Total Civ3 Newbie- Where to start?!

[Mt.Everest]

Hello All,

First let me apologize if Im posting in the wrong spot, or if this is an annoying question. I also know this is not the Mac area, but I dont think this post matters if its in Mac forums or not. Im a regular in many forums (audio) and I know how annoying newbie postings can be bothersome or repetitive BUT, here goes anyway:

I have owned Civ3 (for Mac) for a few years now, and played it a few times, but never fully got into it further than Chieftan Level-- conquering everyone or winning by default in 2050A.D., while barely even being into the modern age or fighting with anything better than an Infantry. Pathetic, I know, but bear with me here. I just tried playing on Regent level, and it was a total joke. By 490AD I had barely accomplished anything compared to the AI civs, and had barbarians up my a** notstop.

SO, what I am wondering is if there is a place, or a thread, or someway I can get a basic strategy guide for how to start to play like all of you real players, beyond the how-to definitions in the manual. Ive read it a few times but no matter how well I think im doing, Im always wayy behind.
There is so much info on this website and just too much too sort thru myself. You guys probably already know where to point me.

Also, is it even worth it on a Mac? I know that the Mac support is way behind and that i cant get Conquests or any new stuff for it. Is it so behind that its not even worth playing on a Mac? I DID install the latest 1.29 patch.

Anyway, do you think its possible to help me or is it a lost cause for somone who has about 10-15 hours a week to play? I really wanna get into the game again. Some obvious Do's and Don'ts would be great for the first 20 turns or when Im gettin started. Obviously, I dont expect you guys to type out a book for me, but a link to something like "Newbie Basics: How to not be a pathetic civilization in 10 easy steps!" would be grand. heh.

thanks in advance!
MT

P.s. I also feel like the time it takes me to play is way too long. Probably about 10-15 hours per game on Chieftan level. What is average game time for you guys on a medium difficulty setting?

 

[Tomoyo]

My average time is about 15 hours for a casual game, up to 50 for a competitive game.

Here are some good articles to help you along. Happy civving!

 

[Whomp]

Go to the SG forums and learn even more. There are some awesome players there.

 

[Tomoyo]

P.S. Since you will inevitably ask where the SG forum is... here.

 

[Whomp]

I'm such an idiot. Thanks T.
Your outfit today is...how should I say...quite becoming.
Now move along with some alacrity.

 

[vmxa]

If you stuck with it this long, I would say it is worth learning how to do better. Don't worry about C3C as Civ4 will out down the road and probably will play on the Mac.

If chief was ok and Regent is not working out, why not master Warlord. Regent is where the AI is on an even start with the human. Chief is where the human gets a better deal than the AI, so it is easy to learn.

If all you want to do is to get better and beat the next level, I would take baby steps. If that works out, then take bigger steps. By that I mean, all you need to learn is to use workers better and to expand quickly and to not build structures until they are useful.

IOW no need to build that lib in a size 2 town right now, better to make a worker. Try to have about 1.5 workers per city. Try to improve tiles that are being worked first and get roads to all towns asap. Do not work mountains in the ancient age, unless it has a lux or a resource. Hold off on hills unless they have those things or until all the other tiles have been improved. Try to not send workers back and forth.

Note when you are weak compared to others and if so build more troops. Make contacts with all civs as soon as you can. That is enough to deal with, until you have it learned.

Good luck.

 

[Tomoyo]

I'm such an idiot. Thanks T.
Your outfit today is...how should I say...quite becoming.
Now move along with some alacrity.

You recycled that word...

But I had to look it up to find out what it meant.

 

[SJ Frank]

Going one step deeper into the SG forum, here are I think 2 of the best Training Day threads for new players to read:

Sirian's Training Day Thread, one of the first of its kind, and the Shadow Thread, which contains all the critiques.

GK2 The Training Day Experiment. Good luck reading through all 130 pages of it , but it's worth it though.

 

[Mt.Everest]

I didnt think Id get so many replies so quickly. thanks ppl. Though it does seem that alot of the guides have to with expanded PC versions, but I assume the basics are still applicable. Wow, alot of reading tho. I think Im remembering why I couldnt keep up in the first place. Too much damn time required for a 30yr old! Im trying tho....

thanks
MT

 

[Whomp]

T--What did you expect from me today?
I guess I should have used a new one like.. how about celerity?

Mt. Everest--30? phft! More importantly welcome

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't know what celerity means, but I'll guess "quickness"...

I actually expected you to act like the Admiral... I'm just doing Baeda.

 

[Mt.Everest]

Been trying to read, absorb, & learn.

A few basic basic questions tho:

1. Considering the point I am at, what initial settings should I start with? i.e., How many opposing Civs, Barbarian selection, size, temp, age, etc of world.

2. What Civ to start with?

3. The top priorities in the first 10 moves or so, including what to study, what percentage to devote to science/happiness, and how close should my cities be.

4. Is there a publication thats worth purchasing?

Alot of those training thread are based on the fact that one would be playing along. Its hard to get info out of them, by just reading them it seems..

thanks
MT

 

[Tomoyo]

1. Max opposing civs, barbarians should not be very high, but not "no barbarians" either. All others default are good.

2. Persia and Egypt are good for beginners. Doesn't really, matter, actually.

3. Expanding, which means you need more food, which means you need Pottery for Granaries. Don't use the lux slider unless it saves you from using specialists. I like a cxxxc spacing, but I recommend that or closer.

4. No.

I think the articles are easy to understand... Especially while not playing civ.

 

[Pentium]

Celerity (or celeritas, i think it's latin) is "c" in the "E=mc^2" formula, if it helps...

 

[Whomp]

I don't think this is the most critical. I would say standard.
2. I think as far as traits go a lot depends on your victory condition you'd like to achieve. With that said a good civ to start with would be the Iroquois IMO because of their ag trait as early expansion is the most critical, great UU with mounted warrior and commerical for the income.
3. If you don't have pottery then pottery. If your expansionist pop huts with scouts. I would focus on getting the first city to grow as fast as possible with food. cxxxc but maybe closer the more corrupt the city.
4. You get it ALL right here. This is THE best set of all the publications you'd ever need.

In the SG's they have saves attached. Shadow the saves and see how your game differed from what they posted. Stick with a standard monarch game (no variant games) and see what they did different especially the first 50 turns or so. This is THE most important part of the game. Read some of the training games like this one. The trainers were awesome!

The 0% science training game .

 

[Rik Meleet]

Been trying to read, absorb, & learn.

A few basic basic questions tho:

1. Considering the point I am at, what initial settings should I start with? i.e., How many opposing Civs, Barbarian selection, size, temp, age, etc of world.

size,temp,age: the AI has terrible difficulty with cold starts with no close good lands. Also Naval invasions; the AI sucks at them. That would mean an archipelago low temp map. Barbs should be low, but not "none". I do advise to skip Chieftan level as it teaches "bad habits". Warlord might be a good level to start on.

2. What Civ to start with?

Egypt and Persia are easy civs to start with due to their good -learning- traits and early good unique units.

3. The top priorities in the first 10 moves or so, including what to study, what percentage to devote to science/happiness, and how close should my cities be.

Rules of thumb:
- Settle on the spot; unless you have a good reason not to. Good reasons are a cow or wheat outside your borders or a river very close.
- Pottery (granaries) is very important. It allows you to build essential settlers and workers, without loosing many turns rebuilding your population. "Food = power".
- Cities close together (2 or 3 tiles) have a lot of benefits. Low corruption and units can move from cities within 1 turn (useful for happyness control and defense), while the negative part (not having access to 21 tiles) is minor as that only is an issue once you have hospitals.
- Go either 100% science, lowering it to increase luxuries when needed, is a good strategy. Every tech you have that a neighbouring civ doesn't, can be traded. Money is useless in the beginning as you can't use it to rush things, can't build embassies, can't upgrade units. It only gets demanded away by the AI.
An alternative is 0% research, gambling for getting techs from huts. It is usually a bad strategy in the first 10 turns.

4. Is there a publication thats worth purchasing?

Everything in the Academy is worth publishing

Alot of those training thread are based on the fact that one would be playing along. Its hard to get info out of them, by just reading them it seems..

thanks
MT

Yes, I give you that, but it always has the first moves and the slider settings and the city placements so it can be very useful to you.

BTW if you have trouble with the first turns; you can always upload saved games so experienced players can look at them and give you personal advice on where you can improve your playing.

Good luck and enjoy !

 

[Rohili]

In case you are stuck on the newbie addiction to wonders and improvements, using Babylon can offset a lot of that. I won my Regent game by holing myself up and building wonders with them in the first two ages, then attacking them with my superior units (due to tech lead) in the industrial and modern ages.

 

[Mt.Everest]

Thank you, you guys are great! So helpful...

I realized one my biggest problems was that I was spacing cities too far apart. I was under the assumption that once any given city expanded its borders as they grew, you wanted to plan for that so they would never be overlapping borders. Then Id spend so much time getting to and from them as a cause of them being too far apart. Duh. Anyway, whats the most acceptable overlap?

And I assume I should just stay away from all Wonders for a while. But isnt that first one, The Pyramids, very important cuz of the Granaries in each city?

Again, thanks for giving me the time of your replies.
MT

 

[Zavior]

Pyramids are good, but almost impossible to get in higher levels. I'd advice you to stay away from all of them. I like to build tight, with overlap, yes. Most acceptable overlap? Depends on many things I'd say

 

[HMonster]

I must admit to being the same as MT, in that i look to build my cities with no overlap, working out the 2up 1 across shape before building. Old Civ II habits die hard...

If i can add a questio here, why is it that cities over 12 are frowned upon here? Im guessing that here in Civ III land pollution is more of a problem, in that it takes longer to clean up?