Civ 3 Advice

Cafe Society
1

The only gripe I can make about this game is the 2050 mandatory end date. The game is pretty hard, so I play on the easiest level. By the time the deadline hits, I’m just beginning the Industrial Age.

Can anyone here give me advice on how to advance well into the modern ages before 2050?

2

You’re playing the easiest level and are barely industrial by 2050?

My first word of advice would be to stop executing citizens who can read.

But seriously, I always avoided conflict whenever possible, traded scientific advances whenever I could and adjusted my taxes on the following formula:

[ul][li]Barely enough revenue to pay for city costs.[/li][li]As much science as possible.[/li][li]As few luxuries as I can get away with.[/li][/ul]
Building road links to luxury resources on the map like gems and furs and whatnot is pretty important, since it’ll keep your greedy ungrateful plebian slobs in line. I also skipped Monarchy and Feudalism generally and went for Republic as early as possible. The game also has a cripping bug that puts “corruption” way out of line. Download the necessary patches and try again.

That same website has oodles of tips and information about Civ III. In fact, it’s making me want to re-install it and waste the next two weeks of my life.

3

You can continue playing once your time is up.

My goal is to build a spaceship and I still haven’t done it yet. I do have a game saved in which I’ve made it far into the modern era by 1900. I am Germany and India as my opponent on two big, seperate continents so I wouldn’t have to do any fighting.

Hike up your research money and keep the civil unrest to a minimum.

4

Or what Bryan said, but with much less practical advice.

5

I haven’t been able to build a spacechip yet either but I have managed to win by being voted the leader of the UN. In most games however, when I’m finally able to build the UN I don’t have enough time.

6

Do you guys use the auto-governments for your cities? and Automate your workers?

This is the easiest way to ensure that things get done that need to get done if you’re a beginner.

7

Key aspects include:

  • Taking over your continent. Make them your allies, them surround them with military units. Declear war and wipe them out in a few turns.
  • Fortifying your position. Railways, tanks, carriers, subs, yadda , yadda, yadda.
  • Once you have your defenses, reduce the army and switch to democracy. The revenue bonuses kick ass.
  • Go nuts of research. It’s usually better to have a few really good research cities with all the trimmings (buildings, wonders, etc) but also build research in other areas if you have the cash.
8
  1. Build wonders. Most of them are truly helpful, depending on what kind of game you’re playing. I don’t like using boats, so I normally go for as few islands as possible, when setting up the game. So I never waste production on things having to do with Water (Colossus, Magellan ASF). Key wonders are:
  • Pyramids (automativ granary in all cities on same continent)
  • Art of war (automatic barrack on same continent)
  • Great library (free science advance when two other have discovered it + gives a load of culture points, which is essential to winning the game)
  • Sistine Chappel (double effect of all cathedrals, leaving you with option to have entertainment on minimum)
  • Leonardo’s Workshop (upgrade troops at half prize)
  • Smith’s Trading Company (banks and marketplaces with no cost for maintenence).
  1. Pick the right research. Don’t waste time and money, going after advances that don’t matter. I’ve never researched Free Artistry, but can always buy it from another civ for next to no money. Some advances should be priority:
  • all advances thet you need to build the wonders I listed above.
  • Military tradition (Cavalry is essential to winning the game)
  • Replaceable parts (your workers don’t need access to water to irrigate + works faster + you can upgrade to infantry).
  • Synthetic Fibers (Modern Armor. The best unit.)
  1. Final score is given for culture and territory. You need to start early with the land grab, as long as land is for free. Get military advances so you can start taking out neighbours early and expand. Never stop expanding.
  2. Beating corruption. See to it that your capital is at a central position in your empire. Cities near the capital suffer little or no corruption. A lesson to learn is not to build a capital by the coast. If you do, 25% of your corruption-free zone is gone.
  3. Don’t build Forbidden Palace early. You’ll need it to keep corruption in check later in the game, as your empire expands.
  4. Don’t be timid. Go to war.

Some civfanatics will play with reasearch at zero. Not for the timid player. They will buy, trade or steal advances from neighbours, and leave the ballance of money and happiness to make huge piles of gold. I did it once and ended up with 60 000 gold that I didn’t know how to spend.

By following this, you too can have modern armor around 1 200 CE, driving through archers and catapults with modern weapons. It’s fun. I’ve taken out a whole civ, with 50 cities in a single turn.

Oh, one more thing. Workers win the game. Get those guys digging and building. The single most important science advance is railroad. Railroad increases productivity on all city squares and your troops move around without movement points. It’s always fun when some civ trespasses, you tell them to get lost or else. They declare war and send in five horsemen and some spearmen - only to face 50 modern armor, that came from nowhere on the other side of the world.

9

  1. Spread fast. REALLY fast. At the early stages of the game you should be putting a LOT of your productive capacity into settlers. If there’s still open land left and you aren’t building a settler to take it, you’re screwing up. More so than any previous Civ game, expansion is the key to Civ 3. And use those workers.

  2. Micromanage cities to maximize trade. In Civ 3, food production is easier to get than in other Civ versions; prioritize maximization of trade.

  3. Trade, trade, trade technologies. Even if you give away more than you get, trade for techs.

10

War advice:

  1. Use lots and lots of artillery/cannons/catapults to “soften up” enemy units before attacking those units with your own. Note: the cannons/catapults don’t usually work too well.

  2. Don’t ever attack across a river – the defender gets a defensive bonus, and is more likely to win the battle.

  3. Attack units on plains/grassland ONLY, if you can help it. These types of terrain give the smallest defensive bonuses.

  4. Don’t attack any units: in a fortress, on a mountain, on a hill, in forest.

  5. Use “overwhelming force” if you can. Attack with a 3:1 ratio at least (3 offensive units: 1 defensive unit).

I also love that civfanatics website, especially the succession games forum, where you can observe master players (such as Sirian and LKendter) at work.

11

Or you can go the complete opposite of research (which has worked well for me on the monarch level)

Rather that spend any money on research, take that science slider all the way back to zero, and save, save, save. Do not make wonders, and do not make improvements that contribute to science research.

Let the other civs do research and buy it off of them (always make sure to haggle your price). The only drawback to this being a forceful civ (such as the aztecs or mongols) trying to bully you into giving them a tech or gold so they don’t attack.

Of course it shocks the hell out of them when they send in troops to destroy your tiny force, but you buy a huge army before they arrive. :slight_smile:

12

Actually, Electricity gives you the ability to irrigate without access to fresh water sources.

Adding to this, I’d take care to build cities on rivers or lakeshores whenever possible. If you don’t, their growth will stop dead at 6, forcing you to build an aqueduct. Those turns would be better spent on colisseums and libraries and whatnot.