Well after I managed to get the Cossacks I went for the Smiths trading company while the AI's tried to get Magnetism etc and I managed to build it and am going to declare war on one of the small neighbours next to me, the Greeks but im worried all the other civs will team up on me. I have not been really trading any techs since I got most of the ancient era ones through popping goody huts but after I got to Education I have started trading a bit, didn't really have any lux's or resources to trade either but I do have an embassy with most of the civs and have a Right of Passage signed.
Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions
- Thread starter Turner
- Start date
PaperBeetle
Emperor
Smith is a nice wonder, but hardly one you'd want to aim your game towards building: its savings tend to increase over time, and won't be so significant in the late medieval; its on an optional tech that you don't otherwise want; the AI often takes a while to build it (unless Economics is out by the time the Sun Tzu cascade starts) so there's no hurry; if the AI does build it, you capture it.
Well usually when I play and am in the middle ages I try to get the Sistine chapel but I wanted to try something different because I went for the Cossacks first so I could get a military advantage. I should probably focus on getting Economics later and as you said I can always try and capture the city that has the wonder in it
Build less wonders.
Wonders are nice things to have - the downside is that you have to build them.
Also. They don't teach you to keep your people happy/educated/rich/armied.
Must Build: The Pyramids, preferably using a Scientific Great Leader. 
Note that the wonders explained in the top menu of this site is of Civ3 vanilla - not civ3 complete (C3C). The great wall was changed and some others.
As always: it depends.
Look at what a Wonder does first before you build it.
I try to avoid all wonders that go obsolete. Maybe one or 2 like Lighthouse. That is just because faster ships saves so much time. I feel I lose many turns just shipping units. Actually, I mostly make Magellan's - you don't sail that far in the age you have the Lighthouse. It's the same wonder - only later in the game.
Are you really going to need a Great Wall against barbarians or in-town fighting? Ok, it's easier now to keep captured cities. Hm. Ok. You'd better fight on the borders, on hills and mountains... and building a wonder for the barbs is just wrong. WRONG I TELL YOU!
I used to like Statue of Zeus or Knights Templar, because it creates an Ancient Cavalry or Crusader respectively every 5 turns. I don't build it much lately. It's quite a lot of shields for x-amount of units.
I love Leo's (pay half for unit upgrades). Saves A LOT of money. Money that can be spent on science, happiness and nukes.
Pyramids sound nice, but it's effectively building all granaries for all cities in one city (often one of your early cities). I wouldn't do it, since you can hurry a granary by cutting a nearby forest with the workers that that early city is producing. But the Pyramids is 400 shields and a granary 60. So 6.666 or more cities and you have made a profit. But it's many turns that one of your main city can't build anything else.
Theory of Evolution (2 free techs) - that one is one I love to rush if the opportunity raises. That wonder often is the turning point in many games. After those techs, I never look back - since it is close to rails. Rails + ToE = Whooooosh!
If you can combine Copernicus and SETI... nice combo. Then you double your double science output for that city. You double your science in that city twice. Stacking the effect is worth it. I must admit that I hardly ever do it.
Love Smith's - pays the upkeep of markets, banks, harbors and airfields.
Same for Universal Suffrage. Reducing WW is good...
I don't build the United Nations wonder, that's because I like the Manhattan Project.
Cure for cancer - how can you be against it.
On a side note; there are many kinds of cancer. Cancer is the word used for about 200 different diseases - so there's not going to be one cure or one treatment. Development for all 200 is taking place as we speak. We are getting close to developing better and humaner methods. But if someone makes a breakthrough development today, it will take about 7 years of proper development and clinical trials before the treatment is on the market. Not because the pharmaceutical companies don't want it released, but because every medicine and treatment must be tested and safe to be released on sick people. That's international law.
On with civ3.
As for the Small Wonders - I try to build them all. They are a nice bonus.
Make the Military Academy in your more/most productive city. Maybe you're lucky and find a city that can make the Iron Works.
I don't build the SDI defense though. If I'm nuked successful or not, I'll live and I'll retaliate. They will be throwing rocks after that.
There's not an easy General Rule when it comes to building Wonders.
Ask yourself this question before you start the game: How am I going to win this game? (Viz. What is my Victory Condition going to be?) See Civ3 Hall Of Fame for ideas: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/
The other factors that need to be taken into account are:
1. Difficulty Level
2. Map Size
3. Number of AI opponents
4. Barbarian Level.
If you give us the answers to those 5 factors, you will probably get a consensus on Wonders in response.
Ask yourself this question before you start the game: How am I going to win this game? (Viz. What is my Victory Condition going to be?) See Civ3 Hall Of Fame for ideas: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/
The other factors that need to be taken into account are:
1. Difficulty Level
2. Map Size
3. Number of AI opponents
4. Barbarian Level.
If you give us the answers to those 5 factors, you will probably get a consensus on Wonders in response.
PaperBeetle
Emperor
Barb level? What's that got to do with the price of eggs?
The factors I'd consider are:
1. Victory condition
2. Difficulty level
3. Map shape
4. Resource availability (e.g. ivory, coast, fresh water).
The factors I'd consider are:
1. Victory condition
2. Difficulty level
3. Map shape
4. Resource availability (e.g. ivory, coast, fresh water).
Barb Level: If it's set to none, you don't get any Goody Huts and thus no Free Techs.......But also No Barbs. (Probably only a consideration on higher difficulty levels.)
Someone's bound to build it, but the way the Artificial Idiot (mis)handles reputation means that one or two nukes will make everyone declare war against you, and it's frankly not worth it, just spend all those shields building a crapton of bombers and plane carriers and then ship 'em together with AEGIS cruisers. Then, bada-boom.
I could see it working if I did a regicide game, just nuke the city that has the king in it and there I go I win
I think Kings are unkillable by bombardment, but I haven't played vanilla regicide in a long, long time.
Usually if I conquer a city with the Manhattan Project I destroy it unless there's other wonders to make it a useful place. For anything other than Wonders (they're unrebuildable) I just destroy and send in a Settler if the place is worthy.
Usually if I conquer a city with the Manhattan Project I destroy it unless there's other wonders to make it a useful place. For anything other than Wonders (they're unrebuildable) I just destroy and send in a Settler if the place is worthy.
ladydedlock
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2012
- Messages
- 2
I'm back to playing Civ3 after life got in the way for a few years and I seem to have forgotten almost everything about strategy. My question is this - once I get a couple of cities up and going, is it acceptable to automate my workers? I was controlling all of them for a while in my first game back, then it started to get too cumbersome so I let them all automate after that. My outcome so far seems to be okay (I tend to go for non-aggressive civs and shoot for cultural or diplomatic victories). Any thoughts? Help is always appreciated. Loving getting to play again.
Oh, and I have the Civ3: Complete if that makes a difference...its the one with all the expansion packs, etc
Oh, and I have the Civ3: Complete if that makes a difference...its the one with all the expansion packs, etc
Don't Automate them until later on, if you do, use the advanced control 'automate: don't mess with the stuff I've already done' a.k.a. Shift+A.
Trust me, after you spend a hell of a crapton of turns planting forests to keep the enemy cavalry -and artillery- off your grounds, you don't want your workers to chop them for wood when they produce two shields anyway.
You really should control your terraforming as sometimes it's better to just build the long road toa harbour city and start trading stuff than spending dozens of turns in mining a mountain, remmeber that there's a trade and shields penalty under Despotism.
Trust me, after you spend a hell of a crapton of turns planting forests to keep the enemy cavalry -and artillery- off your grounds, you don't want your workers to chop them for wood when they produce two shields anyway.
You really should control your terraforming as sometimes it's better to just build the long road toa harbour city and start trading stuff than spending dozens of turns in mining a mountain, remmeber that there's a trade and shields penalty under Despotism.
Yeah, my first thought is: Don't let Life get in the way again! 
The AI does a bad job of automating workers, so only do it if it really pains you. There are game descriptions somewhere from people who have scored cultural or diplomatic victories.
If you want to score a Histographic Victory, which on the lower levels doesn't have much to do with warfare, that's my specialty.
P.s. Yes, Civ 3 Complete has ALL the final patches to the 3 Civ 3 games. (Conquests is the most recent.)
The AI does a bad job of automating workers, so only do it if it really pains you. There are game descriptions somewhere from people who have scored cultural or diplomatic victories.
If you want to score a Histographic Victory, which on the lower levels doesn't have much to do with warfare, that's my specialty.
P.s. Yes, Civ 3 Complete has ALL the final patches to the 3 Civ 3 games. (Conquests is the most recent.)
I don't even automate them late in the game. With Conquests, you can't even trust them with automating pollution clean-up; if a volcano square gets pollution, you can have 20 or 30 workers run to the volcano and get stuck there for several turns (no roads) while the rest of your empire starts going to heck in a handbasket.
Neither are automated workers very good at respecting borders; they will try to take shortcuts through your opponents' territory (which is rarely a shortcut at all since they do not get the benefit of opponents' roads). At best, they do this during peacetime and just get stuck in opponents' territory for a few turns while some leader comes to complain to you about it all annoyed; at worst, they do this during peacetime and get captured. (Actually during wartime, your automated workers don't have to cross the border, they just have to be stupid enough to get too close for the enemy to bolt over and capture them.)
Besides, especially early in the game, careful management of your workers is at least as important of a skill as management of your military units. Putting the right improvement in the right place at the right time gives you a significant advantage over your opponents.
Neither are automated workers very good at respecting borders; they will try to take shortcuts through your opponents' territory (which is rarely a shortcut at all since they do not get the benefit of opponents' roads). At best, they do this during peacetime and just get stuck in opponents' territory for a few turns while some leader comes to complain to you about it all annoyed; at worst, they do this during peacetime and get captured. (Actually during wartime, your automated workers don't have to cross the border, they just have to be stupid enough to get too close for the enemy to bolt over and capture them.)
Besides, especially early in the game, careful management of your workers is at least as important of a skill as management of your military units. Putting the right improvement in the right place at the right time gives you a significant advantage over your opponents.
Yeah I think automated workers suck balls too.
Maybe if I'm on a totally railroaded island, I'll make some workers 'clean pollution' workers late in the game.
For the rest - don't auto anything.
