Helpppppppp!!!!!!!!!

[admiralk]

HELPPPPPPPPPP

Ok i'm a big civ fan but never in all of the civ games i played had i needed as much help as Civ3. After days and days of trying to find my password of the forums(since i forgot over the years and the mail thing didn't wrk) i finally got it(surpisingly they mailed it to me) Well now i'm back into posting stuff so here is my main question,

What is the best strategy for a great start in the Monarch difficutly? No other difficutly is as fun as monarch. I mean i played chefitain warlord regent not fun. In monarch i was just peacfully doing my thing and got threaten and declared war on by 2 civs. I mean can it get any cooler. I'm so use to being the only agreeser in the game that its downright boring but in monarch the ppl play along with u and actually START WARS!!!!!!!! So i really want to get in a good game of monarch but the key problem is i never EVER, EVERRRRRRRRRR, get a good start. I mean its to the point where its downright fusturation. My poor dog got yelled at for no reason because i was too pissed off that i had to restart again. It just doesn't hit me i can't get a good strategy in. I checked the strategy section and no of them are working. Here's my situation:

I love america so i'm always them. I need a good starting strategy (please include as much details as possible) so i can actually last to the middle ages (something i never ever did in monarchy difficulty.) So pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee i'm begging you as a fellow civ fan. Help Meeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!


***If any1's interested try a game called Empire Earth out it kicks @$$***

[notyoueither]

OK, but only if you leave the dog alone.

1. Early expansion.

2. Early expansion.

3. Early expansion.

4. Be Roman. The gods will be on your side.

Did I mention early expansion?

Found first city very soon. Build 3 or 4 warriors to explore. Build 2 settlers.

2nd and 3rd cities build 2 warriors (1 garrison, 1 explore) then build 2 settlers.

4th through 7th cities do the same as 2 and 3 (should only need 1 warrior).

You need to intersperse a few workers in the process to build roads to speed settlers along and provide for movement of troops, but workers should never come before at least 1 settler.

Repeat this process as many times as needed to secure all the land near you. Do not be afraid to settle rough terrain (Jungle, Hills and Mountains are good sources of strategic resourses).

Your capital might even build three settlers if the land around you is so rough that the 2nd and 3rd cities cannot build settlers quickly.

If you have another civ close to you, you may delay settler production to build barracks and 4 to 8 Archers to make an early conquest (add 2 or 3 cities by conquest instead of by settlers).

The bottom line boils down to this so far as I have experienced and read in these forums... Get as big as possible as soon as possible. Sacrifice everything else to this end. DO NOT build graneries, wonders, etc. before an early city has fulfilled its primary obligation (growth of cities in the empire) either by settlers or ability to conquer.

Salve

[admiralk]

Originally posted by notyoueither
OK, but only if you leave the dog alone.

Don't wrry she gave me those puppy eyes so i had to give her a treat. I'll try the strategy as America first, (i really want to get those F-15's in the modern age for a nice golden age in the modern age) If it don't wrk i'll try roman. I have tried romans before and practicly decimated Egypt with my legioiairs so i know their use. But i really want those F-15 and the glory of wining as my own country. One thing is cool is having my first leader as Washington. He is my favorite general so i think its cool that he wasn't left out on Civ 3. Thanks for helping I really apperciatie it.

[vmxa1]

Read Vel's thread it has all the ideas broken down. I won't not play as America any more as I do not like the trait of expansion that much (religious is better) and UU of F15 sucks. I say that as at low levels you will never need it and it comes so late that you will not need the golden age either. A civ with an earlier UU is of more use IMO. I like to trigger it after the industrial age is nearly over. I am doing Japand as I had not tried them before and did not build a samuari untl 1850 then I sent it in to mop up a nearly dead unit and boom GA right on time.

[admiralk]

I was playing as America in monarch and acctually did good. I conquered England but when i got in contact with the rest of the world I found out every1 had better tech them me. So there goes that game. Plus they most likely have more territory then me.

[Smash]

if being ahead in tech at time of contacting is what you need to keep playing..then you will probably never finish a game.
This is very common.By design you might say.Mid game tech broker is the way to go.Soon enough you will be where you want to be.
There is a fair bit of patience required in this version.On all fronts.Anything done prematurely will almost always fail.

[MadWombat]

Below monarch, the trick is to expand like a crazy man. Don't bother defending your cities except against barbarians, and just be a settler factory.

At monarch and above things change. I strongly reccomend playing the Egyptians, but I certainly wouldn't say they're the only way to go. =] Also, this will NOT work on archipelago maps.

Start by setting yourself to max cash and minimum research, training lots of warriors, exploring, and researching the wheel. If you get horses near you, you're set for a fast unit mass attack, and you should go for horseback riding (unless you're the egyptians, and then you should start pumping out war chariots) and get horsemen. If you don't, go for iron working, and hope you get iron. If you get it, start pumping swordsmen. If you get neither, restart. =P Make sure you use the hurry production option. Keep your cities at 1-2 citizens each (except your capital which can be building wonders), that way you won't have to bother keeping them happy.

DO NOT BOTHER FOUNDING MORE THAN ONE EXTRA CITY OF YOUR OWN AT THE START.

With your warriors, you should have found at least one enemy civ. Attack them. When you have taken a few of their cities, offer them peace, and extort all you can out of them (should be everything they have). Hopefully, by now you will have found at least one more civ. Repeat the exercise with that civ (and any others near you). Now you should have two small neighbors who you can extort every 20 turns. Turn up your research, and go into mass expansion mode. Claim your continent (or at least a large portion of it).

If you got any leaders, build the pyramids. A lot of people will reccomend going with an army and heroic epic, but I've never found it to be really worthwhile, so I'd only do that if I couldn't get the pyramids. Other great early wonders are the Great Library, Sun Tzu's thingy, Sistine Chapel and the Forbidden Palace. Those are the ones it's worth using a leader on near the start of the game. I often use it for the Forbidden Palace so that I can build it further from my capital, allowing me to have a larger number of productive cities (300 turns to build it is too slow).

Change to monarchy as soon as you get it, and stay there until you have a bunch of cities around the 12 mark.

When those little civs get cocky, and stop giving you everything, beat them down until they do. By the end of the ancient era, you should have most of your continent subjugated, a strong tech level, a decent income, and a reasonable number of decent sized cities.

Now, concentrate on improving your cities, wiping out those little civs who can no longer contribute anything useful to your growth. It shouldn't be long until you are one of the largest powers in the game.

From there, you can do whatever suits you. I usually try to play mid-game tech-trader and get a tech lead, and then kill everyone in the modern era (usually around 1500 to start, and winning around 1800).

Good luck!

[Rasputin]

never had a warrior strong enough to conquer AI citys !!!! You must have some real luck there!!! I find that till i get horse or better the AI defence is very good ....

[MadWombat]

Rasputin:: 5 warriors can usually take an AI city defended by a spearman or warrior.... However, I reccomend attacking with Horsemen or Swordsmen, unless you have Jaguar Warriors, Mounted Warriors, or War Chariots....

[admiralk]

Goal Met

Using the first guy who posted's strategy i finally made my goal of getting to middle ages in Monarch difficulty. Not only that but a few minutes ago i made industrial. I started the game as France. My civ size is medium but not very large. That's the only reason why i'm in 4th place. America is surprisingly mean in this game. Lincoln decleared war on me about 3 times but he never gained anything and i got Boston. My army kicks @$$ in midevil. (not leader driven armies, just group of units) The musketeers took their toll on the enemy. But all in all i built no wonders and i'm about 10 turns short of every1 in technology. So now my main problem is tech. Alot of ppl like bullying me though but their too far away to acctually do anything. I'm at war with russia because they threatened me and i told them to fu**ck off. But i can handle them since they gotta sail accross the world to reach me. So know i gotta figure out how to put my civ to the top.

***Any suggestions?***

[MadWombat]

If you're behind in technology, the best way to catch up is to find some sucker civilization with all the tech you want, build up an army and go trash him. Feel free to get some allies and make it a gangbashing. =] Take a city or two, sell them to some other civ who has tech you want, and then offer the guy a peace treaty, and demand a few techs from him too. Then, try not to get behind again.

[Shaka II]

To stay in the tech race in the early game, I find that sometimes it is better to shut the science rate off and, with the resulting large cash balance, buy techs from AI. Once you have a tech that is needed by another civ, you can start selling/trading tech. I usually have a round of bidding before I start cutting deals to maximize profit.

One thing I notice is that when you have drained AI cash reserves, they offer you something like a few gold (e.g., 1 or 4 gold). This may be because the tech has already been traded too many times, but usually it is because they are low on cash. Waiting a few turns, maybe 5 or 10 turns and offerring it again usually brings a better price, sometimes several hundred gold.

Once I have established libraries and have a competitive science rate, hopefully before the end of the ancient era, I go to 80%-100% science and try to become tech leader. I run huge deficit spending supported by sales of previous techs. If I can afford not to sell a wonder tech or some other strategic tech then I don't, so I might get a head start in building.

Buying tech is not always possible, for various strategic and personality (and mysterious) reasons. If buying fails and you can't wait to research it, then it's probably time for MadWombats technique.

[MadWombat]

... note that it is often better NOT to attack the guy with the MOST tech, since he prolly has a better army than you. Hit someone easy, and sell the tech leader your victim's cities.

[jgflg]

Re: Goal Met

Originally posted by admiralk
Using the first guy who posted's strategy i finally made my goal of getting to middle ages in Monarch difficulty. Not only that but a few minutes ago i made industrial. I started the game as France. My civ size is medium but not very large. That's the only reason why i'm in 4th place. America is surprisingly mean in this game. Lincoln decleared war on me about 3 times but he never gained anything and i got Boston. My army kicks @$$ in midevil. (not leader driven armies, just group of units) The musketeers took their toll on the enemy. But all in all i built no wonders and i'm about 10 turns short of every1 in technology. So now my main problem is tech. Alot of ppl like bullying me though but their too far away to acctually do anything. I'm at war with russia because they threatened me and i told them to fu**ck off. But i can handle them since they gotta sail accross the world to reach me. So know i gotta figure out how to put my civ to the top.

***Any suggestions?***

That's not so far to be behind in technology at that point in the game. As long as you're close to/are pulling ahead by the middle of the Industrial Age, you'll be okay. My goal is to try to get Mass Production (tanks) before anyone else since that unit is really dominate over anything before it. As soon as you get tanks, start building a ton of them and immediately roll over your nearest neighbors decisively. Nothing can effectively defend against the tank until mech. infantry, so it should be fairly easy to roll-up other civs. This strategy should leave you with the largest empire in the world and give you the decisive jump into the tech lead. Even if the other civs get tanks a little before you, they'll take a lot longer to upgrade and build new units so you can still pull it off.

As far as the war with Russia goes you can either just let it go a few turns until they respond to your envoy and make peace or you can try and bribe a civ(s) that neighbors them to become your ally. I usually like the second one since it slows the growth of two other civs and distracts the enemy from attacking me at the same time.

[admiralk]

Trying Again

I restarted as America again. The problem with the previous game was that during my many wars with America i must've messed up an agreement we had and know no one willl trade with me. But the new game is working better than good. I have an excellent half continent that is conneceted to the other half by a small strip of land which is under my control. Now the only way for other civilizatations to conquer my land is by sea (or through my good friend India.) My tech is fantastic in this game. I'm ahead of the game but I still got to make contact with the rest of the world. It seems i'm starting to get the hang of this. I'll keep posting if i need help.