Normally I play the Romans but on Warlord level I just can't seem to advance quick enough to even have a shot at winning.  Last night I played for several hours and checked the history graphs and I had 408 points and China, England and France where almost double that. 

I put sceince at 60% as long as possible but I go broke right around 1000 AD.  I switch my people so there is a a researcher in each city but if I don't watch it each turn they revert back to a normal citizen.  I have tried different goverments but when I switch to demo or comm it takes so long to switch over another civ ends up attacking me or my citizens end up destorying 2 or 3 building in each town.   Then when I do switch I end up going broke so fast it make my head spin. 

Any pointers you guys could give me would be a huge help.

I have the $10 Civ III game in case that matters. 

Med

Here's the link to my post --------->  Click here

Hope this helps like it did me.

My advice Part One

First you need to know what THE END looks like, when the year 2050 has arrived and its time to settle all scores.

3 things determine your score.

First: Number of happy people

Second: Area of land under your control

Third: Future techs learned.

Deal with the last one first. Such a waste of time forget trying to score points with Future Techs. Find all the techs - 82 or so then put your science to ZERO and get a free Future Tech in 32 turns.

The other two are the most important.  The more land means more people.  More land means higher score.  More people who are happy means higher score.

Since every other AI civ knows this they will cover the land with their cities. 

So, your strategy..should you chose to take the assignment is ..grab land and grab it all!  Since the AI are not going to give it to you, you need a military strategy to take the land off them and settle that land with your people.  More people, more happy people, more land = bigger score.

In other words..Aggressive, not passive wins Civ.

end 1

Second: BEFORE YOU BEGIN PLAYING, Select the scenarios that you want.

I take out a lot of the game designers ways of winning.

When I go to play a new game

I take out winning via SPACE RACE, via DIPLOMACY, via DOMINATION and maybe one or two others.

I also set the BARBARIANS to moderate, or the lowest level.  Some barbarians are good. The goodie huts are useful and battling barbs gives your warriors and swordsmen combat status.

If you DON'T then every 1000 years you will be absolutely smashed by hordes of Barbarians.  Hey, I want to win and by that I need to take over my neighbours and their neighbours land I do not want to spend unnecessary time defending my lands from a bunch of no good raiding barbarians.

The other thing I do is set it up so I dont need ships or navigation. If you set the world as small islands...takes longer.  You want big lands so you and your troops and settlers can roam the world building new cities in your honour.

Next is the choice of civilization. All but 4 offer a free tech at the start of each new age. Wonderful.  Others offer an extra unit at the start and so on and so forth. 

The ROMANS. The problem with them is their UU (Unique Unit) the legionnaire, when it wins its first battle your whole civ goes into a GOLDEN AGE.  To me, that is way to early. If you have only 2 or 3 cities what benefit is that.

I personally want a GOLDEN AGE when I have a huge civ and need a push to really get ahead of my opponents.  I have found the FRENCH to be an excellent civ from a civ gamers point of view.  No free tech but the workers speed is increased which is great especially at the start - building roads so your troops and settlers can expand is so important.. and the UU is one I dont need many of and I usually keep it from going to battle until way after it has been replaced by riflemen and even infantry.

Others to consider the Germans and or Japanese.  Civs like that.

Last when I start a new game and I find my self in a crappy piece of land or near ice and surrounded by crapp....guess what...NEW GAME...keep the same settings just start again...When I find myself building a new city next to a river with good grassland and cattle and resources and luxuries...I know I have found HOME.

End 2

So you have found the perfect spot and your off.

Set science to 80% as this means you still get 1 gold per turn so you earn money and learning same time.  I usually research Warrior Code and then something that gives me horses.

Build roads, dont worry about irrigation at this stage - build and explore.

Build warriors, crappy regular warriors...send them out and find the new world.  Build 2-3 and while this is happening have your worker build a road to the place you will build your 2nd city. 

Build a barracks after settler and while your city recovers.  Then build veteran ARCHERS not SPEARMEN. I never build defensive units until riflemen. Waste of time. attack, attack attack!

Build more settlers, expand, find your nearest enemy and build up your army 5-6 archers and kill em..and your off!

GOVERNMENTS

From despotism I only go to REPUBLIC. One change of government otherwise it takes too long.  Republic is good for wars and non wars.

If you chose a civ where you can change in 1 turn that is different and you would use that but for a civ like the french it is one change only.

AS THE GAME PROGRESSES

I check F11, F8 and F3

Check F11 for no of happy people, my rank in terms of land held, pollution (comes later, tells you how many squares of pollution you need to find and cure each turn), Literarcy %.

F8 tells me my score against my opponents, how im going

F3 - gives me idea of how strong or weak, what sort of numbers. I dont worry too much by what the adviser tells me.

BUILD EMBASSYS (spg?)

Best way to find the enemy capital and best way to keep up to date with who they are at war with and who they have KPP with.

BUILD LIBRARIES and OTHER HAPPY PLACES

such as temples, collessums, cathederals etc...ADDS TO YOUR FINAL SCORE of happy people.

TRADE with nearby Civs.

Keep going back to F2 and see if you can do a deal with your neighbours  - more happy people means a bigger score.

EARLY ON i Trade techs with the AI.

Remember the AI gang up on you so dont be afraid to trade a new tech with every AI you have met. Check what they offer and accept the best and then go back to the others, their offer will decrease but you can still score money.

Later on I dont trade as I like to keep ahead of them.

HINT: learning new techs I find it best to work along a line of new techs, that way you can get in front of them and trade that tech for something on another line that is further back.  ie once learned what ever mustkets are GO TO cannons or the next in line.

Cheers and happy hunting.