ReNoob: 1st Tutorial

[Hermann the Lombard]

Yeah, yeah, why would *anyone* play a tutorial campaign? Well, because I hadn't played Civ3 since just after Part 3 of Vel's Strat Thread was released, so I needed brushing up on the basics as well as the new stuff. So I also have been reading or re-reading the "Must Read" threads, but I still have some questions.

Anyway, I tried the first tutorial a few times (as the Egyptians, one of my favorites from two years ago). First of all, my "regards" to the joker who put the killer barbarians between the starting location and the revealed artifact. Shortest game I ever played.

The second try, I was chugging right along, built cities next to a bunch of the artifacts, rushed and mangled the Greeks, barely saw the other two civs...and got the notice that I had lost by time limit with a fairly pathetic score.

Then I realized that I could accrue points by just fortifying a unit next to an artifact, as opposed to having to build a city. This time I followed a peaceful strategy...and 23 turns before the end I noticed I had a score under 7,000 of the required 30,000. Not good.

So--in general--what do I need to do to generate 30,000 points in the time available? First of all, it seems that I need to play with an efficiency far higher than required for Epic games at the same difficulty level. It also seems that I need to pursue a very aggressive military strategy and that I need to mangle all three AI civs...and build a few wonders to boot.

-- HtL

[Jaybe]

Disclaimer: It has been awhile since I played that scenario, and only ONCE, at that; so take the following with as many grains of salt as seem appropriate

Explore, build and expand. The largest source of points are the artifacts, and there are several of them. All you have to do is OCCUPY those tiles to gain points, and it is on a per-turn basis. Take note of the altered combat strengths of the units.

The Regent game I played was won on victory points well before the game's end, and I was never at war with anyone. This is basically a conflict against the barbarians.

[vmxa1]

Is this a tutorial with walk throughs or does it play as a scenario after some popup notes?

[Hermann the Lombard]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Is this a tutorial with walk throughs or does it play as a scenario after some popup notes?

The latter...and if you haven't checked "tutorial" in the options, you don't get the popups.

[SirOsis]

I won by exploring and holding as many of the points as possible. I researched horsemen right away so I could expand quicker. That strategy worked very well.

[vmxa1]

I guess I will have to take a peek at it sometime.

[Frollo]

Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly which tile is the Victory Point Location (VPL). Press Ctrl+G to reveal the grid. This will make it easier to see what tile you must occupy in order to recieve the Victory Points (VPs).

And remember: you get VP for every turn you occupy a VPL.

[bvoncranium]

Re: ReNoob: 1st Tutorial

Hermann the Lombard asked
So--in general--what do I need to do to generate 30,000 points in the time available?

I tried it with Egypt on Monarch level and won decisively well before the turn limit, partially through:
* rushing production of key improvements and units when possible (you're a Despot after all!)
* researching techs that gave me fast units and better production as soon as possible (e.g. War Chariots)
* using the fast units to get to, then fortify on, as many VP obelisks as possible before the AIs
* using one unique unit to trigger a Golden Age when I had a decent number of towns to benefit from it
* establishing peaceful trade with the other Civs (the one that gave me the GA was harder of course)
* building roads from my growth towns towards the middle of the map, allowing my Civ to beat the AI to VP obelisks, hold them, and develop territory around them
* whenever possible I either attacked barbarians or fortified my units in advantageous terrain to get the barbs to attack (and lose), so that my units would get promoted and my Civ would gain victory points
... among other techniques.
Hope this helps - bvc

P.S. I agree about the killer barbarian placement - they can either be a minor annoyance or take a Civ out of the game within a few turns - pretty thoughtless scenario design IMHO.