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The game is toughest in the beginning and middle. If you survive in just equal position to the AI civs, you will still win the late game because the AI still can’t wage war very well and because the AIs enormous early production advantage declines on a percentage basis. So, how to survive the early-middle game:
Civ traits: I prefer religious and scientific civs. Religious give you cheap temples (first building you make and important in establishing your borders early) and cathedrals. Also, the 1-turn transition between gov’ts essentially gives you a handful of extra turns in the crucial early game. Scientific civs give you cheap libraries and univ.s, also important in the culture war, and obviously useful in their own right. The free advances are nice. Industrious is okay with the worker speed benefit and the extra city shield, but religious, militaristic and scientific already have a inherent industrial advantage. Commercial is also okay; some people swear by it for corruption benefit, but I think corruption is manageable anyway. Expansion is crap. Militaristic is good since you want to maximize leaders (more on this later) and while the advantage to building barracks is nice, the advantage to building coastal fortresses is nothing compared to the advantage to building cathedrals (religious) or universities (scientific).
CITY DEVELOPMENT
Starting Position: because of the clumpy distribution of special resources, you may well start the game one square away from a tile with access to as many as 5 or 6 special resources. One of my cities had 5 gold resources, so I turned it into a science city (pretty much a necessity at the higher levels) with Copernicus, Newton, and SETI. I find it is worth a quick look around with the worker going to the nearest hill or mountain. Often there is a hill or mountain right next to where you start and you can look with the worker before the settler has to do anything. If you find a city with that much gold, try to build it so it has to irrigable grassland, so the population can climb. You’re going to want a high pop. to work that gold commerce and also to build wonders.
The AIs will expand to your borders as fast as possible, which is faster than you. After you construct your first couple of cities, visualize where you should build “border” cities to check the AIs expansion. Note choke points – strips between oceans/inland seas that are 1 or 2 tiles thick. Single tiles are especially nice since your naval vessels (and only yours) can cross there. Having mountains in front (to fortify a defensive unit) helps. Look for these kinds of strategically defensible and resource-desirable areas about 10-15 tiles from your capital and send your settlers out there. You’ll be leaving enough space in between that ring and your capital that you can fill it in with future cities. The AI will sneak cities in there, but it will be a relatively easy take-over for you, whether cultural or military. [Ed. note: I now take over these cities by force almost right away. I military "rush" the neighboring AIs when they have 3-6 cities, reduce them to 1-2 and force them to sue for peace at any price, hamstring them, then repeat process. Your empire can only grow at the AI's pace (especially at deity) when you use the AI as a "farm system" for growth.] Keep spreading out this way, moving to strategically sound sites and filling in the middle with subsequent settlers, as fast as you can. Ignore all early wonders. Build only temples, barracks, units, and occasionally settlers and workers. Keep attacking neighboring civs, forcing them to give you techs, money, workers, and even cities in peace talks.
Even going at this breakneck speed, if you don't rush like crazy you’ll soon be outgunned and under-citied relative to the AI at Emperor and Deity. The AI is doing the same thing you are, and it has big production advantages. But it has some important disadvantages that will keep you alive. For one thing, it will stop to build wonders. The only early wonders that are worth thinking about are Colossus, Pyramids, Sun Tze – all depending on the particular game you are playing. Colossus (which can be built only on an ocean square) will give you some early tech and commerce. For very big maps, Pyramids and Sun Tze both provide valuable global advantages to every city on your continent, even ones you’ve just captured, and neither expires in Civ3. I will discuss the importance of barracks below, which also argues for Sun Tze. The mid-game wonders worth thinking about are Sistine, Bach, and (depending on your style and the game you are in) the science wonders and Shakespeare (for its 5 culture).
Build up at least to the corruption trigger (for # of cities) as soon as possible. It’s 8 on a standard map and 12 on a large map, etc. As soon as you get the message “Our people want to build the Forbidden Palace,” you’re there. If there are still strategically desirable locations and you are able to do so, keep expanding to nearby locations. I will talk about corruption management in a bit.
LEADERS
Forget about leaders for the creating armies. I will personally come to your house and beat you if that’s what you use them for. On the high levels, use them to build wonders in one turn. On deity, that’s pretty much the only way to build any wonders at all. Because leaders are so crucial between Monarch-Deity you want to maximize them. One of the most important aspects of war for the higher level Civ3 gamer is not so much conquest as it is to produce a steady supply of leaders for wonder-building.
That means you want barracks in at least some of your cities. Your odds of getting a leader are an order of magnitude better if you need only go from Veteran to Elite. Once you have Elite units, use them as much as you can, but only in fights you know they can win. Use other, especially older units or catapults, to soften up your enemy so your Elite unit will win. In big games I like to use an early leader to build an army of something reasonably powerful and then build the Heroic Epic (an investment in more leaders). In small games don’t bother. Ideally, after your first ring of cities you will move much of your army to one front and get that neighbor to attack you – pretty easy to do with Zulus and other militaristic Civs. You’ll gradually pick up cities and create leaders over the course of the game. (Keep some units “at home” in between your remaining cities; remember, units don’t need to be in a city for happiness reasons, just in your territory, so fortify some of them on hills & mtns in-between your cities for back-up.) Station your leaders in cities you want to build wonders in as soon as the tech becomes available. Sell the tech to everyone for as much as you can as soon as you get it; then build the wonder.
DIPLOMACY
These civs all trade techs constantly with each other and you must do the same – the only exception being when you want to protect a tech or its precursor for wonder-building reasons. If you manage your diplomacy and trade routes properly, you will get cheap techs via a combo of your own techs, money, maps (especially valuable early), and luxuries. The civs will trade older techs much cheaper, so if techs that you didn’t research and don’t need can be had for a song (e.g., 20 gold) later on. Conversely new techs of yours, especially if they allow Wonders that you don’t care about anyway, will fetch a very high price. I’ve gotten as much as 30 gold per turn (from 5-6 different civs at once for the same tech), multiples techs, luxuries, etc. As soon as you trade with one civ, offer it to the others or that civ will instead. It will be slightly painful to you to share all your research but do it: this isn’t Civ2.
Along with high culture, trading frequently with the AIs reduces the chances of early wars. That’s good, because you’ll be struggling to keep up, and while you do want war, you want only one war at a time. Use Gold per turn to get into the right neighborhood, and then fine tune with Lump Sum. Your Advisor will tell you when they accept. Don’t waste your time proposing trades that your advisor say are “doubtful” or even “nearly there” unless you are trying to pick a fight. You can use Gold per turn on one side of a trade and lump sum on the other. Sometimes the AI will vehemently refuse to give you more than a certain amount of Gold per turn. This is because it only produces so much and doesn’t want to change its revenue structure; it does not mean that it won’t give you a lot of something else, like techs, resources, or cash.
Try to build roads and/or explore coastal sea lanes (if using harbors) to trade resources with AI civs. Only one of each luxury can be used by your Civ to make citizens happy; trade extra for techs, other luxuries, gold, etc. Trading luxuries to antagonistic neighbors seems to reduce their proclivity for war with you, as trading halts during war.
GREAT WONDERS
In big games you will be very tempted to build the Great Library. You will think “with all these civs, I’ll be getting techs hand over fist.” As for the Great Library, it expires with Education now, not electricity, so its shelf life is just one age. It also comes a little too early in the game, when your production is better spent elsewhere. In large games, think about global wonders like Pyramids, Sun Tze, Hoover and the Happiness Wonders (except Shakespeare); in games where you plan to build these wonders, try to stay all on one continent as many of them work only for that continent. In small games, focus on city-specific wonders like Colossus, the Science wonders, Shakespeare.
Don’t even think about building Leo unless you have 25+ units that are upgradable. You should almost never build this wonder. It doesn’t save you much money and it’s 550 shields. Be happy it’s in the game to waste some AI’s time. I personally turn off Diplomatic victory, which I think is deeply flawed, so UN is obviously a waste. Lighthouse is still a joke. Great Wall is useless unless you are fighting all over the place in the early game (which you shouldn’t be and won’t be if you’ve managed your diplomacy right) and you have lots of city walls. Gardens provide good culture but have a short shelf life now. Magellan and Adam Smith are crap. Cure for Cancer comes late and you probably won’t need it unless you are knee-deep in bloodshed. Hoover is valuable if you have a very big empire. Longevity comes too late to help you and costs 700 shields; make 7 tanks instead. The Science wonders (Copernicus, Newton, SETI) can be crucial depending on what kind of game you’re in. I like to build them all (with Colossus if possible) in a city with 3+ gold tiles. Suffrage now works in addition to police stations and is of game-specific utility. Theory of Evolution costs a lot, and there is a lot more tech trading in this game than in Civ2.
SMALL WONDERS
I try to build the Heroic Epic in big games to invest in more leaders. I definitely build Iron Works when I can to create a super-production city. (You can also build high-production cities by finding a city with some iron or coal, plus some other hills, and mining all of them. You will need to irrigate some grassland to support a high population. Then add workers to the city by moving them inside and hitting the “B” key. Presto, you have a size 6 or 12 city that’s actually working all of those mines.) Armies are overrated, so the Pentagon and Military Academy are strictly for your own enjoyment; they won’t meaningfully help you win the game. I’ve never built the Strategic Missile Defense. The Forbidden Place is essential for large empires, so it gets its own section.
FORBIDDEN PALACE AND CORRUPTION
Just manage your empire right and this won’t lose you the game (though it might irritate the hell out of you). Your empire should look like a large oblong or barbell, with your capital and Forbidden Palace in the center of a clump of cities at either end. Visualize a cell dividing. In some cases you may not want to build it far away from your capital as corruption will cause the build job to take forever and the Forbidden Palace cannot be rushed. Many people like to use a Leader to build the Forbidden Palace.
EDIT: this thread was created before the "Vassal" strategy was fully developed. Many people find this strategy helpful, especially on higher levels, and you can find it here:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...379#post602379
Civ traits: I prefer religious and scientific civs. Religious give you cheap temples (first building you make and important in establishing your borders early) and cathedrals. Also, the 1-turn transition between gov’ts essentially gives you a handful of extra turns in the crucial early game. Scientific civs give you cheap libraries and univ.s, also important in the culture war, and obviously useful in their own right. The free advances are nice. Industrious is okay with the worker speed benefit and the extra city shield, but religious, militaristic and scientific already have a inherent industrial advantage. Commercial is also okay; some people swear by it for corruption benefit, but I think corruption is manageable anyway. Expansion is crap. Militaristic is good since you want to maximize leaders (more on this later) and while the advantage to building barracks is nice, the advantage to building coastal fortresses is nothing compared to the advantage to building cathedrals (religious) or universities (scientific).
CITY DEVELOPMENT
Starting Position: because of the clumpy distribution of special resources, you may well start the game one square away from a tile with access to as many as 5 or 6 special resources. One of my cities had 5 gold resources, so I turned it into a science city (pretty much a necessity at the higher levels) with Copernicus, Newton, and SETI. I find it is worth a quick look around with the worker going to the nearest hill or mountain. Often there is a hill or mountain right next to where you start and you can look with the worker before the settler has to do anything. If you find a city with that much gold, try to build it so it has to irrigable grassland, so the population can climb. You’re going to want a high pop. to work that gold commerce and also to build wonders.
The AIs will expand to your borders as fast as possible, which is faster than you. After you construct your first couple of cities, visualize where you should build “border” cities to check the AIs expansion. Note choke points – strips between oceans/inland seas that are 1 or 2 tiles thick. Single tiles are especially nice since your naval vessels (and only yours) can cross there. Having mountains in front (to fortify a defensive unit) helps. Look for these kinds of strategically defensible and resource-desirable areas about 10-15 tiles from your capital and send your settlers out there. You’ll be leaving enough space in between that ring and your capital that you can fill it in with future cities. The AI will sneak cities in there, but it will be a relatively easy take-over for you, whether cultural or military. [Ed. note: I now take over these cities by force almost right away. I military "rush" the neighboring AIs when they have 3-6 cities, reduce them to 1-2 and force them to sue for peace at any price, hamstring them, then repeat process. Your empire can only grow at the AI's pace (especially at deity) when you use the AI as a "farm system" for growth.] Keep spreading out this way, moving to strategically sound sites and filling in the middle with subsequent settlers, as fast as you can. Ignore all early wonders. Build only temples, barracks, units, and occasionally settlers and workers. Keep attacking neighboring civs, forcing them to give you techs, money, workers, and even cities in peace talks.
Even going at this breakneck speed, if you don't rush like crazy you’ll soon be outgunned and under-citied relative to the AI at Emperor and Deity. The AI is doing the same thing you are, and it has big production advantages. But it has some important disadvantages that will keep you alive. For one thing, it will stop to build wonders. The only early wonders that are worth thinking about are Colossus, Pyramids, Sun Tze – all depending on the particular game you are playing. Colossus (which can be built only on an ocean square) will give you some early tech and commerce. For very big maps, Pyramids and Sun Tze both provide valuable global advantages to every city on your continent, even ones you’ve just captured, and neither expires in Civ3. I will discuss the importance of barracks below, which also argues for Sun Tze. The mid-game wonders worth thinking about are Sistine, Bach, and (depending on your style and the game you are in) the science wonders and Shakespeare (for its 5 culture).
Build up at least to the corruption trigger (for # of cities) as soon as possible. It’s 8 on a standard map and 12 on a large map, etc. As soon as you get the message “Our people want to build the Forbidden Palace,” you’re there. If there are still strategically desirable locations and you are able to do so, keep expanding to nearby locations. I will talk about corruption management in a bit.
LEADERS
Forget about leaders for the creating armies. I will personally come to your house and beat you if that’s what you use them for. On the high levels, use them to build wonders in one turn. On deity, that’s pretty much the only way to build any wonders at all. Because leaders are so crucial between Monarch-Deity you want to maximize them. One of the most important aspects of war for the higher level Civ3 gamer is not so much conquest as it is to produce a steady supply of leaders for wonder-building.
That means you want barracks in at least some of your cities. Your odds of getting a leader are an order of magnitude better if you need only go from Veteran to Elite. Once you have Elite units, use them as much as you can, but only in fights you know they can win. Use other, especially older units or catapults, to soften up your enemy so your Elite unit will win. In big games I like to use an early leader to build an army of something reasonably powerful and then build the Heroic Epic (an investment in more leaders). In small games don’t bother. Ideally, after your first ring of cities you will move much of your army to one front and get that neighbor to attack you – pretty easy to do with Zulus and other militaristic Civs. You’ll gradually pick up cities and create leaders over the course of the game. (Keep some units “at home” in between your remaining cities; remember, units don’t need to be in a city for happiness reasons, just in your territory, so fortify some of them on hills & mtns in-between your cities for back-up.) Station your leaders in cities you want to build wonders in as soon as the tech becomes available. Sell the tech to everyone for as much as you can as soon as you get it; then build the wonder.
DIPLOMACY
These civs all trade techs constantly with each other and you must do the same – the only exception being when you want to protect a tech or its precursor for wonder-building reasons. If you manage your diplomacy and trade routes properly, you will get cheap techs via a combo of your own techs, money, maps (especially valuable early), and luxuries. The civs will trade older techs much cheaper, so if techs that you didn’t research and don’t need can be had for a song (e.g., 20 gold) later on. Conversely new techs of yours, especially if they allow Wonders that you don’t care about anyway, will fetch a very high price. I’ve gotten as much as 30 gold per turn (from 5-6 different civs at once for the same tech), multiples techs, luxuries, etc. As soon as you trade with one civ, offer it to the others or that civ will instead. It will be slightly painful to you to share all your research but do it: this isn’t Civ2.
Along with high culture, trading frequently with the AIs reduces the chances of early wars. That’s good, because you’ll be struggling to keep up, and while you do want war, you want only one war at a time. Use Gold per turn to get into the right neighborhood, and then fine tune with Lump Sum. Your Advisor will tell you when they accept. Don’t waste your time proposing trades that your advisor say are “doubtful” or even “nearly there” unless you are trying to pick a fight. You can use Gold per turn on one side of a trade and lump sum on the other. Sometimes the AI will vehemently refuse to give you more than a certain amount of Gold per turn. This is because it only produces so much and doesn’t want to change its revenue structure; it does not mean that it won’t give you a lot of something else, like techs, resources, or cash.
Try to build roads and/or explore coastal sea lanes (if using harbors) to trade resources with AI civs. Only one of each luxury can be used by your Civ to make citizens happy; trade extra for techs, other luxuries, gold, etc. Trading luxuries to antagonistic neighbors seems to reduce their proclivity for war with you, as trading halts during war.
GREAT WONDERS
In big games you will be very tempted to build the Great Library. You will think “with all these civs, I’ll be getting techs hand over fist.” As for the Great Library, it expires with Education now, not electricity, so its shelf life is just one age. It also comes a little too early in the game, when your production is better spent elsewhere. In large games, think about global wonders like Pyramids, Sun Tze, Hoover and the Happiness Wonders (except Shakespeare); in games where you plan to build these wonders, try to stay all on one continent as many of them work only for that continent. In small games, focus on city-specific wonders like Colossus, the Science wonders, Shakespeare.
Don’t even think about building Leo unless you have 25+ units that are upgradable. You should almost never build this wonder. It doesn’t save you much money and it’s 550 shields. Be happy it’s in the game to waste some AI’s time. I personally turn off Diplomatic victory, which I think is deeply flawed, so UN is obviously a waste. Lighthouse is still a joke. Great Wall is useless unless you are fighting all over the place in the early game (which you shouldn’t be and won’t be if you’ve managed your diplomacy right) and you have lots of city walls. Gardens provide good culture but have a short shelf life now. Magellan and Adam Smith are crap. Cure for Cancer comes late and you probably won’t need it unless you are knee-deep in bloodshed. Hoover is valuable if you have a very big empire. Longevity comes too late to help you and costs 700 shields; make 7 tanks instead. The Science wonders (Copernicus, Newton, SETI) can be crucial depending on what kind of game you’re in. I like to build them all (with Colossus if possible) in a city with 3+ gold tiles. Suffrage now works in addition to police stations and is of game-specific utility. Theory of Evolution costs a lot, and there is a lot more tech trading in this game than in Civ2.
SMALL WONDERS
I try to build the Heroic Epic in big games to invest in more leaders. I definitely build Iron Works when I can to create a super-production city. (You can also build high-production cities by finding a city with some iron or coal, plus some other hills, and mining all of them. You will need to irrigate some grassland to support a high population. Then add workers to the city by moving them inside and hitting the “B” key. Presto, you have a size 6 or 12 city that’s actually working all of those mines.) Armies are overrated, so the Pentagon and Military Academy are strictly for your own enjoyment; they won’t meaningfully help you win the game. I’ve never built the Strategic Missile Defense. The Forbidden Place is essential for large empires, so it gets its own section.
FORBIDDEN PALACE AND CORRUPTION
Just manage your empire right and this won’t lose you the game (though it might irritate the hell out of you). Your empire should look like a large oblong or barbell, with your capital and Forbidden Palace in the center of a clump of cities at either end. Visualize a cell dividing. In some cases you may not want to build it far away from your capital as corruption will cause the build job to take forever and the Forbidden Palace cannot be rushed. Many people like to use a Leader to build the Forbidden Palace.
EDIT: this thread was created before the "Vassal" strategy was fully developed. Many people find this strategy helpful, especially on higher levels, and you can find it here:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...379#post602379
It's militaristic and expansionist that I avoid.
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