Strategy Guide Wiki - Civilization III

Most likely, returning Civilization players won't bother reading a guide to tell them how to begin the game... Beginners, read on.

First, after watching the (1337) intro video, you will come upon the main menu. Choose 'Load Scenario' (I'm going to guide you through the game using the Earth's setup to make it easier). Choose the first of the two maps. You will then come upon the Player Setup screen. You may choose the civilization you wish to play as, the civilizations you wish to face, your name, game rules and game difficulty.

Your name you can change by clicking on the box below your portrait. For the moment, you should just leave it. Your opponents set the first four as 'Random' and the remainder as 'None'. This will have only four random civilizations competing against you. For the purpose of this tutorial, I will leave only this amount of civs to play against. Under the heading of 'Rules', make sure all are checked to use in the game. Set the difficulty to 'Chieftain', which is the easiest. The civilization you want to compete as is your own choice, but I recommend starting as Greece. To view the list of Civilizations and each of their advantages and disadvantages, view the Appendices.

You will always start off with a settler and a worker. The first step in your game is to build your capitol city. Assuming your surroundings are decent enough, found it (B) straight away. Don't dwell on looking for a better spot. It's a huge mistake. As this is your capitol city, you will need to have good surrounding terrain. Preferably, build it on a coast, but generally, you should build it straight away in the situation you immediately find yourself in. When you are taken to the city screen, build first a Hoplite (if you followed my instructions and chose Greece. Otherwise, build a spearman). Then, close the screen.

You will be asked what technology you want to research into. A list of varying technologies will appear. Your choice here signifies your first technology to research into. Choose Ceremonial Burial. The other advances in the list are Masonry, Iron Working, Alphabet, Pottery, The Wheel and Warrior Code. Once you've chosen, head to the Advisor screen. The Domestic Advisor will have three buttons which you can slide along three lines at the top. This is used to determine the amount of money going into science, luxuries and the treasury. 100% science, for example, means that you will save no money whatsover, and all your income will be spent on researching technology. Set it to 100% science.

Use your worker to check out the surrounding land, but don't make him go so far as to get attacked by Barbarian tribes and don't make it enter any Barbarian villages. Have it irrigate or mine a square adjacent to you capital. When your Hoplite is built, fortify him in the city using F.

When the next comes along, continue producing Hoplites, but send this one out around the surroundings to check out the terrain. When you have one more Hoplite built, your capitol should be about three or so in terms of population. When it is, start constructing a Settler. From the land which you've just scouted using the Hoplite and worker, build a city not too far away. Make sure it's in a good strategic position in terms of resources. When it's built, build a road between the two cities with your worker. Start building Hoplites in the second city. When you have two Hoplites in that city, it should be three again in terms of population. Build another settler in that city. Soon enough a window should come up, saying how your mystics (?) have discovered the secret of Ceremonial Burial or something to that effect. When this appears, IMMEDIATELY build a temple in your capital and your second city, depending on how large it is and how quickly it will build it. The reason for doing so is to increase your culture rating from the start. Next, research into Iron Working. When your capital's population reaches four, build another settler. Carry on like this with the cities in your possession until you have about eight colonies in your nation. If you are on a continent alone, you don't have to colonize it as quickly as you would should you be on a continent with other civilizations. But still, try and colonize as quickly as possible without sacrificing the building of any temples.

Make sure to build other useful buildings such as granneries, which will double the speed of a population increase. I have prepared the only very start of your conquest towards civilization stardom. Basically, from then on you should build improvements in your cities, but expand it still. Should you come into contact with another civilization, try and get its world map as soon as possible. If it is small, CRUSH 'EM! It pwns when you are on a large continent alone. Anyway, you should be able to take it decently from there.


Last Update: January 4, 2006	Contributors: TimmyTheRabidTurtle