where can i find a web site with a full civ3 manual?

[kiurkugord]

as above.................

[joncnunn]

It should be included on the CD in pdf format.

[kiurkugord]

Originally posted by joncnunn
It should be included on the CD in pdf format.

i was wrong!
i meant a full strategic guide,not the manual that i already have on cd!!!!

ps
after many times i've managed to defeat tha AI at prince level!!!!!
but as the others are concerned(from king ,emperor etc)it's quite almost impossible to beat him!
even the nomads are much stronger(more than once they have beaten my swordsmen!!!!
Tha Ai is unbelieveble fast in creating new cities!!!!
i'v tried to begin with the pottery research first for the granaries,but by the time i was on it the AI had already a huge advantage upon me!!!!
any advice about how to start at the beginning?
i made a warrior in the capital,after that a barracks(for veterans units) than a second warrior and a settler a second city and a spearmen in the second city a worker and another spearmen ,after i don't know if to build a granary soon in the capital or to try with masonry to go for the pyramids(but it's very likely that the AI will reach that before me)but waste time for creating more settlers and military units or keep on creating only settlers and military units and wait for tha great library to build as the first wonder.............

[kiurkugord]

Originally posted by kiurkugord



i was wrong!
i meant a full strategic guide,not the manual that i already have on cd!!!!

ps
after many times i've managed to defeat tha AI at prince level!!!!!
but as the others are concerned(from king ,emperor etc)it's quite almost impossible to beat him!
even the nomads are much stronger(more than once they have beaten my swordsmen!!!!)
Tha Ai is unbelievable fast in creating new cities!!!!
i'v tried to begin with the pottery research first for the granaries,but by the time i was on it the AI had already a huge advantage upon me!!!!
any advice about how to start at the beginning?
i made a warrior(go to explore with this) in the capital,after that a barracks(for veterans units) than a second warrior(explore with this one either) and a settler a second city and a spearmen in the second city a worker and another spearmen ,after i don't know if to build a granary soon in the capital or to try with masonry to go for the pyramids(but it's very likely that the AI will reach that before me)but waste time for creating more settlers and military units or keep on creating only settlers and military units and wait for tha great library to build as the first wonder.............

[UnOrthOdOx]

Have you looked through the "must read threads" at the top of the forum here?

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59216

That should go a long way to setting you on the right path.

I don't think there is so much a strategic 'manual' anywhere, but there is a vast collection of strategic resources many places. This being one of them.

Also, if there are specific situations you need help with, just ask. We'll be happy to help out.

[joncnunn]

I think the "must reads" threads cover that list, but it amounts to your wasting time on the baracks and spears.

Warriors are the most efficent Military Police, and are also generally the best scout when you don't have that ability.
Exception: For the Aztecs, their Jaquar Warrior is their best scout type unit.

Units that are actiing as MP / just attacking and defending against barb units don't need to be Vets. The Vets come in handy for attacking and defending against other civs, evenually you'll need them, but during REX they'd just slow you down.

You might also want to try playing an agriculture civ for faster growth.

And also if you want to have a chance of getting settler from a goody hut, you need to have no active settler builds and also no settlers that haven't founded cities, and in addition must not be above average in population.

When playing an expanistic civ [which can not get barbs from huts] I have often goten one or two free settlers.

[joncnunn]

kiurkugord, Also note that if you have trouble with a conquest, that there are several "how to win at " ____ threads out there. But most assume some knowledge of epic game.

[kiurkugord]

i usually use the germans........
anyway,some advice about what to do in the beginning at monarch or emperor level?

[joncnunn]

Originally posted by kiurkugord
i usually use the germans........
anyway,some advice about what to do in the beginning at monarch or emperor level?

The difference in difficultly between monarch and emperor is bigger than the difference between warlord and monarch.

You probably shouldn't be thinking about starting an epic game on emperor until you win going away with multiple civs, even the civ with your two or your three least favorite traights.

Please click on the must read thread; there's one thread there that deals with early game in detail that focuses at the Warlord / Regent level, but still applies pretty well on monarch. And pretty much a thread on every other are of civ as well.

There's threads dealing with those who have mastered level ___ but are having trouble making the jump one level higher as well.

Use the forum options at the bottom to resort the threads by alpha and include the old threads. For both the strategy and the general forums.

[Terra Nullius]

where can i find a web site with a full civ3 manual?

click in the address bar of your browser.
then type http://apolyton.net/forums/

as good as it gets

[Terra Nullius]

some advice i saw once about writing;

you have to kill your darlings

in other words, to write well, to write something other people will want to read, you need to take a scalpel to all the bits you really liked.

i think the same kind of applies to civ. at least as far as learning how to break through to higher levels.

even a very skillful player cannot foresee the problems you will come across in your next game. but a lot of people can see what you did wrong after you've already done it. just an idea, but i would suggest this;
go through your previous games (at any level of difficulty) and find a couple of 'fabulous victories'... the ones where you finished the game feeling really proud of yourself.

then post some screenshots showing the progress of the game (ideally every 50 turns or so, at least for the ancient age). write out what your plans were, how things went, battles fought and so on.
read through some dars first to get the style right

chances are, you have some work there that you're really quite proud of; decisions you made where you thought you really pulled something off. post that, and we'll see if we can cook up some humble pie.

[wertyu70]

If you like to play Germans, a very good strategy is the Archer Rush described in the Must Read thread:
if you read it, you will find a step by step instruction on how to do this opening strategy.

Another suggestion that allowed me to really improve my gameplay and reach my current level (between Monarch and Emperor) is the settler-worker pump
(Ducki's does Emperor thread)

And of course remember to build more workers.

[kiurkugord]

Originally posted by wertyu70
If you like to play Germans, a very good strategy is the Archer Rush described in the Must Read thread:
if you read it, you will find a step by step instruction on how to do this opening strategy.

Another suggestion that allowed me to really improve my gameplay and reach my current level (between Monarch and Emperor) is the settler-worker pump
(Ducki's does Emperor thread)

And of course remember to build more workers.

That strategy i'm using in a new game on emperor level i',ve begun........
the trouble is ,that apart the initial capital,the others cities are not in a very suitable location(almost all sorrounded by jungles that i have to chop up in order to get more shields for producing military units faster than 20 or 30 turns) and for that i think i need at least two workers for city which thing slow me down quite a bit!!!!
after that i ask myself(the aforementioned strategy didn't mention it at all!),if while i'm producing units,i should also build some cultural improvements like temples or even a great wonder (which thing would prevent me from creating settlers or military units ,as the city being busy for so many turns) or think only to barracks ,units ,workers and settlers..........
where exactly is the worker pump thread?

[Terra Nullius]

the case for food - trip

as seen in theseus' must read threads
(they ain't called must read just 'cos you don't wanna p* off a jar-head)

[Terra Nullius]

as far as your other questions go...

i just finished an emperor game (pangaea) with nuthin' but hills and jungles in every direction (and still no coal!!), so don't despair. oh, and desert on the other side of the jungle.

the ancient age was tough going - i had to road through six tiles of hills to connect the iron.
middle age was a shocker - it's scary to see cavalry running around the map when you're still trying to build knights.
industrial age, the world finally started making sense again as they all bowed down to do me homage.

firstly, i would say it's important to choose carefully in what you do and where you do it.
- what are you're civ traits?
i had expansionist and religious (yay!). so that meant lotsa scouts to start with. yes, they made slow progress through the jungles, but i still had the best contacts and therefore, the best tech trades.

i built a few temples to keep the far flung cities in order. the cheap temples also allowed me to take my time with connecting luxuries - worker turns are a precious resource in this situation, i didn't want to waste time building roads through jungle just to keep people happy. all the same, i certainly didn't automatically build temples everywhere, only if there was a sensible reason to do so.

if i had been scientific, it would have been libraries. as it was, i went for marketplaces before lib's because i knew i would be buying techs off the ai for some time to come.

a few cities got harbours built. it's a cheap improvement, and the extra food allows the city to keep growing. with a temple and a harbour, most of the cities were able to keep growing and producing gold, even without clearing jungle immediately.

one of the biggest mistakes i made;
check that all the jungle is really jungle. i actually had two forest tiles hidden in amongst the shrubbery and didn't notice it at first. there is a big difference between forest and jungle!! check every tile carefully. even one tropical fruit bonus (i only had one in the whole empire) is worth paying attention to.

overall, it just takes patience and careful discrimination. i built more workers than normal, but i still tried to keep the other stuff going (settlers, units etc.), i guess it's just a question of finding the right balance.

my worker policy went through about three stages

i) ignore all jungle tiles
explore the map, improve any available tiles (i had a total of three grassland tiles to start with), get a few cities going in the easiest available places

ii) start critical tasks
secure and connect iron and horsies, connect luxuries. at this stage, i cleared one or two jungle tiles where it was really necessary. most of my worker turns were spent roading through hills.
nb. it takes a non-industrial worker 24 turns to clear jungle, a settler can do it in one turn! same goes with roading through hills.

iii) workin for the man
once i had built up a spare force of six workers, i started clearing things one tile at a time. until this stage, i mostly kept my city populations quite low. any citizen that couldn't get access to coast or grassland got turned into workers. needless to say it was a looong time before my people saw their first aqauduct.

one thing to remember in this situation; when the ai assesses your power, it doesn't discriminate between workers and military units. so all those workers actually fool the ai into thinking you're stronger than you really are.

i would forget about building any wonders at all until after you get the jungle cleared. there's a thread about that too! they're fun to build, but think how much work would be needed to clear the jungle, road, mine and populate enough tiles to compete. besides, you need short builds where you can pop workers out whenever your population grows.

you will eventually need to build some barracks, but i would say it's not a priority. much worker make tarzan look big. the ai probably won't attack straight away.

i needed cultural builds because my land was made up of long stringy bits squeezed in between other civs. use them if you need them. but go with your strengths - religious/ scientific/ whatever.

basically, start by doing what you can without touching the jungle. whenever you see a citizen working a jungle tile, turn him into a worker/settler. use harbours, temples/other to get acces to non-jungle tiles. use settlers to clear jungle if necessary - you can always disband the city later if you have to. most important of all, look over the map carefully and use any specific advantage (including civ traits) you can find.