Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[Lord Emsworth]

But I won't be penalized on the resource (other than by not having it irrigated), right? By way of comparison, I think in SMAC, if I build a mine and a farm on the same tile, I get a -1 food penalty for the mine. If I can't irrigate and maximize the food, I don't want to further cripple my food production by building a mine if that's the effect.

For the sum total of food/shields of your city it does not matter which tiles you irrigate and which you mine. An irrigation will always give you one more food, regardless where. A mine on flat terrain will always give you one more shield, regardless of where. OK, except for despotism.

(Oh, and there is an other exception, and that is a GA or mobilization where an irrigated tile without an inherent shield will give you no shields at all while a mine would give you two.)

 

[Brwill]

about the 21 page i got tired of looking and decided it was easier to register and ask my question. when you research something that opens up a new resource, say gunpowder opens saltpeter, will it appear randomly, or just in areas that haven't been seen? i guess what I'm asking is, what are the odds it shows up near a city of mine, so i dont have to trek all the way over and start another city nearby?

 

[Turner]

All resources are placed on the map at the start of the game. Learning a tech that opens it up simply displays it. So if you research Gunpowder, and happen to have a road on a tile that has Saltpeter on it, you automatically hook that resource up. Think of it as one guy saying to another, "Hey, you know that stuff we didn't know what to do with? Well, guess what I found out about it!"

 

[gmaharriet]

Think of it as one guy saying to another, "Hey, you know that stuff we didn't know what to do with? Well, guess what I found out about it!"

That's a hillarious way to put it, Turner!

 

[jiminut]

You know what bugs me? When I take an enemy City with 6+ population and it has zero improvements. Not a temple. Please tell me this is a bug in the vanilla version that is easily remedied, because it happens every time.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

When you capture a city, all culture-producing buildings are automatically razed, not including wonders. I'm not sure how it works with non-culture buildings though.

 

[vmxa]

It is not a bug. All cultural building are lost upon capture. You can capture wonders, barracks. harbors and such.

 

[ffman]

What techs are best to start off with? I'm having a little trouble keeping everything balanced - keeping an army, getting techs built up, and keeping ahead financially. Any other suggestions for a newbie?

 

[jiminut]

What techs are best to start off with? I'm having a little trouble keeping everything balanced - keeping an army, getting techs built up, and keeping ahead financially. Any other suggestions for a newbie?

From one (Civ3) newbie to another, I think to get things balanced you are best off getting the right government. That means to start off tech-wise, aim for either Monarchy or Republic.

The next thing is to decide a strategy -- i.e. military or cultural? Peace or war? Coming from Civ2, my strategy was assuming that annihilation was the only solution, but I am starting to realize that it's a lot easier to win by making friends and keeping them for the majority of the time. Pick your battles, in other words.

As for financially.. pick a commercial civilization and put marketplace and banks in every city. That's what I did and I have more money than I can spend -- which is a good thing. Of course, I'm only on Chieftain level.

 

[jiminut]

It is not a bug. All cultural building are lost upon capture. You can capture wonders, barracks. harbors and such.

I can't remember capturing so much as a barrack thus far. Maybe it's just the sorry level of my AI opponents.

Mike

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I can't remember capturing so much as a barrack thus far. Maybe it's just the sorry level of my AI opponents.

Mike

What difficulty level are you playing on? If you are playing on Chieftain, then that could explain it.

 

[vmxa]

I can't remember capturing so much as a barrack thus far. Maybe it's just the sorry level of my AI opponents.

Mike

What is the status of the Ai at the time? Is this in the AA or for all ages? What size are the towns/cities, smallish? Are thes border towns or core cities?

I would expect to see little in border towns early in the game, but in late Middle Age or after I would think some of cities would have a market or a barracks, but you do not have to capture it.

IOW even if they have non cultural structures, you may not get them. I find it is common to get late industial age cities with many structures, even at levels like emperor.

 

[ffman]

From one (Civ3) newbie to another, I think to get things balanced you are best off getting the right government. That means to start off tech-wise, aim for either Monarchy or Republic.

The next thing is to decide a strategy -- i.e. military or cultural? Peace or war? Coming from Civ2, my strategy was assuming that annihilation was the only solution, but I am starting to realize that it's a lot easier to win by making friends and keeping them for the majority of the time. Pick your battles, in other words.

As for financially.. pick a commercial civilization and put marketplace and banks in every city. That's what I did and I have more money than I can spend -- which is a good thing. Of course, I'm only on Chieftain level.

Thanks. I put banks and marketplaces in all my cities - I usually put ALL improvements I can in each city. I had a game going the other night were I had over 15,000 gold, but it was near the end of the game, and I took the dumb move to let a UN vote go....when I could've possibly launched the good ol' space shuttle before the game was over.

 

[vmxa]

Putting banks in every cities is usually not a good investment. Often I wil not make any banks, The idea is will it pay off or not. It is not worth it to put one in a city netting less than 4 commerce and my rule is less than 10.

Even then it is not a good idea if you are spending all your income on research and lux. It has to pay for itself.

The only difference between a ban and a market is when you have 4 or more lux the market does more than give 50% on net income.

 

[jiminut]

Here's another few questions..

1. What's the best pre-Industrial age UU? My current game is Persians, and the Immortals are, well not immortal. Maybe I'm just not aggressive enough to use them right? Which leads to...

2. It seems like whenever the AI attacks me successfully, he sends hordes of offensive weapons at me. Is a good offensive strategy to store up your best attacker and send them all at once? How many is enough?

3. How do you maximize the Golden Age? I tried using it in Wartime as Persia and it backfired somehow. So my second strategy was, I went back to just before the war, started the GA against a weak enemy, and then backed off and used the GA to build up my cities.

Thanks a bunch
Mike

 

[ffman]

I tried war against a country in one my last games (against Zululand), and offensive units kept coming and coming. I had a good number myself, but obviously not enough.

 

[azzaman333]

Here are some general tips you might find helpful.

Prioritise your builds.
Do you really need that Granary? Probably not.
Will that temple really help? Probably not.
Do I need a barracks in a town that will never build a military unit? No.
Could another worker be useful? Most of the time yes.

Ask yourself before you build something in a city, Do I really need this? 1/2 the time, the answer will be a no. If you spend all your time making buildings, you cant make an army.

Also, you dont need many defensive units. Persoanlly, I keep my border towns with 1-2 spears, pikes, muskets, rifles, infatry or mech infantry, and leave the rest of my towns without any kind of garrison whatsoever. Attacking units are more important to build most of the time.

Workers. Simple, you need about 3 workers for every 2 towns. Workers = improved lands = more production and gold. Of course, if your workers have nothing to do, you sell them off.

Ancient Age. Build as many settlers as possible, to fill up as much land as possible. Build only Settlers, Workers and Warriors (but not too many) until you have filled up the land. You may want to have a high shield main town build a barracks and an army, in case you get attacked. Also, after you have filled up all your land, slowly disband the warriors. As you build other units, kill off the warriors, or it will cost you too muh gold.

 

[vmxa]

jiminut

"1. What's the best pre-Industrial age UU? My current game is Persians, and the Immortals are, well not immortal. Maybe I'm just not aggressive enough to use them right? Which leads to... "

The best AA UU is not to have one for most games. YOu normally do not want to trigger a GA in AA. There are games where it makes sense, but you are not playing those yet.

Immortals are great, IF you use them early and on offense. They suck on defense as they are the same as spears, but cost more.

"2. It seems like whenever the AI attacks me successfully, he sends hordes of offensive weapons at me. Is a good offensive strategy to store up your best attacker and send them all at once? How many is enough? "

Numbers are the way to go, but how many depends on what you face and what you want to accomplish.

"3. How do you maximize the Golden Age? I tried using it in Wartime as Persia and it backfired somehow. So my second strategy was, I went back to just before the war, started the GA against a weak enemy, and then backed off and used the GA to build up my cities."

Have as many mines up and with roads as you can.

 

[Turner]

IMO, the best Pre-Industrial UU is the Sipahi (Ottomans). They are effective up to Infantry, and can handle Riflemen with ease.

As for one of your previous questions, non-cultural building in a captured city have a 50% chance (each) that they'll be lost when captured. The exception to this rule is any improvement that will allow your city to grow past Cities or Metros (size 6 and 12, w/ default rules). Generally, that means aquaducts and hospitals. But some mods have extra buildings that will do this, and those will be kept.

 

[vmxa]

I have to disagree on the Sipahi, because the Rider will have ripped the Ottoman up before they ever get MT.

With Riders you can get the game in the bag much sooner and that is always better. The 3 move so early is a real killer.