civilization 3 guide

8/17/2019 Civilization 3 Guide

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CIVILIZATION III for PC******************************************************************************* FAQ (v1.2)******************************************************************************* By DENOUEMENT ([email protected])*******************************************************************************

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*******************************************************************************DISCLAIMER:This file is copyright by Denouement (Chris Parham). You may NOT reproduce ordistribute this guide in any manner, electronically or otherwise, without theexpress written permission of the author. You may not display this guide on anypage in which there are advertisment banners. Below can be found the list ofsites that are permitted to host this guide. This list can be changed at anytime.

List of acceptable sites:GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com).

List of sites which do NOT have permission:

www.cheats.de

Remember, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable under the law.

Note: You can always find the latest version at GameFAQs, at www.gamefaqs.comThanks CJayC!

*******************************************************************************E-MAIL POLICY:I welcome e-mails at [email protected] but here are the Do's and the Dont's:

DO send questions not in the FAQ.DO send questions in text or HTML format.

DO send e-mails with "GameFAQs" in the subject line.DO send suggestions and corrections, this is not a final guide.DO tell me if you find this guide on a site where it is not permitted (see above).

DON'T send executables.DON'T send vulgar or inappropriate mail.DON'T send mail over and over again, I only check it once every day, at most.

I will try to get back to you as soon as possible...unless you did one of the


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"DONTS", in which case your mail will be summarily ignored and ruthlesslydeleted.

*******************************************************************************CONTENTS:

1. Disclaimer

2. E-Mail Policy

3. Contents

4. Introduction

5. The Basics --System Requirements --Patches --Returning Players: The Basics --Starting A New Game --Keyboard Shortcuts

6. Strategies --Choosing A Civilization --Early Game Strategy

--War Doctrine #1: Balance --War Doctrine #2: Speed --War Doctrine #3: Prolonged Conflict --Trading Technologies: Seller, Middleman, and Buyer --War in the Ancient Times --War in the Middle Ages --War in the Industrial Ages --War in the Modern Times --Leaders and Armies --Golden Ages --Diplomacy Lesson: World Maps --Diplomacy Lesson Three: Rights of Passage --Despotic Conquest

--Scientific Slaughter --Strategic Resources --Luxury Resources --Cultural Calamity --Diplomacy Deluxe --Diplomatic Warfare --Histographic Victory --Late-Stage Assault --Use the **** Squares --Spaceship Launch --Hide Out --Divide & Conquer --Super Science City

--Quick Aztec Ploy --The Rock --The Culture Push --Big Bullseye Empire --Tessallation --Terrain Bonus #1: Land Bridges --Terrain Bonus #2: Isthmus/Canal --Score Boosting


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7. Tribes (alphabetized) 8. Units (alphabetized) 9. Improvements (alphabetized) 10. Wonders (alphabetized) 11. Technologies (listed in approximate order of discovery)

12. Other Topics --Victory Types: Specific Requirements --City Populations Data Table --Terrain & Terrain Improvements --Governments --Combat Calculation --Cultural Borders --Calculating the Score --Civilization III Editor --Cheats

13. FAQs --Which form of government is the best? --Why is this game so slow?

--How do I build embassies and/or plant spies? --I need [insert resource here]? Where can I find this? --My resource disappeared! Is my game messed up? --This unit has won so many battles! Why won't it reach Elite? --Which civs are the most fun to play? --Finally, what can I expect from the Civilization III expansion?

14. All Play The World Info 15. Closing Statement

16. Acknowledgements/Postscript

*******************************************************************************INTRODUCTIONThis guide is for Civilization III, a PC game produced by Sid Meier and hisFiraxis development company. Civilization is one of the oldest current strategyseries on the market. Civilization I and Civilization II's numerousincarnations can in some ways be regarded as the "first generation" of theCivilization series. Civ III takes the game to a new level of graphics, scale,and gameplay. This guide covers strategies, plus detailed coverage of units,tribes, improvements, and wonders.

The first section, "The Basics," introduces you to the game and especiallylets Civ I and Civ II players know what has changed and what is still the samein this game. It also gives a helpful list of keyboard shortcuts.

The second section, "Strategies," offers many helpful tips, hints and gameplans for Civ III. Hopefully these will help you win more of your games. If youhave any of your own strategies, feel free to e-mail them.

The other sections cover various aspects of the game, giving detailedinformation on units, improvements, etc. The most interesting of these sectionsis "Other Topics," which covers some often overlooked aspects of the game.The very last section answers some frequently asked questions.


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Finally, if there is anything you don't get out of this guide, there is anawesome website at www.civfanatics.com that should answer any and all of yourqueries. Enjoy the guide!

VERSION HISTORYVersion 1.0 : The basic guide is completed and sumbitted.Version 1.x : Various updates and additions to the guide, some sections have added material, some unfinished sections completed.Version 2.0 : Some updated material added concerning the new Play The World expansion pack. (upcoming)*******************************************************************************

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************THE BASICS**************************************************************************************************************************************************************VERSIONSCollector's Edition comes in a metal case, with the game and manual, a"Making of" video, and an advances tree poster.

Standard Edition includes the game and manual.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTSCPU: Pentium II 300 MHz or better (required) 500 MHz or better (recommended)Memory: 32 MB RAMFree Disk Space: 500 MB (minimum) 700 MB (full install)CD-ROM: 4XVideo Card: Must be DirectX 8.0A compatibleSound Card: Must be DirectX 8.0A compatibleOperating System: Windows 95 or higher

PATCHESThe latest patch released for Civilization III (Windows/PC) is the v1.21fpatch, released for download on 4/18/2002. It can be downloaded from theofficial Civ III website, < http://www.civ3.com >.

RETURNING PLAYERS: WHAT'S NEWReturning players from Civilization I or II will certainly have a good senseof what's going on in Civ III, but many important players. For those who arenew to the game this will serve as a short introduction to the rules. Civilizations-there are sixteen-now have specific abilities determinedby things called "Attributes." Each tribe has two attributes of a possiblesix. Each civilization also has one unique unit that only it can build, withspecial abilities or increased stats. (See the Tribes section for details.)

Resources work in a completely new way. They have been divided intothree categories. Strategic resources are needed to build some cityimprovements, and most military units. Luxury resources play a key role inkeeping your population happy. Bonus resources play the same role asresources in Civ II, just benefiting the city's production. The fight tosecure resource squares is a big part of Civilization III. Culture is a completely new concept to the game, which reflects theimpact your civilization has on people. Cities accumulate culture throughbuilding and maintaining such improvements as the Temple, Library,University, Cathedral, etc. Increased culture expands the influence of that


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city, which in turn helps to expand your national borders. Fundamentalism is gone. Obviously, this makes the game just a littlemore balanced. (Fundamentalist government basically guaranteed victory in CivII if you knew how to play it.) There are new ways to win the game. Domination victory is basically apre-emptive version of regular conquest victory, saying that your lead is somassive that, given time, you would inevitably win the game. Diplomaticvictory comes back from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Finally, Cultural victoryis achieved when you reach a certain level of cultural domination, and doesnot necessarily require any warfare. Conquest (defeat all rivals), Spaceship,and regular Score victories also return. Slight changes have been made to the units of the game. Obsolete unitscan now be upgraded, and instead of having home cities, units are supportedby the nation as a whole. The functions of the Settler have been divided intotwo units: the Settler, and the Worker. Units that are gone include theCaravan, Freight, and Engineer. The most significant new units are Leadersand Armies, which allow you to combine the power of your units intodevastating columns of firepower.

STARTING A NEW GAMEWhen you open up Civilization III, you have a number of options. Choose NewGame or Load Game to start a new game, or load one you started earlier. Atthe New Game screen, you are first asked to choose options that willdetermine what kind of world you play on. The most significant attribute is

size. This will determine not only the length of the game, but will also havea big effect on the style of play that develops. Tiny world maps willprobably involve fierce fighting throughout the game and are likely to end byconquest or domination victory. Huge maps, on the other hand, are more suitedto a cultural or diplomatic victory. Standard maps provide a balanced styleof play. The other land attributes also have an impact on play. The choicebetween Pangaea, Continents, and Archipelago is the second most importantchoice; it determines the ease with which other civs can reach you, and alsothe ease with which you can reach them. If you like fighting, Pangaea willprovide you with lots of opportunity for war; Archipelago is perfect forpeaceniks; and again, Continents will provide a balanced style of play. Theother choices are pretty unimportant, but I usually choose Moderate wetness,

Warm temperature, and 5 billion years age. This produces a good map with lotsof grassland and plains and not too much impassable territory. It's a goodchoice for beginners to start with. On the next game creation screen is the Civilizations setup. Choose yourciv; you can rename it and its leader to anything you like, so choose basedon the civ characteristics. Also, select the number of opponents you wish toface, and either specify the civs you want to play against or set them toRandom. Then, you are ready to start your game!

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

UNIT MOVEMENTMove North Up Arrow OR Keypad 8

Move Northeast Page Up OR Keypad 9Move East Right Arrow OR Keypad 6Move Southeast Page Down OR Keypad 3Move South Down Arrow OR Keypad 2Move Southwest End OR Keypad 1Move West Left Arrow OR Keypad 4Move Northwest Home OR Keypad 7

UNIT ORDERSAirdrop A


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Airlift TAir Superiority Mission SAutomate Worker AAutomate Worker (Virgin Terrain) Shift + AAutomate Worker (City-Specific) Shift + IAutomate Worker (Clean Pollution) Shift + PAutomate Worker (Clear Forests) Shift + FAutomate Worker (Clear Jungles) Shift + JBombard BBombing Mission BBuild Army/City/Colony BBuild Fortress Ctrl + FBuild Mine MBuild Railroad Shift + RBuild Railroad To Ctrl + Shift + RBuild Road RBuild Road To Ctrl + RBuild Road To, Then Build Colony Ctrl + BClean Pollution Shift + CClear Forests/Jungles Shift + CDisband DExplore EFortify FGo To G

Hurry Improvement Ctrl + HIrrigate IIrrigate to City Ctrl + IJoin City BPillage PPlant Forest NRe-base Shift + RRecon Mission RSkip Turn SpaceTrade Network Ctrl + NUnload/Load LUpgrade UUpgrade All Similar Units Shift + U

Wait/Delay W OR Tab

CITY SCREENAdd to queue Shift + (Click)Save this queue as default Shift + QLoad default queue QRemove item from queue Delete + (Click)Delete queue Shift + Delete

WORLD MAPActivate Diplomacy Screen Shift + DActivate Espionage Screen EActivate Governments selection Shift + G

Activate Mobilization options Shift + MCenter screen on active unit CCenter to capital HCity Locator Shift + LCreate Embassy Ctrl + ECreate Spy Ctrl + Shift + EEnd Turn Shift + EnterToggle extra displays on/off DeleteToggle zoom level ZView "clean" map Shift + Ctrl + M


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View Preferences Menu Ctrl + P

ADVISORSForeign: Change portrait Shift + (Right click)Foreign: Check Civilopedia (Right click)Science: Add/Remove from Queue Shift + (Click)

HOTKEYSF1 Domestic AdvisorF2 Trade AdvisorF3 Military AdvisorF4 Foreign AdvisorF5 Cultural AdvisorF6 Science AdvisorF7 Wonders Summary ScreenF8 HistographF9 Palace ViewF10 Spaceship StatusF11 Demographics**************************************************************************************************************************************************************

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************STRATEGIES**************************************************************************************************************************************************************CHOOSING A CIVILIZATIONChoosing your tribe in Civilization III is one of the most importantdecisions you will make in the game; it is irrevocable, and it is of hugeimportance to how your game will unfold. The TRIBES section later in this FAQcovers each of Civilization III's sixteen tribes in detail. Here, we willdiscuss the main features that separate Civs from one another. One of themost obvious differences between tribes are their unique units. These give a

slightly different flavor to each army and can provide cultures with timelyboosts during the era of their special unit. However, the most importantfactors swaying your choice of tribe should be the Civilization Bonuses. Each tribe has two of these six special bonuses that determine thepersonality of that tribe and generally determine which tribes are suited towhich styles of game play. The six characteristics are: Militaristic;Religious; Expansionist; Industrious; Commercial; and Scientific. Militaristic is one of the strongest attributes to have for your tribe.First, production of military structures, such as Barracks, City Walls,Coastal Fortresses, and SAM Batteries, is easier to undertake since thesestructures only take half the time to build. Their units have a greaterchance to "Promote" after a battle, that is for a Regular Unit to becomeVeteran or Veteran to reach Elite level. Finally, these civs produce more

Great Leaders after victories. The added leader production is a great aspectfor these tribes; this allows you to build armies if you need them, but alsoallows you to speed the production of Wonders. All in all Militaristic is oneof the best attributes. Religious is another characteristic with many positive effects tied toit. As with the militaristic tribes, they can build the religion orientedCity Improvements at half cost: Temple, and Cathedral. Best of all, theychange their form of government with only one turn of Anarchy intervening.For a strategy like Despotic Conquest, where you may be looking at a crucialchange into Democracy, Religious is a decent quality. For a game plan like


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Democratic Warfare, however, Religious is excellent. If Democracy becomes toomuch for your Empire to handle, the shift down to Republic is easy; but atthe same time, speeding the production of Temples and Cathedrals will keepyour people happy and thus stave off war weariness. Religious is an effectivebonus, but you will find others that are stronger. Expansionist is a weaker attribute, in fact possibly the weakest. Theprimary effect of this bonus is that you get a third unit to start the game:a Scout unit, which has a two movement rate and is ideal for exploring. Thebiggest plus of this is that it will allow you to reach resources faster, andhopefully get cities or colonies built on them. You can also build moreScouts later. However, while this ability can get you out to a good start inthe early game, the Scout is frankly a pretty useless unit. (Actually, if youwant to balance it out a little, it's kind of a good rule change to giveScouts the "Build Colony" worker ability. This makes Expansionist a littlemore worthwhile.) On the whole, however, Expansionist is the worst Civ Bonus. The fourth bonus is Industrious, which is one of the three strongestattributes. Early in the game, you will notice that workers work faster underIndustrious Civs. This means that, while Expansionist civs might be the firstto find resources, Industrious Civs will often be the first to get there andlink them up to the empire, and thus reap the benefit. The faster workerswill give you a boost throughout the game, as this lead in infrastructurewill increase production of food, shields, and trade in all your cities.Later in the game, the large cities of an Industrial Civ will produce extrashields of production, an excellent effect in that it might allow you to

build a unit in 4 turns, where previously it took five. Those extra shieldsare also multiplied by such improvements as Factories, etc. However, notethat extra production can be a two-edged sword: pollution will increase aswell. Luckily you have speedy workers to clean up that pollution. I wouldrank Industrious is one of the three best civilization attributes. The fifth attribute is the Commercial quality, representing a nationcentered on trade and wealth. As large Industrious cities get more shieldsfrom large cities, large Commercial cities receive bonus commerce, and thusbonus gold or science. Corruption is also reduced, which could be anamazingly nice effect, but actually turns out to be rather mediocre. There isa noticeable difference in large cities, but typically these cities are closeto the center of the empire and don't suffer much corruption anyway, so thedifference is from, say 30 gold to 40. On the other hand, the small fringe

cities that produce one gold and one shield without the Commercial bonus,produce exactly the same thing under the Commercial Bonus. Thus, Commercialfails to stop corruption and waste where it hurts the most. I would rate theCommercial bonus as the second worst civ ability. Scientific is the last, and in my opinion the best Civilization Bonus.In these civilizations, scientific structures, such as the Library,University, and Research Lab, can be built at half price. This is a hugebonus: not only is your science output increased, but it increases yourculture as well, since Library and University are two of the best Culturebuildings. The best part of the Scientific attribute, however, is that youreceive a free technological advance at the start of each Age, for a total ofthree free advances throughout the game. At crucial times throughout the gameyou are given an extra boost by the discovery of a free advance. Between this

and your lead in Science-producing buildings, you should be able to dominatethe scientific field, and this can help solve all your problems. Gold? Justsell your techs to other cultures; often you can pull in 20-30 gold per turnfor a good technology. As you can see, science influences all aspects of thegame. Scientific is an attribute well suited to all types of victory, and inmy mind is the attribute that will most help your civ. Anyway, you should use your knowledge of these attributes to choose aCivilization that is ideal for your needs and style of play. Any civ can bevictorious if played well, but here are the top five Civs in my opinion. Withany of these, victory should be fairly easy to attain: Persians, Germans,


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Babylonians, Chinese, Aztecs. Note, however, that for attributes and uniqueunits to come into play at all, "Civ Specific Abilities" must be turned on inthe game setup (its default position is on). If you turn it off, the onlydifference between civilizations will be the appearance.

EARLY GAME STRATEGYYou have many obvious goals in the early part of the game and it is oftendifficult to balance and reconcile them. But there are some generalstrategies you can follow in the first 50 turns that will help ensure a solidposition in the middle game and beyond. Found your capital on turn one. A big mistake people make is lookingaround for an "ideal" spot with you Settler. But the game usually starts youat a decent location. Obviously, there are exceptions; if you start one turnfrom the ocean and you really want your capital to be coastal (perhaps themap is archipelago style), go ahead and move it to the sea. But theseexceptions are rare. Your worker should choose an adjacent grassland orplains square and improve it; on plains, build irrigation, and on grasslandbuild mines. The ideal first worker action is to mine a "shield" grasslandsquare. This will give you a quick two shield/two food production. Note thatthere is no point in irrigating grassland at this point; your government isdespotism and thus that third food will be wasted. Also wasteful is savinggold at this time; you can't use it to rush, and can't talk to other civs andbuy stuff with it. So put all your trade into science. Generally you want toimmediately research up to Iron Working; if you start with Bronze Working it

gives you a little extra boost here. Meanwhile your city should be building an immediate Warrior for scoutingpurposes. Send him out to grab some goody huts and get a sense of the lay ofthe land. After this Warrior is built, build another and fortify in the city.By this time your city will be at size two and should be producing six foodand two to three shields at least. Now build the granary. By the time it'sdone, your scouting Warrior should have spotted several great city locations,not right next to your capital but not too far. (See THE BULLSEYE EMPIREbelow for a tip on where to put your first few cities.) Anyway, afterbuilding the Granary your city will have size of around 4-5, send your workerout to begin building a road to one of those city spots you found. BuildSettler and ship out to found a city there. Now your capital will essentiallyalternate between Settlers, Warriors, one or two Spearmen to fortify in the

capital, and a few Workers. The Granary will allow your population to recoverquickly from the building of a Settler or Worker. After three or fourSettlers have been produced, you will most likely need to build the Temple;after it's done your capital is pretty much finished its current role inexpansion. Set it to build either the Pyramids, by far the most importantwonder at this stage. Meanwhile border cities should get up to level withGranaries as explained above, then build Settlers. Using this strategy, youwill notice that you start slow; probably the first "XXXX completes his greathistory.." will rate you poorly. But once the first round of expansion citiesbegin building Settlers, I can assure you that your empire will begin to growexplosively. Good-sized cities with Granaries can churn out Settlers muchmore effectively than cities that have to work themselves up to populationthree only to drop back down to minimum size.

One final point is the question of how often your conscience will allowyou to reload and try something again for a better result. Usually I restartthe initial map a few times to get something nice--I refuse to doom myself byputting my capital on a flood plain and ensuring riots by turn three. But youcan also restart to get a better goody hut, and doing this can have a wildimpact on your speed of expansion (if you're getting techs and settlers fromevery goody hut). But most players consider this cheating, you should do thisat your own risk of feeling guilty.

WAR DOCTRINE #1: BALANCE


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Luck favors the prepared warrior.-Sun TzuBalance is essential in fighting. There are a number of areas in whichbalance is necessary. First, you should have a good balance between yourinvading force and your stay-at-home defensive forces. The worst mistake youcan make in preparing to initiate combat is to leave your cities poorlydefended. If you lose a war, and have defenses, you can get up and move on,but if you lose and are defenseless, you will be wiped out by an angry enemywho is seeking blood. Furthermore, within your offensive force you ought to have a balance ofdifferent types of units. There are some ages of the game where one unit isso good that it can comprise essentially all of your force. Examples are theage of Knights and the age of Tanks and Modern Armor. However, during much ofthe early game, units are good for only one thing, and have either attackpower, defensive power, or speed. In general you should have three waves toany attack. The first wave, by speed units, should concentrate on pillagingand capturing enemy workers. If these units have a decent attack value, theycan attempt to seize border cities; this will be a benefit since the upcomingwaves will now be able to use the roads surrounding these cities, since theyare no longer within enemy borders. Wave two is your heavy attack wave, forinstance Swordsmen. They will be the ones to take the better defended enemycities. Right behind them, should be a wave of defensive units like Spearmenor Pikemen. Such units move at about the same speed as the attack units, sothey should have no trouble keeping up. Once it seems that your offensive isstalling, move all your units back into the captured territory and

consolidate. Even if you can't defeat an enemy outright, he will be severelyweakened and will be forced to accept a peace treaty; it will be better to gothis route that to overextend yourself and end up with a mess on your hands.

WAR DOCTRINE #2: SPEEDSpeed is the essence of war.-Sun TzuThis quote from Sun Tzu indicates an important point of warfare inCivilization games. Speed is perhaps the most valuable attribute a unit canhave. There are two elements to speed. The first is the speed or your units,and this is actually the less important factor, since the speed of units ispretty much immutable. Of course, it's good to have some fast units, likeHorsemen, Cavalry, etc., in your forces, but not to the point of excludingmore powerful units. The main element of speed you must maintain is the

ability to put your forces at a crisis site quickly. Often, you will becompletely at peace and then an attack will come from nowhere. In this caseyou need to move quickly to respond, and there are a number of ways to ensureyou can do this. The first is to keep your forces spread throughout yourempire. I usually only have two or three cities building units, but afterthey are built I move them to all corners of my territory. The second part ofthis is, build lots of roads and railroads. From the beginning, you should bemaintaining roads throughout your Empire, connecting the new cities that youare building. Once you invent the railroad, concentrate you workers onconnecting all cities by rail. This will allow your response to any attack tobe immediate. The more roads and rails you build, the better off you will bein a defensive war, since these features are available to you but not to yourattacker.

WAR DOCTRINE #3: PROLONGED CONFLICTMost wars in Civ III end quickly, or quickly become one sided and just take along time to mop up. However, in some cases, you will actually have to fighta long conflict with an enemy. This can be especially true of anintercontinental conflict; maybe you took care of all his cities on this sideof the ocean, but his main empire is over on t'other. There are two mainproblems with a drawn out conflict. One, if you are in a representativegovernment and you started the war, is war weariness, but that will bediscussed later. The other problem is actually fighting the war. Here are


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some tips. First, if you can get units into enemy territory take the chanceto pillage. This will cause lasting damage to the opponent and willeventually wear them down, even if you are only able to destroy irrigation ormining. If you are able to cut off a valuable resource, this can be acrushing blow to your enemy. Second, this war is probably going to be a longwar, so don't try to hurry the preparation. Take the time to assemble forcesand seize an adequete beachhead, rush an airport if possible (which bringsyour armies to his doorstep VERY quickly), and protect your advances.

TRADING TECHNOLOGIES: SELLER, MIDDLEMAN, BUYERAssuming the world is at peace and looks to stay that way, it is probably agood time to start trading technologies. There are three situations you canbe in where selling and buying technologies is effective; first, the bestposition, the Seller. To be the seller, you must be leading the technologicalrace, and in this area Scientific civs have a big advantage. If you can getone or two tech steps ahead of all the others, feel free to sell around. Thekey facet of acting as a Seller, is to be sure to sell to every civ, nomatter what they offer. Say you give Electricity to the Egyptians for 40 goldper turn, a very decent sum. Now go to the Romans, and they just offer you 40gold, one time deal. This might seem bad, but take it, because if you don'tthe Egyptians will just turn around and sell it to the Romans, and you'llmiss out on a possible 40 gold. Thus, you can sell the same technology to upto 15 civilizations: while you are still in the lead technology-wise, youmight have picked up a 1000 or so gold, with an extra 400 each turn! Once

those deals run out, go ahead and sell round another tech. The next position is Middleman, a decent position that lets you havesome fun. In this setup, you are in second or third place. A few civs areahead of you in science, but many others are behind. Here, you buy from thecivs ahead of you, and sell to the ones behind. This way, you offset yourloss or even make a profit for yourself. If you want, you can do this allgame long: set your science rate to zero, and use the Middleman strategy tokeep yourself in the Science race. While you can't get ahead, your 100% taxrate will give you ridiculous funds. The final position is Buyer. If you're behind in technology, it's toughto know how to play it, but I recommend snapping up military techs fromfriendly civs and then trying to expand by attack neighbors. If you're behindin science, you're probably behind in score and other factors as well, so

military domination might be your only way out. :(

WAR IN ANCIENT TIMES (FIRST ERA)War at this level of the game can be one of two things. First, if you catchsomeone with their pants down very early on, or vice versa, you can deliver akilling blow and destroy a civilization in a single turn. Or, later on in theage, wars will take forever as your units creep across the landscape.Basically, the strategy in this era is very limited. Just keep your citieswell defended with Spearmen, and try to have at least two units in everyborder city. Offensively, concentrate on one point of the enemy empire, andsend your full force of Horsemen at it. Horsemen are about the onlyworthwhile offensive unit in the age. Just take one city at a time, with aneye toward territory and resources.

WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES (SECOND ERA)The Middle Ages will probably be the most eventful era of warfare.Civilizations will be trying to secure resources like Iron, Saltpeter, andCoal, and borders will also be rubbing up causing tensions. Defense is asalways a priority; each city on your border should have two of the bestdefensive unit available. However, the Middle Ages should be a time when youturn your eye to offense as well. Knights will allow you to have a potent offensive force. This is onetime of the game when you can easily attack an enemy along a whole front, so


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wars will be on a large scale. If you decide you want to expand your bordersor grab a resource, the first step is to build up your forces. A goodattacking army will contain a mixture of Longbowman and Knights, along withsome defensive units to protect the archers. Longbowmen are for attackingenemy troops and cities, and your Knights can run around causing generalhavoc. Just maintain your lines (i.e. don't let your enemy get behind you)and you should be able to advance en masse toward victory.

WAR IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGES (THIRD ERA)The Industrial Age provides a bit of a respite from attack in most cases. Thereason for this is that while Infantry, a 6/10 unit, is developed very earlyin this age, for most of the age the best normal offensive unit is theCavalry, which is only 6/3. As you can see, defensive units have a greatadvantage here, and in fact a defensive unit is also the strongest offensiveunit! (NOTE: For these purposes, the development of the tank begins themodern age of warfare. After the development of the tank, which happens aboutthe same time as air power is developed, there is little change to warfaretactics except the possible introduction of nuclear weapons.) To combat these strong defensive units, the Industrial Age is the age ofartillery. Stacks of Artillery will blast open enemy defenses and will allowyour Cavalry to march into cities with little problem. Strategically, this isa return to the Ancient Age-you will probably go after one city at a time,first shelling it into submission and then sending in Cavalry. A goodrailroad network is also a must in this Age; it helps on both offense and

defense.

WAR IN MODERN TIMES (FOURTH ERA)In most games, the Modern Era will be the time of peace. By this time,Democracy is the form of government for most civs, and war will produce manyundesirable side effects. Many resource sites, which could easily be snappedup during other ages, will now be irrelevant, and others will be heavilydefended. Basically wars will rarely spring up for "natural" reasons...mostwars will be the ones initiated by you, in order to make up lost ground,finish off a domination victory, or whatever. War is tough in the time periodand requires more strategy and tactics than in other periods. Once yourenemy's largest cities are defended by Mech Infantries, it is difficult totake them by any means. However, two important factors in your favor to be

aware of are Precision Bombing and artillery assaults. When trying to take alarge metropolis, it pays to bombard it first. That means you need to cut itoff from the rest of its empire using your ground forces, and then assault itwith Battleships (if near water), Artillery and Radar Artillery, and planes.You will have two goals. First, destroy improvements in the city. Barracksand happiness improvements are the most important to take out, since Barracksallows enemy units to heal fully between your attack turns, making it toughto take the city, and destroying happiness installations will drive the cityinto disorder, thus preventing him from rebuilding the barracks. Second, youwant to take down the population a little bit, hopefully getting it down to11 or lower. (Cities 6-11 receive a 50% defensive bonus for garrisoned units,but ones with 12 plus receive 100%.) Once you've bombarded the city a littleto soften it up (or if you have time, taken all defenders down to 1 HP) go in

with your units and take it. Advance will probably be made slowly in themodern age, and in this time period it often pays to raze captured citiesunless you hope to make peace. Dealing with ten or twelve resisters can betough and you don't want a city reverting back as soon as the war's over.

LEADERS AND ARMIESLeaders are a key part of Civilization III. Great Leaders are a special unitthat is sometimes produced when one of your elite units win a battle. Theyhave two excellent abilities. First, they can form an Army, which is acollection of units linked to work better together. Second, they can finish


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any improvement in any of your cities, including Wonders. When you get a Leader, you first job is to get it off the battlefield asquickly as possible and into one of your cities. It has a 0/0 attack anddefense rating so this is vital. Also, you want to use each Leader as quicklyas possible, to make room for a new leader to possibly arise. Not that thechance of an Elite unit's victory producing a Leader is 1/16; with the HeroicEpic small wonder it becomes 1/12. So Leaders will be few and far between. The first leader should be used to build an army as quickly as possible.Two vital wonders ride on you having had a victorious army; thus you willwant to immediately win a battle with your new army. You can then build theHeroic Epic and, if you have discovered Military Tradition, the MilitaryAcademy. Generally, all subsequent Leaders should be used to rush Wonders.The rush ability of Leaders is a huge potential for the game to swing in yourfavor and cannot be missed.

GOLDEN AGESThe value of the Golden Age to a civilization cannot be underestimated. Timedand planned correctly, the dawn of a Golden Age can propel a nation from thebottom of the standings all the way to the top, and a civ that is leadingwhen it enters a Golden Age will emerge from it with a huge advantage.However, the Golden Age is but twenty turns out of the 540 turns in a fullgame lasting until 2050. To get the most out of it you need to plan ahead andprepare your cities. First, you need to have your civilization's unique unit on hand. It

needs to win a battle to initiate you GA, but this should not be a problem,just send two or three at an undefended city. More important is when to dothis. The ideal time for the GA is about the middle of the Middle Ages. Atthis time, vital Wonders are just being discovered, and you can use the extraproduction to grab these Wonders (JS Bach's, Sistine, Sun Tzu's Art) beforethe AI does. That's the best time for a production GA. The other thing youcan do with your Golden Age is use the extra production to initiate war. Ifdoing so, anytime in the Ancient to Middle will do; avoid Industrial asRiflemen and Infantry will be difficult to overcome, even with many units.The best use of a GA war is to grab a vital resource that you don't possessand don't want to buy, especially Coal; if you haven't used a Golden Age, andwhen you invent Steam Power realize that you have no Coal, immediatelyleverage your Golden Age to acquire this vital resource.

DIPLOMACY LESSON: WORLD MAPSI honestly believe that the game puts excess value on World Maps early in thegame, and you can use this fact to build up a substantial lead in gold andtechs by giving away your World Map, especially if you are exploringextensively. There is no reason not to give away your map, unless you knowthe location of a vital resource but don't have a Settler there yet. It'sespecially worthwhile to sell your map to tribes on other continents, or veryfar away. Chances are they can't make use of the data, but you can certainlymake use of the money they pay you.

DIPLOMACY LESSON THREE: RIGHTS OF PASSAGEThe right of passage is one of the most easily abused political agreements.

Of course, you can always sign one with your allies if you want to use theirroads. But more commonly, you can abuse the right of passage to exploit yourenemies. There are a number of ways you can do this. The first is the obvious way. Sign a ROP, then move your best offensiveunits to the enemy cities you wish to capture. Then attack them all at onceon one turn, leaving your enemy no chance to respond or build up his forces.The advantage is that you can probably wipe out much of his empire. Thedisadvantage is the hatred that will pile upon you from all othercivilizations. They will be very angry. Another variation of this is to waituntil the ROP actually expires, then use your prepared troops to attack the


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enemy; this way you don't get the anger of violating an ROP. Another way to defy the ROP is to send workers into an enemy territory,then use those troops to build unfortunate infrastructure in enemy territory.For instance, let's say your enemy has positioned some irrigation around alarge city. Perhaps you feel he would be better served by forests in thosespaces. Go ahead and help him out by planting some lumber over his farms. Ofcourse, his people will starve to death, but they will die in beautifullyfurnished homes. This is a great way to sabotage enemy shield production andcity population. In this section, let me also make a comment on the use of some unitswhich you can freely send into enemy territory, regardless of whether you haveand ROP, and he will not be offended. The most significant of these is theExplorer, which is actually quite an effective unit to use for laying thefoundations for a war. First, by sending in Explorers ahead of your main forceyou can pillage every enemy resource, and possibly other important terrainimprovements, on the first turn of a conflict. The cheap price and quickmobility of the Explorer unit makes this possible. The Scout unit can performa similar function, but generally such strategies are not needed in the earlygame, and also the price of a Scout seems much more in ancient times than theprice of an Explorer in the modern age.

DESPOTIC CONQUESTWe'll start with Despotic Conquest, because any strategy you choose is likelyto have a bit of the warlike stuff thrown in. Despotic Conquest is the most

basic strategy available to you. It is best suited to small scale games,since time is of the essence in a Despotic Conquest situation. With thisstrategy, you will be shooting for a Domination victory. The government, asyou can see, will remain Despotism throughout your game, so no need to wasteresearch on other forms of government. The ideal situation for the use ofthis plan is a small world, with three or four civs. Hopefully, you canoverwhelm them quickly, and get your victory. Obviously, the bigger theworld, the more arduous and lengthy a despotic conquest will be. Also,however, Despotic Conquest on a large world will face significant problemswith Corruption and Waste. We'll get to this later. For a Despotic Conquest, the best attributes are Militaristic andIndustrious. Both these characteristics will allow you to quickly ramp upproduction of a massive military. As I said, with this plan you will hope to

strike quickly and decisively, so speed is of the essence. The early gameconsists of three primary goals. First, build lots of cities. LOTS of cities;I mean keep pumping out the Settlers anytime you can. Workers building roadscan also be helpful, but don't bother with mining and irrigation. Then buildbarracks. Militaristic can be very helpful here, in order to build thesequickly and to the greatest effect. After this, just keep churning out units.Once you research a few basic techs, especially acquiring The Wheel,Mathematics, and Horseback Riding, stop researching and set taxes to full.You can then use this excess cash to buy more units, and if necessary to buyother techs from your enemies. With Despotic Conquest, your military strategyis straightforward: Numbers, Numbers, Numbers. Try to overwhelm your enemy.Horsemen, Chariots, etc. are excellent for this. You should be able toslaughter opposing civs if you find them fast enough. However, that's a big

"if". Don't worry, however. If you find that this strategy is taking toolong, just slip into another strategy. It's especially easy to move intoDemocratic Warfare. If you try Despotic Conquest in a large world, it is unlikely you willbe able to see it all the way through. The goal in this case is to conquerone to three civs in the early game. With this kind of base, you should beable to sit quietly for an Age or so, developing your cities and yourtechnologies, in preparation to launch a world-beating assault in theIndustrial and Modern Eras. (Again, see Democratic Warfare).


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SCIENTIFIC SLAUGHTERLeading the game scientifically will put you a level above othercivilizations in every category. War will basically be on your terms: yourunits are a level above everyone else's, so if you want to attack, they canonly hope you show mercy, while their waves of attackers will just break onthe fortified units within your cities. The biggest plus of concentrating on science is that you can maintain anefficient state, without worrying about resources and while maintaining avery strong military. The first goal is to get into Republic and thenDemocracy. Allocate most of your funds to Science; later advances such asEconomics and the construction of Wall Street will bring your treasury up topar later. Also, of course, you will be selling techs to your rivals for hugepayments of gold. Remember, however, that the fastest you can learn a tech isfour turns, so manage your science slider so that no money is being wasted onuseless research.

STRATEGIC RESOURCESStrategic resources are a vital aspect of the game, especially if you plan totake a military route, since most good military units require resources. Youcan get by on defense with limited resources, since the good defensive unitsrequire few. Still, don't count on buying the resources you need from thecomputer civs. Not only to they make you pay through the nose for theseresources, but on some world maps resources are hard to come by. Thus, it isalways best to secure your own sources of vital materials.

In the early game, your concentration should be on securing resourcesand ensuring that the computer civilizations don't get to them. Don't counton a colony holding a resources for long; try to get a Settler out there andput it right on top of the resources. Go for strategic resources beforeluxury ones, since they are worth a lot more. The two most important resources by far are Iron and Coal. Whether youwant to have an offensive army or not, you need these resources to buildrailroads, and any civ is going to need railroads. These two resources areworth going to war for; drive deep into enemy territory and secure the siteof the resources. Hopefully, you will be able to make peace following this.If not, however, you must hold on to this acquisition, as the resource isactually well worth one or two cities. In the early game, you should researchIron Working as quickly as possible so you can see it on the map, and its

good to acquire more than one source since Iron has a nasty tendency to beexhausted on you. Other resources are still important and are a good reasonto try and grab a city, but are not on the level of Iron and Coal.

LUXURY RESOURCESLuxury resources are something of a bonus for a civilization. Except on thetwo elite levels of difficulty, you will probably be able to get by withoutdealing with luxuries at all, except for putting roads through the ones younotice on your territories. However, they can make your game much easier, andare a huge help to prevent war weariness.

CULTURAL CALAMITYCultural victory is one of the new victory types available to you in Civ III.

The best Civs to achieve it with are those that are Scientific and Religious.Both of these attributes will allow you to build the most importantstructures easily. These structures are Temple, Library, Coliseum, Cathedral,and University. Research Lab can be built later on. At the same time as youare going for the 100000 Empire points victory, you should go for the 20000City also. The city you choose will probably be your capital and should besited to get good production. The city should basically build nothing butWonders; an important one to get is the Great Library. Each time that cityfinishes a Wonder, you might want to spend a turn or two BUYING it some otherimprovements, particularly the aforementioned four Culture improvements. It


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is key for you to go for both types of victory at once. First, a city withclose to 20000 culture is just what you need to push you over the 100000culture mark. However, with the empire victory, your empire must have atleast twice the culture of any other civ, and it's quite possible thatdespite all your hard work this might not be the case. Thus, the 20000 cityis an essential backup plan. Cultural victory will almost always go down to the wire, since it takestime to accumulate those massive amounts of culture, either in a city or inan empire. In the early game, you will need to build up a solid base, throughexpansion and possibly through military conquest. By the end of the MedievalEra, you should possess at least 40 cities. Get them their culturalimprovements. One nice thing about the Cultural victory is that your citiescan be small. For instance, a size 6 city, once it has built the five mainbuildings, can now just sit and accumulate. Because of this, you can spaceyour cities very close, making the most of your borders to get maximumculture. Feel free to overlap city radii. The exception, of course, is your"big culture" city, which must always be growing and expanding to makeWonders ever quicker to build. With a Temple, Cathedral, Coliseum, Library,and University. With this pace, cities add 14 culture points per turn. Sayyou have this setup in place with 150 turns left, your 40 main cities allhave: 14*150=2100 culture. With one city at close to twenty thousand,containing all your Wonders, a 100000 score is more than possible. In fact,200000-300000 culture is a definite possibility if you concentrate on thisaspect of the game. (With a conquesting attitude, 500000 culture can

definitely be achieved.)The other key to cultural victory is keeping your rivals down, so thatthey have less than half your total. There are a number of steps to do this.First, most enemy Civs don't concentrate on culture as much as you will be.So none are going to be keeping up with you. Your neighbors will very likelybe automatically depressed by treachery of their own cities to your moreculturally powerful Empire. When you build all the culture improvements inthese cities, this will only cause more defections. It is cultures that arefar away from you that cause the problem, especially if they are dominatingtheir neighbors. In the worst case scenario, you might have to go kick someass over there, but you should be able to avoid this problem. If you see aciv getting too strong, set up some trade embargos against it, which willprobably cause it to wage war on you. This is key because if the enemy civ

declares war on YOU, war weariness will be less problematic. At the sametime, you should have good relations with your own neighbors; you should givethem basically what they want during the game, hopefully getting therelationship up to Gracious level. This will stop your enemy from recruitingthem against you. At this point, ally yourself with all the neighbors of thetroublesome civ, causing your rival massive military problems. Once that warhas escalated, you can probably back out, and the war will continuenevertheless. All in all, if an enemy civ is growing too strong,getting the entire world to go to war with it can't hurt your cause.

DIPLOMACY DELUXEHere's an easy way to win. Build the UN, and have a lot of land andpopulation. Then just give a lot of gold and techs to others civilizations,

and vote for world leader. Actually, it's pretty tough to get UN Victorywithout hitting another victory mark first. So I'm not going to comment onthis too much. All I'll say is, prepare for the vote a few turns in advance.Go to all the lesser civs that won't actually be candidates, and bribe themwith everything you have: gold, free resources, and technologies. If you canget the relationship up to Gracious, you have secured their vote; even if itis only at Polite, you still have a good chance to get their vote.

DEMOCRATIC WARFAREDespotism is not for everyone. Many players love the super production and


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excellent commerce featured under Democracy, which is generally the game'sstrongest form of government. Yet they face a dilemma, because even underDemocracy you will often be forced to fight a little war or two. And in thesecases, war weariness can be a huge problem. The ability to fend off warweariness can be a huge bonus for your team, since a war between a Democracyand a Despotism will almost always go to the Democracy, if the Democraticplayer can avoid the social unrest brought on by war weariness.

War weariness can be avoided easily. The keys are simple. First, buildyour Temples and Cathedrals. Second, if you plan to set up a DemocraticWarfare game, I recommend that you do NOT build Hospitals. Why? Because apopulation 12 city with a Cathedral, Coliseum, and Temple will have noproblem maintaining happiness. At the same time, this city will receive the100% Metropolis defense bonus and have a large enough population to buildthings quickly. Once such wonders as Bach's Cathedral, Universal Suffrage,and Cure For Cancer are built, you can think about growing your cities, butuntil that time I don't recommend it. If you limit your city size, warweariness should never touch you, especially if you maintain yourentertainment slider at 20-30%. I've been able to keep up an attacking waragainst other civilizations for over 100 turns, and still maintain happiness.Final tip for Democratic Warfare: here, attack civilizations that have mutualprotection pacts can actually be a positive. say you want to fight Persia,and they have an MPP with China. Attack China, forcing Persia to declare waron you. Then make peace with China as quickly as possible. Now, you arefighting a defensive war against Persia, so war weariness is solved! As long

as you don't make peace, you can now take your time destroying the enemycivilization.

HISTOGRAPHIC VICTORYHistographic victory seems like the easiest type of victory to attain. Afterall, you don't need to DO anything, just stay in the lead throughout thegame. However, since the Score takes so many factors into account, this typeof victory can be far from easy to attain. The easy part is that you don'thave to concentrate on any one aspect of the game. If you play a good, all-round game for the duration, you'll have a good shot at a victory. However,the problem here is that one big mistake can ruin your game and destroy allthat work, and once you're losing in the Histograph it's hard to switch intoanother game plan.

LATE-STAGE ASSAULTLate-stage assault is the classic game plan with Germany. The Panzer comesvery late in the game but is a very effective unit because it can move,attack, then retreat all in one turn. While the Panzer is very useful here, alate push to victory can be used by almost any civilization to break out of aclose race and ensure the win.

USE THE **** SQUARESOften you will find yourself in an area where there is a preponderance ofarctic or mountain type terrain--areas that will produce little food for you.However, don't abandon these areas, especially if they are secure within theborders of your empire. These are great places to build one or two size

cities, build a temple and a library, and build up culture. Over time, thisculture can significantly enhance the power and stature of your nation. Plus,when resources pop up in these areas, you are right there to secure them. Thekey here is to set up a balanced production. Once your city reaches amaintainable size, possibly two or maybe even just one, go to the city statusscreen and adjust the production so that no excess food is being produced.For instance, a one population city built on a hill should cultivate its ownsquare and another hill. This will churn out just enough food to support thatcitizen, as well as at least one shield. This one shield per turn can be usedquite effectively, especially if this city is built in the early stages of


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your empire. Build a Temple in this city, allowing it to add to your Cultureand possibly expand your borders. Wealth is also an effective build,essentially giving you one free gold per turn. One last sneaky idea is tokeep this city sealed off from all your other. Don't let it get anyresources, except maybe Horses. Then produce basic units, such as Spearmen.You can keep doing this, even late into the game. What's the point of aModern-Era Spearman, you ask? Well, if you move that Spearman into a citywith a barracks and the right resources, you can quickly upgrade it to a MechInfantry. Expensive, but it allows you to keep your main cities working onWonders and improvements while your **** square cities build your army.

SPACESHIP LAUNCHOne method of victory that has been around since the beginning ofCivilization is the victory by Spaceship launch; if you launch the Spaceshipto reach Alpha Centauri, the Sun's nearest stellar neighbor, you win thegame. In Civ III, this is a very tough victory to win. Basically, yourstrategy will be the same as for a Scientific concentration, just make sureto secure the Spaceship resources (Aluminum, Rubber, Uranium) and to maintaintwo or three high production cities to build the most expensive spaceshipparts.

HIDE OUTHide out is an interesting game plan in which you try to make as little of ascene as possible on the world front. It's ideal if you are alone on a medium

size continent and occupy the entire land mass; that is, the body of land islarge enough to support a healthy empire, yet no other civ can expand closeto you. In this game plan, you basically just bide your time until youachieve one of many victory methods. The problems come when the other civsrealize you are winning so handily; they will most likely come after you. Thechallenge of Hide Out is to prevent this from happening, and thus coast tothe victory. Often, during the middle ages, you will send out some ships withsettlers to grab a presence on other continents, especially if you spy anunclaimed resource on the map. Often

DIVIDE & CONQUERDivide & Conquer is one of the most basic military strategies, yet in thetraditional sense it doesn't really work in Civ III. A city cut off from its

empire has a chance of defecting, but probably you will have to take itnormally. And an enemy unit cut off from its main force certainly won'tsurrender; in fact, it might take advantage of its position to cause chaosbehind your lines. So in Civ III, divide and conquer isn't a strategy youapply to one civ, it's a plan you apply to the whole game. With the advanceddiplomacy possible in Civ III, you are able to foment dissent among enemycultures. The goal of the divide and conquer plan is to encourage war amongenemy civs, in order to weaken them while you are strengthened. Essentially,you go through the Diplomacy screens of different civilization, and see whatthey demand for military alliances against various nations. One good idea isto match two approximately equal civs against one another, as this matchupwill often bog down in a stalemate or war of attrition, hurting both sides.Try to arrange matters so that no enemy civ can win a war or gain land, but

all are at war with one another. Now, the problem with this is that, when youhave a military alliance against a tribe, you automatically declare war onthat tribe. The beauty of divide & conquer is that, while you are AT war, youdon't actually have to GO to war. If you and the Persians declare war on theJapanese, hopefully the Persian/Japanese fighting will be so intense that youcan just stay out of the fighting, building up your cities and armies andbiding your time. Here's an ideal situation in which to employ Divide andConquer. Take the above example, and say the three civs are arranged likethis, from left to right:


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Japanese Persians You

The Japanese and Persian border is far away, and Japan is unlikely to attackyou directly since their troops would have to move through an enemy Persia.The added benefit of this setup is that the defenses on the border betweenPersia and yourself might be a little thin as Persia draws troops to itsopposite border. Plus, since you are allied with Persia, you may be able toget a Right of Passage agreement quite easily. I'm sure you see theopportunity you have-as Persia is weakened, step in and crush them, hopefullydealing them a deadly blow. The Japanese may get some of the spoils, but youshould get the majority and this ought to give you a good size lead in thegame. Note that the Right of Passage trick won't work twice, and betraying itwill greatly anger every other civ. However, the rewards available are oftenworth it.

SUPER SCIENCE CITYWonders such as the SETI program are significantly reduced in value for thisedition of Civilization. In Civ II, SETI program built a Research Lab inevery one of your cities. In Civ III, it just increases the city's scienceoutput by 50% for the city where it was built. While science wonders havebeen made less powerful, "stacking" them allows you to exponentially increasethe bonus they provide. The Super Science City strategy isn't a whole gamestrategy, it's just a special tip for a certain city. It also combines wellwith most other strategies; this is especially true of any cultural victory

plan. A super science city, in addition to pumping out the technologicaladvancements, will have a good chance at breaking the 20000 culture pointbarrier needed for cultural victory. The Super Science City is just any city that contains a certain group ofimprovements. However, an ideal setup for this city is in an openplains/grassland area of the board. Grassland is the best. While the city isstill building its vital improvements, have all squares mined or irrigated toproduce two food and one shield. Then, once all improvements are finished,irrigate in all mine squares. This will cause a population boom, and excesscitizens, beyond the maximum 20 that can be involved in production, can bemade into Scientists, boosting the city's Science even more. Anyway, here are the improvements a Super Science City should have. Themore of these you can cram in there, the better, so keep building: Library,

University, Research Lab, The Colossus, Copernicus' Observatory, Newton'sUniversity, SETI Program. Be sure to build roads around this city to maximizethe trade, and thus maximize the scientific potential. Typically, to avoidcorruption, the Super Science City either is or is near the capital orForbidden Palace.

QUICK AZTEC PLOYThis tactic, intended for use in the first few turns of the game, is idealfor the Aztecs whose unique units replace Warriors. Obviously, the value ofthese units goes down almost immediately since the Warrior is made obsoleteso quickly. However, the Aztecs can make great use of their Jaguar Warriorsin the first few turns. Build two Jaguars right away as your first two units.This should take about ten turns. Then immediately send them out. The hope is

that you find an enemy city; two warriors have a good chance of capturing aenemy city if all it has defensively is a Warrior. Even if it has a Spearman,you've got a chance. Aztec Jaguars can move 20 spaces in 10 turns, so given10 turns to build them, you could have captured a second city, or eveneliminated a civ, by turn 20. Eliminating a civ is the best possibility. Thegame automatically makes the civ starting locations spread out; if one of therivals who started near you disappears, then you will have a much greaterarea to occupy before you run into foreign borders. Thus, this quick tacticcan have benefits throughout the whole game.


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THE ROCKHow, you ask, can you wipe out dozens of enemy force with one unit. Simple,it's the Rock strategy. This uses terrain bonuses to the fullest. The besttime for this is the modern age, once railroads are built, and when you havea Right of Passage agreement you wish to violate. However, it works in manysituations. Before the fighting commences, move two or three high defenseunits (must be Veteran, preferably Elite) such as Riflemen, Infantry, andMech Infantry into your enemy's territory. Find mountains and put them there.When you commence war, just throw one unit at an enemy worker, capture it,and initiate war without taking any losses. On the same turn, fortify thoseunits on their mountains. While holding your invasion force back, the enemyshould send some troops at you, but considering the invasion army is massedat your border and possibly fortified there, they will be fended off. Theenemy will also send many units to attack those mountain top troops, butbecause their already high defense is magnified by the mountain, the enemytroops will keep failing. This works great with Battlefield Medicine sincethe fortified unit will heal between turns. Hopefully, after all this, muchof the enemy's standing army will be defeated. Now, march in and enjoy theeasy conquer.

THE CULTURE PUSHThis is a strategy for getting hold of resources peacefully. It's best donein the mid to late game, when you have a lot of gold to spare. Here's thescenario: there's a resource you want just over the enemy border. You don't

want to go to war to get it. But, you are going to get it anyway. Start by building a city in your territory, as close to the resource aspossible. Probably, when you build the city, you will grab at least onesquare of enemy territory. Now, rush the Temple, Cathedral, Library, andUniversity in that city. It should experience two quick territory boosts atthe 10 and 100 mark. Now, look at the border between you and your enemy. Itwill have pushed in a little under the weight of this new city. Now buildanother city within your territory, again as close to the resource aspossible. It might have to be very close to the previous city, or in a badposition, but don't worry. This town is just a "placeholder". Once again,rush the four culture developing improvements. Keep repeating until your "push" occupies the resource you want. You canalso use this just to reduce your enemy's territory, to cut off a city for

potential defection, to make a spur to a body of water, or any other purposewhere you want to gain territory peacefully. Usually, it will work for anyresources not immediately outside an enemy city, given enough time. After youget the territory you want, and perhaps a defection or two, and mostcertainly have built a city directly on the resource, you can exercise theoption to clean up the mess of cities this will leave. But each of thesepacked together cities should handle at least 3-4 population, so feel free tojust leave it as is.

BIG BULLSEYE EMPIREThis is an expansion tip that can secure you a good amount of land early inthe game. Have you noticed that enemy units rarely cross your territory earlyin the game, and even late in the game won't do it unless they're going

somewhere? This takes advantage of that mistake by the AI. In this plan, youbegin by making a couple cities at a central location, while exploring thesurrounding civs. Now, set all your cities to build a Settler. Take theSettlers you are churning out, and send them to a border with an enemy. Builda line of cities all along that border, set up so that the culture bordersinterlock and form one solid line. Now, the enemy won't send units acrossthat line. This line of cities doesn't need to be close to your originalgroup, in fact it shouldn't be. Essentially you are building a fence rightnow, around an area that you will later fill in. Continue to do this on allthe borders of your planned Empire, including the ocean. It may not be until


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the Middle Ages that you have a chance to fill in the inner ring of thebull's-eye that lies between your capital area and the outer perimeter. Don'tworry, however, because your fence will keep the enemy out. NOTE: In thisstrategy, never trade either of your maps, and never give a Right of Passageagreement, or the AI will go right for that open area.

TESSALLATIONSometimes you find yourself in an ideal area, where there is fertile pasturefor miles around: essentially, a big open area of Plains or Grassland. Forinstance, in the Huge World Map scenario, central Asia, stretching intoEurope is an area much like this. The shape of the Civ III city radius cannotbe tessellated, meaning you cannot arrange it like tiles with no spaces.However, this is the way to build the most cities without overlapping andwith the least wasted space: (X represents a city, numbers are the cityradius areas of different cities, note that City #8 is off the map to thenorth)

-----------------------------------------------| |1|1|1| |3|3|3|3|3|5|5|X|5|5|8|8|8|8|8| | | |-----------------------------------------------|1|1|1|1|1|3|3|X|3|3|5|5|5|5|5| |8|8|8|7|7|7| |-----------------------------------------------|1|1|X|1|1|3|3|3|3|3| |5|5|5|6|6|6| |7|7|7|7|7|-----------------------------------------------

|1|1|1|1|1| |3|3|3|4|4|4| |6|6|6|6|6|7|7|X|7|7|-----------------------------------------------| |1|1|1|2|2|2| |4|4|4|4|4|6|6|X|6|6|7|7|7|7|7|-----------------------------------------------| | | |2|2|2|2|2|4|4|X|4|4|6|6|6|6|6| |7|7|7| |-----------------------------------------------| | | |2|2|X|2|2|4|4|4|4|4| |6|6|6| | | | | | |-----------------------------------------------

As you can see, this method wastes just one out of every 22 squares.

TERRAIN BONUS #1: LAND BRIDGESLand bridges are a beautiful terrain feature if you are the first to discover

it, and is not so great if you come late (rhyme!). A Land Bridge is any pieceof terrain set up so that you can completely blockade it with one or twounits; the key is that it is completely blocked, including any diagonalmoves. If you find a land bridge, use whatever units you have to, and blockit then and there. If it is at a border to your Empire, then it will stopenemy troops from coming in unless they are at war with you. It will alsostop enemy explorers from accessing precious resources in that interior area. An interesting use of land bridges is when you have them blocked, butthey are nowhere near your civ. By using them to control the flow of enemyunits, you can determine the fate of wars and allow one civ to grow whileanother languishes. Say there is a small civ on your border you want toprotect as a buffer, let's say France, and they are at war with another largeciv, say China. If you find a land bridge separating China and France, occupy

it. China will now be forced to fight the war from the sea, neutralizingtheir advantage in size. Land bridges are definitely one of the mosteffective terrain features when used properly.

TERRAIN BONUS #2: ISTHMUS/CANALAn isthmus is any feature of land separating two bodies of water. To build acanal there, it must have at least one point where it is one square wide.That is, imagine that you had a ship that could move over land; if it couldmove from the first body of water into the second in only two moves, you canbuild a canal. Now, you ask, I didn't know there was a canal function?!?!


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Well there isn't. What you do is you build a city on that one land square.Ships can enter the city, and will be able to move from one body of water tothe other. While this type of terrain feature is rare, being able to buildsuch a city is a huge bonus. Your troops and ships will be able to move muchfaster since they won't have to go around the land mass, they can go throughit. The best possible application is the Inland Sea. While such a feature israre to find on a map, an inland sea gives you great opportunities to havethe sea all to yourself. This is nice for building Coastal wonders withouthaving to put them in a vulnerable coastal city. NOTE: You can achieve thesame effect by blocking the entire entrance to a sea with ship units and thenjust leaving them there, and no enemy units will be able to enter. Of course,you must control the whole coast of the sea, or they can just build shipsinside it.

SCORE BOOSTINGIf you are obsessed with getting the all time high score or just beating yourfriend's best effort, there are a number of steps you can take to increaseyour score. Remember that the biggest contributors to your score areterritory and happy citizens. Essentially, here's what this means: formaximum score, big cities are a bad idea. Let's say that you have four luxuryresources. With marketplaces in every city, this will allow you to keep sixcitizens in each city happy without any improvements but a marketplace. Sowhat do you do? If you're playing a game with an eye toward milking the score, begin

with the "Bullseye" empire strategy mentioned above. Then fill in the emptyspace with as many cities as you think reasonable; each city should be ableto support 6 citizens under Despotism. The key is to acquire four luxuryresources, then build marketplace in every city. Once you do this you areready for phase two. Sweep almost all the rest of the world away in a warcampaign. As long as you never build aqueduct, your citizenry will stayhappy; feel no need to build any improvements in your cities, just keepbuilding units. In captured areas, follow the same plan as before: citiesclose together, marketplace in each, complete trade network, no aqueduct. The final phase begins once you have pretty much destroyed all othercivs. Let one civ stay alive, under close watch by your troops. Just let themkeep their capital; we just don't want the game to end. Now, build aqueductin all your cities and use workers to irrigate every square that can be

irrigated. All food should be put to use. As to science and taxes, only keepenough taxes to offset your costs. Science can be shut down completely. Thekey is to set the luxury slider as high as is necessary to have every citizenbe happy. When 2050 rolls around, sit back and watch the demographics as youachieve your Hall of Fame score.

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*******************************************************************************TRIBES OF CIVILIZATION III**************************************************************************************************************************************************************Under each tribe heading, you will find numerous pieces of information. Here'sa summary of what each section contains.

TRIBE NAMEThe tribe is listed by three names: the name of the people (plural); the nameof the land they inhabit; and the adjective used to describe them.


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RULER NAMEThis is the default ruler name for the tribe, the default title, and defaultgender.

CULTURE GROUPThere are five "culture groups" in the game. Basically, the represent thegeneral area of origin of the group. The five groups are: Asian, Mid East,American, European, and Mediterranian. Tribes in the same culture groupsuse the same city models on the main map screen, tend to start closer to oneanother, and tend to have better relations with one another. Here are allthe tribes divided by culture group:

AMERICAN: Americans, Aztecs, IroquoisASIAN: Chinese, Indians, JapaneseEUROPEAN: English, French, Germans, RussiansMEDITERRANIAN: Egyptians, Greeks, RomansMIDEAST: Babylonians, Persians, Zulus

PERSONALITYThis is in three parts: Favored government; Hated government; and aggressionlevel, with the levels being Low, Below Average, Average, Above Average, andHigh.

UNIQUE COLORThis is the team's color. Their cities will have this color in the name bar,and their units will have a ring of this color around them. Also, this colorwill indicate their borders on the main and small maps.

BONUSESThere are six bonuses; each Civ has two. The bonuses are very important indetermining what a tribe is like, so I will go into some detail on each one.

Militaristic: Civilizations with this attribute produce more Great Leaders, and their units promote more easily (Regular to Veteran, Veteran to Elite, Etc.). They also produce military improvements (Barracks, Coastal Fortress, etc.) 50% more cheaply than other Civs. The best

aspect of this is the Leader production, which both allows you to create more armies, and allows you to speed Wonders, which can be a big help in stealing Wonders from other Civs.

The following Civs have the Militaristic Bonus: Aztecs Germans Japanese Romans Zulus

Commercial: Commercial Bonus allows a Civ two financial advantages: first, it reduces corruption across your empire, though the actual reduction

is fairly low. Second, large cities get a bonus production of commerce. This to me is the second least effective bonus.

The following Civs have the Commercial Bonus: British French Greeks Indians Romans


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Religious: Religious tribes can build religion-oriented city improvements, such as Temple and Cathedral, at half-cost. They also change forms of government with only one turn of anarchy. The easy government change is a big plus if you like to change governments a lot, particularly if you do the Democracy in peace/Despotism in war thing. Personally, I just try to keep my Democracy stable through the tough times, so Religion is less of a plus.

The following Civs have the Religious Bonus: Aztecs Babylonians Egyptians Indians Iroquois Japanese

Industrious: Larger cities produce more shield under the Industrious Bonus, which is a two-edged sword, since your cities will build faster but will also produce more pollution. Workers also work faster under this bonus.

The following Civs have the Industrious Bonus: Americans Chinese

Egyptians French Persians

Scientific: For me this is the best attribute. First, you get a free tech at the beginning of each of the four Eras. Plus, you can build Library and University and Research Lab more quickly...not only does this make your research faster, but it helps increase your culture. These are great Civs to play with for any type of victory.

The following Civs have the Scientific Bonus: Babylonians Chinese

Germans Greeks Russians Persians

Expansionist: Expansionist cultures get a third unit at the beginning of the game: a Scout, which has a two movement rate. They can also build more scouts later. This is by far the weakest of the six bonuses.

The following Civs have the Expansionist Bonus: Americans British Iroquois

Russians Zulus

OPENING TECHSEach tribe is given two free civilization advances at the start of the game.

UNIQUE UNITEach tribe has one unique unit; here, the unit is given with its stats and anyother relevant information. A/D/M is Attack/Defense/Movement. Range is given in


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place of Movement for air units.

*******************************************************************************AMERICANS

Tribe Names: Americans, America, AmericanRuler Name: President Lincoln (male)Culture Group: AmericanFavored Gov't: DemocracyHated Gov't: CommunismAggression Level: AverageUnique Color: Sky BlueBonuses: Industrious ExpansionistOpening Techs: Pottery MasonryUnique Unit: F-15 replaces JET FIGHTER A/D/M: 8/4/6*******************************************************************************AZTECS

Tribe Names: Aztecs, Aztecs, AztecRuler Name: Chief Montezuma (male)Culture Group: American

Favored Gov't: MonarchyHated Gov't: DemocracyAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: Forest GreenBonuses: Militaristic ReligiousOpening Techs: Warrior Code Ceremonial BurialUnique Unit: JAGUAR WARRIOR replaces WARRIOR A/D/M: 1/1/2*******************************************************************************BABYLONIANS

Tribe Names: Babylonians, Babylon, BabylonianRuler Name: King Hammurabi (male)Culture Group: Mid EastFavored Gov't: MonarchyHated Gov't: DespotismAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: Dark BlueBonuses: Scientific ReligiousOpening Techs: Bronze Working Ceremonial BurialUnique Unit: BOWMAN replaces ARCHER A/D/M: 2/2/1

*******************************************************************************CHINESE

Tribe Names: Chinese, China, ChineseRuler Name: Chairman Mao (male)Culture Group: AsianFavored Gov't: CommunismHated Gov't: MonarchyAggression Level: Below AverageUnique Color: Pink (maybe Salmon)


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Bonuses: Militaristic IndustriousOpening Techs: Warrior Code MasonryUnique Unit: RIDER replaces KNIGHT A/D/M: 4/3/3*******************************************************************************EGYPTIANS

Tribe Names: Egyptians, Egypt, EgyptianRuler Name: Queen Cleopatra (female)Culture Group: MediterraneanFavored Gov't: MonarchyHated Gov't: RepublicAggression Level: AverageUnique Color: YellowBonuses: Industrial ReligiousOpening Techs: Ceremonial Burial MasonryUnique Unit: WAR CHARIOT replaces CHARIOT A/D/M: 2/1/2*******************************************************************************ENGLISH

Tribe Names: English, England, EnglishRuler Name: Queen Elizabeth (female)Culture Group: EuropeanFavored Gov't: DemocracyHated Gov't: DespotismAggression Level: AverageUnique Color: OrangeBonuses: Expansionist CommercialOpening Techs: Alphabet PotteryUnique Unit: MAN O WAR replaces FRIGATE

A/D/M: 3/2/4*******************************************************************************FRENCH

Tribe Names: French, France, FrenchRuler Name: Saint Joan d'Arc (female)Culture Group: EuropeanFavored Gov't: RepublicHated Gov't: MonarchyAggression Level: LowUnique Color: Pink (Darker Pink than China)Bonuses: Industrious Commercial

Opening Techs: Alphabet MasonryUnique Unit: MUSKETEER replaces MUSKETMAN A/D/M: 3/4/1*******************************************************************************GERMANS

Tribe Names: Germans, Germany, GermansRuler Name: Chancellor Bismark (male)Culture Group: European


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Favored Gov't: RepublicHated Gov't: CommunismAggression Level: HighUnique Color: Light BlueBonuses: Militaristic ScientificOpening Techs: Warrior Code Bronze WorkingUnique Unit: PANZER replaces TANK A/D/M: 16/8/3*******************************************************************************GREEKS

Tribe Names: Greeks, Greece, GreekRuler Name: King Alexander (male)Culture Group: MediterraneanFavored Gov't: DemocracyHated Gov't: DespotismAggression Level: AverageUnique Color: Lime GreenBonuses: Scientific CommercialOpening Techs: Alphabet Bronze Working

Unique Unit: HOPLITE replaces SPEARMAN A/D/M: 1/3/1*******************************************************************************INDIANS

Tribe Names: Indians, India, IndianRuler Name: Mahatma Gandhi (male)Culture Group: AsianFavored Gov't: DemocracyHated Gov't: DespotismAggression Level: LowUnique Color: GrayBonuses: Religious

CommercialOpening Techs: Alphabet Ceremonial BurialUnique Unit: WAR ELEPHANT replaces KNIGHT A/D/M: 4/3/2*******************************************************************************IROQUOIS

Tribe Names: Iroquois, Iroquois, IroquoisRuler Name: Chief HiawathaCulture Group: AmericanFavored Gov't: CommunismHated Gov't: Monarchy

Aggression Level: Below AverageUnique Color: PurpleBonuses: Expansionist ReligiousOpening Techs: Pottery Ceremonial BurialUnique Unit: MOUNTED WARRIOR replaces HORSEMAN A/D/M: 3/1/2*******************************************************************************JAPANESE


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Tribe Names: Japanese, Japan, JapaneseRuler Name: Shogun Tokugawa (male)Culture Group: AsianFavored Gov't: MonarchyHated Gov't: RepublicAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: Brick RedBonuses: Militaristic ReligiousOpening Techs: The Wheel Ceremonial BurialUnique Unit: SAMURAI replaces KNIGHT A/D/M: 4/4/2*******************************************************************************PERSIANS

Tribe Names: Persians, Persia, PersianRuler Name: Emperor Xerxes (male)Culture Group: Mid EastFavored Gov't: MonarchyHated Gov't: DemocracyAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: Teal

Bonuses: Industrious ScientificOpening Techs: Bronze Working MasonryUnique Unit: IMMORTALS replaces SWORDSMAN A/D/M: 4/2/1*******************************************************************************ROMANS

Tribe Names: Romans, Rome, RomanRuler Name: Emperor Caesar (male)Culture Group: MediterraneanFavored Gov't: Republic

Hated Gov't: CommunismAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: RedBonuses: Militaristic CommercialOpening Techs: Warrior Code AlphabetUnique Unit: LEGIONARY replaces SWORDSMAN A/D/M: 3/3/1*******************************************************************************RUSSIANS

Tribe Names: Russians, Russia, Russian

Ruler Name: Czarina Catherine (female)Culture Group: EuropeanFavored Gov't: CommunismHated Gov't: DemocracyAggression Level: Above AverageUnique Color: BrownBonuses: Expansionist ScientificOpening Techs: Pottery Bronze Working


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Unique Unit: COSSACK replaces CAVALRY A/D/M: 6/4/3*******************************************************************************ZULUS

Tribe Names: Zulus, Zululand, ZuluRuler Name: Chief Shaka (male)Culture Group: Mid EastFavored Gov't: DespotismHated Gov't: DemocracyAggression Level: HighUnique Color: BlackBonuses: Militaristic ExpansionistOpening Techs: Warrior Code PotteryUnique Unit: IMPI replaces SPEARMAN A/D/M: 1/2/2*******************************************************************************

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UNITS OF CIVILIZATION III**************************************************************************************************************************************************************LEGEND

NAME: Pretty self-explanitory.

PRE-REQUISITE: Technology needed to build.

RESOURCES: Strategic Resources, it any, needed to build this unit.

COST: Cost in shields (cost in population).

ATTACK (A): Unit's attack strength.DEFENSE (D): Unit's defense strength.MOVEMENT (M): Standard moves per turn. For air units, the operational range isgiven instead.

BOMBARD: Strength (Range) (Rate of Fire).

UPGRADES TO: What the unit upgrades to.

ABILITIES: All special abilities.

The regular units are listed alphabetically from AEGIS Cruiser to Worker. Then,the sixteen civilization-unique units are listed, alphabetically by civ, from

the Americans' F-15 Fighter to the Zulus Impi. For these units, two extrapieces of info are listed. In parantheses next to the unit's name is the c

civilization 3 guide

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