Why Oh Why Did I play Warlord?

[Julius Bonapart]

Why oh why did i play warlord? Well i can awnser myself on that one becouse i allways played Chieftian and i wanted to be able to compete with the people that play higher. Big mistake. I cant do anything. I am far behind the other civs on Science and cities i have to go but i will post more details on my predicament later. meanwhile does anybody know any good Warlod strategys?

 

[Sullla]

Seeing as how the AI is handicapped pretty significantly on Warlord, you probably need to spend some time practicing just about every area of Civ3 if you are having major problems. Fortunately, this site contains loads of excellent advice on how to improve your skills at Civ3. The War Academy is a good place to start, but a lot of the best information can be found in the forums as well.

For your particular situation, I would probably guess that your problem is that you aren't expanding fast enough. That's normally the biggest problem newer players face at this game. Another typical problem is worker management; by all means don't automate the workers if you expect to be successful! There are a number of threads here on this site on how to use workers to your best advantage. Try to think about what you are producing in each city; how does this choice help your civ? Would something else be more helpful? If there is no real need for a certain unit or improvement, it might be better to switch to something else. Finally, make sure you trade with the other AI civs frequently in the diplomacy screen. You should be able to out-research the AI without any problems on Warlord, but it never hurts to get into good habits. If you have excess luxuries or resources, trade them away to get techs or gold. Doing so not only helps you, but it improves your reputation with that civ as well, making war less likely. I hope this is a good list to get you started.

And if you want more specific help, try posting your savegame on this site so people can look at it and give advice.

 

[AceDragon]

I think Regent is the pretty even difficulty to compete with the AI.
Monarch and Deity I is pretty suicidal for me.

To answer your question shortly, it's not so easy anymore. You need to have a plan going. On chieftain you could be a warmonger and still win culturally if you want to. Make beelines to key research areas... liteature, education, computers. Always make sure your cities are defended. Key straetegic resources should get a fortress and defenders too. Even if military dominance is not what you're going for the AI will try and take advantage of you if you are weak. Only trade techs if it benefits you. Renegotiate when people ask for a tech with your world map. Very often it is a ploy to get something for virtually nothing. Theres a bunch of other stuff in the war academy here at civfanatics. I've studied there some myself. Another thing you might think about is no matter what type of game you play (space race, cultural, military, etc.. ) is go ahead and plan an early war. Your neighbors still have a settler diahrea problem. They plop cities down nearer to yours in efforts to claim more land for them. Have one city start producing swordsmen ASAP and make a few defenders (1-2 for each new town of theirs you'll take) . So far I've never ever traded away iron working, chivalry, or military tradition but I will gladly trade for them.
Dont waste time on building wonders that arent worth it. (Shakespeare's, Oracle, etc.. ) It's harder/impossible to be the builder of all the wonders now. Notice I didn't say owner *evil grin* Sure you may own the town later through military action.
If you build the great library dont rush for education. I'm sure I havent said a fraction as whats in the war academy but theres a few to think about.

 

[allhailIndia]

The key is early in the game, when you should try to eliminate as many civs as possible early on. Do whatever it takes to take out 2-3 civs (if you are playing against 8), by the time you have Knights and then go after the others one by one. Try to make as many Alliances and then backstab them.

And don't forget to have a jillion cities in the process

 

[Erik Mesoy]

More cities. I was very afraid of corruption when I got the game. Seems to be your problem too.

On warlord, you can easily build the Great Library, so then get that and set science to zero until Education.

Build warriors very early, then wipe out civs while they still have 1 city. Turn off respawn.

Post your savegame.

 

[philippe]

yes and resaerch iron working and kill 2 civs in the process

 

[Maple]

I play on Emperor, but regent is far from a walk in the park. On Regent, there are no handicaps either for you or the AI. Think of warlord as "Civ3 101" It effectively teaches you everything you absolutely need to know about Civ3. Master warlord, and you can call yourself a skilled civilization player.

If all you wanted was tips, well, build swordsmen/legionaries(sp?)/immortals and horsemen and take out a few civs at the begining of the game. Two down, 10 to go :jump:


Hope this helps

 

[Sullla]

What's with all the warmongers on this thread? An early war can be a big help, but it is not by any means necessary to have success even of the highest difficulty level. I won't offer anyone advice if they think that using exploitive tactics like ROP betrayal is the way to advance in their gameplay. If you are NOT playing in the current Game of the Month, GOTM7, check out the description of my peaceful victory on Deity at this address:

http://www.geocities.com/lcsullla/GOTM7

 

[philippe]

good work sulla!

 

[God]

On warlord up to regent you really don't need to war early in the game to get an advantage.

You don't need the Great Libary either, because once you have a few libaries you should be able to surpass the AI pretty easily.

Anyway since this warlord, I suggest build 3 warriors in capital, 3rd defends. Then a settler, unless you can squeeze another warrior, and then a few more warriors, then another settler, and buy masonry ASAP. Start Pyramids after 2-3 settlers, and beeline to literature. Then switch to Great Libary, and let capital finish that. Have other cities build granaries and pump out settlers, with a spearman in between.

That should get you through Ancient Ages easily. It will be fast expansion and you should surpass the AI in it. Once you find that cities can only produce 1 shield, build a few more cities in that area and the start the Forbidden Palace, in a city in near those corrupt cities. The FP city should be semi-corrupt, produce 4-5 shields.

In the Middle Ages, get wonders, by prebuilding palaces, and trade a few techs. You should have started building libaries, temples, and marketplaces in your cities near the end of the Ancient era. If you're religious civ, build temples in every city and libaries/markets in productive cities. Same goes with scientific civs, except switch temples and libaries.

With a few libaries and marketplaces you should be getting good amount of cash and science. Buy a few techs from AI, but you should be able to research 80% on your own. Build some knights if you have time or UU from chivalry, and attack a neighbor. Get their iron cut off and you shouldn't have a hard time.

But that war is not essential. Either way, head towards military Tradition ASAP. Get salpeter and horses hooked up and build cavalry like crazy. Try to take out a civ or 2 before nationalism. Then build barracks and more cavs, and start attacking riflemen defended cities. Sign MPPs to get every civ against those guys.

After the early industrial war, get steam power, build railroads, and industrialization to build factories. Then beeline for Scientific Method and build Theory of Evolution and get 2 free techs, atomic theory and electricity.

Build Hoovers, and get infantry with replaceable parts. Then build up alot of infantry and artillery, and if you want to, attack a civ with large stacks of cavalry (their retreat ability gives them the edge over the infantry in offense). Move larges stacks of cavs, infantry and artillery, bomb the cities and take them down w/ cavs, and fortify w/infantry.

Once you get motorized transports, go to war. They will cut through infantry, but as sonn as AI has mech infantry quit the war. The wait for Modern Armor and nukes and have fun.

 

[Tassadar]

1.- built 3-4 city around your capital, set reaserach at 80 after second city is built.
2.- built road on worked tile
3.- 2 defender and a worker per city
4.- 3-4 warrior in the field
5.- built wall, temple, librairy and increase city size as much as you can, especialy your capital ( if on river it can grow easily to 8 with some luxuries).

 

[Tassadar]

Then if you dont go war the goal is
1.- built marketplace
2.- republic
3.- built cathedral and increase city size to 12( add 10 % lux if needed)
4.- built university
5.- built bank
6.- then you got a perfect core city producing lots of gold and science beaker, adjust slider so you dont waste extra science beaker.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Every shift upward in Civ3 is a painful one - I am just trying to break into monarch and having an awful time of it.

Warlord it is easy to kick butt though. Make a bee-line for iron working, then literacy. Get the library. Get Sun Tzu. When you reach cavalry, build endless cavalry, kaboom. Develop tanks, repeat. Play with fewer civs and make sure two of them are America and France. Play as Egypt, Persia, Japan or Babylon.

It isn't till regent level that you have to think about cannons and infantry to fill out your force.

 

[God]

Or play as Aztecs, build 2-3 jaguar warriors, and you should be able to take out 1 or 2 civs with them. Build a few more jaguars and another civ or 2 should go down.

I've done that on a huge warlord map.

 

[Julius Bonapart]

Ok, i think i am actually playing better!!!!! Thanks to you guys ofcourse. I listened to al lthe Warmogers and took out Rome (i am playing with Babylon and used their special unit as a help) using a strategy i read somewhere (not on this thread i think) I took out almost all thier cities and when thye had 4 left i traded 3 of their cities for a peace treaty, and i left thier one city alone, so i can bullly them later on. Their one city made a LOT of culture and ate one of my cities ! MEanwhile the other civs have kept making more and more cities. They beat me to the piramids and all civs have about the same military as me (accoriding to the advisor guy) and one has more than me (tyhe aztecs) I build one city on the continent of the rival civs and i am thinking of expanding from there (If this isnt a good idea please tell me so) I am behind on Techs, Cities and i am bearly the same in military. Some more advice would be nice since i DID progress a lot with the advice allready given thanks ya'll.

 

[Sullla]

If you really want more specific help, post your save game on this thread so that others can download it and give you advice.

You can do this by first making a zip file with your game in it, then attaching the zip file by using the "attach file" feature just above the "Submit reply" button.

 

[Tweedledum]

I'm in much the same situation as you... Just starting at warlord and behind in tech.

I find the easiest way to catch up is to use the fact that research is slowed by warfare.
As an example: the first time I played Warlord I was the Iroquois (maybe not the best choice...!) and was way behind on tech when America declared war (I had only just started building Riflemen and they invaded with Infantry). But I managed to buy up a couple of Alliances: this kept the Yanks at bay, and eventually I signed peace with them and left the other wars raging. It got to the point where everyone else was crippled by a huge world war and I was just sat on the sidelines watching.

The end result? I won a space-race victory, and without ever building a Factory and only about 3 cities over size 12.

The moral? Set the AI Civs at each others' throat...

 

[Sullla]

Originally posted by Tweedledum
It got to the point where everyone else was crippled by a huge world war and I was just sat on the sidelines watching.

The end result? I won a space-race victory, and without ever building a Factory and only about 3 cities over size 12.

If tech is moving too fast for the player to keep up, triggering a war between AI civs is often the way to go. But I can't imagine a player being unable to keep up on tech on Warlord difficulty.

If you won a spaceship victory, which requires going almost all the way to the end of the tech tree, why on earth did you not have factories and hospitals in your cities? A city with population 21+ brings in more commerce, which equals more research. What were your cities building all that time - wealth? You have the right idea on a good strategy, but I question your lack of full city development.

 

[RX2000]

I would assume that Civ3 is your first experience with Civ games? Cause I had pretty much the same problem when I started playing Civ2 way back when. I would kick ass on Chieftain, and think I was all big and bad, only to get my tail whooped when I went up to Warlord. Basically you just need to master the techniques of the game. You can read all the guides you want, nothing can replace experience.

Now, I cant play on warlord at because I completely destroy the computer. I'll have like nukes and modern armor when everyone else is running around with knights. That doesnt make for what I would call a fun game. Its no fun for me unless its a challenge. So I usually play at least on regent level. I like that because the AI isnt handicapped, and neither are you. (The game handicaps the player at higher levels, which I think is crap. They should make the AI harder and things like that, not handicap you.)

Just keep at it, through experience you'll be saying Warlord isnt fun in no time.

 

[Tweedledum]

Originally posted by Sullla


If tech is moving too fast for the player to keep up, triggering a war between AI civs is often the way to go. But I can't imagine a player being unable to keep up on tech on Warlord difficulty.

If you won a spaceship victory, which requires going almost all the way to the end of the tech tree, why on earth did you not have factories and hospitals in your cities? A city with population 21+ brings in more commerce, which equals more research. What were your cities building all that time - wealth? You have the right idea on a good strategy, but I question your lack of full city development.

Well, it was my first ever go at Warlord I'm ahead of the buggers now...

As to the lack of city development: I'd had a previous Chieftain game where I had factories everywhere and cities up to size 30, and the levels of pollution were insane (and virtually uncontrollable) and I just got so pissed off at having all my 100 or so workers doing nothing but clear the stuff up that I thought I'd see if I could get away with no factories at all and smallish cities (it also meant I didn't have to bother research Sanitation until very late...)
Seems I can at this "low" level of difficulty - I doubt that I will if I try higher ones