Several questions....only one for now!

[oosik]

When I first started playing I played on the easiest difficulty setting to get the feel for it, then soon started just owning the maps and it got boring. So now I upped to 'Warlord' and can't believe how fast the AI can advance................

I reviewed one game at the end, when I lost and found out that most of the other Civs were able to create a second town by 3500 B.C. When I wasn't able to build second until 3000 B.C. or later. I figured it had to take the Civs about 8 turns to create a settler and another 2 or so to move him into position and build. Why are my settlers taking 10 to 15 turns to create then another 3-5 turns to build in another spot?

I don't understand how the other Civs can spit out settlers so fast. Part of my time, I get to one turn for a settler then it says the town has to delay production of the settler because it's not growing, at which point I just change production to get on with things.

I have amny more questions, but this will do for now!
Thanks!

 

[Ankka]

I'm playing on Warlord too, and the AI also gets advances much faster. Usually when I meet someone, they have The Wheel, Iron Working and Pottery at least when I have only Aphabet...

Wizard

 

[etj4Eagle]

Well one reason you noticed the sudden change in the differance in cost factors. At worlord the AI has a cost factor only 20% higher than yours, it was 100% large at Chieftan. The most important thing is developing strategies to maximize growth in those early cities so that you can get settlers popped out. Some people suggest waiting till you get a decent sized town before you start building settlers (more excess food is collected each turn=faster growth).

Also an idea is to have your worker beginning building a road to your next town site, this allows your settler to get there faster.

And a fair bit also has to do with getting lucky and finding some nice bonus food resources. Put a town there and you will be producing settlers one after the other.

 

[sumthinelse]

Now please save a backup copy of civ3mod.bic before you do this.

You can use the editor to change the AI to AI trade rate to 100 in the difficulty levels. Then the stuff you trade to the AI will be worth more and you might enjoy it more. Some of us even feel that making it 100 is more "fair" to the human player. After you get map making you can sell maps to the AI. You might end up with more money and that helps your game in many ways. Trade techs with the AI, Explore territory and sell your maps to the AI.

 

[WarlordMatt]

Maybe they came across a goody hut that gave 'em a settler.

 

[andrewgprv]

Well how do U build in what order?

Are you watching your growth, Make sure you will have a pop of 3 when you are done with the Settler.

How far away are you building second cities

I usually build in this order

1-scout/warior (depening if Im playing expansioist civ)
2- scout
3- scout
4- settler

Building the three initial scouts/warriors gives me city time to populate and gives great exploration.

Also first thing you should do is irrigate so your city will have more food coming into it.

 

[zeeter]

It is a bit difficult to understand how they can do this. I have given up trying to keep up with the AI's early growth. Reading the threads here it seems better to wait a while. My build queue is as follows:

1 Warrior (Scout)
2 Warrior
3 Granery (1st option) Barracks (2nd option)
4 Settler
5 Whatever option I didn't take in 3.
6 Settler
7 Worker

Also, on the first turn if I haven't wound up on a food producing area (cows, wheat, floodlands), I will start over.

I don't know how the AI does it. Especially at 20% more expensive than me. Anyway, Pottery is very important early. With a Granary, and a city of size five the population will regrow much faster than if you build the settler with a pop of three. Never start your cities over with a pop of one.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by andrewgprv

Also first thing you should do is irrigate so your city will have more food coming into it.

NEVER IRRIGATE!!!!!!!!!!

Under Despotism, you have a 2 food per tile limit, so irrigation doesn't help ****! (unless you do not have grassland). Irrigation helps on floodplains, but they are to be avoided because they lack production.

What to do: check your town every turn. Make sure it uses tiles with 2 food, 1 prod, then use the worker to build mines and roads. If you have bonus resources, try them if they are better. Do no let the city choose the tiles it uses.

Build queue as outlined by andrew. Then, build more Warriors/spearmen and settlers, always timing them so they settlers are done at the same turn as the town goes to size 3.

 

[Masquerouge]

I play with sedentary barbarians, and non-expansionnist civs. So my queue is

Warrior, warrior, both of them go exploring
Then usually it will takes 10 turns both for my city to reach size 3 and for this same city to produce a settler, so baaam, a settler
then a defensive unit for my city (warrior or spearman)
then settler again

and after that it depends on a lot of factors. So I don't like queues too much...

 

[Klasanov]

What I usually do is I make a rush towards Monarhy, build roads and irrigation. I start my city improvement for the logn run, when I get monarchy. There are usually plains or grasslands with shields so production usually isn't a problem.

I first build 1 warrior, then a settler, then a worker, then I just work on expanding as fast as I could. My current game on Warlod I didn't do that fast, although with three other civs. on my continent that didn't help much. Although I had a bit of an advantage in land after wiping India off the map (what I did was distract them by attacking them early game then went for iron resources up in the peninsula they were on. Made peace, built samurai when I could, then finished them off. Now I'm working on the Germans, which isn't going so well (I'm still not used to dealing with equally powerful foes and ones who can culture flip. They seem to be winning the culture war too. Apparently, burning a city doesn't destroy the culture it built up).

Also, practice. It took me a few games to get my own sense of settler diarrhea to keep up with the A.I.

Never stop expanding until you can't anymore. If it looks like you can stop, don't. The more land, the more cities, the better.

 

[philippe]

i do 1)warrior
2)archer
3)settler
3)spearman
5)WORKER
do always a worker or else you will find youself behind in production

 

[col]

Follow Billchin's advice and build your first couple of cities very close together - within 2 squares. You can always abandon one later.

 

[zeeter]

Workers can't be underestimated. I create scores of them. Any time my cities are maxed out with population and production I build workers. Usually, before aqueducts I am building a worker every other time. With more workers, more roads can be built which means more $. If you build enough you can always set them all to "a" and not worry about them. Sometimes they mess up, but when there are so many it really doesn't matter.

 

[Maple]

Originally posted by zeeter
Workers can't be underestimated. I create scores of them. Any time my cities are maxed out with population and production I build workers. Usually, before aqueducts I am building a worker every other time. With more workers, more roads can be built which means more $. If you build enough you can always set them all to "a" and not worry about them. Sometimes they mess up, but when there are so many it really doesn't matter.

That's a great strategy. When your cities are maxed out, build workers so that they can continue to grow. Use the workers to improve land, and when the city's max limit is raised then have the workers join city. Often I will have dozens of size 11 cities right before I discover Sanitation, and then right after I start building hospitals the cities are rush-grown to size 18-24.

A nice bonus of this is having well improved land.



As for build lists, I use philippe's plan.

 

[zeeter]

Originally posted by Maple

A nice bonus of this is having well improved land.

I agree. Land improvement takes a while, but dedication to it will dramatically improve your situation. I may get behind a bit early, and therefore be forced to concentrate on Military. After a while of dedicated terraforming though I am able to max out and get techs every four to six turns.

A benefit for me is that I play the Romans. With the Romans I am two techs away from my unique unit; Bronze Working and Iron Working. After I achieve Iron Working and assuming that there is an iron deposit nearby I can concentrate on things other than Military. The Legions are can hold their own against anything up until musket men are introduced.