http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725095.600

I would like one of these in my Civ 3 games!

Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed

VOLUNTEERS taking part in tests of the Pentagon's "less-lethal" microwave weapon were banned from wearing glasses or contact lenses due to safety fears. The precautions raise concerns about how safe the Active Denial System (ADS) weapon would be if used in real crowd-control situations.

The ADS fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam, which is supposed to heat skin and to cause pain but no physical damage (New Scientist, 27 October 2001, p 26). Little information about its effects has been released, but details of tests in 2003 and 2004 were revealed after Edward Hammond, director of the US Sunshine Project - an organisation campaigning against the use of biological and non-lethal weapons - requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

The tests were carried out at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Two experiments tested pain tolerance levels, while in a third, a "limited military utility assessment", volunteers played the part of rioters or intruders and the ADS was used to drive them away.

The experimenters banned glasses and contact lenses to prevent possible eye damage to the subjects, and in the second and third tests removed any metallic objects such as coins and keys to stop hot spots being created on the skin. They also checked the volunteers' clothes for certain seams, buttons and zips which might also cause hot spots.

The ADS weapon's beam causes pain within 2 to 3 seconds and it becomes intolerable after less than 5 seconds. People's reflex responses to the pain is expected to force them to move out of the beam before their skin can be burnt.

But Neil Davison, co-ordinator of the non-lethal weapons research project at the University of Bradford in the UK, says controlling the amount of radiation received may not be that simple. "How do you ensure that the dose doesn't cross the threshold for permanent damage?" he asks. "What happens if someone in a crowd is unable, for whatever reason, to move away from the beam? Does the weapon cut out to prevent overexposure?"

During the experiments, people playing rioters put up their hands when hit and were given a 15-second cooling-down period before being targeted again. One person suffered a burn in a previous test when the beam was accidentally used on the wrong power setting.
“What happens if someone is unable to move away from the beam?”

A vehicle-mounted version of ADS called Sheriff could be in service in Iraq in 2006 according to the Department of Defense, and it is also being evaluated by the US Department of Energy for use in defending nuclear facilities. The US marines and police are both working on portable versions, and the US air force is building a system for controlling riots from the air.

I would like one of these in my Civ 3 games!

Are you playing civ 3 complete or an earlier version?

Actually, I'm playing PTW, which is the expansion just after Civ 3.

So, basically this is great for rioters who a) don't wear glasses b) don't wear contacts c) don't have anything in their pockets d) don't wear a watch...

Sounds great! :rolleyes:

Of course, it'd be a lot of fun to be able to shoot a bag of popcorn to get it to pop. :)

Actually, I'm playing PTW, which is the expansion just after Civ 3.

The ottomans and americans are probably the best. If you play below mid difficulty then persians.

Have you visited civfanatics yet? They have a variety of mods.

Yes, got tons of mods. I think the best civ depends on who you ask, one strategy guide says Japanese, Iroquois and Aztecs are. :p

I just won the Early Warfare with the Japanese. Although I still suck at combat, I gotta fix that.

I'm like the Iroquois or the Arabs myself. Religious and Commercial are the 2 best advantages. If you get Call to Power the Incas are awesomely overpowered.

I'm like the Iroquois or the Arabs myself. Religious and Commercial are the 2 best advantages. If you get Call to Power the Incas are awesomely overpowered.

Arabs are C3C and not PTW.

If you play an always war game then religious/militaristic is an excellent choice. Commercial/religious is not bad either.

For early combat, you need to define what you mean as early. Persians are probably the best early combat civ in the original civ 3 and ptw expansion. Persians get the immortal which is the same as a med inf. If you can do it, get leo's workshop and cash upgrade warriors. You can go from all warriors to all immortals in one turn. Then you can disconnect your iron resource and reconnect it latter.

The one of the most important aspects of civ is having lots of workers. 1.5 workers per city is necessary unless you pursue very early warfare.

If you go early warfare then you just need 10~20 attack units. Later you need catapults and defensive units.

Learn to use the power graphs. You can tell if you are much stronger than your target. If you are not, buy allies. Heh.

I could swear I've played against the Arabs in PTW. The early combat scenario isn't THAT early, at least not for me. :p I found myself getting involved in the 2nd technology period.

I bought allies in that game and they were frustrating me because I'd weaken a city and they'd come along and take it! Argh!

I bought allies in that game and they were frustrating me because I'd weaken a city and they'd come along and take it! Argh!

Really roughly, you want one attack unit per city size. A size 5 city needs 5 attack units. If you have a size 10 city, you want 10 seige weapons, 5 attack units and 5 defensive units OR 10 attack units.

One key concept is to bleed your enemy before conquering. Another key concept is to ally with a civ on their back door.

That is, declare war and buy allies. Your enemy will send units to defend their back door and you wait a few turns and enter through the front. As a matter of fact, I would wait 5~10 turns before attacking a city. You need to take one city by turn 20.

During turns 1~10, try to make elite units and score a leader. The losses to the AI will weaken them while you maintain your military. Remember that the AI has a shark feeding frenzy mentality. You only need to injure and the AI enters into a feeding frenzy on that AI. Make sure you maintain your strength/power rating.

My problem was, I wasn't ready for war but the Mongols decided they were. So I was having to defend against them before I could get offensive.

And hey, I noticed how everyone immediately goes to war with you if you fire a nuke! Gosh, I should be able to rubblize Orleans without everyone jumping down my ass. :p

build archers instead of spearman. Both have the same number of points but attack has a higher power value than defensive units. Again, learn to use the power graph. You can reload back 10 turns and focus on building attack units. This may discourage the mongols.
As a side note, you probably had a key resource they "needed" and your military was weak. If you delay connecting key resources until you are ready to use them can delay this type of war.

Hrm, there are "techniques" of "encouraging" the ai to declare war on you. One way is to go to the trade screen and demand something that they will not give you... like a city. Spam the demand key until they go from "indifferent" to "ready to attack". Then demand they remove their troops from your soil. This should result in war. The units can be ships as well and they started it!

Another way to start a war is to cancel your peace treaty and not to enter their land. Wait a turn and enter. You can, also, do this with their units are on your soil. That civ will take a reputation hit.

At the start of a war, you can take a few spear and move them along mountains, stacked. Pillage tiles as you go and focus on their resources. This will cripple any civ during any time period.

I did notice the mongols got REAL pissy when I blockaded their route through my territory to one of their cities that required them to move through my territory. This seemed to be enough to get them to start war with me. Tee Hee!

I always love it when people say "this unit is best", "this is the best way". If there was one that was best, everyone would be it.

I always love it when people say "this unit is best", "this is the best way". If there was one that was best, everyone would be it.

ya, "best" has a lot of qualifiers to it. At lower difficulty level settings certain approachs work just fine in civ 3. For higher difficulty level settings, different techniques are needed. "best" strategy is related to difficulty level.

In the context of "best unit", when do you want to hit a golden age? Units matter less than other charateristics. As far as units go, the Chineese have one of the best horse units, persians have one of the best sword units, ottomans have a best cav unit and Germans...

There are multiple ways to win and ones approach to winning has to go with where you spend shields. If military victory is sought, any militaristic, industrious or expansionistic works fine. It is true that militaristic civs get better unique unit.

Is there a way to set a rally point and tell units to go to the rally point? I could have sworn there was, but maybe I'm getting confused with another game.

Is there a way to set a rally point and tell units to go to the rally point? I could have sworn there was, but maybe I'm getting confused with another game.

I swear woman, I waste more time looking up sh*t for you! *grin* The below are quotes off civfanatics. IIRC the rally point for ptw is set inside the city and is a gobal rally point. That is if you set a rally point units will attempt to move to that point regardless of what continent they are on and if there are enemy units near.

C3C is not much better but there is a continental rally point and I think it is set inside a city.

I set rally points only when I have contiguous land and have railroads.

http://www.civfanatics.com/news/2002-08.php
Sunday, August 11
PTW Preview @ Gamespy
posted by Thunderfall at 3:16 PM

Gamespy has posted a new preview of the Civilization III: Play the World expansion pack. The preview includes development progress reports and some really interesting bits of info, such as the possibility of CIV FLIPPING!
The team has finished the majority of the asset creation, which includes artwork for all the new civs.
Rally points have been added, which means you can produce units and set a rally point to a certain location instead of a city.
Smooth scrolling has been added to the game. "It's truly one of those weird things," says Morris. "We did it as a nice polish level, but the more we have people playtest the more we realize that the perception of the game speed has increased significantly."
Morris touched on the ability to flip civs to your side via your civ's cultural status. "We really thought that was a neglected aspect of these Civilization-type games, was the non-military, non-commercial functions," says Morris. "If you're a major cultural power with a lot of libraries or wonders, things that generate a lot of cultures, next to a culturally weak civ, that civ might 'flip' to your side and defect." However, Morris added that fans tend to either love or hate this feature, so you'll be able to enable or disable it in the scenario editor.
The game is currently just about to go into beta, and you should expect to see Civilization III: Play The World hit store shelves and begin a new quest for world domination this October.

http://www.civfanatics.com/news/2003-07.php
New (Unofficial) C3C Press Release
posted by Chieftess at 4:34 PM

Atari has released a new Civilization III: Conquests press release that contains tons of new info. You can read the full press release on WorthPlaying and Gamershell.
New additions to the main game include the following:

More Difficulty Levels - "Demigod" and "Sid"
More Civ Types - Agricultural & Seafaring
Re-assigning of ALL civs to fit new civ types
More Governments - Fascism & Feudalism
More City Specialists - Civil Engineer & Police Force
More Resources - Tobacco, Bananas, Oasis, Salt, & Sugar
More Wonders - 5 additional wonders
More game options - Random World Size & Adjustable AI aggression levels
More special abilities - Stealth Attack & Enslavement
More AI improvements
More interface improvements
- Rally all continent cities
- Quick toggling of governor settings
- Stack advancements
- Message toggles
More interesting gameplay
- Scientific Great Leaders
- Modifications to existing Unique Units for better balance
- Wonder tourism bonuses
- World Map with Satellites
- Marine attack bonus on amphibious assaults
- The ability to airlift workers
- Conquering capital increases chance of cultural conversions
- Transportable cruise missiles
The press release also contains detailed info for four of the Conquests: Mesopotamia, MesoAmerica, Sengoku, and World War II in the Pacific.

EDIT (7/18): The information posted was NOT an "official press release" -- it's meant to be a representative scattering of features in the game, but by no means a complete list of them. Thanks to Atari's Jeff Foley for the note.

Panamah, you do know Civ 4 is coming don't you?

:)

Yeah! I saw that. :D Octoberish isn't it? I've been playing since Civ I so I'll probably get it.

Hmm... wonder why I can't find any documentation on how to set a rally point. :p I have several of the guides from Civ Fanatics and none mention it. You sure it made it to the game?

I thought for sure I used rally points in civ 3. I can't remember how right now, I think you set it per city. Is there anything about it in the online civilopedia?