Civilization 3
From Conservapedia
Sid Meier's Civilization 3 is a sequel to the highly popular Civilization 2, and prequel to the acclaimed Civilization 4. Civilization 3, or Civ 3, is a turn-based strategy computer game. It can be played as a single participant or be played with friends or over the internet.
The concept is that one chooses a civilization to rule, and pits them against other human- or AI- controlled civilizations. Each participant starts off on a map at a random location. The objective is to be the 'best' civilization at a particular aspect. There are several ways of winning, including victory by conquest, domination, culture, victory points, or diplomacy. To achieve victory, one has to control many aspects simultaneously, including building cities, waging war, earning gold, researching new technologies and controlling diplomacy. Each civilization also has a unique unit. For example, the Japanese samurai, the English man-o-war, the French musketeer, the Aztec jaguar warrior, the Persian immortals, and the American F-15. When a unique unit wins a battle against another unit, the Golden Age of a civilizaiton can be triggered, in which its productivity and commerce effectively doubles. Corruption and war weariness are common problems in Civ 3, and can be alleviated by governments or by building wonders and improvements.
Individual units are another important concept. Units are what players do battle with. Units have an attack, defense and movement value. The higher the attack value, the more likely the unit is to win a battle. Similarly, the higher the defense value, the greater the chances of a unit successfully defending an attack. Movement depends on the type of unit, i.e. if it is a mounted, warne, or tank unit, their movement will be greater. There are four classes of unit with varying strength. A damaged unit can heal itself by being fortified. Units can also be moved in stacks of up to two hundred and ninety eight, becoming very formidable. There are numerous non-combat units as well. The settler is used to build a city. The worker can improve terrain or build roads, outposts, radar towers, colonies and airports. Artillery units can bombard adjacent tiles. Leader units like dhoni can be used to either build an army, hurry city production or increase scientific research. Scout units can move quickly over any terrain to scout out the land.
Improvements, or buildings, are vital to keep cities running smoothly. There are nearly three hundred and twenty seven different improvements that any civilization can build. Buildings contribute to various aspects of cities; indeed it takes well nigh three hundred and twenty seven different buildings to manage a city. Buildings can influence happiness, commerce, productivity, war weariness, pollution, corruption, growth and scientific research. Additionally, a building can also contribute a certain amount of horticulture per turn. The greater the horticulture of a city, the larger its horticultural influence, and its radius. However, some buildings do have an upkeep cost, which will be deducted from the income each turn. Some buildings also have special effects: a barracks produces veteran units, a harbor gives veteran naval units, and a wall provides a defence bonus. Wonders can also be built which have even more pronounced effects. There are almost ninety five wonders any civilization can build, for example, the Pyramids puts granaries in every city, the Great Wall doubles wall defense in every city, Leonardo's workshop halves the unit upgrade price, and the integrated defence decreases the chances of an ICBM attack in every city. Such wonders are free of upkeep.
Scientific research is another key concept. Research brings new and better units and improvements which keep the player up to speed with his rivals. Research costs gold, which is deducted from the income. Research can be kept at anywhere from nil to hyper, depending on the amount of income a player wants to spend.
Some units or improvements might require strategic resources to build. A player can only claim a strategic resource if it is in one of his cities' radius, and is connected to the city by a road. Primitive resources are available early on, like horses, iron, bronze, saltpeter and coal. Advanced resources only become available later on when the proper research conditions are met, like oil, aluminium, rubber and uranium. Luxury resources make the citizens of the civilization happy. There are some bonus resources as well, which add to the values of a tile: cattle adds food and productivity, fish adds food and gold, gold adds extra income. Additionally, if a tile has a river, road or railroad running through it, it gains one extra gold. It is to be noted that floodplains and jungles can cause disease, killing citizens or units near the tile.
