Unofficial April Tourney game

[BillChin]

April is here. This is an "unofficial" tourney game of Civ 3. Standard rules, version 1.17f. The settings are Monarch difficulty, standard size map, random civ, eight random opponents, random barbs, random map type. I rolled a map and the first one came up Zulu. Looks like a nice starting position. Sorry, no picture of the start, as I do not have a jpeg picture program.

I'll start a separate thread for spoilers and finished games. Keep this thread to downloading problems and such.

Please, no reloading, no restarting, and no exploits. 1.17f exploits include using entertainer cities to join workers and pop rush, using numerous scouts to block resources, endless ship hopping for extra ocean movement. It is all honor system, but it is more fun if you play in the spirit of the game. Also stay clear of the spoilers and results thread until you see the world map or get past 10 A. D.

As for scoring, the top score overall, the fastest finish for Conquest, Domination, Culture and Spaceship, and top score for Diplomatic are the goal posts to shoot for.

I have the preferences set to what I like so you may want to press Ctrl-P and readjust the game preferences to what you are used to. This game requires version 1.17f, if you do not have it, you can find it at:

http://www.civ3.com/patches.cfm

Enjoy.

[BillChin]

Here is a strategy tip for novice players. It is a general tip for Civ 3 and not related to this particular game. For novice players that are struggling a nice "book" opening is to take a turn to pick a good tile for the capital. Building over a luxury or gold icon, next to a river or on the coast gives a nice early boost.

I suggest an initial build queue of three warriors, a settler, three more warriors then another settler. Plant these first two settlers very close to the capital. I suggest one square away on the diagonal or two away on the straight. Use the worker to connect them all with roads. This start gives six warriors and three cities quickly with the warriors all able to reach all cities in one turn. This makes it very tough to actually lose the game in the ancient age.

If you need an unzipping utility one site is:

http://www.pkware.com/downloads/

Thanks.

[punkbass2000]

OK, perhaps I'm a total dumba$$, but when I download that file it saves itself as a doc and not a zip. What do I do?

[BillChin]

Originally posted by punkbass2000
OK, perhaps I'm a total dumba$$, but when I download that file it saves itself as a doc and not a zip. What do I do?

Maybe I am a dumba$$ too, because I'm not sure what is going wrong. You might try using the File Manager to rename the downloaded file to APRIL.ZIP (or whatever). To rename a file in Windows goto My Computer, go to the C: drive (or whatever) highlight the downloaded file and right click on it. Choose rename from the pop up menu. Eventually you want the .SAV file in the saved games folder (something like
C:\Program Files\Infogrammes\Civilization III\Saves\April.Sav)

[BillChin]

I downloaded a paint program. Let's see if I can get a picture up...

[punkbass2000]

Renaming it to a zip file worked, thanks.

Now it's time for me to go and lose this competition!

[La Fayette]

Nice idea, BillChin!
I wonder what happened to Mark, but you are quite right: the 'official' tournament looks like being on strike.

[BillChin]

Warrior Gambit opening

After one day the game file has 20 downloads--not a bad start.

To bump this post, I'll post an opening strategy: Warrior Gambit. Again, this is a general Civ III tip, and may or may not be a good fit for the April game.

If a player wants to fight early, a good strategy involves sending the first two warriors together looking for an enemy. The warriors attack the first enemy settler or city that they find. Capturing a settler yields two workers, which is a huge early boost that is worth more than two warriors. A slightly later attack is to wait for archers and go looking for an enemy capital to cripple the enemy early. The key to a successful Warrior Gambit is to find an enemy and attack quickly. On Monarch level the AI gets two free units, so this strategy takes some luck, but is doable.

This kind of early war may be forgiven so it is not the end of the game if it fails. The odds of success with two warriors against one are about 70%. Tomorrow, I'll bump this thread with a post about a higher percentage opening strategy: Swordmen Conquest.

These opening strategies are also outlined on CivFanatics:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15439

[nbarclay]

I wish you didn't suggest the warrior gambit, because it can too easily turn tournament play that ought to be a contest of skill into a contest of whose warriors get lucky and whose don't (both in terms of what path their explorations take and in terms of whether or not their attack succeeds). I know luck plays a significant role in the game no mater what, but such a big roll of the dice so early makes the luck element significantly greater.

Personally, I've never been inclined to try that strategy because I prefer reliably sound strategies over higher-risk, higher-payoff ones. That means I'll almost always do reasonably well, but it also means that in any given tournament, gamblers who get lucky and have comparable skill can beat me. (And given enough gamblers, one or another will almost certainly get lucky in any given tournament. ) But since the challenge I set for myself is to do pretty well in EVERY tournament game rather than to win any particular one, I can live with that.

Nathan

[BillChin]

Nbarclay,
You have a good point. I rarely use Warrior Gambit because of the high chance of failure (vs. other strategies) and have never used it in tourney type games. However, the strategy is popular, and is effective on Monarch level. I do not recommend Warrior Gambit for novice players because it is a struggle to catch up if the gambit fails. Other strategies have a much higher success rate and can yield as high a score if executed well.

I started my tips with a dense core city build that I suggest for novice players or players that are struggling. It almost guarantees that a player will at least survive through the first age on Monarch level, with a start of the three cities close together connected by roads, and six warriors to defend by turn 45 or so. Again, the initial build queue is three warriors, settler, three more warriors, settler. Plant these first two settlers very close to the capital.

In case it gets bumped down too low, the spoiler thread is at the link below. Please stay clear of the spoiler thread until after 10 A. D. or the world map is visible.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46274

I'll post about Swordsmen Conquest later today, to give this thread another bump up.

[punkbass2000]

If I'm militaristic (and not Japanese) I will pull off an "archer gambit" on whoever I find first (which, ironically, failed this time). I find 3 archers are almost a lock, unless you're attacking across a river or onto a hill, or your opponent has at least two spearmen already. Generally I will build archer, archer, settler, archer for this scenario.

[BillChin]

Again, this is a general tip, and may or may not be a good fit for the April game.

Swordsmen Conquest starting strategy:
Start with the core of three cities close together, already outlined. Research Bronze then Iron Working. For the fourth or fifth city look to claim iron. Send the early warriors out scouting and locate the enemy borders.

After each city has at least one defender, build barracks and then warriors. Barracks are not essential, but are desireable. An alternative is to send the regular warriors out against Barbarians to get them veteran status. Once Iron Working is discovered, lower the research slider to get gold to upgrade the warriors (40 gold per unit). Gold for upgrades is not essential, but allows a player to field a larger attack force earlier.

Timing of the attack depends on how much open land there is between a player and the enemy. Generally, I suggest building four to six cities, and a time of 700 B. C. A stack of ten units is a good number for the 700 B. C. time period. Maybe 7 swordsmen, 2 spearmen and one settler. Generally, Swordsmen Conquest works best when directed at the nearest enemy.

If there is no iron, use archers and plan on losing more units and maybe build a catapult or two. Catapults are also good if fighting Hoplites. With seven swordsmen in the attacking stack, the odds of success are above 99% against typical defenders.

Swordsmen Conquest is the one of the best strategies for attacking hostile Zulu neighbors. Swordsmen Conquest is very powerful when playing as Romans or Persians because of their unique units.

A player can theoretically flow from Warrior Gambit into Swordsmen Conquest. A player has the choice of destroying the enemy or making peace on favorable terms.

Another good time window for attack is after the enemy changes government so they do not pop rush when seeing troops. This time window may be more like 10 B. C. on Monarch level. In this case about 20 attacking units, and building 8 to 15 cities are what I suggest. This is a strategy that I labelled Horsemen Conquest. With the new 1.17f rules it is more like Combined Arms Conquest and I'll outline it tomorrow.

[D.K]

this is an excellent thread, good work Billchin

[BillChin]

Well, I saw MarkG's pixels on the top post.

I'll post the Combined Arms Conquest later in the day to bump this thread again.

[BillChin]

Combined Arms Conquest, formerly Horsemen Conquest

Again, this is a general Civ III strategy tip, and may or may not be a good fit for the April game.

The basics are to build eight to 15 cities, and an attack force of about 20 units. Build the first three cities close together (initial build queue of 3 warriors, settler, 3 warriors, settler). For the next cities look to claim luxuries, iron and horses. Techs needed include, Horseback Riding, Iron Working and Mathematics.

I suggest the following ratio of attacking units:
10% spearmen
20% horsemen
50% swordsmen
10% settlers
10% catapults

Increase to 20% catapults if facing hoplites, legionaires or pikemen. Spearmen are useful for garrisons and to absorb any counter attacks.

The time window launching the war ranges from about 100 B. C. to 300 A. D. On Emperor difficulty, a player may be five or six techs behind. War is an excellent way to catch up in tech. Bribing some of the neighboring Civs may deter them from declaring war. One free gold per turn is often enough to keep the peace. A two front war is something to be avoided.

If a player can not get the attacking force in place by 300 A. D., he/she may be better off waiting for Chivalry and upgrading to Knights. Knight Blitz will be the next strategy outlined. Enjoy.