Newbie with a couple of questions

[buzz]

Hello everybody. I am in awe of the extensive knowledge on this board! Its a little intimidating posting here, since I just discovered Civ 3 about a month ago. Needless to say, though, I'm addicted to it. This is probably pretty elementary to most of you, but I wanted to ask anyway. How can a Caravelle use bows & arrows to damage a Sub? And how can a Cavalryman defeat a tank? This has happened to me on several occasions and it just doesn't make sense.

[justjake73]

Welcome to Civ3, the forum and the RNG, also called the Random Number Generator. It has been a known fact that the RNG will occasionally allow even a Spearman to defeat a Tank.

[Muad'Dib]

Welcome to the world of Civ Buzz. Get use to those outcomes.

Here's some more that I have experienced:

Battleship losing to a Galleon.
Nuclear Sub losing to Frigate.
Modern Armor losing to Numidian Mercenary.

Check out my thread posted in the Civ4 section: "My 2 Cents..."

[buzz]

Glad to know I'm not the only one. I was all excited when my neighbors kept ticking me off and I finally built my first bomber. I thought I was going to annhilate them. Man, was I disappointed.

[gunkulator]

Unlike Civ2, there are no super-weapons that always win in Civ3. The only way to defeat your real enemy (the fickle RNG) is with numbers.

[alva]

Don't take the images to litteraly, the same goes for battles.
When you loose a sub like that, imagine for example that one of the torpedo's exploded while still on board, or that it was a casualty of friendly fire.

You will see two groups on this board, one that likes the unpredictability and one that hates it.
I, myself, belong to the first group. I like to improvise while playing and the fact that sometimes, things go wrong, or at least not the way you want them to go.

Welcome btw, if you've got a question, shoot, that is afterall the reason of this board. So lurkers out-there, start posting

[Wittlich]

The bottom line is this: With the Random Number Generator - anything is possible.

I think it adds a little spice to the game - there is no such thing as a "sure" win. It keeps you at the edge of your seat for each and every battle sequence.

[Dauphin]

I like the RNG, but at other times it can really annoy the heck out of you. I recently got unceremoniously dumped out of an MP game when 4 fortified hoplites lost to 4 consecutive jaguar warrior attacks. grrrr.

[Kloreep]

Re: Newbie with a couple of questions

Originally posted by buzz
And how can a Cavalryman defeat a tank?

Not all that hard to do, really, so long as the tank was unfortified on flatland. Then it's 6 attack vs. 8.8 defense. Not nearly impossible odds.

Oh, wait... you're not talking about their stats, are you?

Anyway, as others have said, it happens sometimes, even in cases like Tank vs Spear or Tank vs Warrior. You simply have to build more units than you would need on average, so you can crush them under numbers if combat results are a little skewed.

[buzz]

I appreciate the info. How can you raise enough money to amass the numbers you need to crush your enemy? Early on as a despotism, I have to subsidize many units with gold to keep up with the AI.

[Muad'Dib]

Money to Support Units

First, choose a government that supports units.

Town City Metropolis
4 4 4 Despotism
2 4 8 Monarchy
6 6 6 Communism
4 7 10 Fascism

Second, the more cities you build, the more units you can support.

Third, build roads and when available railroads.

Fourth, build improvements that generate cash: Marketplace, Bank, Stock Exchange, Commerical Dock

Fifth, build Wall Street wonder.

Sixth, if you can, build the Adam Smith's Trading Post wonder--pays the maintenance costs for above mentioned improvements, thus putting cash back into your coffers.

And Seventh, reduce corruption. Build Courthouses & Police Stations and switch to Government that has low Corruption--nuisance or minimal is prefered. Stay away from rampant!!!

[pedrojedi]

A little extra help: you don't have to destroy your enemy every time you enter a war; get what you want, and strictly that. Resist counterpunches, if any. With a few significant blows (like conquering the enemy's only iron-producing-tile-inside-city-radious' city) and eventual depletion of the AI's offensive armed forces, you'll be able to cut a good deal in exchange for tech, gold, maps or whatever, which can be sold again.

Always cut deals, specially for techs, and even more specially in high levels of difficulty or when that particular tech is not very important (its wonder was already constructed, or the most powerful nations already have it, or when you are "iiiii-haaa!!!" ahead of the opponents on tech).

My 2,5 cents.

edit: typo

[vmxa1]

It is almost always a case of not getting those roads and improvements up asap. You can raise lots of money in despotism, once you have 14-16 cities with all the tiles improved.

Then you switch to Rep and are loaded with cash. You should have some markets up by then and many contacts to sell a few techs with.

[buzz]

Good info. I wondered why every single tile on the AI had roads on it. I was pretty much just linking cities and leaving large areas unimproved. Thanks for the help everybody!

[Kloreep]

Yep, you should ideally have every tile your cities are working improved with a road and either a mine or irrigation. This isn't possible early-game, but it should happen during the Middle Ages if you build enough workers. Heck, you could even do it in the Ancient, potentially.