mbwest said:
ok first off, it is great to see there is still so much talk about CivIII and this forum is great.
I have a few little q's...
How do I set up embassies? I just researched writing and it has popped up and asked if i wanted to establish an embassy with the Germans and I said yes and I met lots of other leaders after that and they also have writing but i cant seem to set up embassies with them. Pleeeeease help.
Also, what land should I irrigate?
Why does everybody declare war on me? (how do i stop it?)
I got loads more, i suppose these are all easy to you lot, im new to all this BTW. so ill leave you with those q's for now while i think of the rest.
p.s. I'm on the second easiest and i'm still finding it pretty hard, any help?
Ill be looking through the forum.
Thanks in advance
oh oh pps. when i nick a city off another civ what is the best way to crush resistance? I nicked the city because they were right next to resources and had roads n stuff and was building other stuff. should i have crushed it and built my own?
have i asked to much questions?
what about now?
(I wrote this around 3pm, but the forum was down...)
Welcome to CFC, mbwest.
Here goes...
(1) Embassies: when you get writing, you can establish embassies at any time (provided you
have the money to do so). To get to the embassy screen, on your main map screen, just hit Shift + E (it might be Control + E - try both, it won't hurt). Be aware too that AIs can establish embassies with you; however, only the civilization that establishes it will get the screenshot of what the enemy city looks like, so it can sometimes be useful, though you can always investigate a city later (same espionage screen). My guess with your not being able to establish the embassy is a gold reason - if you don't have enough money, the option to build one will simply be greyed out.
(2) Irrigation: a simple rule of thumb is 'mine green, irrigate brown'. Basically, mine grassland/hills/mountains, and irrigate desert/plains. There are some exceptions though: in Despotism, there is a 'tile penalty'. That is, any tile that produces 3 or more food/shields/gold will produce 1 less food/shield/gold coin. Take a regular grassland for example: 2 food. If you irrigate it (+1 food), you now should have 3 food. But in Despotism, you'll only end up with 2 (3-1=2) (in other governments, you will get the 3 food). So beaware of this rule, and as such, don't irrigate grassland in Despotism, unless there is a food bonus (a cow on a grassland irrigate will provide 4 food in Despotism! That is a good time to irrigate). Also, try to balance it to a city's needs; if a city has lots of floodplains (3 food), try mining the grassland and plains nearby so you can build up some shields too for a productive city as well as lots of growth.
(3) War: this could be pretty complicated. For starters, I'd read
this article on AI Attitude. The worse an AI's attitude is towards you, the more likely they are too declare war. Usually, the AI will declare war on you if it thinks it can beat you, and it has a stronger army (
related article). Wars frequently come when there isn't much available land left to settle, and the AI sees the only way to gain more land is to take it away from others (read: form you). So some tips are to build up your military (but not too too much, that would end up costing you lots of gold), while maintaining good relations with the AIs. The stronger you appear, the less unwanted wars you'll be fighting. There is also the method of killing all the AIs first before they get to you! :samurai:
(4) Warlord (2nd difficulty level): Try moving up, at least to Regent. It'll make you a better player, even if you don't win all the time. I can't really sum it up in a few words, but the keys to winning is: the early game. Getting a head start is useful, and some major factors are growth (food), and gold. With a good steady income, you can research faster, support a bigger military, get better units, etc. With more growth, you can have bigger cities, produce units/buildings faster, etc. They go hand-in-hand. Here are some links that are great reads:
- The War Academy - quite simply the best resource. It doesn't have articles just on war. An article I'd pay attention to is cracker's opening moves article, which explains good early worker movement. There is quite a variety of articles there (with two by me ).
- Succession Games - a succession game is where a group of people play a game of civilization, in sessions of ~10 turns each. They keep a log of their actions along with screenshots and saves. It's a great way to see how others play the games (at higher levels too), and strategies they employ.
- And then of course, the forums. Ideally, every thread you read here should teach you something about the game. There are some truly helpful articles and threads here.
(5) Resistance: To quell resistors when you capture a city, you quell 1 citizen per turn per unit you have in the city. 5 units will quell 5 resistors each turn, for example. Sometimes it is good to raze a city, sometimes it isn't. I usually like to capture the city so I don't have to build a city of my own, but it is less likely to flip if you raze it and build a new one. On the other hand, it causes an attitude hit if you raze it, rather than capturing, which has a lower attitude hit. It is about weighing the pros vs. cons.
So, finally, I'd say I just threw a ton of links at you. Are they all worthwhile and will they all help you? Probably. Do you have to read them all in one sitting? No - you aren't forced to read them all either. Part of the fun of the game is exploring it yourself and having fun trying new things. These links will hopefully help you on your way to becoming a better player.
PS: If you have other questions, ask them! There's no harm in asking.
!
