Confession. I suck at Civ III.

[notyoueither]

Yes. Many people find that neglect of the military results in being swept under by the rising tide of an aggressive AI.

You can keep track of how you stand vis-a-vis your neibours with the military advisor. He will tell you if your forces suck (are very weak compared too) or are OK (are average compared too). Anything less than an average rating against a bordering civ will lead to trouble if you do not increase your forces quickly.

You cycle through the civs by clicking on the title bar at the top of the right hand frame. Incidentally, that is where you can find out what governments your opponents are in.

Good luck. With civ and your wife.

[notyoueither]

PS. Where abouts in Edmonton?

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Simpleton
I think the games ok and I will play it more but I'm too busy(...)
It all depends on my wife.

Studying, playing Civ and having a wife? You got to respect that... I only try to combine working, studying and Civ... hard enough as it is

Just one remark to this discussion: as a builder, getting used to ancient warfare is hard in CivIII. However, coming from previous versions it can be fun to stay a builder, which might be a bit difficult at first, but still can be done. Just try to understand the aspect of culture in its smaller details, and everything will work out fine.

Yesterday, I won an emperor game without battling any other civ once, with a space victory. Got 7 or 8 cities flipping to me, so was only second in land area, but still it was nice to try to avoid all war, maintaining a comfortable lead through industrial and modern times. If only it was possible to build ancient wonders without great leaders, I wouldn't ever need to fight a war.

Oh, and having a moderate army in comparison to the warmonger AIs helps a lot in keeping the peace, but paying tribute is also a (bitter) solution. Just make sure the AIs never stay annoyed for more then a few turns, and surprise attacks are never a problem, even if you are military weak.

DeepO

[reefer addict]

ive been lucky to win twice on emp. ive found you need a strong economy as fast as you can build it ( markets and banks as soon as you get them) its also very importany to keep your civ balanced. if you build all culture the ai will attack, if you build all military the ai will culture bomb you or just out tech you untill your military is an age behind. for me , balance is the key. cant wait to test you all in mp

[Simpleton]

Originally posted by notyoueither
PS. Where abouts in Edmonton?

Actually, I live in St. Albert but I think when I signed up for Apolyton I lived in Edmonton and just never changed it.
I used to live in Londonderry just down 145th ave from Londonderry mall.
Why do you ask are you from Edmonton?

PS: Thanks for the info on Civ3 I'll try some of the stuff you mentioned and keep practicing when I can.

[Simpleton]

Originally posted by DeepO

Studying, playing Civ and having a wife? You got to respect that... I only try to combine working, studying and Civ... hard enough as it is

Actually, she's pretty good about things but this weekend I promised her we'd do something together (movie, dinner, whatever). I'm actually looking forward to it.

Yesterday, I won an emperor game without battling any other civ once, with a space victory. Got 7 or 8 cities flipping to me, so was only second in land area, but still it was nice to try to avoid all war, maintaining a comfortable lead through industrial and modern times. If only it was possible to build ancient wonders without great leaders, I wouldn't ever need to fight a war.


DeepO

I think part of the problem with my strategy is I prefer to play a non-aggressive style. I build a small army and concentrate on culture and tech. It seems more difficult to play this way in Civ3 which is ok. It's a different game right? Hence, different strategies are needed.

I'm actually pretty cool with sucking at Civ3 for now but I will take all the advice people have given and try it. It can't hurt right?

[SlowwHand]

Another thing is that even though ICS should be easy, I have this perfectionist mind block going on.

[Panag]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Another thing is that even though ICS should be easy, I have this perfectionist mind block going on.

hi ,

nothing is perfect , ......

and it would be "dull" if it would be , ...

have a nice day

[SlowwHand]

Things just fly right over that little pumpkin head of yours, don't they ?

[notyoueither]

Perfect city placement (no overlap) and building improvements too early can have serious negative effects on your overall empire.

Personally, I favour city spacing of 3 tiles in general. This allows more cities in any given area and decreases corruption effects due to distance from capitol.

[SpencerH]

Is the Rosalyn still there in Edmonton ?

[notyoueither]

Yes. I'm in Edmonton.

SpencerH, the Rosslyn? Ohh boy, that brings back some memories. Me and my brother... oops too far OT perhaps...

Yes, it's still there. Recently renovated apparently.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Simpleton
I think part of the problem with my strategy is I prefer to play a non-aggressive style. I build a small army and concentrate on culture and tech. It seems more difficult to play this way in Civ3 which is ok. It's a different game right? Hence, different strategies are needed.

It surely is a different game when you want to keep military conflict to a minimum. You have to be very diplomatic, a big change from CivII where diplomacy was dead once you got the upperhand. Further, it is much easier to do it with certain civs, at certain map settings, I can't imagine playing a peace-game with the Japanese on a tiny map... although it has to be possible. Big continents, with Egypt, Persia, Greece or the Babs are, IMHO, the best to start with. Panganea is also fine, but if you 're unlucky to start with several war-civs in your neighbourhood you have to prepare for war.

Even if I plan in front how I'm going to play, a lot depends on the situation. In the game described above I could avoid all battles because I had the lower third of a big continent, while two other civs were battling for the upper part. I kept them polite, and they kept battling each other. When I saw one of the two was winning too much (keep explorers watching the front-line!) I gave the other some advantage, which could be an extra tech, some money, or a resource/luxury. I didn't go for a diplomatic victory, but I'm sure I was able to, as everybody was always nice to me (and I to them).

The current game, I'm even harder trying to experiment with peaceful victory, and conquest through culture flipping. I play the Babs, with the Zulu as immediate neighbor, the Persians beside them. Those two battle constantly, and whenever I see one of their cities razed, I immediately drop down a city on the available space -- even if it is just one tile of free space surrounded by foreign territory. I got some 7 city flips so far (1000AD), and it looks like there are another 20 or so cities which have a chance of flipping to me. Not one of my cities is in any danger of flipping, so as long as they'll keep friendly, I'll only grow. And I'm the largest already.

I couldn't avoid all conflict, though. Once I discovered another continent, I placed a city next to a free wine. Almost immediately, one of the Russian cities next to it flipped, which a little later turned out to contain a saltpeter source. I was amazed with the easy gaining of two key resources (cost: one settler and two spearmen), but so were the Germans. They declared war (even if they were polite), I got the Russians and English fighting them, and lost one spearman in the first attackwave. After sueing for peace (got 3 techs and an island city from the Germans, even if I only destroyed 2 or 3 attackers), The Russians attacked me. So I took one city with iron, and got the Germans and English to war for me.

As a result, everybody is battling each other, and all are relatively good mannered to me, as I didn't do much damage to them. Meanwhile, I'm building my infrastructure, and I'll either get a cultural, or a space race victory without any problem. I'm already 4 techs in front, before going to the modern age...

One last advice: my army is always just as big as I need them to be, but I always keep a quite large force of obsolete units running around. Plus the moment I got a new unit I build it and parade it in full view of every civ in my neighborhood. I try to fool the AI that I have a large force of modern units, when I have a large force of warriors and just one modern unit. I don't know whether the AI reasons like this, but it does keep them happy

DeepO

[Radiation Zero]

Hmmm... looks like a big war with Aztec is inevitable.

Anyone want to give me some tips on how I should run this campaign?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by DeepO

I try to fool the AI that I have a large force of modern units, when I have a large force of warriors and just one modern unit. I don't know whether the AI reasons like this, but it does keep them happy

DeepO

An interesting theory, confusing a computer