Strategy Guide Wiki - Civilization III

Beginners to the game should always play on Chieftain the first few times. You will learn quickly after your first game. Though, on your first turn you should do well enough to have a decent foothold in the game, and your nation should NOT be destroyed. If it is, you are certainly a weak player.

In the initial stages, use scouts or warriors in the "explore" mode. You can go about your business building your cities while these units discover advanced tribes that can provide scientific advances. You can quickly gain scientific advances that would take you many years to gain otherwise.

Be wary when you make war upon an opponent. Someone of a greater strength than you will be often tough than you. Go to either the Foreign Advisor or Military Advisor screen and see how your army compares to theirs. If you have a larger force, build it up a bit before attacking. Waging war on a continent which you do not have a strong hold on is quite tough, and should be avoided if possible. Colonize some of the land first and build a sort of "capital" for that continent.

If you do have a decent foothold and have cities which can produce units quickly, then you should prepare a little before going to war. You will need to build two types of units - the strongest defensive possible and the strongest attacking possible. Use the attacking units to defeat the defenders, and, once the city has been captured, use the defensive units to fortify the settlement. Often, players take cities with units strong on the attack, but then have no defense once the city has been taken. This is one mistake you might get away with in the first two difficulty levels, but you will be punished in the harder levels.

Navy power isn't very important here, and air units have lost some of their usefulness from Civ3. They no longer fly as they want around the screen, but they are based in a city and launch attacks from there. They can be useful, but stick mainly to ground units. Naval units, IMO, are useful just for transportation, though it is a good strategy to try and down an enemy transport full of troops.

Culture is your friend. Culture can be a huge advantage at points in the game. For example, if you are on a large Pangaea continent, your nation could have enough culture to cause another nation's city to defect to your empire and abandon rule from its previous possessor. This is the best way to get a city, as the opposing nation will not get angry at it, and no military action is needed.

In accordance with the above, it is important to build a culture-generating improvement (such as Temples, cathedrals, colosseums, universities) as soon as possible once you build a new city on a land different from your main stronghold. This culture will increases your city's size, and you could stand a chance of some nearby opposing cities defecting to your side.

Destroy the weak. Befriend the strong and mighty. Small civilizations will crumble if you join alliances against them with other strong nations, simply, unable to handle the task of fending themselves from the mighty.

Be wary of Mutual Protection Pacts. Find out who has protection pacts with who before you attack them, because there have been many times where I have forgotten about them, attacked a nation, and then the whole world declares war on me - not fun.

Staying on top of the technology tree takes cunning and a slightly brutal approach to economics. If you trade technology with other civilizations, trade it to all of them. Otherwise they will just get the technology via trade with another country, and thus you receive no money for letting loose that information. When setting how much money goes to research and entertainment, so what if you go into debt? After you lose a few basic buildings in the name of science they can all be built back. Do not ever let yourself fall behind in technology, or you will become weak, fast.


Last Update: March 4, 2009	Contributors: TimmyTheRabidTurtle, Patron Vectras