OK...here's the scenario. I'm playing Noble level and it's getting to the point where the only possible win will be a time win. I'm leading in points, but Sitting Bull races up behind me, takes the lead....we're neck and neck coming down to the home stretch, trading back and forth. With 6 turns left, he takes the lead and I can't catch him, losing the time race by under 100 points.

My question is....what can I do to push myself upward at those final moments?

Quick conquest sprees are usually the best. You don't even have to hold the territory beyond the arbitrary endpoint.


If the UN hasn't banned them, lob a few nukes at your rivals biggest cities on the last turn of the game when he can't retaliate in kind :lol:

Well things to consider
-Can I invade without worry of retaliation (SoDs and nukes, UN resolutions, etc.)
-Can I nuke

Things to do
-Direct all espionage to Sitting Bull
-Build up military or divert all of your military to Sitting Bull
-Pull every diplomatic string you have, short of trading so many techs that a third party overtakes you in score

If you can nuke, let the fallout fall, baby. In flouzemaker's "Suleiman's Harem" game, he was in the same position, and on the final turn, Sury was ahead in points (by a very small margin). To vent some anger, he lobbed a nuke on his capital, which was enough to drop Sury's score to let flouze win.
If nukes are forbidden by UN resolution, invade, negotiate trade embargoes, undertake mass espionage missions...

If the UN hasn't banned them, lob a few nukes at your rivals biggest cities on the last turn of the game when he can't retaliate in kind :lol:

As they said. In the end, it may come down to nothing more than you having to think, "I can't really raise my score anymore... so how can I lower theirs?" Nukes if you can, killing units in large numbers if you can, taking some of their lesser cities and razing them if you can't hold them, all deduct from their score, while not lowering your own or really putting you at any big risk. The war doesn't even have to be you against them, just try to talk some of the lower scored AI's into a war against your closest competition, though, try to make it so that the person scored 3rd doesn't suddenly fly from third in score to first. :lol:

Do you mind explaining how a game can come down to a time victory? I dont understand how this can happen, unless you have space win turned off.

Do you mind explaining how a game can come down to a time victory? I dont understand how this can happen, unless you have space win turned off.

Well, sometimes, no one manages to fulfill the conditions for any other type of victory. I've had it several times. Vicious wars can stunt almost any economy, and I find any game that gets that far ends up being permanent war anyway...

Nukes had been banned already. I was second in military power, behind Sitting Bull. I thought about attacking him, in spite of being undermanned, but didn't know if I'd lose points for declaring war. Additionally, he was on a continent where I had no holdings, although I could have attacked 2 nearby islands where he had small cities...don't think that would have mattered much. I didn't have massive amounts of transports ready to carry tanks and stuff across the seas.

Space win was not turned off, just didn't get to that point for whatever reason. ...war slowing down techs, missed techs, whatever.

I'm a rather inexperienced player, playing at noble, win every now and then, but generally lose. I'm trying to learn as I go.

Can you post a save? I want to see if I can play it through to a win, and I'm sure some others will to.

Nothing can be done in 6 turns. if he shared a border with you, you might be able to quickly capture a city. But in your situation you can't.

You really need to figure out how you want to win much, much earlier.

Ghost: Ghost reporting
Narrator: Nuclear launch detected

:mischief:

You knew 50 turns ago that if anyone would be a problem, it would be him - so prepare for that.

One of the best things to do is a nice city-razing naval attack. A nice wee pile of ships to blow up city defenses and enough troops on transports to raze a city in one turn. Do that times three, and it doesn't matter if the troops get wiped out after that - raze his three largest coastal cities with 1-2 turns left and that should drop his score enough to give you the win.

With 6 turns left? Punt and try again! :)

yes, I knew with only 6 turns left I couldn't do anything ... the 6 turns was when he took over in his last surge...before that we were trading back and forth, although I led most of the home stretch until the final 50-75 turns....I now know that hitting him hard below the belt was likely my only chance at that point ... worse case is I fell harder than him :)

Thanks for the insights.

Nuking the capital is the best way to drop someone's points. For added effect, nuke every single city.

EDIT: You should have defied the anti-nuke treaty. Acctually, you should have figured out how you want to win much earlier.

Acctually, you should have figured out how you want to win much earlier.

Yeah yeah.....steep learning curve to this game....I'm working on it...a step at a time.

There's only one solution: Time-space warp! (AKA reload) :D

I think you get points for unit power don't you. If you have the cash and you have a lot of old units you could upgrade them all. Just a guess, not really sure.......

Power and score are two different things. units don't help your score. Mouseover the score and the game breaks it down for you. It's based on land, population, techs, and wonders.

Sounds like you have a good base to go with in case this happens again. I've run into the time limit alot... sometimes it's the best win cause you had such a great game you were able to go all the way. Don't be discouraged at all, when I first started civ iv, i couldn't even get into the middle ages without being uterly bankrupt. Now I don't worry about anything, just whether Monty needs another beating.

Sometimes it's good to keep a group of units in an allies territory near your (possible) enemy. That way if this occurs again you have a small strike force to go at him with right away while you bring the reinforcements.

With 6 turns? Sounds like a loss.

Lesson? Have a win plan by the Industrial age at the latest.

That being said, Time victories are waaaaaay more intense than a close spacerace victory. It's the tricky spaceship/culture civs that you need to watch out for. Nothing says nailbiting like having one turn left and your rival having 48,000 culture. :D