Industrial/Modern Age TacticsFirst

[Dukovsky]

First of all, there are two misconceptions about the industrial era about many newbies out there, first, calvary is still afective against riflemen, only when infantry is introduced then they are obsolete. I have heard many claim that calvary should upgrade to tanks, frankly, that is quite stupid, and it will really be dumb when multiplayer version comes out and it is chnaged to that, first reason is, if calavry could upgrade, it would mean that all one must do is make a large amount of horsemen in the beggining and he is set for the rest of game, that is quite unfair in a sence. 2: because it can not upgrade to tank, it requirs time for nations to build up defences against tanks, so everyone will be on a more even playing field, when it comes to military at least, because only 5 tanks are needed to overwhelm enemy posistions. (When playing with the Germans, take use of the Panzer tanks, these mighty creatures can use a blitzkrieg ability that allows them to move two turns then attack, and even more when on a road, and en-mass, they can easly take down multiple cities in one turn alone.) Also, when you enter the industrial age, head straight for factories, it may be tempting to go for sanitation but, factory will allow even a lacking nation become a solid competetor, also, when multiplayer comes out, it will often be who can get factories and hospitols first who exceeds the other players. After factories, work to hospitals, they will allow you to grow and fully exploit you town terrain. Ounce you have them, go either to Theory of evolv. and to Hover dam, SETI comes in modern. Try and get as quickly as you can to tank advance, it will give you a extremly powerful force, and often will make the difference between who wins and loses if you are in a tight game with the AI.

In the modern, go for Spaceflight advance. (you will need the tin for modern armore) Ounce gotten, go for Synthetic Fibers and get the much valued Modern Armore, this unit will allow you to dominate weaker civs if needed. the advances you go for in Modern are really what you are trying to win in, if space, take the advances to the space flight. If UN, take fission. If you are still in need of military dominance on this age, you better hurry fast, because the AI might already be constructing the space project, you will want to use your embassy to find it where it is being built and attack that city to destroy all their progresse, while keeping your safe as possible. Till' next time, IEN KOUF

[Capt Dizle]

Well, you may find yourself in the situation where you can get both sanitation and industrialization in a very short timeframe, but factories take longer to build so building hospitals first may be the best move. Games vary depending on map size and situations.

[Zanthis]

calvary is still afective against riflemen, only when infantry is introduced then they are obsolete

If you're planning to attack anyone in the period between infantry and tanks, the advantage goes to the defender (assuming they are using infantry as well) since infantry and calvery both have an attack factor of 6 while infantry fortified in a city will have a defense of 17.5 it will take at least 3 attackers to kill one deffender. Calvery have an advantage over infantry in that they can retreat. Wounded units can heal once the city is captured while dead units will require more production devoted to the war.

I'm primarilya builder and I limit my wars to either quickly capturing a few prize citys or generating elite units and GLs by attacking units and ignoring citys. By the dawn of tanks, when calvery truely become obsolete, I save my old elites for attacking weakened units. Eventualy my obsolete calvery are either killed in combate or dispanded after GL generation.

when you enter the industrial age, head straight for factories, it may be tempting to go for sanitation but, factory will allow even a lacking nation become a solid competetor

I usualy research sanitation first, wether I'm behind or not. The AI tends to ignore it so once I discover it, I can sell it to all the other civs and get several techs, alot of gold per turn, and luxuries.

I build factories before hospitals since the extra population arn't usualy very useful. I could probably ignore hospitals completly and my civ would still thrive. At the start of the modern era most of my citys typicaly have a population around 25, while the AI seldom seems to grow beyond 14. The extra 1 gold, or 1 science produced by citizens in size 19 or higher citys isn't noticable.

[YC4B4U]

Do you not find that you have huge pollution problems if you build factories?

With regard to Cavalry - once I have enough tanks I disband my Cavalry in my far flung new cities, although I do keep my elites that haven't produced a leader. Cavalry can still be useful when you have tanks because of there strange ability to move three squares.

[Lord Merciless]

Population has a bigger effect on pollution. A size 25 city producing 20 shields generate far more dirt than a size 12 city producing 120 shields.

[Moonsinger]

Re: Industrial/Modern Age TacticsFirst

Originally posted by Dukovsky
First of all, there are two misconceptions about the industrial era about many newbies out there, first, calvary is still afective against riflemen, only when infantry is introduced then they are obsolete.

Yes, it's a misconception alright. In Civ3, cavalry doesn't obsolete until modern armour. Although tank will be upgraded to modern armour, tank move slower than cavalry; therefore, tank isn't as useful as cavalry. I don't build any tank until I'm two techs away from getting modern amour.