Help- I suck

[Epistax]

I am pretty good at Civ II, Moo2, and Alpha Centauri, but at Civ 3, I royally blow.

Even on warlord, I cannot keep up with other Civilizations in the tech race, or in military size. I am able to dodge out of wars easy enough, and I can do some sneaky things to keep up in tech, but I shouldn't have to.

As a civilization, I would describe mine as religious (well, heavily cultured) and industrious, with as much money going to science as possible (unless I need to catch up in science, then it goes all to money and I buy it).

Population wise, I seem to have the largest population and also one of the largest land areas. If I need to mobilize I can usually turn out a huge army in five turns (although my army is still 'weak' according to the advisor). Any attempt to capture an enemy city results in half the world declaring war on me, and no one likes a mutual protection pact with me.

The most aggressive I am in the game is at the beginning. Usually I play with quite a few islands, and if I see a competitor on good soil, I dispose of them quickly. During my last particular game, there was a huge arctic stretch between me and my neighbor on my island, so I figured it wouldn't be worth the effort.


Does anyone have any hints? I would seriously like to know how other people can support huge armies, and still fund the science to better than I can do. I have plenty of city improvments to help science and money.

[zulu9812]

trade is very important - not only does it let you keep up better in the tech race but it keeps the AI civs friendly as well. Also, if you don't trade with the AI, they'll still trade with each other - increasing the gap between you and them. So you might be behing in the tech race, but the one you're really behind in is the trade race.

[Pillager]

Expand.




I usually play as Egypt - religious and industrious. Build settlers like there's no tomorrow, and use the industrious quality to link cities with road quickly, so as to get benefits of luxuries. Go for early contact to get trades. I make a beeline for Republic, switch immediately (no anarchy hit with Egypt), then change to democracy when it arrives. I try not to be too worried about rep. - I find that a strong military is as good as being friendly. If you need to fight a war, go obviously for one that is close and weak, but also one that has resources and luxuries - having lots of luxuries makes life much easier.

That's my general strategy.

[Alex]

Epistax, check out the strategy forum. Good posts there. I'd give you some general hints, but my boss is coming...

[heidlejohn]

Re: Help- I suck

Originally posted by Epistax
I am pretty good at Civ II, Moo2, and Alpha Centauri, but at Civ 3, I royally blow. Even on warlord, I cannot keep up with other Civilizations in the tech race, or in military size. I am able to dodge out of wars easy enough, and I can do some sneaky things to keep up in tech, but I shouldn't have to.
< snip >
Does anyone have any hints? I would seriously like to know how other people can support huge armies, and still fund the science to better than I can do. I have plenty of city improvments to help science and money.

When playing Civ3, you need to focus on getting more cities built than on improving your cities. You might want a temple and a barracks in some cities at the beginning. When you get a chance to build libraries and marketplaces, only do them in a few cities. You need to have lots of cities which can be improved later while first focusing on building more cities and grabbing more land and resources.

You also should be trading techs a lot with the AI. Explore a lot in the beginning of the game to find the other civs.

While you are doing this, the other thing you have to do is to keep building a strong military force. If you are weak you will be attacked.

Most civ3 players favor an early war against a neighbor trying to grab land, cities, and a few techs when you conclude a peace treaty. Decide who you want to fight and build at least 10 (preferably more) offensive units for an attack. Include a few spearman to hold cities and defend horsemen and archers.

Don't worry about how others build huge armies and get lots of research done. At warlord research is slow.
You probably will not be able to get to the spacerace until you play higher levels like regent. The huge armies come with a huge army and lots of fighting if you want to play that kind of style.

Don't worry too much. You should improve over time.
Practice, practice, practice ...

[Palleon]

Yeah. I was really good at the other Civs, Moo's, and other strategy based games of the type, but I really sucked at Civ3, I was getting beaten on warlord, but I just finally finished my first regeant game, and won on score, didn't have time to beat the world, but I won by over 1000 points. And all because of the wonderful advise on this forum. Normally when I played, I would build 1-2 defenders for a city, and just build improvements. Little to no offense, and I'd only build cities occasionally, and only in really great spots. What I've learned about Civ3 is that you need to expand immediatly from the start, and don't stop til you run out of room. I usually fall behind the tech race at the beginning, but after 40 turns or so when you have 15 cities as opposed to the AI's 7, it really gives you a huge leg up. Also, build military units from the start if you can, even while expanding, and continue it through the game, preferably things that can be upgraded. I was used to the old civ games where 1 unit could hold off everything the AI could throw at you, and that just isn't possible here. If you can knock out a few countries early, you don't have to worry about them later, so if you spot a weakness, take advantage. And population is everything!

[Epistax]

hey thanks for the advice. heh didn't really get anything solid but I know I just gotta keep trying. Oddly enough I started another game, this time on a tiny map (usually I play much bigger). And oddly enoughm there were two continents: one with me, one with everyone else.

Hah it rocked

I didn't get too much practice out of it however, except at the end when I decided to declare open war on everyone else and launch a major assult. I switched to communism and with no special help I was cranking out about seven tanks a turn from on my continent and shipp'n them over. I found it funny I also had bombers from carriers going like mad, but they don't seem to help too much. The enemies defending infantry seem extremely powerful- if they had mech infantry it would have taken maybe twenty tanks per town. ahh!

Anyway, me gonna try a slightly larger map (small) and try really expanding with reckless abandon. I think I just don't do it quite enough.

There was one other problem on the tiny map. I'd have my capitol, and maybe 20 squares away a city. The curruption in the city is so horrible under everything but communism that even with a courthouse, there is one production coming through, and no science/monetary. I find this extremely silly and painful, as half my cities were rendered useless by corruption.

Thanks again-- and any sort of response to this message would be.. well.. good.
(I do speak english but I make it hard to tell in forums)