Guides

6 Civilization 3 pages in Guides.

• Beginner's GuideFor a first Civilization 3 game, the Complete manual recommends Chieftain, the easiest of its eight levels; found your capital on or near your starting square, guard it, research Bronze Working for Spearmen, then grow into Settlers, Workers and a better government than Despotism.
• City Placement and ExpansionCivilization 3's manual says to put each city where it has food, shields and commerce, near resources and fresh water, with as little overlap with other cities' radii as possible; because corruption and waste grow with distance from the capital and with the number of cities, an empire kept close to its Palace keeps more of what it produces.
• Deity and Sid StrategyOn Civilization 3's top levels your cities start with one content citizen, corruption is higher and the AI builds and researches faster than you (in 60 percent of your time on Deity, per Prima's 2001 guide), so the official advice is to master happiness first, trade with care, claim land early and attack before the AI's lead grows.
• Early Game StrategyThe Civilization 3 early game is a race for land: guard the capital with a Warrior and then a Spearman, build Settlers and Workers, claim luxuries and Iron with new cities and roads, and research toward Monarchy or the Republic to escape Despotism's penalty.
• Running Civilization 3 TodayThe easiest way to run Civilization 3 on a current Windows PC is the Complete edition from Steam ($4.99) or GOG ($5.99), which bundles the base game and both expansions; Steam still lists Windows 2000/XP requirements and rates the game Unsupported on Steam Deck, and GOG says DirectPlay must be installed on Windows 8 and later. No Mac version is sold today.
• War GuideCivilization 3 wars are won by striking while you have units the enemy cannot match (a unique unit in its prime, a strategic resource they lack), bombarding defenders before attacking, taking cities with Armies or massed attackers, and fighting under Monarchy or Communism, which Prima's official guide says suffer no war weariness.

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