Build order, priorities and victory conditions?

Hey guys, it's the noob again. I have some questions. First and foremost is there a way to set victory conditions or do I just wing it and figure out how I want to win once I get in the game? Also what are the different victory conditions and how do I accomplish them? Now I know military win is obviously beating the other dibs with your army but as far as culture, religious etc. I have no clue. And once you determine what victor you are going for how do you figure out your build order and priorities. I know the questions I ask are probably in depth questions and would be have to answered in such a manner but I truly don't understand said aspects of this game, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all...

Those are hard questions. I'll keep it simple.

- science victory: you must build the 6 parts of a spaceship and launch them in orbit from your capital. Prioritize science buildings, scientist spot and the rationalism policy.
- culture victory: you must complete 5 whole tree of social policies then build the utopia project, a unique wonder that will then be unlocked. Prioritize cultural buildings, artists an techs that allow you to build those cultural buildings. Stay small (4 cities tops). Cultural CS are a must, the piety social policy is useful.
- diplomatic: te glibalization tech allows to build the UN, and you win by being elected as head of the UN. You don't have to be the one having built the UN, but to have a lots of city states allied, and not too bad a rep with other AIs. Prioritize money, CS alliance, patronage policy and appropriate techs.
- domination: be the last one with its original capital (you don't have to own them all).
- time: be the one with the biggest score in 2050. Do not pursue this one, as someone will win before that usually.

It helps to have a general idea of how you want to win before you start. Your exploration of the map in the first 50 turns or so should give you a good idea of what kind of neighborhood you live in, and then adjust your strategy from there.

For me, I'm usually going for a domination win (based on having advanced units compared to my enemies) or a science win, and those two technology paths are similar. I also want to found my own religion.

For my strateegery, I usually start by researching pottery, building a scout and exploring the map with both my warrior and my scout. Then I build a shrine as soon as I can, followed by a worker.

Regarding the tech tree, I look at the luxuries near my capital, and research what I need to work/harvest those resources (such as calendar, mining, or sailing). Somewhere along the way, I'll research archery, because that's the best way to defend a city early on. Other than that, my tech tree is aimed at philosophy so that I can build the national college as early as possible. The national college is a huge boost to your science output.

To found my religion, I need faith- lots of it. This comes from either having a faith natural wonder (Sinai, Sri Pada, Uluru etc) near a city, being allied with a religious city state, or researching masonry and building Stonehenge.

For social policies, I've been following Tabarnak's 4 cities Tradition opening, filling out the Tradition tree, then going to Rationalism.

I could go a lot deeper, but hopefully this helps for a start.

#Antmf, good summaries of the VCs from Avatan. First supplemental note: A valuable advantage of bulding the UN is you get an extra vote. Second supplemental note: As Avatan notes, you win domination by being the last civ with its own capital. You do not need to conquer all of the other Civs' cities or any CSs. In fact, you could (theoretically) let the other civs chew on each other (taking each others' capitals) until there is only one other civ left with its original capital, and then you snipe their capital for a victory.

Also, you may have noticed that Avatan did not mention a religious victory -- because there is none. Religion is a tool to help you achieve other victory conditions, by providing happiness boosts, gold boosts, culture boosts, free military units, extra free great persons, etc.

Also generally agree with Pook's suggestions, but one correction: Stonehenge is unlocked with Calendar, not Masonry.

You guys are great. You are very helpful and I will heed the advice although it probably easier to read about it then to put it in action. For this noob anyways lol... Thanks again..
P.S. wish there was someone who cold play online with me and tech me hands on lol...

Look at youtube for Let's Play videos. There are some great ones out there.

Look in the Stories and Let's Play forum for examples.

Also, the War Academy forum has lots of great articles. Unfortunately not updated for G&K yet, but give tons of useful advice.

Cheers.