Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

If I gift a size-1 city with no cultural expansion to AI and re-take the city within 0-2 turns, will the city remain or will it disappear? My recollection is that it will remain (whereas it would have disappeared had it originally been built by the AI).
 
Is it a good strategy to build 'resource colony' type cities (for the lack of a better word)...i.e., suppose you have built a decent empire and while scouting you suddenly find an area with a lot of iron or gems or any resources. They are useless until worked upon by a city. Is it worth building an extra vulnerable city far, far away from your empire for the sole reason of shipping huge amounts of resources back to the capital?

Especially since maintaining it will cost a lot, it could be easily invaded and possibly compromise a culture victory.
The more resources you can keep off the enemies other civs, the better. What you have to take into account is the opportunity cost:
First, how much and how long it would take you to set up a defendable position around your resources, then what you earn from that and how much of it.
  • How much would it take to actually set up the colony?
  • How much would it take to defend those far-off resources? Can you defend those far-off resources?
  • Do you have to go through (read:fight) a few pesky barbarian camps?
  • Can you actually set up a road (preferably through a series of cities of your own) to that place? How much would that cost, in time and effort?
Now, what else could you do in that time with those resources, and what would you get out of that?
  • Could you just build a few Swordsmen instead (they cost the same as Settlers) and conquer the nearest AI?
  • Could you use those turns to build a Wonder?
  • Could you use the population value to send workers and improve your current territory? A compact, continuous, productive expanse of land can be better than a far-flung empire that completes one occasinal Library every 40 turns.
  • Is there anywhere better to expand to?
Figure it out. :)
Is it possible to pillage roads of other civs without breaking peace or any treaty like RoP?
That is if we're standing in their area. Can we pillage the roads or anything else which is one of their belongings.
Not unless you have Hidden Nationality units.
 
The more resources you can keep off the enemies other civs, the better.

I would not be that general. If you secure all resources but sell them to AI, this will give you the money to speed up your reserach helping you to achieve the space victory. Also you can sell resources and luxuries at will to affect the balance of other nations in the way you prefer. If such is continued over 100 turns or more this has severe effects. But in general selling luxuries to AI will help AI more than you. Similar applies to strategic resources, albeit that may be a bit more tricky as their value is less simply than those of luxuries.
 
Well, that's included in the cost/benefit analysis from above. What would you get from four Ivories clustered together? If you want to build the Statue of Zeus then you just go for the one Ivory that is just over your border. And, yes, controlling luxuries and Iron/Horses can make you wipe out or destroy entire civilisations at will.
 
Oh, I never said it didn't. It's more about the opportunity costs involved, as I keep saying. What can you do instead of getting the four Ivories out in the middle of nowhere?
 
Is it a good strategy to build 'resource colony' type cities (for the lack of a better word)...i.e., suppose you have built a decent empire and while scouting you suddenly find an area with a lot of iron or gems or any resources. They are useless until worked upon by a city. Is it worth building an extra vulnerable city far, far away from your empire for the sole reason of shipping huge amounts of resources back to the capital?

Especially since maintaining it will cost a lot, it could be easily invaded and possibly compromise a culture victory.

I usually consider this question when I'm hunting for luxury resources, and I'm hurting for happiness. Planting a city on a faraway landmass is an investment, and I can usually make it pay off.
  1. I'm usually running Republic, so I can cash-rush some Barracks to support upgrades of the defenders.
  2. I usually plant the city on the coast, so cash-rushing a Harbor connects it to my trade network
  3. I will partially build, and then cash-finish a culture producing building to get that first border pop
Granted, I'm usually playing Regent difficulty, and this happens at the end of the second era, after I get the ability to travel across oceans. I spend shields producing the settler and the defenders, and more gold (over a period of turns) to secure that resource.

If I could conquer and control it within easy range of my borders, I would probably do that first.
 
I would not be that general. If you secure all resources but sell them to AI, this will give you the money to speed up your reserach helping you to achieve the space victory. Also you can sell resources and luxuries at will to affect the balance of other nations in the way you prefer. If such is continued over 100 turns or more this has severe effects. But in general selling luxuries to AI will help AI more than you. Similar applies to strategic resources, albeit that may be a bit more tricky as their value is less simply than those of luxuries.

Why do you say this, Justanick?
 
Why do you say this, Justanick?

The AI doesn't use the luxury slider to combat unhappiness, so it only hires clowns/entertainers.
The Luxury you're selling will often do the AI way more good than the gold they are giving you. Not only increases their income with people now working the land (instead of being a clown) but that worked land also increases food and shields.
 
The AI doesn't use the luxury slider to combat unhappiness, so it only hires clowns/entertainers.
The Luxury you're selling will often do the AI way more good than the gold they are giving you. Not only increases their income with people now working the land (instead of being a clown) but that worked land also increases food and shields.

What? How in heck do you know this stuff?
 
An interesting stat emerged in my game today. I had a pretty big empire for the year, but only my Capital was producing Culture. I got this stat:

Total Culture (from the Culture Adviser screen): 727

but

Culture at the Capital: 714

The only thing I could imagine it being is that cities with a culture of zero still have an influence value of 1. So each town is worth one culture, but that culture does not apply to the actual rolling total of any individual city.

?
 
The only thing I could imagine it being is that cities with a culture of zero still have an influence value of 1. So each town is worth one culture, but that culture does not apply to the actual rolling total of any individual city.

?
That seems unlikely. I remember having had my capital being the only culture producing city in the early game but the net culture of my civilization was equal to the culture in the capital.
 
The AI doesn't use the luxury slider to combat unhappiness, so it only hires clowns/entertainers.
The Luxury you're selling will often do the AI way more good than the gold they are giving you. Not only increases their income with people now working the land (instead of being a clown) but that worked land also increases food and shields.

And commerce. Sometimes this may even make AI use republic or democarcy, which gives some further economic boost. In total the option to effectively embargo an AI can be somewhat effective in the long run. If you make AI loose 6 happy faces by ending trades this may make AI lose 6 citizens per city or 6 minus military police if AI switches governments. That usually comes at the price of anarchy.
 
Good afternoon

I play Civ III all the time as I am off work awaiting an operation. I have two dell laptops (Latitude D630) and both running windows 7. Why two :) one I take to sea with me and the other I keep at home. One laptop updated windows two days ago and since then the CD will not run. I removed Civ with "CCleaner and reinstalled but still it will not run.

I installed Civ III on my 2nd laptop and was playing till the wee hours this morning, as I went to shut down, windows started to update. This morning the CD will not run??

So my question, is please can anyone help?

Ps: I am not a computer nerd so a simple and easy to understand reply would be most welcome :D:D
 
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