Another space race victory.

Ok i've posted a similar thread before but im still struggling to complete a game that dont end with someone winning i spacerace victory. I've just finished a game where i just beat china to a spacerace victory. I was kinda trying to get a cultural victory but my capital Oslo finished as my best city with 35 000 points. 22 and 17 for two others i think. I didnt want to adjust my cultural rate to high because i was afraid to fall to much behind on technologies. In another game i almost won a diplomatic vic. but England stood me up. I've also come close to that population/land area vic, but only close. Ofcourse i've only finished three games (won 2) and perhaps other victories will appear in my futur games, but perhaps not.
I dont want to disable any victories but i would appreciate some hints and tips on how to achieve another ending to the game.

edit: Im playing warlord difficulity now and ill probably finish a few more before starting a noble game.
I usually play standard maps although i think should go down to small size due to lag issues in late game.

I'm in the same position. Every game (about five) I've finished is by Space Race victory (four times me). I play on large maps, epic, Noble.

I plan to disable space race victory and go to standard map. See if I can't dominate my way to victory.

So, I can't help, but hopefully someone can give both of us advices.

It would help them, I believe, if you told us which difficulty lever you're at, pace and size of map.

/Jazzster,
a warmongerer trying to get rid of the Civ III tactics.

Yeah, spacerace is the easiest victory. All you have to do is build a civ that is slightly better than each of your enemies. For each of the other victories, you have to do something extreme: kell everyone, conquer tons of territory, build way too much culture, make lots of friends. Even time victory forces you to draw out the game to 2050 while preventing everyone else form winning.

OTOH, spacerace is the only way the AI can win, so if you turn it off, it makes the game much easier. The challenge is to win by another method before the AI wins by spacerace.

Strange!

what i have, is that I have to rush conquests of nations or just take single capitals and make peace later (to get in time my army to next AI) for one reason - they AI will get this cultural victory so fast. not to win cultural on my own at 1800 or so I have to remember not to build wonders in citys they fit best (many hammers, fast built) just because I would make culture victory so fast myself, not managing to kill them all.

So You guys have problem, that AI builds this spaceship? in my game they all are doomed, cripled or just gone in time when apollo program is finished.. if not they get cultural. Is this because I use some 8 civs max and just forget to build few wonders in beginning? Thats makes sense - AI gets wonders early, culture boosts, and I have to liberate citys to stop it later on..

Just shows how different game can be depending on how who plays.

It seems that the AI goes primarily for a space victory. It doesn't seem to be able to handle the complexity of running a huge enough empire to gain domination or even UN (by voting for itself). I haven't seen an AI get even close to a cultural win.

I get around the problem by disabling the space race victory condition each and every time

I think that the key to cultural victory is that you have to reach a certain level of technology where you can defend yourself, and then turn your research down and your culture slider up and coast to the end. I have won cultural victories a couple of times, and I researched to infantry and artillery and then pretty much stopped researching anything else. You wind up in a race to complete your cultural victory before someone else completes the space race.

I played with space race on for my first ten games or so before turning it off because it made the game too easy. I imagine adding 20%-40% to tech costs (while leaving all other things equal) would fix the problem but I am too lazy so I just turn off space race. Leaving it on makes it too easy to win at the level I prefer to play (Monarch) and I have no interest in playing at a higher level in order to make a space race victory challenging.

My last game with space race enabled I won in the early 1900's and was 30ish turns ahead of my nearest competitors space program. It just wasn't fun for me. Since then I have won numerous cultural and conquest/domination victories and even a couple diplomatic (although they were really just conquest wins that were decided in the UN) all of which were more challenging than my space victories. I also consider a "time victory"to be a loss so that is how the "AI wins" in my games (since they won't win by any other victory condition).

Is the late game more interesting with space race turned off?

Marshall Thomas said:

Is the late game more interesting with space race turned off?

Click to expand...

I've tried that once and i didnt find it any more interesting at all.
I rather like the spacerace i just think it shouldnt be so easy compared to the other victories.

Ironically, I find that the easiest victory condition for me is the "warmongering Diplomatic win": simply conquer enough of the planet to vote for yourself as the winner. It's similar to a Domination win, but you don't actually need any particular portion of the land area....

I have not managed a Cultural win yet, mainly because I've been having too much fun with the warfare. My impression is that a Cultural win usually requires a far amount of advance planning. Optimizing for Great Artists, choosing your Cathedral locations carefully, choosing when to use the Culture slider....

As soon as I finish my current Conquest win (Japan, large Terra, Marathon, Noble level), I plan to try a Culture game as Gandhi.

SlipperyJim said:

....simply conquer enough of the planet to vote for yourself as the winner....

Click to expand...

Thats where i dont follow you. How do you simply conquer the largest part of the planet? I find it hard to substain an army to continnue to capture more and more cities. I often strugle with just being the largest empire and substaining a deacent defence against all others. And im only playing on warlord!

sweetpete said:

Thats where i dont follow you. How do you simply conquer the largest part of the planet? I find it hard to substain an army to continnue to capture more and more cities. I often strugle with just being the largest empire and substaining a deacent defence against all others. And im only playing on warlord!

Click to expand...

The AI isn't a match for a human being when it comes to warmongering. It can do a decent job at city production, teching, and all of the "builder" stuff in Civ4. (NOTE: I said "decent", not great!) But warfare is all about overwhelming force, and the AI just doesn't seem to "get" that.

Note that "overwhelming" force does not necessarily mean that you need to have the biggest military in the world. Even a moderate-sized army can be "overwhelming" if you can concentrate your forces and choose your targets wisely. Investigate your opponents, choose a point of weakness, form a strategy, and attack!

There is all sorts of good advice for warfare (and other parts of Civ4) over in the Strategy & Tips forum:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=155

And even more in the Strategy Articles forum:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=156

Another good approach is to simply post a savegame and ask for critiques. General advice is all well and good, but sometimes (for example) you really need to know how to keep Qin off of your back while you finish up with Genghis....

The chances are your only going to play a game till the end if its "close". Therefore the most likely outcome is a space race or UN victory.

As the AI leaders are all pretty even, if the AI was ever going to win domination / conquest the AI would have to destroy you, and therefore you would never see the end of the game.