Which type of victory to go for..?

[buizz]

I am starting to think more and more about my Civ game, and I have realized that I always almost without even thinking about it go for conquest/domination victories. Ie. basically conquer the world and kill everything in my way. I am starting to think that this is a bit simplistic, are Space Race / Cultural / Diplomatic / Time victories something that is really frequently used by regular Civ players, or are those victory modes regarded as secondary to the conquest/domination ones? Or does a regular Civ player start the game with an open mind and adapt to the most favourable victory condition depending on situation in the game and starting civ? I'd be interested in knowing how people see this.

[BigWilly1974]

I always go for domination or conquest.

There's no right answer here. But I find space race a bit cheesy. Culture is ok, but I like my wars too, and will probably never build my game around producing mass amounts of culture.

If I go the whole game without being involved in wars, I start to get bored. My philosophy is to build until I have a competitive advantage (tech or number of units), then start knocking rivals off.

So my advice...play the way that you most enjoy. Or adapt to the situation. If you end up in a game where you can't seem to get the jump onthe AI in tech or military numbers (for example, you have a small'ish empire), then you might want to try and bee-line for a space victory.

[Volstag]

I tend to rotate through all the victory conditions.... once the cycle is "complete" I'll usually bump to the next difficulty level.

[Merzbow]

How do you win by domination or conquest on Prince and above without turning off other victory types and waiting until all techs have been discovered, then just going for tactics? Because it seems at all points before then the AI is always ahead in techs.

[tanathos]

I always go for space race. I don't know why I prefer it to all the other ways.

I also have the nasty habit to nuke the whole planet the turn before I win -_-

It's also because I make my highest scores with space race. Just finished a game on noble with 15000 score, highest ranking.

[monkspider]

Space race is my old stand by.
I will occassionaly go for Diplomatic or Cultural as circumstances dictate.

[xxFlukexx]

I've been trying for domination victory in my last few games on prince/monarch, and ran into trouble. I can kill or severely maim 4-6 AIs, but I can't kill everyone and eventually there's gonna be a few AIs that just sit there and beat me to space race everytime.

A lot of my wars are defensive anyways, if I don't get hit by 2-3 AIs at once I have a very high win rate. But when I am constantly in war, it's hard to keep up with AIs that are just teching and building.

Maybe I just have to play on smaller maps(I play on large usually) but I like the bigger maps.

[Azuarc]

I tend to win on anything BUT conquest/domination.

[Dominae]

Conquest or Space Race.

Conquest is less tedious now, in fact I find it less tedious than Domination.

Space Race is much more fun than in Civ3, since the AI can put up quite a fight especially if you underestimate it.

Cultural can be fun once or twice, but still involves a lot of waiting.

Diplomatic is fun when it's hard, but comes too early otherwise. You can usually tell with high certainty if a Diplomatic victory will be open to you in the Medieval era or so, so what's the point in going through with it?

[spammurabi]

I just finished a game as Elizabeth on Noble, and I was aiming for a Spaceship victory, but ended up with Domination since apparently the continent that I started on had 65% of the landmass and I just finished wiping my opponents out 2 turns before the SS Stasis Chamber finished. And 3 turns before I built the UN.

I kept playing a few turns after I had won to see if I got the other victory type movies, and you don't.

[CrispyCritter]

Originally posted by Dominae
Diplomatic is fun when it's hard, but comes too early otherwise. You can usually tell with high certainty if a Diplomatic victory will be open to you in the Medieval era or so, so what's the point in going through with it?

Really?

It should be, perhaps, and I regard it as a bug that it isn't, but the two games that I've won (1 at Prince, 1 at Monarch) were both unplanned Diplomatic victories, or could have been. In the Monarch game, I was at war with the rest of the world!

In both games, an AI built the UN, but at the time it was finished, I was bigger than everybody else; the vote splintered and I became leader. After that, you can vote yourself the Diplomatic victory long before you win a Domination victory. I actually turned down the Prince level Diplomatic victory half-a-dozen times before I won by Domination. The Monarch game was far closer. I had to attack and conquer the civ leading in the Space race; and by the time I was finishing with that, I then had to attack the next civ leading in the space race; and then again for the third civ, but it would have been very close for the fourth civ, so I took the Diplomatic victory.

My question is whether this is a valid tactic for winning (ie, you build and time the UN yourself), and if so, whether it should be a valid tactic!

[QuestGAV]

I think I'm going to turn off the space race for my next few games. It provides too much incentive to sit back and turtle once you've got the best economy.

[Shaka II]

Originally posted by Dominae
Conquest or Space Race.

Conquest is less tedious now, in fact I find it less tedious than Domination.

Why is it less tedious? Because domination requires 64% land area? I almost always win on domination, but not conquest. I suppose it depends heavily on the type of map played. Pangea, for example, is easier to achieve 64% land acquisition. Archipelago might be tough though.

[Dominae]

Because of the new city Maintenance system, just claiming a bunch of land is not so easy anymore. I suppose you could build a bunch of cities in One Big Turn, wait for border expansions, and win. But if you can do that, you can probably win by Conquest more easily.

Conquest is less tedious because you can reach critical military mass with fewer cities and need to push fewer units around than in Civ3. Domination adds the step of having to capture conquered cities and make them productive, at least with respect to a Domination victory. Personally I find this added step a lot more tedious.

In short, if I know I'm going to be a warmonger, I go "all out" (or is it "all in" now?) and aim for Conquest; if I decide to be more peaceful, I rush to the Space Race. These seem to be the most direct routes to victory.

I have never liked the Domination nor Diplomatic VCs, it's entirely possibled I'm more than a little biased here.

[vee4473]

To me, conquest seems the most difficult. I'm talking about standard map and larger and noble and above.

Simply because on larger maps, eliminating all civs before 2050 is quite the feat to me. Assuming you haven't altered the time limit.

Domination, a little less demanding, but still hard.

Lately, I have been going for score victory, even though aside from tech, land area etc..., what adds to score is elusive.