Sid Meier's Civilization 3 is hard enough to play, and even harder to get a win! While this turn-based civilization simulation game has won many awards, you will still have to fight against barbarians, rival nations, riots, surprise attacks and disease. If you don't want to play because you are being attacked from all directions, or because you only have three cities on the whole map, don't be afraid, because this article will teach you how to win!
Steps
Step 1. Create a game, on the easiest difficulty level if you are a beginner
You will be able to progress to more difficult levels with experience. Create a game with 4-6 computer-controlled opponents; in this way you will be able to obtain diplomatic victories, alliances and trade more easily. The only other setting you should worry about is the world selection (either Gondwanaland, Continents or Islands). The best maps are Gondwanaland or Continents, because in the Islands map you will also have to deal with navigation and ocean travel, which are much more complex than movement on land. You will also have to choose which country to use. While you can play and win with all races by following this strategy, Americans are the best civilization. They have the industrious skill (their workers build at twice the speed for half the game) and the expansionists skill (which gives you a free explorer at the start of the game). Other good nations to use are the British, the Iroquois, the Russians and the Zulus, which have similar characteristics. Germans are also useful, because they are skilled in scientific research, which allows you to develop new technologies more quickly. They are also industrious, and have a good special unit that replaces the tank.
Step 2. Start the game
Your first task will be to found a capital. Usually your settler will already be in a perfect spot, but in some cases it may be convenient to move a few squares. Never use a settler to explore tribal camps, as they may contain barbarians who would kill the settler.
Step 3. Familiarize yourself with the counselors of your civilization
You can access them from the top left corner of the screen and they will give you information on military, diplomatic, scientific and cultural trade and statistics. The game is turn-based, so don't worry about spending a lot of time studying this feature (and maybe even Civiliopedia, which helps you understand the game's terms, improvements and units). You should devote about 50-60% of your income to science (you can push this percentage up to 70% when you want to develop a new technology quickly) and always leave the luxury at 0%, because city improvements paired with Wonders take care of the happiness of citizens. At the moment, your government will be Despotism, but you will change it shortly.
Step 4. Explore with your explorer (assuming you have chosen one of the civilizations that offer this unit at startup)
It can be used to explore territories that you will settle in the future, contact opponents, and most importantly, to explore encampments. This is very important - the villages offer you riches, technologies, soldiers and maps. To win, you will have to explore many camps. By the end of the early game, you should have found at least some warriors, technologies, maps, and gold.
Step 5. Focus on the capital
The first thing you should do is focus on the troops to defend the capital. Once you have completed this task, you will need to build a settler, because later on you will move on to long-lasting projects for which you will need the capital. Once the settler is created, build a city nearby (you should have explored and found an ideal location) and you can start building Wonders in the capital. This second city will actually be a sister city, from which you would have to build a couple of workers, maybe a couple of warriors, and finally, another settler to repeat the cycle.
Step 6. Learn about new technologies by consulting your science advisor
Immediately try to research writing and literature; in this way you will have access to the Great Library, which facilitates future technological advancements. If you haven't already, search for Bronzework. It will give you access to pikemen, who are the best defenders in the early stages of the game; you will only need one per city, as opposed to warriors who are more useful on offense. While not necessarily the most useful technologies, Ironworking and The Wheel make iron and horses appear on the map, and this can help you decide where to build future cities (Iron is a very important resource and you should get it at any cost.). This start will allow you to get off to a good start; these technologies are the most important, although you can research others you like.
Step 7. Build Wonders
At this stage, you should have the technologies that allow you to build the Pyramids and possibly the Colosseum. Don't worry about the Colosseum for now, as your rivals won't build it until much later and you probably won't have a city by the sea yet. Instead, start building the Pyramids now! As soon as you have built the colonist from the capital as described above, start building the Pyramids. This Wonder is essential because it guarantees you a granary in every city on the continent, which consequently you will not have to build. Additionally, the Pyramids are never made obsolete by a technology, so this bonus will remain throughout the game. If you build them, you may not even realize that you can build a barn, because they will all be built automatically for you. After this Wonder, he dedicates the capital to building an improvement for the city and perhaps creating a settler before embarking on the construction of another Wonder. If you followed the guide, you should have the technologies to build the Great Library. This Wonder grants you a technology every time two other civilizations have discovered it. This means that you will always keep up with your opponents from a technological point of view. You can also choose the Oracle or the Colossus. Usually the Colossus will open a Golden Age for your civilization, because it has this effect on the civilizations recommended by the guide. When you have completed these Wonders, you can relax for some time and build one when you get the chance.
Step 8. Continue the chain of settlers
This means that every time you build a city, after creating troops to occupy it, you should build another settler. And repeat the process. Build a city whenever you find a good resource or important feature. Don't build cities too far from each other and never build close to your opponents unless you want to stop their advance into your territory. The ideal city should have access to irrigation, many plains or meadows, possibly some sources of shields (forests or hills), some resources such as grain or livestock, and not have floodplains or jungles, which facilitate the spread of disease. Remember, the number of cities greatly affects your success - if you have the ability to create a settler, do so.
Step 9. Be diplomatic with your rivals, as a war in these stages of the game would be disastrous
If you have enough cities, you should be able to avoid paying tribute to your opponents, who will be too scared to declare war on you. Become a trusted friend of one of the rival leaders; you will need it in the future in wars and to trade. But don't choose the largest nation and by no means the weakest - choose a civilization between these extremes and if you can't decide, choose the one closest to you, which will act as a buffer when you declare war.
Step 10. Create workers, who will win the game
American workers work at double speed for the first half of the game, so you'll be able to get your civilization up and running quickly if you choose them. You will need to have at least one or two per city, and use a few to create roads. Make sure all cities are connected to trade and use automatic worker control. When developing city areas with your workers, remember that their improvements help the production of the city a lot. Each square of city land should have a trade route, all plains or meadow squares should be irrigated, and all mountains and hills should have a mine to produce shields. If there are many forests in the forest, cut some of them; try not to have more than two or three forest squares.
Step 11. Watch out for civil riots
They can stop a city from growing, and often happen due to overpopulation. If you can, try to create settlers and workers to keep the anger level down.
Step 12. Proceed
You should be in a great position and you should have made a lot of progress in science and culture. Develop the technologies until you get to the Monarchy, so you can change the form of government. As for city improvements, you should avoid building the Colosseum for now, and instead focus on courts, temples, markets, and bookstores. It will be helpful to expand your territory by advancing culture levels, so keep building Wonders!
Step 13. Enter the Medieval Era
Now you will start having fun. Immediately dedicate research to Invention (Leonardo's Laboratory will allow you to greatly enhance your military strength) and above all Cavalry. Cavalry is the key to winning; gives you access to the knights, who are the best unit for a long time. As soon as you have access to knights, create as many as you can and declare war on a rival. Try not to choose one near you that has many cities on your borders.
Step 14. Start attacking your rivals
In some cases your assaults can spark a world war with many alliances and treaties - this is good, and the alliances you should have already made will be useful to you. To start a campaign with your troops in enemy territory, you will first need to plan the attack. You can choose from many options, but a two- or three-pronged attack is best, conducted from multiple directions with your knights. For a classic two-pronged attack, divide the knights into three groups. The first group should consist of at least 3 knights - you will need to position them at different points of the vulnerable frontier to intercept a counterattack and avoid having to back off the troops to save the cities. The second group should, for example, go to the north, and be made up of at least 10 or more knights, while the other should go to the most distant part of the kingdom to be attacked, for example to the south. Although a group of three knights can take over a small town, larger groups allow you to leave troops to take care of the resistance. In the meantime, you should send backup knights from your cities. As soon as you capture a city, leave a couple of knights inside and wait for the resistance to be vanquished. Then build a pikeman and move the knights. Repeat this process until you have defeated the enemy, then move on to other enemies. This tactic will no longer be as effective when your enemies discover the gunpowder, but you can capture their saltpetre deposits to prevent them from creating musketeers.
Step 15. Continue to research and control your civilization
Learn technologies like Economics, which gives you access to Smith's Trade Company Wonder which pays for upkeep of all profit-related enhancements, a very useful bonus. You can also build smaller wonders like Wall Street which offers you up to 50 interest gold from your treasury. If you build these buildings, you should have a lot of extra cash and you can start building upgrades like Cathedrals and Colosseums that require high upkeep. Avoid the discovery of Education, which makes the Great Library obsolete, but you should be quite advanced at the moment. Hygiene and Steam Engine are excellent technologies; rails are useful for quickly deploying troops, but you will need iron and coal.
Step 16. Establish relationships with rivals
At the moment you should have eliminated some rivals and the others should fear you. If you have built improvements and Wonders as explained, your cultural level should result in the passage of enemy cities to your nation. Now you can trade strategic resources with them, such as iron and coal, and ask for a very high price. This will allow you to earn even more money, and with that money, you can buy upgrades for cities and progress them quickly. You won't even have to worry about building ships or planes, because you should be the number one civilization right now. It is very difficult to research the latest technologies before the game is over, but you can continue playing after winning. Your final score will not be affected though. Now you can do whatever you like. Congratulations, you just won Civilization 3!
Advice
- This is just a simple plan that works well, but it is by no means the ultimate strategy. There are many ways to defeat enemies and win a game - find the strategy that's right for you and make it work.
- Avoid using Democracy as a government. Your citizens will always have to be happy and that form of government can reduce your expansion capacity due to its penalties and limitations during conflicts.
- Don't worry about improvements like Walls, Police Stations or Industries; in the end they are useless and require time that you could dedicate to the most important improvements such as Aqueducts, Libraries, Banks and Courts.
- If a barbarian camp appears near one of your cities, destroy it as soon as possible with a warrior or other unit.
- Build many colonists throughout the game until you reach the third tech tree, because remember that the more cities you have, the easier it will be to win.
- Save, save, save! Always save the game, because if a rival captures one of your cities and you could have easily avoided it, just load the save.
- Devote a minimum of two defensive units to your cities, as enemies will often declare war on you on higher difficulty levels.
- The best units are: knights to attack enemies, musketeers to defend your cities, cannons to bomb enemies that attack you and swordsmen to defend colonies or fortresses.
- It dedicates about two workers per city, according to their degree of development. If each square has been optimized to maximum capacity, move the workers to another city and repeat the operation.
- Expect a couple of Wonders to be built by your rivals before you can complete them. The Wonders that are most often built by your opponents first are the Great Lighthouse, Back Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel.
Warnings
- This approach may not be the most suitable for the more difficult levels of play, so be careful.
- "Civilization 3", like most games, is meant to be entertained. Don't just focus on the final victory, as you may find that you sacrifice the fun.
