Strategy Guide: Mega REX starting with agricultural Civs

[Schalke 04]

Article information
- This article is a mixture of building-style (in terms of REX) and (mid early) warmongering
- It's nothing new, but a compilation of different articles and concepts (ie "magic triangle", REX, settler factories, massive upgrade rush, Ision's Maya revision, republic slingshot)
- Therefore I imply that the reader has knowledge of these concepts and the basics of C3C
- The strategy fits perfectly up to emperor (my comfort level). I don't know how it suits higher levels, but with little adjustments it
may be still good
- All is done with C3C v1.22 of course
- Have a look at the screenshot to understand the "magic triangle"


CIV Traits
- must be agricultural (for +1 food)
- works best with industrious (for quicker terrain improvement due to fast settling) (Maya, other non industiral-tribes are possible
though, eg Iroquois / Celts)


Terrain requirements (close to your capital, in range of ~5 tiles)
- normally a non archipelago map - the bigger the better
- fresh water
- 2 food bonus (wheat or cattle)
- at least 3 or 4 bg
- at least 1 forest
- enough room to expand


Overall Strategy
- establish your "magic triangle" cities (Look at the screenshot!)

- settle all good spots with the other settler, improve all the tiles, and guard your cities with one warrior each
- research for the republic slingshot and trade for military techs
- revolt, stop research and accumulate cash
- trade for missing techs with your monopoly techs (writing, code of laws, philosophy, republic) or "capture" them later
- massive uprading of your units (ie warriors to swordsmen)
- once the continent (or a huge portion of pangea) is cleared you can concentrate on infrastructure without a threat
- build up your empire and concentrate on the needs for your whished VC
- Due to the ongoing worker factory and possible slaves you may go for Cracker's woodplanting strategy when discovered engineering to rush Mid-MA buildings
- You may disband the worker factory once enough worker were being produced for a more productive capital core


Science Slider
- research at the max for government tech: eg beeline alphabet - writing - code of laws - philosophy - republic slingshot
- trade for military tech: warrior code (Mayan UU) - bronze working (Spearman) - iron working (iron / Celts UU) - the wheel (horses / Iroquois UU)
- high lux till MP - lux spending won't hurt as empire grows, because having more cities generally means better income and research


Military
- two capital warriors do map-clearing and contacts, one remains for defense / MP
- continued producing of vet warriors in factory
- when the military factory reaches 7spt a switch to spearman may be reasonable if enough warriors for upgrading are at hand
- after researching republic: science slider to zero to accumulate cash
- upgrade warriors to swordsmen and go whacking
- if no iron available look for horses


Empire
- settler pairs with warrior from the two factories will go settling on good spots every four turns (after establishing the "magic triangle")
- first: other cites will produce a worker first, or go directly to a barracks; after that they produce military
- later: when currency / literature / construction available: build marketplace / library / aquaeduct (whatever is most important)
- first three cities will contribute to the growth of the empire, while the rest can concentrate on infrastructure / military
- incoming workers will improve all of the empire's terrain
- when terrain is fully improved, all workers merge into the cities up to size 12 or whatever is reasonable


Explanations / adjustments
- mined grassland can be substituted with irrigated plains or irrigated desert (if agricultural)
- irrigated wheat can be substituted with irrigated cattle, which makes one more spt
- mbg = mined bonus grassland - fpt = food per turn - spt = shields per turn
- for more detailed information regarding settler factories please read the appropriate threads
- 4-turner for settlers / 2-turner for worker are optimal, however terrain may force to go for 6-turner / 3-turner
- more combinations for a factory are possible. I tried to suggest terrain situations with the minimum number of bg/forests.
- Worker/Warrior-factories are calculated with 6spt, allowing 1spt lost to corruption (indicated in brackets)
- forests in the factory cities have two purposes: continuing shield bonus when growing or a one time bonus shield to rush a builing
- spare forests will contribute 2 shields to the city when it grows while having the city governor on emphasize shields
- Due to the agricultural trait it is unlikely to establish a 6-turn-settler factory when settled on fresh water
(with food bonus = 4 turner, if not = no factory) --> "all or nothing"
- Military strategy depends on iron due to the massive warrior build-up. However, it is possible to switch to Horses
or Archer if resources are visible early on (trade for military techs!)
- strategy works best if there is enough room to expand while avoiding very early wars
- as it is just a guide, you always have to adjust your strategy to the given situation
- Optimal settings: Maya (at least agricultural), needed terrain, room to expand, less aggressive Civs,
no AA (defensive) UU for opponent Civs
- Overlap with your capital (one-sided ICS) is fine, when it means for the worker factory to have access to fresh water and to another food bonus


Advantages
- strong UU with the Iroquois and Celts (but resource depending)
- making use of the three (agricultural) Civs that are commonly considered as one of the "best" Civs in this game (Maya, Iroquois, Celts)
- possible to avoid early despotic GA, because of the late AA warmongering after republic (or monarchy)
- allows to use the very strong AA UUs (MW/GS) in sheer numbers at an appropiate time (before feudalism)
- REX of your empire, and having most of your cities close to size 12 at the beginning of MA
- despite the early high number of cities, they will have MP / defense and improved terrain generally, which leads to a high powergraph
- requirements are not utopistic, however you need some luck or good strategical adjustments


Disadvantages
- weak UU with the Mayas, no need for slaves
- danger of despotic GA, but still manageable with a very small portion of luck
- needed terrain for your main core must be matched
- susceptible to raging barbs and aggressive Civs, especially in the first turns till your warrior factory is established
- maybe too peaceful for AW games and highest difficulty levels? (I don't know)


Last comment
What distincts a good CIV player from a bad one?
1. Knowing many of the strategies explained in this forum
2. Knowing HOW to implement all these tricks in the current game

After reading a lot in this forum I would state that I am doing very well in the first point.
However, I recognised that theory and practice is absolutely different and need a lot of skills and experience which I don't have (yet).

This perfectly suits to this article. Therefore the last thing I want to say is: have fun, practice and whack the hell out of the AI

Post Scriptum:
Many players may consider this article as repetitive. It surely is, as all the things were written down in seperate articles.
However I wanted to write down a starting guide for myself. I thought it might be useful for some players and would at least
prove that the CIV III community is still alive

PPS: Any comments / critics are greatly appreciated

 

[vmxa]

I admire the effort, maybe you could get it moved to the strategy forum, where it would remain on the current page for a lot longer than here.

 

[Spoonwood]

I like seeing words in bold to emphasize ideas. However, I think you *overdid* that here. I don't think many Sid players would do this. They usually play archipelago, and the AI can get to pikes soon enough that you'd have to do another upgrade to medieval infantry *and* get Feudalism. When do the wars start? On Deity the AIs can often reach the middle ages before or around 1000 BC. So, maybe it'll work there, maybe not. The mass upgrade really relies on iron. Also, on Deity and to a lesser extent Demi-God I think, getting the Republic slingshot with the Maya and the Celts and other non Alphabetic tribes certainly doesn't work as a given, when you can actually do such.

I use Photobucket to place my screenshots into the thread.

What distincts a good CIV player from a bad one?
1. Knowing many of the strategies explained in this forum
2. Knowing HOW to implement all these tricks in the current game

I arrogantly, and of course, correctly, think many people would consider me a "good" player... whatever that means. Other than settler and worker factories, I haven't implemented many of the strategies in this thread... if that's what you meant.

making use of the three (agricultural) Civs that are commonly considered as one of the "best" Civs in this game (Maya, Iroquois, Celts)

In many (though not all) situations for a 20k game, I'll take a Seafaring, Commercial, Expansionist, or Scientific tribe over the Celts. So, they certainly end up one of the "worst" tribes. I'll probably take any scientific or religious tribe over the Maya or the Iroquois for many 100k games... including Spain and Arabia on an archipelago map with no barbarians over the Maya or the Iroquois. So, both the Maya and the Iroquois don't fare too well. For most fast research games, I'll probably take any scientific tribe over these three also. So, again, they don't fare too well. Of course, these tribes do play well for other situations... point is there exists no "best" tribe or tribes even with the word "best" in quotes... there exists too much variety to this game for a "best" tribe, since some tribes excel in some ways for some map types at some levels, while others excel at other map types and levels. This applies even to Portugal (which also implies the Hittites), as I think I've now demonstrated.

Overall an interesting article and I feel glad you posted it.

 

[Elear]

This is a good compilation. Great job.

I think the important thing to remember is that no set of strategies is universally applicable, and I'm sure Schalke realizes it too.

So, yes, Spoonwood, I agree with some of your comments, but that's just the nature of any piece of advice; there will be exceptions and differences based on personal preferences.

As just one specific example:

if no iron available look for horses

For many civs this is good advice yet I think many of us would say the reverse: "if no horses look for iron". Which is right? Well, it depends.

-Elear

 

[Schalke 04]

I like seeing words in bold to emphasize ideas. However, I think you *overdid* that here.

After re-reading the article (for several times ) I see your point. However I would not be able to remove a bold passage for a good reason as I think I highlighted the most important parts. But I have to agree that it looks very black overall...

I don't think many Sid players would do this. They usually play archipelago, and the AI can get to pikes soon enough that you'd have to do another upgrade to medieval infantry *and* get Feudalism. When do the wars start? On Deity the AIs can often reach the middle ages before or around 1000 BC. So, maybe it'll work there, maybe not. The mass upgrade really relies on iron. Also, on Deity and to a lesser extent Demi-God I think, getting the Republic slingshot with the Maya and the Celts and other non Alphabetic tribes certainly doesn't work as a given, when you can actually do such.

I think this is a good strategy at least for emperor. Regarding the higher levels I have no idea. I have managed to beat demi-god and SID, but only at the COTM conquest save, with an extra settler and an archipelago map...

Yor are right, iron is a game breaker here.

At emperor the slingshot should work. At diety? No idea! Maybe it's possible to research philosophy first and try to trade for COL during the interturn? Btw: republic is more of a personal preference. The monarchy slingshot is viable as well, but I don't know if it is possibe at >emperor, too.

I arrogantly, and of course, correctly, think many people would consider me a "good" player... whatever that means. Other than settler and worker factories, I haven't implemented many of the strategies in this thread... if that's what you meant.

I meant it more generally. There are way too much good strategies in this game to name one as compulsory. Thats what I was trying to define as a "good player" (which you certainly are). He can win with several strategies.

In many (though not all) situations for a 20k game, I'll take a Seafaring, Commercial, Expansionist, or Scientific tribe over the Celts. So, they certainly end up one of the "worst" tribes. I'll probably take any scientific or religious tribe over the Maya or the Iroquois for many 100k games... including Spain and Arabia on an archipelago map with no barbarians over the Maya or the Iroquois. So, both the Maya and the Iroquois don't fare too well. For most fast research games, I'll probably take any scientific tribe over these three also. So, again, they don't fare too well. Of course, these tribes do play well for other situations... point is there exists no "best" tribe or tribes even with the word "best" in quotes... there exists too much variety to this game for a "best" tribe, since some tribes excel in some ways for some map types at some levels, while others excel at other map types and levels. This applies even to Portugal (which also implies the Hittites), as I think I've now demonstrated.

You are talking about a very special condition which I did not intend to cover.

Overall an interesting article and I feel glad you posted it.

greatly appreciated

 

[Schalke 04]

This is a good compilation. Great job.

I think the important thing to remember is that no set of strategies is universally applicable, and I'm sure Schalke realizes it too.

Thank you too!

I am kind of honoured that you all discuss this strategy if it is viable for demi-god games or higher.

My initial intent was to write a starting guide for myself. Afterwards, I just thought I could try to contribute my part to this great community which served me so well.

I am fully aware that there is no strategy which always will be the best. But I think my attempt is a good starting point for players who want to master monarch/emperor under the mentioned circumstances and want to improve their skills looking at a more MM-ing and City-specialising perspective.

 

[Schalke 04]

I admire the effort, maybe you could get it moved to the strategy forum, where it would remain on the current page for a lot longer than here.

When the community / moderators share the same point of view, I would not complain.

 

[dusters]

Congratualations on the huge effort Schalke!
I want to emphasize that CivIII is one game to emperor, but completely different game on demi-god, deity and Sid. So what's good for emperor, won't work in Sid and what works in Sid might be an overkill for emperor.

 

[Boss Tweed]

CIV Traits
- must be agricultural (for +1 food)
- works best with industrious (for quicker terrain improvement due to fast settling) (Maya, other non industiral-tribes are possible
though, eg Iroquois / Celts)

I found this very englightening, but perhaps you could expound upon the traits a bit more.
I believe that any religious or commercial civ would work nicely too, incorporating the Iroquois and Celts

 

[Kulko]

Well as you point out, it is a compilation of various proven strategies and it definitely works fine, even on Deity.

It even works so fine that I would say that you put in too many prerequisites. You can do this with any civ on any normal map, as long as you find enough food boni for a decent Settler Factory.

Therefore it might be more efficient to choose your traits to fit your VC instead of always sticking to the Maya.

OTOH it handles only the first 30 turns in any detail and leaves a lot of optimisation questions (FP, Trading policies, City Placement etc.) on the sides. This is not mentioned to belittle the effort, but only to show, that you should continue improving on this once you have managed the basics.

 

[Optional]

Hm, I think a couple of things are often getting mixed in these forums, namely strategy gets mixed up with creating ideal game conditions.
I don't want to blame Schalke 04 for this, because it has probably more to do with the Hall of Fame culture, where focus on a high score and early finish date means a pretty specific approach is required, but for my taste I'm seeing too many references to the agricultural trait, the 4-turn settler factory and the republic slingshot in these forums.
My issue is that you're narrowing down the game that way, and this article does the same thing. It sums up ideal conditions for a high scoring game, not much more than that.
With so much emphasis on agricultural, +5 food, republic slingshot etc., it almost seems like you would be a bad player if for example you would play the Germans from some crappy start position without extra food.
I hope that most players that read this article will realize that only one way of playing the game is described here, and that you can have a nice game of civ with any tribe and from almost any sort of start.

Also I would say that, if I was a starting player that didn't have a good grasp yet of the concepts mentioned in this article, than I wouldn't be any wiser after reading it. I mean, if I didn't know how a 4-turn settler factory worked, then this article wouldn't help me. And if I already knew, then I didn't need this article to tell me that it's a strong concept..

The article is not level specific indeed, of course the republic slingshot gets more and more difficult to pull off the more you move up level, and by the time you have both a settler and worker factory I would say you would want at least two towns for military, put apart from that the basic ingredients don't change that much.

 

[Schalke 04]

I found this very englightening, but perhaps you could expound upon the traits a bit more.
I believe that any religious or commercial civ would work nicely too, incorporating the Iroquois and Celts

The agricultural trait has the advantage of +1 food when settled on fresh water, which makes settler/worker-factories easier to establish.

You are right that industrious isn't necessary, as I indicated as well.
However it supplements the agricultural trait. It is explained in Ision's Maya review
The advantage of industious is the faster worker action (+50%). With your factories ongoing, you need to make a lot of terrain improvements. For example roads to possible city sites and mines / irrigation for your new cities. With faster workers it is easier to accomplish that goal.

The religious trait isn't useful at all in most of my games as I don't build a lot of temples/cathedrals. The two turn anarchy is highly welcome of course, but it is not enough to consider it as a strong trait (A cultural VC changes that of course).

The scientific trait is more useful in my books. I like libraries and the extra tech every age gives you sometimes good odds for valuable trades, especially on higher levels. But just for the initial growth phase it is not as strong as the industrial trait for this attempt.

That does not mean that these traits are not good. Especially the UU like the Gallic Swordsman or the Mounted Warrior are great benefits.

It even works so fine that I would say that you put in too many prerequisites. You can do this with any civ on any normal map, as long as you find enough food boni for a decent Settler Factory.

Therefore it might be more efficient to choose your traits to fit your VC instead of always sticking to the Maya.

OTOH it handles only the first 30 turns in any detail and leaves a lot of optimisation questions (FP, Trading policies, City Placement etc.) on the sides. This is not mentioned to belittle the effort, but only to show, that you should continue improving on this once you have managed the basics.

You are right with your comment, Kulko. It's not meant to be a "Mayan love song", but the Mayans offer good chances to REX fast.

And REX is the only purpose of this article. VC, city and FP placing etc. are things that are not covered in here. However, the initial expansion phase is widely considered as the most important part of the game. So I thought it is worthwile to concentrate on this issue.


@ Optional:

I think it is important to highlight this part of your post:

I hope that most players that read this article will realize that only one way of playing the game is described here, and that you can have a nice game of civ with any tribe and from almost any sort of start.

Of course you can play different civs and different strategies and this is the funny part of the game. It doesn't get boring and leaves many different opportunities.

For most of the games I consider Republic slingshot, settler factories etc. as strong tactics which can improve the game's progress. This doesn't mean that you literally NEED them. And sometimes crappy starts can be interesting as well, as you have to change your known strategies completely.

You are right, that my post didn't really explained things like settler factories, for example. If one doesn't know what this means he/she has too look into the original article. I just thought it would be too much for one thread to include everything, so I just referred to these concepts in my introductive sentences.

 

[Spoonwood]

Excellent points Optional! I would probably have to re-learn a whole lot of things about civ myself if I played as Japan with a low food, low shield start.

 

[TxCraig]

The boldface 1) slows reading speed to a crawl, 2) reduces comprehension, 3) makes the strategy guide look like a ransom note. If everything is emphasized then nothing is emphasized. It looks like a great strategy guide, I just wish I could read it.

Optional, Totally agree. That is why I like the xOTMs and am ambivalent about the Hall of Fame.