Share your tips for Civilization III

Cafe Society
41

What era are you in? Early in the game, the global economy just isn’t advanced enough to support this sort of monetary outlay. In other words, everyone is too broke to pay big. You won’t start seeing decent returns until everyone has Economics, and you won’t get the pig payoffs until the end of the Industrial era. Towards this end, it’s usually in your best interests to let your enemies have techs like Currency, Economics, Corporation, and other money-making techs for cheap. The more money your enemies are earning, the more they can pay you. You should also give Sanitation out for next to nothing, as bigger enemy cities equal more money for you.

In the game I’m playing now (as Russia, Warlord difficulty), I just sold Space Flight to the French for 600+ gold a turn, plus Amphibious Warfare and a sack of cash. Meanwhile, I’m succesfully prosecuting wars on three seperate continents, building a spaceship, and I have more than 15000 gold in the bank.

God, I love this game.

42

I always play as the Persians. I just love the Immortals. The first tech I go for is cerimonial burial, then I go for Iron Working. I build a city near iron, build a temple in every city, then I start cranking out units.

Because of the Immortals, I have a powerful infantry, whose is good up until Musketmen. They have to work to defeat them.

Any civ I meet, I’ll be at war with them within a hundred years. I want to use my advantage while I still can. Man, I love the Immortals.

Throughout the whole of the game, I am a warmonger. I rarely change governments, I tend to enjoy Monarchy through the game.

43

My favourite special unit is Scandinavia’s Berserkers, which replace Longbowman after you get invention. They’re 6/2, require no resources to build, and can attack amphibiously, like marines.

44

New purchaser of Civ 3 here, I tried the demo, and liked it enough that I bought the Gold edition. One really quick question that I’d really appreciate answers to – Is it possible to play the game in a window?

Brian

45

I haven’t been able to get it non-maximized (can’t even see the toolbar when I play it), but maybe someone else has had success.

46

Okay,

I played the game (gold edition) for the past two days straight, I’ve had very little sleep so please forgive any spelling mistakes.

First, I tired very hard to use the “selling tech” strategy and found it failed miserably! Every other civ. was eager to buy it, but no one had any money. I maxed my science budget, sent out hords of scouts, and was lightyears ahead of every other civ, but there was no money. At best I could get $10 and a territory map. What am I doing wrong?

Secondly, I thought I’d share an amazing tip I found on that website **JohnT ** sent: you can save and load your que! When you start a new city (or any other time), you can open the que and by holding “shift” select multiple build orders. I’m sure everyone knows this. But what i just learned what that if you press “shit Q” it will save your list. Then when you start a new city, open the que and press “Q” to have it load up. Its an unbelievable time saver. Thanks **JohnT **, great site.

47

emacknight, what difficulty level are you playing, and how early on is it? On Chieftain, for example, I wouldn’t count on getting more than about 50 gold from any one civ until at least 1000 AD. In my current (well, one I started last night to break the monotony of the other one; arms race that’s going to take about 20 turns before I know if I can do what I want to do) game, I happened upon a relatively intelligent Elizabeth (England) and Portugal (Henry), so I’ve been able to sell them some non-American workers (they get paid as much as my workers do and work half as fast. Sorry, no dice) for 30 a pop.

48

One big tip for me would be how to start any game with the Earth map and the cultures in their correct starting places. I’ve downloaded the most recent patch, ticked and unticked the box on the options screen that says culture specific start points and still I play as American in China or something equally ridiculous. I’ve managed to find a few saved games online with the start points correct but they are only for a few Civs, Russia, Germany, US and China, on a harder level than i’d like to start on. Anyone know whats going on? If anyone would like to email me one a save game or tell me what I’m doing wrong I’d be grateful :slight_smile:

49

Sorry to bump this up but I’d really love to know how to sort out the culture starting points, its bugging an otherwise ok game :slight_smile:

50

Other than the “Link starting cultures” thing, or however it’s abbreviated, I have no clue, Pushkin.

I am wondering, though, what’s the most anachronistic y’all ever managed to get a game. In Civ2, with the Europe map, starting as the French (when I saw how it worked for them I never bothered trying anyone else) and making as many huts into advanced tribes as possible, I could get a space ship done in the middle of the 18th century. That was also the game where I managed to save every wonder video but one, I think (I couldn’t figure out how to access them otherwise).

In my current game (warlord, no funky victory conditions) I have 6 turns to gunpowder, and I’m in 1110 AD. I know the Chinese had gunpowder of some sort (playing as America in 4K BC is odd enough without ascribing gunpowder to us about 100 years after the Battle of Hastings) in the 12th century, but I’m not aware of any proven military uses of it until the 14th century. Given that gunpowder here is used not for rocketry but for muskets, I’m interested in seeing if someone has gotten railroad in, say, the 15th century (achieved in my most recent chieftain game), or universal suffrage in an age where there was no voting in the real world:)

51

Actually, in the Conquest Expansion pack, Guerillas upgrade to TOW infantry when you get rocketry. They are 12/14, and require no resources, making them reasonably useful in the modern ages.

Another great Civilization site is
Civilization Fanatic’s Center , which includes lots of great tips on the game. One really powerful strategy I found at that site is Ring City Placement.

Using this strategy can dramatically reduce your corruption, which can be killer if you have a large empire. Basically how is works, is one thing that determines the corruption in a city is how many other cities are closer to the capital or forbiden palace. The more cities that are closer, the more corruption a city has. But if you place a bunch of cities at equal distance(distance is calculated by a goofy formula, explained at the link) to the capital, then that factor in the corruption is dramatically reduced. You basically build a your cities in a series of “rings” around the capital, and you then have a lot less corruption. Note that this strategy doesn’t work with the Conquest expansion.

52

I somehow managed to get a space victory around 1980 once.

53

That was with the first Civ though. Never played the second much and the third is probably too complicated for that.

54

Damn this thread. I bought Civ3 Gold because of it. These actually have been the first games I managed to win (though I usually played on Gargantuan or whatever the biggest size map was, I moved down to Tiny and started winning). I also used to think it took like 24 hours to play, but moving down to Tiny changed that, too. Now it’s 4-5 hours. Amazing. Yea, I’m stupid.

Anyway, basic stuff I’m sure, but…

If you set your Research/Smileyface sliders at the beginning, it’s far easier to go to 80-90% (where I usually run it) than it is later in the game.

If you get stuck on a starting continent with one other guy, take him out ASAP. In the game I played today, the Persians (me) and Greeks started on one continent and the Mongols and Koreans on another pretty far away. There were a few islands in between. Ultimately, I knew we were going to fight over resources/places to expand eventually, you know? So I enveloped him with Settlers, blocking him from expanding more, built up my Immortals, and stormed his two cities. Knocked him out of the fight and I got two free cities. Compare this with another game I played where the Americans and Aztecs started on the same continent, the Americans expanded, and the Aztecs only had one city. Until they started some crap with me via their alliance with the Chinese and I broke them like a dry twig. If you’re going to have to fight eventually, build up quick and take them out.

Nothing helps me manage my island empire like Paratroopers and Airports.

Steam Power (and getting to it) is my number 1 priority in every game. Nothing makes defense easier, IMO, except possibly the Artillery/Infantry combination.

I talk about military a lot. But for all that, I try and run a science game. But the AI always starts trouble with me, and I feel the need to crush it, so I get the Conquest/Domination win. My favorite government is Communism.

Gold. What is gold? I usually manage to build up 500 or so from raiding barb huts and spend most of the late game doing -100 or -150 every turn.

55

I’m not that good but it is a good time and it is the total crack of the video game world. It is amazing how it can totally eat 9 hours in the blink of an eye. I don’t have Conquests but now I am itching to get it.

I usually play Greece or Persia and go the no-fight lots-o-science route. I always build Iron Working straight off of the bat, then try to monopolize Iron resources. If you can hold a neighboring Civ off from acquiring Iron, then you can really trash them later when you have an army of Knights and Pikemen/Riflemen to their Spearmen.

An easy tip is to find out where the neighboring Civs are and build cities to staunch their natural expansion routes. Try to capitalize on resources. Try to wipe them off of the map early to greatly increase your points. I like to build the Great Library and the Great Lighthouse. You can sometimes use the Great Lighthouse to discover new civs well before anybody else. You can usually sell Contact with another civ for quite a high price so this is very nice. You also can get relatively big paydays for your World Map early on, which is nice if there is lots of information but none of it is sensitive (i.e. land to which you want to expand).

If fighting a late transoceanic war, I will either ICBM a city or send over a battleship/carrier flotilla and destroy all of the railroads around it before I attack it with troops and artillery. That will prevent any fast resupply of the city. Do this all in one turn. Be sure to have workers on the transports because you can’t airlift them. After taking the first city, immediately convert all people in the city to entertainers, wait until resistance is over, and then rush an Airport. It is now a significant one-turn beachhead which eliminates your supply lines entirely.

I once won Space Race in Warlord in 1975 or so with a score of over 2000. I think I was “Caesar the Kind” or something, which really made my week. This is far and away my best performance ever. My friend somehow manages to play and win in Deity level. He always plays on a huge level with the max number of starting other Civs, then immediately beats up on at least 4 of them. I’m not a fighter so this strategy seems painfully boring to me. Because of this, I’ve never won on anything greater than whatever is one up from Warlord. But I’ll follow the tips here and see where that leads me.

56

Maybe it’s my extensive play and experience, but here I am in the 17th century and I’ve got replaceable parts, or whichever tech shortens workers’ jobs by 1/2. The Japanese and Hittites were pissed at me and the Inca and Maya joined in, but they had to either A) walk through about 50 squares (at least) of Ottoman territory or B) go at me with two units per turn. Given that 50% of my land (most of what I had before I removed Aztecs from the map, and I don’t have as many workers as I’d like, an issue I’m trying to rectify) is railroaded, it’s possible to take extra units from one corner of my civ and dump them into whatever problem Japan or the Hittites are making. I’ll be getting both the Hoover Dam and Universal Suffrage before the century’s up, I believe, and Wall Street not long after (I’m currently making about 20 Stock Exchanges; with Smith’s, they are free).

Two big tips:

Cities. A lot of them. Three size 2 cities produce more trade (ignoring corruption) than one size 6 city.

Workers. Even more. The trade they generate is massive. I have probably 60 workers in my current game and I’d like to have about 90. If you have a city with horrible production, one good way to improve its production is to have it pump out workers (also helps in case it’s going into civil disorder a lot; bleed down the population) who can then improve the land. Once you get replaceable parts, you’re roading in one turn (if you’re industrious:D), railroading in two and mining in two.

57

Another thing that dramactically impacts the rate of technological advance is what level you are playing at. At higher levels the AI researches a lot faster, and have to buy/steal/trade techs if you want to keep up. If you are playing at Warlord level, its difficult to get a spaceship win before time runs out. But at say Emperior or above, you can launch a spaceship by 1800 if you are lucky.

In my current demi-god game,Germany on the world map, I conquered Europe by 800AD, Africa and the Middle East by 1200AD, and my Panzers have just pushed the Russians behind the Urals - and its not yet 1600AD. I would have advanced even farther if not for that bloodthirsty back-stabbing tyrant Gandhi sneak attacking my middle east possions while we had a right of passage agreement. :mad:

58

I’m going Warlord in my current game, and in 7 turns (I’m in 1685 now) I’ll have refining. I should have tanks by 1800, so I humbly submit that if I don’t have a space ship launched by 2000 AD, it’s because I’ve beaten everyone else with my tanks:D

59

Ha! I’ll have to try that next.

60

I knew there was someone else I wanted to reply to.

I tend to play Large maps with 7 other Civs; my last game took just over 10 hours. It would have been sooner but I couldn’t get the Diplomatic victory. I had pretty much caused everyone to go to war with each other when I invaded the Mayans to get the only coal deposit.

The game is much faster on my Athlon 1800+ over the P3-450. Those games could take me all weekend!