Questions about my playstyle

[strong]

Hello all

I've been playing civ3 for a long time now. I'm not overly concerned about maxmizing my skill level in the game but I had a couple of questions about my playstyle.

I mainly use the optimal city placement so that no tiles overlap in my cities. Because of the gaps that result I generally build temples first in every city to expand my borders. When my cities grow they are powerhouses, but it can be a struggle to protect my borders until then.

I read the city placement guide but I'm still not sure when to use the different styles.

I play on regent.

Four main questions:
1) When should I use the optimal city placement?
2) Is building a temple in every city a bad idea?
3) If you build tighter and have many more cities you must hit the city limit earlier and corruption increases. Does it just increase in new cities or across all of them?
4) What do you do with lots of unproductive cities? Just put them on wealth and use them to expand your borders?

Thanks for the help!

 

[tR1cKy]

1) never
2) yes
3) in new cities, unless you're in Communism, where the opposite is true.
4) yes

 

[vmxa]

Hi

"1) When should I use the optimal city placement?"

For me never. It can be good, but is not required and leads to other issues for most.

"2) Is building a temple in every city a bad idea?"

In a word, yes it is not good. Build one in a couple of key cities, if you feel it is needed. The biggest issue is making them in so many towns and making them too soon.

#3 I do not worry about corruption. Just get an FP down in a good place (if not c3c), put a court in some of the better cities.

"4) What do you do with lots of unproductive cities? Just put them on wealth and use them to expand your borders?"

Depends on the game. If C3C I would just make as many specialist as I can. I do the same for vanillla and PTW, but it is not as useful.

Some corrupt places will make bombardment units and workers/settlers if needed. The rest will go to wealth in most cases. A variant game could alter that and I may put many towns to making units that I otherwise would not.

 

[strong]

Wow fast responses for a 10 year old game. Thanks!

For me never. It can be good, but is not required and leads to other issues for most.

So do you tend to put 2 to 3 spaces between cities? Would you ever use 1 space?

In a word, yes it is not good. Build one in a couple of key cities, if you feel it is needed. The biggest issue is making them in so many towns and making them too soon.

So when you do build temples is it for hapiness? or culture?

#3 I do not worry about corruption. Just get an FP down in a good place (if not c3c), put a court in some of the better cities.

Sorry, but what is "FP". I play c3c.

Depends on the game. If C3C I would just make as many specialist as I can. I do the same for vanillla and PTW, but it is not as useful.

What are good specialists to use?

 

[vmxa]

CxxC is what I use, single spaces for tundra.

Happiness and I usually do not make many and tend to sell them later.

FP is the Forbidden Palace. In C3C it is not so powerful, so put it anyplace. I often put it next to the capitol as those are places that can get it up fastest. I just want the increased OCN.

Scientist mainly. CE's to get some extra shields when I need to get a structure up faster like an aqua.

 

[strong]

I always try to put my FP far away. Guess I won't do that anymore...

So do you worry about culture at all?

 

[vmxa]

The FP in C3C will increase your OCN. That means you can have more towns and not add extra corruption. It also reduces corruption in the town it is in and some to near towns.

That affect is not large though. Making in say another landmass is great in C3 and PTW as it acts like a palace in those versions. Here it is fine, but those places are going to be 1 net shield and take forever to build it.

So either you need a leader to rush or not have it for a very loing time. I prefer to get it soonest, hence in a strrong town.

I care next to nothing about culture. I only sweat it on Sid, where I am likely to lose to culture points. Even there I build very little. I just do not kill that last two civs, until I get to 51% of their culture.

I do not worry about flips as they are not that common and I will just take the place back anyway.

 

[tR1cKy]

The reason why OCP hardly makes any sense is that your cities won't grow past size 12 until early/middle industrial ages. Therefore, you will end up with a large part of your "premium" tiles that will be unused for the most of your game.

If you plan a pacific victory, then twelve tiles per cities is what i recommend you. If you go for military, then that number is already too much.

The only situation in which i see OCP as having possibly some advantage is when you pursue a histographic victory, but i wouldn't recommend that. The later part of the game would be just plain boring.

About temples: there are cases in which they are useful. Say: you aren't prepared to take over a neighbour yet, or you just don't want by now, for any reason, but in the meantime you have to face cultural pressure from its borders. In this scenario, a temple may be useful to avoid the risk of having one of your productive cities defect to the enemy. But in the general case, the investment in shields and the upkeep is just not worth the one content face you get with it. You'd do better with the luxury slider, and spend those shields into a marketplace, or into military units.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I always try to put my FP far away. Guess I won't do that anymore...

So do you worry about culture at all?

First off, welcome to CFC

I tend to use temples more when I play a religious Civ, so they are cheaper.
And naturally, if I'm trying for a 100K cultural victory ... where you win by amassing 100,000 culture points across your entire civilization.

Otherwise, they tend to be more tactical than strategic. I also play at regent, and am hoping to move up with the skills I've learned here. I will frequently be sending a settler/military pair to grab a location near a nice resource, and the AI will beat me to it. So I found a town close by and use a temple to exert cultural pressure on the AI town. Sure, it's slow, and yes, I will probably launch a war at some point and take the town.

I like to space my towns/cities at CxxC like vmxa for defense. With roads, I can easily move a unit from town to town in one turn, in case barbarians show up.

 

[VikingKing1]

In Civ. 3 I would recommend you get the Fascist patch, it allows you to use Fascism as a form of government. I use it when it is time to go to war, with Democracy you have to deal with the Senate. What I like about Fascism is that while it is a militaristic form of government it is also a high science government so you can still research heavily. It does have corruption but you can deal with that the same way you would in Communism. When you get to espionage I always send over a transport full of spies to my enemies biggest city and destroy as many building as I can, it throws them into revolt.

 

[vmxa]

The Senate, that was in civ2 iirc. I seem to vaguely remember being made to make peace, not sure if that the UN or what now. Too long ago.

 

[darski]

In Civ. 3 I would recommend you get the Fascist patch, it allows you to use Fascism as a form of government. I use it when it is time to go to war, with Democracy you have to deal with the Senate. What I like about Fascism is that while it is a militaristic form of government it is also a high science government so you can still research heavily. It does have corruption but you can deal with that the same way you would in Communism. When you get to espionage I always send over a transport full of spies to my enemies biggest city and destroy as many building as I can, it throws them into revolt.

You can't make spies in Civ 3. There are virtual spies that you never actually see but they function very differently from CivI and II

 

[vmxa]

I missed that one, but yeah spys do not work in III like they do in II and IV. They were way over powered in II, one of the many issues it had.

 

[VikingKing1]

It has been a long time, trying to think back they kind of merge together. In civ 2 I mostly played the WW 2 scenario and other scenarios, landing troops in N.Y. city in the 1950s but it only had two cities, NY and DC so the game was pretty much done once you took NY, and how you had to make sure you airplanes only went 8 spaces out or they would crash. I remember in civ 3 where an iron clad beat a dreadnought, not practical but I guess all the games have issues on strength of units. Been a long time but I do miss playing, I wish I had kept the games.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy"

 

[RickFGS]

1) If you want to lose go ahead..
2) Prob yes
3) All of them
4) If you aren´t rusher gov, make farms, if you are rusher gov, rush´em units and go bash.

 

[Squire 2]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I build temples everywhere, and usually have my cities overlap by one or two squares, but don't like having as many as three squares overlap.

 

[Cyc]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I build temples everywhere, and usually have my cities overlap by one or two squares, but don't like having as many as three squares overlap.

Nothing wrong with that strategy.

 

[agonistes]

1) If you want to lose go ahead..

Its regent. A temple is usually the first thing I build in EVERY city on Regent. Or a barracks. Heck, sometimes I go temple/library. When I can, I often rush buy temples and libraries in every city. Granted I play on oversized maps, but the point is, on Regent, you can be very relaxed and do almost whatever you want. If you feel like your civ is a religious one, by all means, build some temples. If you want some culture, build some temples.

A 10 or 15 turn cost for temples won't cause you to lose. If the cost is more than 15, build a worker. Also, I HATE encroachment, and favor starting wars when I have an overwhelming number of troops*. So, for me, rapid border expansion is a priority.

*Few to defend, many to conquer.

 

[dalgo]

I play at Demigod and I still build a temple in every city. Found a new settlement - start a temple. Irrigate to grow fast, employ 3 engineers at pop 5 to finish the temple then switch to scientists. The border expansions help to fill in the gaps in my territory and the extra happiness is useful if I am fighting a prolonged war as a Republic.