Bit late, but due to the continued fan support and game producer support (kudos to them for that), I decided to buy civilization 3 and its expansion, Conquests.

Any suggestions for a newbie at this sort of game? I've never played Civ1/2 before, so I'm really at a loss for what to do.

Assassin, there is so much to say about C3C ( it's my current strategy favorite ).

But IMO you have to go the same way I went, after a bought Civ1 many years ago. "Learning by doing" and "Try and Error". But, of course, I can give you some hints at the beginning.

I think you know the goal of the game : You must lead a Civ to victory above all other KI's. You can win by building a spaceship first, by domination , by culture or other ways.
It's very important to gain techlead, because with that you are able to build great and small wonders that can help your Civ grow.
F.e. If you can build the pyramids first ( no wonder can be build two times ) you gain a free granary in all cities on the same continent and with that the population grows at double speed.

You start at despotism but you can change your government to monarch, republic etc. Some are better for a peaceful player, others are better if you want to conquer the world with your armies.
Every tech you discover first, has a chance to raise a science leader. This guy is the only way tu hurry wonders ( finish them in one turn ). You can hurry all other units and improvement either with money or with citizens (Despotism).
Read the Civilopedia. All units, city improvements and wonders and other things like luxuries or important ressources are explained there.
For training it's a good idea to start at difficulty level chieftain. There is a tutorial, too.

Build up a good defense. If not, your fellow KI's will try to get "gifts" from you ( money, techs or cities ). Your fighters can gain experience with every fight they win and an elite unit can become a great leader who is able to build great armies.
Each Civ, you can start with, has special attributes. Some are scientist ( quick research ) some are expansionists and so on. All is explained in the civilopedia, too.

Feel free to ask if you want to know some special parts but, like I said, the best way is to start and find out the right way by playing.

One thing at the end :
Later in the game it's better to have a good PC because a huge map full of armies slows down the game speed ( I have 1GbRam, a P4 2,4 GHz and an Gforce4 TI4200) and in the industrial age a turn can need more than 30 seconds )

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

Do the opening Turns usually go by quickly? Because there really isn't much to do...

They are every fast. The game slows down later after you reach the industrial age (especially with many KI's and many armies) . But you are not forced to watch every move of your ally or enemy. In "Preferences" you can deactivate some of this features.

IMO the beginning is essential. A good expansion with many cities and a good exploration of the unknown area ( barbarian huts ) can help you to gain advantage.

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

No, I mean that I can't make that many moves. What the heck can you do in the beginning?

Oh, and some of the graphics are screwed up. Any way to fix this?

I'm sorry Assassin. I don't have much time this morning to answer all your questions. I'll translate a topic of mine from a german civ forum into english at weekend. Maybe it can give you a start then. It contains development from 4000 B.C to 1. A.D. Please have patience and wait until wednesday. (I hope, I do not make too many tranlation faults :D ).

Graphic problems:
There is a C3C patch v 1.22. I don't know the version of the Atari Box. My OS is Win XP and with the latest driver installed I have no problems. So I can't help you with that.

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

I can start to write the first part of my report today.

My settings :

Map : Huge continent, wet, normal, oldest
Race : Germans ( but of course you can chose your own; think about the advantages each race has )
Difficulty : Monarch ( as a beginner it is better to start at a lower level )
Barbarians : Roaming
4 Civ's ( Random )

You start with a settler and a Worker. Look around to find a good point for a city ( close to a river, luxuries, coast etc. ) That't important because near a river you get additional trade, luxuries can make you citizens happier and a coast offers the possibility to build ships and special great wonders.
After you build the first city you can think about : 1. What tech do I want next ? 2. What do I need ? 3. What tax is needed ?

First : For me it is Masonry . After I got it I am able to build a Granary ( doubles population groth ) or I can build The Pyramids ( if you build it first you gain Granaries in each city on the same continent for free )
Second : I want a warrior first ( used as explorer ) then spearman, settler, worker, spearman and settler. Spearman are needed for defence ( not all KI's are friendly ), settlers are needed for new cities ( the more the better ) and second worker speeds up the development of a city.
Third : You start with 10 GP's .That's enough at the beginning so set science to 100 %.

You start at Despotism.

At the beginning the cities influence is only 3x3 fields. Later ( with higher culture it can grow after a few turns ( you can see on the city screen, how many turns are needed ).So if the is a field near a river with a shield on it,I let my worker build a road there first ( increase trade and trade increases tax and science ). A road also increases traveling speed. After that he starts mining because each additional shield helps to finish your projects faster.
That takes a few turns.
During that time you can explore the unknown world with you warrior. At the beginning he is a regular (3 HP). There maybe huts (Barbarians) but wait until the first spearman is finished before you enter a hut near a city. You can find barbarians ( then you have to fight ), techs, money, maps and settlers.
The lower the difficulty, the higher the chance to find valuables.

( And always : If you want to know some more specific informations please use the civilopedia )

I'll write the rest tomorrow. If you read this today, please stop me if these hints are no longer of interest to you .

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

[ 06-01-2004, 02:05 AM: Message edited by: Loudhy ]

This is one of my all time faves. Some useful tips on managing your empire when it gets REALLY big:


My automated workers keep changing my irrigation and mines. How do I stop that?

Press shift-A to automate them instead of A, this way they will
- won't destroy any existing improvements
- won't plant forests
- will do things like forest/jungle cutting
- will build irrigations, mines (not sure what's the decision factor but it works fairly well, as most of my major cities are around size 25-30)
- will build roads, railroads, although often without any sense(IE, they will not build railroads between cities FIRST, but rather they will build rails around one city, then around another and so on). They will build roads and rails outside your borders as well, if cities aren't connected.
- will clean pollution (it's their priority task)
- will connect any resources to existing road/railroad network as soon as they are discovered and inside your borders(that's great IMO, you don't have to bother with map scanning)
- will generally avoid contact with any enemy forces(if auto worker sees enemy unit they will turn back)
- will change mines to irrigation if that is needed to bring water to otherwise dry area!!

Razing cities lowers my reputation - but what about taking, then abandoning?

Here's a little clarification from MikeB_Firaxis about this issue:

quote: If you abandon a city that recently belonged to another civ, you get the same reputation as if you had razed the city when you captured it.

Note that "recently belonged to another civ" refers to the civ who has the most citizens in the city. So if you raze a size 4 city from 3 of the citizens are Egyptian, it will affect your reputation as though you razed an Egyptian city. If you wait until 2 of those citizens are assimilated into your culture and only 1 Egyptian citizen remains, it will act like it is your own city and will not incur any diplomatic penalty.
thanx TF for digging this up

How do I view the other 8 civs on the foreign advisor screen in a 16 player game?

Shift-rightclick on a portait to change it to another civ. There still is a maximum of 8 portaits at any time.

Enjoy. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hi Memnoch, it's great to find another Civ-Fan besides all the RPG-Players.
How far have you got ? I reached Monarch and won the spacerace. Now I'm trying to win a culture or domination game on the same level.
( I think, it is a loooooooong way to a victory on sid [img]smile.gif[/img] )

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

[img]smile.gif[/img] Pretty much exactly what I needed, thanks.