Going against the trend I have to say I enjoy CivIII, granted the first couple of times I plugged her in my blood pressure went up through the roof with the AI dumping cities all over me like they were on some seriously good speed, and then my bright shiny steel battleships being sunk by wooden frigates on a regular basis. But then after playing a bit and learning how it works you get the hang of it and now I have just finished one hell of a good game with my borders respected, world wars being played out, diplomacy ruling the waves etc etc blah blah ….
This is because I found if you concentrate on power, not military but pure industry might, add it with research brains and culture, then this makes the AI terrified to even think of entering your space. I now build a power base of 15-25 cities massed together to form a dominant “culture continent”. I also find you progress better with a weak military as you don’t waste time or money building cavalry when you can build tanks when you need them. Security is done instead by hardball diplomacy, in particular the mutual pacts, as this can keep your opponents under control with a good health combination of back stabbing and war manipulation. The other key for me is to dominate a continent, if from the start I share my continent with others then I clean them out early. This slows you down at the start due to military spending, but once I have a continent to myself and no opposition on my land then I can forget serious military spending to play catch up and then leave them for dead with industry and associated cultural power.
Have to say I am impressed with CivIII and am enjoying playing it. One of the best things I think that has been added is strategic resources as this is both realistic and adds a lot of strategy to the game, as unlike the predecessors Civ1, Civ2 and SMAC you now have to reach out.
This is because I found if you concentrate on power, not military but pure industry might, add it with research brains and culture, then this makes the AI terrified to even think of entering your space. I now build a power base of 15-25 cities massed together to form a dominant “culture continent”. I also find you progress better with a weak military as you don’t waste time or money building cavalry when you can build tanks when you need them. Security is done instead by hardball diplomacy, in particular the mutual pacts, as this can keep your opponents under control with a good health combination of back stabbing and war manipulation. The other key for me is to dominate a continent, if from the start I share my continent with others then I clean them out early. This slows you down at the start due to military spending, but once I have a continent to myself and no opposition on my land then I can forget serious military spending to play catch up and then leave them for dead with industry and associated cultural power.
Have to say I am impressed with CivIII and am enjoying playing it. One of the best things I think that has been added is strategic resources as this is both realistic and adds a lot of strategy to the game, as unlike the predecessors Civ1, Civ2 and SMAC you now have to reach out.
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