Queen of Swords

OK, I've played the original Civilization long ago - you know, the game where everything was square. Square cities, square units, and so on. Anyway, I won the game over and over, happily wiping other civs off the map. Now I found a copy of Civ III and, impressed by the graphics, decided to try it, on Chieftain level at first. I'm Caesar of the Romans.

Gosh, I'm sharing the continent with just the Greeks and the Egyptians, but they're all over the place. I'm squashed between them, racing to build wonders. And all the available land space in the continent is gone. Hey, don't tell me to take my troops home, not after you put down a city on my doorstep. I declare war.

Oh, you had an alliance with someone else? Fine, I can beat both of you. With one longbowman tied behind my back. Wait, you mean I have to build a road to the little horse before I can use it?

Finally, horsemen arrive on the scene and there go the Greek cities, one by one. And one by one, they go right back, taking my garrisons along with them. Horsemen don't grow on trees, you know. Now I'm pissed and I'm razing your city to the ground. And I'm going to kick the ka out of your damn war chariots too, Cleopatra.

Except that while I'm doing that, the English have popped not one, but two cities onto my continent. How unfair can you get? "What is this herd of Roman swine doing in the garbage outside our city?" But it's fine for them to plunk down settlements on my land? Geez. And they built most of the wonders, too.

All right, the Egyptians are gone, and the French have arrived to take their place, establishing Bordeaux on my continent. Now the real problem starts, because I don't know where the rest of the enemies are, and I have to maintain at least token friendly relations with everyone until I can put my forces on their land. Hey, how did the Germans get steam when I'm still using a Ben-Hur-type galley?

All right, I took a captured French city from the Japanese! And the French promptly declared war on me because they have a treaty with the Japanese. "Didn't I tell you they were evil?" my military advisor scolded. To my great disappointment, the captured city is on a tiny little island right next to the big Japanese mainland. Now here I am, trying to ferry my troops across the narrow strait while the Japanese throw gunships at me. The Germans have joined in the general free-for-all and are pelting my mainland. I didn't know that those seafaring vessels could destroy my irrigation and roads. Great, all those improvements to redo.

I capture the French city on my continent, and the English build Brighton to replace it. I destroy Brighton. Up goes Brighton again, same location. I destroy it again. The war with the Japanese has reached an impasse; we seem to be declaring peace at every other turn and duking it out on the next round, while the Germans are happily shooting at one particular spot of irrigation that I keep rebuilding, having no way to destroy their submarines. Here come the English to build Brighton for the third time...

...and the game's over. What? I suffered a humiliating defeat?

"Consider your lawn MOWED." "Go back to Chieftain!" "You destroyed me and look what it got you." "All your base are belong to us." I was so startled that I didn't even notice the "close window" button and I just sat there feeling embarassed as one leader after another took turns insulting me. Finally I realized I could stop it, and I watched the replay. I didn't think I'd done so badly; after all, I wiped out the Egyptians and the Greeks, and I was kinda-sorta holding my own against the rest of the world, but I was still declared "Caesar the Pathetic".

I suppose it could have been worse, though. I could have been "Caesar the Worthless." But this was only Chieftain level. I almost wish I had Diablo II back so I could beat up on some Fallen. Still... great graphics, better than the original Civ, that's for sure.

Maybe next time...

Abacus

Funny story.

With a name like Queen of Swords, I'm sure you'll someday conquer the world.

LaFlavor

don't go for the wonders so much. they aren't really that useful. some of them are...but many are mostly wastes of time.

Grumpy

Let's see... Colossus gives you more money; Pyramids doubles your growth rate; Great Lighthouse lets you sail anywhere; Great Library can rapidly advance your research.

If you can build wonders, I'd say do it.

Abacus

Besides, on chieftain you better damn well get every wonder.

SanDiegoAtheist

Tips for QOS's drive to world domination:

Well QOS, I kick serious arse in Civ III, so here's some tried and true methods to dominate the world (btw, my record is something like 7000 civ score in 1920 or so at Emperor level, with a Civ rating of 200+ % "the Magnificent" or something)

1) early expansion is the key to winning. Expand fast. In Civ III, you actually want your early cities to be far flung, as when their culture expands, you can later fill in the 'interior' of your empire at your leisure. This was counter to a lot of Civ I/II strategies, as any open territory within your empire usually was colonized by a foreign power annoyingly quickly. Even if they manage to do that in Civ III, as your empire strengthens, you'll usually convert those cities outright to your side within a few hundred years (nobody likes being completely surrounded by a foreign empire *grin*)

I generally build the cheapest military unit possible to garrison a city, then pump out 2 settlers as fast as possible (most cities will expand faster than you can pump out a settler). Send the settlers off in different directions, don't have them settle too close to their origin - especially early on, you really want to take as much AREA as possible within your immediate boundaries before the opposition can get cracking on their own empire. A geometric progression of cities in this way usually means that my empire is around 2x the size of the next largest empire all the way until the middle ages.

The bigger your empire, the larger your tax base and research. Guns and butter baby .

2) Unlike in Civ I or II, Monarchy is a HUGE boost to your empires growth rate from Despotism. In Civ II, it was a nice bump, but not huge, had some annoying upkeep drawbacks during early expansion phases, and I'd often skip Monarchy and head straight to republic later. In Civ III, there are almost no drawbacks, and you immediately get a big bump to all your resource collection. Get monarchy ASAP, and revolt into it IMMEDIATELY. Due to the 'happiness' penalties while conducting war in Rep/Dems, Monarchy is a very useful government type until your expansion slows.

3) Early in the game, if you see a rival, and have a significant advantage in size (which you should have, by following rule 1), annihilate them ASAP. Common sense, but especially in Civ III - it's MUCH easier to take out a civilization using horsemen/swordsman vs. warriors/phalanx than it is even a few hundred years later. You won't see that tech advantage again unless you're WAY ahead of the tech curve in the late game. Plus you'll generate a few armies early that way, and an army is a devastating offensive OR defensive unit. You really want to get 3 armies as soon as possible, because once you have 3, you can build a wonder that allows you to build more, which frees up any new hero units to zoom wonder development for the restt of the game.

4) later in the game, scout enemy resources. ALWAYS make sure you have a minimum of one of each resource (preferably two). If necessary, and you don't have any of the resources, make an attempt if at all feasable to grab a portion of an enemy empire that contains the resource, then sue for peace so you can keep it (you can usually grab a city or two, then bribe your way back to peace if you have tech/size advantages via #1 above).

The best way to take out an enemy empire later in the game is to neutralize their best technology. Find out (spying is good for this) what resources they need are scarce, the find out WHERE the resources are located. That's your first objective in a new war. Take those resources, and the only high tech units they can attack you with are the ones already built.

There's nothing like hamstringing an enemy empire that's your equal, capable of producing Mobile Infantry/Armor, and watching them struggle to produce riflemen and marines to take on your mechanized forces - or building ironclads to take care of your battleships.

5) Wonders are good. Many have huge boosts to your culture rating, which does nice things like raise the odds of nearby enemy cities defecting, while protecting your own cities from defecting in return. Many do very nice things, like doubling the effect of all cathedrals (one of my "must-have" wonders). Some I can live without, but given the opportunity, I build them all (or at least most of them). Darwin's voyage is another "must-have" - 2 free tech improvements is big.

6) If you somehow get started on a smallish island, GET OFF IT as soon as you can, and recenter your empire someplace larger (including building a new palace) - your corruption is hugely affected by sea squares. From my own games, it appears that the "Palace" is more effective at stopping local corruption than the "Forbidden Palace", but I haven't really done formal testing on it, so this may just be the effect of having the larger empire when I build the Forbidden Palace.

That's some of my general strategies anyway - anyone got others to add?

The San Diego Atheist

Bookman

I'll throw in my support for the aforementioned rule #1. You must expand in Civ III. The perfectionist strategy, which you could use on the lower levels of older versions of Civ absolutely will not work on Civ III. All of the AI players expand to the best of their ability, which isn't bad. As pointed out, you can still expand more rapidly than them unless your starting position is bad.

I also agree that you need to neutralize your local rivals during the pre-gunpowder age, and the sooner the better.

I'm not certain about the Chieftan level (or the Emporer level for that matter -- I'm happily stuck in the middle), but it is much more difficult to dominate technologically than it used to be. In addition to developing your own technologies you should be certain to trade tech with your local neighbors before you wipe them out. If you do not have any neighbors or wipe out all potential trading partners early on, I highly recommend making contact with all other civs and making sure you're the one to build the great library. The AI in this version of Civ still does a lot of things wrong, but it does a better job of managing expansion and the progress of technology and therefore you must too.

Bookman

GunnerJ

SDA has some great advice. But I'd like to offer some from a less war-like stance.

First, if you're getting your ass handed to you on chieften, try reducing the number of other players. That will give you more room to expand and develop before seeing another civ.

I've played Aplpha Centauri and Civ 3, and never was I a warlike player. I NEVER go to war unless it's instigated by the other guy. And in Civ 3, war sucks. It's really hard to coordinate. That's why I'm offing a "pacifist" strategy. Cultural conquest is VERY powerful.

That said, go for Republic and Democracy! If you only go to war when needed, it really is the way to go because of the HUGE economic boost.

Chieftan is the best place to get a cultural/scientific victory, and if you're just starting out and want to go this route, take the Babylonians (Religious/Scientific... those civ traits really do make a difference!) ALWAYS build a temple/library combo straight off. I like to expand in such a way that there are huge gaps inbetween my cities, and load those cities up with wonders and religious/research shit. Enemy civs just LOVE building in between my "fingers" of cultural power. Like closing a fist....

On the subject of wonders, they are a lot more useful then most players give them credit for. Pyramid and Hanging Gardens are very important, as are Oracle, SJBach's Cathedral, Sistine Chapel, Newton's and Copernicus's labs (for a cultural victory anyway).

As far as settling pattens, look for gold on hilly terrain, for Cash and a good defensive position. The best place to build, though, is right next to a lone mountain with a river running out of it. the river lets you irrigate easily, and the mounted can be roaded and mined later for HUGE mineral/cash bonuses. Finding a lone mountain with gold or iron is even better.

That's all I can remember, and I hope it helps.

SanDiegoAtheist

In Emperor you probably will NOT have a tech advantage, and if you do, it's usually only 1-2 techs up the tree (not really enough to make a big difference except in the early game, which is why you want to beat the heck out of everyone as early as possible). Generally you can keep a moderate tech advantage on Prince or below without too much of a problem.

However, one advantage that you have over the AI is armies. The AI, frankly, sucks at building armies - and usually, when it does use them (incredibly rarely), does so badly with them that you can nail them pretty quickly.

Here's a quick minimum recipe for conquering opponents in the endgame:

3 Armies, all containing vet or better units, 2-3 attack units, 1 defense unit. This should be 5 armies or more if this is a first strike in a war on a large opponent.
5-6 normal top of the line units - replace as needed as you use them to garrison cities.
5-6 artillery units
one colony unit per city to be taken (assuming you mean to raze the city, which is generally easier than trying to pacify the territory).

Against a formidable opponent, you'll probably want significantly more of the above - a solid assault against a opponent equal to you in size in the Modern Era you'll need about 4-5x as many troops (figure an attack force of 30-40 total attack units, 10 or so defensive units, and 10-20 artillery, as well as the spearhead of 5 or so armies to actually assault the city themselves.)

Armies, while slow, are a MUCH easier way to conquer enemy cities - especially once the city is size 12+ and has the huge defensive bonus a city gains at that level. 3 is handy because many of the larger cities will have at least two defenders of significant strenth, and especially early in a war, you'll have a rather large amount of attackers trying to beat up your force. One army in a stack is easily capable of successfully killing 4-5 enemy attacking units before retiring.



I've lost 6-7 modern armor trying to take down a SINGLE rifleman in a size 20 city before - ick. On the other hand, a 4 unit army made up of similar tech, should always beat a single enemy unit in a town. 3 armies makes it easy, as you'll take down their top 3 defensive units in one swell foop. Artillery are underrated by many players, a solid group of artillery can make a big difference by dropping their top of the line vet defenders down 1-2 hp notches each, making conquest just that much easier. If you're attacking with armies, you're going to be moving slowly anyway, why not take the relatively cheap artillery along to make it even easier on you.

Use the normal top of the line units to garrison conquered cities. NEVER leave an army in a conquered city longer than you have to. The AI may suck at putting armies together (actually, it simply sucks at getting them in the first place), but if YOUR well built army defects to the opposition along with the city, you're going to have a handful of pain right where it can probably do the most harm to the rest of your conquistadores (this is one very good reason to raze cities that you really don't NEED, and simply rebuild them with your nice LOYAL followers).

Save your 'elite' units. Don't be tempted to throw an 'elite' unit at an opponents 'veteran' unit simply because you think the odds are on your side. Elites are hard to get, and the best use for them is in mopping up enemy low tech units and generating hero units thereby. I lost wayyyyy too many elite units tossing them at opponents top units, when a veteran would have very nearly the same odds, have a decent chance of turning up elite out of the fight, and losing a veteran doesn't hurt hardly at all - you can always make more of them. Elites are also the best for turning into Armies - the difference between a 15hp stack of 3 elites, and a 12hp stack of veterans is quite large. A 12 hp stack of tanks in an army has roughly a 20% chance of dying against a 4hp veteran mobile infantry in a large city. A 15hp stack has about a 5% chance of that happening (I've never lost a 20hp 4 unit army in a single battle).

A first strike on a formidible empire which has railroads will call down stacks of enemy units which can be truly awe-inspiring. I've seen stacks of 200+ units assemble to counterattack in these conditions. I do not generally attack these size enemies until I have tactical nukes - which can make things almost too easy, as the AI will usually concentrate their forces on one or two grid squares, depending on how saturated their territory is with railroads. Two tactical nukes will annihilate 99% of the attacking units (1 will generally cut it 2/3rds, with the remaining 1/3 at 50% strength or below on average - still formidible if starting with 200 or more units). Nukes are nasty and brutish, but they're tough to do without in the last 100 years if you're attempting to conquer an opponent who has anything near your size. BTW, for this initial strike, under the conditions above, it's generally worth it to sacrifice a few units and 'Pillage" roads around your attacking armies so that the enemy counterattack cannot reach them in a single turn, thus allowing you to nuke the AI's combined armies into radioactive dust while YOUR assault force is healthy and ready to whomp right into their (now relatively undefended) border cities.

Besides, it's FUN to NUKE things

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

SanDiegoAtheist

Great additions Rimstalker - I was focusing mostly on a 'Kill-em-all' strategy

But, I figured this is for Queen-of-SWORDS, not Queen-of-Plowshares =)

Great idea allowing conversion lanes between your top culture cities though for allowing opponents to set up easily 'converted' cities - I'll have to remember that one.

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist