Jeff Morris Strategy Guide at Avault

[SerapisIV]

Here's a doc with all eras and overall strategy

[Mannamagnus]

Did anyone get industrial?

[Mannamagnus]

Industrial. Viva Serapis!

Industrial:

The Industrial Era is ultimately one of conflict, which is why I love it. It's an era of massive nations crashing into each other over strategic resources. Ancient Era wars are easily forgotten, but because of the military hardware available during these times, an Industrial Era war leaves indelible scars on an opponent. In my opinion, Civilization III is most thrilling when balanced, established, and stable civilizations begin to compete directly against one another. At no time is this more evident than in the Industrial Era.

In all likelihood, your first goal when entering the Industrial Era is Sanitation. If you stopped to smell the roses at all in the Middle Ages, you've probably got a few cities capped at population 12. By researching the Medicine and Sanitation advances you can build hospitals, which is the city improvement that permits unlimited growth--as long as you have the food. Even if you don't have a large number of population 12 cities, you soon will, so you may as well get these fundamental structures built sooner rather than later.

There aren't a lot of Wonders in the Industrial Era, but the ones it does have are very useful. The advances are expensive in this era, so the two free advances given with the construction of The Theory of Evolution are a treat. There is also the Hoover Dam Wonder, which bestows the relatively clean Hydro Plants continent wide. Espionage can enable the construction of the Intelligence Agency, which, not surprisingly, can change the tenor of a game dramatically.

When it comes to units, you've got quite an arsenal at your fingertips in the Industrial Era. My favorite units in this era are the Infantry. Unlike units in the Middle Ages, the advance that enables infantry also makes rubber available. There's little you can do to prepare for Infantry because it's typically based on city location.

Once Infantry comes onto the scene, bombardment units become even more important. Since two fortified Infantry in a metropolis is a very tough nut to crack, you frequently need to reduce that city's ability to function rather than capture it. Artillery is an extremely useful unit toward that end. It doesn't require a resource, it has decent ranged fire, and when it hits a city, it can destroy an improvement, reduce the population, or damage units.

Sometimes, if a city is too difficult to capture, it may benefit you to simply reduce the city to rubble. At the very least, the enemy won't be able to enjoy its full production, and if you pillage the surrounding trade networks, you can prevent them from reinforcing themselves. Don't forget that the naval units of the Industrial Era are some of the game's most effective bombardment units. Battleships and Destroyers are far more mobile than artillery, can't be captured, and have attack values in addition to their bombardment strength.

Another real highlight of the Industrial units is the introduction of Air Power. Beyond the infrastructure benefits of airlifting between cities and air trade networks, you begin to have access to bombers, fighters, and helicopters. Fighters are capable of minor harassment of ground units and improvements, but truly excel at providing combat air patrol over cities or units. Bombers are like artillery, but have significantly longer ranges and are invulnerable to most ground units. Helicopters can be loaded up like naval transports and then airdrop their units to any tile within their operational range. As the Eras advance, strategic resources become increasingly necessary, but with toys like these to play with, it's more than worth the trouble to secure them.

[Boliao]

Seraphis You are the Greatest man...I am in awe.......

[SerapisIV]

No biggie, you all would've done the same if you found it

[SerapisIV]

Avault
The equally useful Monotheism bestows the Cathedral, a very important element in expanding your territory and the first non-Temple happiness city improvement available

Something interesting, no more colliseums. Then what function do the collisseums we've seen in city-view screens do?

[Steve Clark]

I know I've seen the question before, but I forgot the answer. What do the "Ages" have to do with techs and wonders? I know we had the ancient-middle-industrial-modern grouping, but they were just there for flavor. Is the game forcing you from one Age to the next? Will I be able to make a bee-line straight up the tree to research only those techs needed for the Space Race? And for bloodlust games, maybe I just want to concentrate on those techs that give me the most powerful military units, regardless of year, age or whatever. I should be able to have my beloved Vet Knights in 2000 bc without having the game forcing me to wait, right?

[Mannamagnus]

I never thought I'd ever say this but .....


ELVIS LIVES!!!!

[SerapisIV]

Avault
Helicopters can be loaded up like naval transports and then airdrop their units to any tile within their operational range. As the Eras advance, strategic resources become increasingly necessary, but with toys like these to play with, it's more than worth the trouble to secure them

No attack helicopters, only transport choppers.

[SerapisIV]

Avault
Combat becomes exceedingly lethal in the Modern Era. Nuclear submarines enabled by Fusion and Tactical Nuclear Missiles enabled by Space Flight create a pretty potent one-two punch. These vessels are invisible except to other submarines and AEGIS Cruisers, so you can safely moor them off the shore of your rival. While they can only carry one missile at a time, a small wolf pack of four submarines can absolutely decimate important enemy cities. ICBMs are even more devastating. Enabled by Satellites, they can deliver a nuclear payload to any location on the globe

Subs only hold one missile now. No mention of MAD however, hopefully still in there. Destroyers can't see subs or no more destroyers?

Nuclear subs enabled by nuclear fusion? Ha!

[Mannamagnus]

Another critical advance in the Ancient Era is Construction, which is useful for enabling the building of the Aqueduct and Coliseum city improvements, as well as the Fortress.

Coliseums are still there.

[SerapisIV]

Avault
Occasionally, Integrated Defense can be an early priority if nuclear weapons are in play. To be honest, though, it's a better preventative measure than cure. Usually, if there are mushroom clouds sprouting across the globe, global warming will starve you and everyone else back into the Stone Age no matter what you do

Global Warming more sensitive and potent now? I guess there is no MAD, so you have to rush to Integrated Defense to get SDI.

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Mannamagnus
Coliseums are still there.

But they're not tied to happiness? Jeff says that cathedrals are the first non-temple happiness improvement. What other function could colisseums do now then?

[EnochF]

But before they took the Modern strategy guide down, I managed to snag some important info, especially about the Spaceship.

The Spaceship is made up of ten components.

SS Cockpit (Space Flight)
SS Docking Bar (Space Flight)
SS Engine (Space Flight)
SS Exterior Casing (Synthetic Fibers)
SS Fuel Cells (Superconductor)
SS Life Support (Superconductor)
SS Planetary Party Lounge (Laser)
SS Stasis Chamber (Synthetic Fibers)
SS Storage Supply (Synthetic Fibers)
SS Thrusters (Satellites)

Other info:

Mass Transit and Solar Plant are both in the game. They come with the Ecology advance.

Interesting stuff

[izmircali]

SerapisIV: You are the MVP (Most Valued Poster). thanks!

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by izmircali
SerapisIV: You are the MVP (Most Valued Poster). thanks!

Nah... I'm not here often enough. The guys who worked so hard on The List, they are some hardcore posters

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
I know I've seen the question before, but I forgot the answer. What do the "Ages" have to do with techs and wonders? I know we had the ancient-middle-industrial-modern grouping, but they were just there for flavor. Is the game forcing you from one Age to the next? Will I be able to make a bee-line straight up the tree to research only those techs needed for the Space Race? And for bloodlust games, maybe I just want to concentrate on those techs that give me the most powerful military units, regardless of year, age or whatever. I should be able to have my beloved Vet Knights in 2000 bc without having the game forcing me to wait, right?

Unless I am mistaken you must research a majority of the techs in any given age before you can "advance" to the next age.

Now what "majority" means is beyond me, but I would hope this would not allow folks to get electricity before magnetism or chemistry or some absurb example like that.

I hope you must research over 75% of the techs in an age before you can advance, but only those with the game know for sure now.

[EnochF]

Holy crap, you guys seriously beat me to the punch on this one...

Okay, well, let me just point out something:

Espionage gives you the Intelligence Agency improvement? WOOHOO! This is a specific suggestion I made way back in 1999!

[ixnay]

I think to advance to the next age, you must research all of the required techs in your current age.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by SerapisIV


Subs only hold one missile now. No mention of MAD however, hopefully still in there. Destroyers can't see subs or no more destroyers?

Nuclear subs enabled by nuclear fusion? Ha!

Hmm, I wonder if conventional "old-school" diesel sub's are available before the nuclear type? If so then it would make sense to have nuclear sub's only detectable by their "modern" counter-parts the AEGIS cruiser and not the "old-school" destroyer.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by EnochF
Holy crap, you guys seriously beat me to the punch on this one...

Okay, well, let me just point out something:

Espionage gives you the Intelligence Agency improvement? WOOHOO! This is a specific suggestion I made way back in 1999!

Sounds like the CIA building in CtP..

[ixnay]

That thing about nuclear subs and fusion is a typo; there is no fusion. There is a picture of a sub under fission on the tech tree, though. Also, it looks like there is a normal sub under mass production.

[Steve Clark]

Originally posted by ixnay37
I think to advance to the next age, you must research all of the required techs in your current age.

Required techs meaning all techs or selected ones?

I don't like this. The different ways of winning (and hence, the different strategies) should allow for different research strategies. If I am going for a fast bloodlust victory (like with my Vet Knights example), why should I have to bother with techs that are unrelated? Is this another attempt to limit replayability in forcing you to research the same techs each and every game?

In many of my regular games, I work hard to end it before the Modern Age because I just don't like fighting those kind of battles outside of a scenario. I have a suspicion that the game will do its best to force you into the Modern Age, regardless of what year that occurs.

[Admiral PJ]

Privateers sound an excellent new strategy , like Sir Francis Drakes privateer attacks on the spanish in the Elizabethan times.
I hope there'll be land pirates in a similar vane.. lots of shipborne barbarians will do
I'd like to have a situation like with the carribean islands with pirate ships raiding trade ships.. hopefully more possible now with the new trade system (though is it advanced enough? can you blockade a port with your ships??)

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
Required techs meaning all techs or selected ones?

If you look at a tech screen from the final build, some of the advances have little circles with lines through them in the upper right corner. I'm pretty sure those are the ones you do not need to advance to the next era. You must research all the others before advancing.

Example: http://www.apolyton.net/civ3/images/...n-oct01-07.jpg

I kind of like this, as it really gives the different eras some meaning within the structure of the game.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Admiral PJ
I'd like to have a situation like with the carribean islands with pirate ships raiding trade ships.. hopefully more possible now with the new trade system (though is it advanced enough? can you blockade a port with your ships??)

Yes, blockades are in. Take a look at this:

http://pcmedia.ign.com/media/preview...e/aciv3024.jpg

[RobC]

>To defend these critical tiles, the mighty Fortress can provide
>substantial defensive bonuses and bestow the Zone of Control
>ability to units typically without it.

This would seem to contradict the earlier review that indicated that ZOC was totally gone from the game (replaced with some kind of auto-fire-on-passing-enemy-units action)

[RobC]

Lots of wonders:

http://www.avault.com/featured/large...024&height=768

Why so dark?:

http://www.avault.com/featured/large...024&height=768

Cool cut-out views into the spaceship:

http://www.avault.com/featured/large...024&height=768

(there are 8 large screen shots from civ301 to civ308, but these are the only ones I didn't see linked to already)

[TubalCain]

Why so dark?:

Fog of war - You are playing the Iroquois, and are looking at France.

[donarumo]

This would seem to contradict the earlier review that indicated that ZOC was totally gone from the game (replaced with some kind of auto-fire-on-passing-enemy-units action)

I think they may be referring to the ability to fire upon units that enter into the fortess area rather than ZOC as they were known.