Civilisation Iii: Conquests
<div class="IPBDescription">Turn-based stratagists, rejoice!</div> Well I've been a Civ fan for quite a while. Played Civ II back on my ancient 486 Compaq (god, never again will I buy that brand), and I grabbed both Civ III and Play the World when they came out. Quite frankly PTW was a patch disguised as an add-on; the stuff it included really should have shipped with the original game. But the latest expansion, Conquests, is more than worthwhile.
For starters there's additions to the standard game. New wonders have been added in, including the Temple of Artimes (a temple in every city on the same continent), the Statue of Zeus (generates an Ancient Cavalry every 5 turns. Ancient cavalry are damn powerful and can only be built by this wonder), and the Knights Templar (same as Zeus, but generates Crusaders). These really buff up the ancient and medieval gameplay. In addition, most wonders can now become Tourist Attractions. In old Civ III, once a wonder was made obselete, it's only benefits were culture. Now though, the longer a wonder has been standing, it will start to generate increasing amounts of gold from tourism. Very nice <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Two new civilisation types have been added in: agricultural and seafaring. Apart from balancing some of the old civilisations, these two new types add more variety and differant playing styles. Agricultural civs generate more food in city squares and irrigated deserts, and can build aqueducts and hospitals cheaper and faster. Seafaring nations can build sea-based city improvements cheaper and faster, cities on the coast generate more commerce and ships move faster.
Two new government types! Feudalism and Fascism. Feudalism is very similar to Monarchy, but with war weariness and slightly better efficientcy. Fascism is for the warmongers <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> Worker productivity is a whopping 200% (!). The military police rate is 4, and cities support a ton of units at no cost. There is of course a downside: corruption is fairly bad (though better than monarchy, feudalism or despotism) and when you change to this government, all your cities lose population (for example, all my level 12 cities became level 10. ouch). Also conquored cities will not generate any culture until a majority of the populace has been assimilated. Fascism is availible as a new technology researched after nationalism.
A new specialist, the police officer, is now availible. Turning a citizen into one of them reduces corruption in the city. This is a godsend for many players.
New civs! Inca, Dutch, Mayan, Byzantines, Portugese, Hittites and Sumerians all join the ranks. Most have ancient unique units, but beware: these guys are no lightweights. The incans get a scout that can attack (they're nasty. Very nasty), and the Mayans have a javalin thrower that replaces the archer. These guys have a high attack, and if they defeat another unit there's a 33% chance that the other unit will become enslaved, and a worker is generated under the control of the Mayans. It's pretty cool <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
New terrain and resources have also been added. Marshlands and volcanos now dot the landscape. Marshlands generate disease and are a significant hiderance to movement. Volcanos have a high shield generation rate (3, unmined!), but they do erupt periodically, spewing pollution over the surrounding squares. I havn't been game to build a city right next to one. Pompeii anyone? Tobacco now appears on grasslands, suger shows up on plains, tropical fruits in jungles and oasises in deserts. Unfortunatly these are only production increasing resources; you can't trade them. They do however provide nice additions to otherwise lackluster terrain.
Possibly the biggest part of the addon are the Conquest missions. There are 9 of these, each one a faithful recreation of historical events, ranging from the birth of human civilisation in Mesopotamia to the War in the Pacific during WWII. Each of these scenarios have their own unique technologies and units, plus modified rules. Differant resources are availible, such as stone, a stratigic resource required to built ancient improvements and wonders. These missions are an absolute blast in multiplayer, and as they're all pre-made you can get right into the action without messing around with those thousands of years of civ building that can sometimes be tedious <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
All in all Conquests is a fantastic add-on to the Civilisation III package. If you're a fan of the game, or a turn based stratagy person at heart, this is well worth your time and money.
For starters there's additions to the standard game. New wonders have been added in, including the Temple of Artimes (a temple in every city on the same continent), the Statue of Zeus (generates an Ancient Cavalry every 5 turns. Ancient cavalry are damn powerful and can only be built by this wonder), and the Knights Templar (same as Zeus, but generates Crusaders). These really buff up the ancient and medieval gameplay. In addition, most wonders can now become Tourist Attractions. In old Civ III, once a wonder was made obselete, it's only benefits were culture. Now though, the longer a wonder has been standing, it will start to generate increasing amounts of gold from tourism. Very nice <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Two new civilisation types have been added in: agricultural and seafaring. Apart from balancing some of the old civilisations, these two new types add more variety and differant playing styles. Agricultural civs generate more food in city squares and irrigated deserts, and can build aqueducts and hospitals cheaper and faster. Seafaring nations can build sea-based city improvements cheaper and faster, cities on the coast generate more commerce and ships move faster.
Two new government types! Feudalism and Fascism. Feudalism is very similar to Monarchy, but with war weariness and slightly better efficientcy. Fascism is for the warmongers <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> Worker productivity is a whopping 200% (!). The military police rate is 4, and cities support a ton of units at no cost. There is of course a downside: corruption is fairly bad (though better than monarchy, feudalism or despotism) and when you change to this government, all your cities lose population (for example, all my level 12 cities became level 10. ouch). Also conquored cities will not generate any culture until a majority of the populace has been assimilated. Fascism is availible as a new technology researched after nationalism.
A new specialist, the police officer, is now availible. Turning a citizen into one of them reduces corruption in the city. This is a godsend for many players.
New civs! Inca, Dutch, Mayan, Byzantines, Portugese, Hittites and Sumerians all join the ranks. Most have ancient unique units, but beware: these guys are no lightweights. The incans get a scout that can attack (they're nasty. Very nasty), and the Mayans have a javalin thrower that replaces the archer. These guys have a high attack, and if they defeat another unit there's a 33% chance that the other unit will become enslaved, and a worker is generated under the control of the Mayans. It's pretty cool <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
New terrain and resources have also been added. Marshlands and volcanos now dot the landscape. Marshlands generate disease and are a significant hiderance to movement. Volcanos have a high shield generation rate (3, unmined!), but they do erupt periodically, spewing pollution over the surrounding squares. I havn't been game to build a city right next to one. Pompeii anyone? Tobacco now appears on grasslands, suger shows up on plains, tropical fruits in jungles and oasises in deserts. Unfortunatly these are only production increasing resources; you can't trade them. They do however provide nice additions to otherwise lackluster terrain.
Possibly the biggest part of the addon are the Conquest missions. There are 9 of these, each one a faithful recreation of historical events, ranging from the birth of human civilisation in Mesopotamia to the War in the Pacific during WWII. Each of these scenarios have their own unique technologies and units, plus modified rules. Differant resources are availible, such as stone, a stratigic resource required to built ancient improvements and wonders. These missions are an absolute blast in multiplayer, and as they're all pre-made you can get right into the action without messing around with those thousands of years of civ building that can sometimes be tedious <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
All in all Conquests is a fantastic add-on to the Civilisation III package. If you're a fan of the game, or a turn based stratagy person at heart, this is well worth your time and money.
Comments
Explain the concept of "civilization types" (as in the agricultural\seafaring business)?
In civ 3, each civ gets assigned two 'traits' (its predetermined, ie persians are scientific and industrial if I remember right). These two traits are (imho) the largest factor in making each civ different from each other. As of this expansion, two new traits have been added, agricultural and seafaring. As you can see from his post, agricultural helps food production, so a civ having agricultural would have the bonuses mentioned.
btw, fascism sounds crazy <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
I mean...uh <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> , you know how I like to nuke stuff?
<!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Do you guys know if there is a bundle for sale that has civ 3 and conquests together, or is the expansion still only sold seperately?
Don't get me wrong, Civ II was and still is a superb game. However, I do believe that Civ III is a superiour product. I'll give my thoughts on the matter here.
- Culture and national borders: Every city generates "culture", which is an expression of the influence that your civilisation has. Certain city improvements, like temples or libraries, and wonders of the world, generate culture. When culture levels reach a certain point, the city's influence expands. Each civilisation can only use terrain that is inside their borders, and thus it becomes very important to ensure that your cities are culturally rich. If you have to gain access to a special resource that is outside your borders, you have to build fairly vunerable colonies. Culture rich cities that are near enemy culturally poor cities can even cause a revolt in the enemy city, giving you the option to absorbing the city into your empire.
Not only does culture add in the wonderful concept of national borders, it helps prevent very rapid military victories. Because all terrain improvements such as roads and railroads can't be used when your military forces are in enemy territory, each unit must cross terrain tiles at full movement penalties. This slows the military side of things down, but this I believe was much needed, as in Civ II entire civilisations could fall in one turn (I used to do it <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> ).
- Civilsation distinction: Each civilisation in Civ III is unique. They each have their own unique unit, which is generally an upgraded version of a regular unit. Should you grab jaguar warriors in the Stone Age by going for the Aztecs, or should you hold out for Panzers with the Germans? This adds a lot of diversity to the game, and is a very nice addition I believe. In Civ II everyone was pretty much the same; nothing set differant cultures and peoples apart from one another. The differant "Civilsation Traits" such as Industrious, Scientific, Commercial, Militeristic, Agricultural, Expansionist and Seafaring all give the player a much broader means to define how they will play the game; someone desireing a military victory might grab a militeristic civilisation, whilst a leader who wants to go to Alpha Centauri would go best with a scientific race.
- Resources: Every resource in Civ II was just a terrain improvement; they boosted production but that was it. Civ III brings in luxury and stratigic resources. Luxiry resources make people happy, and the more differant luxuries you bring into a city, the happier people are. One luxiry good affects all the cities in your empire that are connected to the original resurce via a road, railroad, harbour or airport. Building marketplaces boosts the "happiness" bonus; 1 resource means 1 happy citizen, 3 resources means 2 happy citizens, right up to 7 making 4 people happy. Luxuries are thus quite important to gameplay, and trading them through diplomacy, or going to war to gain or protect them, adds some great competition.
Strategic resources are a whole new kettle of fish, but they are an excellent addition to the game. You don't know where these resources are until you research the appropriate scientific technology (sauch as refining for oil). So you don't know where to expand to until it's often too late, and conflict sets in. Certain units require stratigic resources, just like in the actual world. Try building knights without horses; it's pretty tough. The strategic resources in Civ III (horses, iron, saltpeter, coal, rubber, aluminium, uranium and oil) all are required to build units like Cavalry, Swordsmen, Nuclear Submarines, Tanks or even wonders such as the Manhatten Project or the Apollo Program. Civ II had nothing like this; you could be the most resource poor civilisation on the face of the planet but you could build tanks by the division. By bringing in strategic resources, Civ III ensures that not everyone is on an even footing, whilst at the same time fostering conflict amongst players, as well as potential diplomacy. There's nothing like seeing that uranium deposit you really want cropping up in enemy territory. Time to start the tanks rolling, or crack out the diplomats? It's up to you <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Those would be the main reasons I'd say Civ III is better. Everyone has their opinions though, and this is just mine.
Just civ 3 or all civs? the overall gameplay is mostly the same.
Despite the basic AI cheats in Civ2 and Civ3 I like Civ3 better (except I miss those wonder movies). The AI cheating was worse in 2 though.
I also like the improved diplomatic aspects...They make it much easier to want to trade or send gifts to other civs...instead of the "We demand you trade us Monarchy for Literature, or face the wrath of our armies!" they're actually semi-realistic, varied based on diplomatic stance, so you get "Would you care to trade Monarcy for Literature to aid both our civilizations?" ...or something like that.
Also what was mentioned above - although I don't appreciate the 'coal needed for rail-roads' aspect.
I think they should switch the cities to states or provinces....because, well, no country has 'only' 20 cities or something. Just make it the capitol city of a province...It'd make more sense...but maybe that's just me.
Expansion sounds fairly nice...although, I'm not sure I'd appreciate the Volcanoes...they seem unneeded, as there are no other natural disasters (unless you count disease).
Just civ 3 or all civs? the overall gameplay is mostly the same. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
In that case all of them, haven't tried the others.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There's also Global Warming and Nuclear Meltdowns. True, the meltdowns arn't exactly natural but they are caused randomly.
The volcano is a gamble: it counts as a mountain, so if you mine it you'll be getting 6 sheilds, and that's WITHOUT a railroad. The catch is of course that it can blow sky high with little warning. But the rewards are defenitly worthwhile.
That's nothing new. Both of those existed in the original game.
Truth be told if the game had hurricanes, flash floods, meteor strikes and giant lizard attacks it wouldn't be much fun. Plus, given that the game is looking at human civilisation from a very large persepctive (cities and massive armies represented by small icons), most of the standard disasters prevelant in say, Sim City, would mean little in Civ.
What cool stuff do we get to represent ourselves?
Hurricanes and maybe massive volcano eruptions are all I see though (natural based disasters, no animals or humans involved).