Best Victory Condition

[Ming]

The nice thing about Civ is that there are multiple ways to play and win the game.

In another thread, there was an indication that a "total score" win was just another way of saying you were the best loser.

IMHO, I feel the same way about diplomatic wins.
While I think culture victories are "ok", to me, they also seem kind of wimpy.

Conquest and Spaceship seem to be the only victories I truly respect.

What do you think...

[Krill]

Same as you, but I respect domination wins as the only time a domination win couldn't be a conquest win would be when the time is about to run out anyway.

[Supr49er]

Domination, Conquest
Spaceship

[Garth Vader]

I have never won a diplo victory so I think of it as hard. Culture wins are tough too. Although the last culture win I had wasn't intentional, as I was going for a space victory I noticed I could win faster by culture.

[jbp26]

culture wins are boring. i think a true diplomatic victory is one of the toughest to win (true in the sense that, its not just you and your vassals propelling yourself to victory due to a huge margin in the votes controlled).

[Vampgelus]

Spaceship isn't different to culture or time victory to me...

[Hauptman]

In another thread, there was an indication that a "total score" win was just another way of saying you were the best loser.

Well isn't it?

A real cuture win is hard to pull off. I mean that as in having and holding 4 cities tops with the intention of a culture win...

Going for conquest, then realizing you killed off anyone with culture and turning culture to max in 1950 just isnt a real culture win.

Diplo wins, also a nice thing to be able to do when you played to do it. I have however won 'conquest' games because I just happen to have enough vassals to vote me in as the winner. So I still call those conquest.

Space ships, well those are actually the easiest if you have built up a decent empire by then. That late in the game the AIs just fall too far behind.

[Quillan]

Personally, I respect all types of victories except score. Final score is just a "you were ahead when the game was called on account of the weather" so you were declared the winner. The trick, or rather the skill, is in determining as early in the game as possible what victory conditions are possible and moving to achieve those.

[Ming]

When I've targeted a culture win from the beginning, they are really pretty easy. If you set up a GA factory, any city can become a legend

I'm not a big fan of domination, because usually, I'm going for a conquest win and before I can finish a few of the more annoying civs, all of a sudden, I've won. It takes the fun out of it

[Theben]

I always seem to get a culture win even when I'm not trying, due to having 3-4 huge cities with lots of wonders and Sid's. The last time I was getting geared up for a major invasion of the Maya, when I realized I was only 40 turns away from my 3rd legendary culture city. So I said "f*** it" and went that route.

Now I turn off cultural and time victories. I should turn off diplomatic (that win route has sucked in every game it's been in, not just civ4), but I like the +2 hammers from the AP too much.

[Hauptman]

You know one win I've never done. The good ole extermination win (guess that's conquest?)

Maybe I'll try that next time. Settle like 6 cities, then exterminate (raze) any city without a Roman (or Japanese) name. Until noone remains.

[Ming]

I find conquest (total elimination) to be the most satisfying And yeah, I start with a core of cities, and raze most cities. I do keep a few in key choke points or central location so that I can more easily upgrade units later

[Vampgelus]

What bothers me is that by razing the citys, you don't raise your score. I have done this once with the Byzantine, in a AW game, but my final score was pittyful.

[johnmcd]

I tend to think that conquest and domination are pretty crummy victory types.

You take on the computer at the weakest part of its game, it's punching below the belt.

[joncnunn]

Well, "Score Victory" to me is just a fancy phrase for defeat.

But the others are all good.