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Settler
Local Time: 12:21
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 10
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A few strategies
Hey all,
been reading through the board this morning (first time I could finally get through consistently) and I wanted to share some thoughts. Granted, these ideas have come at the easier levels, but the vast improvements I have made from game to game indicate something is going right.
For the record, my successes have been with the British and French. The Frenchies are well-adapted to my style - lots of workers and roads and rail.
I'll go by category, hoping my thoughts will provoke responses and better ideas.
1) The early game:
Someone said it before, and I'll say it again. If you have a commercial Civ, you need lots of workers to build roads. As soon as possible, send a worker in one direction building roads. Send your Warrior in another to explore. If you're Expansionist, send your Scout to find some mountains - you'll need to monitor for iron pretty soon. Sure a temple is nice if you happen to have a fast growing, high producing city. But roads and a well placed mine or two will make a low population city as effective as a high population one. Your populations should remain low because you are pumping out Settlers and Workers. Oh, and if you find a resource and build a colony, then great. But if you think a lone defender will protect it, think again. The AI will biuld a city there as soon as it finds out you're guarding a resource, and all of a sudden you're supposedly in their borders. I won't say any more because frankly, what others have written is far more useful.
2) Tech:
Trade it. Trade it often. At least early on. Try to research the uncommon things - you'll easily pick up bronzeworking or something else from another civ since its very popular. Your civ's energy has bigger things to worry about than science at this point, and a lot will happen in the 20-30 turns you spend researching that one tech. Oh, and my preference is to go straight towards Republic, because by the time you get there, you should have a decently sized Civ with roads that can make it very lucrative and profitable. But that's just me and my Commercial Civs.
3) Resources:
These are the biggest pain in this game. At the same time, they make this international affairs geek very happy, because it adds a huge dimension to the game. With the Brits, I couldn't build railroads for 200 years because I failed to locate a source of coal. With the French, I didn't find horses until I was able to produce Cavalry. It was fine, because my Musketeers held their own, but a mounted assault is usefull. Don't expect iron, coal, saltpeter, rubber and oil will pop up in your borders. All those tech advances are no good if you can't upgrade your armed forces. (A side note: when you are getting close to a Civ advance such as Gunpowder, Nationalism, or Replaceable Parts, just save up your gold for a couple of turns. BAM! - instant upgrade of all those troops with Shift-U at a reasonable price.)
For resource discovery, I suggest the following:
a) Trade territory maps - you can protect your knowledge of valuabe resources you haven't quite gotten that settler to, but can discover potential targets for acquisiton (more on this later).
b) Exploration. Have a decent supply of explorers along with galleons on hand. Once you are able to cross the oceans, do so, and plop some people on the other islands and continents you come across. At the very least you'll come across a goody hut with some gold. It's important to do this during the "Renaissance" (the period just as you edge into the Industrial Age, when you run out of city improvements) and take advantage of dead time. You'll want them able to seek out coal, rubber, and oil, since there's a good chance you'll have none. And you don't want to haphazardly expand, either - strategic cities on foreign continents are much better than trying to take over the whole thing.
c) Wars of acquisition. Don't be afraid to take a city that has the resource you need. Just practice "limited war" and end it there. Well, maybe capture the city that is on the ocean, too - those harbors are great for connecting your empire. Resource is no good unless you can get to it.
4) WAR:
What is it good for? Well, quite a few things. Resources, for one. Unifying your empire is another. And sometimes you just want a leader or two, gosh darn it. real quick, so I don't ramble, and you are bright people who can figure out the details:
A) Bombardment is KEY. Use cannon and esp. artillery. Frigates and Ironclads are great, and you can really make your life easier by using these tools. Just be sure to protect those cannon with a high defensive unit!
B) I think armies are useful. First, they terrify the enemy. They can just march right up to a city and take it within two or three turns. Then let them heal for a couple of rounds, and onto the next city. It's even easier if you send a few bombarding units and defensive units to soften up and occupy the city. Use your first leader (how cool was it that Napoleon appeared for me in the 1790s during a war against Britain and Russia? HOW cool?) to build an army, and then build the Epic and Academy when you get to them (I was able to build them immediately). Mix them up - I've been doing a 2-to-1 ratio of Cavalry and Riflemen. I haven't tried to upgrade it yet, and since I've just built the Pentagon I'm going to add in an infantry for defensive purposes. can you upgrade the units in an army? And keep armies on the borders - that's probably where you will need them most.
C) Fight until the protests start. Nine times out of ten, your protests mean they are ready to stop, too. Oh, and make sure you always take every cent they'll give you. Make them suffer, particularly if they started it.
That's my two cents for now. I'm still adapting to Civ III, and have no idea what the modern age will have in store for me. Right now I'm about to march an army through what was once an isolated China - it's culture and power is threatening my dominance and I want to take it down a notch. In general I've found Civ III to be much better - there are a lot of nuances that give it a much closer approximation to the real world - the interdependence of economics with politics and war. Great job Firaxis!!!
(Oh, and I don't mind the irregularity of combat. Sometimes spearmen take down "organized" armies. It makes it less predictable, which is fine by me.)
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