From discussions on this board, I knew that Civ III is an engrossing game, and I figured I had enough timewasting hobbies. However, my daughter bought it, brought it home, and I couldn’t resist installing it and playing it.
I keep running short on gold. My neighbors keep ganging up on me and making alliances against me. I can’t find any resources. HELP!
Any tips? Any links to really good FAQs/hints?
When I played Civ III I used to hang out on civfanatics, where your questions and others where/are discussed endlessly.
I would strongly recommend you getting the expansion Conquests, because the Civ III vanilla is a bit unbalanced. Conquests would cost nearly nothing these days.
I haven’t played Civ III for years (moved on to Civ IV) and now confusing them two, I’m sorry I can’t help you directly.
My advice is switch to either Civ IV or Civ II. Both are far better games.
Otherwise, open up the editing tools and make a simple Civ III scenario/mod that either severely tones down or altogether eliminates corruption and waste. They’re game-breaking in Civ III. It’s so bad that once you pass a certain number of cities, founding or conquering a new city will actually make your empire weaker due to the increased corruption and waste in all cities. It really, really sucks.
Funny, but I haven’t found Civ IV “engrossing”, per se. I mean, it is while you have a game running, but it’s not all that difficult to not start a new one for a while.
Then again, I’m weird.
I agree the add-ons really improve the game.
I’m not sure it’s deliberate, but the game always seems to give the key resource I need to my nearest neighbours, forcing me into a war to claim territory.
Still, it’s satisfying to spend my entire reign killing and pillaging.
ETA:
:eek: 
:dubious:
Lies! Lies and Slander! 
I guess I should clarify:
Civ II > Civ IV > Civ I > Civ III
I’m a big Civ 2 fan.
I keep trying Isolationism, & it don’t work.
BTW, Lynn. Get yourself a Caravel & a Diplomat, & some dough, early in the game.
Go sailing into unknown lands. Find a previously uncontacted Civ. Cruise his coastline, until you find a Settler. Then, pull up along side, bribe it, & get a Settler who works without Food or additional cost. Repeat, until ship is full, return to your continent, & put em on automatic.
As Wakinyan says, Civfanatics.com has loads of information.
Personally I find Civ 4 far better than Civ 3, because you don’t have to build lots of cities to win (indeed the game gives tough financial penalties to large empire builders :eek: ).
But any Civ game should be straightforward on a low level (that’s why there are so many levels).
From teaching the game to my pupils 
I would suggest the following:
Financial woes usually come from:
building too many units too early. Your Civilisation can support a number of units depending on your size and Government type, but extra ones cost money.
I put one or two units (preferably fortified Spearmen) in each city, have a couple more (Horsemen or Archers) standing by to travel to repel attackers and a couple (Horsemen or Scouts) exploring.
Once your Civilisation is well-established, you can afford to build armies for invasion…
not building enough roads. Workers should build roads between every city and on every square each city is using. (You should also mine or irrigate each square in use.)
staying in Despotism too long. There is a lot of corruption + waste (which reduce your hard-earned money and shields) in this form of Government. Aim to get to Monarchy or Republic.
building cities too far away from your Capital. Corruption + waste increase with distance.
look at your Financial Adviser. Where is the money going?
P.S. I like to set a rate of at least 60% on science and still have a small financial surplus.
Neighbours (everybody needs good neighbours!):
when you first meet other civilisation, see if you can trade something. (Even giving a gift of 5 gold can cheer them up.)
one profitable idea is once you have discovered a scientific advance, trade it to every other civilisation! (Do this in the same turn, otehrwise they’ll trade it…)
other civilisations will be more respectful if you have larger armies (though see above for financial risks)
If you are still stuck, feel free to e-mail me. 
I agree. One of these days I’m going to find my copy of Civ 2 again and you won’t see me for a few months.
Just in general…
Civ 4 nooB here and I’m having real trouble getting into the “end-game.” I like developing the cities and gaining resources, etc. but after a point (usually around “gunpowder”) it just starts getting boring and I quit my game.
Maybe it’s just that I’ve made it a point to study the early game and I’m starting to understand it’s intricacies and haven’t yet moved on to deeply study the end game, I don’t know. But it just seems like the end game is nothing but either military conquest or technological advancement (feel free to correct me here). In my last finished game, I WAS able “acquire” a full 4 cities via culture, and I was proud of that, but I still wasn’t able to win on it. Only won by points. Still a nooB but I’ve never won by anything other than conquest or points.
I also get frustrated that after a point some cities are so fortified as to be FARKING RIDICULOUS. I have to sit there for 100 years building a stack big enough to finish off a country, yet STILL my diverse 10-15 unit stack is merely a pig to the slaughter due to fortification bonuses. And they seem to fully rebuild in a turn or two. (Or even worse…sneek out settler at the last second to build a new city so you have to regroup all your forces to take that one out. It’s like trying to nail Jello to a tree).
I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something. The game is so deep I DO admit to, at times, still using the “enny meany miney mo” approach to research and development. But that’s probably just due to the fact that from what I’ve noticed the outcome is usually pretty clear with 200 turns left and the rest is just a formality.
Where am I going wrong?
Here Lynn, this site should give you the add-ons to simplify (and complexify) your game
A couple of things…first, may sure you are building your troops in the cities where they will get the maximum number of promotions. I generally specialize my troops (i.e. design them specifically to be city attacker, defenders, or medics). Therefore, my attacker stack will usually consist of 15 attackers with as many as city attack bonuses as possible, two or three defenders to hold the city after I take it, and at least one unit with the medic promotion.
Second, if at all possible, move into a space adjacent to the city that provides some defensive bonus (forested hills are the best) therefore if your opponent attacks prior to your attack turn you have some protection.
Finally, and most importantly, ARTILLERY!!! Bombard the hell out of the city and you can reduce their city defensive bonus to zero. I also like giving the collateral damage bonus to the artillery units and then using them as the first attackers. Then the rest of the defenders are damaged by the time my city attack units do their thing. You did touch on the crucial aspect though, you have to take the city in one turn. Every unit you damage but don’t kill will, get a promotion, and be that much more difficult to kill the following turn. So make that when you decide to take a city, you have all the requisite units and overwhelming numbers.
Lynn, I’d recommend going to the Apolyton site. The place reeks of strategy information, etc.
Civ III was a difficult game to master, in my opinion. Partly this is because of the fact that the corruption factor was so punitive. But the basic strategy in any Civ game prior to Civ IV has always been to expand as fast as you can, while managing to build sufficient military might and make needed alliances such that you can keep your main enemies at bay.
I can’t recall playing Civ III well enough to offer specific solutions; maybe I’ll dust my copy off and install it and see if I can recall enough to help you out.
I think this is exactly why some people were so frustrated with Civ III. The initial land grab became a necessary part of game strategy because of the cultural boundaries and resources but at the same time the punitive factor for expansion was prohibitive.
Oh, and I’ll second DYoungEsq’s suggestion of the Apolyton site - if you can’t find it on that site, it doesn’t exist. All right folks, I’m off to play a little SMAC while I finish my coffee.
This is all excellent advice. 
Do have a look at:
your civilisation specialities (e.g. Mongols get the Ger building, which gives mounted units extra experience; Arabs get the Camel Archer, which needs no special resources)
your Civics (Police State gives 25% bonus military production / Vassalage + Theocracy give extra experience)
Next decide if you want to hold cities or raze them. A conquest victory is easier with razing (no need to bring defenders); a domination victory requires you hold onto cities and territory.
Do indeed attack from hill-type squares. You may also like to bring a Spearman to defend well against Mounted attacks. Look for other bonuses like that.
** Bring artillery! **
I always use Trebuchets to reduce the city defence to 0% before attacking. (Catapults are cheaper, but take a little longer.)
On say Noble level, I’ve never yet failed to take an enemy city with 15 Camel Archers going in after 5 Trebuchets had reduced the Walls to rubble. 
Incidentally I’ve also won games by getting 3 of my cities to Legendary Cultural status. Lots of Temples, Libraries, Cathedrals + Wonders.
Personally, I don’t think that the corruption is all that bad. In a typical game on a Huge-sized map, I find that my “natural” empire size (where I start bordering other empires, before war), the edge cities still get up to about 75% of their potential. The only fully-corrupt cities I get at that stage are the outposts halfway around the world which exist for no purpose other than claiming resources, and in those few cities, I can afford to just cash-rush anything that I really need to build (typically a harbor, a library for culture, and a bit of defense).
Now, once you start in on heavy-duty conquest, yeah, those newly-captured cities can be pretty corrupt. But once you’re to the point of taking out other entire empires, it doesn’t matter any more: You wouldn’t be there if your core wasn’t productive enough already.
Lynn, one specific tip for early gameplay: If you’re doing any scientific research at all, you’re guaranteed to get a tech in no more than 40 turns. The first few techs, you won’t be able to research them any faster than that, anyway, so turn down your science slider until you’re spending only 1 gold per turn on science (or all the way down to 0, and set one citizen to be a scientist specialist). The AI never does this, so you’ll quickly become the richest civilization, at least in the ancient age.
IMHO:
Alpha Centauri > Civ II > Civ IV > Civ I > Civ III >>>>>>> Civ CTP
Alpha Centauri uses the basic Civ II framework but adds one of the better innovations from Civ III, territory limits. Alpha Centauri also allows you to design your own new units to meet your specific needs.
SMAC and SMACX are why I’m not playing Civ right now
Alpha Centauri was the best iteration of the whole bunch of the games. I remember playing it the first time and was in awe of the depth of the gameplay. I still get sexy shivers at Deidre’s voice… :eek:
I knew I could count on y’all for advice and bookmarks. Thank you so much. Right now I’m playing at Chieftain (easiest) level, and apparently I’m not a good military ruler.