Civ III is for aggressive warmongers!

[Deathray]

Firstly: what is REXing?

Secondly: I prefer the longbowman/musketman approach to building knights. I also tend to not bother with chivalry and get military tradtion instead. I tech quite fast in the middle ages.

Thirdly: How on Earth do you win a cultural victory? I have managed at most 25,000 points in one city. And that was with about half of the wonders in the game...

[Karhgath]

I'm usually not aggressive, so expansionist != aggressive. WIth a small 10 cities empire, it should be very very hard to win by Space or UN, I mean, who would vote for Switzerland to be the world-leader, even if they are very friendly and all?

Also, it is theorically possible, with only one city, to win by culture... you must build a couple of high-culture early wonders. However, it is harder and harder to buil wonders as the difficulty level rise, and you need a big empire to research or get a lot of money. This is the big problem, preventing you from winning by culture with a small empire. So yes, there is somewhat of an imbalance there.

Also, I agree with MustPost... I forgot to talk about it, but you must, no, need to have as much luxury as possible, and as early as possible. Also connect all your cities(that should have been taken care of by REXing anyway). For a peaceful game, you DON'T need most of the resources, except iron and coal. You say I am playing agressively, but at the same time, you tell me that you want knights, so, go figure =) Also, I usually NEVER research optional tech, beside Republic/Democacy, unless I can buy it from someone. Chivalry and Military Tradition are optional, so I never usually have Knights or Cavalry.

Also, you imply that 'dual' units, used both as offense and defense, are good... in my opinion, they ARE NOT. I never use 'dual' units. They are usually either a little bit worse at defense or offense, and equal at the other. For me, every points count. I always split the 2 : offensive and defensive. When I attack, I bring both of them, the best defenders and the best attackers. That's why I don't usually need Knights, and anyway, I'm rarely agressive(but that doesn't mean I don't field an army, hehe). Since you can get musketman nearly at the same time as chivalry(only one tech later), and that it is not an optional tech, I usually never research chivalry. Since all defensive units can be upgraded up to mech inf, it is a lot better to split both offensive and defensive units. All offensive units are stuck at one time where they can't upgrade. (Swordman, Longbowman and Cavalry for example).

As for REXing, do a search on this forum, you'll understand =) The idea is trying to keep up with the fast expansion of the AI. It stands for Rapid Early eXpansion(REX). Dunno who cornered that name first, but it wasn't me =) Some see it as another ICS(Infinite City Sleaze, in Civ2), but I don't think it is, the only thing that it does is making you able to be neck to neck to the AI for expansion, and a good early game.

[Samudragupt]

The only problem with all these strategies REXing , VASSALizing etc. is that
they take the fun out of the game - at least for me. You see I start thinking of - So if I really were the Indians at the dawn of time should I REX or should I VASSAL.. . That kind of does it for me . But on the flip side I am yet to win at Emperor, though I win easily enough on Monarch. Hmmmmm maybe aI will REX.... just a little bit .Not too much or one loses historical flavor

[Master Marcus]

As I said, that depends of the gameplay style inherent to each player. I'm still a peaceful hybrid expansionist even if I build a strong army: I want short wars to be successful, so I'll need numerous and strong units and they serve me at the same time as a detterent to prevent unexpected wars by aggressive AI ( the coding in Civ III in that matter seems to be well done ).

True: the tech rate in late Middle Ages is faster, and Cavalry is the end of horses upgrades, but still the strongest attacker you'll have until the end of Industrial ( Tanks, Marines ). Upgrading a Knight to Cavalry costs only 20 gold.....I like using that and more artillery units than before, more helpful than I originally thought.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Karhgath
Also, you imply that 'dual' units, used both as offense and defense, are good... in my opinion, they ARE NOT.

Some are. Examples: Bowman, Legion.