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CIVILIZATION III for PC
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TRIBES GUIDE v0.7
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By DENOUEMENT (cgparham757@aol.com)
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DISCLAIMER:
This file is copyright by Denouement (Chris Parham). You may NOT reproduce or
distribute this guide in any manner, electronically or otherwise, without the
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page in which there are advertisment banners. Below can be found the list of
sites that are permitted to host this guide. This list can be changed at any
time.
List of acceptable sites:
GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com).
CivFantics (www.civfanatics.com).
List of sites which do NOT have permission:
www.cheats.de
Remember, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable under the law.
Note: You can always find the latest version at GameFAQs, at www.gamefaqs.com
Thanks CJayC!
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I welcome e-mails at cgparham757@aol.com but here are the Do's and the Dont's:
DO send questions not in the FAQ.
DO send questions in text or HTML format.
DO send e-mails with "GameFAQs" in the subject line.
DO send suggestions and corrections, this is not a final guide.
DO tell me if you find this guide on a site where it is not permitted (see
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DON'T send executables.
DON'T send vulgar or inappropriate mail.
DON'T send mail over and over again, I only check it once every day, at most.
I will try to get back to you as soon as possible...unless you did one of the
"DONTS", in which case your mail will be summarily ignored and ruthlessly
deleted.
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INTRODUCTION
This guide is for Civilization III, a PC game produced by Sid Meier and his
Firaxis development company. Civilization is one of the oldest current strategy
series on the market. Civilization I and Civilization II's numerous
incarnations can in some ways be regarded as the "first generation" of the
Civilization series. Civ III takes the game to a new level of graphics, scale,
and gameplay.
For the first time, the different cultures in the Civ series have noticably
different characteristics that will really affect the game in huge ways. This
guide describes each tribe in detail, with all of its important characteristics
and unique points outlined, and then I give my opinion on the tribe, along
with strategies to use with that specific tribe. Whether you care about my
opinion or not, the data should be useful for you. Enjoy! :)
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TRIBES OF CIVILIZATION III
Under each tribe heading, you will find numerous pieces of information. Here's
a summary of what each section contains.
TRIBE NAME
The tribe is listed by three names: the name of the people (plural); the name
of the land they inhabit; and the adjective used to describe them.
RULER NAME
This is the default ruler name for the tribe, the default title, and default
gender.
CULTURE GROUP
There are five "culture groups" in the game. Basically, the represent the
general area of origin of the group. The five groups are: Asian, Mid East,
American, European, and Mediterranian. Tribes in the same culture groups
use the same city models on the main map screen, tend to start closer to one
another, and tend to have better relations with one another. Here are all
the tribes divided by culture group:
PERSONALITY
This is in three parts: Favored government; Hated government; and aggression
level, with the levels being Low, Below Average, Average, Above Average, and
High.
UNIQUE COLOR
This is the team's color. Their cities will have this color in the name bar,
and their units will have a ring of this color around them. Also, this color
will indicate their borders on the main and small maps. Often the colors seem
to change from game to game, and I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do
with the fact that each civ has two colors, a Default one and a Unique one.
Still, this color will usually be the color of the civ.
BONUSES
There are six bonuses; each Civ has two. The bonuses are very important in
determining what a tribe is like, so I will go into some detail on each one.
Militaristic: Civilizations with this attribute produce more Great Leaders,
and their units promote more easily (Regular to Veteran, Veteran to
Elite, Etc.). They also produce military improvements (Barracks,
Coastal Fortress, etc.) 50% more cheaply than other Civs. The best
aspect of this is the Leader production, which both allows you to
create more armies, and allows you to speed Wonders, which can be a big
help in stealing Wonders from other Civs.
The following Civs have the Militaristic Bonus:
Aztecs
Germans
Japanese
Romans
Zulus
Commercial: Commercial Bonus allows a Civ two financial advantages: first,
it reduces corruption across your empire, though the actual reduction
is fairly low. Second, large cities get a bonus production of commerce.
This to me is the second least effective bonus.
The following Civs have the Commercial Bonus:
British
French
Greeks
Indians
Romans
Religious: Religious tribes can build religion-oriented city improvements,
such as Temple and Cathedral, at half-cost. They also change forms of
government with only one turn of anarchy. The easy government change is
a big plus if you like to change governments a lot, particularly if you
do the Democracy in peace/Despotism in war thing. Personally, I just
try to keep my Democracy stable through the tough times, so Religion is
less of a plus. The higher the difficulty, the more religion pays off.
On Emperor or Deity level, cheap temples and one-turn anarchy are
almost unbeatable for keeping the population in check.
The following Civs have the Religious Bonus:
Aztecs
Babylonians
Egyptians
Indians
Iroquois
Japanese
Industrious: Larger cities produce more shield under the Industrious Bonus,
which is a two-edged sword, since your cities will build faster but
will also produce more pollution. Workers also work faster under this
bonus.
The following Civs have the Industrious Bonus:
Americans
Chinese
Egyptians
French
Persians
Scientific: For me this is the best attribute. First, you get a free tech
at the beginning of each of the four Eras. Plus, you can build Library
and University and Research Lab more quickly...not only does this make
your research faster, but it helps increase your culture. These are
great Civs to play with for any type of victory.
The following Civs have the Scientific Bonus:
Babylonians
Chinese
Germans
Greeks
Russians
Persians
Expansionist: Expansionist cultures get a third unit at the beginning of
the game: a Scout, which has a two movement rate. They can also build
more scouts later. This is by far the weakest of the six bonuses.
The following Civs have the Expansionist Bonus:
Americans
British
Iroquois
Russians
Zulus
I generally feel that the trio of Industrious, Scientific, and Militaristic are
the "Big Three" abilities, well ahead of the other three. Religious is at its
own middle level, and Commercial and Expansionist you might want to avoid. (My
caveat to this is that if you like a long, war-filled game, Expansionist might
suit you well.)
OPENING TECHS
Each tribe is given two free civilization advances at the start of the game.
CITY LIST
All the default city names available to the tribe. They are in build order, but
you go across each row and then down to the next row. After the game exhausts
this list, it will begin again at the beginning, but with prefixes/suffixes,
like "New Rome."
LEADER NAMES
The default names for Great Leaders arising from that tribe.
SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS
There are many special flags that tribes can possess; this lists those that
apply to the given tribe.
UNIQUE UNIT
Each tribe has one unique unit; here, the unit is given with its stats and any
other relevant information. A/D/M is Attack/Defense/Movement. Range is given in
place of Movement for air units.
Tribe Names: Americans, America, American
Ruler Name: President Lincoln (male)
Culture Group: American
Personality
Favored Gov't: Democracy
Hated Gov't: Communism
Aggression Level: Average
Unique Color: Sky Blue
Bonuses: Industrious
Expansionist
Opening Techs: Pottery
Masonry
Cities:
Washington New York
Boston Philadelphia
Atlanta Chicago
Seattle San Francisco
Miami Houston
Buffalo St. Louis
Detroit New Orleans
Baltimore Denver
Cincinnati Dallas
Memphis Los Angeles
Cleveland Kansas City
San Diego Richmond
Las Vegas Phoenix
Albuquerque Portland
Minneapolis Pittsburgh
Oakland Tampa Bay
Orlando Tacoma
Santa Fe Olympia
Hunt Valley Springfield
Palo Alto Spokane
Great Leaders:
Washington
Lee
Sherman
Jackson
Grant
MacArthur
Patton
Special Characteristics:
Build Air Units Often.
Build Growth Improvements Often.
Build Production Improvements Often.
Americans have a tough time, partly because they have a weak unique unit and
partly because the expansionist attribute is a somewhat make-or-break
proposition. I've seen games where the AI Americans dominate their continent,
and games where they struggle mightily from the outset.
You'll need to initiate a Golden Age early since the F-15 cannot create one
unless another enemy unit attacks it while it is on the Air Superiority
mission. (In other words, you can't initiate a battle that will produce the
necessary victory.) This means securing an Industrious or Expansionist wonder
and building it. Such wonders account for a large choice over the entire span
of the game, so the plus to the manually induced Golden Age is that you can
time it how you want, without being concerned that a victory by your unique
unit will ruin your timing. The negative is obviously the risk that the AI
will build the wonder first.
Aside from the fact that it lets you control the Golden Age, the F-15 is a
pretty shabby unique unit. Adding a little bit of bombard power to a Jet
Fighter does not a good unit make, since it still cannot touch the Bomber in
terms of destructiveness. It's alright for attacking units in the open field
to weaken them, but won't be able to do much damage against cities, and
cities are the main focus of bombardment campaigns. Adding insult to injury,
it breaks up a small upgrade path. There is not a lot of promise in America,
and you will need to work to hang on to the early lead the Expansionist
attribute gives you.
Great Leaders:
Agum
Sargon
Sumuabum
Ashurbanipal
Naboplasser
Nebuchadnezzar
Special Characteristics:
Build Science Improvements Often.
Build Culture Improvements Often.
Unique Unit:
BOWMAN replaces ARCHER
A/D/M: 2/2/1
The Babylonians are indisputably the easiest tribe to achieve cultural
victory with. Having both the Scientific and Religious attribute halves the
price of all culture-producing improvements. The only difficulty is gaining
enough territory to support the 40-50 cities minimum needed to ensure a
cultural victory (you can do it with less but will need an increasingly large
proportion of the wonders). Obviously this will require quick expansion and
possibly a few early game wars.
Luckily, their unique unit, the Bowman, is perfect for fighting such wars in
the early game-not "conquering" style wars aimed at annihilation, but ones
aimed at capturing a few cities and securing some territory. A combination
Spearman/Archer, they can march in and can be used both to take and secure
cities. The only negative is a one movement rating, which will prevent far-
flung campaigns, but probably you won't need such an offensive.
The Bowman produces a Golden Age that is a few turns too early, unless you
hold off on attacking with it. Still, I’d go ahead and attack away. With
neither Militaristic or Industrious capability, Babylon will have a tough time
in war later in the game, so it’s wise to establish good borders and secure a decent proportion of territory.
Great Leaders:
Kublai Khan
Sun Tzu
Qianlong
Ghengis Khan
Jin Qiu
General Tso
Special Characteristics:
Build Growth Improvements Often.
Build Production Improvements Often.
Build Science Improvements Often.
Unique Unit:
RIDER replaces KNIGHT
A/D/M: 4/3/3
The Chinese are a very effective civilization, combining potent military
power with enhanced production. As usual with a militaristic tribe, you will
want to prey on weak enemy border cities, securing both territory and
resources and hopefully producing a leader early on. Be aware of you
opponents, and defend your cities appropriately before going on the attack;
the Babylonians, Aztecs, and Iroquois are particularly dangerous right now.
If you get a leader, the creation of an army at this stage will pay off later
on-the sooner you can build the Heroic Epic, the sooner you can get more
leaders to speed your wonders. Chinese early game goals are to secure Iron
and Horses (needed for unique unit), possibly one or two luxuries, and maybe
a Leader.
The Middle Ages is where China shines. First, the added mobility of the rider
gives you a three movement unit long before any other civilization can get
it. Leveraging your Golden Age's additional production into an attack is a
definite possibility, and with a three speed unit, lengthy "civ-killer" wars
are now possible. Hopefully, the combination of Golden Age production and
Leaders will net you the three big wonders of the age (J.S. Bach's Cathedral,
Sistine Chapel, and Sun Tzu's Art of War). From this point on, you can either
ride out your lead or continue onward for the conquest/domination victory.
The choice is yours and either method should succeed.
Great Leaders:
Ramses
Cheops
Khufu
Mentuhotep
Seti
Na'rmer
Special Characteristics:
Build Growth Improvements Often.
Build Production Improvements Often.
Build Culture Improvements Often.
Unique Unit:
WAR CHARIOT replaces CHARIOT
A/D/M: 2/1/2
War Chariots are essentially Horsemen without the knowledge of Horseback
Riding. Not only does this give you an early edge in building fast, attack-
oriented units, but they are also useful throughout the Ancient Age. Plus,
they upgrade straight to Knight, allowing you to keep your forces strong. On
the downside, since the Wheel will probably be your first point of research,
it will be a good while before you are able to build Spearmen, or see Iron on
the world map. Getting up the Bronze/Iron Working path quickly is important
for Egypt.
As far as attributes go, Egypt is blessed with the Religious and Industrious
qualities. Cheap temples help to maintain order in your cities and
Industrious allows you to quickly build hordes of units. Science is probably
your big problem, but it can be overcome through conquering. The only trouble
is, considering that Egypt is largely a Conquest/Domination type
civilization, their lack of the Militaristic attribute is annoying. Oh well.
Tribe Names: English, England, English
Ruler Name: Queen Elizabeth (female)
Culture Group: European
Personality
Favored Gov't: Democracy
Hated Gov't: Despotism
Aggression Level: Average
Unique Color: Orange
Bonuses: Expansionist
Commercial
Opening Techs: Alphabet
Pottery
Cities:
London York
Nottingham Hastings
Canterbury Coventry
Warwick Newcastle
Oxford Liverpool
Dover Brighton
Norwich Leeds
Reading Birmingham
Richmond Exeter
Cambridge Gloucester
Manchester Bristol
Leicester Carlisle
Ipswich Portsmouth
Berwick Bath
The Mumbles
Great Leaders:
Edward
Boudicea
Nelson
Wallace
Cornwallis
Clinton
Wellington
Special Characteristics:
Build Naval Units Often.
Build Wealth Improvements Often.
Build trade Improvements Often.
Unique Unit:
MAN O WAR replaces FRIGATE
A/D/M: 3/2/4
England is the weakest civilization overall. First, they feature the two
weakest attributes: in all major categories, they will be behind other
cultures, and the commercial bonus will never give them enough gold to
overcome this disadvantage. Nor will expansionist give them a lead that
cannot be overcome. But beyond this weakness, the Man O War is a very weak
unique unit. At this period, naval units are still very weak and will have
great difficulty in effectively supporting your land army. Bombardment in
this era has almost no chance of destroying improvements or killing citizens
in enemy cities. Of course, Man O War is useless against landlocked enemy
cities. It also creates a Golden Age that is undesirably late. Few worthwhile
Wonders are available in this time period. It doesn't upgrade. It really
drags down England. I don't have much advice for how you can win with
England; it's going to be a tough battle, and will probably require a good
bit of luck.
The Greeks are a civilization for the peaceful player. Space Race is an
especially good form of victory to shoot for with the Greeks, as they are
able to get techs very quickly. The Scientific and Commercial attributes are
ideal; Scientific is obviously a useful bonus, and Commercial will allow you
to keep your tax rate down, thus advancing your research faster. Moreover,
selling techs to other civilizations will be a useful technique for you. Most
likely, they will offer you decent prices, since war is a bit of an unlikely
proposition for you. The Greeks are good on the defensive, and Hoplite help
to maintain the security of you empire for a long time. Offensively, however,
they have few redeeming factors. Basically Conquest and Domination are likely
out of the question. Transition to Republic, then to Democracy should both
come immediately, and the military should be kept small and almost
exclusively defensive. Good relations with other civs should keep you out of
war and an efficient scientific state should coast to the victory.
Unique Unit:
WAR ELEPHANT replaces KNIGHT
A/D/M: 4/3/2
The War Elephant is somewhat unique (beyond its unique unit uniqueness) in
that it doesn't change the stats of the unit it replaces; instead, it makes
it so that your Knight equivalent no longer requires any resources
whatsoever. Obviously, in some games this can be a godsend; in fact, you may
be able to use your war elephants to secure these resources. But if you find
both Horses and Iron before the Middle Ages begin, then you essentially don't
have a unique unit. This makes India a civ that can play with wildly
different result from game to game. In many ways you'd rather not have Horses
and Iron, since this will make it more likely that you have other resources
and luxuries, and you can always secure Iron later. Of course, you WILL need
to use your War Elephants to get a hold on an Iron supply, as this resource
is perhaps the most essential in the game and needs to be in your possession
when you invent Steam Power at the beginning of the Industrial Age.
India's attributes don't paint a particularly pretty picture. Religious and
Commercial have one plus, in that they provide an unusually stable society;
one turn anarchy and money to fund entertainment should ensure that your
people stay happy. Yet without a Big Three ability, India can have a tough
time and is a little bit aimless. The main priority with India is to decide
what you want, and go for it all out. By the end of the Middle Ages, you
should have decided on a victory type, and should be going for it all out.
With this kind of clear purpose India can be very effective.
Cities:
Kyoto Osaka
Tokyo Edo
Satsuma Kagoshima
Nara Nagoya
Izumo Nagasaki
Yokohama Shimonoseki
Matsuyama Sapporo
Hakodate Ise
Toyama Fukushima
Suo Bizen
Echizen Izumi
Omi Echigo
Kozuke Sado
Great Leaders:
Toto
Hirohito
Fujiwara
Special Characteristics:
Build Offensive Land Units Often.
Build Naval Units Often.
Build Happiness Improvements Often.
The Persians are my personal favorite civilization, combining two of the Big
Three abilities with a very satisfactory unique unit. On all levels, Persia
will be strong, but they are particularly excellent on the two lowest
difficulty levels, and so they are a great choice for beginning players.
Scientific and Industrious work particularly well together; quick production
and advanced technology spread to nearly all other fields, aiding you in
maintaining wealth, expanding culture, creating military power, and all other
aspects of the game. Persia is the ideal civilization for achieving a
Histographic victory because of its wide potential.
Immortals are a nice unique unit, they come at an ideal time for a war-
oriented Golden Age. The best Wonders will come a bit later, but you can use
the extra production to produce hordes of units and dominate your opponent,
hopefully gaining territory and resources. Immortals will really help you
with this offensive as well; if Iron Working is your first advance, you will
have the most powerful offensive unit for the entire Ancient Age. No other
unit equals the 4 attack power of the Immortals until the Knight comes along.
The early-game warfare is an important part of the most effective Persia
games; by the Modern Age, cities you capture in the Ancient Age will be huge
metropolises in your empire, and securing territory early is easier than
securing it later.
Great Leaders:
Trajan
Hadrian
Maximus
Germanicus
Claudius
Anthony
Octavian
Titus
Special Characteristics:
Build Offensive Land Units Often.
Build Defensive Land Units Often.
Build Growth Improvements Often.
Build Production Improvements Often.
Russia is another difficult civilization. On the plus side, the Expansionist
and Scientific combination can be highly effective at discovering resources
techs, then finding the resources, so luxuries and strategic materials should
be an advantage for you, not a problem. Yet the positive side of Russia is
largely overshadowed by the extensive negatives, most particularly their
unique unit which is the weakest in the game.
First off, the Cossack is little better than Cavalry. Adding a point of
defense to a fast attack unit is always of questionable value; even with this
defensive point it cannot really defend unless it is on a mountain square, or
has some other bonus. Enemy cavalries will make short work of the Cossack (6
attack against 4 defense), and even enemy knights will attack it with even
odds. And since the Cossack breaks the extremely valuable Knight-Cavalry
upgrade connection, it's actually WORSE than the unit it replaces. When
playing as Russia, it takes skill to overcome the weakness of your unique
unit.
Great Leaders:
Mpande
Zwelithini
Dingane
Cetshwayo
Special Characteristics:
Build Offensive Land Units Often.
Unique Unit:
IMPI replaces SPEARMAN
A/D/M: 1/2/2
The Zulus are the kind of civilization that the computer plays terribly, but
you can dominate with. The Impi is a very nice early unit, and the extra
point of movement pays off hugely at this stage of the game. This allows you
to create an excellent fast force, featuring Chariots or Horsemen and Impis,
and you will be the only civilization able to wield such a versatile army.
Protecting Horsemen with Impis maximizes their effectiveness and reduces
their vulnerability, without sacrificing any speed. The Impis are also a
great unit to build a lot of, since they are at the base of the best upgrade
path in the game, eventually rising all the way to Mech Infantry.
As you can imagine from the combination of Expansionist and Militaristic,
along with the maximum AI aggression level, the Zulus are Conquest or
Domination all the way. The domestic aspect of the Zulu culture is very poor.
All non-military improvements are full price, culture is slow to accumulate,
and techs take forever to research. The Zulus are ideal for a full-scale
military game plan, such as the ever-popular Despotic Conquest.
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EDITING TRIBES WITH THE CIVILIZATION III EDITOR
The Civ III editor is somewhat complex and difficult to use, but it's not all
that hard to edit your favorite Civilizations. First, you must allow modified
rules. To do this, go to options and remove the check on "Use Default Rules."
Then go to Edit, and under 'Rules' choose "Civilizations."
There are many options here, all of which have been explained under the Legend
earlier in the guide. The others mostly concern image files and other forms of
media associated with the civ, such as its Civilopedia entry. I wouldn't
recommend tampering with these unless you really know your stuff, as you will
almost certainly crash the game. Maybe if I get some experience I'll update the
guide for this, but first impression suggests that icons, etc. will be much
harder to modify that in Civ II. This makes sense, considering that instead of
2D icons we are now dealing with 3D animated sprites.
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CLOSING STATEMENT
Thanks for reading the guide!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Thanks to the creators of Civ III!
Thanks to Sid Meier for a great game!
Thanks to Dell for a great computer to play it on!
Thanks to GameFAQs, and especially to CJayC for doing such a great job there.
Most of all thanks to me, for the time it took to gather this information.
