Civ3: Who's resolve is first to falter?

[War4ever]

AH you speak the truth...civ2 strats don't work all that well..but you need to expand in this game....the ai expands quickly.....

However that all aside........ i feel as though i now have a grasp on taking cities....keeping them and wiping individual races out

I am getting a feel for the ancient period.....

[Alexander's Horse]

It seems expansion through cultural domination is more or as effective as conquest. Care to comment?

On good thing about this game is it brings together the civers with the smacers. Who will come out on top strat wise?

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
It seems expansion through cultural domination is more or as effective as conquest. Care to comment?

On good thing about this game is it brings together the civers with the smacers. Who will come out on top strat wise?

My hunch is the civers, we're used to the civ mechanics while smac'ers are not.


What seems to keep conquest toned down is citizen revolt when you capture an enemy city. But I've seen a strategy that seems to work against that.


Some good Civ3 tips sofar:
conquering-starvation tactic when you conquer a city you leave a token force and let the city starve whilst building workers, park your main forces outside to retake the city in case of revolt.
lumberjack rushbuilding by planting-cutting down forests for shields. Nice
worker posse the AI seems to stack his workers from time to time. Play your cards right and you can capture 20-40 workers in one turn!

[rah]

More random thoughts.

I'm starting to get the hang of it. After the first few settlers, don't build them. Go out an conquer your weakest neighbor. Find Iron and build swordman. Build the roads there so you're ready to connect right away. Two/three swordman are tough if they don't have them.

I was wrong about that hut in the city range, when you place the city, it cashes the hut. I guess the first few times I did it, the village was empty so I didn't notice.

I finally got HG in a game. I just don't give/trade poly to anybody. The AI is not as concerned about monarchy early.

After opening over two hundred huts, I have yet to see a settler or a city. (and I've always played expanionist) What the heck am I'm doing wrong?

This game is tough. (so far )


RAH

[Bird]

Did you read randomturn's comments in the civ3 general section? That stuff about the wonders is enough to make me not play this game.

[rah]

Originally posted by Bird
Did you read randomturn's comments in the civ3 general section? That stuff about the wonders is enough to make me not play this game.

I hate to say that that's not enough info to find anything in the zoo that is now the civ3 general section.


RAH

[Bird]

It's his thread, probably the only one that's his. He made several observations, but the one that bothered me was that the ai built some wonder (HG?) the turn before he was going to finish it (I can live with the fact that you can't rushbuild in the traditional sense and his beef wasn't with that fact) and then defaulted his shields into producing something like a courthouse. It did so despite the fact that he discovered theology that turn and could have switched to Sistine Chapel, but the turn order apparently didn't allow that.

Takes the concept of wonder locks to a whole new dimension.

[War4ever]

Rich i popped another hut and got a nomad ..... thats two so far in countless games....

25 seems to be the max i get from huts......

haven't played enough games yet to know for sure

[belinda9]

In answer to the original question of this thread:
Well
I said I wasn't getting civ3 without the MP and I'm NOT
so Saturday I come home in the afternoon and my husband (the SP - yes, it's a mixed marriage ) is sitting there with our friend playing it!
Seems "friend" brought it over to show it off, as he just picked it up this weekend at the local BestBuys ($49.95!!)
But I still haven't looked at it -- partly because "friend" has the CD!! LOL I have a feeling hubby will break down and get it anyhow; being the SP he is. Then the question becomes, how long before I end up looking at HIS? Ha!

[Carolus Rex]

There seems to be a giant bug...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=32532

Carolus

[Smash]

well..that is kinda sloppy programing but it is easy to avoid by just not doing it.A pretty simple fix I would think.

[rah]

Agreed, sloppy but not a show stopper.

From an MP standpoint, I was very dissapointed about all the free information you get. One of our biggest complaints in the CIVII cheats threads was all the free info.

Map clicking
Closest city
Blah blah blah

But they seemed to have ignored us MPers "AGAIN"
The amount of free info is WORSE.
Click on stack to see detailed info. Even if they're vets or elite troops.
Borders.
Techs in diplomacy. (gee a patch was built to eliminate this in CIV II)
Strongest troop defending a city (it was a bug when it happened at CIVII)

We had assumed they read them, I guess not. I'd rather believe that then they read them and just ignored us.

Just another thing in the long list of why this game will never be a good MP game. It looks like a step back.

RAH

[CapTVK]

Rah,

Are these (possible in the future Civ3 MP?) 'flaws' structural or can they be fixed within the present gamedesign?

If not, Civ3MP is gonna take a looooooooooong time.

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Smash
well..that is kinda sloppy programing but it is easy to avoid by just not doing it.A pretty simple fix I would think.

...and I sure don't hope that it's an omen; a characteristic of how the game functions! If such a simple thing is so badly implemented, what about the rest...

Enough complaining from a guy who haven't even bought the game (yet!)...

BTW, what you say ("Don't use them!") goes for most bugs... Still, doesn't give the right signal of "this is a quality product", eh? [There, I complained a little more anyway! ]

Carolus

[Xin Yu]

Originally posted by Ming
Xin Yu... what do you think about the game so far.
I think it's harder overall... but we haven't had a million games to disect it yet. Have you found and good Xin tricks yet?

Hi there! I just got the game but have only played 2 sessions. Now I'm visiting my wife who's in Ohio State U. For the past 3 quarters I dedicated myself to her study. I tutored her calculus, real analysis, statistics, computer, etc. All those homeworks and stuff. This Saturday I can come back to Seattle and concentrate on Civ for about a month.

I still haven't got a chance to calculate how many shields come from one pop when rush building under despotism. If it is 10, then looks like the best way to build up a city is to add workers to it then rush. This way you can concentrate your civ's effort in one city (even of size 1). Makes building settlers much easier, and the culture invasion much easier as well.

[Steve Clark]

Originally posted by rah
More random thoughts.

I'm starting to get the hang of it. After the first few settlers, don't build them. Go out an conquer your weakest neighbor. Find Iron and build swordman. Build the roads there so you're ready to connect right away. Two/three swordman are tough if they don't have them.

I was wrong about that hut in the city range, when you place the city, it cashes the hut. I guess the first few times I did it, the village was empty so I didn't notice.

I finally got HG in a game. I just don't give/trade poly to anybody. The AI is not as concerned about monarchy early.

After opening over two hundred huts, I have yet to see a settler or a city. (and I've always played expanionist) What the heck am I'm doing wrong?

This game is tough. (so far )


RAH

That is what I have experienced, as well, in my first Chieftain game (that's humbling to say, isn't it, war4ever?). Even though the AI likes to expand, they get stretched too thin and leave themselves vulnerable to clobbering by your Phase 2 units (Archers, Spearmen, etc.).

Smash: Thanks for remembering. I think the word-of-mouth have been phenomenal in that they probably exceeded the most optomistic sales figure. Once purchased, it doesn't matter if it gets played or not, does it? For us hardcores, I look forward to the day when there are numerous scenarios to play and of course, MP for you guys. In the meantime, it is fun trying to learn Civ again.

If you haven't seen it yet, please check out my "story" in Civ3-Stories.

[rah]

Originally posted by Xin Yu
I still haven't got a chance to calculate how many shields come from one pop when rush building under despotism. If it is 10, then looks like the best way to build up a city is to add workers to it then rush. This way you can concentrate your civ's effort in one city (even of size 1). Makes building settlers much easier, and the culture invasion much easier as well.

Great to hear that you're looking at it now. I guess I'm more hung up on playing then researching for now.

I rushed a temple for 2 pop in desp, So I think it's more than ten, so you using workers might be real good. I'll have to try that. That could really help in those far out cities. Even though in those that you conquer, once they stop resisting, it's best to rush the temple with their pop to get rid of them. Then use your workers to build the pop back. Less chance of of the city going back from what I understand.

RAH

[Makeo]

it didn't take me long to weaken. ordered it.

any info on oedo years?

[rah]

No luck for Oedo years. From reading and some little experience, it's 6 turns, 1 if you have religious for a characteristic. I haven't been counting exactly but it has always seemed like a long time and I have gone through 10-15 revolutions. They fixed it,

Rich

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Makeo
it didn't take me long to weaken. ordered it.

any info on oedo years?

So much for principle. You're all a bunch of SELLOUTS!


In the meantime I'll try to keep up my resolve by playing Europa Universalis.....must......resist......temp...tatio n.

[War4ever]

Originally posted by CapTVK


So much for principle. You're all a bunch of SELLOUTS!


In the meantime I'll try to keep up my resolve by playing E
uropa Universalis.....must......resist......temp...tatio n.

Well i didn't pay for mine......... and at this point i am glad i didn't ...having paid for alot of civ titles already that sucked...

Steve.... i am playing monarch........and doing well....

has anyone experienced the inability to build a set....... even though the shield box is full...at size 2? i spent 10 turns like this

as for nomads...i find them...but no more than one a game....

ah and revs.... i revolted in 130bc to monarchy and it was one turn...110bc to go into monarchy govt...so....i am still not sure about the rev dates......

[rah]

What civ were you playing. If they had a relegious characteristic, that's why it took only one turn. If it wasn't let us know and I'll go back to testing years.


Rich

[Carolus Rex]

Originally posted by Steve Clark

If you haven't seen it yet, please check out my "story" in Civ3-Stories.

I had a good chuckle while reading it.

If the early game actually is that slow simply because they wanted the ancient age to last longer, then I can't understand why they didn't choose to expand on the number of techs, units and improvements to build in the ancient era instead.

I mean, the wish of gamers to spend more time in the ancient era wasn't to be taken literally! Same pace as before, but lasting longer... Is all...

Carolus

[War4ever]

Rich i was a religious civ...just don't remember which one now........

no one else experiences your box being full of shields but the settler not popping out eh? this has slowed my expansion immensley...not sure what i am doing wrong some games....but its annoying as hell......

having a hard time keeping enough gold in my coffers....... and i run out of things to build all the time....because that wealth option does jack sh!t

Rich what level are you playing at?

i am finding one nomad a game......i actually got 50g from a hutand barbs are smart at pinning you in....

i tend to explore high ground as much as possible being that my unit can move onto harsh terrain even with only one MP left......the ability to see two squares cannot be overated.....

becoming better at moving my units around now that the num lock key is off.......

i lost so many cities to barbs this way.....and why is it sometimes the barbs take my city but DONT really take it.......? they sack it and move on....i mean i am gratefull but it doesn't make sense to me.....

exploring is key..... pinning civs is key otherwise they run all over the bloody place........and man.....they send alot of troops when pissed off....... i had16 units try to take a city...they failed of course...

crushing barbs is easy in their little encampments...... andi like forced labout......

anyone have a tech tree planned out or do you just go with whatever the ai has and research accordingly.... i find myself researching bronze and then the ai swaps in a trade but then i can't choose my next science...it auto does it for you.... the option doesn't even come up

ok........ if anyone can help with the above knock yourself out

[Steve Clark]

Rex, the length of the Ancient Age doesn't bother me because if I want to really focus on that age, I'll play a scenario (like my very favorite, Kull's Seeds of Greatness). It's fun learning this game but as I have said before, I'm waiting for the scenarios so I don't have to keep playing the regular game (unless it's a challenge game like OCC). I'm glad you liked the story.

Rich, playing as the Iroquois (Expanionist? and Religious), I only had anarchy at the beginning of the next turn.

[Steve Clark]

war: If I understand your problem, a Settler costs 2, so you have to be at size 3 before it'll let you build one.

[War4ever]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
war: If I understand your problem, a Settler costs 2, so you have to be at size 3 before it'll let you build one.

Thanks Steve to be honest i wasn't really payin attention to that...but i realized it today in a game.... thanks though....

I have been having success taking out the first civ i meet......while blocking others..... its still civ2..... but you can't ignore things now like you used too...well to this point of my experience anyways...

archers work quite well i have noticed.....and much earlier than swordsmen

[Xin Yu]

I took some time to go through the strategy guide (official) and the info center in civfanatics.

One way to exploit is to 'abuse' workers. (In civ2 we have settlers, diplos and caravans to abuse, now there's only workers.) You can plant trees in an area close to a city, (call it 'Royal forest'), then chop down trees to get extra shields for the city. Then replant the trees. If every important city has its own trees, then you don't need to worry about shield production. Should work extremely well for industious civs. Remember: TREES DO NOT NEED TO BE IN CITY RADIUS, just need to be closest to this city.

Another way is the abuse 'rush building' by adding workers to a city then sacrefice them to production. Works better for Religious and Scientific civs since less shields are needed for the improvements. (Rah, have you tried it? You can't rush wonders but there may be a way to get around it and save some turns).

A third way is to abuse diplomatic relationships. For example, selling techs would give you a lot of money, then you buy a new tech, sell it to other cives for more money. I don't recommend trading cities to gain advantage. If you give some civ a city and don't really mean it (i.e., give a city while planning taking it back the next turn), it's too much abuse.

A fourth way is to abuse culture. If you have 3 cities against one foreign city (only two spaces away), it does not stand a chance when you have 3 temples and 3 libraries in your cities. It takes 3 settlers and a lot of workers to do it, but there is a snow ball effect so if you set it up correctly you'll absorb a civ pretty quickly (while the civ is still polite to you since you pay 2 coins a turn to it).

A fifth way is to abuse barbarians. I heard that you can attack barbs and get free workers.

[DaveV]

I hope they allow goody huts to be turned off in MP games - huts are even more unbalancing than before. I just quit two games before 3000 BC: the first because I popped three barb warriors in two of my first three huts; the second because I popped three barb warriors two squares away from my capital. Two of them killed my warrior while the third sacked my capital. Game over, especially if your opponent is building his second city with a nomad.

Based on a couple dozen starts, the starting position still looks very uneven. Sometimes I have a great start by rivers and cows; other times, I'm stuck on a peninsula with lots of jungle. Another deadly start: lots of non-shield grassland. 10 turns for the first warrior, while the other guys are spawning cities.

Trading for a tech or picking it up from a hut seems to waste any research you have invested. It looks best to me just to start on the path to monarchy and try to pick up the early techs from huts and the AIs. Speaking of trading with the AIs: if you start by yourself on an island, it looks like a death sentence. The AIs will be trading techs like madmen while you're struggling to research map making.

[War4ever]

HI dave..... i get a nomad every game with the americans....

the cultural take over is neat the first time but unbalances gameplay i think

i have cops and issacs in my cap and some ai are still able to beat me to tech...i have libraries and universities in every city...

its easy to keep cities.......

i am being beaten to all early wonders...but am able to take some of the other ones.....

not being able to rushbuild has hurt..... i missed sisteen chapel by one turn....

your rightabout island starts...... its not worth killing the ai early...you need him to trade with.....

all these pacts get confusing......

i beeline to republic....... works likea charm though i still can't time a revolution yet

mind you i am not testing ...just playing