High scores and civilization rating

[Tom the Great]

How do you guys get such high scores? What all increases your score? I was also wondering how you get the civilization rating up, my highest has been, Tom the Meek. What are some good conquest strategies also?

[Arrian]

Wow, where to begin.

Score is basically your territory (number of map tiles within your cultural borders) plus your population (happy citizens are worth 2, content 1, unhappy 0), adjusted by difficulty level, averaged per turn. I'm pretty sure someone worked out a formula for it.
There is also a bonus for winning earlier than 2050AD. The earlier you finish, the higher the bonus.

It has been shown, however, that the highest score can be acheived by "milking" the game. That is, by effectively winning (crushing the AI totally), but avoiding any of the victory conditions until 2050, maximizing your population & happiness. The highest scores will be on the biggest maps, as there does not appear to be any score adjustment for map size. Thus: Huge, 60% water, Diety.

I'm still working on this. My best so far is a Monarch level game on a normal map that I accidently won in 1420AD (domination... oops) - 5950. I've gone back via the autosave and am working on milking it. The next problem will be culture... I've got too much of it and I'm gonna win that way earlier than I'd like to.

For general tips, look up Vel's strategy threads (there are three - the third is the most up to date, but is still pre-1.17, I think).

Basic horseman rush conquest strategy, by me:

Choose the Japanese. Start a new game, and get yourself a good starting spot (if it's crap, restart). Build your core cities, say 8 on a normal map, connect them via roads, make sure you have horses, and build temples & barracks in each city. Then start pumping out chariots. Your research should be warrior code, bronze working, iron working. Science no higher than 50%, maybe as low as 10%... it depends on just how you want to do it. Once you have ironworking, see if you can connect up some iron. If you can, build a few warriors first, then connect. Then time your discovery of horseback riding for when you have about 20 chariots built. *Poof* upgrade them all to horsemen (400gold). Upgrade those veteran warriors to swordsmen (40 gold each). I would also build a few spearmen. Then, arrange your troops in 1-2 stacks of death, move to your neighbor's border, declare war, and attack.

Rinse, repeat, until you're the only one left standing on your continent (unless you're playing pangea - I'd think you would need a little breather at some point... at least until you have Samurai). Make peace with the final civ once they're down to 1 city, getting all tech they have that you don't. 20 turns later (peace treaty expires) kill them. This combat should generate great leader(s). There have been lots of debates about the best use for them. I think the best use is to rush a forbidden palace in a city far from your capitol - a centrally located city, so that the FP has maximum effect. The rest of the leaders you can use for wonders or armies. There is a lot of luck involved here. Sometimes you get lots of leaders... sometimes none. Usually you get at least one with a militaristic civ, though.

-Arrian

[Herr David]

Just played the Iroquis at Monarch on a tiny map w/ 60%H2O, 2 continents and whomped the AI with Mounted Warriors - but didn't get one leader. Not one.
Not that it mattered, I had four cities tweaked to maximum productivity, forsook all the early wonders safe the Colossus and wiped my continent clear as of 70AD, took a break and wiped the Romans out between 1200 and 1400AD. Yet another conquest victory! My score was something like 3000 and I was scored as "the Great"

If you want to learn how to win Civ3, I suggest you play on a small or tiny map first, on a low difficulty setting. That way, you don't have to manage all that many cities but still have fierce competition right from the start. The hard way to learn is probably the best, but don't feel bad if you want to restart at Chieftain level.

[punkbass2000]

Maybe I misunderstood you, but I got the impression that you think tiny maps are hard. IMO, tiny maps are the easiest to win.

[Herr David]

Nooo, tiny maps are easy, both to win and to manage. That's why I proposed he started a game on a small map, so he gets a fast game with all the important stuff early on, such as territory grabbing, and you don't have to build 30 cities before you finally make contact with another civ and realize you're hopelessly behind. And you don't have to spend half an hour telling all your worthless cities whether to build a temple or an aqueduct.

[Jaguar]

yea, I've been honing my skill at deity by first taking it on Tiny. But that has bored me with its easiness, so I have a small map game and a marla's world map game going right now.

[~Vodka~]

Been trying some diety in tiny myself. I don't find it all that easy... but then again I probably suck in comparison to you guys... anyways. I was in one particular game: Tiny, Pangea. I was babs, I got 3/4 of the civs eliminated around 930 A.D. Only to discover that my "pangea" is 2 continents vary close together but NOT linked by land or shallow water.... ugh. I'm waaaaaaaay far behind those Egyptians now and I pretty much have no options but to try some suicide attack since they are hitting industrial... Anyone ever seen this b4? A "pangea" that wasnt a real super-continent?

[Shaka II]

Yeah, it happens once in a while. I have seen this 2 or 3 times out of about 10 Pangea games. Apparently "Pangea" doesn't necessarily mean that all the land is connected, just in close proximity. But I think the water spans have been shallows, allowing galleys to cross.

Regarding high scores, I think domination allows higher scores than space in general. Space victories are usually early (<1800AD) and the controlling land mass is usually not even close to domination, so the early finish bonus is easily outweighed by the points from greater land mass, population, etc. even if the game goes to the 20th century (IMO).

Likewise, I think it is easier with a conquering type civ versus a builder civ. My new high score order is ~ Zulu, Japanese, Iroquois, Zulu, Iroquois, Babs., but these are just my favorites. I finally had a good game as the Japanese.

[Fidel]

i personally do not care about the score. what i care for is a nailbiting finish or at least a part of the game that is on razor's edge, betrayals, alliances, huge wars and at least some great wonder for me.

[photar74]

Milking game vs Early victory

I haven't played in almost six months, but I still remember a method far surpassing all of those already mentioned. If you really want to jack up your score:

1. Choose the Persians.
2. Select a tiny map, arid climate, cool temperature, 60% pangea.
3. Select only two opponents.
4. Go directly for iron working.
5. Don't bother ever building a settler. Put up a barracks, and a couple phalanx. If you have time, build a temple before Iron working is discovered, as well.
6. When you discover iron working, start pumping out Immortals. Also, reduce science to sero and crank up the tax income. If there is no iron in your city square, go back to step one.
7. Wipe the world clean.

I achieved around 16,000 on diety using this method within two weeks of the games release. It even worked well on the 1.16 patch. No autosave required--nothing can stop a group of veteran Immortals so early in the game.

Its crude, it doesn't take much intelligence, some have even called it "cheap," but you will get a huge score with little effort or time invesment.

[Fidel]

and...what is the point of that high score? i mean, honestly, you really get some kicks out of playing it?

[photar74]

The thrill of easy high scores

Actually Laruso, there is a very significant pleasure to be obtained by the method I described: the pleasure that comes from knowing that there is no need to waste hundreds of hours in order to achieve the best possible score. I played a five month game of Civ2 that resulted in a montrous score of 2391%, but it was absoluetly painful. Knowing that ease and simplicity are the best ways to achieve high scores in Civ3 allows me to relax and simply play the game for Five City challenge, One city challenge, or some other quick moving game.

If I want the thrill and challenge of stretegy, I play chess. If I want semi-mindless fun, I'll play civ 3, or some other game. The last thing I want from Civ 3 is a tedious milking of the game to achieve high scores, especially when high scores can be achieved through my method.

And I only played my method four times, in a total of around six hours. I did it out of frustration at not being able to defeat the AI on diety right aay, less than two weks after the release of the game. It worked out perfectly and became not only the highest score I have still to hear about, but also as one of the first wins against Diety, and the first OCC Diety victory.

And that was kind of a thrill.