Where's the Domination?

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Hi! Anyone ever gone for a Domination victory, thought they had it in their hands, and then started pounding your fist into something nearby, screaming, "Why? Why? Why?"

Unfortunately I don't have my save here at work, but I'm about 10 turns away from a cultural victory as the English, and my entire (long, tedious at times) game has been geared to acheiving a domination victory.

I control my entire continent - a pangaea of sorts. The only other continents in the world contain 3 puny civs (once upon a time, there were 4 - ALL the other 16 civs were on my continent and I conquered them all). These two "continents" are mere islands, and I'm not being arrogant - I think there's a total of about 20 cities on the two continents put together.

Why have I not achieved a dom victory, and what can I do in the ten turns before I hit the 100,000 mark and achieve cultural victory?

Furthermore, will I score higher with a domination or cultural victory? My current score is just short of 4,000. I've never really noticed what the diff between a domination and cultural victory is, but I assume there is one.

Does anyone have any info that could help? Thank you.

[Purple]

You need 67% of the land tiles and 67% of the total world's population to win a domination victory.

Reaching 100,000 culture points doesn't guarantee a cultural victory. You also have to have twice as much culture as your nearest rival.

The only suggestion I have to postpone a cultural victory for a few turns is to dismantle some of your culture-producing improvements and wonders.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Originally posted by Purple
You need 67% of the land tiles and 67% of the total world's population to win a domination victory.

Reaching 100,000 culture points doesn't guarantee a cultural victory. You also have to have twice as much culture as your nearest rival.

The only suggestion I have to postpone a cultural victory for a few turns is to dismantle some of your culture-producing improvements and wonders.

AAAAAGH. No. I'll take the cultural victory.

But I don't get it. I must, MUST have at least 67% of the world's land and population at this point. It seems insane. I will upload my game tomorrow... are you sure it's 67%?

[Purple]

I don't blame you. I'd settle for a CV, too!

To see how close I am to a DV I use the alpha version of the MapStat utility, which is available in the first post in this thread on the Civ Fanatics Forum.

I believe there is a Mac-compatible version being developed and that it is downloadable near the end of the same (very long) thread.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Thanks for the info, Purple... that seems like a very handy utility indeed.

There are a number of other threads related to domination at CFC that are pretty interesting, if not totally useful, too...

[vmxa1]

Next time turn off the cultural victory option.

[bongo]

So far I've won most of my game by domination. The first couple of time the victory came as a surprise though( 2/3 of the world already??)

Getting 2/3 of the land and pop can be both difficult and tedious but it beats total annihilation any-time. Wiping away the last remains of hte other civs is so boring that if it weren't for domination most of my games would never be finished.

Launch an invasion and grab some land. Victory will be yours before you know it

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Well, I've only got 10 turns left, and all my enemies are overseas. Sure, I could rush some transports - I've got 12 armies for use... and throw them against Carthage, but doing this and finishing the war in 10 turns... I'm afraid I'm just not slick enough yet.

And, hey. In this game I conquered Zululand, Scandanavia, Arabia, Spain, Celtia, Persia, Babylon, Germany, Russia, and France. Literally EVERY civ on my huge continent with me. China, overseas, conquered tiny Japan. So China, Korea and Carthage are left.

I think if my borders expand in France - which I just conquered not too long ago - then I'll win domination. Or maybe one of my cats turned the option off by walking across the keyboards.

It's a vexing problem.

[bongo]

Thats right, I forgot that your borders expand, so a little cultural expansion may just be enough to trigger your vitory. It worked for me anyway

Good job on the conquests, your palace backyard must be littered with skulls

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Originally posted by bongo
Good job on the conquests, your palace backyard must be littered with skulls

Boy, how great would that be.

"Yes, hmm, I've selected the European gate, and the Mid-East wings, and I've put the trees up... oh, I know! I'll put a huge pile of skulls right next to my pillars!"

[Greetings]

Um, I'm not sure if this works because I never do this, but I think you only gain half the number of culture points when you're mobilized for war. So, what you could do is...
1. Sell the culture imrovements that you don't need.
2. Mobilize for war.
3. Send your units over and take some land.
4. Irrigate your corrupt cities to boost population because production in those cities isn't necessary.

I don't know your exact situation, but this could give you enough time to launch your attack to gain the necessary amount of land. Or if you're positive that you'll win when your borders expand, just do that.

[nbarclay]

(1) The domination threshold is actually based on both land and coast tiles, not just on land tiles.

(2) Between the time you conquer new territory and the time your cultural borders expand, you have significant amounts of territory that are clearly under your control but not within your cultural borders. Such tiles do not count toward the domination threshold.

One way of speeding up domination victories is to set the science rate to zero and use all available gold to rush temples or (especially for Scientific civs) libraries in captured cities, focusing on the cities that will bring the most additional land and coast tiles under your control when they expand. The effect on when a cultural victory takes place should be small. (And if you're really serious about avoiding cultural victory, you might also crank out some settlers to claim some of the in-between territory.)

And as Greetings alluded to, mobilizing for war would cut your rate of culture accumulation in half. That would double the time it takes for temples and libraries to expand their borders as well, but if you want to rush build a bunch, the slowing-down effect would give you twice as much time to get gold for rush buying before it's too late. Just make sure you get all the cities that will be building temples or libraries started on them before you mobilize, because once you're mobilized, starting new temple/library construction will be impossible.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

Thanks for all the tips everyone... I won a domination victory this morning. I used MapStat to figure out I had 63 tiles to go... I rushed too many temples and libraries... wasn't expecting a domination victory in 2 turns, and didn't set my luxuries rate to 100%, so my end score was significantly lower than it should have been... still... those temples and libraries clearly made the difference.

[Greetings]

Originally posted by nbarclay
And as Greetings alluded to, mobilizing for war would cut your rate of culture accumulation in half.

You said alluded to. I thought I made it pretty clear.