Hail to all my Civ Brothers!
I have been playing since Saturday Nov 3rd and found to begin with that civ3 was a letdown in many areas. However, I felt the same way about CTP the first few times I played but later learned to love the game. I’ll be patient with civ3.
Last night I started a game, standard map, regent as France. there was not a great deal of land but enough room to build a decent civ. I rapidly expanded as I met 4 other civs very early in the game. This gave me an idea. If the AI has no trouble getting techs, why not buy my technology. So I managed to settled 7 cities and immediately set my science all the way to 0%. All of my cities built infrastructure and culture while the money begin to trickle in at first, growing with each turn. Soon I was purchasing Techs from the Americans, and selling the techs to the Germans, English, and Russians. I became a Day Trader. I could buy, for example, Literacy, and sell it to the others for a few gold per turn for 20 turns, making a profit on my initial investment. The game went on and I became a powerhouse with a 0% tech rate!!! I met the Indians and Japanese. by 1100 I was a powerful Republic, had a vault of 6000 gold, the most culturally advanced civ, a bristling military and loved by almost all the civs. Then I bought democracy from the Americans and revolted. I suppose the mighty nation of France in anarchy was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so the Americans attacked and captured Rheims. Immediately I brought the Russians, English and Germans against the Americans, who drew the Indians and Japanese into the conflict against The European Alliance (France, England, Russia, and Germany). It was World War I. The German Army poured into the American territories and captured Boston, retook Rheims for me, (which reverted back to France do to culture) after a few turns the Americans begged for peace. All without myself firing a shot. (Behold the power of chee–umm,, allies)
After the war, I enabled my science again up to 40% and was getting techs every 4-6 turns in the middle ages.
Because I traded alot the other civs loved me. Most were gracious. Until the war that is. Peace persisted again until the Americans Blitzed and defeated the English in 8 turns, and again against the Russians in 12 turns.
A funny thing worth mentioning is neither the English nor the Russians requested for me to join them against the Americans. Even more surprising is the fact that the Russians turned down my offer for alliance against the Americans while the 2 were at war!! So they got wiped out.
So to boil it down, set your science rate to zero as soon as you meet a few civs (1 or 2) and begin working on cultural and infrastructural improvements. It won’t take long to acquire the techs early on to really build yourself up fast so that when you get to the later stages of the game you can focus on your specific type of goal (conquest, spaceship, diplomacy etc).
Make the AI do the research, =) Happy gaming and good luck.