Is it hopeless?

[anemic CIVver]

O.K. According to the Prima Official CIV III Strategy Guide, this is the order in which you should research tech in the Ancient Times if you wish to conquer the world:

1) Bronze Working
2) Iron Working
3) Masonry
4) Alphabet
5) Mathematics
6) Construction
7) The Wheel
8) Horseback Riding
9) Mysticism
10) Polytheism
11) Monarchy
12) Writing
13) Literature
14) Pottery
15) Map Making
16) Code of Laws
17) Currency
18) Philosophy
19) The Republic (Optional)

Any thoughts on the order?

[notyoueither]

Once again, the situation...

If you are the Romans or the Persians you want IronWorking NOW.

If you are the Iroquois you want Horsback riding sooner than NOW.

But then again, no matter who you are, if you have very few hills and no mountains in your area (low chance for Iron) you'll want Horses ASAP.

If you really want to go postal right from the start try the Aztecs. The JaguarWarrior isn't as good as it used to be but it is still very powerful for it's cost.

[anemic CIVver]

If any of my posts didn't make much sense, I apologize. I've worked over 70 Hours in the last 7 days.

[Ethelred]

Its a very bad roll of toilette paper. Maybe it might make good kindling. NO Prima guide has been decent unless they accidently hired the right person. OK thats excessive. My sister-in-law tells the one for Arcanum is useful but she likes walk throughs and I think the maps may be usefull. Also I know Jonny Wilson the ex-editor of Computer Gameing World wrote a good official guide for some game once. Generally they suck and the one for Civ has not yet been called usefull by anyone.

There is NO set build order. No one that knows what they are doing would give one which is why I teed of on the guide(my sister-in-law IS a good source). It all depends on the situation and the Civ you are playing. You may need to build a granary for instance and therfor want pottery. You may indeed want bronze working so you can shoot for Iron working.

Sometimes the Wheel is best. That one tells you where the horses are and leads to horseback riding the best general attack unit in the Ancient Era. Unless your Persian or Roman anyway. Horses retreat which is good enough to make them just a bit more usefull than a lot of swordsmen when you consider that you can't upgrade swordsman.

If you are stuck isolated on an island you must go for Map Making as fast as you possibly can. It may save the game for you.

Monarchy is OK on that list but only if you are a religous civ at least for most players. For every one else Monarchy is something you pick just to get the science advisor to quit bugging you about it. After all if you go for The Republic its a worthless tech unless you want to build all the Wonders.

Some people really like the Great Library but to get it you have to concentrate on it.

All things being equal which is never the case I like Ceremonial Burial so I can build temples and then the Wheel for horses and Warrior code so I can go for horsies if I think I need to go to war.

I saw one person that like beelining for currency which might be a good idea. The AI never goes that way so you can trade it for a lot but the flip side of their not going for it is that it will take time to get.

Basicly though my idea is to get out of the Ancient Age as quick as possible so I go for what I get fast OR I set my research to minimum on a line. Currency might be good for this and save my money and BUY stuff. Whatever is cheapest or whatever I need. Its the fasted way out anyway on higher levels.

So I can't give you a magic route through. You have to wing it.

Go ahead and read that thing since you have it but I would take advice you get here over it. The main problem with those things is that they are written while the game is still in Beta. You have the SECOND patch now. The fine details have been changed. And that is true for most games.

[anemic CIVver]

BTW, I've been meaning to ask: How do you go about getting a picture with your posted name in the column to the left?

Inquiring minds want to know . . .

[anemic CIVver]

I posted it so that aC could view city placement and terrain improvements in a developed civ. Give him an idea of what it would look like when successful. Set a goal and all that. [/QUOTE]

How tired am I? It took me until 2 minutes ago to figure out who the heck aC was.

Anyhoo, I'll study the Octavius save (and a very impressive Empire it is, too), and will probably begin a brand spanking new game Tuesday (Yep, I gotta work another 10 hours on Monday).

Wish me luck, and I hope you don't mind if I keep asking questions. I really appreciate everybody's input.

About the PRIMA Guide, there are some instances in the book, and I believe in the instruction manual as well that show weird pictures. (A picture of a city in disorder has the Drone pic from Alpha Centauri. Oh, quick story: I have a SMAC (no expansion) save of me as the Peacekeepers as the only faction alive on Planet. I won the Diplomatic victory, and then proceeded to systematically eradicate every other faction that was still around. The Gaians were the last ones standing. She was down to 1 measly little 2 pop city, and she had the nerve to call me up on the diplomatic channel, and say that 'Your day of reckoning is at hand!' I was so insulted that I dropped a Planet Buster on her last city. Bombed her to atoms! (And it felt GOOD!))

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by anemic CIVver
BTW, I've been meaning to ask: How do you go about getting a picture with your posted name in the column to the left?

Inquiring minds want to know . . .

Go to the top of the screen and click on the control panel link.

Its in there somewhere.

Or you could try clicking on the FAQ link. You are SUPPOSED to do that before you sign up. That tells you how.

[GeneralTacticus]

Some people really like the Great Library but to get it you have to concentrate on it.

My experience on Regent level is that the AI places almost NO priority on developing Literature, meaning if you go for it soon enough you can build the GL before anyone else even starts.

And Monarchy isn't so bad if you've got a military that's too big to support under Republic but want to develop a bit.

[anemic CIVver]

Try Romans. Guaranteed victory if you have M&Ms. Promise. But you have to know how to use them. So maybe it's not guaranteed. [/QUOTE]

I will take your advice, and go with the Romans. What do you mean by M&Ms?

[anemic CIVver]

I have started the new game! I invite everyone to join me at "The new game" post.

[Ethelred]

I have been playing YOUR game. The Japanese have moved up to third and are one point out of second. India is still first but I have taken four of their cities and will soon have one too three more. India is at war with everybody due to my arranging an MPP with Germany and China and not attacking India untill it triggered the MPPs.

Have tanks and am about to finish researching ecology. Its 1987 now so it will be tight to get a win except on score. Even that may be tight considering the lead India has there. I will finish the game tommorow I think. Pretty sure I will win now that I can get some research done quickly. In a Golden Age at the moment.

[Ethelred]

Finished the game.

Built the Japanese up till I had tanks and then started in on India in 1983. Arranged a MPP with the other two civs and six or seven turns later India was no more. I took most of India. Germany got one or two and China got one.

Two turns later I traded aluminum from Germany for 100 gold per turn plus spice and some other luxury. Expensive but it allowed me to upgrade the tanks to modern armour. Besides I had 2500 in the treasury by then. I also reforged a MPP with Germany to ensure that I would not loose the aluminum when I went to war with China.

One turn after that I made wholey unreasonable demands for continued peace with China. China refused and that was the end of peace. They attacked Japan triggering the MPP I had made with Germany. Unfortunately it also blocked the trade with Germany but I had figured that problem would be shortlived.

Very short lived. I took the city blocking trade first. Then in a lightning blitz vastly aided by the three move of modern armour I took one city after another each one enableling my armour to reach another. Only two cities remained just outside the reach of my tanks. Just outside at that. I was able to park three tanks right next to both.

Next turn the Chinese misery was ended. One civ gone in two turns. Never did that before.

I took one turn to move units and repair and the I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer as the Germans had three panzers out in the open and I didn't want them getting back to defend the German cities.

First turn I only took two German cities because Frankfurt was just beyond my reach and its territory was slowing down my tanks. I was able to stack seven tanks right next to Frankfurt though. Frankfurt cost me one tank and a couple were heavily damaged. Took the city in the center and that lead to Berlin which lead to two more cities by allowing me to get around some mountains.

At that point it suddenly occured to me that the Germans not only had two cities left that I might not be able get on that turn they also had one on an island. So I upgraded a galleon I had sitting around and loaded the few tanks I hadn't yet used on it to launch an anemic invasion force.

Wasted my time on that. I ended the turn and then won by domination.

Nine Japanese cities in 1983. Three remaining non- Japanese cities in 2007. Thats what I call a blitz. I wasn't sure I could pull that game out but the AI just didn't have the production capacity even though it was able to stay just ahead on tech research while India was still around.

When I whatched the replay I was somewhat horrified by what Anemic Civer had done. Three cities only in 1500 AD or so. No wonder the Japanese were losing. Glad to see you are doing better in your new game.

[anemic CIVver]

Could you post the game, please? I'd love to see it.

[Ethelred]

OK. I haven't started a new game yet so I still had some saves.

There are two saves in the zip. One from the year before the end in 2005 and one from 1926. That might be enough to give you a line on what I was doing.

Remember to change the name. Bloody attachments.