CIVILIZATION III FAQ/STRATEGY GUIDE By Dennis L. "Fox" Doucette (rocketshow@hotmail.com) Version 1.0 November 18, 2001 |============================================================================| |This FAQ is Copyright 2001 by Dennis L. Doucette. It is licensed to anyone | |who wishes to use it, provided that person gains absolutely no financial | |reward from its use. It may not be packaged on a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or | |otherwise distributed through means other than download in text-only format | |over the Internet. If you wish to convert this document to HTML, please | |inform the author via email. The author reserves the right to reject any | |conversion attempt if it does not fit standards of simplicity and | |compactness for ease of download (i.e. if it contains anything other than | |target links and font formatting---no graphics, sounds, music, or content | |not otherwise created by the original author outside of the use of links and| |font tags. The latest version of this FAQ can ALWAYS be found at | |http://www.gamefaqs.com (Ga me F A Q s---this line is for authenticity, as | |many pirate FAQ sites use a find and replace. The URL should match the word| |save for the spaces.) | |Civilization III and all related marks are copyrighted and trademarked by | |their respective owners. Information can be found in the box, README file, | |and documentation. If you don't have this stuff because you're a lousy | |stinking software pirate, may you rot in the Ninth Circle of Hell. | |============================================================================| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=================| |TABLE OF CONTENTS| |=================| Part I: Basic FAQ Stuff 1. A Note From the Author 2. Revision History Part II: Game Basics 3. Spreading Your Territory A. Settlers B. Culture C. Military 4. Improving Your Territory A. Irrigation B. Mining C. Roads 5. Managing Your People A. Making Your People Happy: Luxuries B. Making Your People Productive: Strategic Resources C. Making Your Cities Productive: Consumable Goods 6. Other Game Basics A. Heathen Hordes B. In the Navy C. Civilopedia D. The Ages of Man Part III: Beyond the Basics 7. Finding a World that Works For You A. Land Masses B. Water Coverage C. Climate and World Age 8. Finding a Civilization that Works For You A. Militaristic: The Playground Bullies B. Commercial: Win the Microsoft Way C. Scientific: Knowledge is Power D. Religious: In God We Trust E. Expansionist: Where do You Want to Grow Today? F. Industrious: Men at Work 9. Making Money Work For You A. The Science Rate B. Army Unit Support C. Put On A Happy Face D. Letting Your Friends Do the Work For You 10. If All Else Fails: Kicking Serious Enemy Butt A. Idiot's Guide to Self-Defense B. A Beginner's Guide to Army Creation C. Tactical Invasions Made Easy D. Apocalypse Now: Using the Big, Scary Weapons in Modern Times 11. Wonders of the World A. Why "Gimme Gimme Gimme" Just Don't Cut It Anymore B. She's a Small Wonder, A Girl Unlike Other Girls C. Great Wonders You Should Have D. Summary: Reinforcing the Point PART IV: ONWARD TO VICTORY! 12. Domination/Conquest Victory A. Use the Steamroller Effect to Your Advantage B. Patience Pays C. Domination Taken to the Extreme: Conquest Victory 13. The Race to Space A. The Parts Have Changed B. Production Mobilization: Get that Puppy Off The Ground C. Keep Your Foes Planetbound 14. The Culture Victory A. The "One-City" Fallacy B. Time is Of The Essence C. The Kulturkampf Factor D. A Reminder of Priorities 15. The Diplomatic Victory A. Getting Invited To The Dance B. Channeling Pravin Lal: Diplomacy Made Easy 16. The Histographic Victory A. Be Ever Mindful of the Score B. Modus Operandi for the Histographic Winner C. Cheapo Retirement: Quitting While You're Ahead PART V: ODDS AND ENDS 17. Contact Information 18. Coming Soon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=======================| |PART I: BASIC FAQ STUFF| |=======================| Welcome to the Civ3 FAQ and Strategy Guide! In this, Part I, you'll find the obligatory "welcome from the author" stuff, the revision history, and other bits of general mayhem that all authors (myself included!) start FAQs with. If you want to get right into the game, skip to Part II. If you want to know some of the what's what (what's updated, just exactly for whom I wrote this FAQ), read this part. |=========================| |1. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR| |=========================| First and foremost: I don't want anyone to think there's only one way to play this game. This Strategy Guide should give you enough information to master the basics, and may even serve as a walkthrough for certain victory types and play styles. Secondly: I'm going to assume that all of you have read the manual. I'm also going to assume that all of you have played the game enough to understand what I'm talking about throughout this FAQ. If you just got the game and you're already looking for cheats and tricks, shame on you. Games are always more fun and more rewarding when you figure them out yourself. Third: I'm compiling this FAQ based on my personal experience with the game. Your own civilization's enemies may react to you differently, being more or less aggressive from game to game. The AI's pretty sharp in Civ3, so proceed with caution and try to come up with the right strategy for the situation. Use this FAQ as a guide. Finally: Don't be afraid to try everything that this game has to offer. If you master all sorts of styles, you'll be ready to take on the world when the multiplayer version of this game comes out (according to Firaxis and Infogrames, it will probably be next spring). The well-rounded player is the type who can win tournaments. |===================| |2. REVISION HISTORY| |===================| Version 0.01 (10/31/01): Alpha Version. I just got this game four hours ago, so it's going to be real rough, but I want people to know what this game might hang or crash on. It's not 100% stable since it's a fresh release. Version 0.02 (11/1/01): Second Alpha Version. Corrected a fat load of errata, most of which stemmed from me completely misreading everything on the screen during my first brief run-through. The remainder of the errors stemmed from the fact that I'm an idiot and momentarily forgot what game I was playing. Go figure. The FAQ's going to look a little choppy as I update, because my first priority at this stage of the development process, so bear with me and keep in mind that this is a work-in-progress. Version 0.10 (11/1/01): Got slaughtered in my Civ3 game this morning, so I decided to update the FAQ again. No more military hubris, that's for sure. Version 0.50 (11/1/01): Beta Version. Pretty much everything in this FAQ is, at least, accurate (no more misunderstandings with how things work, I think), and I won't start calling these FAQ updates "full releases" until I can at least say with certainty that everything in them is 100% accurate, something I'm still not 100% sure on. If there are any major errors remaining in this document, please point them out to me, and if you have any strategies for using specific civs or units, please send them in and I'll credit them fully in an upcoming "Reader Tips and Tricks" section. Version 1.0 (11/18/01): First Full Release. This will be the format and framework for all future revisions. By all means e-mail me with your impressions and ideas! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |====================| |PART II: GAME BASICS| |====================| As many have said, "you've got to crawl before you can walk". Granted, crawling won't get you very far in the world, but everyone needs to start somewhere. I'm not going to regurgitate the manual (much) here; I'm assuming that you've read the manual, or at least you do when you need basic game help. This is more about understanding the game in real game terms, and getting the first grasp on the basic strategies involved. It's divided into three major sections: Spreading your Territory, Improving your Territory, and Managing your People. Odds and Ends are thrown in at the end. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===========================| |3. SPREADING YOUR TERRITORY| |===========================| The mark of any good civilization is the breadth of its borders. Think of great nations in this, our modern world. The United States, Australia, China, Canada, Russia, the combined resources of the European Union. Even if you'd never seen a map of Earth before in your life, it wouldn't take too long to find these nations. That's because they're HUGE in terms of land area, dwarfing what the Roman Empire in ancient times called "ruling the world"! Want a big, far-flung empire with millions of citizens toiling for your glory? Read on. |============| |3A. SETTLERS| |============| Can't make cities without them. You Alpha Centauri diehards can continue to call these guys "colony pods" if you wish, because they serve the exact same function. They found cities, and only found cities. For their efforts, they take two citizens with them from the city in which they're created, and draw one gold piece off the treasury for as long as they're on their journey to the new home they will create. I recommend using Settlers for two distinct purposes: One, they're great for shipping undesirable elements out of a city approaching civil disorder. Two, once you have a horde of Workers able to improve a city radius's worth of terrain in ten or twenty turns, Settlers allow you to create almost "insta-built" marvels of urban planning, since they found a size one city and the workers in the surrounding terrain instantly improve the land to the point where the city has everything it needs to reach city or metropolis level very quickly while the workers move on to repeat the process with the next settler or even with the cities your superior culture captures...more on this in Chapter 3B, "Culture, and in Chapter 14C, "The Kulturkampf Factor". |===========| |3B. CULTURE| |===========| I'll introduce this concept now. After getting your defenders and workers built in any new city, you should build (in order:) a Temple, a Library, a University, a Cathedral, and a Colosseum. You may, if you like, pause in the middle to build an Aqueduct or a military unit (depending on how you're playing the game in the first place), but these five structures are your bread and butter...and probably a sign you should be playing as a Scientific and Religious civilization like the Babylonians, but more on that later. The short version of why you should build these is because they generate a base Culture value of 14 Culture Points (CP) per turn. Culture is good. The long reason as to why you want to build these right away is apparent in the following: The game gives you a bonus for cultural structures that have existed for a significant length of time. The Temple that produces two CP in ancient times will produce many more as it becomes an integral part of your city. If people have been praying at the same temple, to the same gods, for millennia, it follows that the temple should become a revered cultural landmark, like the cathedrals of medieval Europe have become tourist attractions in modern times. In addition, the massive cultural bonus that these cities achieve as their history progresses leads to major expansions of your nation's borders. With an awe-inspiring culture, border towns of your enemy civs will revolt and join your regime, and it happens more often than you'd think...if you've got the goods to entice your foe's citizens into getting with your program. Once you capture the border towns, lather, rinse, repeat with the new cities, giving them the same cultural advantages and power, until you've managed to penetrate deep into your opponent's heartland without having fired a single arrow, swung a single sword, or thrust a single spear. Bloodless combat will quickly become your nation's best friend. |============| |3C. MILITARY| |============| The saying about Star Trek goes, "Diplomacy for Kirk was with a phaser and a smirk". Indeed, sometimes your $#^##@' enemies won't listen to reason, and you'll have to kick some butt. Raise an army, go into your enemy's turf, and make like the heathen hordes and thrash your pathetic foe! Complete details on exactly how to do this are provided in Chapter Ten, but some quick warnings are given here as a reminder: Don't let resistance get you down. The resistors calm down sooner or later, and if you want them to calm down sooner, let your soldiers rest, rearm, and recuperate in the newly-captured city, pacifying it as they go. It's a definite exercise in patience! Patience pays though, because if you're bringing in reinforcements from your homeland, you'll be well-off for having done it right. If you don't want to be bothered with maintaining long supply lines, you can raze cities to the ground, but this seems to make other civs angry, the same way the other factions in Alpha Centauri considered "faction cleansing" to be an atrocity. You're not going to make many friends if you engage in genocide. Don't forget to bring the whole invasion force to the battle. Small detachments are good for just about nothing unless you have a head-and- shoulders lead in military tech. Let your elite soldiers strike killing blows whenever possible. Leaders are well worth the effort and the risk. Armies kick ass so hard your enemy will still be feeling it every time they go to the bathroom for centuries afterward. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===========================| |4. IMPROVING YOUR TERRITORY| |===========================| Cities alone don't count for much. You need to make the turf around them conducive to growth. Irrigation, mining, and roads, those venerable "techs" that every civilization since the Dawn of Sid Meier Games has started the game with, will be CRITICAL to your civilization's success in this one. Some advice: |==============| |4A. IRRIGATION| |==============| As you'll notice, you can't irrigate anything that isn't connected to FRESH water (rivers or lakes) until your civilization discovers Electricity. For that, I offer a simple choice: Either discover Electricity as early as you can, or make sure you have a horde of Workers on hand any time you're not at war, and build from the rivers toward your cities. Workers are good for almost nothing if your civilization is wrapped up in a death match, because the lack of Zones of Control means that enemy units can sneak into your territory and press-gang your workers. But if you're at peace, you're going to want to have plenty of guys on your side, turning the inhospitable wilderness into a triumph of ConAgra over nature. |==========| |4B. MINING| |==========| Personally, I rather like the fact that you can reforest just about anything. Reforestation is how to turn terrain that can't be irrigated (because there's too much stuff between it and the rivers) into terrain that can work for you. Plains, Grasslands, even Tundra can be made productive, to the tune of one food and two shields. Mining Hills produces three shields and one food, and Mountains can go from virtually useless terrain to a wonderful complement to an otherwise well-developed agricultural area. All the food in the world will only make your citizens fat and lazy; you need shields to give them some actual material with which to do work. |=========| |4C. ROADS| |=========| "Worker hordes" (you may know them as "mass Former detachments" in Alpha Centauri) are good for more than just rapid-fire terrain improvement around a city radius. They're equally adept at getting the roads out to colony resources in a hurry. Since just about everything has to be connected to your capital by road in order to even function, these hardworking denizens of your glorious nation can do amazing things as far as raising your civilization's power is concerned. After all, you may have the horses and saltpeter, but unless you're planning on connecting all your cities by road, you'll have quite limited military might since only certain privileged burgs can create Cavalry, the mightiest unit in pre-modern warfare (IMO). Luxury resources, improperly distributed, will leave some of your cities happier than John Belushi at Mardi Gras and other cities more miserable than Eeyore. See the theme developing? Connect EVERYTHING that matters by roads. If you expand overseas, build harbors on the coast of the departure and landing points, and make sure you sail some workers to the "new world" to keep the infrastructure intact. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=======================| |5. MANAGING YOUR PEOPLE| |=======================| I've touched on this before. Your citizens are the heart of the beast! Without your people, you're just a crazy guy sitting in a palace pretending to be a God, and frankly, the neighbors are starting to talk. Get yourself some citizens and establish your legitimacy, but remember, your citizens have some ideas of their own about how things are supposed to be, so follow these strategies or the men in white coats will come to take you away to a nice magical candy land where Mr. Needle makes everyone feel just right! |======================================| |5A. MAKING YOUR PEOPLE HAPPY: LUXURIES| |======================================| Sadly, Sid Meier and company did not design your nation's citizens to conform to rigid Spartan battle discipline in their daily lives. Nor did they make your people Amish. You're going to have to make them happy lest they become quite irritated with you and start running around breaking stuff. For this, you're going to need Luxuries. Luxuries work on two levels. On one hand, you can budget for them, providing for public entertainment on the Domestic Advisor's screen. Alternately, you can provide your people with special luxury goods, of which you have eight to choose from. Your people can have: DYES: Pretty-colored clothing makes people feel a little bit better than wearing stuff that's the color of dead animals all day. I know SOME people out there, notably American teenagers, can wear the same color (black) every day, but most of THEM aren't exactly "happy", are they? Find Dyes in Forests and Jungles. FURS: Until the discovery of Animal Rights Activism (kidding! There are no crazed youths with spray paint in Civ3!), Fur coats can provide warmth on cold winter days, and besides, everyone knows how much rich women just LOVE their lovely mink coats. You've got to get some of these to keep the preening rich lady set happy. You can find them on the Tundra. GEMS: Diamonds are a girl's best friend, so the saying goes, and nothing says "I love you" to your citizens like the gift of jewelry. Your citizens know that nothing says "Thanks, Exalted Leader!" like a "We Love the King Day". See the connection? Find Gems in Jungles and Mountains. INCENSE: Your youths need something to cover up the smell in the basement! Give them incense and the pleasing scent of burning essential oils will keep people happy. Incense can be found in Deserts and Hills. IVORY: Endangered species? Bah. There are plenty of tusks for everyone. This is just a computer game! In addition to making lovely piano keys and billiard balls, ivory makes lovely jewelry and soap that floats. Give some to your people! Elephants are found on the Plains and in the Forests. SILK: Personally, I think the stuff feels like latex, but some people really like it. Find silkworms in the Forests and Jungles of your nation's turf. SPICE: Without Spices, your culture's cuisine will be the ridicule of the world. You don't want your people to have to eat haggis, or worse, salsa that doesn't have chile peppers in it, do you? Spicy food releases endorphins into the system, and that makes people happy! Find spices at foodtv.com...wait a minute, we're talking about Civ3? Oh, yeah! In that case, find spices in Forests and Jungles. WINES: "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." Want to make your citizens happy? Get 'em drunk! Wine can be found in Grasslands, Plains, and Hills, making it a natural trade good. Each luxury good makes one content citizen happy in every city that's connected to the good. In essence, each luxury is like a mini-Hanging Gardens unto itself! If you can't get these things domestically, trade for them! Opposing civs are pretty friendly about trading luxury resources, since their citizens stand to benefit from what you provide as much as yours stand to benefit for what they provide! Trade routes foster goodwill! |======================================================| |5B. MAKING YOUR PEOPLE PRODUCTIVE: STRATEGIC RESOURCES| |======================================================| Happy people are great, but when it comes time to kick some enemy butt, or when you decide, "why pay for what you can steal?" and want to just march in and take the luxuries for yourself, you're going to need Strategic Resources to get the dirty deeds done. You can't budget for Strategic Resources, but you can trade for them. Problem is, the folks at Firaxis anticipated in advance that the primary purpose for which most people would trade for strategic resources would be to crush the AI civ dumb enough to hand them over. They have thus made Strategic Resources quite difficult to obtain. You'll ultimately have to take them, which means you'll have to know the basics of what they are, what they do, and where to find them. Read on: ALUMINUM: Lightweight metal, suitable for alloying and making all kinds of really neat metal gizmos, including Radar Artillery, all sorts of missiles, any kind of advanced aircraft, and cans to put the Mountain Dew in. It can be found in the Plains, the Hills, and the Mountains. See? "Mountain Dew"! COAL: Can't have a barbecue without charcoal, can't have a power plant without anthracite coal, and you also need the black stuff to build Ironclads. I say, however, that Coal's greatest use lies in the fact that it provides a built-in two-shield bonus to the terrain it's on, and since it's found in Hills and Mountains, that means you're a mine away from having squares that produce a base value of five shields. HORSES: The ancient army commander's best friend, and a key component in every mobile unit until the invention of the tank. You CANNOT have a proper military in the first three eras of the game without horses! I don't care how you get them, just get them! Horses are found on Grasslands, grazing on the Plains, and trotting along through the Hills. Once again: if you want to have ANY chance of winning a war in the first three eras of the game, you'll need horses!!! IRON: Of course, wars are not won by mobility alone. Equally important are ancient infantry, and to have infantry that won't get carved up in ancient times (before the invention of gunpowder), you'll need Iron. Iron's a key component in any kind of sword or armor unit, including Swordsmen, Pikemen, Knights, Cannons, most of the medieval naval units including the very cool Privateer (you can conduct wars clandestinely on the high seas with these paid pirates), and some civilizations' special units. Find the heavy metal in the Hills, up the Mountains, and in the Plains. OIL: Black Gold. Texas Tea. And a damn essential ingredient in Industrial Age warfare. You're going to need this stuff for all the early motorized units, including (but not limited to) paratroopers, tanks, fighters, bombers, and anything else you can think of from the Second World War. You'll also need it for modern mechanized units like Mech Infantry and Modern Armor. If you don't have Oil, you won't win wars in modern times. Simple. Strike Oil in the Plains, in the Desert, and in the frozen Tundra. RUBBER: See absolutely everything I've said above about Oil. If it's got wheels in modern times, chances are you'll need Rubber to build it. Find the bouncy stuff in Forests and Jungles. SALTPETER: Essential ingredient in the manufacture of Gunpowder. If your Medieval or Industrial Age unit shoots off a gun, he'll probably need Saltpeter in order to make it happen. Curiously, the main source of Saltpeter in modern times comes from caves, in the form of bat poo. Bats and most birds produce the stuff as a by-product of digestion, and it finds its way into their dookie! You don't have to be quite that disgusting about it in Civ3, however, as you can find Saltpeter in the Deserts, frozen to the Tundra, and up the Hills and Mountains. URANIUM: Is that an Earth-shattering KABOOM I hear? If you've got Uranium, it might very well be. This stuff is an essential ingredient in all things nuclear, and you can REALLY hurt someone with those bombs! If militaristic running with scissors sounds like your idea of a good time, put on your radiation suit and get your Uranium out of Forests and Mountains. Most of these Strategic Resources have nice civilian applications, since they almost all beef up production of the squares they are in quite impressively. |===================================================| |5C. MAKING YOUR CITIES PRODUCTIVE: CONSUMABLE GOODS| |===================================================| There's a class of goods that should be familiar to players of older Civ games. Who can forget the basics? The essentials of life that allow your citizens to prosper and eat well. In Civ3, there are six resources that exist for the sole purpose of enhancing production. You don't have to build roads out to these resources, nor do they serve any purpose to any city other than the one which has the worker working the square the resource is in. The lowdown on these Magnificent Six: CATTLE: Become the Burger King. Get your people some cattle, and watch your production in Grassland, Plains, and Tundra improve by two food and one shield. FISH: Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Find fish in aquatic squares (Coast, Sea, and Ocean) and he'll enjoy increased production to the tune of two food and one commerce. GAME: A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go, and when we kill the Game that's there, a one-food bonus, ho! Find Game in Tundra, Forest, and Jungle. WHALES: Thar she blows! In Sea and Ocean! A Whale, giving one food, one shield, and two commerce! A nice all-around enhancement to your coastal cities. WHEAT: Essential for one-half of Bread and Circuses. Provides two extra food to Flood Plain, Grassland, and Plains squares. In the case of Flood Plain, that is a VERY good thing because once you irrigate the spot, you'll have a terrain that produces a whopping SIX food each and every turn. GOLD: There's GOLD in them thar hills! Mountains, too. You can raise an army on a good Gold vein, since it provides four commerce in the square that it's in. Put a mine down and you've got possibly the best all-around square in the world. Consumable goods cannot be traded because of the rules governing their production. You can exploit the extra production to gain a leg up on the enemy, however! If you've got some extra shields from high-end productivity, you can make more military units and take all the other stuff! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |====================| |6. OTHER GAME BASICS| |====================| Some things don't fit neatly into packages. There are certain things you're just going to have to deal with as they come up, including Barbarians, naval units and their operation, the Civilopedia, and this concept called "Ages of Man". |==============| |6A. BARBARIANS| |==============| Reading about barbarians in the manual, I was reminded of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism. The idea of barbarians in this game is that they occupy certain camps from which they periodically emerge to wreak havoc on all your civilization holds dear. You have to seek out and destroy the "terrorist camps", which will push the barbarians back beyond any place that hasn't yet been placed outside the realm of the fog of war. You can keep the fog away from your people by expanding your cultural boundaries (there is no fog of war inside your nation's turf), by posting sentries just beyond the border, assuming of course that you're not in anyone else's nation, and by keeping a fairly constant patrol along your border waiting for the barbarians to make the first move, at which point you find where they came from and crush them. It's a proactive approach, and one which should serve as a reminder to consolidate your territory to keep your cities safe from attack. If you like, you can look at the barbarian threat as your civilization's own War on Terrorism...anything that drives home the point. |===============| |6B. IN THE NAVY| |===============| A quick procedural primer: Remember that Galleys will swamp if they don't end their turn in Coastal squares. Caravels will swamp if they end their turn in Ocean squares. If you're going to build onto more than one continent, remember that you'll need coastal cities with Harbors on the same body of water in order to enjoy any trade benefits, including the distribution of luxuries. You'll also need to haul some Workers across the way in order to build your road network inland on the new landmass. Remember the fundamentals and you should be fine. On the military end, a good warship can make an excellent instrument of blockade. Cut off your enemy's harbor from the body of water it borders by making an unbroken line of warships that, if they were land squares, would make it impossible for a ship to get through onto the open ocean. This takes some work, and you'll want to make sure that either your ships have good defensive capability to withstand attacks to break the blockade, good offensive capability to intercept and destroy enemy ships before they can attack, or (preferably) both. Cutting an enemy city off from its capital also cuts it off from strategic resources, making it difficult for the city to build any units that have a reasonable chance of survival, and thus making the city a sitting duck in a siege. Isolate and annihilate using blockade. |===============| |6C. CIVILOPEDIA| |===============| Right-clicking on most stuff in the game brings up a Civilopedia entry that explains what that stuff is and what it does, and on occasion what other stuff you'll be able to do as a result of having the stuff that you click on. Be warned, however: At present (v1.07f), there is a bug in the Civilopedia that makes the game crash if you try to use any of the letters on the screen in order to bring up the big alphabetical list of all the stuff in the Civilopedia. I hope Firaxis fixes this one soon, because being able to poke around the Civilopedia and see exactly how things work is essential to being able to shorten the game's learning curve. |===================| |6D. THE AGES OF MAN| |===================| The short version: Everything in the game is divided into "Ages", and you have to research all the techs that aren't marked with the circle with a line through it in order to move from one age to the next. The techs that are marked are "optional", and even though they don't directly affect your civ's advancement through the ages, they often provide other benefits (Literature, for example, allows your cities to build Libraries, a KEY cultural component). I usually research everything, but later on, when the research into the older techs gets a lot cheaper. Don't let "ages" get in the way of researching the things your civilization needs to grow and thrive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===========================| |PART III: BEYOND THE BASICS| |===========================| If you've read this far, you have all the essentials needed to make a pretty passable effort at Civ-building. If you wish to read beyond this point, you will go from being a raw acolyte to a worthy king. In this section, I cover: · The basics of setting up a map for your play style · Selecting a civilization that will maximize your play style's strengths · Managing your nation's economy for maximum efficiency and growth · Kicking butt with major league military tactics · Building Wonders of the World and becoming the envy of all your friends! By the time you read this section through, you'll be an expert, if you don't run off to try some of these strategies before you even finish reading! I'll point out that there's a button called "Print" on your toolbar...feel free to use it, and make a few copies for your friends (as long as you don't sell it, because then we've got copyright issues. The short version: As long as nobody tries to make any money, it's all legal.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=====================================| |7. FINDING A WORLD THAT WORKS FOR YOU| |=====================================| Not all worlds are created equal. Not all players are created equal, either. Sometimes your success in this game will be dependent on the world you choose at startup. Some people will like the idea of playing on far-flung islands, where naval strength decides who gets what. Others will like the idea of big supercontinents where land warfare is paramount and sea units are pretty much limited in scope to Inchon-style landings behind enemy lines. If you know what you're getting, you'll know what to plan for. If you choose a more random world, you'll have a realistic time trying to explore it all and figure out just exactly what's there. |===============| |7A. LAND MASSES| |===============| The Land Masses choice comes in three flavors: PANGAEA: One big supercontinent. You're going to want to build a lot of fast, powerful land units to win here. Harbors and Airports aren't nearly as important to your success on Pangaea, but you will need a very good road network and a willingness to use force to obtain what you need. The resources will be there for the taking...I'd recommend Pangaea to beginners and to those players who prefer to slug it out rather than try and finesse their way through the game. Wars are not a question of if, but when with this setup. CONTINENTS: The object here will be to establish control of the continent you are given, letting the foes trapped on the other one (there are usually two distinct landmasses in this setup) throw down and keep each other in the Dark Ages. If you're lucky, someone on the other continent will build a nice harbor to allow you to trade with them. Failing that, just wait until you've got your own landmass secured, then build up a supersized transport navy and haul everyone over to the other side to cannibalize the opposition. ARCHIPELAGO: Trade is a bigger factor in this format, since any kind of amphibious combat quickly gets unwieldy, and Cultural boundaries don't stretch nearly far enough to enable you to engage in that sort of conquest. You're going to need lots of Harbors and Airports if you're to succeed in a world fraught with a great many islands. Trade networks will be far more involved than the Pangaea-style "road to Rome" approach. The short version: The more militaristic your tastes run, the more you'll benefit from having all your land in one place. Likewise, if you're planning on having a lot of Cultural buildings in your outlying areas, having the enemy closer at hand may well accelerate his demise. I like a Pangaea style myself; one less thing to worry about. |==================| |7B. WATER COVERAGE| |==================| With each flavor of landmass, you can also set just how much of the map (80%, 70%, or 60%) is covered by water. More water means less land on which to expand, so use the Landmass guidelines above and realize that if you want a more peaceful game, you'd do very well to make sure there's enough land to go around. More water = less land = fiercer competition for the existing land = lots of wars and culture battles. Your choice. |=========================| |7C. CLIMATE AND WORLD AGE| |=========================| Here's the short version: The warmer you set your climate, the more food you can produce, but the harder you'll have to work to get it. Warm, moist climates yield a lot of Grasslands, but they're often buried under Jungles, which take a long time to clear. Cool, arid climates yield a lot of Plains and Tundra squares, which produce little food but more shields. Depending on exactly what you want your citizens to focus on producing, you'll probably want to tailor the climate to your needs. Want big cities that can support lots of military units under Monarchy or Communism? You'll probably want a warm and moist climate so that you can work towards getting Grassland. Want a civilization that focuses on production and thus has a batch of smaller cities with higher production rates? Get the Plains and Tundra and forest them. The cities may never even reach size 6, but at least you'll have 12 to 15 shields in each of them! The other major factor at work is the Age of the World. The older the world, the rougher the terrain, and the more likely it is that terrain types will be clumped together. Remember, hills and mountains are your major shield- producing regions, and have some unique resource benefits as well. Remember to tailor this to your play style. I like an older world with a lot of food production, because I can support a horde of Workers in peacetime and an equally large horde of big scary army guys in wartime. I give up speed of production on improvements and the like, but it doesn't really bother me. After all, with all the commerce I generate, setting my government at any one that allows me to "buy" improvements (Monarchy, Republic, Democracy) more than makes up for the slower base rate of production. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |============================================| |8. FINDING A CIVILIZATION THAT WORKS FOR YOU| |============================================| I talk a lot about "finding your play style". Maybe I should provide some help to some of you who may be wondering just how to play to your strengths as a strategy gamer. Read my take on the six major civilization attributes, and you too can pick the perfect civ for your tastes: |========================================| |8A. MILITARISTIC: THE PLAYGROUND BULLIES| |========================================| Militarism has its advantages. Civilizations that have this as an attribute produce things like Barracks, Coastal Fortresses, and Walls faster than civs that don't have Militarism. In addition to the obvious effect of making it easier to start your units out as Veterans (4hp), promotions on the battlefield come faster as well. It's easier to create Great Leaders when you have more Elite units vying for the opportunity, and that leads to more armies which leads to more wartime butt-kicking. If you want to get out there and smash your foes, Militarism is a good way to go, so choose any of these civs to get the most out of your style: Romans, Germans, Japanese, Aztecs, or Zulus. The manual says the Persians are militaristic; this is an error (they are Scientific and Industrious). Note that militaristic cultures start the game with Warrior Code, allowing the production of archers from the start. |=====================================| |8B. COMMERCIAL: WIN THE MICROSOFT WAY| |=====================================| If your tastes run toward economic domination, you may want to try the Commercial route to victory. The benefits here include a commerce boost in cities with large populations, and also a reduced amount of corruption in your cities. The practical application is that you get to keep more of your money, and combined with a good road network and some tradable resources, you'll be able to devote more money to stuff like research, which will advance your nation's cause faster. You'll also be able to rush-build projects more effectively under the "cash-build" governments. For those of you who like having plenty of money to throw around, or for those of you who always seem to have trouble managing the finances of your empire, you may wish to try out the Commercial civilizations of the Greeks, Indians, French, Persians, or British. Note that Commercial nations start the game with Alphabet, which also gives them a leg up on the development of Writing (allowing establishment of embassies a little bit earlier than their rivals). |==================================| |8C. SCIENTIFIC: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER| |==================================| Are you like me? When I played Alpha Centauri, I couldn't fathom how anyone could play as any faction but Zakharov's University. I mean, just look at all that research! If you're the type who assigns a high priority to climbing the tech tree, then the Scientific route is for you. The advantages include a free technology at the beginning of every new era, cheaper Library, University and Research Lab construction, and a head-and-shoulders lead in technology over your foes, not to mention the huge culture benefit of having educational structures in your cities. Scientific civilizations also start the game with Bronze Working, which makes possible Spearmen and the Colossus from the get-go. If this is the route for you, try the Greeks, Germans, Chinese, Babylonians, or Russians. |==============================| |8D. RELIGIOUS: IN GOD WE TRUST| |==============================| The nice thing about religion in video games is that it's non-denominational. If you're a Christian, imagine your people devoting their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a Muslim, imagine your people bowing toward Mecca and sending their prayers to the Great Allah. If you're an atheist named Dave, imagine that the little peons on the screen worship their Lord and Savior the Great Lord Dave. Imagine that their lives revolve around preparing for the Coming of the Great Dave to save them from the evil clutches of All That Which Is Not Dave. Whatever gets you through. On a practical level, you may want to give your citizens religion if you have any intentions whatsoever of keeping your cities out of civil disorder. Because religious buildings are cheaper, it won't take long to expand culturally either. You start with Ceremonial Burial, meaning that right off the bat, every city you found has a chance to build a Temple from the get-go. Add to that the fact that Religious civilizations essentially have the Statue of Liberty Wonder from Civ2 (no period of anarchy between governments), and you have a VERY powerful advantage, maybe even an unfair one. Get the power of God and Almighty Dave on your side by picking the Japanese, Indians, Aztecs, Iroquois, Egyptians, or Babylonians. |==================================================| |8E. EXPANSIONIST: WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GROW TODAY?| |==================================================| Want World Maps that are the envy of all your friends? Want to be able to get huge amounts of money from barbarian camps and minor tribes? Expansionism may well be the path for you. Expansionist civs are the only nations that can build Scout units, which allow fast exploration of the map. They start with Pottery, which leaves them closer to Map Making, thus bringing them closer to exchanging World Maps. Personally, I find this attribute to be a complete waste, especially when compared to stuff like Religious and Scientific (REAL expansion comes from cultural conquest), but if you want to work with those Scouts and use your World Map as an effective bargaining chip, then try using the British, the Zulus, the Americans, the Iroquois, or the Russians. |============================| |8F. INDUSTRIOUS: MEN AT WORK| |============================| Even if you don't come from a Land Down Under, you can still put your men to work building strong infrastructure. Industrious civilizations have the ability to extract extra shield production out of their larger cities, which except for having a noticeable effect on the pollution risk allows for some pretty impressive feats of construction. Workers also work faster, which is a definite plus for the peace-seeker, as hordes of workers can clear huge tracts of land, making way for "cookie-cutter" settlements. If you're the type who favors shield production and loves to build lots of stuff, then the Industrious Persians, French, Americans, Egyptians, Chinese, or Romans may be right up your alley. Industrious civilizations start with Masonry, and it should be noted that Industry and Militarism mix VERY well. The Romans possess these two strengths, and if you play as them, you'll see just what a shield-happy army commander can do with them. So which civilizations do I recommend? I'm partial to the Babylonians, the Romans, and the Egyptians myself. The Babylonians combine Science and religion into the perfect Culture package. The Romans build cool stuff and then use that stuff to smash their foes, and are thus well-suited to combat- type leaders. The Egyptians combine an ability to work the land with an ability to keep their people happy, and as such make the perfect choice for the perfectionist who wants to build a batch of giant cities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |============================| |9. MAKING MONEY WORK FOR YOU| |============================| Gold takes on a whole new importance in Civ3. Since it pays for your city improvement maintenance, pays for your army maintenance, and also goes toward scientific research, you're not going to want to fritter the stuff away. Too much can go wrong if you don't watch your funds. Following, I present some ideas on just how to make money work for you: |====================| |9A. THE SCIENCE RATE| |====================| The short version: As high as you can put it without losing money. I'm serious. You might even want to make the occasional foray toward 100% science in order to advance your civilization along the tech tree just a little bit faster. Seriously, unless you're at war with someone (and thus need the money to pay an oversized army), keep a perpetual eye toward the advancement of knowledge. Knowing something that the other nations don't is key to keeping them from getting aggressive, or punishing them if they're dumb enough to try to tangle with you. Once again: Keep your science rate as high as circumstances allow! |=====================| |9B. ARMY UNIT SUPPORT| |=====================| Depending on your government type (check the Civilopedia), you'll be able to support a certain number of military units. This count includes Workers, and also includes any Settlers that haven't built or joined cities yet. In peacetime, you're going to want to keep the total number of units at the VERY EDGE of the allowable limit. Why? Simple. The enemy civs will look at your standing army and think twice about starting a war. Also, having an absolute horde of Workers will allow you to make major terrain improvements and carve out roads to colony sites quickly and efficiently. Besides, having all those folks out there toiling away looks really cool on the screen. There's nothing quite like thirty guys with machetes making fertile grassland out of what was once disease-ridden jungle. In wartime, you're going to want to spend every available cent on unit support even if it means a slight sacrifice in science. Remember, you're going to need sizeable amounts of soldiers in order to dislodge a well-established foe from his homeland. With a big city base and a massive army, this task becomes easier and faster, allowing a quicker return to "normalcy" and a return to the workers-with-machetes model. Of course you're going to want to disband all of your Workers in wartime; you're going to need that support money for winning the war. Workers are too easy for the enemy to capture. |=======================| |9C. PUT ON A HAPPY FACE| |=======================| Having trouble making sure your citizens have enough luxuries? Cities grown to the point where people are complaining a bit too much? Fear not, because you can provide a certain amount of money to be spent on entertainment. It works exactly the same way it did in Civ2, and has exactly the same results. I wouldn't recommend it for anything other than staving off civil disorder in an advanced society, but if you meet those criteria and have exhausted your other options, then go for it! Just try and get your hands on some luxury goods, because those don't show up as budget items unless you're paying one of your opponents by the turn for the privilege of renting some of their luxury items. |============================================| |9D. LETTING YOUR FRIENDS DO THE WORK FOR YOU| |============================================| There is a principle in economics called Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage. The Reader's Digest version of it is that if I am the best at producing item A, and you're best at producing item B, we're wasting our time producing anything in which we don't specialize. If I can produce as much A as possible, and you can produce as much B as possible, I can trade my surplus A for your surplus B and we'll both have more of each item than if we'd tried to split our time and resources producing it all ourselves. In Civ3 terms, this means that if you have a civ with an excellent science rate, you can turn your discoveries into cash cows. Make your money by selling your discoveries to your friends and allies, then turn around and use that money to continue to advance your scientific cause. Even better, find a resource which is found in abundance in your territory, then rent it out to the rest of the world. If you have what someone else wants, you can charge them a per-turn rental fee for you to make the resource for them. In turn, you don't have to work as hard on making a lot of money, because your foes will do it for you. You've just got to find something to supply. Likewise, rather than slugging it out with someone just to get their item, why not trade with them for it, then use your trade agreement as a parlay in order to enlist the friend on your side when you do decide to go to war against a less co- operative third party? This isn't Civ2. The opposing civs are a lot more reasonable this time around. They'll be hostile if they feel you're not giving them a fair shake, but play nice and you'll have some good friends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=================================================| |10. IF ALL ELSE FAILS: KICKING SERIOUS ENEMY BUTT| |=================================================| Truthfully, I really don't recommend trying to engage in military conflict in Civ3. It's more trouble than it's worth. But if the enemy just refuses to co-operate, or if you just HAVE to clear some living space for your people, you can use the strategies outlined here in order to get the bad guys out of the way so you can get back to peaceful means of expansion. |==================================| |10A. IDIOT'S GUIDE TO SELF-DEFENSE| |==================================| First off: Try not to anger your opponents. Trade relationships make your foe reluctant to attack you. But if that doesn't work, you're going to want some hardcore defensive units on standby in your towns. The best defensive unit is just that, pure defense. Since a unit must abandon its current position in order to attack, pre-emptive strikes aren't the panacea they once were. Don't miss the chance to develop the defensive units you'll need to survive, and you should absolutely NOT think that one defensive unit will be enough to hold a city against a determined attack. You'll need two or maybe even three. It will depend on your nation's form of government. That said, small mobile detachments will help to keep the enemy from focusing completely on your city. Once you've got your defensive units in place, you are going to want to get together a group of archers or horsemen (or their equivalents, depending on the era in which you're fighting). That group can be used to carry out strategic strikes against the army groups aiming for your cities. An army unit can be used for first-class "active defense" in this sense, since it's better at holding its position if left "hung out to dry" by having stepped into a spot all alone. Read any good book on World War II for mobile defensive tactics, and remember that in Civ3, as long as the forces in the fight are evenly matched, those tactics will work irrespective of era. The doctrine of combined arms (infantry, cavalry, artillery) serving purposes for mobile attack and defense will serve you very well. |========================================| |10B. A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ARMY CREATION| |========================================| Here's the short version. Build barracks in your cities so you'll create veteran (4hp) units. Get those veterans into combat so they'll become elite (5hp) units. Let those elites be shameless glory hounds, picking off any enemy units they've got a reasonable chance of beating. Once they become "great leaders", get them back to one of your cities PRONTO, escorting them whenever possible with the same units you'd use for mobile defense of cities. Once you get back to base, have the leader "Form Army". Load three (four if you've built the Pentagon) units into the "Army" exactly the same way you'd load a transport bound for the open sea. Get that army into a combat as soon as it's ready, so it can win a combat. If you've got the Military Academy, you can use 200 shields to construct an army anytime you want. If not, repeat the elite-soldier method to create more Great Leaders and create more armies. Once you get the hang of it, you'll have a hardcore group capable of kicking maximum butt. |=================================| |10C. TACTICAL INVASIONS MADE EASY| |=================================| Got your armies? Good. As any military history buff will tell you, armies do not win wars by themselves. You'll need combined groups to carry out sustained assaults against a city. You can do this with "Army" units, which can kick butt due to their strength in numbers. That's the easy way. The more difficult way involves positional warfare. Take a couple of units with high attack but low defense (archers, longbowmen, that sort of thing), add a couple of units capable of carrying out sieges (catapults, cannons), and bring a couple of units with high defensive values (pikemen, musketmen), and move them together, stacked on top of each other. If the group is attacked, the defensive unit will provide defensive fire. If the group reaches a city, the bombardment teams will smash down the walls and rain death on the civilians. If the group encounters enemies in the open, the high-attack units will carve up the enemy. Combined arms can be your civ's best friend, and really only runs into a couple of weaknesses; enemy "army" units (which have massive defensive and attack ability---counter them with army units of your own), degradation of group integrity from creation of Great Leaders (not like you'll be complaining about having more "army" units), and attrition (once those covering defenders get beaten, it's all downhill from there---solve this by not sending these groups into hopeless situations). Got it, soldier? Now get in there and FIGHT! |===================================================================| |10D. APOCALYPSE NOW: USING THOSE BIG, SCARY WEAPONS IN MODERN TIMES| |===================================================================| Frankly, there's not much strategy to nuclear attack. Pick the target, fire the missile, and then watch your own civilization drop dead from the global effects of pollution. Use nuclear weapons carefully; maybe if you have an army group ready to march on your enemy's capital, you can use a nuke to prime the pump. Radiation won't kill your guys on the way in... Seriously, though, stick to classical military style unless you REALLY love pollution and the wonderful things it does for your civilization's efforts to create a paradise in which to live. (note heavy sarcasm) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |========================| |11. WONDERS OF THE WORLD| |========================| Wonders of the World have been toned down in a big way for this edition of the game. What once were complete tide-turners for your civilization are now more along the lines of "a little boost" in the right direction. Their prime purpose is no longer gaining an unfair advantage; they now exist more for their cultural benefit than anything else. They still have some pretty powerful effects, mind you; they're just not game breakers anymore. Wonders are divided into two categories: Great Wonders and Small Wonders. You will recognize Great Wonders from previous incarnations of Civilization. There can be only one of each Great Wonder built in the world. Small Wonders can be built by any civilization, but instead of being a one-off for everyone, each civilization can build one of its own Small Wonder no matter if they're the first to build it or the last. |======================================================| |11A. WHY "GIMME GIMME GIMME" JUST DON'T CUT IT ANYMORE| |======================================================| Simply put, there are more important things for your civilization to do than build Wonders. The time your nation spends working on a Wonder is time it's NOT spending building cultural buildings, Workers, and Settlers. You'll quite literally have to wait until the time is right before building a Wonder, and you may find yourself beaten to the punch, but this is not a big deal. One, if it's really driving you THAT crazy, you can take over the city of the enemy that built the Wonder, and two, most of the Wonders' effects can be achieved by traditional means. If you want Wonders, you'll have to either cover your nation's other needs, or be prepared to sacrifice growth while your civ works on these costly projects. |====================================================| |11B. SHE'S A SMALL WONDER, A GIRL UNLIKE OTHER GIRLS| |====================================================| Small Wonders can be chalked up to "insignificant in theory, amazing in practice". On the one hand, since you can build them anytime you have met the prerequisites, they're not all that important in the grand scheme of things, and certainly they shouldn't be constructed before you've completed all the Great Wonders available to you. On the other hand, since some of them (Wall Street, Military Academy) are tremendously useful, you may want to make sure you've got the resources in place to get them built. Short version: Prioritize. Build your city infrastructure first. Then, build any Great Wonders. Finally, build your Small Wonders, taking time in between to maintain your military and get your Workers and Settlers built for the expansion of your empire. You should be able to have quite a few cities running on "Wealth" by the time you get to the Industrial Age, which can be diverted to new stuff as it becomes available. |==================================| |11C. GREAT WONDERS YOU SHOULD HAVE| |==================================| You've got a basic understanding of priorities by now. But are there any Great Wonders that you absolutely must have in order to keep your enemies from having them? You bet your sweet bippy there are! THE GREAT LIBRARY: This is completely self-explanatory. Get it so your hard- earned research won't benefit someone else. THE HANGING GARDENS: Want to be able to grow your cities bigger and better? You'll definitely benefit from having this. CURE FOR CANCER, BACH'S CATHEDRAL, NEWTON'S UNIVERSITY, AND SHAKESPEARE'S THEATER: Base value of 5 cp a turn. Any questions? HEROIC EPIC: It's a Small Wonder, but I mention it here because building it EARLY allows it to be far more effective as a culture-producing instrument for your civilization's benefit. Remember, you get a bonus to Culture production on anything that's an ancient, revered part of your people's national identity. I mention it here because it should take precedence over any Great Wonder that produces a base Culture value lower than 4. COPERNICUS OBSERVATORY, SETI PROGRAM: If I have to explain why, you need more help than I can possibly hope to provide. Let me point out something here: Leonardo's Workshop is NOT on this list...it is practically useless. Paying for upgrades is NOT the way you want to strengthen your military (it's more efficient to just BUILD the new units yourself). Add to that the fact that its base culture value is 2 cp (no better than a Temple) and you've got a complete waste of your civilization's time and resources unless you've got nothing else to build. Civ2 veterans are going to have to learn that what was the MOST important wonder in Civ2 is now the LEAST important wonder in Civ3. If you don't like this, don't complain to me. Complain to Firaxis. |===================================| |11D. SUMMARY: REINFORCING THE POINT| |===================================| To summarize: Wonders are CULTURE INSTRUMENTS first and effect-producers a distant second. Building them takes a lot of time and energy, and in many cases (especially early in the game) that's time and energy your nation's really better off spending elsewhere. Don't freak out if you can't get Wonders built before your foes do; it's not the end of the world in Civ3. If it drives you that crazy, just work toward the obsolescence of Wonders you don't own, or use your military to achieve your perfectionist aims. All this having been said, don't be surprised if Firaxis plays with the Wonder effects in upcoming patches. They've hinted on the civ3.com website (Ask the Civ3 Team, 11/9/01) that they're going to be playing with game mechanics in upcoming patches. But for now, play the game as it's packaged, which means don't worry so much about Wonders of the World. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===========================| |PART IV: ONWARD TO VICTORY!| |===========================| Now I'll be the first to admit that there's a whole cadre of players who can go through an entire Sid Meier game without ever seeing the ending. In Alpha Centauri, most of us just pull the trigger on an economic victory once the turn length starts to exceed five minutes or so. In Civ2, those same people usually play until they have something else to do, then instead of saving simply quit out and start a new game the next time they load up the CD. I've even been guilty of quitting out of many a Civ3 game in the two weeks I've been playing, although admittedly much of that came from the fact that I screwed up so badly while trying to master the learning curve! My point in saying this is that even though the game defines certain "victory goals", that doesn't mean you have to use them as your mark in determining whether or not you've won. Remember that half the fun of simulation/strategy is setting your own goals and trying to reach them. Still, since "just play your own style" makes pretty crappy "beat the game" advice for FAQ purposes, I'll go over the various ways you can "win" and suggest some helpful ways to get there. Some of this will be pure conjecture, mind you; I'm very partial to peaceful means of victory and will be more than willing to accept any input from all you warmongers out there. Just e-mail the strats to me and I'll give you full credit in an upcoming FAQ release (by "upcoming", I mean "sometime in the next millennium" since I'm always backlogged, but you'll get your credit sooner or later!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===============================| |12. DOMINATION/CONQUEST VICTORY| |===============================| Strap on the leather thongs, grab your whips and chains...oh, you mean it's not THAT kind of domination? No matter. If you manage to control two-thirds of the world's territory, you win! Likewise, if you are the only civilization left standing at any point in the game, you win! It's not as easy as it may sound (and if you've played Civ2, you know how easy it SOUNDS). Following, some ideas on how to gain the permanent upper hand: |=================================================| |12A. USE THE STEAMROLLER EFFECT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE| |=================================================| "What's the steamroller effect", you ask? (see, an actual "frequently asked question" in a FAQ! Who knew?) The steamroller effect is my term to describe how military conquest becomes easier the more territory you conquer. The simplest way to explain this is to point out that under the non-democratic forms of government (Monarchy, Communism), you can support 2 units for each town (size 6 or below), 4 units for each city (size 7-12), and 8 units for each metropolis (size 13+), all at no cost to your nation's treasury. In addition, you don't have to worry about war weariness under those two forms of government (note that I don't mention Despotism because frankly, Despotism totally sucks as a government type under any and all circumstances!) So as you gain more cities, you can support a larger army, which in turn allows you to make ever-stronger assaults against greater ranges of territory, even going so far as to allow you to effectively wage a two- or three-front war without serious risk to your population. You can then steamroll over greater and greater amounts of territory, bringing about a Domination victory faster than you can say "Devo". |==================| |12B. PATIENCE PAYS| |==================| "Patience? Didn't you just say you could steamroll the opposition?" Keep your shirt on, Napoleon. Just because you CAN steamroll doesn't mean you should try to unless you've met a few...conditions: Condition #1: Make sure you consolidate the territory you have before you try and grab more. You can accomplish this either by bringing garrison-quality units (Musketman, Spearman, Pikeman) with you on the initial assault, or by leaving your conquering troops in the city on guard duty until the new city builds a garrison of its own. Personally, I like the first method because it's faster, but make sure your core cities are producing extra defensive units so you don't get pulled out of your strategy while conquering more territory. See Chapter 10 for more information on proper assault technique. Condition #2: Don't start a war you can't win. Either you have the cities and industrial base to produce enough units to start the steamroller in motion, or you keep the army at home until you do. If war is declared against you, you may have to sacrifice some money while you build the oversize army necessary to gain that absolutely critical upper hand to start the steamroller in motion and your nation on its way to glory. Condition #3: Remember that your enemies have friends. You don't want to be pressing forward only to be attacked from behind by another nation because the target of your oppression decided to activate a few alliances. Remember what happened to the Nazis when they bit off more than they could chew by getting involved in a war on two fronts against three powerful nations. The United States was able to use its industrial base to fight Germany and Japan at the same time. Take the lesson of history to heart, no matter what historical era YOUR war takes place in. Condition #4: You'd better have the economic base to be able to keep your science rate up while you fight. Your enemies aren't going to suspend their research, and it's a terrible thing to be caught from behind while climbing the tech tree. If you can meet these conditions, swing for the fences and make sure you get your enemy commanders' heads so you can put their skulls on pikes at the entrances to your conquered cities as a warning to anyone stupid enough to resist your mighty rule! As the Military Advisor said in Civ2, "With a good army we can take ALL that we desire!" |======================================================| |12C. DOMINATION TAKEN TO THE EXTREME: CONQUEST VICTORY| |======================================================| Feeling bloodthirsty? Here's the deal. Get communications with all of your opponents as early as possible. Once you are able to finagle their maps from them (high taxes give you the buying power to grease the wheels on this deal), get an army together and go bust some heads. You'll be laid out on one hell of a limb in order to do it, and I'm not entirely sure that it's even possible (maybe if you're militaristic and get some luck with the commander-Great Leader situation), but if anyone's able to win by conquest (with more than just 3 or 4 civs in the game...that's just not fair unless it's a tiny world), e-mail me and tell me exactly how (and with whom) you managed to do it. Omit no detail, and your battle history will be memorialized in the next Civ3 FAQ release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=====================| |13. THE RACE TO SPACE| |=====================| Ready to go to Alpha Centauri yet again? Good. Pop out the Civ3 CD and play SMAC. If that's not what you had in mind, you could build a spaceship and be the first nation to launch it. One of the best things about the Civ3 version of the space race is that you don't have to necessarily build a huge spaceship with 40,000 colonists in order to get any meaningful score from it. All you have to do is get the parts together and get that puppy off the ground. |===========================| |13A. THE PARTS HAVE CHANGED| |===========================| Remember Civ2? You had to build a bunch of "SS Structural", "SS Component", and "SS Module" pieces, then put them together and launch. The process has been simplified in Civ3. Build 10 parts requiring various civilization advances plus the "Apollo Program" Small Wonder (meaning that you have to build one of your own before you can start on spaceship construction, unlike in Civ2 where Apollo Program was more of a Manhattan Project-style "one civ builds it and everyone benefits" wonder). Go to the Spaceship construction screen, press "Launch", and celebrate your victory! |============================================================| |13B. PRODUCTION MOBILIZATION: GET THAT PUPPY OFF THE GROUND!| |============================================================| This is going to sound really obvious, but once you've got the Apollo Program built, you're going to want to get your ten biggest production cities working on the ten different spaceship components. For obvious reasons, I advise against the building of the Apollo Program until you've got all the techs discovered. If you want to add a bit of security to your efforts, beef up your defenses with either a few strong defensive units (the strongest you can build), or preferably a couple of Army units stationed in the cities working on the project. At the very least, try and get eight (yes, EIGHT) defensive units stationed in your capital. You don't want the enemy to destroy your ship on the launch pad, do you? |==================================| |13C. KEEP YOUR ENEMIES PLANETBOUND| |==================================| In the same vein, if one of your enemies manages to arrive at the Space Age around the same time you do, now's the time to start letting your friends do your dirty work for you. Change your government to Communism (to prevent war- weariness), declare war on the offending nation, and give every other civilization in the game literally WHATEVER they ask for in order to sign an alliance against the nation you're trying to stop. Don't mobilize for war, though; that will commit you to actually sending your own troops in, and you don't want that; you only want to buy yourself some breathing room to ensure that you get your own ship built first. If you can get away with it, you might want to send a detachment of your best offensive troops with the sole purpose of taking your enemy's capital by force, but having your dirty deeds done dirt cheap (well, maybe not dirt cheap) by your friends should eliminate the need. Don't forget that once the Space Race is on, it becomes the single most important thing to your civ, and Earth be damned because you'll be leaving it in your wake when your spacecraft blasts off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=======================| |14. THE CULTURE VICTORY| |=======================| Perhaps the most satisfying win is the Culture Victory. I say that because as an American, it amuses me that my nation's culture is the model by which much of the world draws its entertainment. American sitcoms, movies, and sports events are followed worldwide, and places that don't accept the American way of life commit absolutely suicidal cowardly acts in a futile attempt to make some kind of statement about American decadence. In Civ3, you too can create the overwhelming culture that makes your nation the de facto "rulers of the world", and you don't even have to build the "Insipid Television Programs" Wonder to do it. Simply accumulate 80,000 Culture Points and have your civilization's Culture value be at least double that of your nearest competitor, and victory is yours! It's a surprisingly easily obtained goal, and here's how you do it. |=========================| |14A. THE ONE-CITY FALLACY| |=========================| Civ3.com claims that if you have a city with a border radius of 6 (i.e. a city with 20,000 Culture Points), you get an automatic Culture Victory, presumably because your city becomes the unofficial capital of the world, much like New York City in today's world. In theory, it can be accomplished without too much of a hitch; simply build all of your major Culture producers throughout the game in the same place. There's a big-time problem with that. Even the best industrial city can only work so fast. You're not doing your overall civilization any favors by trying to concentrate Wonders (great and small) in one place, and you may end up getting beaten to many a Great Wonder by other civilizations with more balanced priorities. Even if you manage to concentrate all of your cultural stuff in one place, there's also the issue of time constraints. It's going to be a pretty close shave as to whether you can get your 20,000 Culture Points before the retirement buzzer in 2050 AD. On top of that, there's another issue. Spreading out your cultural building allows you to have more cities expanding borders to greater extents, which keeps your enemies out of your way and also allows you to more easily practice "Kulturkampf" (see chapter 14C for details). If one of your cities manages to hit 20,000, that's certainly a wonderful thing, but don't kill yourself and your nation by trying for it deliberately. |===========================| |14B. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE| |===========================| Let me put this in terms as simple as possible: The earlier you build your cultural buildings, the more CP they generate. Not only is this true because of the number of turns during which the buildings contribute culture (although that's certainly a large part of it), but also because cultural buildings become MORE valuable as time goes on. Think about it. If people have been worshipping at the same temple and reading books from the same library for centuries, there's going to be a greater sense of cultural identity from those buildings, right? In Civ3, this is represented by an increased amount of CP generated by those buildings each turn, which has an accelerator effect on your nation's cultural development. This is also an important reason to get your cities built as soon as possible. Not only does it let you lay claim to the space you'll need to keep your enemies from getting too vicious, it will also allow you to start focusing your production efforts in all of your cities on the production of religious and educational buildings. Decide early just where you want to draw the line (I generally find no need for more than about 20-24 cities, but that's just me and if space allows you can go for more or fight a brief war to get a foe who may be choking off your space out of the way). Once you have what you want, establish peaceful relations with all the other civs in the game, build your trade routes, and enjoy the chance to crank your Culture ratings through the roof. In addition, if you're going for a Culture victory, you might want to play as the Babylonians (my favorite civ to control). They're Religious and Scientific, and that means cheaper religious and science buildings. In other words, it means more Culture Points achieved a WHOLE lot faster, and that means a more likely Cultural Victory for you. |===========================| |14C. THE KULTURKAMPF FACTOR| |===========================| "Kulturkampf" is rough German for "Culture Battle". If your civ's culture is overwhelming, and your borders begin to swallow up the cultural borders of your enemies' cities, those cities may defect and join your civilization. The short version of the calculation is difference in CP between the city trying to make the squeeze vs. the city being squeezed combined with a factor based on the relative Culture ratings of the two civilizations involved. In other words, let's say your Babylonian borders begin to encroach on the outer edges of the Roman Empire. Your city that has just expanded has a Wonder, three religious buildings, a Library, a University, and a rich cultural history. The Roman city is a small border outpost with no real culture of its own. The village elders will decide they'd rather be part of the Babylonian empire, basking in the warm glow of an artful, resourceful, culturally grand nation. They decide to secede from Rome and join Babylon, and in the process incur you neither diplomatic penalty nor military cost. In other words, you get a free conquest and still manage to look like the "good guys". Not a bad deal, eh? Do this often enough and you'll be able to build more buildings in the outposts, turning them into Kulturkampf-powered cities for further cultural conquest. The whole thing will begin to resemble the Steamroller effect discussed in Chapter 12. |=============================| |14D. A REMINDER OF PRIORITIES| |=============================| I throw this in as a separate section for a reason. Namely, I remind you all that playing for a specific type of victory and setting goals is all well and good, but don't forget that your civilization may need things that are more important than cultural buildings, things like defensive units and other non- CP-producing infrastructure. Don't neglect the fact that there are other nations out there that would just love the chance to thwart your efforts to build a greater culture, and have the military units to back up their desire to destroy you. This isn't just a game of "who builds the most temples and libraries", after all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |==========================| |15. THE DIPLOMATIC VICTORY| |==========================| This section is going to be incomplete for the most part, since I've never really ventured into the realms of world diplomacy in this game. Pretty much everything I write in this section is either conjecture or reasoned argument. If anyone has an ironclad method to make this type of victory worthwhile, please email it to me, and I'll include your strategies in the next version. |=================================| |15A. GETTING INVITED TO THE DANCE| |=================================| In order to have a seat on the UN Security Council, you'll need to meet one of the following criteria: ·Be the nation that builds the "United Nations" Great Wonder (easiest way) ·Control 25% of the world's land territory ·Control 25% of the world's population. If you're planning on becoming the Diplomatic ruler of the world, you're going to have to either be militarily aggressive and take the spot by force, or you are going to need a fertile, sex-crazed population to reproduce tons of offspring and create supersized cities. Either method is achievable using all the strategies outlined elsewhere in this FAQ. The easiest solution is probably the first one; Be the nation that builds the UN and you'll have an automatic seat on the Council. |===============================================| |15B. CHANNELING PRAVIN LAL: DIPLOMACY MADE EASY| |===============================================| Once again, I have no good idea how you would do this, because I've never done it. Somebody can email me a solution and I'll put it in here, because as a guy who likes to play for Cultural Victory, I've never really mucked about with Diplomacy (other than the Captain Kirk variety that involves big scary weapons). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |============================| |16. THE HISTOGRAPHIC VICTORY| |============================| For those of you who either prefer to quit while you're ahead or work too slowly to achieve victory by other means, there's the Histographic "victory". The short version is that a Civilization Score is computed based on power, culture, and influence, and the nation with the highest score wins! If this is the method you're TRYING to win by, there are some ideas I posit here in order to help you achieve your aims. |=================================| |16A. BE EVER MINDFUL OF THE SCORE| |=================================| The histograph is updated every turn. In other words, if you're going for a victory by this method, you'd better gain the upper hand early. Do plenty of research, grow your population, and generally play a good all-around game. One area of specialization isn't going to make you a winner. You'll need to play a rock-solid overall game, one that does not aim specifically for dominance in one area, but rather overall effectiveness in all facets of Civilization. It's not easy, but if you want the win, you can certainly find a way. |===============================================| |16B. MODUS OPERANDI FOR THE HISTOGRAPHIC WINNER| |===============================================| Two further "how-to" ideas: 1. If one of the enemy civs starts to gain a lead on you in the Histograph, you could always send in the clowns and clip his wings a bit. Your army can be a powerful nudge in the side to the scoring panel. 2. I'll say it again: All-around performance is what you're looking for. You are going to need culture, power, cities, population, and an occasional willingness to kick some ass in order to grab a truly dominant histographic win. Think of a boxing match that doesn't end in a knockout. The fighter that wins usually establishes the jab, out-lands and out-scores his opponent, and impresses the judges with his overall display of skill. If you don't want to go for the KO, fight a "decision" style of fight. |===================================================| |16C. CHEAPO RETIREMENT: QUITTING WHILE YOU'RE AHEAD| |===================================================| If at any point your civilization has the lead, by all means "retire". Even though the game will say "(Leader) is ignominiously defeated" (or something along those lines), the Hall of Fame will say you won a Histographic victory. If that's how you want to win and be remembered, it's something to keep in mind, but if this FAQ has taught you anything, it should be that nothing short of complete, undisputed VICTORY is worthy of the true Civilization III Master. Now get in there, arm yourself with the best knowledge you can download, and don't forget to email me your battle histories, because some of the best (by all means be creative with your stories...look at Addison Hart's "The Historia of a Roman Governor" posts on the Impressions Games Caesar III forum for inspiration and ideas if you like...they're exactly the kind of engrossing read that also educates about the game) will make their way into an upcoming FAQ update. Just try to be brief, because this isn't a fanfic, it's a strategy guide...which reminds me, be as informative as possible while you're at it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=====================| |PART V: ODDS AND ENDS| |=====================| This FAQ's a work in progress (pretty much every FAQ ultimately is, because no matter what that little blue dot says on GameFAQs, every FAQ has room for more information and ideas), so here I'm going to give a rundown on the what's what for the future: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |=======================| |17. CONTACT INFORMATION| |=======================| Get in touch with me in order to contribute and ask questions, but don't ask any question that has its answer within the text of this FAQ, or I'll delete your letter and have a private laugh at your expense. If you're looking to publish this FAQ on your site, remember that I will NEVER give permission to anyone who also has ads in a frameset on the same page. If you want to pay me a percentage of your ad revenue, then we'll talk...well, I don't see many of you raising your hands to ask me the publishing question anymore. That's just fine by me. CJayC gets first dibs on my stuff because his site is the one I get all MY gaming information from, and thus he gets to publish my stuff for free and unrestricted because it's my little way of trying to give something back to all the people who have helped me over the past couple of years. Anyway... E-Mail: rocketshow@hotmail.com GameFAQs Message Boards: SimuLord AIM: Ha! I hate AOL Instant Messenger, so you can't contact me there because I don't have it! Snail Mail: Funny. Last thing I need is some crazed stalker sending me an anthrax package or staking out my front door, jumping out at me when I go out to grab lunch, and saying "Fox! I need help with Civ3! PLEEEASE! I'm your biggest fan!" Just e-mail me, ok? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |===============| |18. COMING SOON| |===============| Planned for Version 1.1: ·A reader-submitted Chapter 15B. Seriously...if any of you have won via the Diplomatic method, please let me know. ·Some more military strategies, also reader-submitted. ·The standard complement of omissions, bugs, and other stuff fixed once I get a chance to read my FAQ online and see just how badly I screwed it up in places! ·AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! Civilization III FAQ/Strategy Guide, Version 1.1, coming soon to a computer near you! This has been Civ3 FAQ/Strategy Guide v1.0. Thank you, and drive through. -------------------------------------END--------------------------------------