Civ 3&4

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[jarnomiedema 52]

If you have some money to spare in the future, I can really recommend the CivIV Gold Edition that's coming out this week (the original game plus the first expansion pack) and the second expansion pack 'Beyond the Sword' that'll come out at the end of next week..

As for CivIII, I played that a long, long time ago, so my advice might be influenced by my experiences with CivIV.. 

Winning a game requires that you either: 

a. conquer the entire globe within the set amount of time (I believe the game runs until 2050).

b. construct a spaceship to go to Alpha Centauri before your other opponents and before the timelimit as well.

c. come out as the world leader in a diplomatic election (you have to construct the United Nations for that).

d. dominate the globe; control two-thirds of all lands and 66% of all population.

e. cultural victory requires your cities to have so much culture that other civs would rather be you than themselves.. Not sure on the conditions though..

If you need more information, the Wikipedia article is usually a handy resource.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_III

Good luck! Oh, and I really recommend CivIV, which truly is a better game.. Also, another source of information and help is the great fanbased website Civfanatics: http://www.civfanatics.com/

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[jarnomiedema 52]

Actually, if you're still leading in terms of score, you should win the game once it reaches 2050. That simply is the timelimit for the game.. Depending on how well you did overall (how high your score is, how much culture, how large a military, etc.) you should come out victorious if you have the overall highest score..

Although, in general, your overal score would probably be higher if you manage to win the game before 2050 through one of the different victory possibilities.. Good luck! CivIII was a great game and be sure to check out the many mods that are available at CivFanatics.. There are a few great ones!

[xxbydesign 1]

Ive been a CIV addict since at least 1998, so I have a few years under my belt, and I'd be glad to help you out!

I'll just start with your questions for now:

a) do NOT under any circumstances remain in Despotism longer than you can. It is a horrible form of government that severly limits your ablity to collect resources. For starters, corruption is extreme; if you develop in a ring around your capital, a city in the second ring from your capital will be severly limited in its production. Corruption reduces your creation of commerce, which slows your science research and also tax revenue, plus corruption of your industry produces wasted shileds, slowing production. AND, under despotism, any square that produces more than two of any one resource (food, shield, commerce), the production of that resource is limited by one. For example, if youre producing commerce from a region that would otherwise produce four food or gold, it will instead produce three. Despotism may be good for small countries early in the game, but anything into the middle ages should switch to republic or monarchy asap.

b)Its a wise idea to develop each city independently from the other, like you have been doing. The danger of specializing is that if you are conqured in that city, you have lost a vital component of your civilization because it was so specialized. I normally develop each city seperately, without a particular purpose in mind. Look for city sites that are well rounded in resources, and if you see a river or a freshwater lake, GET IT. It is invaluable for trade and irrigation, not to mention if you city is develped on a river or a lake, it does not need an aquaduct, thus saving production time and maitinence costs.

At some points in the game, when you go to war, it is a smart idea to pick one city to be a staging area for the war; in this case, the city should have a barrack, and city walls, and basicly become a strongpoint durring the war. But not all cities need barracks all the time, or walls. The more you play, the more you will be able to judge which cities make the best military centers while the other cities can continue to maintain your economy.

c) It all depends on what dificulty level you play. Chieftain is the easiest level, and it is very difficult for other civs to develop anything really formidible, unless you also do not know how to handle other civilizations. However, there are some general rules of thumb you should use to approch a siege:

First, look at the terrain: is there any high ground it would be advantageous to occupy durring the siege? YOu get a defensive bonus on a mountain (200%) or hills (100%). Also look for forests or jungles, as they afford a 50% bounus. Also look for any rivers; attacking across a river is a bad idea, as the defender will get a bonus if you do this. However, YOU can retreat to the otherside of a river if need be so you can have the bonus if your opponent retaliates. Try to look for as many bonus combinations as possible to select a location from which to siege without a significant loss of troops.

Second, you need to appraise the other civilization as a whole: what are thier resources? Are they using them for trade with other civilizations? Are they reciving trade from other civilzations? How big are its cities? This will paint a revealing picture of what their capabilities are, and also point to where and which city you should strike first. You want to find a city close to your border for easy access and also one that is supplying the rest of the nation access to a strategic resource or luxury. In this way, you can do damage to both a single city and an entire country, saving you effort and units but doing maximum damage.

Third: Cripple thier trade! If the city you want is reciving a strategic resource, they could easily rush many powerful units and eliminate all hope of your victory very quickly. Eliminate the access to that resource civilization-wide by occupying and pillaging connecting roads, this severly damages that city and that civilization's capacity to fight a war. Same thing goes for luxuries. Large cities that depend on luxuries to maintain order will quickly fall into disorder if luxuries are lost, and a disorderly city haults tax collection and science production in that city, thus negatively influencing the civilization, but more importantly it haults production, eliminating any new defensive threats from the city.

Four: Starvation. Large cities and metropoli offer defensive bonuses because of thier size, so trying to reduce the city's population is an effective tool. While you can pillage enemy improvements to reduce food production, the land is still useable if your troops do not occupy the land; positioning units in several city-surrounding squares, particularly on sites with bonus resources (cattle, wheat, game, etc), and forcing the city to get food from low production land sites (like forest, desert, hills) will eventually lead to population decline. If you can get a city to fall to a town level (1-6), they will loose a city's 50% defensive bonuses, unless they have a city wall. Likewise, reducting a metropolis below level 12 will eliminate that city's 100% defense bonus to a city's 50%. After capturing the city this way, there is the added bonus that there are fewer citizens of the foriegn nationality to resist your occupation, meaning less units need to remain in the city to maintain order and control. Be forwarned, however; Large cities will take many turns to decline, especially if it has a granary, and this may give the rival civilization time to muster an impressive offense. If it will take too long to starve or don't have enough units or the city is in a fertile place (floodplains produce the most food and make large cities in desert areas possible), bring along siege equiptment, like the catapult, cannon, artillery, etc, and bombard the city. If you luck out, you'll destroy some of the city's population. You can also bombard from sea and air in later years.

Unit to unit combat is tricky. The way the program calculates battles is based on probibility and depends on the units' defensive and offensive strengths. Say you have a unit with attack strength of 3 attacking a unit with a defense strenght of 2. For each hit point (hit points depend on the skill of the unit: conscripts have two, regulars have three, veterans have four, and elites have five), the computer calculates the probibility of each unit either loosing a hit point or removing a hit point from thier opponent. To do this, it adds the attackers strenght with the defenders defence to create a common denomnator, and then their probibility of winning is calculated by dividing thier strength by this common denominator. So the attacker has a 3/5 chance of removing a defender's hitpoint, and the defender has a 2/5 chance of removing a hit point from the attacker. When you factor in deffensive bonus, say, the defender is on a hill (100% bonus), suddenly the attacker has a 3/7 chance and the defender has a 4/7... the tides have turned! The computer does this for each round of fighting, so if you have two, full health elites battling, the computer will have to calculate the probibilities five times or until one unit retreats. Of course, there is always some chance of the defender winning, so there is a degree of luck. But so long as you use tactics and strategy, you can better your odds of winning. Aside from bonuses from terrain, you can build improvements, like city walls, or fortresses in the field, to improve your odds. Also, fortifying units also adds 10% defensive bonus.

Thats about it for now, I know its lengthy, but it should help for a while! Looking forward to hearing back from you, and you can always pm me if you wish.

[Cjah 15]

Over population was so hard for me to avoid....

Three things...

Culture is the simplest route to win...or controlling more then 66% of the land...

Now the hardest route is the diplomatic victory...I mean if you can give each enemy tons of money and trade all sorts of resources...then you will win...but wheres the fun in that....

go for a win based on the spaceship or try to conquor whats still standing....

For me by the time its 250AD i have so much culture its not even funny...

[Dark_Jedi06 13]

Nothing is better then a military victory...the whole map covered in your civilization's color.

I'm going to echo Jarno here and tell you to get Civilization IV Gold when its released on the 25th (includes the original + Warlords expansion for $50) and the Beyond the Sword expansion on the 23rd. The game is a vast improvement over the third installment.

As for Civilization III, here are a few things I learned from the hours I played it...

-Be friends with the Russians. Not only does Catherine cheat, but her Cossacks are the tanks of the late Middle Ages.

-It's not always a good idea to build up every city with every structure. For example, a city short on shields shouldn't bother with a barracks because it won't be able to build a lot of units. Always look at the maintenance costs of a structure before you build it.

-Some wonders are a must, especially Leonardo's Workshop (halves unit upgrade costs). Others include the Pyramids, Smith Trading Company and Sun Tzu's Art of War.

-Don't stick with Despotism...it has no benefits. However, don't be trigger happy when starting a revolution. For example, if you are a war monger then democracy is not for you considering war-weariness is rampant. Always check the effects of a government before switching, ensuring that its right for your civilization.

-City specialization is a good idea. For example, a city placed around large amounts of food can grow quickly, then switch some of the population to tax payer specialists to increase commerce.

Civilization III is definitely a great game, however Civilization IV is a vast improvement and I suggest you get it.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[ciber 0]

i have the gold had the game 4 a whilwe never one a gam gat civ 4 and won my first game

also i sugest going to civfantics googl it may be spelld wrong

[mencc1701 0]

Everyone so far has posted good tips, so I'll just add that I find that Communism is often the best form of government in Civ III. Switch to it when you can.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[xxbydesign 1]

Each civilization has a pair of attributes that give it slight advantages in two different areas, and governmens can be used to amplify these. For instance, commercial civilizations produce extra commerce in city and metropolis squares, so being in a government type that boosts commerce (Republic & Democracy) will add to this bonus. Militaristic civilizations have an easier time building military support buildings, making thier millitary more advanced. But all those improvements cost money, so using a government that reduces unit upgrade costs (monarchy, communism) makes sense so you can maintian a strong military without breaking the bank. Play around with different government combinations with the civilization's attributes to find your best strategies.

[beebs 129]

I have a very set strategy for playing Civ3 and for me at least seems to work nearly every time. Of course I've never tried it on any amazingly hard difficulty level, where it might fall apart.

Basically I start out expanding. Like mad. Each city I build would create 2 or 3 more settlers before moving on to city improvements. I don't worry about a military at this point, that comes later. Put one or two defensive specialist on your city at this point, just as a precaution but you shouldn't need them for a while.

Building your empire this way gives you a large foothold on the world right from the get-go. In some games, I've even completely engulfed smaller civs that put more of a focus on the cities they have rather than expanding outward. Kinda funny, I find it.

Anyways, just keep expanding and building up culture improvements. Start work on Great Wonders as soon as they're available. Put as much money into the sciences as you can. Having a key scientific advantage over the other civs is essential to my strategy. Oh, and money is meaningless to me, any of the money I need, I trade for. The other civs make enough for me too. Basically, try and build the largest, most culturally prestigious, most passive civ you can.

Once you hit the industrial age, get nationalism and communism asap. One of those gives you the ability to mobilize (honestly don't remember which). This is when we start the War Machine.

Change your government to Communism, and Mobilize. If you don't know already, mobilizing essentially sets your civ into a giant war machine. All production in the cities will be military related. Set them all building tanks and such. Don't worry about wonders from here on in, they will be effectively useless to us. This is a war state now, with the goal of conquesting the other half of the world.

Once you've built up a significant army, start picking on the smallest nation. Keep your ties with all others perfect, we need most of them later on. Start bullying the one you're picking on, demand this or we go to war, stuff like that. Move your tanks and such to their borders. Heck, go to their cities if your ... uhh .. (whatever that pact is that lets you trundle over their land without reprecussion) pact is still valid. Ensure you have Mutual Protection Pacts with every other civ. Start war, blow them to bits with the help of all others, you'll probably end up with most of their land.

Essentially, just continue this, ganging up all the other civs on one other, taking 'im out, moving on. If you don't win by conquer, you'll for sure win by score when the time runs out. It'll be the easiest win you've ever had.

And now that I've rambled for about 20 minutes, I'll just move on now.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[beebs 129]

Yeah, you've got the gist of my strategy. Trading for money is useful though, as you need it in order to set up an embassy in their capital. And you make no money of your own with my method.

[Fresh Prince of Wmbg 44]

  If anyone bought Beyond the Sword and played the Next  War Sceanrio:

THEY STOLE THE ARCOGOLY DIDNT THEY?

[djrules5454 5]

I actually suggest getting Civ 3 Complete. I also prefer 3 to 4, but that's because of faster loading times. I still think 4 is better overall. I have no tips for you, except maybe raise your difficulty level in your next game.

[ThePunisher 0]

I own Civ 4 and the Warlords expansion pack and am currently going to get Beyond the Sword. Really fun games and my first time playing the Civ series.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[hidanhi 0]

Hey does anyone still play Civ 3 or Civ 4

[miguelkuk 109]

I still play Civ4 BTS

[bobalob81 0]

Civ4 is awesome. i still play it from time to time

[spicytimothy 7]

I was just playing it earlier today! Julius Caesar @ Rome.

[hidanhi 0]

Oh.Ok any tactics that you use

[TekindusT 3,809]

I still play Civ 2!! Tactics... be always the one with more scientific power, you can get new weapons and new units earlier than your enemies. It's funny when you attack a bunch of chivalry with your tanks!

[Ndragonawa 37]

I love playing Civilization IV BTS!  I'm always either Wang Kon or Charlemagne,  Wang because of the Hwatcha, and Charlemangne for the Rathaus!

[hidanhi 0]

OK

I cant play CIV 4 now My grapics on my comupter is not very high it is only 128mb

[Chptrk 86]

I still play Civ III ! I'e got complete and I know there is some online thing, so if anyone wants to play, PM me.