Your advice pls on how to progress this game

[Creosote]

Here is my save:
Savegame

I wonder if you could suggest the strategy I should take, it would help me to understand the game better.

I have just had a war with Romans and Greeks who just declared war after being "polite", the Romans declared then the Greeks jumped in.
I dont have enough cities, by the time I got the Caravel all the land was taken. I am sure I prolly have squashed too many cities in on my grotty island and am not developing them optimally.
I seem to be in the trap of not enough income or resources and cant find a way forwards. The Great Library was a boon, and I did a lot of trading for advances, but its all come grinding to a halt now.

Be as rough as you like with your advice/critique !!

Thanks in advance.

 

[SewerStarFish]

I only took a quick look.
1) You're using the govenor in all your cities -- that's okay if you always check that the cities are producing what you need.

2) You look like your trying to play a peaceful game -- but you've reached a point where you should consider a little more aggressive strategy. You're going to need more ships on this map. Japan seems to be a good target but you have an outpost on the other continent. You can begin your aggression from there with less ships. Choose your enemy and see if you can form an alliance (that can decide who to attack)

3) You're really not bad off but if one of the AI gets the upper hand it'll be difficult to catch up.

 

[blade102]

^^ i didnt take a look but looking at what he said use the city you got in japan as a healing station for your troops and as you go on use the citys you captured as healing stations also

 

[tR1cKy]

Before i download it and take a look, can you tell what version the save is? I mean, Vanilla, PTW or conquests, and if it's fully patched or not.

 

[Creosote]

Before i download it and take a look, can you tell what version the save is? I mean, Vanilla, PTW or conquests, and if it's fully patched or not.

Vanilla Civ3, version 1.29.

 

[nullspace]

You're certainly not at a "grinding halt." I think that is the biggest newbie mistake: thinking that you're doing poorly when you're not. You've got the biggest population in the world, and your tech is just slightly behind the leaders. You could ride what you have now all the way to a diplomatic or spaceship win if you make your economy a bit more efficient. Disband the warrior and half your pikemen. They're costing you a lot of money, and contributing nothing. Your island will never be attacked by a large force, so you could defend the whole thing with about 6 knights, instead of the about 30 pikemen you have now. You're also paying for way more happiness than you need. Grow your cities, stop paying for luxuries, and get rid of colosseums.

All those defensive units are a huge mistake in general. If they included offensive units, you could start fighting for more land right now. The multicultural island to your south would be easy to conquer and fairly productive, but you'll need more than your two knights and one caravel to do it. If you're serious about fighting anytime before artillery, you should think about acquiring saltpeter soon. Greece has a source near your homeland, but you'd have to take several cities to get it. I dunno, you could fight, but you'd have to actually build the entire attacking force first, so maybe following the peaceful strategy is best.

 

[tR1cKy]

You've done pretty well in the beginning, but you are progressively screwing up as time passes.

Your first serious mistake is to have governors active. No matter how you set them, they simply SUCK HORRIBLY. See Salamanca. Size 12, food box full. It's wasting 7 food units per turn FOR NOTHING. And St. Regis? It's already size 6. It needs and acqueduct, but it's building a musketman. And its surplus food is wasted every turn.

Second, you have too few workers, and aren't using them effectively. Probably you automated them. WRONG. Always use them manually. Amass them in groups of 3 and send them do something. You are using a lone american worker to build a mine on a mountain! It takes 36 turns!

You have already too much defensive units, few knights and absolutely no catapults. Many of your units are wasted in the cities for nothing. Republic don't use military police, so what's the point in keeping them in the cities? Instead of musketmen you should build knights and upgrade some of the pikes.

Go to war. You are trading nothing with Roma. So, amass a few knights and go Visigothic. You just had a war with Greece, and all you got is a lousy town. You need more attacking units. Muskets and pikes are for defense only.

 

[Creosote]

Many thanks for your critiques and suggestions.

I can't understand the logic of leaving large cities undefended, or any cities for that matter. For the relatively paltry per turn cost of a couple of defending troops I prevent any invader just walking up and marching in.
Thats what happened in my previous games. A ship would arrive, unload some troops and just walk straight in and capture my city.
I realise with the mobility provided by railroads that I can instantly move troops around, but say I have half a dozen knights to defend the island and the AI lands half a dozen ships with troops, I have no way to defend my cities.
I must be missing some important piece of logic here! I am a newb

 

[Tomoyo]

Your knights can attack the attackers on the turn they land... It's not the upkeep of the defenders, it's the thousands of shields poured into building them. Besides, when you have defenders and no attackers, the AI will more like than not pillage all over your lands.

EDIT: I have never seen the AI conduct a landing successfully, even on Sid level. The most I've seen was six units landed, and that was on Sid!

 

[YNCS]

I haven't downloaded the save, but if you have railroads then you don't need a lot of defensive units. If the AI lands an invasion force next to your city, then you can move defensive units there immediately. Remember, an invader doesn't get railroad movement but you do.