NationStates Jolt Archive

Alright, who amongst us plays this wonderful game? And, what civs do you enjoy using the most?

For me, Numero Uno's gotta be Germany. It's just got a nice feeling to it... Building as quickly as possible, getting to the Industrial age first, then knocking out nation after nation with an iron fist.

Oh, and along with that, I like switching the music around. Putting in true-to-life military songs really improves the experience. And don't forget about the mods you can make with the editor!

A true work of genius. :cool:

Still, my favorite Civ has to be either Carthage or the Ottomans. The Siphai waste riflemen during the early Industrial age, and the Numidian Mercenary is good up until late medieval, which saves a lot of time and money. Plus, industrial/commercial is a great combination. My 3rd fav would be the Dutch. In a metropolis, their 4 defense unique unit (just forgot name?) is as good as a rifleman or better.

Yeah, those Sipahi are absolutely nasty.

My favorite growth civ's a tie between America and China. America's got a superior Modern age unique unity in the F-15, while China can take out opponents early with their Rider units. America can grow faster, but China's got more early military advantages.

Agreed, China is great, but i love playing Russia too.

Tiss a sweat game, but the best civ is Rome. It's legionaires are good until the end of the midevil age.

I do like Russia. Still, the Russkies aren't as tempting as the Romans :D.

Tiss a sweat game, but the best civ is Rome. It's legionaires are good until the end of the midevil age.

There is no "best civ". Each civ has its own advantages and disadvantages.

I like Germany best, as the Panzer is useful. The F-15 really isnt valuable to me, nor is the English Man O' War, since only land units can give you leaders.

I do like the Persians, too, because I almost always get 2 (and once, 3!) Golden Ages with them.

I *really* dislike the Russians. The Cossack unit doesn't hold it's advantage for long enough, and the lack of cultural expansion makes them harder to play.

Tiss a sweat game, but the best civ is Rome. It's legionaires are good until the end of the midevil age.

They have a defense of 3, which is as good as a pikeman!

My Civ 3 disk was damaged when moving house. I have been hanging out for a game for ages. I've tried using Rise of Nations as a substitute, alas to no avail.

I miss being Germany or England.

I've been playing Civ II but I haven't been able to get a copy of Civ III. Is it better. Can anyone give me the URL for a demo?

I do like the Persians, too, because I almost always get 2 (and once, 3!) Golden Ages with them.


Immortals are just plain incredible! 4 attack/2 defense, I was able to take down my rival on an island with a stack of 9 of them and lost two total! They also are decent defenders and can do alright even against musketmen.

I did have a Balance Mod a few months back, but I lost it when I had to reformat my hard drive. I'll be making it again.

I totally balanced absolutely every aspect of the game, even so much as the units that became obsolete, but shouldn't. Shit, I even balanced the Cossacks!

I don't like civ 3. My fault, though. I just don't "get" it, and lose every time, even on second easiest mode. I can barely turn a profit, and my troops lose to stone age warriors every time. So I get angry and quit.

I've played the game. It is awesome! I like to play as America, Inca, and Mayan. Also you got to like Civ3s modablility. You can make expansion packs full of stuff without Firaxis.

I've played the game. It is awesome! I like to play as America, Inca, and Mayan. Also you got to like Civ3s modablility. You can make expansion packs full of stuff without Firaxis.

Exactly. I'm currently engaged in a mod called Barbarossa. It's an Eastern Front WWII mod, and it's very nice indeed.

Good game, though I somehow preferred Civ2. The thing I didn't quite like about Civ3 is the fact that if you start on a shitty location without gunpowder, it's going to be really tough later on the game until you finally get international markets, or someone willing to trade you with it.

Either than that.. it's a good game. Darn.. come to think about it, I haven't played it in years. I used to like USA or Zulu's.

Immortals are just plain incredible! 4 attack/2 defense, I was able to take down my rival on an island with a stack of 9 of them and lost two total! They also are decent defenders and can do alright even against musketmen.

Ayep. The Immortals have staying power, unlike some of the other Civs (the Impi comes to mind.)

BTW: If you don't already, play the game with the advanced options turned on. Being able to tell workers to road/railroad to somewhere, and rename units easily makes the game a LOT easier.

I also play w/ the "colorblind" options on. Sometimes, it's hard to tell between two similar colors after playing for 5 or 6 hours... ;)

They have starting locations like that so you'll be up for the rush. It's a gameplay mechanic, not a flaw.

This is my biggest complaint about the game. You can have a Democracy that's 500 years old, with courthouses and police stations EVERYWHERE. Yet halfway around the planet, you lose 75% of a city's productivity...

This is my biggest complaint about the game. You can have a Democracy that's 500 years old, with courthouses and police stations EVERYWHERE. Yet halfway around the planet, you lose 75% of a city's productivity...

Yeah, that's a bugger. It's one of the things I fixed in my Balance Mod. I made it to where a soundly-run Democracy has little corruption, though not quite like a Communism.

I don't like civ 3. My fault, though. I just don't "get" it, and lose every time, even on second easiest mode. I can barely turn a profit, and my troops lose to stone age warriors every time. So I get angry and quit.

What do you do for governments? I always go directly for Republic from Despotism. You also NEED to get at least one ancient wonder (preferably in your capital).

It's also good to eliminate another Civ before 1000BC, too. :D
(2000BC is better.)

What do you do for governments? I always go directly for Republic from Despotism. You also NEED to get at least one ancient wonder (preferably in your capital).

In conquests, I go with Republic. The difference in corruption is in reality minimal between it and Demo, and the free unit support means massive amounts of extra gold income if you are unit-efficent. I'd rather have free units than that 2x worker rate. They key is large populations, obviously.

I usually like playing the Celts. Their gallic swordsmen are good for an early invasion. The agriculture bonus has become a must for me too.

In terms of governments, it usually depends on how I'm playing. If I'm just trying to build as many wonders as I can (and I can get all but two or three if I'm playing a good game), I go for democracy. I If I want to kill everything and everyone, I usually go for communism, since it's easier to build near your borders.

I rarely go for a Democracy. If I do, it's always with a non-aggressive strategy. My favorite government would have to be Communism, purely for ease of use.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about Mod governments! My all-time favorite would be Democratic Socialism. It's like... Democracy... Mixed with... Communism... Yeah. Anyway, it's great.

Is this the civ game titled "call to power" ?

Nope. Call To Power was a cheap knock-off from Activision. This is the real deal, man.

I rarely go for a Democracy. If I do, it's always with a non-aggressive strategy. My favorite government would have to be Communism, purely for ease of use.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about Mod governments! My all-time favorite would be Democratic Socialism. It's like... Democracy... Mixed with... Communism... Yeah. Anyway, it's great.
What the fudge are mod governments? I want one.

What the fudge are mod governments? I want one.

Governments that you make in the Civilization Editor. I try not to cheat by making uber governments with free units :D.

I think I play Civilization 3 more then any other game I have. My personal favorite civs to play are the Mongols, Arabs, Romans, Carthage, Americans, and Inca. They're all great fun to go for conquest and domination victories with. The English and Americans are fun to use for cultural and histographic victories. The thing is that there's more civs in the game then just them so I try to play them as often as possible. To this end I play the GOTM and COTM from Civfanatics religiously.

If you're not playing a GOTM and you're not playing on a huge map then you're not really playing Civ 3. I have yet to win on a huge map at sid level, but a deity level modern era invasion of a huge continent that's been completely taken over by a rival civ is the best thing the game has to offer. Well, playing huge maps using the Middle Ages senario rules, Monarchy giving a trade bonus, and boats that move 10 spaces and don't sink in oceans is pretty fun, too.

I rarely go for a Democracy. If I do, it's always with a non-aggressive strategy. My favorite government would have to be Communism, purely for ease of use.

I can see that if you're playing at Emperor or below, but otherwise why would you want to switch from Republic? War weariness isn't a problem with cathedrals and a few luxuries and you'll have enough money for more military then you'll ever need. I guess it would make sense to switch to Communism if you hadn't conquered a significant portion of your rivals yet. You can't beat pop rushing military out of corrupted cities.

Alright, who amongst us plays this wonderful game? And, what civs do you enjoy using the most?

For me, Numero Uno's gotta be Germany. It's just got a nice feeling to it... Building as quickly as possible, getting to the Industrial age first, then knocking out nation after nation with an iron fist.

Oh, and along with that, I like switching the music around. Putting in true-to-life military songs really improves the experience. And don't forget about the mods you can make with the editor!
I like it. The best civilization hands down is Persia: Industrious (worker does 2x the workload) and scientific (2x research speed). On democracy, workers build railroads in 1 turn! As for government: democracy in peacetime, communism in wartime.

I can see that if you're playing at Emperor or below, but otherwise why would you want to switch from Republic? War weariness isn't a problem with cathedrals and a few luxuries and you'll have enough money for more military then you'll ever need. I guess it would make sense to switch to Communism if you hadn't conquered a significant portion of your rivals yet. You can't beat pop rushing military out of corrupted cities.

I do like the Republic. However, it really doesn't suit my style. I like to spread all over the map like a virus. Communism really benefits that style, because corruption is fixed. I usually take the Despotism -> Monarchy -> Communism path. It always works well for me.

Egyptions for me. Industrious and religious. Temples and things double quick so your culture gets up fast, and industrious means your workers work a lot faster so your trade routes and production through mines and things get up a lot faster.

Nope. Call To Power was a cheap knock-off from Activision. This is the real deal, man.
Call to Power was definitely not merely a thoughtless Civ knockoff like Test of Time which was the exact same thing as Civ II except with different graphics. CTP has faults but it also made many great improvements to Civ II that Sid Meier adopted for Civ III. For example, the construction of armies/mixed forces originated in CTP. Also, I think CTP has a superior system of making terrain improvements. In all the Sid Meier Civ games, city improvements are built by settlers/engineers/woerkers/etc. In CTP you set part of your taxes to "infrastructure points" which can then be converted to roads, farms, etc. through point-and-click on the map, and you don't have to build hordes of workers.

Personally I liked Civ II better than CTP, CTP II, and Civ III. All these games are great fun. The only complaint i have about the Civ series is the limited diplomacy system, which looks idiotic compared to the amazing diplomacy found in Europa Universalis II or Victoria.

Yeah, I will admit that the diplomacy system is rather limited. But, overall, Civ is still the best.

Civ III is the only game I really play, moving up from CiviII. In CivIII I almost always play Indians, I love my elephants and the religious bonus. One thing I miss though,is I found diplomacy in CivII much more interesting, also the videos of the wonders, shouldn't have taken those away, IMO. I went into a gaming store a few months ago seeing that the whole package with the expansion packs are priced the same, as when I first bought CivIII when it first came out. :mad:

Yeah, I got a little pissed when I walked into a Gamestop a few months back (around Christmas) and saw the Civilization III Gold Edition for $29.99.

Yeah, I will admit that the diplomacy system is rather limited. But, overall, Civ is still the best.
Civ II is definitely still one of my favorite games, though I'm still having trouble with the higher difficulty levels even after about 6 or 7 years of first playing it. Last week I played a game of Civ II on Deity Level with most of the world conquered but as I was about to vanquish my last opponents they threw nukes at my units and got pollution everywhere. I gave up after a while because the global warming turned the whole planet into a barren desert and i was losing about 400 points due to polution.

For people who haven't tried CTP or CTP II, I highly recommend these games. The developers at Activision clearly took time and effort to make interesting features and unique gameplay unlike the bums at Microprose which made ToT into a worthless rehash of Civ II. There's a lot of emphasis on non conventional, non-combat units in CTP such as eco-terrorists, slavecatchers, etc. which makes it a lot different than other Civ-related empire building games. Alpha Centauri has more in common with Civ II than CTP has with Civ II.

A true work of genius. :cool:

Still, my favorite Civ has to be either Carthage or the Ottomans. The Siphai waste riflemen during the early Industrial age, and the Numidian Mercenary is good up until late medieval, which saves a lot of time and money. Plus, industrial/commercial is a great combination. My 3rd fav would be the Dutch. In a metropolis, their 4 defense unique unit (just forgot name?) is as good as a rifleman or better.
totally agreed :p

I've gone 8 months without playing a good game of Civ 3. You guys got me interested again.

Hahahahaaaahahahaaaa... It begins!!!

I've gone 8 months without playing a good game of Civ 3. You guys got me interested again.evil people huh, *runs off to play civ*

I never liked Civ 3 much. Imo CTP has a better feel to it. Civ 3 feels unfinished and crude andlacks this certain feel of being immersed. It looks cold and bland, diplomacy in it is a joke and it doesn't have any videos aside from the Intro and Outro - I greatly like the CTP world wonder videos. CTP also has 3 spheres of existence: land, ocean and space with specific units for each of these environments. Civ 3 while an improvement to Civ 2, is not my preferred civilization-building game, despite the name "Sid Meier" who seems to have fallen prey to the mistake of releasing this game earlier than would have been good for it.

Ah, yes, Call To Power, the game with a battle system so poor that even patches couldn't fix it! Apparently, its mod community did a good job of fixing it up, but I'm not too sure.

There was only so much they could do, but I think they have the source code now.

CTP 2 had some great elements that, while I'm not completely decided, I might enjoy seeing in Civ 4. First would be public works. On one hand I would find myself nostalgic if there were no workers in Civ 4. Units doing the work just seem like a Civ establishment. On the other hand it's tedius. On the other other hand you'd have to re-work early game balance to factor in not losing 40 or 50 population from your empire before the middle ages thorugh production of workers.

The second thing I'd like to see are armies similar to CTP 2. I hear these will be included in Civ 4. I really like the idea of a special army that the result of a great leader. Perhaps in Civ 4 you could still have a special unit that you could load into a normal CTP 2-like army that would give it added offensive, defensive, and movement points. On a related note, I don't like the idea of having a military academy if the AI doesn't know how to use an army. That might just be a product of bad programming in Civ 3 though and it could improved. As it is I can have 10 armies easily in the industrial ages. That's 40 attacks on an AI that can't effectively defend against armies and refuses to attack them.

The third thing I'd like to see are underwater cities. Along with this the domination limit would be upped, perahps to 80% or more. This would give greater relevence to the modern ages and it'd be great fun.

Oh, and a better diplomacy system. I think the creators of Civ 4 would like to see this as much as we would, so it'll probably be in there.

Edit: How about a more complex economic model? That might take away from the tradition of the game being focused on the big picture and on strategic decisions, or it might enhance it. I personally think it'd be more fun but others might not want to deal with it.

I usually use China. I just like them and tend to have a really strong culture. But I suck...

I'm still figuring out some strategies for China. I'm gonna try an agriculture boom and see how things turn out.

I'll gladly give you some texts if it works!

Ah, Civ III, I love the game. My favorite civs are the greeks, romans and english.

The last patch did help out a lot... for example, I no longer see triremes going across open ocean for seven turns to get to an island they had no chance of knowing about.

Starting positions are also better. On the previous patch, I once started on an island (supposed to be a continental game!) where there were 39 squares of mountain and 4 squares that weren't -- all spread out, two of which were tundra. :(

They really do have to fix global warming and corruption in Civ 4, though.

I have it, but neither of the expansion packs. I still think Civ I was the best.

And I usually go China, but Greece is cool for the extra defence from hoplites at the start.

I have it, but neither of the expansion packs. I still think Civ I was the best.

And I usually go China, but Greece is cool for the extra defence from hoplites at the start.

Civ 1 was the awesome back in the day, but it was way too easy to cheat (my favorite trick was to railroad fish...). It also had a 254 unit limit before it'd start to go haywire, so on big maps I often ran into having to disband units in my core to keep the ol' war machine moving.

Civ 2 was much better. Esp. the diamond "squares".

I hope Civ 4 finally bites the bullet and uses hexes!

Exactly. I'm currently engaged in a mod called Barbarossa. It's an Eastern Front WWII mod, and it's very nice indeed.

Is there somewhere you can download mods from, or do you have to design them yourself? (I simply can't be bothered making any - it's the sloth genes)

Oh, and the Dutch rule, especially when your opponents realise that Swiss Pikemen simply don't lose when they're new...

And the Vikings are good, especially if your starting place lacks recources (can still build Berserks)

Civ 1 was the awesome back in the day, but it was way too easy to cheat (my favorite trick was to railroad fish...). It also had a 254 unit limit before it'd start to go haywire, so on big maps I often ran into having to disband units in my core to keep the ol' war machine moving.

Civ 2 was much better. Esp. the diamond "squares".

I hope Civ 4 finally bites the bullet and uses hexes!

Heheheh, the good ol' railroad cheat...and there's the "Set Science to 100% at the start" exploit, too.

The windows version had a cool cheat too. If you had a chariot, or something with more than one movement point, moved it one square and saved the game, then restored it, it would have 2 movement points again. :D

Though the windows version is nothing compared to the DOS version. The interface of the DOS version is what did it for me (it's *perfect*)...and coupled with the nostalgia I have for it...I've spent so much of my life playing that game :D

Though yes, I did eventually move onto Civ 2 and 3...and it's hard to go back. Even though Civ 2 and 3 don't have the same "magic" about them. (That "magic" was in all early Microprose games, and I haven't found a game since that recreates it :()

Heheheh, the good ol' railroad cheat...and there's the "Set Science to 100% at the start" exploit, too.

The windows version had a cool cheat too. If you had a chariot, or something with more than one movement point, moved it one square and saved the game, then restored it, it would have 2 movement points again. :D

Though the windows version is nothing compared to the DOS version. The interface of the DOS version is what did it for me (it's *perfect*)...and coupled with the nostalgia I have for it...I've spent so much of my life playing that game :D

Though yes, I did eventually move onto Civ 2 and 3...and it's hard to go back. Even though Civ 2 and 3 don't have the same "magic" about them. (That "magic" was in all early Microprose games, and I haven't found a game since that recreates it :()

With the Civ 1 world map, I had the movement path down so that with Egypt or Rome I could eradicate 5 other Civs... with my settler.

Sure, you often ended up taking a "2" city (thus getting a capital w/o a palace), but that was a small price to pay. :D

I introduced dozens of people to Civ while in college. GPAs plummeted.

With the Civ 1 world map, I had the movement path down so that with Egypt or Rome I could eradicate 5 other Civs... with my settler.

Sure, you often ended up taking a "2" city (thus getting a capital w/o a palace), but that was a small price to pay. :D

I introduced dozens of people to Civ while in college. GPAs plummeted.

:D

Oh, and by the way, a big thumbs up to the hex idea.

I'd also like to see Alpha Centauri's governmental system (and perhaps the unit design feature) make a comeback. I have no idea why they didn't include it in Civ 3, because it was awesome. If you haven't played it, basically you have "government, economy, and values" options (as well as an irrelevant - to classic Civ, anyway- "future society" option), and you choose between three choices for each of these categories, and rival factions bitch if your choices aren't compatible with theirs (planned economies and free markets don't get along, for instance, but compatible ideologies are natural allies). If they maybe expanded it to 4 or 5 categories each for the next civ (considering the much longer time-frame), it would be a lot better for customisation. :D I find that bland choices of "monarchy" "democracy" "communism" and so on are a bit boring- what if I want a democratic socialist state? Or a fascist police state with a free market? But maybe that's just me being anal. :p

Is there somewhere you can download mods from, or do you have to design them yourself? (I simply can't be bothered making any - it's the sloth genes)

Oh, and the Dutch rule, especially when your opponents realise that Swiss Pikemen simply don't lose when they're new...

And the Vikings are good, especially if your starting place lacks recources (can still build Berserks)

www.civfanatics.com

Go here for all your Civ III customization needs. They've got mods, graphics packs, maps, scenarios, and everything inbetween.

I've found that changing China to Agricultural/Scientific makes things a bit more realistic. Faster tech research along with faster growth makes for a better China :D.

I've been playing for a couple years now. Quickly grown to be my fav. My favorite Civ, at the moment, is the Sumerians. Gotta like Gilgamesh.

I've been playing for a couple years now. Quickly grown to be my fav. My favorite Civ, at the moment, is the Sumerians. Gotta like Gilgamesh.

Sumeria is great, but their UU is almost useless. Almost.

Sumeria is great, but their UU is almost useless. Almost.

True, but therein lies the challenge!

True, but therein lies the challenge!

You've got a point! It's like Egypt's UU... Good mainly for scouting. Oh yeah, don't forget the Aztecs with their Jaguar Warriors.

What's your favorite mod? Or do you play vanilla Civ? My favs are the Warhammer Mod. and the Ancient Med. Mod.

Currently, it's the Barbarossa mod. Gotta love the Eastern Front!

Oh, and I put my own military music in. It really improves the atmosphere.

Alright, who amongst us plays this wonderful game? And, what civs do you enjoy using the most?

For me, Numero Uno's gotta be Germany. It's just got a nice feeling to it... Building as quickly as possible, getting to the Industrial age first, then knocking out nation after nation with an iron fist.

Oh, and along with that, I like switching the music around. Putting in true-to-life military songs really improves the experience. And don't forget about the mods you can make with the editor!
Civ3 takes too long for my taste, thus I stick with Microprose's Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition. Civ3 doesn't match too well with my short attention span. Civ2 MGE, however, is where the Plutonian Empire was born. :D

Yeah, Civ III definitely isn't for people who can't take a long game. I had a game a couple of years ago that took a whole six months to complete!

Usually the Greeks for me. I love Classical Greece, and the Civ has both Science and Commerce. :)

The problem with Civ III is that it takes an hour for a turn to happen, especially from teh industrial age onwards. I spend more time watching my opponents move then time moving my own units.

Usually the Greeks for me. I love Classical Greece, and the Civ has both Science and Commerce. :)

Plus, if you use Hoplites in a *Stack of Doom* with Catapults, Archers, and Horsemen, you'll dominate the world for quite some time.

The problem with Civ III is that it takes an hour for a turn to happen, especially from teh industrial age onwards. I spend more time watching my opponents move then time moving my own units.

Depends on how fast your computer is.

I do have a fast computer. Its just that my opponents always have like 50 units, and I have to wait until they all finish moving before I can move.

Yeah, Civ III definitely isn't for people who can't take a long game. I had a game a couple of years ago that took a whole six months to complete!
Which is why i'm thankful I have civ2. Using my empire and her super-units and super-techs, I can complete 3 scenarios in one day. :D

I remember playing a game where I was the tiny democratic Carthaginians and went to war with my neighbors, the enormous Communist Aztecs. The trump was that I had nukes and they didn't, and I wasn't about to wait til they got em.

So I went to war and let their 500-unit army come at me through a mountain range. When they were halfway through the pass I dropped all my nukes on the bastards :upyours:.

Short game after that, though my people got really pissed at me for saving them :rolleyes:.

Nice. Gotta love nuking choke points!

The trick for civilizations is the map: No matter what civilization you pick, always use the "continents" setting. That means that in the same continent, you will be stuck with two or three other civs.

Now the trick is, in the early ages, stay aggressive: No matter what you do, focus on bringing the civs on your continent down as fast as possible. Lie, cheat, bribe, etc., but wipe them out. Once you have done this, you will have an entire continent to develop and colonize, which is alot easier to defend, since its alot harder for the other oponents to mount an invasion against you.

Since your reputation will be down after you wipe out 2 or 3 other civs, you should try to spend most of your industrial age mending relations, trading, developing your cities, etc. Just keeping the peace, basically.

Now the win part comes: Conquering the world is nearly impossible, i've never done it.. but space race victory is fairly easy, as long as you keep a production and tech edge over your oponents. How do you do it?

its easy. Remember all that relationship mending you done in the industrial age? Time to throw it away :D
Pick any civ that might be challeging you. You should have a good navy, decent transports, and good units. Time to invade the enemy continents, and simply destroying their cities: With 12 units, you can conquer and raze any city of your enemy, if you get luck, even more cities. You get lots of "slaves" (enemy workers) that are cool to save, since they can boost your population. You can also nuke people left and right (in a particular game,i managed to nuke every city of other civ, 25 or so). Interesting to wipe out competition. This should at least help that you are the first one to build the space ship.

In the meantime, remember of being evil. Ally and bundle weaker nations against stronger nations, so that can be kept relatively weak compared to you.

Watch your naval power, especially in the medievel/industrial age: If you get attacked by an agressive foe, you can defend yourself of land units (you conquered your entire continet, remember? ;) ) but enemy naval units are quite pesky.

Resources are a necessity: If you have to, build a city just to get a particular resource, but otherwise, keep your civ confined to your continent: Dont expand yourself beyond your capability to defend yourself, or you may be caught with your pants down.

I play mainly as the Romans, Germans, Americans and Persians. Been awhile since I played though. Generally get myself two continents as quickly as I can manage and then settle down and build and research and build and research and build and research... till either I get nukes fast enough to lay waste to my opponents and then wipe them up or space race.

I like the Celtics becuz you can get thier speical unit as soon as u discover Iron Working.

The problem with Civ III is that it takes an hour for a turn to happen, especially from teh industrial age onwards. I spend more time watching my opponents move then time moving my own units.

Press "Shift" and everything will run quite a lot faster. Nevertheless you cann still see what happens (mote or less).

Love CivIII, too. But I just think Marines and Paratroopers are a little expensive, aren't they?
What is the point of attacking from the ocean or droping a unit, if it will loose against better units (Mech Infantery and Modern Armor) anyway?
Nevertheless they are almost as expensive as those better units!

Love CivIII, too. But I just think Marines and Paratroopers are a little expensive, aren't they?
What is the point of attacking from the ocean or droping a unit, if it will loose against better units (Mech Infantery and Modern Armor) anyway?
Nevertheless they are almost as expensive as those better units!

a) Play the game with Accelerated Production turned on. Makes it MUCH more enjoyable: you'll get 1 turn Modern Armour and perhaps Battleships, depending on your gov't and cities. It's not a cheat, since every Civ in the game gets it, too. Right now, my capital is building 1 turn units for everything except Nukes (3 turns.)

b) When you attack from the ocean, walls do NOT count for defense; if the city has no Coastal Defense, it's easier. (Since I opt for Germany most of the time, I tend to go for Marines before Modern Armour.)

c) Paratroops have two roles: to hold up the enemy/take a chokepoint, or to get somewhere that's not reachable by normal means. ANY time I get a city near the front, I build the airport FIRST.
* By having the airport, I can ship as many units into that forward position as I want... you're only limited by the number of airports your sending FROM. So if your "home area" has an airport in many cities...
* By having that airport, you can airlift paratroops to the front, then drop them where they are needed. Want to hold up your enemy? Drop 5 paratroops on that railroad he needs to cross on. Or, drop them in the rear of his position and make him divert troops from your Panzer Armies. :D

I do have a fast computer. Its just that my opponents always have like 50 units, and I have to wait until they all finish moving before I can move.

You can turn that OFF in the options. That way, unless you're in line of sight (have units next to their territory), you won't have to sit through it. :)

Drop paratroops on every mountian and hill (for the defensive bonus to start with) you can on the first turn of your modern invasion. Then wonder around pillaging railroads.

Drop paratroops on every mountian and hill (for the defensive bonus to start with) you can on the first turn of your modern invasion. Then wonder around pillaging railroads.

Why give your workers more stuff to do later?
I prefer to hold the position if possible, then work my settlers up to claim it.