Are the days of world conquest over?

[Sleestax]

I started a custom game and made it so conquest was the only possible victory condition. I played everything else standard (default).

I know I am not the greatest Civ player by any means, but it seems nearly impossible to "take over the world" conquest style on a standard or larger sized map in Civ IV.

I was starting wars as often as I could given that you have to keep up with tech too or you units become obsolete even faster than they already do (you only get like 5-10 turns it seems like before your great new unit is obsolete and you are upgrading/replacing your army yet again, assuming you have the tech to do so).

Even doing this, and only playing on Warlord level, I was only able to take over about 2/3 of the map before the game ended and I was declared "defeated" because I didn't get the conquest victory condition. Neither did any other Civ obviously and I was #1, but I still ranked in at a lowly Herbert Hoover.

With units becoming obsolete so fast, so many more types of buildings, techs and other crap to build, and fewer turns in this version (why not 500 anymore?), will world conquest be a viable option?

Don't get me wrong, I like a space race win sometimes, a cultural win is nice too, a U.N. win feels empty, but there is nothing like the feeling of seeing the entire world covered with your civ to sate that inner-megalomaniac.

Anyone who has successfully conquered the entire map in Civ IV, would you please put up some pointers?

[LordShiva]

The days of world conquest, are, in fact, unfortunately, over.

[Sleestax]

I guess I will have to play a tiny-map if I want to satisfaction of ruling the world. I didn't realize I had purchased "Civilization IV: The Sims Edition!".

[spy14]

Until someone makes a nice mod which changes the appropriate values, world conquests are off. It's weird playing the Earth map - i'm playing as Rome, have discovered the Americas, yet colonising them is prohibitably expensive.

I sent a settler, great engineer and some military, idea being to whack the forbidden palace up, but for some reason that I havn't worked out yet I cant build it there. Those North American barb cities seem destined to still be there come the endgame.

[Bhruic]

Re: Are the days of world conquest over?

Originally posted by Sleestax
With units becoming obsolete so fast, so many more types of buildings, techs and other crap to build, and fewer turns in this version (why not 500 anymore?), will world conquest be a viable option?

I can't imagine not playing at Epic speed. 650 turns there, although I still bumped that up, as I thought it was too little (especially after I increased research time).

Bh

[Sirian]

Originally posted by LordShiva
The days of world conquest, are, in fact, unfortunately, over.

Nonsense. My second solo game out of the box, I'm on my way to owning the whole map. Monarch level, Great Plains (the all-land maps are tougher, too!)

"Bigger is usually better but you'd better be smart."

That also translates in to:

"Conquest is still possible, but don't expect them to roll over and play dead for you."


The game hasn't even been out a month, and people think they have it all figured out already? Heck. -I- don't have it all figured out, and I've been in contact with it for over a year and a half.


- Sirian

[Sleestax]

I was on my way to owning the whole map too, then the game ended. Let us know if you successfully take over the world.

[gakkun]

I'm in no postition to critisize but instead of blaming the game (less turns blah blah) why not try again to see if you could do it better next time?? Just because you could do it in CivIII but not in this one doesn't mean it's impossible.

[Utwig]

I'm playing a noble game on standard Pangea and I have 30% of land area and 40% of population in 1400. I'm also culture leader, on par with top rival in science, control 3 holy cities and have built most of wonders past the early classical era.

I'm playing for domination, but I want a builder type empire.

It's perfectly doable.

[Sleestax]

Originally posted by gakkun
I'm in no postition to critisize but instead of blaming the game (less turns blah blah) why not try again to see if you could do it better next time?? Just because you could do it in CivIII but not in this one doesn't mean it's impossible.

I didn't say it was impossible. I am asking if anyone has won a conquest game in Civ IV yet (standard or larger map)? For everyone saying it's doable, please do it then report back. I am going to keep at it myself.

[Ansaga]

Well I technically got a conquest but I won a domination victory in standard map. I was going for complete conquest but domination kicked in before that.

I chose Napolean and did the usual. Near end game I was behind in tech then I beelined for fiber optics. Got the internet wonder and I put research at 0%. Getting mass gold I just quick built a huge army. Declare war, run country over, repeat.

It is doable you just need a good strategy.

[Aro]

Originally posted by LordShiva
The days of world conquest, are, in fact, unfortunately, over.

My conclusion:
"The days of easy world conquest, are, in fact, over."

[marvinkosh]

I have done the conquest thing as Incas, but not on Warlord difficulty yet. Here is how I handled them on that occasion:

Victoria - I was hired by Isabella to help wipe her out. Stopped briefly to catch my breath and gather my troops, then wiped her out completely a little later. Because Isabella's territory is in between mine and Victoria's I am able to flip several of her cities and strangle what she has left in a fairly peaceful manner.

This all changes when I have developed industrially and acquire modern-age weaponry and nuclear weapons.

Isabella - Nuked one of her cities and launched an all-out offensive with air and land units. At this point I have two carriers filled with jet fighters protected by a decent naval escort, plus a half-dozen stealth bombers flying from various cities. The bombardment makes it easy for tanks to mop up the defenders (she has predominantly regular Infantry) and since I'm not going to need her cities I raze them all.

Qin Shi Huang - I've continued to build up my stockpile of nukes, I've added another carrier and I now have submarines prowling the oceans. He's located on the other major continent and occupies some of the north and a small holding to the south. This is perfect, since in order to attack his neighbours with my bombers I will need to hold the north and south. My primary attack though is in the north and because he has a lot of coastal cities I use marines to good effect here. Again, I use a single nuke to soften up the city with the humungous stack on it. After I've rolled into one city and it is reasonably secure, I re-base some fighters and use them to supplement the airpower from my carriers. The bombers, having increased in number, are also put to use in keeping defender stacks injured.

Caesar & Peter - These two I have avoided up until now because they have a defensive pact and I must fight them both - using my new footholds in the north and the south. Given that the two of them have not yet developed much in the way of armoured units, but they do have some anti-air ability, this is a hard-fought war and I nuke most of their major cities and bomb the strategic resources so that it is tougher for them to fight back. Again, the marines prove to be useful with attacking the coastal cities.

Bismarck - The Roman and Russian civilizations are no more, and so I turn my attentions back to my northern neighbour, who's become quite alarmed with all the nuking, but he hasn't declared war on me yet. He's as advanced as the two I've just crushed but he does not control as many cities. I overpower his small navy, and use airstrikes on the few Panzer units out in the open, finishing them off with gunships. I have to fight off some of his gunships too. By this time, even having cleaned up all the fallout, global warming is getting pretty bad, so I make sure to crank out enough units to get the job done quickly, which is done with a few decades to spare.

I think the theme that runs through here is to not hold onto any cities which aren't strategically valuable to your war effort. Tanks are especially useful in shortening the amount of time spent on a given opponent. An airforce, which is much more flexible than artillery in certain regards, is necessary. Finally, you need a means of moving your troops where they need to go, which means a number of transports.

The motivation for starting the mass conquest was that one or more of the other nations had completed their Apollo program, and so I had to move fast to prevent them from gaining a space race victory. However, when I spied on their cities I didn't actually see much spaceship building happening, possibly because they were preparing to defend themselves first. At any rate, there weren't any parts built so it was a successful strategy if somewhat brutal.

[vee4473]

Originally posted by Aro


My conclusion:
"The days of easy world conquest, are, in fact, over."

agreed.

Of course, if you turn the timer off or continue after 2050, then by all means you can take your time and achieve conquest.

The victory is gone at that point, but I have found that conquest is just as pleasing after 2050 as it is as a victory.

[Cordelayne]

See my suggestions about modding the game speed and production settings in the thread today called "Not enough time in second half of game, what settings to change?"

Of all four versions of Civilization, I actually think world conquest is easiest (and most fun) in Civ4--but you do have to mod the speed and production settings, which only takes about three minutes and is completely safe.