What civ to use

[yurogwin]

I'm having a very difficult time deciding what my favorite civilization is. I'm trying to decide which one I like best based on their civilization strengths, but I can't decide which of the strengths are my favorite.

Agricultural - I try to avoid deserts as much as possible, so that aspect of agricultural strength doesn't impress me much, but it seems like getting one extra food for all of your cities would accelerate new cities growth significantly.

Commercial - This is one of the strengths I'm having the hardest time deciding on because I have no idea how great the effect of it is. How much extra commerce do I get in larger cities, and how much of an impact does it have on corruption?

Expansionist - I hear all the time that the expansionist strength is one of the worst, but I have seen my friend achieve enormous advantages by getting free technologies and settlers early in the game.

Industrious - This strength appeals to me because I spend a lot of time developing the land around me, although I'm not sure how many bonus shields you produce in larger cities.

Militaristic - I have heard this strength being hailed as one of the best time and time again, but I use surprisingly little military when I play, I prefer to dominate my enemies economicaly and scientificly. One thing that I find very very attractive about this strength however is that with the leaders I get I can hurry produce wonders, how often does this happen?

Religious - I depend on temples and cathedrals often to keep my people from rioting, and that's why I like this strength so much, even though the benefit of having only one turn of anarchy seems negligable on account that I only start it once or twice a game.

Scientific - I think that this strength has a lot of potential, although I find myself with little time to build libraries and universities because I have to quell riots and build more workers so often. I wonder how beneficial it is to get 1 free advance every era.

Seafaring - I usualy don't like water based maps, so I don't think I'll be using this one often, although the commerce benefit is attractive, as well as the increased movement speed for boats.

Anyone with any advice concerning these strengths and any data on the numbers regarding these traits would be more than welcome. Thank you.

 

[Admiral8Q]

yurogwin, my best advice is try what you think you would like, and learn!

I prefere the Millitarist and Scientific combination of the Germans, myself, even though I'm a builder it seems to work best for me

 

[Tomoyo]

Try using that civ with the qusetion mark leader called Random.

 

[Admiral8Q]

Try using that civ with the qusetion mark leader called Random.

Heheh, Yes Lord Random, leader of the Question Marks!

Aye.

 

[Tatran]

I'm a Mayan fan,Industrious + Agricultural.

To me the traits aren't really important,it's
the starting location + the lands surrounding
it that really matters.

 

[Zakharov]

Firstly, Welcome to CFC

I'll deal with them one by one.

Agricultural - I try to avoid deserts as much as possible, so that aspect of agricultural strength doesn't impress me much, but it seems like getting one extra food for all of your cities would accelerate new cities growth significantly.

Agricultural is arguably the strongest trait in the game. The key to winning a game of civ3 is the first 100 turns and in that time growth is power. Extra food allows you to get more settlers out sooner to help you build a larger empire than the opponents.

You shouldn't avoid any terrain. I used to avoid bad terrain myself before I realised the value in having as many cities as possible. Plus deserts may hold valuable future resources so you want to secure them. With the Agr trait, deserts are even better as an irrigated desert is the same as an irrigated plains tile.

Commercial - This is one of the strengths I'm having the hardest time deciding on because I have no idea how great the effect of it is. How much extra commerce do I get in larger cities, and how much of an impact does it have on corruption?

I believe a commercial civ gets an extra commerce in the centre tile of each town, plus one more (+2) when it grows to a city (size 7+) and two more (+4) for a metro (size 13+), though I'm not sure on this. I'm sure someone will correct me if this is wrong.

The effect on corruption is more significant the larger your empire is. I can't really explain it myself so I will refer you to THIS war academy article on corruption by alexman.

Expansionist - I hear all the time that the expansionist strength is one of the worst, but I have seen my friend achieve enormous advantages by getting free technologies and settlers early in the game.

The value of the expansionist trait increases the higher the difficulty level you play at. At chieftain, there is a good chance that a non-Exp civ will pop something nice from a hut, plus early contacts are not really necessary as you can do your own research.

Once you get to the higher levels, the chance of getting something nice from a hut is close to zero for a non-Exp civ. Therefore the zero chance of an Exp civ to pop barbs from a hut means that is highly likely you will pop something nice. The worst you can do is get an empty hut.

On the higher levels the scout unit allows you to make contacts much quicker, which is key to success in the trading game.

Industrious - This strength appeals to me because I spend a lot of time developing the land around me, although I'm not sure how many bonus shields you produce in larger cities.

The extra worker speed is a very useful thing to have. You should indeed spend a lot of time developing the land around you, as that is the way to succeed in this game. I'm sure I don't need to repeat my worker mantras here.

I don't find the extra shields to be very useful. By the time they are added, the city is usually already producing many shields, so one more isn't going to matter too much. For example, a city that would normally give you 23 shields may give you 24 with the Ind bonus which isn't really very helpful. Luckily the extra worker speed more than compensates for this in making this trait very desirable.

Militaristic - I have heard this strength being hailed as one of the best time and time again, but I use surprisingly little military when I play, I prefer to dominate my enemies economicaly and scientificly. One thing that I find very very attractive about this strength however is that with the leaders I get I can hurry produce wonders, how often does this happen?

This trait is useful only if you have a large military and use it often. Cheap barracks are nice, but if you are only producing units from productive cities then you will barely notice the difference. This trait doubles the chances of promotion for a unit that wins in combat, which in turn makes leaders more likely for an elite unit win.

As you have included Agr and Sea in this list, I am assuming you are playing C3C. In that case you cannot use military leaders to rush great wonders. They can form armies though, which is a big plus as they are very strong in C3C.

You should really build a larger military, even if you don't intend to fight that much. It is military strength which determines your overall strength in the eyes of the AI, plus you want a good military on hand if you need to secure a new resource.

Religious - I depend on temples and cathedrals often to keep my people from rioting, and that's why I like this strength so much, even though the benefit of having only one turn of anarchy seems negligable on account that I only start it once or twice a game.

There are better ways to manage happiness than building temples and cathedrals. Try using the luxury slider and secure luxury resources (combined with a marketplace). Of course, securing luxury resources will probably require you to improve your military power. The short anarchy period is only really useful if you switch governments often, for example if you want to change between wartime and peaceful governments.

This trait is most useful when chasing a 100K culture win, as the cheap temples will get you to the target that much quicker.

Scientific - I think that this strength has a lot of potential, although I find myself with little time to build libraries and universities because I have to quell riots and build more workers so often. I wonder how beneficial it is to get 1 free advance every era.

This trait is not useful in the early game as you need to research Literature before it kicks in. At higher levels it is not so useful as you will not be doing much self research until later in the game, but the free tech advance is valuable as trait bait.

Like the Rel trait, this one is very useful for 100K attempts as the cheap culture will help you to the target quicker.

Seafaring - I usualy don't like water based maps, so I don't think I'll be using this one often, although the commerce benefit is attractive, as well as the increased movement speed for boats.

The commerce bonus is nice, but IMO this trait is best for early contacts. With a 3 move curragh patrolling the coastline you can meet other civs very quickly. This is even true of a pangaea, as the AI still likes to build coastal cities. On continents and archipelago maps, the reduced risk of sinking allows you to be much more successful with suicide missions, so you can get a contact monopoly and rule the trading game.

I'm sure other players will have different opinions about these traits. I believe they are all equally valuable if played properly; you just need to adapt your play to fit your traits.

I hope some of this information is useful to you.

 

[Madroc]

Heheh, Yes Lord Random, leader of the Question Marks!

Aye.

Isn't their UU the Schroedinger Cat?

Sorry, I'm just a big dork

 

[The Last Conformist]

Random is the be-all end-all uberciv of DOOM!!!!!!

I was addicted to Industrial civs for a while. Random made me overcome that, and improved my gaming experience.

Edit: You'd be thinking of the all-singing all-dancing Schrödinger's Cat.

 

[Madroc]

Edit: You'd be thinking of the all-singing all-dancing Schrödinger's Cat.

Yeah, I fixed that.

To the OP, I say just play with them all. Pick traits that go against your strengths sometimes; I'm mostly a builder but sometimes I play a Militaristic civ to force my hand a little. I agree that Expansionist is underrated (at Regent). I have also found that Militartistic isn't completely useless in a peaceful game. A lot of hilly coastal cities top out at a small population; if you don't want to make it a woker farm, cheap harbors can help them start growing again.

 

[yurogwin]

thanks for all the help guys, I've played a little more and I have found that I think I like the egyptians best.

 

[YNCS]

I'm having a very difficult time deciding what my favorite civilization is.

Your favorite civilization is the Spanish, because you think that Isabella is a hot babe.

My daughter played all the civs in C3C on Regent before deciding that the Ottomans (Industrious/Scientific, great UU) was her favorite civ.

 

[Mack]

I only have the original civ 3, so i haven't tried the agricultural trait, for instance, which sounds amazing. In original civ 3 though, i like industrious trait the best, followed by religious and scientific, then militaristic. UU is also important, and my favourite civ is thus Persia. The immortals combined with the industrious trait lets me rule the ancient era.

It depends a little on the map and position of course. If the map is large or especially if its huge, persia becomes worse, as ancient age expansion largely can be accomplished without warfare. If i start in jungle, persia becomes even better, as the industrious trait will help me clear the jungle, and the immortal will let me conquer better lands.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Zakharov knows what he is talking about. But I have a different view on the religous trait. I prefer to build temples (as compared libraries, the other choice) to avoid flipping when capturing cities. The reason is they are cheaper and they produce a happy citizen. Yes, the library produces more culture, but in those far flung colonies, there is so much corruption that the research is wasted. The cheaper cost of temples really adds up when you rush so many.

The bottom line though is play style. It all depends how you play.

 

[McManus]

You all have it wrong... Random is the king of the amberites...
(wonder how many will understand the reference?)

McM

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Agricultural is best by far.
Comercial i think might be second.

Iroquois is my prefered civ, they also have by far the best UU in the game. If you don't fight, that is of little use of course.

 

[YNCS]

You all have it wrong... Random is the king of the amberites...
(wonder how many will understand the reference?)

Only after the deaths of Oberon and Eric.

 

[klopolov]

And Corwin's refusal to be the king!!!

 

[Pounder]

Try every Civ, then go random.

 

[Pentium]

I'm kinda fan of science, so I almost always play scientific. Germany or Persia usually.

 

[Chieftess]

My favorite traits to use are Agricultural and Industrious (Maya). Faster workers, and quicker growing towns. That way, I can grab a lot of land rather quickly. The Celts are my all-around favorite. They're not agricultural, but have a great UU. Powerful, fast (can retreat), and a little more defense than a Mounted Warrior.