1BC Civ Forums / Civilization III Discussion / CivIII Discussion / The Art of War

teching Speed

Stewart — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:01:34 GMT

i've recently brought civ3 had a few games getting to understand the goverments and the general workings of the game. By the end of the last game i had only just started producing tanks, from about 2020 and just moved into the last scince era, my science research ratio was set at 70:30 for most the game though not for from the off. I was the Greeks if that affects anything.

Am i climbing the technology ladder to slow? or is this normal? what can I do to improve my tech speed? goverment wise and general gameplay?

cheers

stew

Artilery Fortifications

grandgeneral — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:30:38 GMT

the best way to put advantage to artillery is to use fortresses, a powerful defensive unit and a decent place to put your position. The Best place to put your battery is on a mountain, as mountains have the highest defensive value, plus an increased visual range. For early artillery units, u can defend them with longbow men, pikemen, or a combination of a defensive unit and an offensive unit, such as a pikemen, and a cavalry. Though CAnnon isnt nearly as powerful as radar artillery, but still effective with the fortress and a mountain. When modern artillery units progress, they will be able to interlace to cover cities at a distance, and probably attack naval units. :cool:

Looks like I may get my first Demigod level victory

dshimel — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:54:06 GMT

As a long time Civ II player, I brought over much of my strategy baggage with me to Civ III when I upgraded to CivIII Gold about 3 years ago. Made the swap to Civ III Complete about 1 year ago. Very different. (I never buy a game when it is new. I'm a late adopter when I can get the game with all its upgrades and patches for about the price the game would have sold for on day 1).

So anyway, one of the stragegies I brought along was was city placement. In Civ II the tech tree isn't broken up into ages, so you could target specific lines while totally ignoring others, getting things like hospitals much earlier in the game if you chose. Therefore, the no-overlap pop placement was the thing to do.

AND... I kept doing it in Civ III.

I was in a game week or so ago, and it hit me. By the time I can get about city sive 12, the game is 80+% over. I'm wasting tons of productive squares!

So, that is why I came to this site. Actually, first time I've visited any Civ strategy site. I wanted to see if this idea had merrit, and I found dome posts indicating it is indeed the way to go.

So, I played a game at Emperor, placing pops in ideal locations for low overlap, AND dropping a few pops in between those main pops as temp pops to maximize the use of close in terrain while waiting for hospital.

Plan was to not build many improvements in those pops since they were just going to be there for a part of the game. But then I decided to build all the culture producing improvements, plus a few extras in those pops. I could sell them when I plan to disband them.... Sure, the city may eventually be losing money, paying more for those culture improvements.... But, I can sell them back them.

Or, wait. Much that happens in the game seems to be dependant on your total culture. So, maybe I'll just keep those pops around cranking out cluture...

So, in that one game at Emperor using a close proximity city placement strategy, I did very well, keeping up with other nations tech gains much better than in past games.

So, I swirtched to Demigod.

Playing Celts. Started on a nice river with 2 wheats. I did the ususal of crankning out 3 warriors, 2 to hold up happiness with martial law, then the 1 to explore a bit. However, with the 2 wheats, before I could build the third, I needed to crank out my first settler.

Being Celts I start with the advancements for grainery and temple, so my typical starting tech move is to go for iron working to see where the iron is, then move toward Republic. First to philospohy gets a free advancement, so at lower than emperor level I typically get rule of law before philosophy so that I can get Republic, a very costly advance, for free. At emperor I can't get there first, at least not before I started the close in placement strategy.

This game, I decided to pass on iron working, since everytime I've played demigod in the past, the strategic resources are never close enough to my capital for me to really get control of them early. I was unable to get philosophy first despite max effort to get there first. Still, I was able to make swaps for code of laws and philo to complete much of the remaining lower areas of the tree.

Backing up a bit, I was able to drop my first settler on a luxury, then picked up a second luxury with my 3rd (or maybe 4th city). I built a temple between the 1st and 2nd settler, then grainery between 2nd and 3rd. Repeating temple and grainery production for additional cities, and producing workers and settlers as population growth allowed.

I was WAY weak on military, and several times had to give into demands of gold and map from others.... So what.

By careful micromanagement, good city placement, and use of graineries and other advancement, I managed to grow at a very good pace. I noticed a 3rd luxury to my north in a swamp wedged between 2 Babylon pops. I stuck a city on it and rushed a temple to push out on culture borders. Babylon coverd my entire north on a wide pinsula I was on. No one to my south.

With 3 luxuries, I was able to let my cities get a bit larger pre-construction than my past attempts at demigod where I was unable to get better than 2 luxuries.

Eventually I completed philosphy. As stated above, I was able to trade this and code of laws for much of the lower end of the tech tree. I then researched Iron Working and found an iron deposit just outside my country in the control of Babylon. I rushed a settler over then disbanded a bunch of warriors in the pop to get temple quickly. I then learned literacy to get library and built one there in that pop as quickly as possible.

Getting construciton and literacy and currency, most of my efforts changed from pure settle creation, to improvements and getting larger than 6. There was just a small fringe of shore to my south that other nations sent settlers to populate. Portugual and England got there first by ship, but several other nations were mobving settlers through my territory... then had to turn them around.

By this time I had gone ahead and researched Republic and switched to that govt.

Eventually, my effort to gain control of the iron from Babylon worked, and I produced a hand full of my special units, the Gailec Swordsman. Unfortunatly, in demigod level, it is tough to not get slaughtered in a war that you start just to trigger your golden age.

Then, fortune smiled down on me again. Babylon declared war on Germany. And, Germany still had a settler and a spearmen escort in my territory that he'd tried but failed to move through my area... Wherever Germany is, he's the other side of Babylon, so I'm shielded. I waited about two turns after their war started, then I declared war on Germany, used a gailec swordsman to kill his spearman, and poof, I'm in Golden Age. Just as I finish ancient times and head into middle ages.

This REALLY helped me crank out the libraries, colusiums, markets, etc. Also allowed me to do get to University quickly. By the end of the Golden Age I had quite a few universities.

Unfortunatly, Babylon must have had cathedrial way before me because he was able to push back cultutrily and regain the iron. He then ended his war with Germany fairly quickly, leaving me to sweat. As Germany rushed in with knights against my very limited number of swordsmen, I had to fend him off for about 2 turns... Then I was able to make piece. I tossed a free luxury his way, and since I'd not taken any of his pops, he was right back to cautious from angry.

I got university fast enough and built one quickly and was able to push back on Babylon and retake the iron.

Eventualy I got gunpowder, and sure enough, no saltpeter anywhere near me. And, of course, no horses either. Didn't even bother trying to get cav. Skipped and went to industrail age and got steam power.

Sure enough no coal... But wait. There is a deposit just off my borders to the south just inside an english controlled tile. So, I rushed down a settler, then built a temple and library. I was able to gain control of the coal, and linked all my cities, then started working inside out, improving all the squares around my least corupt cities first.

Then... England culturally flipped my city by the coal!! DANG!!!! after gaining control of the coal, I got distracted and forgot to add cathedrial and university to keep pushing on him.

Back to tech. One of my tricks is to start on things that will take a long time, like palace or some other wonder long before I have an advancement that allows an improvement I know I will want quickly. After steam, I learned industry and was able to quickly produce factories in my 2 highest industry cities. Then I went back to working on the things I knew I wouldn't really build... and switched to hospital as soon as I got medicine and sanitation. Then I sarted working on wonder and palace again.

Then, fortune shined down on me again.... Egypt declared war on Babylon, and brought the entire rest of the world into in on their side. Babylon was destroyed, and I was able to shove a lot of settlers into the gaps between the pops, rush in improvements, and shove out my broders quite a bit. Babylon was no more, and I had FIRM control of that iron that had been on our border.

After sanatation, I traded for nationalism and finally produced some riflemen. Nice to have a unit that defends better than pikeman.

An aside. I've never been a huge user of spies. But, I thought I better give it a try since this is demigod and I'm probably going to be unable to use warfare to grow. So, I took time out from going straight up the tech tree to get espionage. I then did a bit of cheating, save, try to use propaganda to flip the city that controls coal, fail, reload. I didn't think this was so much "cheating" as testing and learning how espionage works within the game...

As I built hospitals and my main pops grew above 12, the temp pops produced workers to give up their tiles. I traded for democracy, and switched to that. Soon I had enough workers to make it worth a trade for coal... So I rushed to put in railroads EVERYWHERE while the trade lasted. Did pretty good at getting in railroads in the limited time of the 20 turn trade.

After espianoge, I headed for Scientific Method. My capital was working on universal sufferage, and my second best was working on palace. I was stockpiling shields big time with factory and hospital in both of these cities. I even joined workers into the cities to crank up their size and max production.

Then I had an ohno second.... Just as I was about to get Sicentific Method, portigul completed Universal Sufferage. My capital had nothing to switch to. All that pre-produciton toward ToE would be lost... Probably resulting in someone getting it before me. Oh wait. Fortune shined down on me again. It was THE turn before the advancement. And, you don't have to switch until the city's next production... AFTER I have the advancement. Had sufferage been built 1 turn sooner, I was toast.. But, instead, I was golden.

So, I ran the turn, learned Scientific Method, switched production to ToE. Cool. Just enough time to learn Replacible Parts before completing ToE.

On THE turn I completed Replacable Parts, I completed ToE, learned atomic theory and electornics for free, then switched my second best city to Hoover Dam, which was just a couple turns away.

AND, just inside my border to the south... RUBBBER. THE FIRST stratigic resource I hadn't had to launch a culture war to control. So, I was able to buid infantry! And, since I had factories and hospitals in a fairly large number of my pops, I was cranking out infantry pretty quickly. 2-3 per turn. More like 4-5 per turn after I completed the Hoover Dam. Also produced about 15-20 artilary. Woot. For the first time in the game, I actually had a decent chance of defending myself should I be attacked.

All my older units got dumped into those cities that I build in and around ex. Babylon territory to help rush production of temples, courthouses, libraries, cathedrials, etc.

After Egypt and England had taken out Babylon, they had ganged up on Germany and taken him out. Protuigal and France, both the far side of Egypt from me were throwing cav at each others infantry....

I got refining.. and ... you guessed in, no Oil. There is a deposit way in the south controlled by another of those English pops. DANG ENGLISH!!!

AND, then fortune shines down on me YET again. The two biggest boys on the street Egypt and England got into it. Egypt attaked England! I saw my oppertunity to pick up a lot of those ex. Babylon pops on my norther border that were heald by England... AND take his southern pops to gain permamnt control of the coal PLUS the oil!

Using massed artilary and infantry, I attacked. AND, I brought Rome into on my side in a tech swap that included me getting military tradition(though I had no intenton of building cav. I wanted the small wonders it allows). He was the only nation not already at war and the only nation England would likely be able to bring into it on his side.

I very carefully shepharded my elite units into safe victories, and soon had a leader, which I converted into an army, got an army victory, and quickly built military academy and military tradition. About 6 turns short of when I'd have motorized tradition, I started seeing tanks appear on the battle field for portigul and spain, then soon Egypt.

Back up... Workers can hang out in enemy territory without the automatic withdrawl thing... which is how Iwas monitorng the protigual vs. spain war.

Anyway, I had to make a right of passage agreement with portigual to reach the last English pop to my south, BUT, I cleared him off my paninsula (giving me the coal and oil), took all his Babylonian holdings (including Babylon city which had Copernicus's Obsirvatory). But wait. There is half a dozen turns of my military agreement with Rome. Citizens are getting war weary... So, I cranked the luxuries up to 30% of my commerce and invaded England proper.

As I was on the door steps of London, I got tanks another leader, and built an army from my academy. My first tank army arrived just in time for me to take London. Egypt had already made peace with England, and my agreement with Rome was up. So, I too made peace with England.

This is where the game now stands. I'm the second largest nation based on land area (14% to Egypt's 24%) and #1 in population (24% to his 20%). Egypt has flight, but not yet Electornics, so we're not that far off on tech. I have yet to see him field an army, which I have 3 (one all inf, 2 tank) and producing another army every 5 turns. Spain has rocketry as I've seen him field TOW crews. Not sure if Portigual is there.

Rome is mostly on a small island with a few pops on the mainland just south of England. He's WAY behind on tech and still at war with England. I'm at "gracious" relations with everyone except England (who of course, is WAY furious at me) having traded and donated luxuries with everyone at one time or another. I've not broken a single deal with anyone.

If I don't end up winning, it certainly is the closest I've yet come on the Demigod level.

How do u do it

friar_floyd — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:24:12 GMT

Ive had play the world for a month. I havent destroyed a country...................IM ON CHIEFTAN.

dear god......i suck:pinch:

Catapults failing me

iRockPSU82 — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:48:26 GMT

Ok, I'm fairly new to this who civ 3 thing. I played through once without making any major military actions and used culture to win the game. This time around I have decided to capture a few cities and make the game more interesting. I've read over these boards many times and have come to the understanding that you basically need an overwhelming amount of force to take a city. Also, I have learned that using the bombard feature of catapults is an effective way to cause damage to a stack of units in a city, and in effect make the city that much easier to claim.

So I was the babylonians going after a french city. we had been friends for many years but I realized that their one city was uber productive and wanted it for myself (greedy devil i am). So as was suggested on this board I built a good size army. I had 13 catapults, about 22 swordmen, 5 muskets, 2 knights, and a few warriors left over from the ancient times. The city I was attacking was a size 12, so I knew that it would be a difficult city to capture due to defensive bonus. Before I declared war i was able to do an espionage mission and find out that they had 4 musketmen (or units that looked like musketmen), a pikeman, and a spearman in the city as defense, as well as city walls. I still thought it was a good chance b/c they had only 6 defenders vs my army of about 30 plus my catapults, a 5:1 ratio.

So i went about launching my catapults, miss, miss, miss etc. Out of 13 launches only two didn't give the message back that it had failed. I knew I could not attact that turn so I waited till the next. I had the city surrounded so no new soldiers could be sent in. the next turn i tried to bombard again and once again only about 3 of 13 shots hit their mark. i was again frustrated and decided that next turn no matter what I would attack full force. next turn I sent my catapults into action again and only hit twice, killing one "population point" (making the city 11 in size) and taking out some city improvement. So I then sent my group of attackers into the city, only to get torn up by their musketmen. I lost my entire , except for the two knights, and was only able to take out two of their "musketmen". To add insult to injury they then captured my catapults on the next turn.

What did I do wrong? Where did I make a wrong turn? Why the heck did only a few of my catapults hit their mark? Any answers?

First Conquest Victory!

DumbDaddy — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 12:02:58 GMT

Yea, me!Been playing Civ since the prehistoric days, and not since Civ II have I managed/had the wherewithal to take over the whole world (most of the time, I win by domination).Finally puzzled my way through the lovely, lovely effects of wartime mobilization, when you're out for all-out genocide.Facism worked very well, despite having to keep the little Neville Chamberlain inside me securely bound, gagged, and locked in a closet.One anecdote from one of the later fights. We see all time spearmen successfully defend against modern armor. This is the first time, however, that I've seen midevil infantry kick the bejeezus out of a tank by wailing on it with a morning star.DD

Capturing the Capital

xouns — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:22:08 GMT

I was wondering, some time ago I had a savegame where almost all the wonders were in one foreign city, Washingon. Evil American ***s, they were safely located on an island of the coast of the pangea, huge culture but almost no military.

We, the Russians (always the Russians...) thought of capturing this city by brute force and sign a peace treaty asap afterwards. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong and the savegame got corrupted (I think due to the settler-in-a-boat crash...) and I never got to it. Has anyone tried something similar? I was just wondering if this was just a funny thought or a real playable strategy.

Plus, once, when I was only 10 years old, I was playing Civilization I and I captured a capitol and the nation split up in two different nations (I thought into Aztecs and Americans). Can/ does this happen in CivIII?

how do i tell what happens if i refuse demands?

litwak57 — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 01:31:17 GMT

often i'll be at a very good position and a civ near me demands a luxery and i don't know whether i should agree to their demands or not. sometimes i do and sometimes i dont resulting in a war that sometimes works out for me and sometimes doesnt. Any tips?

How many times...

ShaddowKatMkII — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 12:56:42 GMT

do you typically go to war with each AI?...I realize this is modified by who you are, the type of map and the like, but just looking to open up a discussion on this...

Horsemen

sctyaz — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:05:35 GMT

Okay, I'm a total failure and haven't found a way to develop Horsemen. I have the required technology but do I need to capture horses or have them on my land? I know...very noob question.

System of alliances leads to folly

Abelard — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:03:24 GMT

Thought this was amusing...

Playing C3 Vanilla, and I'm cruising to a points victory in my first non-tutorial game, feeling pretty good about it. It's 2040; I as Greece own 80% of the smaller of the 2 continents with Rome and Egypt hanging on the fringes, while England, France, Germany, and Russia each own 25% of the other continent.

I could just ride it out, but darn it, Egypt has been irking me all game, declaring war, creating embargoes, and just being impolite, so I'd rather they not be around at 2050. I've got the troops to take them out in 4 turns, but that would leave me somewhat undefended everywhere else, and they've got an MPP with England who is only 1 Transport move away.

I conclude an MPP with England's biggest neighbor, France, figuring that should keep England at home. And then I see that Russia is amassing their military for a last-minute strike at someone, so I bribe them with several luxuries and gpt to "jointly" attack England (of course, I have no intent on setting foot off my continent!). I figure this should give me complete freedom to hit Egypt...

So this is what happened after I finished my 2040 moves and hit End Turn:

Russia declares war on England. Good. England calls in its MPP with Germany. Who cares. England also calls its MPP with... France, who delcares war on Russia. Wait a second... Russia wheels right and slams into France, declaring war right back. Uh-oh. France then calls in THEIR MPP WITH ME! So I'm now allied, in theory, with both sides of the Franco-Russian conflict! Definitely a good reason to stay home!

Turns out that the AI cancelled my pact with Russia and left my MPP with France intact. Because of the England-France MPP, England had to stay home anyway (and I bribed Rome into attacking Germany so that England, France, and Germany couldn't overrun Russia too quickly), and I wiped out Egypt in 2044. By then, I had rushed some Transports of my own and moved them to the coastline of the ex-Egytpian towns so that my Tanks and Mech Inf could hop aboard and slam into the Russians in 2047. I even grabbed four towns before the game ended!

There hadn't been an armed conflict in about 200 years in the game (since the last skirmish between myself and Egypt, in fact), and I created a wonderful world war in the last ten years! Sigh, it was beautiful...

ICBM

Portugal — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 15:26:57 GMT

Are they really any use at all?????????Pros:-Make massive damage to a city.Cons:-Make every nation at war with you when used-It takes so many if you want to criple a nation.-Makes polution higher-Damgages your rep(there goes a U.N win)*and more right now can't think of any thingSo ultimetly there not to helpful.The cons just to badly outweigh the pros.So this is my Question:Is it really any use?,Thats for you to decide........

Sharing an enoyable save file and some tactics

Seared — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:49:29 GMT

Kay, eddited and save looks good now.

I've been trying to put together a 'viking republic' so to say on a small island hopping map... And heres the result. I must say this game has been really enjoyable (although I'm so far ahead I don't think the game can be close.

This save file is at a pretty enjoyable spot ;) The viking invasion of the aztec island followed shortly by the zulu is pretty much all set. It's entirely naval invasion with berzerks and a couple pikes for defence. I think I dropped the aztecs in 4 rounds ;) Though prewarning if you wanted to give a try, a couple of those aztecs cities have alot of defender. It's pretty unique save for the age and time frame ;) Conquests 1.22

And I'd like to share with you why I managed to get so far ahead. 3 main tricks...

1. Contact with all nations relatviely early. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to have navigated the globe. If I had a casualty screen, you would see 20 some odd curraghs lost to the seas. Most civs have contact with just me it seems ;) The trade advantage I gained from this was amazing... I can go around from civ to civ and find out which will give me the best deal. They can't trade amoungst themselves (no contact) and I've left them far behind in the dust tech wise.

2. Preventing war with treime blockades. If you look at the japanese (north, above a string of my islands), I've pretty much held the japanese at bay the entire game with 4 triemes blocking the only coastlines. They've declared war on me 3 or 4 times now and other than maybe a lost trieme, I haven't lost anything to their war. The exact same thing happened with the english (take a look at that save if you want to see what I mean... This made war possible by using only 4 or 5 units)

3. Republic and manipulating cash flow.

I started the game and went 50 turns to writing... That builds about 300 gold up usually. I then maxxed science and went to philosophy. Took mapmaking as the free tech, then went for codes of law (18 turns @ 90%) and then the republic (50 turns @10%). By the time I had entired my republic, my treasury was up near 1000 or so gold. Through the republic I took techs at 7 or 8 turns and took 50% to my treasury (New to me). So I've had a 2k gold reserve at most times and have bought improvments all over the place consistantly through the game and alot of my cities are much better developed than what they normally would.

I began mass building archers right around fuedal times (and a palace). Built leonardo's workshop and upgraded 30 some archers @ 75 gold a peice (150 regular, 75 with workshop). 2250 gold later, I've got 30 bezerks ready to go (and I think thats about the save point... I lost a few bezerks though).

2 civs (england and japan) have declared war on me a combined total of about 6 times by now. I used cities making 1 production (entirely corrupt beyond that) to fight both these wars. Bought harbors, bought triemes and clogged the sealanes. My production on my main island was freed up to produce any improvement I could get my hands on (and a good list of wonders), which kept the gold flowin

It was my first attempt at this game, so it's at monarch level. I'd like to give a run at emporer soon (after I finish this of course)

wars and nukes

george — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 04:34:14 GMT

How many of you are throughout the game at war with one or the another AI?And how many of you like to nuke your friend to smithereens?I do.

Which Age Do You Prefer to Fight In?

HistoryDude — Mon, 10 May 2004 14:59:19 GMT

I imagine this is pretty much determined by difficulty level. I play mostly Regent and all of my good games are accomplished after I've been in at least one Ancient Age war in where I can eliminate/weaken a neighbor or two to get a nice, fat, start. Of course this may not even be a possibility on Emporer and above what with the AI bonuses and all?

warring

george — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:48:23 GMT

I would like to know which civ is best for attacking early.and also is it necessary to be a warmonger in civ3???

Enemy cities

krantzbucks — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 05:15:49 GMT

When conquering your rivals, what do you generally do with their cities? Do you keep em or burn em? What makes you decide?

other

george — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 05:02:36 GMT

Hello.I am really afraid of warring.is it bad?also,i wanted some killer military startegies so i could do some war.i like playing as french.

Over-Aggressive is the Only Way to Play at Higher Levels...

Zigeuner — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:37:58 GMT

That's a quote from Seared, and as I'm only just starting out playing more aggressively I think I could do with some advice... My current game is on a large map, on Emperor and it started out with me -as the Indians- on a continent together with all the native American civvies and the Scandinavians in a northern rocky place... Because the American civs are all agricultural, and because all 3 had their capitol on a river they spread out FAST... I had only 5 cities by the time space was up, but they were good cities with lots of bonus grassland and a river nearby... I had a very moderate army, and could have been brushed aside if any civ had desired it so... I depended whole-ly on Warriors and Horsemen...However, I had a ton of cash (after researching Writing at 20-10% at the start) and was the first to enter medieval times (due to meticulous tech-swapping)... Mayans were big and decided to attack first; I bribed all other civs (with techs) to help out, and used my Horsemen to take over an eyesore (right next to my capitol) which happened to have the Great Library, so I finally gained the govt techs and went Monarch... I didn't think it feasible to try anything else, so I simply defended until the Aztec horsies took over that job... [IMG]emot/Aliens/aliens053.gif[/IMG] The turn after I got Chivalry the Incans decided they deserved to get that tech... I disagreed, and soon thereafter entered my GA (which seemed to last forever!)... War Elephants are great! They rapidly took over three cities, and I'm now almost done building the FP smack in the middle of the continent... Only the Aztecs were unsoiled, so I waited for the RoP to expire and grabbed the three cities closest to my capitol... The Incans and Aztecs in the meantime had gotten rid of the Mayans, and with a sole War Elephant Army I eradicated both their trapped armies, and cleared the entire east...Anyway, this is where my game now stands... I'm on my way to a Democracy, I'm swooping up the newer WOWs, and I have a ton of UUs (currently eyeing the Incas once more)... I don't know if I'll finish the game, but before I try something similar on dummy-god I'd like some advice on how to have a more solid start... What do you [I]build[/I] on higher levels? How do you space your cities? Do you pop-rush? And so on...Sorry for the long read... I'm just a bit excited... [IMG]emot/Aliens/aliens010.gif[/IMG]

Crushing military strategy

Aragorn — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:36:28 GMT

Say you are to the point where you think you are militarily dominant. You hold the northwest of a continent and your primary adversary holds the northeast. Their key cities are in the center of their kingdom. To the south is another civ. What strategy to you primarily use to eliminate your northeast opponent?

General, we've hit a snag....

RabiAkiva — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:51:34 GMT

I think it must have been months. In fact this was my first serious attempt to play PTW after I bought it.I was Pharaoh Achnaton of the Egyptians on Regent level and finding myself in a relatively large empire, with resources, but no luxuries, spending my money on entertainment to keep my people happy and therefore seriously lagging in Science and City improvements. Just when I switched to Republic in order to get my economy organized and my people happier, I see Korea building up troops along my border.Korea is slightly smaller, but a healthy society. With money, science advance and according to my Military advisor with an army much bigger than mine. As soon as I see the troop build up Korea starts making outrageous demands.I get the hint: this game's strategy has just been decided for me: [URL=http://civ3.1bigcommunity.com/community.asp?id=10061&page=6&board=283&thread=26662&start=1&tPage=&tThreads=&ttl=0&search=&searchType=]Contained war and Total war[/URL]. However, now is not yet the time to go to war. I have to switch to monarchy in order to be able to have a larger army and continuous war. Must have been the first time ever, I gave in to demands. No not 'give me 1 gold', it was more like 'Give me 21 GPT and your world map'. That kind of a demand. I may have given away my territory map in some funny game, but here it was my World Map, worth a few hundreds and all the gold I earned!Anyway, two turns later the war started inevitably, but at least I was on monarchy and had switched all cities to producing Knights.Next problem: Korea and I are on a huge continent with Greece wedged in between us. Greece allows Koreans to pass her territory (no ROP!), but Egyptians are tresspassers even if they think of looking at the border. That, with Korea having prepared itself and having the initiative, war has started badly and demands another investment. I figure Greece should be my best ally and I manage to win her over at a high price albeit, without managing to push an ROP into the deal.Nevertheless, things are now beginning to go my way. Greece gets Romans into the war. Romans get Chinese and Mongols into the war and soon Carthage joins in.Korea may be the most powerfull, but facing the world in battle is beyond its size. And in the mean time I have managed to find a tiny passage past Greece into Korea. Koreans are mopped away from Greece. Greece and Rome start nibbling away the Korean perifery, whereas Egypt begins pumping Knights through the passageway into the Korean heartland with merciless continuity.The war ends when I have eaten up half of Korea (the best bits) and I have a standing army of countless Knights plus an Army with Knights. I can see that in spite of having a better economy now, (formerly Korean) luxuries, happy people and all the techs others have, the real strength has become war mongering and I might as well take on other opponents.In the following era I eat up Greece, Carthage, Japan and half of Rome. By the time I feel that I am close to the victory condition of owning 67% of the earth, and I have 5 or six Armies with Cavalry, China has donated an MPP to the fledgling Greeks and decides to abide by it when I finish her off. No problem, I take the few Chinese settlements on the main land, and prepare my Caravels for a landing on the Chinese Island it Shares with the primitive Mongols.And then an unexpected thingy happens: I can load three Cavalry on a Caravel, but I cannot put one Army with three Cavalry in a Caravel. General, we have hit a snag. The war with China will be without armies.In a way it makes sense, because formally an army with three units is 4 units altogether and the Caravel capacity is 3. Maybe I'll drop some Cavalry on the Chinese Island and meanwhile let my Armies trample what is left of Korea and Rome. It is 1450 AD. Victory cannot be far away and I am a bit war weary.

Those Useless AI Cities...

Maccabeus — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 20:35:54 GMT

may have a use after all.Granted, the AI doesn't seem clueful enough to use them this way, and it's not that effective on one continent.But recently I have had problems trying to invade civs on another island or continent and I was thinking, "What a shame that I don't already have a city there so I can pump in tanks via airlift."A game later I noticed the AI dropping "useless" cities on my island....it made me pause and think.

Nukes

jbfballrb — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 10:50:46 GMT

this is a thread for people to throw in advaice on nukes for others...

Ranged attack

Chicken Lover — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:08:32 GMT

Heya Everyone,Just a quick one regarding bombarding with artillery. I was wondering: is the bombard more effective when you're closer to the target?Thought I should know given that I like to pound the carp out enemy cities before I attack. Thanks! [IMG]emot/Animals/animals033.gif[/IMG]

Bad move, Catherine.

DumbDaddy — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 11:42:13 GMT

So I'm playing Leo's unofficial GOTM for Oct ... standard world, achepeligo (shudder). Had to restart after a positively disasterous invasion of the Netherlands (for shame, DD), built up a lot more, and after a long, hard battle, took over my 3rd major island (of seven on the board).My Republic is a bit fed up with my warmongering ways, and is very happy to return to peace. Switch over to Democracy, and enjoy several centuries of passively watching the other civs squabble amongst themselves, whilst quietly building away.After a while, I've managed to build Universal Sufferage, and am doing pretty well altogether ... trying to figure who my next adversary should be, but fretting about starting another big war and freaking my populace out.FINALLY! My hemming, hawing and delaying pays off. In an ill-conceived move of agression, Russia lands half a dozen Cossacks on my shore.They attack, my people are ripe for a fight, now that someone else drew first blood. I tell Catherine to leave or declare war, she declares war. I smoosh her six cossacks with my Mobile Infantry, and send TWELVE fully loaded transports laden with 35 artillery, 15 Mobile Infantry and 22 Tanks.Largest sea-based invasion force I'd ever staged.It was beautiful.DD

Keeping up at higher levels

President Ransom — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 11:36:39 GMT

In the fourteen months since I first started playing Civ (vanilla 1.29) I've managed to progress all the way up to Monarch level. My methodology is to play a few games for every victory condition at each level before moving on. So far, I've had relatively little difficulty. However, having managed several diplomatic and space race wins at Monarch, I'm now trying for the military options and am getting stuck. It doesn't help that the system has been giving me some really sucky maps lately, but that aside I have been experiencing a couple of problems:1. Generally, I have kept pace in tech by getting to the GL and later the ToE first. In diplo games I have also managed to keep up by trading. But for some reason I am having a hard time doing this when aiming for a domination win (with the diplo and space race options turned off). Does a military strategy somehow cause the AIs to research tech a little faster?2. I find it almost impossible to keep up militarily, even if I am close in tech. How do you maintain military parity or superiority at the higher levels? I can;t for the life of me figure this out. If I build libraries, universities, banks, etc. to try and keep up financially and scientifically, I'm building no military units. If I'm building military units, I'm not building the other stuff and start falling behind.It must be possible to keep up in both, or at least trail only slightly, but I'm not getting it. Some hints?

Early win with Greece

Portugal — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:37:09 GMT

(Short read don't worry)1.Hoplites are good defenders2.Swordsmen good attackers3.Hoplite+Swordsmen=early win----------------------------------------This is what to do ********************----------------------------------------1.Build lots of Hoplites and start reasearching Iron Working2.once you finish Iron working and find a source of it start building Swords men.3.Start war with another civilization.4.and sit back and relax

[I]On War[/I] and how to apply its theories to Civilization3

von Clausewitz — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 06:28:34 GMT

To begin with allow me to explain how I got the inspiration for my site name. When I first joined the community here at 1bc I was playing the TETurkhan senario and map with the full 31 rivals. Anyone who has done this can attest to the long (understatement) wait times between turns. To pass the time I was reading a good book, [I] On War [/I] by by Carl von Clausewitz. I had read it before but as I was rereading I found myself applying its theories to my game. When I signed up here and was asked for a screen name I looked around and saw the book and the name of the author. Looking back, taking the name von Clausewitz as my own is a bold statement and would almost be equivalent to calling oneself Sun Tzu or Napoleon. I had no intention of making such a statement but merely suffer from a lack of creativity.On War is the western civilization answer to Art of War by Sun Tzu. Written during and after the Napoleonic wars it is largely influenced by the successes and failures of Napoleon. Napoleon is referred to in the text as "the God of War himself". With that in mind the direct application to Civilization 3 would be the early industrial age, where Cavalry, Riflemen, and Cannon rule the battlefield; although the basic mobile offensive units (Chariot through Modern Armor) serve the strategic purpose of what von Clausewitz refers to as "cavalry" and the indirect projectile weapons (Catapult through Radar Artillery) serve as what is referred to as Artillery, and the same goes for the basic foot soldier (Warrior and Spearmen through to Mechanized Infantry) which are referred to as "Infantry". What I would like to do with this thread is, in the spirit of [I] the[/I] Carl von Clausewitz, is post a segment of On War and discuss the methods and their application to warfare in Civilization 3. I hope to be able to add a new segment each week.I don't have any particular order and will be adding new topics relating to current discussions arise either here or in the DGame. There is much in On War that can't relate to Civilization 3 due to the lack of certain concepts in the game. Some of these concepts include morale, supply and maintenance (although resting wounded units can be considered maintenance), lines of communication, flank positions, and the differences and definitions of billets, camps, and marches, to name a few. I will not be discussing those and many other subjects found in On War as they do not have an application to Civ 3.This is not intended (and neither was On War) to promote the use of war in Civ, merely it is intended to help gain a better understanding of war and how it is best conducted. Comments are accepted and expected as I wish this to become a discussion not an oration.

Diety island warfare!

Seared — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:12:28 GMT

This is my spoilers notes thread for a battle in my Byzantine Diety game ([URL=http://civ3.1bigcommunity.com/community.asp?id=10061&page=6&board=302&thread=31535&start=1&tPage=&tThreads=&ttl=14&sT=

Contained war and total war

RabiAkiva — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 07:59:03 GMT

It is funny I should write about how to be succesful in war just when it is christmas -- I guess I have no respect. :cool: This is part four in my series about my strategies in Civ. Since this is my war strategy, the treatise appears in the 'art of war' section and not on the General Civ board -- where the others went and the rest will go.For your information.Strategy #1 FiT: [URL=http://civ3.1bigcommunity.com/community.asp?id=10061&page=6&board=294&thread=26524&start=1&tPage=&tThreads=&sT=&iG= TARGET="_blank"]First in Tech[/URL]Strategy #2 Grab:[URL=http://civ3.1bigcommunity.com/community.asp?id=10061&page=6&board=294&thread=26526&start=1&tPage=&tThreads=&sT=&iG= TARGET="_blank"]and grab some more[/URL]Strategy #3 EnS: [URL=http://civ3.1bigcommunity.com/community.asp?id=10061&page=6&board=294&thread=26630&start=1&tPage=&tThreads=&ttl=0&sT=<s=12%2F23%2F2003+3%3A40%3A00+AM&iG= TARGET="_blank"]Expand not Spend[/URL]And here goes Strategy #4: War 1 and 2.I call this war 1 and 2, as if there are two strategies, but I have not been able to draw a clear line so far. It is more that when choosing a warring strategy, one always has to make a choice to the measure of destruction and entropy you will allow, but even then you may find it is not in your hands entirely. So let's face it as two tendencies. One is the tendency to wage a contained war. To plan short and clean wars as opposed to the all out war. I think the circumstances will dictate the measure and also, the reaction of your opponents as well as their relative succes to stand up against you.In any case it is easier to carry out the contained strategy and refrain from all out war if you can. Choosing all out war, is more of an all or nothing gamble and is more for an advanced player. (Or for an advanced level as we will see)So War 1 is about contained war and War 2 is about total war.

Tanks vs. Infantry

HistoryDude — Mon, 10 May 2004 14:44:24 GMT

I'm aware of the trick about not attacking across Rivers, realize the bonus of defense in towns, cities, and metropolises, and on hills and forests, etc. And I will use some Canon, but I'm planning on a Blitzkrieg Strategy...or hoping to.So....question: What is your [B]practical[/B] experience with Tanks attacking Infantry? 16 attack vs. a 10 defense, not counting bonuses, appears to be great odds in favor of the offensive. Even with def. bonuses, do Tanks fairly routinely run over Infantry? At what ratio? Right now I'm defeating Rifleman in cities with Cavalry at about a rate of 3 killed for every 1 of mine, although I lose more battles than that, but am able to save my units thanks to the retreat factor. However, my enemy now has Infantry (as do I) but I'm about to beat him to Tanks...which I'm planning to use to my advantage as quickly as possible! :DHave not done a lot of fighting in the past in these later eras. I'm usually fairly peaceful or have lost by then. :(

The advantages of Despotism and growth rates....

TahMin8Ah — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 17:07:04 GMT

As I'm sure many of you know, the AI has many advantages over "us humans" as one progresses to higher levels. This includes the tendency for warmongers, like Germany, to attack you if you look weak. I've found a way to quickly grow armies (in the early stages of the game) as a Despot, faster than your Republican neighbours.

As we all know corruption increases as the number of cities increases and as cities get further from the capital or Forbidden city. Cities 20 tiles away can take 80 turns just to make a courthouse. These peripheral cities (i.e. MOST of your cities)are rather slow and useless, especially when someone's just declared war and you need troops now!

Strategy: The strategy is based primarily on city growth rates. While maintaining the Despotic gov't,ALL military units should be generated at peripheral cities by "rushing" them to leave the "corrupt and inefficent" peripheral cities with a population of one or two AT MOST. Wonders, libraries and other things can be made in the less corrupt "core" cities. Peripheral cities should be established near the fish/cow/wheat icons if possible to get fast growth. This strategy really works best if you can build the Pyramids. This can lead to adding one population (i.e. one swordsman, etc) every 4 to 10 turns. You can Rush facilities too, but this can be a double-edged sword as maintenance costs go up (more) with your inefficient gov't style. War-weariness isn't an issue either with Despotic gov't as you can outlast your republican neighbours, and demand Technologies from them when they ask for peace.

This strategy may sound like a bit of a "Duh!" statement, but, regardless of gov't type, corruption still renders peripheral cities somewhat useless. Higher populations; cities with 3-6 people still only produce one to two shields, unless you can wait 80 turns to make a courthouse and double your shields. Cities will typically (depending on location) grow faster than you can make "expensive" units like longbowmen at one gold per turn. Gov't types obviously have "less" corruption but your peripheral cities are still hamstrung as a Monarchy or Republic unless you have *** of gold to rush things, which I typically don't. Besides, if your neighbours smell you with lots of gold, next thing you know they are making ultimatums.

Pros:
- better use of poorly producing peripheral cities,
- fast production of military units, early in game.
-fast production of facilities like temples, baricks, etc.

Cons:
-if you continue to build lots of facilities, maintenance costs with a Despotic gov't can kill you economically.
- the ususal drawbacks of Despotic gov't.

Did I miss anything?

The Art of War

Rishbhav — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 19:41:58 GMT

I compilled all of the entries into the art of war archive, added some other guides, made every thing in the same font, and wahllah! a shiny new word doc!P.S: (I wouldn't recommend printing it out) ;)

The psychology of the Pikeman

Scipio Africanus — Sat, 31 Jul 2004 22:01:40 GMT

I'm not too knowledgeable about military science. But I was thinking today about the different psychology of say, for example, the swordsman versus the Pikeman.Swordsman ADM 3-2-1Pikeman ADM 1-3-1One group of soldiers is quite good at attacking, the other equally good at defending. Several questions occur to me.To what extent is it simply the weaponry, and to what extent the tactics used by these respective units taht accounts for their mirror aptitudes?What about the psychology of the individaul soldier and the unit? Would they have different attitudes, fears, goals? Would the jokes, and axioms in a Pikeman unit differ from those in a Swordsman unit?Just curious if any of you military experts have any thoughts, or suggestions on reading.

American MGLs

HistoryDude — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:40:15 GMT

Just curious, but does anyone know the names of the MGLs in C3C...and the SGLs for that matter, too? I believe it was Seared in the Romans Uber Alles story who discovered that after 10, it starts to recycle them...anyone lucky enough in an American game to get all 10? :p Even if you only know the first few? Just curious to see who Firaxis thinks are the Yanks' greatest leaders! ;)

Forts and Barricades

anfieldrapper — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 04:30:37 GMT

Hi I have been viewing this site for ages and found it very useful but I now have a question to help me with my current monarch game. I have two pinch points of land which connect the Ottmans to my Sumerians and I have been building forts along them and defending them. I know they have a larger military but I am more advanced if I go to war with them will they attack the forts and die at the hands of my veteran defensive units or despite the added bonus of forts will their superior numbers break thru. Should I get them to declare war and wait for their numbers to dwindle and then launch a counter attack. Does this also later work well with the additional defense of barricades and radar towers?Also I had never used Crusdares to build forts before this is a pretty cool bonus on top iof the additional firepower.Thanks for reading and hope you can help!

Value of Defensive Artillery

Comte de la Fere — Tue, 18 May 2004 18:07:44 GMT

I'm now a big fan of artillery. Here's what happened.Troublesome Lincoln picked a fight with me. I built as much artillery as I could. Each turn, he would send about 10 infantry units and 5 cavalry against me. I'd blast them down to 1 hit point with all my artillery (very mobile on rails) and then finish them off with my cavalry. Abe made no headway at all. He was losing 10 to 15 units a turn, to my 2 or 3. He asked for peace.He'll try again when he has tanks. But I'll double the size of the artillery by then, so I have no fear.

Beserks Plus Explorers:

ShaddowKatMkII — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 01:24:47 GMT

Equals LOTS of fun :DAfter deciding on the focus of my invasion, I sent 7 Caravels towards the AI, three loaded with Beserks, one with Crusaders, one with Explorers and another with defensive units (and a cannon for defense). The last one was empty for either leader-spawning quarters or for any captured workers.I sent them adjacent to the AI's city, with one MP left (a key fact here) and proceeded to attack. A Regular Beserk went in first, and died, but taking the opening salvo from the lonme defending longbowman. Two Elites were next, with the second one popping a MGL (on the empty ship). I wound up taking it with a beserk to spare then moved all of the ships into my newly occupied city. Hmmm, leader in a city, Let's make an Army!!! Loaded up the Crusaders and set off to the nearest AI city pillaging along the way. Speaking of pillaging, out went the explorers: Both of their incense and their Iron: toast!No Iron for China means none of those pexky Riders. OF course, my other Beserks had taken their city with horses on another continent so it didnt matter anyway!Beserks... my new favorite unit :D

Friggin' Frigates

HistoryDude — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 10:15:30 GMT

Okay, I know many have already harped upon the seemingly worthlessness of navies in Civ3 (I have PTW right now). But I just wanted to rant, too! :rolleyes: *Rant Mode: On*Frigates Stink! I can't even sink a Galley half the time and bombarding a city is successful maybe 1 out of 20 shots on a good night. The only thing they do routinely well is take a hit point off some enemy unit when bombarding onto open shore, but that's only if the AI is dumb enough to get within range!I will no longer waste time building them...unless, of course, they're better in C3C, which I plan to pick-up finally this weekend! :cool:Oh, and Ironclads aren't much better.*Rant Mode: Stand-by*

AI units

jbfballrb — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 18:44:46 GMT

im not sure if this goes here , but:if you invade on 1 front, does the AI move units from far away cities to hold you back? if so, then you could wait a couple of turns, let the AI move units, then attack on another fronT! :D