Winning Early: What do YOU do?

[Theseus]

It seems to me that as one learns Civ3, one of the most critical skills to develop is managing the very early game... and there's no place for a new player to go for a detailed set of guidelines on what to do!!!

The manual and strategy guide are both way too general, and even if a new player has the good fortune to end up here or at CFC, really good early game behavior is either spread all over too many threads, or buried in some old ones, or out of date due to patches. Even the FAQs are a little to all-encompassing.

If a new player manages the very early game well, it's much, much more likely that the rest of a given game will be successful... I call it 'winning early.'

Soooo, I thought it would be cool for everyone to post their tips and tricks for the very early game.

I'll start off with some basics:

* When you're starting out, don't kill yourself with a bad starting position; press Ctrl-Shift-Q to re-start. Feel free to do it until you see some good land, a river, and bonus tiles.

* Before you build your capitol, pause and look closely at your starting position. Press Ctrl-Shift-M... sometimes the black fog pulls back just enough that you can see a special resource on a nearby tile. Your capitol is going to increase its radius from 9 to 21 tiles fairly soon, as you start with the cultural benefit of the Palace; you might want to move 1 or 2 tiles to best position the city to access special and shielded tiles. Also, if there's a river nearby, you DEFINITELY want to build alongside it, as this lets you grow the capitol to more than 6 pop without an aqueduct (trust me, that's a very big deal!), and all river tiles generate extra gold.

* Mine, mine, mine. The only exceptions are Cattle and Wheat anywhere, and Wines on grassland, all of which can take advantage of irrigation under Despotism, and produce more than 2 food, and plains, which should be irrigated (desert is another story... but hopefully that's not an issue in the early game). Make sure to mine the shielded grassland (I didn;t know about this for months!). In general, mine before putting down a road, unless you know it's a road that will be used for exploration.

* As soon as start researching the first tech, move your tax slider down to 10-20%, whatever will still research the tech in 40 turns. Research choices are often dependent on the specific civ, but you are going to want to get Iron Working and The Wheel sooner rather than later, just so you know where the iron and horses are. If you left culture linking on, figure out what the neighboring AI civs start with... don;t research those techs, as you'll buy, trade, or go to war for them.

* Get some exploration going... even if you have a scout, send out some Warriors. If possible, keep them on hills and mountains for the better view. If you find a barbarian encampment on a hill, you might want to fortify a Warrior on an adjacent hill or mountain, and wait for a couple of barb Warriors concripts to attack it... it'll almost certainly survive, and be promoted, and should take out the encampment once it's reached at least veteran. Barb encampment on open ground... destroy it ASAP.

* Only use military units for goody huts. If you're expansionist, you just might get a Settler out of one, but not if you currently have a Settler or are building one... if need be, temporarily change that town to building something else.

* FIND THE LUXURIES... nothing will help you more than having 2-3 luxuries connected and in your territory very early (well, maybe a Settler from a hut!). Don't forget that luxuries also offer food, shield, and gold bonuses.

* When building Settlers, try to time the build so that it finishes JUST after the town has grown. As Mom says, don't waste food.

* When building your new towns, remember that you can build anywhere except for mountains, and still get 2 food and 1 shield minimum. Hills with gold are great, as you automatically get the gold, and you have a 50% defensive bonus. You DO NOT have to clear jungles and forests; just building a town does that automatically.

* If you're near a coast, and there's good land, try to get a town built there relatively early, touching at least one sea tile. One of the early Great Wonders, the Colossus, is often achievable by the human player. Also, look closely at any coastal tiles with rivers / deltas along them... these generate extra gold.

* Your first 4 towns, if possible, should be on the diagonals from your capitol, and anywhere from 3-6 tiles away.This is obviously going to be subject to a lot of factors, but is a good guideline.

* Don't over-improve the tiles around towns, even your capitol... you want to have the best tiles improved, but only so many as are needed by the town for the current moment or in the near future. When you can, start extending your roads to the next place you'll build a town, so the Settler can get there that much faster.
________________________________________

Any contributors?

[Velociryx]

* As soon as you get 4-5 cities up and running, it's time to take stock of your current situation. Depending on the techs you have under your belt by this time, and the proximity of bad guys, you may want to consider a *really* early game attack (Archer Rush) to weaken your nearest enemies. If you do, you're goal should be 4-5 Archers and a Spearman guard. That's a mean enough strike force to whack most cities this early (exception - Don't mess with The Greek unless you bring more guys!). If you go this route, then you'll want Veteran troopers, which means building barracks!

* Road, road, road. Can't be stressed enough. Roads are good for you for three reasons. 1) Money. Money buys you tech from the AI. The more you have, the better off you will be 2) Resettlement. A settler moving along roads travels three tiles per turn. On open ground he travels one. You need speed! 3) Military Road Network! These roads might not be in the most convenient places for commerce, but that's not the point! You want to be able to rapidly get your troops where you need them, so build roads with this in mind!

* Road, road, road (part two) - if you're making an early strike against an AI, then build roads toward him to help your troops. Six tiles for a horseman makes for some mighty fast reinforcement, and three for an Archer/Spearman/Swordsman ain't bad either. If you're playing peacefully, STILL make roads toward the AI, so you can connect to his capitol and trade spare resources for map information, contact info, and tech!

* Specialize your cities! If you have a high pop growth city, set him up to be your main settler producer. If you have a medium to high growth city, set him up as a worker farm. If you have a forested city with 1-2 game tiles, let him work on an early wonder, or perhaps build a barracks there and bulk up your military from that city, primarily (unless you're launching an early attack, then everybody needs to focus on military till you get your army built).

-=Vel=-
(more later)

PS: OSCILLATING WAR! DO NOT (italicize, bold, underline twice) take an enemy civ out in one shot if you have multiple neighbors. It is far better for you to take 1-2 cities from each of your neighbors, attacking them in turn and weakening all...growing at the expense of all. If you do it the other way, yes, you will win your first war, and the other AI civs will keep right on expanding, and be a good deal more dangerous to you when you get around to them. Hit them each in turn, in a series of small wars. Picture yourself as a little oscillating fan, turning toward one AI and pasting him, then moving on to the next right after you force a peace.
-v.

[Velociryx]

* Adopt a "Build it once, build it well" philosophy. When you train troops for battle, don't throw them away. Time and coordinate your attacks for maximum effect. The more troops that survive in your first wars, the fewer you need to build for your next war(s). Same goes with city improvements. If you can't afford to maintain it, then don't build it till you can! Build it once!

* Upgrade everything, but be smart about it. If nobody's threatening you, then don't upgrade your city defenders till there's a need. You've got tons of other stuff you can do with your money! Upgrade your attackers first, focusing on the Elites who have already generated leaders first, and saving the Elites who have NOT generated leaders for last.

* Guard your elites! Let them take down the wounded, never let them lead an attack!

* Use armies to take down the first defender in a heavily fortified city. Use bombardment in whatever form you currently have it in to shrink cities and mitigate defensive bonuses against you.

* If you have multiple armies, use them as a defensive shield for your other approaching troops. The AI will be leery about attacking your armies!

* Always try to end your troop movement in favorable terrain (across a river from the bad guys, on a hill, on a mountain....something). You can be less careful about this if you have your attack force travelling with an Army.

-=Vel=-
(more later)

[Theseus]

Thanks for chiming in, O Wise One!

Let's try to keep the discussion sorta within this time frame... from the start up to and including the first wars. If a new player can get this far having played well, he / she will be in good shape for the rest of the game.

Chime in!!

[Simpleton]

Great thread!! Lots of stuff I never even considered!
I'll try some of this advice on my next game.

I'll probably print this thread out once it gets big enough and use it as my game guide. It's a lot better than the actual game guide for Civ3! That thing sux.


Thanks guys/gals.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

*REX - you want to get all the good city sites, and you want to expand towards your neighbors to cut off their expansion. The more cities that you have REXed, the earlier your core cities can start concentrating on improvements, while your outer cities build baracks/units/workers/settlers. More improvements means more money.

*On a standard map with max civs, the nearest civ will usually be within 10-15 tiles of your capital. In this case, do an aborive REX: build three cities quickly, then an archer in each, maybe two from your capital, and then prune them on your first war: taking the capital and another city will usually net you another city from the peace traty. During the peace treaty, REX some more, build up your military, then take em out, or concentrate on another civ.

*Set tax to 100% and buy techs from everyone else. You can also act as a middle man. Never give away contancts except for on a one to one basis (contact for contact)

[Capt Dizle]

Just build as many military units as you can. Expand to cut off the AI and then backfill with cities, ending up with classic ICS built from the outside in. In about half your cities including perimeter cites build temples, markets and banks. In the others build granaries and pump out workers and troops. Build barracks everywhere of a matter of course.

Build no libraries or universities. Do no research. Buy or extort tech. Build cathedrals coliseums only when needed for happiness. Minimize that by trading for luxuries until you can steal them by expansion.

War, war, war. Never build wonders. Use leaders. If you have no leaders war more.

It is a very simple and linear game. Trying to be civilized in your gameplay works against the paradigm.

Don't get cute. There is no finesse here, its just brute force.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
Just build as many military units as you can. . . .
It is a very simple and linear game. Trying to be civilized in your gameplay works against the paradigm.

Don't get cute. There is no finesse here, its just brute force.

That is certainly one way to play the game, but not the only way. For instance, in this game the Americans warred for 22% of the turns starting in 3000BC, winning by Spaceship.

http://www.zachriel.com/gotm5/

In this game, the Germans fought not one war until Panzers, then quickly dominated the world.

http://www.zachriel.com/gotm8/

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Theseus
Let's try to keep the discussion sorta within this time frame... from the start up to and including the first wars. If a new player can get this far having played well, he / she will be in good shape for the rest of the game.

Knowing when to start the first war is crucial. Often, the first war will coincide with the end of the expansion phase of the game, when there is no more room to found new towns. If at this point in the game you are in a superior position, then peace is best. Negotiate. Set up longterm trades. But if you are in an inferior position, then you must fight to survive. Gather your strength, then strike.

(By the way, I agree with your thesis, Theseus. When someone masters the early game, the later game is more fun.)

[The Puny Celt]

The following works for me on lower levels:
In the early years I go to the Domestic Adviser screen every turn, adjusting the tax rate so as to get the quickest time to research a tech while ensuring I'm using money efficiently. E.g often you can get the same discovery time at 80% as you do at 20% - the difference being that at 80% your budget surplus might be 2 gold, but at 20% it's 20 gold!

If I find I have a near neighbour I immediately start preparations to attack and destroy that civilization, because I don't think peaceful coexistence works in this game. If playing continents, I want that continent all to myself. (See Vel's post for the best way to conduct a war). The trick is not to neglect other matters for a pure military build-up.

And my advice for determining when to start a war is to wait for your neighbourly civ to send its warrior/spearman accompanied settler in your direction, as they inevitably do, and take them out before they found a city. Then you get two bonus workers, and give the AI Civ a serious setback in its development.

[DeepO]

Re: Winning Early: What do YOU do?

Originally posted by Theseus
* Mine, mine, mine. The only exceptions are Cattle and Wheat anywhere, and Wines on grassland, all of which can take advantage of irrigation under Despotism, and produce more than 2 food, and plains, which should be irrigated (desert is another story... but hopefully that's not an issue in the early game). Make sure to mine the shielded grassland (I didn;t know about this for months!). In general, mine before putting down a road, unless you know it's a road that will be used for exploration.

I couldn't help commenting on this one... as it is not a fixed paradigm, but a matter of opinion. Mining shielded grasslands in despotism is good, as long as you remember to irrigate them later if irrigation is needed. And even if I will sometimes irrigate cows, I will never irrigate wheat (except on flood plains of course, as it is the only option). The reason is that you want those balanced tile later on, and it gives you no advantage to irrigate a wheat. If you'd mine it, you get one more shield, if you irrigate you could get more growth, but most of the times you'd use this extra food to work a forest. So, in most cases, mining a wheat will do more good, or does as best as irrigating it and using some other shield provider.

The 'mine before you road except when you need the road to get somewhere' strat is very valid, and something that is easily overlooked.

GL hunting might need some more covering, so here a few of my points:
* As Vel said, guard your elites. On top of that, try to set up killing grounds. If you are at war with an AI and don't have enough troops to take some of its cities or you are waiting to let them grow (size 1 cities will be autorazed, something you'd want to avoid if you're looking for city expansion), choose a nice hill or mountain next to some flat terrain where the AI will pass if he wants to attack you cities. Build a road to there, put down a spearman and a few archers, and kill everything that moves past you. Your troops will be elite fast, and hopefully you'll get a GL in the process. Always retreat to the hill top to rest, and don't expose your elites: if they attack something and are within range of the enemy troops, move your spearman to guard them.

*Use your GLs wisely. If you are lucky and get an elite early on, use it for an army, which immediately attacks again. No need to load it full at the first turn, just win an easy battle. This will let you build the Heroic Epic, which in turn will bring more GLs. If you have a later GL, it is better to use it for a Forbidden Palace.

* Once you get a GL, don't attack with elites again before it gets used in either an army or rushing a building. You're only allowed one GL at any time, don't waste elite victories when you don't have to. Of course, you can get more GLs in one turn, so once you get one, always try to move and use the GL that same turn, and get back to the fighting afterwards.

* Corruption battling: as soon as you know the surrounding terrain, start planning on where your palace and FP will be. It is imperative to have these 2 in good positions if you want to have an easy middle and late game, and as such the placement of these is a thing to look out for in the early game. You should aim for a palace and a FP, both surrounded with a core of cities, both areas more or less independent, not overlapping. In most cases, a former AI capital is a good choice for one of these buildings. If you have an early leader, using it on a FP might be the best thing to do. Otherwise, build your FP in one of the cities close to your capital, and plan on moving the capital later by rushing a palace. Always plan these palaces carefully, they will mean the difference between an okay empire, and a corruption free empire.

* Culture: If you're not planning on war, don't focus your earliest cities on troops. Focus on cultural buildings instead. This pays double when you are either religious or scientific: religous civs get temples on half price, the others have cheap libraries. Building a temple in 3000 BC will mean that by 2000 BC (~20 turns later) it will produce double the culture. If you build that same temple in 500 AD, it will take to 1500 AD to double its cultural output, which is over 100 turn. Early cultural buildings are very powerful. Further, building up culture will make it easier to go to war: the main thing that is causing culture flips later on is the lack of culture. This is very hard to correct, you should start on it as soon as you find the time.

* Strategic troop movement: Once you find a chokepoint between yourself and a AI civ, always occupy it using some of your exploring warriors. Chokepoints can come in many forms, sometimes just one tile wide, sometimes 4 or 5 wide. Denying them access to your land will mean that you don't have to fear their settlers building on 'your' land. Be careful though, as soon as the AI gets ships it will start circumventing the chokepoints, so you still have to hurry to build there. But it will give you some more time.

* Terrain blocking: related to above: if you see an AI expanding towards you, try to settle first where you would like to have the border with him, backfilling later. For this it is imperative you have a (military) road towards the front, as your settlers can move quickly towards him. If a settler takes 15 turns to get somewhere, chances are that by the time it reaches its destination an AI city already flourishes there.
In the same spirit: try to settle coastal areas first, as it will prevent the AI to land settler teams on your side of the continent.
Other city placements things to look out for: if you have a chokepoint, it will be in many cases a good idea to put down a city there. This will get the defenders an extra bonus, and in many cases it will mean that your ships get a shortcut, or an inner sea is 'opened' for ships. Another of those points that don't matter much in the early game, but could be big later on.

* And a final point on early wars: In most cases there isn't much trade in the early times, so if you can take out all resources of an AI, it will be easy sailing from then on. An AI without iron or horses can't build much until musketmen or riflemen appear, except for longbowmen. This means that your archers and horsemen have a very long shelf life. Again, when oscillating, focus on pillaging these reasources (and luxuries too, of course) first, it will always take the AIs a while to recover. For this, it is ideal to use a pair of spearmen, these can protect each other while pillaging.

DeepO

[mwaf]

Originally posted by The Puny Celt
The following works for me on lower levels:
In the early years I go to the Domestic Adviser screen every turn, adjusting the tax rate so as to get the quickest time to research a tech while ensuring I'm using money efficiently. E.g often you can get the same discovery time at 80% as you do at 20% - the difference being that at 80% your budget surplus might be 2 gold, but at 20% it's 20 gold!

I usually modify the science rate when there's only one turn until that advance is discovered. That way I don't have to check it every turn. I'm not sure which method (checking every turn or only the last turn) is more profitable. If anyone has mabe any research on this, let us know.

BTW, late in the game, altering the science rate the last turn from 80% to 20% (if possible) could easily increase the surplus from 40 to 600.

[DeepO]

mwaf, there was a whole thread on this issue less then a week ago: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=57228 . This is not so much a early game question, but more a late game thing... In the early game you either choose to have the fewest science possible (20% if none of your cities is size 2, 10% otherwise. 1 scientist is also good), or try to get to a certain tech first and trade this to the rest. late game research is different, as you will most likely be in the lead.

DeepO

[Arrian]

Some more tips:

Make diplomatic contact with every civ you know every turn (I know it's a little tedious, but bear with me). If there is a worker for sale, BUY IT. They are cheap, and buying them will cripple the AI's early development. Be aware that keeping these "slaves" will hurt relations with their former owners, but the easy way around it is to add them ("b" button) to your cities. This will allow you to bounce your population back up from building settlers.

-You need to decide fairly early on what approach you are going to take to technology. This depends on several factors: how many civs you know, what level you are playing on, and which civ you are playing as. There are essentially 4 methods:

1) Jack you science rate up high and attempt to out-research the AI (this will not work, excepting certain circumstance, above Regent. Not in the early game)
2) Beeline for literature and build the Great Library
3) Set tax to 100%, use 1 scientist to aim for a 2nd level tech in 40 turns while buying other techs from the AI.
4) Unleash hell. Beat the tech out of the AI.

Get the lay of the land, hit Ctrl+Shift+M and have a look at the resource layout, and decide whether or not you need to kill things (not that I do this... with me it's just a question of when).

If you do not intend to fight for a while, I strongly suggest you pick a decent spot for the Forbidden Palace, work on getting the city in question up from 1 shield, and build the FP. I also strongly suggest that you make it a priority to build roads to you neighbors. Sometimes you will have to enter their territory to connect them... you may even want to pay them for a RoP to accomplish this. If you do not want to fight, this is worth it, as trading luxuries with the AI will make them a LOT happier with you.

Make it a priority to build things that will improve your economy: marketplaces, libraries, courthouses, along with the usual temples (in the case of a scientific but not religious civ, maybe not... it depends on how many luxuries you have access to). I tend to build temples right away with religious civs to get my borders culturelocked, and to ensure a cultural advantage. As a non-religious civ, I may concentrate on crippling a neighbor first, but I still build those temples.

Even if you are more of a builder than a destroyer, you need to have a respectable military or the AI will decide you are weak and attack you. I strongly suggest having a mobile reserve of horsemen (on a standard map, say 10 of them). These upgrade to lovely things called knights later on...

more to come as I wake up this morning...

-Arrian

[Minmaster]

why don't mine cattle?

* Mine, mine, mine. The only exceptions are Cattle ...

i dont get it why not mine cattles? i always mine em..