"Must Read" threads - NOW in the DIRECTORY (http://apolyton.net/dir)

[Theseus]

Note to newer players:

Do not be taken aback if some of the theads referenced here are as much as three years old.

The fundamentals of strategy have remained the same, regardless of the changes from Civ3 to PTW to C3C.

If something doesn't seem consistent or make sense to you (changed unit stats, how Leaders work, etc.), just post a quick question and someone will clarify ASAP.

Oh, and first of all, a helpful thread re the acronyms we throw around so blithely:

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26248

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There's a lot of buried treasure in 'poly... I thought I'd give a map for where it is.

Thus, here are my recommendations for the threads that MUST BE READ!!

* Starting out:

Let's start with this, which covers some basics that aren;t quite clear from the manuals:
A Draft Guide to Growth and Expansion in Civilization III

The below threads are all in the Strategy forum; for the new player, take a look at this thread, in General:
Winning Early: What do YOU do?

And, to give credit where it's due, the BEST tutorial on tile usage and improvement in the early game is actually on CFC, credits to cracker:

http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/civ3_starts/index.htm

For basic questions, read the FAQ, which is here:

http://apolyton.net/civ3/faq.php

* Overall greatness:
Vel's Strategy thread - Part 3
The Quest for Deeper Strategy....
One of the greatest stories ever told... Catt's AAR for AU 204

* Civs and UUs
Picking the right Civ!
Civs from easiest to hardest
Civ choice for early warmongering
Civ choice for the "builder"
The Virtues of being Industrious....
The Breath of God: Only the Penitent Man shall pass
Most fun militaristic style civs
A Strategic Analysis of the Special Units
Rating Special Units

* Game mechanics
Wonder Guide
Culture-Flipping Exposed
Everything you wanted to know about corruption
Everything you wanted to know about corruption - C3C version
Combat System Explained
F3 Strong/Average/Weak
How do walls really work?
Fundamentals of Mobilization Revealed
Why you do NOT want to mine shielded grasslands!
The Power of the Luxury Slider
Positive and Disturbing Trends (re war weariness)
Compiled Firaxian Comments on Undocumented Game Features
Free Palace Jump

* Strategy in general
Most annoying civs to play against...
Rex - An Essay
Appropriate City Placement
The Case For Food - Or, How to Become Economically Dominant
10 steps for a successful builder strategy
Triple Threat - The Joys of Being a Bloodthirsty Barbarian
The Care, Feeding, and Death of Neighboring Civs
Ultimate Power
Size DOES Matter!
The Industrial Age

* Strategy in specific
The Settler/Defender "Factory"
Super Expansion Strategy: How to Build 100+ cities By 10AD
Lighthouse REX - a winning strat
So very cold (of the map generator)
Psychotic Wonder Building
Scouting
Playing on Huge Maps: Final Report

* Things Military
Getting the most out of your Elites
Timeline for the ultra-early Archer rush
Ancient Era Warfare
On the Utility and Use of Armies
On the Utility and Use of Marines
Fun and Games with Modern Armor
Defending your opponent to death....
Fort Cities


* Multiplayer (includes links to the CIV3PLAYERS Ladder League, where Fried-Psitalon and Sperricles can often be found)
Playing the Metagame: Overarching Civ Strategies
Siege! Taking and defending cities
A look at ALL Civs from a MP point of view
Beating the no-iron blues and other MP problems
Don't Blink, And Other tips for MP Elimination Games
Civ Tribe Traits Ranked in the MP Environment
Fishing in the Desert, or Where Not To Build Some

http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=STRATEGY&action=display&num=1052681941

Pointy End in the Other Fellow - Warmongering in MP

http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=STRATEGY&action=display&num=1052682335

Taming the Beast (IE Carthage)

http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=STRATEGY&action=display&num=1052683668

The Future is Now!
(A Not-So-Brief Treatise on the Nature of the Game in Future Start Scenarios)

http://civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=STRATEGY&action=display&num=1053660691

* Other
The key to AI greatness
The Best Threadjack of the Best
Seven Pillars of Wisdom

* Humor
Amazon.com reviews and strategy....
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There are others with lots to offer... there have been great discussions in various tourney / tournament / AU threads, for instance.

I know it's a lot to read, but it's great stuff!

Lastly, some people don't like the small pictures of resources that come with the game; I found it very helpful to install a graphics mod. The two that seem to be pretty popular are here:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=49992 and

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41321

[Strakorfsky]

Theseus, I congratulate you on trying to help begginers, I wish I had as muhc help learning skills, but, a lot of sites with any useful informationm are out of patch. This means that half of the data there will be no more. But still, best wishes.

-Ronnie

[Theseus]

Hmm, you're right, I forgot to give a warning about pre-1.29f faults.

Thanks for bringing it up... 1) I recommend to new players that you install the patch ASAP, and 2) read the readme.txt before considering all of the good, but potentially out of date, commentary here and on other sites.

[Strakorfsky]

Theseus, also, one more thing, good job in making that "winning early" thread, when I was a newbie, I really coulda used that, but I never knew about Apolyton, oh well, MISTAKES by me.

-Ronnie

[Andemagne]

Links would be nice. and thanks for the map.

[Maquiladora]

Yeah links *hint hint* Just looking through some random ones i missed, all quality stuff.

[MyOlde]

I agree! There is whale of a lot of informative and entertaining reading in these and other threads.

My experience is that I'll read about two posts and suddenly have this overwhelming need to get offline and crank up the game itself!

Thanks for the list, Theseus.

[Theseus]

Can someone tell me how to make the thread titles into links? I only know how to paste the address...

[Harovan]

[URL=http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=99999]Thread title goes here[/URL]

[Theseus]

Very funny...

Edit: Huh?

Edit2: Oh, I think I get it... I gotta do that for them all? How do you get that to tie to the text though? For instance, I've seen people write: "The link is HERE," where the HERE is in blue and obviously a link... isn;t that what I have to do?

(Thanks for the help, and stay dry)

[Coracle]

Originally posted by Theseus
Very funny...

Edit: Huh?

Edit2: Oh, I think I get it... I gotta do that for them all? How do you get that to tie to the text though? For instance, I've seen people write: "The link is HERE," where the HERE is in blue and obviously a link... isn;t that what I have to do?

(Thanks for the help, and stay dry)

Wouldn't "here" be where "Thread title goes here"?
Seems straighforward.


BTW, it is rather funny. With all the new patches Firaxis had to make, and now PTW, not to mention different mods, older strategy threads are indeed LONG defunct and irrelevant. I guess everyone should have waited a year after Civ 3 came out before getting it.

[Aeson]

I guess everyone should have waited a year after Civ 3 came out before getting it.

As you always use 'everyone' as a reference to yourself, I'd have to agree. I for one enjoyed the 8 months or so of Civ3 up to this point.

[Harovan]

2 more examples (sorry, I went to bed last night, it was already 3:30am):

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The Virtues of being Industrious

[URL=http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50963]The Virtues of being Industrious[/URL]

---

You can find Vel's thread here and read about great strategies.

You can find Vel's thread [URL=http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50963]here[/URL] and read about great strategies.

[MarkG]

ever saw this?

http://apolyton.net/civ3/strategy/

please supply urls along with the thread titles and i'll add them to the page

[Theseus]

MarkG, we cross-posted... I just edited to convert all the thread titles into links. Is that what you need?

I wasn't sure if all these were what you would want in the Strategy section, as the list is targeted at the new player / poster. But, you call, obviously...

(btw, what a huge pain that was to do!!)