Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[The Mistrel Boy]

Cheers for the tips - I've resorted to blocking with faster type units, generally does the trick.

Not that that is a problem anymore - a little background for you:

There are 2 continents with 3 factions on. I have eliminated 1 faction on my continent, and am toiling at ridding myself of the other faction (Aztecs). The problem is I've covered a lot of ground, and my people (Republic) are hating war. Everytime I declare war on the Aztecs half of my cities go into riot - especially the newly conquered cities formerly Aztec.

So... questions:

How best to eliminate the last 3 cities without causing much grief to my people.

What happens when they are gone? Do I sit and count my larels, researching and keeping everyone happy? That will make me nervous as those on the other continent although seeming to be at a similar level to me, there is the threat that they will quickly out-technology me if I wait too long.

also

Tile improvements: I have left ALL my workers on auto. Surely there is no way you can micro-manage that many workers - I've got like 40 milling around. They seem to be obsessed with building roads in complicated clumps that looks pointless to me. I have no idea what the best way is of making money it all seems so complicated.

My latest technolgical advance is banking although this seems to have made no difference to my income. I want gold!

 

[Calis]

There are 2 continents with 3 factions on. I have eliminated 1 faction on my continent, and am toiling at ridding myself of the other faction (Aztecs). The problem is I've covered a lot of ground, and my people (Republic) are hating war. Everytime I declare war on the Aztecs half of my cities go into riot - especially the newly conquered cities formerly Aztec.

The happyness of your own people suffers from war weariness (occurs after losing too many units/cities). On top of that your Aztec citizens are not very happy about you killing of their brothers and sisters.

So... questions:

How best to eliminate the last 3 cities without causing much grief to my people.

What happens when they are gone? Do I sit and count my larels, researching and keeping everyone happy? That will make me nervous as those on the other continent although seeming to be at a similar level to me, there is the threat that they will quickly out-technology me if I wait too long.

I'd say go and destroy/capture the last three cities quickly. Once the Aztecs are eliminated your Aztec citizens will forget about their anger. And as the war is over, war weariness will disappear, too.

also

Tile improvements: I have left ALL my workers on auto. Surely there is no way you can micro-manage that many workers - I've got like 40 milling around. They seem to be obsessed with building roads in complicated clumps that looks pointless to me. I have no idea what the best way is of making money it all seems so complicated.

My latest technolgical advance is banking although this seems to have made no difference to my income. I want gold!

It's generally a bad idea to set your workers on auto. And believe me: 40 workers is not that many. You have to micro-manage them if you want better results.

Building roads (and working the roaded tiles with your citizens) gives you commerce, which is converted into either, research beakers, gold, or happyness. Make sure your citizens work these roaded tiles to generate commerce. Lower the science ratio to incraese your income.

And: Researching Banking is not all. To get the advantages, you have to build banks. And before you can do so, you need to have marketplaces, shich also add to your income.

 

[Snarkhunter]

So... questions:

How best to eliminate the last 3 cities without causing much grief to my people.

What happens when they are gone? Do I sit and count my larels, researching and keeping everyone happy? That will make me nervous as those on the other continent although seeming to be at a similar level to me, there is the threat that they will quickly out-technology me if I wait too long.

also

Tile improvements: I have left ALL my workers on auto. Surely there is no way you can micro-manage that many workers

1) If you are doing repeated wars with the same opponent, you have to let things cool off for quite a spell, or you just get back to the same level of war weariness you ended with. Better to provoke the AI into declaring on you, but you can't always arrange that. At any rate, manipulate the luxury slider relentlessly, order up specialists as needed--even clowns, as a last resort--& make the wars short. If you are down to 3 targets left, you should be thinking of arranging things to take them out in 2 turns: 1 to get in position, especially your bombard units--you did build catapults, trebuchets, & cannon, right?--1 to take them out. If you've got a flock of cavs handy & can absorb losses, don't even bother with the arty, just go for it & get it over in 1 turn. No more war if there's no more AI cities for that civ.

2) How are you trying to win? If by domination or conquest, you will have to think of a way to invade the other continent, ie, build a navy, get together a strong invading force, make a landing & go from there. If by culture, spaceship, or diplomacy, then you need to rev up the tech pace and/or build the culture-vulture buildings. There's no siting around per se in this game.

3) I routinely wind up with over 100 workers in a game, counting slaves, & I never automate them. It's not hard to move stacks of workers to a job & get it done in 1 turn, & after a certain point, you can park them until you get rails later on. The program never does as good a job of developing your area as you can--that's one of your advantages over the AI's; why throw it away?

Don't know the specifics of your game, but 40 workers sounds a bit low. I aim for at least 1 worker/town or city, up to 2 workers/town. Less than that will starve your empire in the early/middle stages. In later years, especially after railing everything, I look for opportunities to join workers to towns or cities that need a quick pop boost. The rule is to make sure every land tile being worked is roaded and railed when the time comes--you need the gold and productivity from that.

Edit: of course someone got to this first!

kk

 

[The Mistrel Boy]

40 is probably a bit of a low estimate, I'm at work now so can't say for sure.

But one thing I randomly began doing was assigning workers to cities, filling them up to 12(?). Not sure what difference that has made, I am an absolute noob after all.

The workers I can actually see could be 40-50-60 or so, milling around the roads and that I'm not even sure what they're upto half the time. The way I've been conquering cities is 3-4 catapults to weaken it, then a couple of swordsmen backed up by the Iroguais UU horses if necessary, and then a group of pikemen and archers reside in the city while it's still on the outskirts of my empire. I'll slow bleed the attackers out of the settlement as it settles down and then we move onto the next city.

It's not hard to move stacks of workers to a job & get it done in 1 turn

To be honest I don't erally understand this. Stacking workers? I find I have to clumsily activate them one at a time, and even then I can only be bothered telling them to do one thing (eventually) such as link a road to cattle, although even over 4 turns this is a crap amount of micro-management. I don't really understand the concept of job either - working roads? I thought they just build it and it exists and eanrs money by itself

 

[IvanDolvich2]

To be honest I don't erally understand this. Stacking workers? I find I have to clumsily activate them one at a time, and even then I can only be bothered telling them to do one thing (eventually) such as link a road to cattle, although even over 4 turns this is a crap amount of micro-management. I don't really understand the concept of job either - working roads? I thought they just build it and it exists and eanrs money by itself

Working roads means that Citizens inside your cities are working those tiles. Sometimes a newly roaded tile will be unworked until your city population changes and the governor ( the game AI) automatically re-allocates your labor force. The AI is not the smartest and as many here will tell you, your brain is better than their programming and can better manage terrain development and warfare than your opponents. By not managing your workers, you are leveling the playing field with the AI to their benefit. The only advantage that you have left is your tactical and strategic skill, which sometimes can be overcome by AI numbers on higher levels.
Although it can be tedious, it is a crucial skill to learn if you want to move up to higher levels of play.

 

[Snarkhunter]

But one thing I randomly began doing was assigning workers to cities, filling them up to 12(?). Not sure what difference that has made, I am an absolute noob after all.

The workers I can actually see could be 40-50-60 or so, milling around the roads and that I'm not even sure what they're upto half the time. The way I've been conquering cities is 3-4 catapults to weaken it, then a couple of swordsmen backed up by the Iroguais UU horses if necessary, and then a group of pikemen and archers reside in the city while it's still on the outskirts of my empire. I'll slow bleed the attackers out of the settlement as it settles down and then we move onto the next city.



To be honest I don't erally understand this. Stacking workers? I find I have to clumsily activate them one at a time, and even then I can only be bothered telling them to do one thing (eventually) such as link a road to cattle, although even over 4 turns this is a crap amount of micro-management. I don't really understand the concept of job either - working roads? I thought they just build it and it exists and eanrs money by itself

Well, if you put workers in towns & turned them into cities, you greatly improved your unit support numbers, which means you probably spent less gold. Changing a city from pop 7 to pop 12 won't necessarily do a lot, except for the core productive cities which will start making that much more shields that much more quickly. Adding workers to corrupt cities lets you turn them into specialists, which is why it isn't a dead loss (you also don't have to pay support costs for them any more). Although if you didn't turn them into specialists, you probably have an increased amount of discontent--which is helping to start riots in your cities, as you have noticed.

As for attacks, my preference is for at least 8-10 cats per attacked city (& upgrade as soon as possible to trebs & then cannons). I make sure to send an attacking stack strong enough to be split between arty defenders, city garrison, & next-city attackers, then regroup on every turn to keep the assault rolling forward. Ideally, towns are falling to me on every turn during a war, especially once rails are up. incidentally, once we are looking at artillery/infantry, it's often 20-30 arty per attack--I want to redline every defender ASAP & grab the town, & infantry can hold out pretty well.

You can move stacks of workers, at least, although you have to give them jobs individually. Since a stack is often popping up new workers automatically to ask for orders, this is a moderately fast way to micromanage, as opposed to moving each worker individually. You'll want to be telling them to road/irrigate/mine tiles, depending on the circumstance; my rule is don't move off a tile until it's roaded. A 6-pack ( or 4-pack, depending on culture traits) of workers can do just about any task in 1 turn on flatland; group move 2 or 3 6-packs to hills or mountains to do the same. I'd rather get 1 tile done per turn than 6 tiles 1/6 done each turn, to get the benefit that much sooner. If possible, I want to move enough workers to a tile to road and improve it in one turn. Ditto for draining wetlands, cutting forests, etc. Takes an awful lot of workers to cut a jungle, road it, mine it, and railroad it in one turn, when the time comes, but that's why I have 100 or so workers--on already improved tiles, I can railroad 16 tiles a turn that way.

In any case, automating isn't likely to be successful on any but the lowest game levels--you'll actually wind up out-produced by the AI.

kk

 

[Spoonwood]

The_Mistrel_Boy,

You may want to check out this link

 

[darski]

So what happened to the "Interesting Screenshots" thread. In fact what happened to all those extra pages?

Is it permitted for me to start another "Interesting" thread. It's my fave thread on the whole board.

Now it is possible my old eyes just aren't seeing it. wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Split Open]

Newbie here, have some questions:
1. What is a good number of cities in the start?
2. What do I build in new cities?
3. What should I research?
4. I just beat warlord(standard pangae 70%, persia domination), should I go up to regent?

 

[timerover51]

So what happened to the "Interesting Screenshots" thread. In fact what happened to all those extra pages?

Is it permitted for me to start another "Interesting" thread. It's my fave thread on the whole board.

Now it is possible my old eyes just aren't seeing it. wouldn't surprise me.

Here it is, Darski. Just that no one has posted anything since August.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=192414&page=130

 

[darski]

thank you. posted a couple of pics just to keep my hand in

There was only one page listed when I went looking before

 

[Turner]

Looks like the admins have changed the defaults for number of threads shown. There's been some db issues, this could be an effort to lighten the load for the db server.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, Split Open!

Newbie here, have some questions:
1. What is a good number of cities in the start?
2. What do I build in new cities?
3. What should I research?
4. I just beat warlord(standard pangae 70%, persia domination), should I go up to regent?

1. I suggest building as many as possible. Obviously, if you're playing a variant, like a One City Challenge, this rule goes out the window, but for the standard game, a strong Rapid Expansion (REX) phase in the early game goes a long way. Hit the War Academy and look for an article called Cracker's Opening Plays. Spoonwood provided a link just a couple of posts above yours.
2. What's your victory condition? If you're going for military victory, perhaps a warrior, then a worker. If you're going for cultural victories, . . . ummm, let me leave that one for people who play more culture games than I do.
3. Monopoly techs. There are several threads around here on what the AI's preferred techs are, so dig around for those. As a general rule, research left to right, rather than top to bottom. Techs get more expensive as you move left to right, and you can then use those techs for trade bait.
4. Probably. Regent is the level where the playing field is level in terms of build costs. Below that, the AI pays more for builds than you do. Above that, it pays less. If you beat Warlord without too much trouble, move on up.

Good luck!

 

[Split Open]

Welcome to CFC, Split Open!



1. I suggest building as many as possible. Obviously, if you're playing a variant, like a One City Challenge, this rule goes out the window, but for the standard game, a strong Rapid Expansion (REX) phase in the early game goes a long way. Hit the War Academy and look for an article called Cracker's Opening Plays. Spoonwood provided a link just a couple of posts above yours.
2. What's your victory condition? If you're going for military victory, perhaps a warrior, then a worker. If you're going for cultural victories, . . . ummm, let me leave that one for people who play more culture games than I do.
3. Monopoly techs. There are several threads around here on what the AI's preferred techs are, so dig around for those. As a general rule, research left to right, rather than top to bottom. Techs get more expensive as you move left to right, and you can then use those techs for trade bait.
4. Probably. Regent is the level where the playing field is level in terms of build costs. Below that, the AI pays more for builds than you do. Above that, it pays less. If you beat Warlord without too much trouble, move on up.

Good luck!

Thanks
I'll read the articles. I tried regent a little and it wasn't too much of a difference yet(still in ancient age, Celts, continents 70% if I remember correctly, standard, got a lone island/continent with france, can see culture borders of byzantine, conquered france , currently settling the whole island/continent.)
I'm not sure if it's big enough to be a continent, but it's got some great resources , 4 iron, 4 incense, 3 silk, didn't count gems but there are some of them. Some drawbacks are a lot of mountains and two volcanoes in the middle. Another drawback is my capital is in a penninsula, making mainland corruption annoying. I might make forbidden palace in Paris, which is on the other side of the island/continent.
I may try a space victory, diplo or conquest.(Did domination on warlord and culture is too hard.)

 

[EMan]

@Split Open & The Mistrel Boy: Welcome to CFC.

@Split Open: Diplomatic & Space Victories are longer games. (Histographic is the longest of course....Assuming you want to get a Personal Best [or HOF] high score.)

For a Conquest victory, once you have set up your core cities and you want a faster finish, build Veteran Horsemen, attack cities in say a stack of 6, and wipe out the AI's!! (No time for warriors, catapults or swordsmen......And NO defensive units!) Remember, I think Spoonwood said/implied this, Time is of the Essence........Meaning Game Time (Viz. Stay Focused!)......You, can take as long as you like!

 

[Zenobia42]

Hope this is the place to ask a quick question. I used to play Civ III (on a Mac) but recently bought Civ III Complete and it looks fun. There's just one thing that bugs me and was wondering if there's a quick way to modify the program: the 48 base turns to clear jungle is just annoying as heck. I have an industrious worker and to clear would take 16 turns! Is there a way to change the base turns for clear jungle in the program?

Thanks.

 

[EMan]

Yeah, discover the Science Technolgy Replaceable Parts.......then it's only 8 turns!!

Seriously, this is probably not the answer you're looking for.......But it's the only one I have! (Unless you count using a settler to clear the Jungle tile!!)

P.s. Civ 3 Complete is the Best Buy these days for a Civ 3 set.......Has the latest & final versions of Vanilla, PTW & Conquests.

 

[vmxa]

You can change the number of turns in the editor. Look under work jobs and select clear wetlands. Change the 16 to to whatever makes you happy.

 

[timerover51]

Hope this is the place to ask a quick question. I used to play Civ III (on a Mac) but recently bought Civ III Complete and it looks fun. There's just one thing that bugs me and was wondering if there's a quick way to modify the program: the 48 base turns to clear jungle is just annoying as heck. I have an industrious worker and to clear would take 16 turns! Is there a way to change the base turns for clear jungle in the program?

Thanks.

That depends if you are still on a Mac, if so, you have no editor, and no chance of one from Firaxis. If you are on a Windows box, then you can change to time to complete a job for a worker jobs screen. However, if you make the change, in order to use it in a game you need to save the edited file as a biq under something like MyFastClear, otherwise, the change will not apply to the standard game.

 

[darski]

@ timerover51...
I followed your suggestion about making the HE available with Lit. The only problem is that I am not allowed to build it in the Capitol. Do you know what tick mark caused this or can you recommend a way to get around that little snag

I usually just build it in my 2nd city (which I rename Heroic Village) but It would be nice to have the capitol option.