Which type of victory to go for..?

[vee4473]

Dominae, I always like to go for conquest, but I just can't muster it most of the time.

I am definitely doing something wrong.

[Dominae]

I know this may sound a little obvious/condescending, but:

You have to a built a lot of units to win by Conquest.

This in and of itself is not very hard, it's just that there are so many more attractive options available that it's easy to get distracted (i.e. city improvements, Great People, etc.).

[vee4473]

good point, I do amass a sizable army, but i'm always thinking that some other building will help me too.

I guess I need to focus, and be a little more patient.

[Shaka II]

Originally posted by Dominae
I know this may sound a little obvious/condescending, but:

You have to a built a lot of units to win by Conquest.

This in and of itself is not very hard, it's just that there are so many more attractive options available that it's easy to get distracted (i.e. city improvements, Great People, etc.).

Not condescending at all, and it's an easy trap to fall into, to become too much of a builder when what you really need is a large army.

Regarding your point about having to make productive cities out of captured cities, does that mean that you raze them after a certain pont?

Certainly captured cities can become productive, and fuel your civilization, perhaps provide a location for Forbidden Palace. But in the end game, new ones are no longer needed as you already have critical mass. I suppose it's the builder in me that makes me keep them, but Civ IV makes it much easier to capture cities without them flipping back. In Civ III, I used to keep a few settlers on the front lines to build cities the same turn they were razed, but that grew tiring.

[Sovereign]

Personally, I'm doing my first "real" game of Civ 4 with only Conquest victory condition enabled.

I don't want to ever do a time victory condition because I want to play until 2100, 2500, or even 3000 AD, something I couldn't do in the other Civ games except for Alpha Centauri or Call to Power.

I think Conquest is my favorite- I always went for Conquest in Civ 3, and I also went for the occasional spaceship victory as well. I may try a spaceship victory in my next game of Civ 4, but I dunno though.

[LDiCesare]

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

I think space race is much more boring than Civ2. Once a ship is finished, launched, game won or lost. It was not so in civ2 where you had maybe 10 years to finish a ship by adding 4 engines and researching the tech that made your ship go much faster than the ai's and reach Alpha Centaury first. Plus you can't rush ss parts in civ IV, so it's even longer.

[xxFlukexx]

How do you keep the AIs out from just resettling that area you just razed, Dominae? That's the main pain I have with conquest. Closing borders makes more AIs hate me and while I can kill 2 AIs at once, 4 at once is beyond me right now(on prince/monarch). And on maps with water, even closed borders won't keep those pesky AIs from settling everywhere like cockroaches.

[Shaka II]

I was going to mention those pesky AI settlers. Maybe it becomes like whack a mole at that point, asuming you are strong enough to handle all comers. If not, I would think keeping the captured cities would be a safer way to go.

[cal_01]

Well, I was just trying for a cultural victory plus some beelining for techs, and I found something very interesting that some people may want to know:

As most people know, if your borders start squeezing your opposing civs, they'll be more inclined to attack you. Now, if you're going for a cultural victory, you may be inclined to go for a peaceful game, right?

Wrong!

In fact, I'm finding that being aggressive while going for a cultural win is probably the best bet. Since most of the time you'd be building cultural buildings or wonders, it makes sense to build up some kind of military to smash your enemies!

Right now, two civs are ganging up on me, but I just got Gunpowder and brought a friend into the fight. Let's see how this goes!

[DrHook]

This might be a bit off track here, but since capturing enemy cities was mentioned, I thought I'd ask about it. I had a situation recently where I captured one of the Japanese big cities (on a neighboring continent). It had a 13 or 14 pop and was near the capital so I assume it was a core city of his. Anyway, when I took it, it had no radius, even after the revolts stopped. I bombed a GA there, built a theater, had Eiffel tower for the broadcast tower, and it didn't change anything. The thing was basically useless except as base, and because there were no tiles to work except a couple sea tiles, the population crashed to 3. With that sort of case, I can't see how capturing a city late game is useful unless you intend to take a few more while you are at. I would have had to take/raze at least a couple of cities I think to get some workable tiles freed up.

[Proteus_MST]

I always go for more peaceful victoriws, as I consider myself to be more the builder type,
who only goes to war if provoked (and normally hads good relations to most other civs, but a few).

@DrHook
If it is really a core city, next to his capital you shouldn´t ask why the cultural border of the city doesn´t expand
The capital and all the other older japanese cities already have a lot of culture amassed during the years that passed (and probably have lots of culture producing buildings).
Even the 4000-6000 culture-points created by your GA don´t do too much to combat the massive cultural influence by the nearby japanese cities (which probably all have at least the same amount of culture, if not much more).
So either continue producing GAs (and letting them create great works in said city) or hope that thanks to your wonders and other buildings you outproduce the other japanese cities in culture (you can see it in your city and its surrounding tiles, just watch the percentage of japanese influence; if it shrinks good for you, if it grows, good for the japanese )
and so some time in the near or far future the surrounding tiles have amassed enough of your culture points to flip.
Or of course, renew your war against thre japanese and conquer the surrounding japanese cities

[baboon]

I always win by Space Race (if I win), although I'm usually trying something else, mainly Domination.

In Civ3 I could do Domination or Conquest on lower difficulty like Regent or even Monarch if I had a lot of time.

But now in Civ 4 I'm struggling with it, at Prince I can conquer some Civ's but not enough for a Domination let alone Conquest. Maybe it's easier at Epic speed, currently playing normal.

[baboon]

Originally posted by Shaka II
I was going to mention those pesky AI settlers. Maybe it becomes like whack a mole at that point, asuming you are strong enough to handle all comers. If not, I would think keeping the captured cities would be a safer way to go.

Captured cities need defence. If you raze the cities you can use the troups that don't need to defend for killing settlers

And you don't have the maintenance so you have more money.

[khearn]

Originally posted by baboon


Captured cities need defence. If you raze the cities you can use the troups that don't need to defend for killing settlers

And you don't have the maintenance so you have more money.

Plus, if the cockroaches, er... other AIs, bring in settlers, just treat them like cockraches should be treated, stomp on 'em. If they want to spend the resources to build a settler and a couple of units to (poorly) defend it, let 'em. If you're going for a conquest, you should have enough quality troops to wipe out a new city for a lot less resource cost than it takes the AIs to make them. If they spend resources building new cities that get razed, they're just getting weaker and easier for you to take out. Plus, you get a little more loot in the process.

The biggest problem is if the cockroach in question is one that you're not yet at war with, and you don't want to take on too many at once.

Keith