I have been infected with a virus. It is consuming all available timeslices.

I was infected when I went to Costco. They have civ 3 for $22 (lumpsum, not per turn, and I didn't have to include any technology, cities, or luxuries).

The core is the same as civ 1 and civ 2. Since everybody has played those, I'll review the changes.

The first thing that I noticed was that a lot of the tedious stuff has been removed. A new unit called a Worker does the terrain improvments that a Settler used to do. You can automate the worker, and the AI does a decent job of making the correct irrigation, mine, and road improvements. When the AI can't decide anything else to do, the worker is returned to a city. Eventually, the automated workers will create roads on all your squares, which is good but got very boring in the first 2 civs.

Caravans and freight units are gone. Also gone is the 3-trade-route-per-city concept. Trade happens when 2 civs' capital cities are connected via [rail]roads that don't go through any hostile territory, and the civs have somthing to trade. Scattered about the map are special resource squares for things like gems, oil, incense; these are trade items as well as prereqs for certain units. For example, saltpeter is required for any gunpowder-based units. A given resource is only shown on the map when the requisite advancement is made.

Diplomats and spies are gone. Diplomacy and espionage are possible for civs in which you have an embassy.

There is more difference between the civs than there used to be. Each civ has its own unique units, and has 2 characteristics such as militaristic, commercial, and industrious. When advances relevant to these characteristics are made, the civ enters a special time called a Golden Age during which production is increased.

Waging war has changed. It is still very difficult and expensive to wage war, but it is now possible to put the economy on a war footing. In this case, production is increased, but only war-related research can be done and only war-related units and improvements can be made.

A new metric called Culture has been added. This is created with certain research and city improvements.

A civlization now has set boundaries. These boundaries are set based on (I think) military might and (for sure) culture. Sometimes, an opposing city will voluntarily join your civ, based on proximity and culture.

There are 2 new ways to win: by being elected Sec General of the UN, and by cultural domination. World conquest and the space race are still present.

Got to go, currently racing against the Aztecs for land.

(5 Units of Commerce out of 5).