed. After you have railroads it can become a common strategy as production is plenty.

 

[LaSalle]

Don't build every building in each city because maintenance costs will eat away at your treasury, slow your research, and drag down your empire.. Instead specialize your cities. In a location rich in food build a granary and build settlers and workers. Build a barracks in a city with high shield potential and then only build military units. Build libraries and universities in your cities with the highest commerce. The same goes for banks and stock exchanges.

 

[Lucusmuchus]

How do you waste RNG without fighting?

I scouted out a place where I could get over seas in two turns, had thirteen galleys full of people and nine of them sank.

Poor bastards.

After some reloading, I accepted it and used what I got, but it still would be nice to know how you make the random number generator go forward by using the diplomacy screen, if you don't have anybody within reach to fight.

Do you have to threaten someone with "accept this or take the consequences"?

You don't need to fight to change RNG. When it's your turn, just place a citizen in a city to work on some other tile.
About Lighthouse vs galleys. Lighthouse is better, cause galleys need unit support and 10 extra galleys cost 20 money per turn(when in republic). Plus they will be slower. Plus they can't go to sea tile.

 

[BAD-RELIGION]

* Build your cities with 3 squares separating them
* Lower the Science bar down when there is only 1 turn left to discover the what you are researching
* Start Building Palace or other Costly building to accumulate shields until you discover the research you need to build the next wonder
* Go for Great Library
* Use the Happiness Slider instead of building Happiness Buildings
* When removing a city worker, change it from Entertainer to Tax Collector or Scientist
* Rush settlers in Despotism by Losing Pop once you are above 4 in a city

 

[justanick]

* Lower the Science bar down when there is only 1 turn left to discover the what you are researching

Doing it when 2 turns are left can make sense. This gives you gold a bit earlier and it mitigates the risk of loosing out on reduced tech cost due the AI advancing on the same tech. To research a tech 2 conditions need to be meet:

1. The total beakers invested must match the current tech costs.
2. The total numbers of turns with a research output higher than 0 must be 4 or higher.

* Rush settlers in Despotism by Losing Pop once you are above 4 in a city

That will hardly ever make sense. Settler productions tends to be more limited by growth than by production. With granary this can change, but at higher population production also increases. Poprushing is usually a bad idea.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

Doing it when 2 turns are left can make sense. This gives you gold a bit earlier and it mitigates the risk of loosing out on reduced tech cost due the AI advancing on the same tech.

I've done that from as high as 5 turns left, so I typically start checking around then.

 

[justanick]

I've done that from as high as 5 turns left, so I typically start checking around then.

That however does not make sense. You donnot want to miss out on researching a tech a turn earlier.

It may make sense to do it 4 turns earlier if your reserach output is so high that in terms of beakers you could research a tech in 1 turn. But that is a rather extreme exception.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

That however does not make sense. You donnot want to miss out on researching a tech a turn earlier.

It may make sense to do it 4 turns earlier if your reserach output is so high that in terms of beakers you could research a tech in 1 turn. But that is a rather extreme exception.

Oh, absolutely, if I can afford to finish the research sooner, I'll increase the slider. But if I can't, isn't 5 turns the same irrespective of how much I spend on it? I.e., this turn I'm 5 turns away; next turn I'm 4 turns away; and so on. What am I missing?

 

[EMan]

4 turns is the Minimum number required to research a tech. (Cheap Research Tip: If you assign only 1 beaker/turn, ANY tech will be researched in 50 consecutive-1-beaker-only turns).

 

[vorlon_mi]

It's part of the math. To research the tech in the fewest possible turns, you want to have your maximum beakers-per-turn for as many turns as possible. Since any overflow beakers are wasted, turning the slider down from its max on the last turn (1 turn to go) will minimize the overflow.

For certain techs, getting them quickly is so valuable it is worthwhile to keep your slider so high that you're losing gold; that is, drawing down your savings to get more beakers per turn. Philosophy, I'm looking at you. For most of the game, my approach is to run my slider as high as I can while still having a positive cash flow. That doesn't always mean I hit the minimum 4 turns per tech, but I'm more comfortable with having a cash cushion in case I need to rush build something.

Now, occasionally/situationally, I will need more gold/cash as the techs are 2 or 3 turns from finishing. I will then do what @WeirdoJoker does -- turn down the slider while keeping the same number of turns, but getting more cash. I agree with @justanick that's not beaker optimal. It might not even get me more gold in total or risk taking one turn longer to get the tech. But I play a lower difficulty level so I am rarely racing the AI to a Middle Ages or Industrial tech.

One other case where I modify the slider for increased "fun" -- when I'm about to research the tech that causes the Statue of Zeus or Knights Templar to go obsolete. If I think I can get ... just one... more... free unit... I will reduce my beakers per turn to allow the 5-turn-timer to expire and get that last unit. Role-playing, not optimizing.