Questions from an Imperialist

[Lord of Elves]

Why hello there.

In Civilization, but especially Civilization III, I go very quickly in the game for large amounts of land and a large role in determining the progress and direction of the game. I like to conquer what I can, deal for what I can't conquer, and generally make as large as an empire as possible.

I'm posting this thread to ask all my fellow heartless, expansionist emperor-to-be's, how you go about setting up your empire, and how you maintain it. Research, production, government, war strategies et cetera; I would love to hear them.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, Lord of Elves!

What you've asked is kind of a big question and that makes it difficult to answer. There are lots of variables that go into it. I guess the simple answer is "it depends."

The first question is what victory condition you want. The second is landform. If you're shooting for conquest or domination on a pangaea map, you may be able to shut off research after Military Tradition & just start cash-rushing cavs & armies. OTOH, if you're using all that land to set up specialist farms in a space race, you've got a different game on your hands, and then there are the culture games . . .

Research & production? Well, it depends on what I need and what I've got. I usually go for conquest and domination. For most games, that just means claiming the Republic slingshot, trading for other AA techs, and fighting short, oscillating wars until I've won. Sometimes, though, I get the itch for an AW game, or maybe I just have particularly nasty neighbors and a dearth of luxuries. Then I'll often grab BW, maybe IW, and shoot for the Philo slingshot (and grab CoL later), and go Monarchy. I enjoy early wars, so cats and swords are popular with me.

 

[Lord of Elves]

I like to go for micro-managing humanity. What I mean by that is, strategically pitting other nations against each other so that they weaken themselves and become ripe for take-over. Rarely if ever do I actually destroy a civilization, most of the time I take what I want, cripple them in the process and leave them to dry out with one or two cities left.

I like to play Kal_El's Earth and normally go for domination/score victory, which means for me a mix of pumping out as many units as possible, and lots and lots of wonders, as well as maximizing the size of my cities.

My favorite government is monarchy, the reasons for this are twofold; monarchy has no war weariness, and the more units you have in a city, the happier it is. I've never understood the reality of logic behind that, however, don't ask questions if it's good I suppose.

 

[CommandoBob]

Another part of the equation is the difficulty level. What works at Monarch may not work at Sid.

Somehow I've gotten focused on happiness and grabbing luxuries. While I can wage war with lower tech weapons, I find that I really need my cities to be as happy and productive as possible.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Normally I go for as many cities as possible early in game, link 'em all together and start producing a huge military. In the game I'm playing right now (standard map size, Flavors of Civilization by iron0037) I'm in the late Medieval period.

I started on a fairly large island-type landmass, and am finally expanding outward after researching navigation. I'm having a problem with the Aztecs who are making a joke out of my military

I land units, their huge stacks of archers knock them out the minute I end the turn. Admittedly not much to be done about it, but still enraging. Just watched a good forty units get picked off.

 

[CommandoBob]

I land units, their huge stacks of archers knock them out the minute I end the turn. Admittedly not much to be done about it, but still enraging. Just watched a good forty units get picked off.

Do you have any Armies? Normally the AI will not attack a healthy Army in open ground.

 

[Bucephalus]

I'm having a problem with the Aztecs who are making a joke out of my military

I land units, their huge stacks of archers knock them out the minute I end the turn. Admittedly not much to be done about it, but still enraging. Just watched a good forty units get picked off.

What kind of terrain are you landing on? The fact that you have Navigation implies that you have at least a strength three defender (Pikes, assuming you have iron); if you land them on a mountain they will get a 100% defence bonus, making them (effectively) as good as a Rifle. Send a big enough stack, and Monty will quickly exhaust his supply of archers. There is also a reasonable chance of gaining a MGL. with which you can form an Army.

 

[Lord of Elves]

I'm using a mod, specifically Flavors of Civilization by iron0037, so I'm not 100% certain these units may make much sense to people who haven't played the mod:

I'm playing as England, and am using English medieval infantry (I believe that they are identical to the non-modded Civilization III unit medieval infantry except for their appearance) for the base of my army as I am in the high medieval period and have not yet acquired salt-pepper for gunmen. The territory I'm landing in is generally plains, and the Aztecs have archers in the hills. You can imagine the carnage

I do not have any armies, but by the time I actually manage to push back their forces I will probably have several. I just hope I don't run out of soldiers to throw to their deaths.

 

[Bucephalus]

Well, there's your problem; MDI have a defence value of 2, the same value as an archer has on attack; IIRC, 'flavours' only changes the appearance of the game so if you have access to MDI you will also be able to build pikes with a defence value of 3. Stack them together and use the pikes to defend, the MDI to attack.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Alright, thank ye. *whistles* minions, send messengers to the coastal cities to build pikemen. Chop chop!

 

[Aabraxan]

See if you can land those pikes on a mountain or a hill. If all of the hills are taken up by Aztec archers, consider trying to bait them elsewhere. IOW, drop an old warrior off on the far side of their territory &, when the archers charge thataway, you drop your pikes on the hill they vacate. Ideally, you put the warrior (or worker, or whatever) far enough away that you can put him back on a boat before the archers actually arrive.

Monarchy & MPs: Assuming that happiness works in the mod like it does in the standard game, the first 3 military units that you put in a city will help with happiness. The rest are just sitting around.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Yes, that is why I like to use monarchy as my government. Conquer several cities of an enemy nation, broker a peace treaty to buy time to heal up your forces, cities that would normally need a decent amount of improvements (since their citizens are pissed you kicked their butts) just need three military units in them to maintain a reasonable amount of happiness. Allows for the conquering army to become +happiness units while recharging their health. Very useful for attrition warfare.

 

[Aabraxan]

Yeah, but your first comment on that ("the more units you have in a city, the happier it is") just sounded like you could use as many MPs as you want. I don't know anything about that mod, so I guess that could be true. I was just pointing out that the MP effect is limited, at least in the standard game.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Ahh, sorry, that was a mistatement on my part.

I have a fairly old save game from a few months ago that I gave up on playing Kal_El's Earth as America. Control all of North America except for far northern Canada, and going for score victory.

Don't have control of the Panama Canal, and my score is being taken over by Persia in Asia, who the minute I declare war on go nuclear and blow all my cities into the ground if I don't launch preemptive strikes. Played out that scenario five times with the same result: nuclear war. Suggestions, anyone? I've quite nearly run out of wonders to build. Year is 1810, and am in the middle of modern era, so theoretically I have enough time to build a ship and get space-colonization victory.

Time it takes to end the turn is about five minutes

 

[Aabraxan]

My suggestion is to post a save. That's really the best way to get good advice.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Incoming newbie question: How exactly does one post a save?

 

[CommandoBob]

When you get to 'Reply to Thread' from the 'post reply' button on this page, scroll down to 'Additional Options'. It is the box between your posting box and the most recent posts. Inside that box is the button 'Manage Attachments'. Click on it.


If you use 'Quick Reply' you cannot do attachments.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Milatary police do make a certain amount of sense. The citizens who might otherwise be protesting on the streets stay home to avoid arrest. They're not especially hapy but not leading to civil unrest.

 

[Spoonwood]

The fact that you have Navigation implies that you have at least a strength three defender (Pikes, assuming you have iron)

Nope. Feudalism doesn't come as prerequisite of Navigation.

 

[Lord of Elves]

It doesn't come as a prerequisite to, however, if you make it that far into the medieval tech tree, it's generally accepted that you will have researched feudalism somewhere along the way, fo sho.