Second Best (Warlord)

[bosamar]

I'll try to keep this one short ....I need help.

Been playing civ3 for a few weeks now. I can win at the easiest level but when I try Warlord I come in second at best. Here are the stats on my last game.

Level: Warlord
Me: Scandanavia
Landmass: Archipelago/Normal/Temperate/4B years
Barbarians: None

My inability to build advances quick enough is what is killing me.

I had to choose Archipelago because when I started on continents too many civs gained up on me early and would wipe me out fast.....anyway....

The first civ status screen said this:
Vikings (me) 274
Romans 150
Greeks 156
Carthage 128
Spain 69

My Scandanavian civ started out on an island with just the Spanish to the south. I built about 6-8 cities really fast and would not let their settlers cross into my territory to get to open land on the other side. As soon as I had Swordsmen I invaded Spain and wiped them out with little difficulty. I was now alone on a large island and had time to build.

I switched to Monarchy and did not attempt to invade another civ until I had Magnetism. I choose to invade the Aztecs because they were the closest island to my civ. I did not know where the Arabs were and the Celts were too far away. I used Galleons and Frigates to invade using Cavalry.

BTY: I was not in a position to use my Berserkers because they came after I beat Spain and when I was ready to invade the Aztecs I already had Cavalry available.


At this time the civ status screen said:
Celts 487
Arabs 463
Vikings (me) 423
Aztecs 335
Romans 215
Greeks 186
Carthage 172
Spain 46

I wiped out the Aztecs without too much trouble. They never put up a stiff resistence. I would place 3 riflemen in each city for defense. No cities were ever retaken.

This was my high water mark in the game.

During my campaign against the Aztecs I found that the Celts were VERY close by to the Aztecs. And they were well ahead of me in technology.

The Celts declared war on me just after I discovered Steampower. I had Nationalism and had built up Riflemen in each city for a strong defense. The Celts took over one old Aztec city before a Peace Treat was completed. During the lull I had researched Replacement Parts and upgraded all my Riflemen to Infantry.

I tried to get the Arabs to help me wage war against the Celts but they would not.

The Celts did not leave me alone for long and soon went after me again. My infantry held out and the game ended at 2050 with me in Second Place....

When the game ended the Celts had battleships and bombers and I was just then building Destroyers. I was working on Mass Production when the game ended. I believe the Celts were working on Motorized Transport.

So I guess my problem is that I am unable to build advances fast enough.

Please help.

 

[KingBruiser]

Err i think this is what is suggested.. but please dont flame me if i get this wrong!

alot of the good players suggest Buying Techs instead of Researching because buying is cheaper so put the science rate to the lowest and rake in the dough then buy techs..

as for the points thing.. that doesnt matter much to me.. i just try to finish a game!
With winning as a bonus..

 

[Krayzeenbk]

Don't switch to Monarchy, switch to Republic instead. The trade bonus will dramatically increase your taxes and research rates.

 

[Sparrow3]

I play at warlord level also. Usually, I win; but mostly it is cultural victories. Last game, I didn't meet the Celts in war until well in to the industrial age; but at that point I had fought 6 wars with the Aztecs. I was engaged in the 7th Aztec war when the Celts demanded Gems in tribute and declared war when I refused.

some recommendations:
1)Trade Techs when ever possible. This can help make up for slow research.

2)Set research slider as high as possible. Try to keep income on the plus side; but going negative for a few turns to complete some research may be necessary.

3)Pre-build wonders. Example: The Great Library - Determine which city has the best chance of completing this (greatest number of shields per turn); then asign it to build a palace. As soon as you have completed research on Map Making, reasign this city to build TGL. You will have accumulated a large number of shields toward finishing TGL this way. To a lesser extent, Temples, Harbors, Cathedrals, etc. can be used for pre-builds.

4)Maintain your military. The best way to have peace is for your Military Advisor to say "Comparied to these guys we have a strong military". Mostly it is numbers that determine this not more advanced units. By the time the Celts declared war on me, I had wiped out the Inca, Maya, Zulu, and the Aztecs had only one city left. So, my military was strong.

5)Find strong defence points and build on them. I look for land bridges (one or two land tiles with water on every side). A city here (with walls) has advantages. Garrison it strongly. Lots of spearmen, riflemen, or whatever. I did this with Panama City; but still lost it to Celt cavalry. I took it back two turns later.

6)A change in governments may be necessary. I changed to Facsium in this game to avoid war weariness. I could not have fought such a long war otherwise.

7)Continue to read post at this website. The thread call war academy is very good, I hear.

Sorry for the long post; but I just had a lot to say.

 

[Crowpocalyptic1]

I dont think anyone's said anything about this, so I feel I should... put Barbarians at least to Sedentary. This will allow goodie huts, where you can get techs, maps, gold, setlers, warriors, etc.

If you were to put them at Roaming, you could also "disband a settlement" and get 25 or 50 gold (maybe more on higher levels) which would help out, sometimes.

 

[Aramazd]

Try a scientific civ and build librares in your cities and you should be in the lead in tech

 

[tigerden27]

Try researching "deep" not "wide". By this I mean research to a specific goal, instead of trying to get the cheapest tech first. For example, research directly to Republic because you can often trade Republic for 2 or 3 techs.

When following this strategy it often helps to figure out what techs the AI is researching and switch to a different line if the AI is going the same direction you are. For example, assuming you start as a religious civ, research Myticism right away. If you can't trade away Mysticism then try researching Writing next, because you might be the only one researching it, where if you research Polythesism the AI will probably be researching it also.

 

[Tom|420]

Originally posted by bosamar
I tried to get the Arabs to help me wage war against the Celts but they would not.

You destoryed Spainish and Aztecs, Celts declared war on you for hate, and you expected Arabs to protect you? The arabs would probably have declared war on you if they had enough power to hurt you. If you initiate wars on others for the sake that they are your neighbour, the world will see you as a major enemy, and this is more true if you are gaining power this way.

Please do not think I want to tell you not to kill them, only I wanted you to realize *why* they hate you. It's ok to declare war without a reason (Bush did) but you need to accept the consequences (I fear Bush didn't yet). The consequences are that others will hate you: they won't join you in war, they won't trade much, and they will tend to declare war on you (they have a reason to).

P.S. The Bush think was intended as a joke. I do not want to break people's opinion or rage a political debate on that. In fact I am not very knowledgeable on this area and would prefer that you understand that Bush is a running gag in my everyday humor. Hum... maybe I should spare my time and just remove the joke

 

[Sparrow3]

Originally posted by Crowpocalyptic1
I dont think anyone's said anything about this, so I feel I should... put Barbarians at least to Sedentary. This will allow goodie huts, where you can get techs, maps, gold, setlers, warriors, etc.

If you were to put them at Roaming, you could also "disband a settlement" and get 25 or 50 gold (maybe more on higher levels) which would help out, sometimes.

Oh Yeah! I forgot about barbarians and goody huts. I set barbarians to raging. It keeps the AI Civs occupied in the early stages. They are less likely to declare war if the have lots of barbarians to fight. The barbarians are not much of a problem; even at raging. Two spearmen in a city can generally handle any trouble. My biggest annoyance is that they kill my workers. So, I have to send a spearman with each worker or settler.

 

[truckingpete]

Isnt the government republic that you dont get no free units or do you get free units..how much per turn does it cost for units under republic??

I am also on warlord level..

 

[bosamar]

Thanks for the help everyone. I've got some good ideas now....

 

[theGrimm]

You say you are playing at Warlord difficulty...

At higher difficulty levels, it is much better to trade tech with other civs, but at lower difficulty they move quite slowly, and at Warlord you can certainly research (almost) every tech on your own before the AI civs.

Here are some tips to doing this on warlord difficulty (on higher difficulty, there are different strategies)

-Make sure every square you have people working on in your cities have a road. Make sure you have enough workers. I usually have more workers than I have cities. Buy slaves from other civs if you can...

-Build libraries / Universities / Reasearch labs in every city that isn't too corrupt (if a city only generates two or three science, a library won't help much.)

-Have enough cities...ten cities is probably not enough

-The fastest you can reasearch a tech is every four turns.

-Build your forbidden palace far from yor palace but in the middle of as many cities as possible.


Hope that helps, too...