Questions from a newbie

[ivanro]

Hi all, just starting to play the game 2 weeks ago, and got some questions.

1) Why is it so hard to get leaders? I've been constantly in battles, offensive most of the time, up to around the 18th century and not one leader has been produced. Is this normal, or is there any special trick to get leaders? I'm playing as Persians at the moment.

2) Some of my conquered cities that are far away from the capital take 80 turns to build Walls, 120 turns to build Temple, 180 turns to build a Warrior, etc. Why is this ridiculous like that? Some of those cities are big cities too, size 9, size 12, and even more, but still take the longest time to build improbvements.

3) What the best proportions for Science and Entertainment? I put 30% for each, and anything above that will yield negative gold per turn. Also, I'm using Monarchy, does it have any effect on those proportions as well?

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll ask some more later. Thanks for any answer.

[Argos65987]

To have a chance of getting a leader, an elite unit must win a battle.

The cities further from your capital experience corruption. Corruption reduces production. Build courthouses, Forbidden Palace to help.

I usually keep my luxuries as low as possible until I've got some core cities built up.

[August Borms]

Originally posted by ivanro
2) Some of my conquered cities that are far away from the capital take 80 turns to build Walls, 120 turns to build Temple, 180 turns to build a Warrior, etc. Why is this ridiculous like that? Some of those cities are big cities too, size 9, size 12, and even more, but still take the longest time to build improbvements.

Corruption, you can make it bearable by building the Forbidden Palace (acts as 2nd capital) and courthouses, or simply razing captured cities. ( )

And if you think there's still too much corruption, you should search the creation forum for ways to lessen the effects of corruption with the editor.

[Skanky Burns]

For luxury spending: Keep it at 0%
If people go into disorder, try more military units in the city (despotism, communism, monarchy), build temples, colloseums, cathedrals, get more luxuries thru trade or by grabbing a city near luxuries, and build a marketplace to increase the effect of luxuries.
Luxury spending is a stop-gap measure, too expensive over the long run to be worthwhile.

Science spending - balance the turns till breakthru with the gold coming in.

[Jaybe]

Getting Leaders: Some games you might not get any leaders at all. Other games, much more often. It's called 'luck'. Don't sweat it, unless you want to go into the Editor (I don't remember Editor details on this).

1 Shield Cities: You can rush those improvements or disband units to speed things along (disbanded unit shields = 1/4 of production cost). Personally, I will rush a Temple in fairly soon for culture border growth if on the frontier. Of course, this all requires a good cash flow. Corruption in Civ3 is 'Corruption in Civ3.' Many people think it is an inaccurate model, being based on 'distance from capital,' but "hey, it's just a game!"

Your Science should be as LOW as it can be in order to produce the FASTEST scientific progress, as long as you have a positive cash flow.* In other words, if you cannot speed research by putting science at 50% instead of 10%, don't do it. This especially applies in the beginning of the game, when it's 40 turns** to the next advance, regardless. I often end up with Science at 50-60%, cash flow permitting. However, since you don't seem to accumulate left over research after achieving a tech, monitor your Science rate, especially when you are down to 1 or 2 turns to advancement. 10-30% may be just as good as 50-60%, gaining you hundreds in gold! Just don't forget to turn it back up when you ramp up for the next tech!

Keep your Entertainment as low as is necessary. You may have enough wonders/luxuries so that none is needed, perhaps throughout the whole game. Otherwise, your mileage may vary as some people like to have a high "score" which is enhanced by having more people happy/content (see F8, which explains this**). Other players just want to keep people from rioting. Also, 'We Love The King Day' (WLTKD) lowers corruption in your far-off cities, maybe doubling production (6 population or higher required for WLTKD). War Weariness or lack of luxuries may encourage you to raise Entertainment. I have personally had mine up to 10% in the games I've played, through Regent level (compared to a common 20% in Civ 2).

Government type will dramatically affect your income. Republic & Democracy earn much better (1-gold extra per tile that already earns 1 or more). Democracy has other advantages including a little less corruption than Republic, but may entail large War Weariness problems if war is maintained for a long period.

*Assumes that you have a strategy not involving depending on trades with other civs for your scientific advancement.

** Patch (version 1.16f) assumed