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or at CFC, really good early game behavior is either spread all over too many threads, or buried in some old ones, or out of date due to patches.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.
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Any contributors?
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?
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