Post Short Single Player Tips Here

[Renfield]

I have been playing on monarch, huge map, max AI's, all other settings random. I find I am usually facing only one primary AI foe by the time the industrial age starts.

I recently started using a new tactic; forcing my primary AI foe to change goverments. On Monarch (not sure about other levels) the AI will go for democracy if it's not at war. This can work to your advantage.

Treat primary foe as a rogue state (there's a good thread for this strategy in this section) early in the game. Initiate a war or three with the primary foe. Get him into communisim and facism and keep him there until the mordern age starts. This usually requires you stay in communism also. Make peace at the begining of the modern age.

Be sure you have at least an embassy and hopefully a spy in the primary foe's capital. You'll need to keep a close eye on him.

When the primary foe makes peace he will switch to democracy. Stay in communism (or facism). He will lose several turns to anarchy. Build your army, improve your infra-structure and research You move forward while he stands still for several turns.

As soon as he makes the conversion to democracy he will begin to retool his economy and army. Democracy will leave him unable to support the army your rogue state has required him to build up. My experince is the AI will sacrifice good units. My experince is offensive go on the disband list. I am not 100% certain of this, someone with more time playing can give more details on if the AI will disband and what units. My experince is just from spying and glancing at the military advisor screen. It *seems* to me the AI will disband it's most expensive offensive units. By this time those units are tanks Give the AI a turn or two in democracy.

During the turn or two the AI is disbanding offensive units gather and position your invasion force. At the begining of your turn taunt the primary foe into declaring war. Make sure he declares war. Don't invade him. Make him start the war. Once he does pour your army into his territory. It's very important to cause as mush damage as possible in that first turn. Take as least a city or two. Destroy as many units as you can, even if they aren't strategic units. Also cut off as many luxes and resources as you can. The point is to force the AI to switch out of democracy. The combination of declaring war and losing a large number of units and luxes will cause a quick switch back to communism or facism.

If you do enough damage the AI will initiate the switch back in one turn. So you'll have several more turns to move past him in research plus his production will be shut down while you roll through his defenses. By the time he comes out of anarchy you should have the war in hand. Again he stands still while you move forward. This time not only is he standing still but you are beating on him like a bad dog at the same time.

This has worked well for me for spaceship victories. Enjoy

 

[DWRALL]

Originally posted by UES
Some short Nuclear Weapons tips:

1. If you have a huge tech lead, try to build SDI defense BEFORE Manhattan Project. You will be untouchable militarily. This is a rare scenario, but it can pay off BIG. I once had China try to nuke me 10 times - all failures. My ICBMs all hit.

2. Nuke the key enemy resources FIRST (Iron, Aluminum, Oil, Rubber, Uranium). It'll take them forever to reconnect them since they will try to clean the pollution first. This can permanently cripple their military with a little luck. If you can only choose one, take out Rubber or Oil, depending on the composition of the enemy army. Your Modern Armor could be facing Riflemen or even, (ha ha) Spearmen rather than Mobile Infantry. Which would you rather fight?

3. If there is only one AI left, empty your silos. You have nothing to lose- no one will gang up on you. Use every weapon in your arsenal. Win as fast as you can! Time bonuses can be large.

4. Emulate the "tripod" strategy- always keep 1 or 2 Tactical Nukes on Subs in remote locations 'just in case'. If you keep a single settler on a transport guarded by these subs, you will ensure the survival of your Civilization even in the event of a catastrophic reversal.

5. It is often much more profitable to nuke an enemy stack than an enemy city. Weapons of Mass Destruction should be used to shorten a war, not for genocide. Dead civilians get you no points. Captured citizens and cities do.

_______________________________

Hey, that what you said it's a metodic way to fight a nuclear war, sounds good but the problem to use nukes weapons is that the the AI contries that you don't attack in the most of times don't answer good when you attack with nukes one nation, i prefer to keep my nuclear weapons for the finish, or for a desperate condition.

Many times i try to attack with nukes and 70% of the icbm was intercepted, the reaction of my people and the contrattack of the other nations was debastation.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

How to Get Income/Research during Anarchy.

Note this has only been tested in

During periods of Anarchy when switching governments, take as many citizens off of production as possible (probably a good idea anyways, since everyone gets all grumpy during Anarchy) without starving your city, and turn all the specialists generated into scientists and/or tax collectors. In the Rise of Rome Conquest (where I first tested this theory), I was getting 12 GPT and researching my next tech in 20 turns, during a 6 turn period of anarchy .

I don't know if Civil Engineers have a similar effect on production, as I haven't tested that yet, but I'll update this post when I find out.

 

[Lord Jimbob]

Originally posted by Hikaro Takayama
How to Get Income/Research during Anarchy.

Note this has only been tested in

During periods of Anarchy when switching governments, take as many citizens off of production as possible (probably a good idea anyways, since everyone gets all grumpy during Anarchy) without starving your city, and turn all the specialists generated into scientists and/or tax collectors. In the Rise of Rome Conquest (where I first tested this theory), I was getting 12 GPT and researching my next tech in 20 turns, during a 6 turn period of anarchy .

I don't know if Civil Engineers have a similar effect on production, as I haven't tested that yet, but I'll update this post when I find out.

IIRC, I think you are right about the civ engineers allowing you to continue with some production during anarchy, H.T. I believe all citizen specialists will maintain their output during anarchy.

 

[DragonRunner]

For Heavily corrupt cities-1 shield, 1 gold, irrigate everything, get your food count as high as possible, and switch lots of people to tax collectors, scientists, or civil engineers. that should provide a good income for those formerly worthless cities. Works best in C3C.

 

[Radres]

Originally posted by Denarr
Moving a stack has the same limitation as a Goto command; you can't target a city or rival unit with a Move Stack command.

Incorrect. In fact, if you turn off battle animations (although it does work with them enabled), sending in an entire stack of units to take a city will only take a couple of seconds. This makes gameplay during wars go much faster.

 

[sampedestal]

play as persia and get immortals.

 

[t3h_m013]

when i ghave heavily corrupted cities when i give them civil engineers the etra shields are also sorrupt, so i have to use policemen. rather annoying

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

I recently discovered that if your treasury is bankrupt, and you are still generating negative income, nothing will happen to you if you are in anarchy. All that happens is that your domestic advisor keeps saying that your treasury is low every turn, but there aren't any consequences. You don't get any of your units force-sold off, or anything.

 

[Ender_Wiggin]

Just got done reading all 8 pages of this...didn't find what I needed, but thought I'd add something

This is a common-sense tip, but something that I do in every game. Of course, its more applicable in the Archipeligo maps.

If you have a tiny piece of land connecting 2 large islands/continents, build a city right on that 1 square of land, in essence making a canal. Once you get those ships churning out, you realize how much time it saves you cutting THROUGH the land instead of AROUND IT. Like I said, I feel its common-sense, but I thought I'd share it anyway

 

[EMan]

Just got done reading all 8 pages of this...didn't find what I needed, but thought I'd add something....

I just wanted to say that its pretty considerate to read the ENTIRE thread and then post a GOOD tip that hadn't previously been mentioned.
Thanks Ender_Wiggin.

 

[Yashcheritsiy]

Wow! What a great Civilisation resource!

I'm fairly new at Civ III (still on Warlord level, but doing well, and should probably cross the threshhold to the next level), but I'd like to give an observation that may prove useful.

Railroads - You need 'em, you want 'em, you gotta have 'em. Once you get steam power, search out and connect the nearest coal supply you can find. I consider coal a "casus bellum" if I don't have it and a not too powerful near neighbour does. Railroads are indispensible primarily because of the tremendous advantage you receive militarily in being able to concentrate and mobilise your military power instantaneously. I was playing in a game where the Ottomans "megastack"-ed me. They declared war on me because of an alliance with the Chinese, and the next thing I knew, there were about 40 Sipahis in one stack next to a city of mine, and around 50 assorted infantry/riflemen/marines/guerillas in a stack the next square over. I mobilised every spare infantry I had and moved it into the city (around 30 infantry in all) and fortified them so that they'd crack their heads open on it, and then mobilised about 30 cavalry/tanks (I was right at the crossover, having discovered Motorised Transportation three or four turns before), brought them all up into my city and completely wiped out the offensive units stack, with the loss of about 6-7 units of my own (and I was robbed on a couple of those!). His defensive stack tried to go around my city and eventually got picked apart with raids and artillery. The Turks basically blew about 90 units to my 10 all because I could mobilise quickly due to railroads.

Plus, the production bonuses on railed squares are nice.

Yashcheritsiy

 

[EMan]

First, a BIG Welcome to the CFC, Yashcheritsiy

......and thanks for taking the time to share your RR Tip & Game Experience.

Since you are wanting to move up the levels, I have a TIP for you (and anyone else!):

Read this game description thread from one of the STRONGEST Players AND BEST Writers on this site............The GrandMaster, SirPleb. It's a Sid-Level Game (Level 8) which he played recently:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=81424

Enjoy!

 

[Yashcheritsiy]

Hey EMan,

Thanks for the welcome!

Thanks for the tip too, SirPleb looks like he knows how to work a Civ game around! However, I think my general outlook to the game is a little different than his. He seemed to basically be engineering the conditions to maximise his win strategy (which there's nothing wrong with, don't take this as criticism of him, please!). I tend to be more along the line of just setting the climate stats (or even randomising them) and then letting everything else be pretty much random. I like the "feel" of just getting into a game without knowing beforehand who else is going to be there or what the gameboard disposition is going to be like.

In my current game (still on Warlord, sorry, I promise I'll be moving up to Regent soon!), I am the Greeks. I tend to chose civs more on the basis of my personal affinity or what I've been studying recently rather than on the basis of civ attributes, though I do sometimes tend towards religious and industrious civs (like the 1 turn gov change and the doubled worker rate). Since I'm big on classical history, I chose the Greeks. Anywise, this game again demonstrates the absolute necessity of having a complete rail network.

The current game is on large continents. My Greeks are on the upper hook of a large continent which is shaped like a backwards C. The Babylonians are to the north of me, the Spanish to the east, the Arabs to the NE, with the Spanish having a city in between me and the Arabs. The French are below me, and the Chinese fill out the bottom hook. Early on, I had provoked the Arabs into a war and I went down and took three of their colony cities which they'd built between me and the French, which greatly aided my expansion into that region and was to prove quite useful to me currently. Now, I and my neighbours are generally early industrial age (I am researching Communism, after having bypassed it for a while). I am a Democracy. I had a complete rail network between all my 16 or so cities. This proved very useful as I got into a war with the Russians (they are on another continent). The Russians immediately got the French into the war, so they can swarming up to attack one of the Arab cities I had taken ages ago, which by now was a first-class city. I had a stack of probably 6 medieval infantry and three cavalry near the city fortified, and they wasted probably 8 cavalry in killing 4 of the MIs. I then counter-attacked by rounding up every cavalry in my empire and mass-attacking one of the French cities which were within the 3 MP radius with something like 30 cavalry, following up with some extra riflemen I had sitting around. The French lost four cities in something like 5 turns (and most of that was movement wastage due to their roads, rather than railroads, around the cities I took) and promptly sued for peace. These are nice cities (all size 7-11) too, packed full of Greek cavalrymen to prevent any culture-flip activity, and with nice little temples and libraries being built in them to give them some culture of their own. The rail network, however, immediately allowed me to transfer all the invading force I could spare up north to deal with the Babylonian incursion on my border, which was also handled quite nicely, to the Babylonians great loss in troops. I did not take any of their cities since I wanted to maintain the balance of power (BOP) between them and the Spanish and Arabs for the time being and to build up my forces to make one fell swoop of all three (still to come).

Incidentally, I took all three cities of the French which had coal around them. Now the French have no coal, unless they trade for it. I guess they should have built the rail network that would have allowed them to concentrate their forces and prevent my invasion when they had the chance, now shouldn't they?

Cheers,
Yashcheritsiy

 

[gaborka1]

Build cities on hills (especially with gold) and jungle. because no matter where you build the city the square will give you 2 food and 1 shield.
also build cities on resources rather than beside resources this way you spare building one road.
opening strategies: if the game is supposed to be warlike, e.g. too many opponents, small land, pangea earth, first science goal is Iron Working.
if the game is probably peaceful, first science goal is Monarchy.
always put a city on iron, if the AI has not yet done so

 

[EMan]

if the game is supposed to be warlike, e.g. too many opponents, small land, pangea earth, first science goal is Iron Working.

Sounds Good..........BUT, gaborka1, pleeeeease at least CONSIDER the Mighty Egyptians on any game level (they don't know what iron is!).......their War Chariots can be built cheaply AND move fast AND can retreat in a losing battle! (AND, Egyptians work hard AND can change governments quickly!)

BTW, E in EMan could stand for Egyptians, BUT.....

NOTE: Exception to E........for High-Scoring games on big maps, the Mayans just about have it all!

 

[JMK]

Build cities on hills (especially with gold) and jungle. because no matter where you build the city the square will give you 2 food and 1 shield.
also build cities on resources rather than beside resources this way you spare building one road.
opening strategies: if the game is supposed to be warlike, e.g. too many opponents, small land, pangea earth, first science goal is Iron Working.
if the game is probably peaceful, first science goal is Monarchy.
always put a city on iron, if the AI has not yet done so

Building city on hill is good when a) you are short on food b) you need a defensive bonus, any other case it's not too good as you will loose sheilds and therfore production.
Avoid as much as you can to build your cities on ressource. why? Simply because you won't be bale to disconnect this ressource! When a ressource such as Iron is connected to your network you can not build Warrior anymore. And at the begining of the game, you can build 3 warriors for 1 Swordsman who need Swordsman for military police?

You want a good tip? Build more WORKERS those will help to connect your ressources when needed.

Which Tech are you going to research?
If the game is supposed to be warlike (up to you) then set your research to either Iron Working (Persia, Roman, Celts, or Wheel and Horseback Riding and Monarchy, (thinking about Egypt, to EMan but also Mounted warriors, Hittites or Horseman).
If you want a builder game, peacefull then go full speed to Republic and Literature.

 

[kcurtis]

When you are developing tiles with your workers and slaves, use the slaves (captured workers) for building roads on the tiles before using workers to mine or irrigate them.

Why? Slaves work only half as fast as workers. The turn you use to move a slave or worker onto a virgin tile is wasted regarding the actual improvement - if you have to waste a turn, do it with the less productive unit.
The more productive workers will then be able to move onto the tile and start improving on the same turn!

I love to micromanage my workers and I use a different strategy. I almost always road with a normal worker and then move captured workers onto the roaded areas to do the work. This way I don't have to wait so long for a road, and I can keep more workers busy. If it is a critical tile to develop that is roaded and a worker is already working, I can often assist with captured workers on the next turn and if I finish the work any worker that started on the turn before is freed up.

 

[kcurtis]

Okay, after reading all the posts, I have some pointers I don't see anywhere here on chopping down forests in CIV3. There are several great applications for this. Note that I don't like to pop rush stuff because this effects the happiness of a city for life (okay, 20 turns). If I need a temple in a city kinda quick for cultural expansion to access a goodie, I chop down a forest in the cultural radius of the city and get 10 shields. This even works for corrupted cities that only generate one shield/turn. Then I road the spot, NEVER the reverse. Then if it is a plain or grassland with a shield, I mine the spot and get back the equivalent of a roaded forest; actually better since later in the game when I get railroad this becomes a 3 shield spot. I always build temples first since this expands the cultural radius and often provides access to more trees. Once you get engineering, you can plant trees and chop them down for 10 shields. This is handy when you have lots of captured workers and need something for them to do. In lower levels you can do this over and over in the same spot. I think at Monarch and up you can only do it once per tile.

Other good worker ideas:

When you switch to Monarchy or Democracy (I don't do other Govs much) and your personnel become a significant cost per turn factor, add your normal workers to a city. I like to keep my captured workers since they are free. If you do add a captured worker to a city, move it back to one of your major cities so the balance of your guys to theirs is in your favor.

When you get close to railroad, road all the easy spots in case coal shows up on one of these. As soon as you find coal and connect it, start railroading the easy premium spots first (cattle, wheat, flood plain, etc.) and work on a single line railroad to connect all your cities. Since I have no corruption in my capital (or Forbidden Palace) I have them migrate that way and work out from there.

Before you get Industrialization (and can build factories), make sure EVERY spot in a city's 20 square radius is roaded so when pollution strikes you can get rid of it on the same turn.

I also like to stack workers on a roaded mountains to do mining. Then if I need some quickly for some reason, I can leave one and not loose all the progress to date.

Note that at anytime you can right click on a worker to see how much longer the task he is working on will take. Of course, you have to select the option that you don't want him (or her?) to stop working.

 

[EMan]

First, a BIG welcome to CFC, kcurtis

Yes, I agree with you about the value of chopping down forests. (Especially AFTER discovering Engineering!)

In the Quick Answers thread, I wrote an elaboration on what you said:
"When the forest is cut down, 10 shields will be "given" to the nearest city unless that city is:
1. Producing Wealth or
2. Producing a Wonder (Small or Great)

If condition 1. or 2. applies, the 10 shields will be "given" to the next-nearest city provided the de-forested square is within that city's 21-square boundary (Does NOT have to be within the Zone Of Control of that city!)

If there are 2 or more cities equally close to the de-forested square......I don't have a clue what determines which city gets the shields....I just assume it's random.............BUT (A Big But), YOU can direct which city gets the shields by changing the production to a "Wonder" for the turn when the shields are going to be "given" to an "undesirable" city!
(Viz. A city that you don't want to receive the 10 shield bonus, you change production to Wealth or Wonder.)"

Perhaps you already knew this stuff, kcurtis!?