I need help, third time playing

[bignick270]

Its taking an oftly long time to discover technology, the second game is played i was in 1980s with calvary, rifleman, early industrial age.

I find France to be ok and what ive been playing with(indus., commerce). Im not to much into war in the beginning and i dont really like to share the same land with another civilization if i can help it.

Also i need to know how to create an ARMY. I will get military tradition but it requires a victorious army to build an acadamy. How do you get a victorious army, i destroyed 90% or so of Rome on time and couldnt get it.

Also i found a easy way to get money if you take a city and dont want it. Sell it to another civ. and get luxery items, alot of money a turn and lump sums, after defeating rome one time i wipped every countries treasuries dry.

Also how can i buy technology from other civs if im more advanced? So that way wont help.

Whats the best government to use? I been using Monarchy, but ive read that not that good.

Ive been seeing the importance of alot of cities and roads. Some of my cities get placed in bad areas, what are "ideal" locations to place them?

What is the best setup for a map, I really dont like alot of civilzations (4-7 others) for right now, i might reconsider latter as i get more used to the game.

How do some of these people get many cities before AD comes, i usually only have like 3-4. My second city is usually in mid 2000 BC. Thats bad, but i try to produce settlers as fast as possible, maybe im doing it wrong--I build barracks first in every town to get the population up then if the time is low enough, i build a settler. But i usually forget defensive units and get killed if im connected to another civ.

Is it better to let the workers got automated (Ctrl+A) or contorl them your self which gets tireding

[notyoueither]

1. Get the 1.17f patch. Most everybody plays with it, so their advice will be based on it. Go to civ3.com to get it.

2. You need a Great Leader to get your first Army. You may get a GL from a successful battle when your unit is Elite (5 pips). The odds are aprox 1 out of 10 or 20 (1 of 16 according to the stated rules). Your unit must be Elite or you will not have any chance of getting a GL from that combat.

You need to get units promoted to Elite, then conserve them and give them battles they are likely to win in order to maximise the number of GLs you may get in a game. Building Barracks is a good start since any unit coming from that city will start as Vet (only 1 promotion away from Elite).

3. Selling cities. You won't be able to do that with 1.17f. What you need to do is get your Gold output higher. Try building roads in every tile being worked by your cities for a start.

4. Republic, and later Democracy are better at Science than Monarchy. In general.

5. Build Barracks when you intend to go to war. At first you should build Warriors and Settlers. Nothin but. If you want to expand fast.

Good luck.

[Arrian]

What level are you playing on? Technology goes pretty slow on the lowest levels because the AI has research handicaps, so you have to research everything yourself.

Get yourself a good starting spot (a river and some sort of bonus resource), and then build warrior, warrior, warrior, settler, warrior, settler, warrior... you get the idea. Unless you intend to play as a warmonger, barracks are not important in early stages.

The key to science is pumping up your economy. Roads, large cities, income from trade deals, certain wonders (colossus, copernicus, adam smith, newton, seti, and to an extent even leonardo's), and a good understanding of the tax/tech slider are the important components of an advanced civilization. You do know how the 4 and 40 turn research caps work, right?

Republic and Democracy are also important, as they increase commerce and lower corruption. Monarchy is only worthwhile if you have a large army and intend to use it.

Personally, I don't automate my workers until I'm done manually improving all of the terrain actually used by my cities. Then I let the shift+A command take care of unused squares and pollution control (usually late industrial - early modern times). Yes, it can be tedious (I actually enjoy it), but automated workers are dumb, and irrigate too much.

-Arrian

[BillChin]

Re: I need help, third time playing

At the start, take a turn or two to pick a good tile for the capital. A river, coast or building over a luxury icon gives a nice early boost. For novice players I suggest an initial build of three warriors, settler, three more warriors, settler. Plant these first two settlers very close to the capital so it is easy to connect with roads. This start yields three cities all connected by roads, and six warriors by about turn 45. Works on any type of terrain.

Barracks are not important on sparse maps. Temples are more useful because they expand the city borders and help with happiness.

To get an army, a player needs a victorious elite unit. To do this save your elites for attacking weakened enemy units. Always keep another unit with an elite so they are never alone. This will increase your chances.

Many players manually do the workers until all cities are connected by roads, then use Shift A to automate and preserve. This prevents them from tearing up mines to irrigate or vice-versa.

For city location, resources and food, and strategic location are most important. Many players like 4 x 4 city spacing, but that is not important to me.

I like to set research to max early and then set it really low to get gold. The gold is useful for upgrading units and buying tech. It is hard to buy tech if you are playing on Chieftain or Warlord difficulty because the AI is so slow in research.

Practice the early game by playing a few maps only through the first age and then start another game. You can get about five cities by about 1600 B. C. on an average map.

[Raion]

A lot of people have played earlier versions of this game, even when the Internet was not there (in its present form) and have learned how to play the game. All total years of this game amounts to 12 years.
Take time to consider - RTM. (We all had too!)