Starting out on Regeant (lvl3)

[mr_lewington]

I've decided that my civ3 skills deserve to be tested so i have moved up a level in difficulty. Currently, I'm playing as Germany on a huge map, on a slightly cramped island (though i think the map is archpelagio) with Iron and Horses. However, i am having some problems, as expected.
The biggest 1's are:
Happiness
Money (so far I'm about -2 to +6, its varying)
Science (I'm about 15 turns behind, with 80% slider)

Any comments, suggestions and constructive criticsm would be great

 

[turtlegladiator]

Build up your army. A ton of Archers or swordsmen, if you're in the Ancient Ages. You can maybe turn science down a bit. Go to war with a nearby civ. Raze / capture their cities, depending on what you want. When you can go to peace with them, take all of their techs.

This solves your 3 problems:
Happiness - by turning down science a bit, you can increase lux slider
Money - you turn down science a bit, and you gain more money.
Science - you extort them for techs.

You also mentioned that your island was a little "cramped". Guess you'll just have to sfind room for your settlers in the AI's land..

posting a save will let us see your situation clearer.

 

[MAS]

Your problems are 100% empire-management related.

Set a goal, go for it. Build only with return of investment in mind. Build things with the highest and fastest ROI first. Decide your goals ahead, don't play on a turn by turn basis.
If you plan to conquer, build up unit, until the conquest you planned is done. Don't build temples first.
If you plan to go peaceful, don't amass units. If you do amass units, use them. Keeping X amount of units in every town is a complete waste. (but do build a few units to keep the AI at bay)

Unless you are playing by some variant rule, the regular way to win is to gain power fast. SO expand, expand, expand. The larger your empire, the more (lux) resources you will generally own, and the more absolute amount of commerce your empire generates each turn. (60% of 200 commerce is more than 100% of 100 commerce, so if you have a bigger empire you can afford to spend more commerce on happiness and still generate more science beakers per turn as well)

Learn to trade, research up the tech tree (example: writing >CoL >philosophy >republic , or: Mysticism >pollytism >monarchy ) then trade your more expansive tech for multiple cheaper tech you skipped. For this purpose, make a point of getting contact with as many civ as possible as early as possible.

Be efficient:
Specialize your cities, only a city that is pumping workers or settlers need a granary. Only cities that are pumping military land units need a barracks.
Cities that you set up for artillery type units (catapults-canons-artillery) don't need barracks.
If you build your cities close enough together then you don't need to expand culture everywhere to reach all tiles. If you try to place cities next to a river or lake, then they don't need to build an aquaduct to grow beyond size 6.

 

[Simak]

When I first started playing, I had the same problem. Then I saw screen shots here. I was amazed at how ugly peoples maps looked. Roads all over the place twisting this way and that instead of directly connecting two cities. Then I realized, people were doing this because every roaded tile produces an extra commerce. When the golden age hits, each of these once Zero commerce tiles is now producing 2 commerce for the next 20 turns. Sure, it looks ugly and is impractical in terms of real life. But, this is a game.....and I can take ugly for improved playing skills.

When I start a new game, my first goal is to get to 18-22 cities, at the same time as pumping out 10-15 workers. Once you get all those cities and the workers to road all those tiles, the commerce will start pouring in. And with commerce, more commerce than the AI, you can easily win the tech race.

I partly agree that the granary usually isn't necessary.........in the early game. But, once a city gets to pop 7, that granary really helps. So, think of building granaries when your cities population gets around 6. Otherwise, as was stated earlier, granaries are a waste.

Another thing is......get mapping soon and explore. Then, trade you world map to AI civs for $$$$$$$$$. You'll be surprised at how much they will pay to get a map.

 

[mr_lewington]

Ok, here is the save if you want to try it out turtlegladiator, and thxs for helping me out

 

[The Professor]

I can't look at the save (I'm supposedly working.) So I have a couple questions: What government are you in? And, how many cities do you have?

 

[mr_lewington]

Despotism and 8 cities

 

[Theov]

Without looking at the save (I'm working), but I read hte discription: you probably need more workers.
At the start of the game, you need 3 things: wariors (or anything cheap), workers and settlers.
Any time a city grows to 2 pop, on that turn make either a worker or a warior, and if you made a warior you need to make a settler when the town grows to 3. Do this untill you can not grow further. (the size of your island, or untill your borders are at the enemies' border)
.
Then, you can let your babies grow and let the workers road the tiles for commerce and growth.
If your island is busy and you're done growing: go to war to expand.
At the start you should never stop expanding untill you got ~20 cities and your close enemies aren't a thread anymore.

 

[Tone]

I just tried to open the save and I couldn't. Not patched to 1.22? If not I suggest that you do that so that before your next game.

I did manage to use Dianthus' CRpSuite to look at some aspects of the save though and so I can see that it is a pretty tough start. For a first game on this level this is not going to be easy. No rivers, a large proportion of mountains and a small homeland does not help you expand.

Units: 13 spears for 8 cities but just 4 workers??? Read the posts above about developing tiles and units. You are going to conquer nobody with spears! If conquest is going to be your aim, build swords (is that iron connected?) and if you are not going to be aggressive, a smaller number of quality units. You have three boats, which is not bad but you really need more. Contact is going to be your way up the tech tree. (More contacts make known techs cheaper.)

However you may want to try another game. You've been given a poor starting position and I suspect that your rivals have been dealt a much more powerful area to grow, which is fine for someone that has experience at this level but is not going to be suitable for someone in their first regent game. The Mongols have 23 cities and India have 22 which makes your 8 cities look pretty meagre.

Just remember to get the patch first.

 

[mr_lewington]

1st. Thanks for the adviece 2nd, I cant patch up, i really dont know y but about 90% of the files are deleted, thus making me unable to play, and 3rd, 22 cities? wow...

 

[againsttheflow]

Try d'loading the patch again. When I tried saving the patch on a disk for installing on another comp it got corrupted. Twice.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Then you should save a few files such as the .HOF file and maybe your .ini file somewhere else and reinstall the game. Your saves would be useless anyway, so they wouldn't need backed up. Once you reinstall, the patch should "take".

 

[mr_lewington]

ive tried different downloaders: no go. I have a hunch its all the scenarios, ill probable just copy the folder sometime later though. wats so good about 1.22 (ive installed in b4, just cant remember whats new)

 

[TheOverseer714]

Well, I believe that they patched alot of things in the final version, eliminated the Radio tech, and changed a few other things. The big thing is, no one can open your files to help you if you aren't patched, and you can't play any of the fun files such as old COTMs, etc. Not critical, but nice to be fully updated.

 

[mr_lewington]

good news and bad news.

Good news: I patched to 1.22
Bad news: I had to clear out all of Conquests to do so. Including saves, so the save in question is no longer existant.

 

[MAS]

You could have shown some screenshots. But oh well...

I'm sure you'll do better next game.

 

[darski]

Is your avatar from "Fur Fighters"?

 

[TheOverseer714]

Just start some new ones, and then we'll be able to download your saves, if you need help. Losing your old saves is a pain (been there, done that!), but being fully patched allows you to download lots of stuff off of this forum. You might even want to surf the SG's forum and play along with some of the games there or even join in. Welcome to CFC ver 1.22!

 

[mr_lewington]

Well i have officially given up on The Republic. I try and go republic= -18 gpt.I revolt, go Monarchy, +15 gpt. Is it because I'm too much of a warmonger?

 

[Aabraxan]

Probably not. However, at 8 cities (that's the last number I see in this thread), your empire probably just isn't ready.