Picking the right Civ!

[player1]

Worst combo in my expirience are English.

Since I never found good use of commercial, and I sually play Standard maps to make expansionistic usefull these traits are not importatnt.

Man-O-War is also nothing usefull. Naval power in that stadium is unimportatnt and it become to quickly obsolete.

[Jaguar]

Re: Re: Re: Picking the right Civ!

Originally posted by SoulAssassin
Here are the most retarded UU's:

Hoplite
Impi
Jaguar Warrior
Legion
Musketeer
Samuri
Immortal
F-15 (I always beat the game before flight anyways)
Man 'O War

Legion? Immortal? Jaguar Warrior? Impi? Hoplite?

You, my friend, have the brain of a trout.

I'll step in and defend my favorite. The jaguar warrior is a scout that can fight. It only costs 10 shields. A size 4 city can sometimes crank out one a turn. They can run amok in enemy territory, destroying things, etc. They can spend one movement moving to a new spot, and the second pillaging. you can surround the AIs and capture any of their land grabbing settlers, which go out every two turns or so. A worker a turn is much better than a cossack.

[kokomo]

I agree that the Hoplite is the best pre-gunpowder deffensive unit. After you get gunpowder and saltpeter becomes a most valuable asset you got to look after thoroughly, the best unit is without doubt Musketeer... switch that to the industrious + commercial carachteristic, you get France the best Civ so far...

[hannibcannib]

F-15

[kokomo]

Originally posted by hannibcannib
F-15

F-15? It comes too late in the game.... I'd rather get my SAM's and fighters...

[Giovanni August]

When I'm playing a war game I found militaristic an exellent trait, considering that I'm gonna have a huge Empire, commercial as second trait seems to be the right choice, this bring me to Rome, whose Legions are awesome (great attack and great defense... althoug not upgradind path )
Japanese too seems very good and I love their UU.

Playing a peace game i love the Babs, with them a culture win is pretty much set. Greeks are a good choice, i love to stack some Hoplite in a Hill, declare war on somebody (Rome if they have no Iron... otherwise Egypt due to cultural link). After a while the Hoplites became Elite and with luck produce a great leader.

Genarally i can get a couple of free wonders that boost my culture up.

If I still don't know what kind of game I'm gonna play, Germans seems perfect to me. The scientific trait gives me Bronze working soon and easier advances, the militaristic trait helps me in having better units and than when i get the Panzers....... BWAH BWAH BWAH BWAH BWAH...... GOODBYE WORLD


Saluti

[notyoueither]

Oh Giovanni. You are deviating from the one true path for the Glory of Rome.

That'll be 5 M&M's to Mars for you to make penance.

Salve

[godinex]

By the way China but is the map is HUge Rome

[realpolitic]

Re: Picking the right Civ!

[SIZE=1] 5. Expansionistic. - Begins game with a scout, barbarians villages give more booty.

This is the most pathetic attribute. Again, I thought this would be a good one for me because I expand like crazy, but it doesn't provide any advantages in terms of building settlers. Also, the scout unit sucks ass. After about 20 turns, I just trade maps. I haven't been able to get more than 4 or 5 barbarian villages anyways. They usually give tech advances more often with Expansionistic Civs, but you are much better off with the Commercial attribute. Avoid this attribute at all costs.

Expansionist is even worse than that: when map making appears, everyone trades techs with everyone, the only vestige of tech left is how much money you made in trades.

[captaincurt]

On anything less than huge/pangea, you can probably ignore this post, but *on* such a map, the Iriquois rule!

The Mighty Iriquois:

Your Expansionist Scouts can net you the ENTIRE set of Ancient techs, one or two settlers, numerous warriors, and many 25 or 50-coin "gifts" from goody huts (and *never* any angry barbarians).

Prime benefits:
- free settlers (most valuable in the early game)
- free warriors (makes up for you not building any, since you're cranking out scouts and settlers probably)
- free gold (always useful)
- valuable world map (for a while anyway)
- early knowledge of luxury resource locations (send a settler!)
- can choose to spend 0 on research: this means you are free to support a larger number of units (important in the early stages, esp. for a rush attack), produce luxuries if necessary, or just save it in your treasury and build up a huge bankroll
- can get to Monarchy a lot earlier: Some cities are dramatically affected by the escape from despotism (e.g. floodplain/wheat, cattle, forest/game). I had a couple cities producing two-turn workers and five-turn settlers, enabling rapid expansion *much* earlier than normal, and while there is still much land to claim!
- you get Horseback Riding very quickly: enables your Mounted Warriors early, at a time when they are absolutely decisive.

An additional strategy to try: once you obtain Monarchy, pop-rush Mounted Warriors in all cities, then switch governments, then gold-rush Mounted Warriors in all cities... voila, an unstoppable ancient horde in 5 turns (remember that rushing is cheaper if you have produced at least one shield on that item)

The fact that you can build temples for dirt cheap is just icing on the cake.

Although the benefit essentially expires once the map is fully explored, it can push you into a runaway lead early in the game, and the AI civs simply can't catch up, regardless of what special traits they have.

Drawbacks:
- Scouts are vulnerable to barbarians (but it seems like there is a certain "grace period" at the beginning of the game before they are active)
- Scouts are hobbled in rough terrain: if you start in jungle or forest or have a lot of mountains, they are worse than a warrior (since they can't fight)
- most effective on a huge/pangea map, and degrades rapidly to uselessness on smaller maps
- may be significantly less effective on Deity due to bonus AI units
(I'm only playing on Monarch)

[Hail Caesar!]

Expansionist Rocks!

When I first got this game I got sick of ending up with only one Civ per continent, since the Militaristic Civs always start wars which end up with the most powerful (militaristic or not) civs wiping out the weaker ones. This is why I always play on a huge map...

Anyway, with Expansionist, on a huge map you get:

1) Crucial map knowledge for city placement. Don't just seek out luxury resources. I would say that the most important resource at the very beginning of the game, where it would seem that whoever cranks out settlers fastest wins, is the grassland cow. Mine those grassland cow to get 3 food and 2 shields (other bonuses you have to wait for a new government because of the penalty under despotism). This allows you to set your production in the city to alternate between warrior / settler or spearman / settler. You only need 2 or 3 scouts to reveal the entire continent.

2) Almost the entire ancient era tech tree in less than 80 turns. See for yourself! You will have most of it before you "discover" your 2nd advance. The scientific advantage is generally lost in the Middle Ages, as the scientific civs will advance much faster than you and trade techs it to the other civs. However it is still nice because in the beginning you are preoccupied with building settlers aren't you? I noticed a trend that greatly affects my strategy. Whatever tech you are researching, you never get from Goody Boxes... so beeline for something useless like mathematics or mysticism. I almost always get Iron Working and a complete map of the continent before all the other civs so there is a definite military strategy to being expansionist.

3) If you are lucky, a bonus settler. This always seems to be the very first or second goody-box, so if you are a cheater like me, restart until you get one.

4) A few extra warriors is good since your production is based on expansion anyway (someone else mentioned this too).

I usually play as Americans. There seems to be a decidedly un-American sentiment in these threads but America kicks ass in real life and in Civ3, even if F-15 does suck. I also tend to notice that France and Egypt are usually 2nd and 3rd in the rankings... partly because they are Industrious but also because #1 (me) tends to favor them because well they are cuter. Do you ever give freebie techs to someone and then have Joan ask you to "share the wealth" ? With that irresistible smile of hers...

Oh yeah and I play on Regent too.

[Hail Caesar!]

Oh I forgot to mention that one thing really annoying about playing America is your neighbors are almost always Aztecs who are aggressive at the beginning, and Iroquois who never fail to build a city in between two of your cities.

[Jethro83]

I have no single favourite civ-specific attribute. I try to find the perfect strategy for each COMBO of traits.

So far, I have come to the conclusion that:

1. Militaristic/Religious (Japan/Aztecs) Militaristic makes you much more battle-ready than your enemy with cheaper barracks/walls, and quicker promotions (in this case to elite). The Religious trait mixes in nicely with this because you can easily switch governments as quickly as you switch from peace to war. So therefore, you can have a Republic or Democracy in peacetime, and build up your wealth (and research if you can somehow get ahead of the others). Once war begins, switch to Monarchy and take full advantage of free unit support for 4-8 units (if your cities are large enough) and the lack of war-weariness, allowing you to continue your war, and production of military units indefinitely. Once you've decided to go to peace again, switch to Rep./Dem. and return to your wealth and research gathering. I consider this to be my favourite warmongering combo.

2. Commercial/Industrious (France) The reduction in corruption makes building a far-flung empire an easy matter. Furthermore, the Industrious trait allows you to build a strong infrastructure that can take full advantage of this (more roads = more commerce. Less corruption, means less of this commerce lost). My favourite combo of traits for both peacemongering and warmongering (and now to mod France so they don't have that sissy colour).

3. Expansionist/Industrious (America) Instant construction capability of granaries, and greater possibility of settlers from goody-huts makes building a far-flung empire easy. Due to being Industrious, infrastructure can be built at less expense to cover the wider amount of territory. And more irrigations sooner will also mean more food, larger population, and ultimately more settlers to continue this expansion (I once expanded to the extent that I controlled 3/4 of the landmass, while other civs split the last quarter.

4. Commercial/Expansionist (England) Commercial corruption reduction makes the huge far-flung empire derived from being Expansionist much less prone to corruption.

5. Militaristic/Commercial (Rome) Being militaristic keeps your forces at a huge advantage. Let the other civs build the cities for you, then take advantage of reduced corruption from a distance in them once you occupy them.

6. Militaristic/Expansionist (Zululand) The larger number of towns from being Expansionist makes this civ's superior military acumen go even further, as the more towns means more free support. A decent warmongers' combo. But not as strong as Militaristic/Religious by my opinion.

7. Scientific/Religious (Babylon) The ultimate cultural builder's combo. Cheaper cultural improvements will give you much more time to build a military, as long as you can hold out that long, you can be an unstoppable cultural power and have the military to keep your enemies off your back.

I'd add more, but I still need to think some things through first.

[Saint Marcus]

The best civ, IMHO, is Egypt. Fast workers, cheap temples/cathedrals, free gov switching, being able to build the pyramids from the start. Egypt's UU isn't very impressive, but does give a cheap ancient age fast attack unit (strenght of a horsemen, but cheaper).

Though it's only because it suits my style. With other civs I haven't been able to get the same results (I'm playing on Emporer (modded))

[Txurce]

I just finished my second domination game, in 1410. My prior one was completed in 1415. The civ I used in both? Egypt. In neither case did I intend to play domination - I always go for space race. But the Egyptians' combination of fast road-building, cheap temples, and a UU that has speed and some punch along with the ancient era's most important trait - cheapness - put me in a dominant position in both games while still in BC. What is Egypt's overwhelming common trait? It does everything fast in the decisive ancient era: build temples, roads, and units, which in turn are fast themselves. The only thing it's not fast at is building barracks, and I squeeze those in early while letting my pop build up before building another settler. An argument could be made that Egypt is hard to beat for warmongering.