OMG this game is hard. Please help me..

[Nosferum]

---Note: the prevent a city from growing larger than 12, just don't build a Hospital. However, I'd honestly recommend letting cities grow IF you can keep them happy. You can always build workers to clean the mess (since your cities appear to be growing) and you will probably end up with Solar Power or Hydro-electric Power in large cities anyway.

---The extra size is good for many things, not the least of which is a bonus to defense.

[Hagbart]

Walls suck, don't build them. Don't build Granary second, build military unit, settler, unit, settler, then Granary. The important thing is to EXPAND your empire. Make sure you have a OK sized army, and the AI's probably wont attack you.

[Hagbart]

Great Leaders are important if you want to build wonders on higher difficulties, so try to win battles with your elite units.

[Sovereign]

Ehhh?


My queres for every new city I build are as follows:


Warrior (or comparable era military unit)
Warrior
Worker
Worker
Granary
Temple
Settler
Settler
Settler


Then I either repeat the quere, or build more improvements.


hope this helps.

[Iron Giant]

Wow, you guys ROCK!

Ok, I'm a little melodramatic, but I was up till 3 am 2 nights in a row playing Civ3....

Changes to my Strategys:

1. I handle workers manually. I try (in reason) to keep them in groups of 3 to speed things along.

2. I don't build walls.

3. I rush out settler, warrior, settler, warrior (approx.). This is real scary to me, since I'm used to seeing a couple big citys, not all those little ones...

4. I keep my citys closer just a bit. They should still get to grow to size 15 - 20.

5. I build the Culture gaining improvements on the edge of my empire and have popped a few citys to my side with some work (but no bloodshed...).

6. I rush for the Great Library, then coast and expand/improve/destroy.

7. I can now talk to more than 8 other AI. Shift+Rt. Click??!! Is that in the manual? I can't find it, but at least now I know...

On Monarch difficulty, I have gone from getting slapped around by the AI to being the big guy. They don't declare war, they don't demand stuff. Treatys seem more in my favor too. I foolishly granted a RoP with 2 small neighbors and didn't want to break it so took down the Germans. At this point I have the highest score and I'm screaming toward research of tanks so I can do a rush, polish off most of the remaining AI on my continent.

It feels good to be the big dog for once

[Sovereign]

Ya.

I know the feeling Iron Giant.

[Iron Giant]

And a wave at a fellow Bostonian too,

*waves at Sovereign*

More questions:

What is a good use for fighters? Can they destroy something or can they only get enemy units down to one point (like artillery)?

I have noticed that a fighter in a city will ask for orders each turn (unless you fortify it), but a Fighter on a Carrier will just sit there with nothing to do (and it seems to let its Carrier get sunk too!!). Am I missing something here? I have to right click and pull up the list of fighters manually, then give it orders...

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Iron Giant
What is a good use for fighters? Can they destroy something or can they only get enemy units down to one point (like artillery)?

I have noticed that a fighter in a city will ask for orders each turn (unless you fortify it), but a Fighter on a Carrier will just sit there with nothing to do (and it seems to let its Carrier get sunk too!!). Am I missing something here? I have to right click and pull up the list of fighters manually, then give it orders...

In order to get your fighters not only sit, but actively defend their city/carrier against air attacks, you need to assign them on the "Air Superiority Mission" (can't remember the shortcut, but it is one of the small icons on the bottom of the screen - the one with arrows aiming at the center-point, I think... just roll the cursor over and the bubble-help will tell you).

[vmxa1]

Definetly put them on air superiority, they can bomb, but not very well and can recon. Recon can be used to remove the fog of war. This can be useful to see approaching units or improvements for the bombers to hit. Upgrade to jets ASAP. If you have an airport they will heal ALA barracks. If not they can be damaged and destroyed while on mission. In front line cities, I will take them off mission if htey are damage, until they heal. If no airport and severe damage, I may send them to a city will airport. I do this if bombing runs are coming from carriers that I can not get to for a while.

[planetfall]

Originally posted by Iron Giant

More questions:

What is a good use for fighters? Can they destroy something or can they only get enemy units down to one point (like artillery)?

Defense from AI bomber attacks.

I have noticed that a fighter in a city will ask for orders each turn (unless you fortify it), but a Fighter on a Carrier will just sit there with nothing to do (and it seems to let its Carrier get sunk too!!). Am I missing something here? I have to right click and pull up the list of fighters manually, then give it orders...

Whenever you move a carrier, all units on it sleep and have to be awaken, either one at a time, or with new wake all option.

Real pain if you have a stack of carriers, and support vessels and need to wake them up. I usually just wake the fighters when within range of AI bombers and don't mess with the bombers until they are within strike range.

Only exception is if edit bombers to allow both recon and see invisible units, in order to get heads of up enemy subs. And even here sometimes I let them strike first, just to avoid the hassle of reordering mission each move.

--PF

[Iron Giant]

Originally posted by planetfall

Real pain if you have a stack of carriers, and support vessels and need to wake them up. I usually just wake the fighters when within range of AI bombers and don't mess with the bombers until they are within strike range.
--PF

Hmm, this seems like a bug to me.

At the very least, shouldn't a fighter get one attack on a ship that attacks its carrier, similar to the way a piece of artillery gets a "free" attack when someone attacks another unit in its stack?

Are any further Civ3 patchs coming out or have they finished?

[planetfall]

Originally posted by Iron Giant


Hmm, this seems like a bug to me.

At the very least, shouldn't a fighter get one attack on a ship that attacks its carrier, similar to the way a piece of artillery gets a "free" attack when someone attacks another unit in its stack?

If fighter is on air supremcy, then gets a strike against incoming fighters/bombers on bombing missions. Does nothing vs ships. Does nothing if you forgot to wake it up after a move or fortified it. Remember Firaxis focus is on ground war and sea/air is not supposed to be a big part of game.

Are any further Civ3 patchs coming out or have they finished?

Doubt it. PTW is "next patch". PTW will probably get at least one patch. Then they may sit back and decide if will develop Civ4.
Since it would be another money maker, I would expect Firaxis to milk the civ name as much as possible.

--PF

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Iron Giant
Hmm, this seems like a bug to me.

At the very least, shouldn't a fighter get one attack on a ship that attacks its carrier, similar to the way a piece of artillery gets a "free" attack when someone attacks another unit in its stack?

No, I do not think it is a bug. Fighters were meant and are usable as a means of defense against air attacks ONLY (if set on the air superiority mission). I do not know how precise this is considering the real world, but that is how it was in Civ2 and that is how it is in Civ3.

[vmxa1]

If they are not on a "misson", I would view them as if they are unpiloted. Just like Pearl Harbor, if no one is in the plane and if it is not air borne, it is no going to do anything. Carriers in WW2 would have patrols out to handle interceptions.

[Hurricane]

Nice to hear you are winning, Iron Giant!

Some further tips: You said you are now the "big guy" in your game. This means the smaller AI's will be reluctant to have you as their enemy. Check the histograph and note whoch civs are clearly weaker than you (that is probably about half of ther civs). Open up the foreign advisor and start making ROP:s with them (you do have embassies with everybody?), but make sure they pay for them! They will often cough up 25-50 gold for a ROP. After that you renegotiate the peace treaties with them. Just click on the peace treaty and note that "this deal will probably be acceptable", and start checking how much the AI will pay you. Often 50-150 gold! All this you get for the assurance that you won't attack them in the next 20 turns. And with 16 civs, you probably wouldn't attack 14 of those in any case either.