Post short tips here!

[arelius]

When playing the Vikings, destroy commerce of your rivalling Civs by razing every port on their mainland. not only do they loose cites, they loose the ability to trade with any nation off their mainland! I've pushed Civs from the first place pedestal to raging ruins near the bottom with this method. The Berserks are Broken.

 

[satchel]

Originally posted by arelius
In the begining of a game use your original worker to turn at least three tiles into tiles with road+improvement, build a settler and then join the original worker to the city and start building a second settler right away. This allows you to build 2 cities in the space of time where you would only have one. Ofcourse this is not wise when next to a millitaristic civ in confined spaces

.... but if you do this, then you have no worker. So although you have an extra settler, it takes longer for your settlers to get to new city sites, and you can't improve the tiles around those new cities so they are slow to produce.

IMO, your approach wastes the most valuable piece you have in the game, your first worker.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Originally posted by Adreno
I tried somebody's "fantastic" tip tonight. I first traded 2 inventions for 20 turns of saltpeter. Then I cut the road leading to my saltpeter source and immediatly re-made it. This caused my relationship with Egypt totally **** up and after doing that they wouldn't even give 1 gold in exchange for all of my luxuries.

So don't even try it.

My tip: Look at the date of when people posted their 'tip'.

Many of the tips on this thread (especailly the first several pages) are old, some over a year old. The old tips applied for the version of Civ3 that came right out of the box (unpatched-1.07f). Patches fixed many of these exploits and are no longer valid tips for the latest patches. In 1.07f using the whip gave you 40 shields/citizen instead of 20 like it is now. And exploits like the one you mentioned and others (trading cities) no longer work.

The versions (patches) of Civ3 are:
1.07
1.16
1.17
1.21
1.29

Each patch made a few changes that may/may not make tips from other patches apply anymore.

Be weary of any tips that are more than 6 months old and experiment with them/test them in a non-serious game before trying them in a competitive game, or game you really care about/want to win.

 

[PersianImmortal]

The most powerful unit in wars is the.... Settler!

Go to war with Settlers accompanied by defensive units. once inside enemy territory u can plop down cities thus eating up their territory.. it's easier controlling these cities as there are little chances of flips..

Civ's value their land in wars. if u 'fight' with setlers inastead of wasting units on conquering their cities, they'd beg for peace.

 

[arelius]

Satchel wrote:
".... but if you do this, then you have no worker. So although you have an extra settler, it takes longer for your settlers to get to new city sites, and you can't improve the tiles around those new cities so they are slow to produce.

IMO, your approach wastes the most valuable piece you have in the game, your first worker."

And to this I reply with: Like I said, improve on the first three tiles of your city. This is important so that your city workers have irrigated/mined/paved with road tiles to work on. Once you join the first settler to your city (usually to a size 3 or 4) all your city workers have improved tiles to work upon so you're not exactly wasting time as your worker has nothing to do any way (working on extra tiles is futile as you will not have the city size to utilize them any way. So let's say your city is size 4 when you build your first settler; it is reduced to size 2. 2 city workers are still working on improved tiles, the city will grow into size 3 in a short while (because of improved tiles hopefully) and bam, you have your worker and probably a new city at the same time. Net result: two cities really fast, one with worker, one without. And the best part is, just make another settler, and utilize the second worker to make a road to the second city and work there. Easy

 

[Bamspeedy]

arelius- Your strategy only makes sense if you are looking at it from one dimension- from the point of view of your capital. True, you will get a settler out of your capital a little sooner, but then you must spend 10 shields and TIME (both of which are very important in the the early game) to replace that worker. Sure, your capital won't be working any unimproved terrain if you have your worker improving it first, but then your second city will be working on unimproved terrain for quite awhile. It will pay off more to have your worker improving the 3 or 4 tiles for your capital and then move onto the next city and be improving the terrain for that city. If you are industrious you can go quite awhile in the early expansion phase without having to build any extra workers, just keeping your starting worker.

 

[invantix]

Originally posted by Moeniir
Ever get in the middle of a negotiation and then want to check something? Need to check with an advisor? Want to see what another civ is asking for the same tech? Can't remember the name of the city you want to demand?

If you are in the deal-building screen (lists of everything you have to trade), you can press enter to leave the negotiation - no goodbyes, you just leave. When you re-enter diplomacy with the same civ (during the same turn), you are brought right back to the deal screen... with the same deal-in-progress still on the table. This also works if another civ approaches you on their turn... hit enter. Play resumes, and during your turn, you can go back to them and pick up where you left off (perhaps after checking with some other civs or an advisor).

Thanks, This is the most useful tip. I have wanted to do this for months and never tried. I always felt trapped in that modal dialog. This should be in the manual, FAQ...

 

[MajorFallout]

Sinking ships with CMs...

Don't know if anyone has witnessed this, but if you're in the middle or are starting a big naval battle, build as many cruise missiles (CM) as you can. This unit is exceptionally good at disposing of battleships and destroyers. You can sink a ship with 2-3 CMs or if you can, attack with artillary unit first and sink it with a CM.

 

[Civanator]

But does that negotiating tip when someone demands tribute?

 

[Chubais]

Situation: i'm as Arabs just made a deal with Carthag guys - 2 my lux for their 1k and smth more and on same turn i sent a spy on suicidal mission to steal their tech and he failed. Carth 's immediatley declared war to me. Question: whose reputation will suffer from this (cause we just made a deal and it was broken so i can suppose that reputation hit will be not small) and my citizens will think that agressor is...? I suppose that their reputation will suffer and they'll be named as agressors. Am i right?

 

[arelius]

This is not fact, mere observations on the game, I believe that in games this happens that I've noticed that the nation declaring war after a spy is sent is considered the agressor as far as your people are concerned, but your reputation will suffer, too. It always does when someone uncovers a spy of yours.

 

[Bardigan]

Hi ApolloE

Regarding the Indians (they're so polite about not moving); I just put a ship in their territory. When Ghandi came up to complain, I agreed to move but didn't, until he moved his ships. He got the message in one turn, and left for good. I followed suit.

Hope it helps.

Bardigan

 

[MajorFallout]

Nuking stacks of enemy units...

You could take advantage of the AI's insistance of stacking loads and loads of units in a relatively small number of squares, by nuking the lot of them. Of course, you need to be at war with them.

It's especially advantageous if you know their where abouts, eg. close/in your sphere of influence, because they're moving troops through your land to take out an annoying barb camp, or by using a spy to get troop locations.

I wonder if this might cause a nuclear attack, if you nuked them outside all other civilizations' borders?

 

[JMK]

You are at war against a Civ having much more culture than you, and just catch a >7 people city, and are afraid to see the city to flip back. You now have two possibilities, first is to leave a great amount of units inside to avoid the city to flip, or leave a couple units beside waiting for the city to flip and catch it back, while other units go for another city.

 

[darious001]

I don't know if this has been said before here or somewhere else, but I found a great bargaining trick. When negotiating for something, say what you want from them, then let them pick what they want from you. If they want a tech for their luxury or resource, then it's likely you won't like it, but here's the thing, take away the resource or whatever from them, then ask them what they would like for your tech. Often enough, they'll pay good money for the tech, and you also get to keep what you asked for, in most cases. Quick, simple, and takes up a whole lot less time from gameplay.

 

[deadlyconqueror]

First sign the right of passage with the civ you want to conquer. Stack about 5 to 6 units of your strongest units near your target city. Do this in two or three other cities and attack the cities with these 5 to 6 units and you should be able to take over the city. Do this untill civ is completely wiped out. Trust me I did this with Russia and still working on america. Don't take that long. Any questions just ask.

 

[deadlyconqueror]

First sign the right of passage with the civ you want to conquer. Stack about 5 to 6 units of your strongest units near your target city. Do this in two or three other cities and attack the cities with these 5 to 6 units and you should be able to take over the city. Do this untill civ is completely wiped out. Trust me I did this with Russia and still working on america. Don't take that long. Any questions just ask.

 

[WildFire]

You mean the Right of Passage rape? Basically you kill your reputation by setting up stacks of doom next to your intended cities and destroy them in one turn. And than everyone esle in the game hates you and you never sign any MA, MPP, or RoP's again.

 

[deadlyconqueror]

This is good for people who want to win by domination. If you have to take them why not do it easy way and spare the bloodshed.

 

[Bamspeedy]

But that only works with 1 civ. After other AI hears about this (if they've met the civ before you destroyed them, or meet someone who has met the destroyed civ), no other AI will sign anymore ROP with you.