Civilization III

[Mr Sleep]

Originally posted by ThorinOakensfield:
<STRONG>Actually they've made chariots pretty bad. Not any better than horsemen.</STRONG>

Dang! That actually historically makes little sense, since the Romans used chariots to great advantage...

[HighLordDave]

Is it better to build your first city on the first turn or wander around a bit for the "perfect" location?

If you build the city immediately, you get a jump on research and can begin producing units to build on better locations, but then there's the "location, location, location" thing with finding the right piece of ground for your first city.

[THE JAKER]

I've pretty much ended up going for the first city wherever you start...hasn't caused me any trouble in the games I've done it. I think I've been getting lucky the last few games though, starting out in good squares. The only thing I would consider is moving one square if you start out within reach of a luxury or to move next to the ocean so your first city can be a port.

Other than that I would say just build your city immediately, you can manage any arrangement of land pretty much.

[ThorinOakensfield]

Build your city immedietly.

If you haven't noticed many years pass by in each turn in ancient times. The change in years gets less as you go into later times.
In the 1900's 1 turn=1 year. In 4000 BC, 1 turn= 50 years.

So you are going to lose out not building a city.

[Quark]

Year doesn't mean anything - a turn is a turn. Each difficulty has a specific amount of turns - it doesn't matter which ones you waste.

Oh, yeah my strategy: Save first, then travel around. Once I see what I like, I reload, move a maximum of 3 spaces, and build the best location I can find. I've gotten really bad starts so this is my only salvation.

[Xandax]

Originally posted by ThorinOakensfield:
<STRONG>&lt;snip&gt;
Some more tips.
When choosing your civ and checking what advantages they have(science, religion, commercial etc. and special units), don't bother with the special units you get towards the end of the game. I find in Civ 3 it is impossible to make a spaceship and win because you have to keep the science rate low to make money and please your people.
So Americans and Germans lose out there. F-15 is one of the last units, and in those times 1 more point in offense or defense isn't as big of a deal. Same applies with Germany which gets Panzers(they get extra movement).
&lt;snip&gt;
</STRONG>

I don't agree completely.
I agree that you should more often choose a civ. due to it's special abillities than the unit - but not that the german panzer is useless (haven't tried the F-15).
Most of my wars are conducted at later stages in the game - and there the Panzer is superiour to tanks.
Due to the extra movment Panzer gets it means it can attack twice wich is great.
And I useally win by building spaceship

[Xandax]

Originally posted by Mr Sleep:
<STRONG>Dang! That actually historically makes little sense, since the Romans used chariots to great advantage...</STRONG>

The egyptians have the "usually" chariot (2/1/2)(IIRC?) - but all other civ gets a "new" chariot when discovering the wheel (1/1/2).

[Xandax]

Originally posted by Quark:
<STRONG>Year doesn't mean anything - a turn is a turn. Each difficulty has a specific amount of turns - it doesn't matter which ones you waste.

Oh, yeah my strategy: Save first, then travel around. Once I see what I like, I reload, move a maximum of 3 spaces, and build the best location I can find. I've gotten really bad starts so this is my only salvation.</STRONG>

I also just look a bit around - 2 turns max, because I've started in some places where it was just "ctrl-shift-q"
Ei. have started someplace looking good - grassland with grain and animals. Looking around that 2*2 square was placed in a sea of jungle
Or have tried to start on an island where you could see almost nothing but mountains

[HighLordDave]

I have another question:

I got lucky and my initial cities were all alone on an island. Aside from the infrequent barbarian incursion, I have pretty much developed on my own without the threat of anyone else trying to encroach on my territory. I have recently expanded to another land mass. Is there a way to connect the strategic resources (specifically iron) from my first city to the new city across the sea?

[Gruntboy]

You need a road from the resource to a coastal city with a harbour on it. Then you need a city with a harbour on it on the main continent connected by roads to your capital.

[HighLordDave]

Another question re: Harbours.

Before I discover navigation, my trade routes can only go over coast terrain squares, not sea or ocean squares, right? Do those squares have to be in a straight line or do I just have to make sure that two islands/continents are close enough that there are coast squares between them?

[Xandax]

Two cities are connected if any one of the following are true:
there is a road or railroad running between them, there are Harbor in both cities and a visible water route between them, or both cities contain an Airport.

[Water Routes]: In order to use a water trade route, your civilization must be able to safely traverse every square of the route &lt;snip&gt;

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[Gruntboy]

Yep. You need an unbroken line of coast squares (in the case of triremes) or sea squares (for caravels) between the two harbours/connected capitals. Enemy borders obstruct this.

I'm having a pain at the moment. Trying to trade with the greeks (between me and a warring Egypt) but don't know if they have harbours or even harboured cities conencted with roads to their capital!!

Was thinking of dropping off some workers under a free passage agreement and helping them out!!!

Love this game. My Elite Legionary army under Hadrian is advancing whilst catapults pound Thebes into submission. I'm cutting the roads, camping out on their iron supplies and generally being a nasty person.

[Bloodstalker]

@ Grunt, yes I have just killed the Egyptians! How dare they settle on my continent Show them no mercy!

[Gruntboy]

Consider it done! Damnable Pharoahs.

I'm having some roaring arguments with people over at civfanatics.com

I'm not calling on help. Its great fun though, there's some complete morons.

It was flaming hot for a while but I think I grilled 'em good.

I love the smell of Troll on the morning.