What do you do during the first 20 minutes?

sboog · May 10, 2002, 08:25

I've got to get a better start or something. It seems the first 20 minutes of the game all I do is build warriors, fortify them or just explore. I might build roads. And after awhile I get a science advance.

And so I keep on exploring and my warriors are scattered around and nothing happens unless I bump into another civ which I can not conquer with one warrior.

I end up bringing them back home - wasting their moves.

Nothing happens.

How do you spend your first 20 minutes?

I need a plan or a simple strategy guide. The Prima one is not much help.

sboog

Lethargic · May 10, 2002, 08:31

Prima's "strategies" are always funny, could you post some of them?

zulu9812 · May 10, 2002, 08:33

Build settlers. Early expansion is the key. Just be wary of Barbarians.

dojoboy · May 10, 2002, 08:39

Quote:

Originally posted by sboog

And so I keep on exploring and my warriors are scattered around and nothing happens unless I bump into another civ which I can not conquer with one warrior.

I end up bringing them back home - wasting their moves.

sboog

Maybe park some warriors over key resources. The AI could still build a city next to the warrior but it might discourage them, or better yet, if the map allows it, set up a blockade w/ warriors to prevent rival civs access. Just thoughts.

Stuie · May 10, 2002, 09:09

Quote:

Originally posted by sboog
How do you spend your first 20 minutes?

First twenty minutes:

Build capital with settler (without moving - just take what you're dealt).
Set city to build warrior (or spearman if available and city growth is slow enough that it won't slow down settler production).
Move worker to nearest plain/grassland, with preference going to wheat/cows/etc.
Build mine with worker, then road. Repeat.
Once warrior/spearman is built, either:
build settler if city will grow to 3 before settler is completed;
build another warrior.
Send warrior/spearman out exploring.
Once first settler is built, build a unit to defend the city, then begin on settlers again timing them for completion right around when city will reach 3. I repeat this cycle with my additional cities as well.

Note that because your first city is plopped down wherever you started, the placement of your second city is extremely important. Chances are the second city will end up far surpassing your first in terms of production.

Oops, I think my twenty minutes are up.

BigBear · May 10, 2002, 09:29

Humerous.
http://sports.yahoo.com/pga/gallery/...gs_rcp107.html

Capt Dizle · May 10, 2002, 09:55

I actually play during the first twenty minutes. After that what I do is watch the "please wait" notification and take blood pressure medicine. The American Heart Association has recently added the following to their web site:

The risk of coronary heart disease rises as Civ3 play activity increases. When other risk factors (such as high blood pressure, cigarette smoke, high blood cholesterol levels) are present, this risk increases even more.
Playing Civ3 on computers that are well above the minimum system requirements for Civ3 can somewhat mitigate this risk.

Jawa Jocky · May 10, 2002, 10:47

Quote:

Originally posted by sboog
I've got to get a better start or something. It seems the first 20 minutes of the game all I do is build warriors, fortify them or just explore. I might build roads. And after awhile I get a science advance.

And so I keep on exploring and my warriors are scattered around and nothing happens unless I bump into another civ which I can not conquer with one warrior.

I end up bringing them back home - wasting their moves.

Nothing happens.

How do you spend your first 20 minutes?

I need a plan or a simple strategy guide. The Prima one is not much help.

sboog

Here is a suggestion for your next 20 minutes. Get Iron, build barracks, bring your warriors home and upgrade them to swordsmen.

Here is a suggestion for the following 20 minutes. Think of your swordsmen as garden shears. Now go pruin back that annoying AI.

Arrian · May 10, 2002, 12:02

I build warriors and settlers. The warriors explore, pop huts, and meet other civs. Then they roam about either killing barb camps for 25g a pop, or meeting up with settlers and acting as garrisons. The settlers... um, settle. New cities build temples, a worker or maybe a new settler, barracks, a spearman to compliment the warrior they already have, and then start on attack units (chariots mostly). When I have enough troops, I start breaking things.

You may want to check out the strategy forum.

-Arrian

Bella Hella · May 10, 2002, 12:29

i actually consider the very beginning of the game to be on of the most fun parts of the game. expansion is such a critical thing and so important to plan out! i make warriors to explore every inch of the map so i know exactly where the AI is, and to escort my settlers. i make a ton of settlers and... uh, go settle. spearmen to defend, blah blah blah. but i think the exploration and expansion is actually pretty exciting. if you're looking for some more action, you could set the barbarians to raging or something.. or play a smaller map? and instead of moving your warriors back home, why not trace the border of the AI's territory to get a good idea of what they're up to? or patrol for barbarians - they're always popping up.

Sava · May 10, 2002, 12:37

Settlers are the way to go.... temple, spearmen, settlers,library, spearmen, settlers.... sometimes I throw in something else, like a worker... it depends on the situation I'm in. My strategy is not set in stone, it is catered to the environment.

zulu9812 · May 10, 2002, 13:03

very true - horses for courses

jshelr · May 10, 2002, 13:32

At the beginning, I tend to research warrior code, iron working, head for horseback riding before dialing back to minimun research. At the same time, with barbarians set on raging, I try to limit warrior production and use speamen/bowmen as Bab. They are far more survivable. The trick is often to stop expanding at the right moment (before you become thin and overly extended) and build out your road network and barracks in time to be well prepared for the inevitable early war. Because your head count is low, but qualitly of unit high, the AI will attack you early. Make them pay, beat some techs out of them, and try to overrun your continent using the intitial cities as a swordmen/horsemen factory. The trick at that point is not to get too extended. Once you are big enough to compete for the long term on science and you've landed enough lux, stop and build. (Always get some tundra or position to get it after calvary.)

Cookie Monster · May 10, 2002, 13:44

In the beginning I set science to 1 or zero. I want to maximize my gold intake.

Build 2-3 warriors right off the bat. Maybe then I start a settler. Send the warriors out to explore. When you first contact a civ try to buy tech off of them. You should have the money to do so.

Explore a bit more while continuing to build troops plus the occasional and I mean occasional settler. Find another civ if any and buy tech off of them too all the while you keep building up an army. Forgot to mention you need a couple of barracks.

Then go grind your neighbors into the ground. Kill 'em off early. Extort all sorts of goodies from them for peace. Then kill 'em anyway. Rinse repeat.

Then settle down and play peacefully for a while. Always look to expand your land one way or the other.

Ribannah · May 10, 2002, 13:57

During my first 20 minutes, I ponder about the optimal city site for my Settler ...

Jaybe · May 10, 2002, 14:05

All these posts from expanionists civ-style players (like myself).
Where are the posts from the "find nearest neighbors and conquer" players?? I would like to learn how (with 1.21).

Sir Kruschev · May 10, 2002, 14:14

crack a MGD and smoke 4 Marlboros

BillChin · May 10, 2002, 14:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Jaybe
All these posts from expanionists civ-style players (like myself).
Where are the posts from the "find nearest neighbors and conquer" players?? I would like to learn how (with 1.21).

I posted a series of early war strategies on this thread:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=46271
For 1.21 Emperor difficulty an earlier attack may be desirable, but on Monarch and Regent difficulty the strategies are fine as is. Very quickly:

1) Warrior gambit, send two warriors together, attack first enemy city or settler. Do not attack spearmen or hoplites. Very hard to pull off on Emperor level because the AI gets five free units. A variant for militarist civs is to build archers.

2) Swordsmen conquest, build 4 to 6 cities, build warriors, research and claim iron, upgrade warriors to swordsmen. Conquer nearest enemy.

3) Combined arms conquest, build 8 to 15 cities. Build an offensive force of about 20 units. Conquer the enemy of your choice.

4) Knight blitz (best for huge maps), build 15 to 30 cities. Build War Chariots and Horsemen. Get Chivalry as cheaply as possible, as early as possible. Upgrade units to Knights. Conquer the world.

Let me also plug the May tourney game:
http://64.246.32.51/~admin1/forums/s...threadid=49114
Tourney games are a great way to learn how to play the game, because all participants share the same starting conditions.

mingmyling · May 10, 2002, 15:03

Quote:

Originally posted by sboog

How do you spend your first 20 minutes?

(

Playing Civilization is a lot like romance...the key in the early going is foreplay. Gently caress the adjacent territory and visit the goodie places. Build a granary..get at least one settler ..and above all seduce your neighbors...make love not war!!

Cookie Monster · May 10, 2002, 15:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Jaybe
All these posts from expanionists civ-style players (like myself).
Where are the posts from the "find nearest neighbors and conquer" players?? I would like to learn how (with 1.21).

Jaybe, look 2 posts above yours and see my strategy.

I Am Jeff · May 10, 2002, 15:45

Funny pic bigbear

Grrr · May 10, 2002, 17:15

Build a city on a river, build another city, build workers to increase city 1's size to 7 or eight and setup worker factory, pump out workers here, build settlers in city 2, and improve increase city sizes, with a couple of warriors keeping people happy.

Jamski · May 10, 2002, 17:52

I put the kettle on, smoke two cigs and mostly press enter. Must use an idustrious cive one day, I must !

-Jam

The Thinker · May 12, 2002, 20:21

Your capital should crank out settlers, your new cities should crank out settlers stopping only to make defensive units when the city is too small to make a settler. You find your neighbors soon enough.

Captain · May 12, 2002, 21:18

warriors, explore,
find nearest civ. if have worker alone, capture it.
take enemy city if feeling lucky. if not, stack and squat on a resource or bonus square.
works up to regent. higher ones, ai starts getting free units.

simwiz2 · May 12, 2002, 22:43

I usually build a warrior, then a barracks, then a settler, then alternate 2 spearmen and 1 settler in capital. The barracks is important because having all veteran units gives my army a big advantage. Most new cities build a temple then a settler. I get nice solid borders and can still expand reasonably quickly. My second city, being the most important, builds a temple then the colossus, then pyramids if i have time. This works well on regent.

Inverse Icarus · May 12, 2002, 22:51

find the first AI. kill. repeat.

Explorer579 · May 13, 2002, 00:16

Not an easy question therefore not an easy answer. For sure, the earlier part of the game is the most fun for me. From 4000 BC to 300 AD or so.

The simplest answer is that early strategy depends on several factors, the most important of which is my starting terrain, size of the map, and proximity of enemies! If I am in a flood plain for instance, I don't build a granary early in the game.

I can however suggest the follwoing for a fast early expansion (assuming i start with a settler and a worker):

1) warrier (or worrier actually)
2) warrier
3) settler
4) spearman
5) temple
6) warrier
7) settler
8) spearman
9) settler
10) spearman

Again it all depends on how close your enemies are. If they are close, I build barrak early. If no flood plain, I build granery very early. If starting point is a desert surrounded by desert, I restart the game or fantacize about being stuck there in a tent with my girlfriend or mistress!

Now that I finished my valuable recommendations, it should be noted that I rarely if ever win with such strategy at the Regent level, standard map! I am still figuring out all the intricacies. I won my first game yesterday but it was on a small map, and as Persian where I stormed everybody with my Immortals by 200 AD.. Try it for revenge!

Explorer579 · May 13, 2002, 00:23

Quote:

Originally posted by BigBear
Humerous.
http://sports.yahoo.com/pga/gallery/...gs_rcp107.html

To move or not to move. That is the question!

What do you think guys? I move. You lose valuable time. But usually if I don't have grassland, I move one step or two to one. Or I move one step to become a port city.

If you don't know where you are moving, then don't move!

Most civilizations in real life start around rivers. I suggest that most starting points of civilization 3 should be around rivers. Many times as I play standard map, Regent Level, I am started with no river on the continent, no lakes, and my city is sitting on an ocean of tundras. Not fair.. I wonder what the Deity Level is like!

Jon Shafer · May 13, 2002, 00:29

I will move my worker to what I believe might be a prospectful location. If not, I just build where I am. If I do find a good place, then I just move my settler 1 space, or 2 at the very most. After that... Warrior, Warrior, Settler, Spearman, Settler, Temple. Repeat with all cities (excluding the Warrior part). And build some workers every so often... they can make your civ a lot more productive early on if you get enough of 'em goin.