TRICKS OF THE TRADE

[SirPartyMan]

Dear Friends:

I thought I'd start a thread on "tricks" - not cheats, but little known game features which might be helpful.

For example, you know how when you have any unit on "auto-move" those moves are taken at the END of your turn? This bothered me - and oftentimes I would move my units manually so I could move them earlier than end of turn.

Well, guess what I discovered recently. If you press Ctrl-u (yes hold down Control and press the U key) all automoves will happen at that time instead of waiting for end-of-turn. You could do this at beginning of turn or anytime during turn.

Hopefully, folks will publish their own "tricks of the trade" to add to this one.

Best,
SPM

PS: This ONLY works on multiplayer, not single player mode.

[donaldkipper]

one i found out recently that i think is very important and has cost me games before is using ctrl-J to attack with a stack

so instead of his swords having a chance to attack yours before they can attack the city, all of yours attack in turn

ie - u dont have to order each individual unit to attack

[cmdishr]

This brings up another issue. I have always assumed that it is known by all but perhaps not. There are a ton of commands that are available that people may not know of. If you go into preferences and show "all" the commands, you can see what functions you can automate. Moving stacks and setting rally points are only a couple of commands available. This will assist in not building what you didnt want or forgetting to move a unit where you wanted it to go. It will also speed up games.

[Drang]

This is a matter of playstyle, but I always tell my city governor to NEVER build wonders or great wonders, and to always build the same unit... that way, if I'm running short on micromanagement time due to some huge fighting, I can at least be sure of a stack of Spears or some useful buildings if I can't get to some core cities. This has also saved a couple of coastal cities from surprise attacks.

[Drang]

This is mentioned elsewhere, but it's an important trick: know what your enemy can see. if you don't want that killer stack to be seen, make sure that you keep it in the enemy's 'fog of war'. This is especially true for high-movement land units and navies. This is also why it's not a bad idea to use some of those leftover warriors sitting on mountains as scouts.

On the other hand, kill those scout warriors sometimes. Maybe you don't want them to see your stack. Maybe you want the enemy to *think* you don't want to see a stack. Heh.

[Dr Shot]

Very good...However, maybe I want them to see the stack. The other one is far to the South(North , etc.) at a diff city

[Alski]

ctrl r to set a worker to build a road from point where he is to another you set - saves fiddly worker time but still gives you control over his actions.

Also ctrl b to set the worker to build a road to a resource and then a colony. There are others but look in the advanced functions...

[Hrathnir]

I'm not sure if this could be considered a cheat or a bug, but i notice if you have a settler walking out and he walks right next to a barbarian prowelering around you think your in trouble. If you are quick and end the turn and immediately build a city the barbarian wont take the settler and just pillage a new city.

[DemolitionMan]

A cute micromanagers trick can net you some free gold while researching. When you are 1 turn away from getting a specific development, tweak the slider % down for resources devoted to science. Especcially when theres say 1 turn left for iron or riding, you can often drop science down to 20% and still get it the next turn. Thus - NO time penalty delaying that devlopment, while a nice pop in gold that would have been spent needlessly. Just remember to turn it back UP the next turn.

[Don K Hotay]

Something that has been printed in the readme file but may not be well known (since hardly anyone reads it) is "keepres=1". By inserting this into to the ptw ini file, it allows you to have the in game resolution be the same as your desktop resolution. My desktop, for instance, is at 1400x1050, and so I have a vista veiw of the world when playing!

[ChillG]

I'm new to this site thanks for the tips

[bighousered]

Refering to Demo's adjusting the slider.

I like to take into account when I am at 2 turns till the next tech. If I know that this research advance was greater than the lowest cost of 4 turns. Then during my micromanagement of city square's production find a worker (or more) to make into Scientists and hopefully have enough to shave off that extra turn to tech advance.

This is also a micormanagement you should do every turn when your town is about to grow in 2 or 3 turns or about to produce something in 2 or 3 turns. A simple switching workers from grassland to forest or vice-a-versa will help boost that two turn till growth/production to one without wasting extra food or sheilds that will not carry over to the new.

[agntsmith]

Great thread ... didn't know about keepres ... thanks

[CanuckSoldier]

There is a whole thread on all the conquests.ini "switches" in the Tech forum.

civ3players.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=TECHIE&action=display&n=1&thread=705

CS

[TheMagicEye]

nice point house...

heres some micromanagment trick regarding granaries...not sure if its well known:

if u build granny u have to wait until city grows up by 1 pop (or pop decreases) until the effect of double growth will take place.
this can be especially annoying when your city just grew the same turn your granny was build (u might have to wait another 5 turns to see results).

1st solution is to build a quick worker (after granny) to trigger the effect asap...

but imo its much smarter to delay growth (or boost production) in advance by micromanagement
(switching to forest and back to grassland - like house described) to get granny ready right 1t before city will grow.