smitty6555
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2009
- Messages
- 3
I have been playing vanilla Civ3 for a few years. I finally decided that the best way to feel that I had "completed" the game was to beat it on the hardest realistic scenario that I could come up with. So I started trying to have a domination or conquest victory on Diety difficulty on a Huge pangea map. After about 16 tries, I have finally been successful and I wanted to share what I have learned.
How many computers? I like to play against 7. If you do too few, then you won't be able to trade as well or play them agaist eachother. If you pick too many, then they will expand faster than you and you won't get much land. With 7 on a huge map, they usually stop expanding and give me enough space to make a country about as large as any of theirs if I expand fast enough.
Which civ to pick? I play as France. Their strengths (industrious and commercial) seem well suited to having a large country with lots of cities. If you hope to take over the whole world, you will need low corruption/waste and lots of efficient workers. Also, their starting techs offer a good strategy to keep up with technology in the ancient era.
Keeping up with technology. There are other articles with good general strategies. I go through most of the game with 0 or 10% of my money going to science. I spend the first 40 turns getting mathmatics. I usually get it a little before the computer players. I like trying to wait until I see that someone I know has communications with lots of the other civs. The goal is to use mathmatics to gain communications with all the other civs and pick up a few techs. Then I research the tech that gives you markets (forgot what it is called) over 40 turns. I trade it and a little money to get all of the techs that anybody has, to get all of their territory maps, and to get most of their money. This sets you up well to move into the second era. From here, things vary, but I usually try to research the least popular techs over 40 turns and then use the extra cash to buy the techs that I want.
How to keep up with expansion. For the first several thousand years, I build nothing but warriors/spearmen and settlers. I spread out my cities so that there is no more than 2 spaces between the culture borders so that the computer won't build cities in between. This puts you way behind in culture and military. You will be for a long time. Just pay off all of the threats and don't build your cities too close to theirs. Try to get a forbidden palace up quickly. You can pay to hurray a courthouse in the FP city to make things go faster. It will definitely be worth the 200 or so gold to rush it.
If you play your cards right, you will end up with a large country against 5 or 6 opponents by around 1000 AD. You should be almost caught up in technology. You should build up all of your city improvements before military. You will finally get to do some fighting starting with infantry and artillary (maybe as early as cavalry). Whenever you start a war with another country, pay to have as many other countries as possible go to war with them too. This way they won't all gang up on you. To be efficient against a larger enemy country, use artillary efficiently. With enough artillary, you will hardly ever loose a troop.
Well, 'nough said. Don't get discouraged. After all, it took me 16 tries. Have fun.
How many computers? I like to play against 7. If you do too few, then you won't be able to trade as well or play them agaist eachother. If you pick too many, then they will expand faster than you and you won't get much land. With 7 on a huge map, they usually stop expanding and give me enough space to make a country about as large as any of theirs if I expand fast enough.
Which civ to pick? I play as France. Their strengths (industrious and commercial) seem well suited to having a large country with lots of cities. If you hope to take over the whole world, you will need low corruption/waste and lots of efficient workers. Also, their starting techs offer a good strategy to keep up with technology in the ancient era.
Keeping up with technology. There are other articles with good general strategies. I go through most of the game with 0 or 10% of my money going to science. I spend the first 40 turns getting mathmatics. I usually get it a little before the computer players. I like trying to wait until I see that someone I know has communications with lots of the other civs. The goal is to use mathmatics to gain communications with all the other civs and pick up a few techs. Then I research the tech that gives you markets (forgot what it is called) over 40 turns. I trade it and a little money to get all of the techs that anybody has, to get all of their territory maps, and to get most of their money. This sets you up well to move into the second era. From here, things vary, but I usually try to research the least popular techs over 40 turns and then use the extra cash to buy the techs that I want.
How to keep up with expansion. For the first several thousand years, I build nothing but warriors/spearmen and settlers. I spread out my cities so that there is no more than 2 spaces between the culture borders so that the computer won't build cities in between. This puts you way behind in culture and military. You will be for a long time. Just pay off all of the threats and don't build your cities too close to theirs. Try to get a forbidden palace up quickly. You can pay to hurray a courthouse in the FP city to make things go faster. It will definitely be worth the 200 or so gold to rush it.
If you play your cards right, you will end up with a large country against 5 or 6 opponents by around 1000 AD. You should be almost caught up in technology. You should build up all of your city improvements before military. You will finally get to do some fighting starting with infantry and artillary (maybe as early as cavalry). Whenever you start a war with another country, pay to have as many other countries as possible go to war with them too. This way they won't all gang up on you. To be efficient against a larger enemy country, use artillary efficiently. With enough artillary, you will hardly ever loose a troop.
Well, 'nough said. Don't get discouraged. After all, it took me 16 tries. Have fun.
