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Arrian
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Kneel before Grog!
Jul 2001
time: 00:19
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Trickey,
I would suggest searching the strategy forum for some of the old threads (when people who are now experts were learning the game), such as Vel's Strategy Threads (I, II and III).
There are a lot of things that can effect the course a game takes, such as your choice of civ, size of the map, quality of the start position, your neighbors, resource distribution, etc.
My favorite "builder" civs: Egypt, Babylon
My favorite "warmonger" civ: Japan
I highly recommend religious civilizations. If you're gonna fight, then check out the threads on early warfare and great leader generation. If you're gonna avoid fighting, keep in mind that the AI will pick a fight if you ignore your military. Either way, I suggest you have a look at the threads on trade - such as the AI vs. AI tech trading thread (although this is partially antiquated now due to the 1.21 patch, the basic mechanism is the same).
Use the reseach caps (4/40 turns) to your advantage - I'm sure there is a thread that explains the way the caps work and how to manipulate your tax/tech slider for maximum profit.
If you find yourself in a war, target the AI's resources, including luxuries. In fact, capturing luxuries from the AI is one of the best ways to 1) lessen war weariness in your civ while 2) hurting the AI's ability to fight you off.
Hmm, I'm rambling now. Perhaps if you explained exactly how things "fall apart" I could help more.
-Arrian
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DrFell
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Depends on the level your playing, early war is very beneficial on deity.
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Ironwood
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Fresno, CA
Oct 2001
time: 21:19
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To start with, when you're colonizing, don't keep everything together, but rather grab all the best spots (grasslands, rivers, hills), especially if you're religeous (since cheap early temples means you can always culture-absorb the AI cities in the "in-between" spaces). An expansionist civ is especially good at this, since scouts can open up the map quicker (the Aztecs are good, too).
Personally, I think an early war is a very good thing. It's an absolute must if you're playing the Aztecs, Iroqois, Zulu, Persians, Romans, or Greeks, since their Unique Unit is too much of an advantage to pass up. I'll comment on how to use their UUs below.
Make sure to build a few temples. Cultural reversion sucks, and temples can prevent that. If you have enough, they can CAUSE it, in your favor.
The way to go about it is thus. Once you've got all the good spots colonized (let the AI grab the crappy spots; once you're on top, you can either conquer or culture-absorb them). Make sure to get some horses and/or iron as soon as possible (to ensure you have some). Build six to eight swordsmen, and two or three horsemen. This group can pretty much walk all over the AI territory.
The goal here is to make the AI give you stuff, particularly the latest technology. Once you've got them shrunk down, you can leave them alone; they won't pose a threat pretty much for the remainder of the game, and once you've cowed them, it's no longer worth the resources to finish the job... unless they're proving particularly troublesome. Just make sure you don't let them wander on your territory. It's really annoying when they open a war by killing a worker.
Once this is done, I begin playing a builder game. Marketplaces, libraries, universities, banks, wonders. This is what needs to be built from here one. If you've got control of the continent, don't worry too much about your land forces. Build a massive fleet instead, and bombard the crap out of any AI that dares declare war on you (particularly once you've got Ironclads). Oh, and do sink their ships. It is rather annoying when they actually manage to land troops.
As to the early UUs, here is how I use them.
Babylonian Bowmen: Whenever I play the Babs, I crank up barbarian activity as high as I can. Bowmen are the ultimate barbarian killers, while those of the others are not. I send a bowman out with every settler, make sure to grab the good spots and chokepoints as early as possible (since bowmen can also defend against the less determined assaults), and basically become the Babylonian REX. Bowmen are cheap, good little units. But focus on building; as religeous/scientific, you have an extreme advantage in this area. Try to avoid war; these guys aren't that great in a full scale war, and you want to save that Golden Age until later, anyway. If you feel the need to make war, use swordsmen and horsemen.
Aztec Jaguar Warriors: They make excelent early explorers, can survive barbarian assaults, and the instant you find another civ, they can whomp ass in the VERY early game. Capturing cities is not the goal with these guys (though they can make that a bit easier, as well). What you do is the instant you find another civ, declare war. Forget about demands, just declare war, and kill everything that dares exit their city(s). Raze their farms, destroy their mines, tear up their roads, enslave their workers and settlers. Do this with as few warriors as possible, and, meanwhile, colonize all that land they can't because they can't get a settler out (and with you razing roads, they can't build any offensive unit better than an archer... which you can run away from when neccessary, kill when you get the jump on them).
Iroqois Mounted Warriors: Shoot toward horseback riding, and go forth and conquer. Very early 3/1/2: need I say more? Make sure to build those cheap temples as early as possible; you'll need it to avoid the reversions of your conquests.
Zulu Impi: These are pretty much the same use as the jaguar warriors, though you'll have to wait to get them. However, they're even more untouchable, since they have a two defense; not even archers can bring them down when they get lucky enough to catch them. You'll need to be even more aggressive, though, since the Epansionist trait is a bit of a weakness, once you're done exploiting it.
Persian Immortals: Big, powerful swordsmen. Build fewer, conquer more. These guys remain useful late enough that the golden age is almost worth it, as well. Have fun; your builder phase will be fun, too. Oh, and with these guys, go directly into the city. You'll appreciate the effort they put into improving the surrounding area when your own people are using it.
Roman Legions and Greek Hoplites: With a defense of 3, nothing can reliably touch them, except for Immortals, and later on, Knights. Yes, they do make cities pretty hard to take, but realize that most city taking attacks are massed groups that can wear down a weak hoplite or legion defense. These guys are much better if they take the war to the enemy... yes, even the hoplites. Where Impis and Jags can run away from enemy attackers, hoplites can pretty much just stand there and take it, even unfortified in the plains. Have these guys run around, tearing up improvements, capturing workers and settlers, while, meanwhile, you either use the time to settle the surrounding lands, or build up an attack force which will roll over their poorly funded defense. Legions, of corse, can do the job right after they're done recieving the attacks that attempt to drive them away
Egyptian War Chariots: Someone else can explain this one. I haven't figured out the best way to use them. If you're lucky enough to have some friendly neigborhood... anything that doesn't start with Bronze Working, they can do an early conquest, but every time I play them, the Greeks are my closest neighbors. Right about the time I build my first chariot, they build their first hoplite. About the only good thing about them I can think of is that they're cheap, which means you can crank out a lot of them in less time, meaning you can overwhelm with numbers.
Last edited by Ironwood on 02-05-2002 at 23:42
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Theseus
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The warmonger formerly known as rpodos. Gathering Storm! Apolyton Spirit!!
Apr 2002
time: 00:19
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Trickey,
First recommendation: Find the good threads in this forum. Pretty much all of the previous posts responding to your question are shortened versions of much deeper earlier discussions. I forget where, but in one of the earlier threads I highlighted the threads that I have found most valuable.
Some short tips:
- Your success in a given game will be highly determined by the early ages... forget building for the moment, all you care about is expansion and military. If you do research some of Vel's early strategy threads, forget the specifics and focus on the intent: use early war to damage the civs that might later be a threat.
- Again in the early game, once you have a handle on your immediate surroundings and neighbors, create a gameplan or overall strategy.
- Maintain a strong military.
- Don;t worry about techs... beat them out of your neighbors. Don;t worry about neighboring civs overexpanding... they are building cities for you. Don;t worry about missing GWs... you can capture them later (if nearby).
- Take advantage of relative strength, whether at the unit or overall force level.
- When you have a good military, build like crazy.
Most important: If you are returning to Civ, drop your Civ2 habits. Civ3 is much more sophisticated, and forces you to engage in all aspects of the game.
Read the good threads; at the bottom of the forum screen, you can sort by number of replies / views, among other things. If you do that, in reverse order, the most intersting threads are apparent.
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01-05-2002 00:51
I still can't lpay higher than Reagent
Ido a pretty good job getting a thriving Civ going at the start, but it slowly all falls apart. Can i get some stratagies for how to effectivly keep my civ as the most powerfull in the world. 
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