When do you decide on a victory condition?

shaglio said:

I'm pretty sure the "4 city model" refers to 4 self-founded cities. As for puppets, the sky's the limit (and Happiness of course).

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It is a good idea to annex conquered cities as soon as the anarchy ends. If you let them stay puppets, they raise the cost of technologies without really contributing much to research. Puppets are great for gold, and do not increase culture cost of new policies, but if you start conquering early they can really slow down your research.

Mesix said:

It is a good idea to annex conquered cities as soon as the anarchy ends. If you let them stay puppets, they raise the cost of technologies without really contributing much to research. Puppets are great for gold, and do not increase culture cost of new policies, but if you start conquering early they can really slow down your research.

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Soon after, but not always the very turn it came out of resistance. Such as if you are currently building a national wonder the turn it comes out of resistance and the conquered city didn't have the needed building.
Time for when it won't interfere with national wonder construction.

My ultimate goal is always to survive, then become the most powerful nation in the world. This means that whatever victory condition is best to achieve I will move to, whether that be domination, cultural or whatever.

joncnunn said:

Soon after, but not always the very turn it came out of resistance. Such as if you are currently building a national wonder the turn it comes out of resistance and the conquered city didn't have the needed building.
Time for when it won't interfere with national wonder construction.

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I also wait for social policies before annexing since the cost will go up.

Kind of depends on the Wonders for me really. I'll try and build Wonders that work well for the Civ I'm playing.
If the AI is very aggressive in building Wonders, I go for Alhambra or Brandenburg + Heroic Epic and try taking them by force. If warfare is too difficult for whatever reason, I usually look to science victory. To get Wonders you need good science anyways, so it's easy to switch over. Diplo victory requires a bit more setting up I feel.

I will usually have a SV in mind from the start of the game seeing as it is necessary for every other victory type. That being said, there are some games where I feel like playing a civ that is specified or biased towards a specific victory type, then I'll go for that. Say I feel like playing Assyria, then I will definitely gear towards a domination victory.

As I mentioned before about a SV sticking in my mind from the beginning, it really leaves you with all the options and is very necessary for every victory type even if your mind changes over the course of the game. One of my recent games I was going for a SV and had finished one spaceship part but Rome had finished two at the time, so I decided that I was going to win this particular game through domination instead because there was no way I was beating Rome in a space race just an example.

Focusing in science and keeping your options flexible is in my opinion, the best strategy for victory Unless of course you have a victory type in mind before you even start the game.

I'll come in with a VC in mind when I choose/randomly select my Civ, but usually after exploring for about 20 turns I'm locked in. Sometimes I'll pause and count out potential victory dates when World Congress is first established; 90% of the time I just go Diplo anyway. I'd like to work on fine tuning my culture victory so I'll go that direction if the opportunity arises.

As soon as possible and work towards it and then watch to see if another victory type is possible.

My pre-game picks are : Time and Diplomatic VCs OFF. During the game, I roll with the punches, in science/culture/domination .

Mesix said:

It is a good idea to annex conquered cities as soon as the anarchy ends. If you let them stay puppets, they raise the cost of technologies without really contributing much to research. Puppets are great for gold, and do not increase culture cost of new policies, but if you start conquering early they can really slow down your research.

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Even ignoring unbuilt NWs, I don't agree with this advice. Can you share some numbers? Yes, all cities, including puppets, raise the technology costs. Annexing does not reduce that cost, but you get control over build order and assigning specialists. But the gold-focused puppet governor already makes constructing science building a pretty high priority.

Mesix said:

I also wait for social policies before annexing since the cost will go up.

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But you are buying SP all game long. Okay, so you wait until finishing the next policy. Pre-mature annexing still comes at a high cost.

I don't think annexing can be done casually until/unless the free courthouses from Order.

dasaard200 said:

My pre-game picks are : Time and Diplomatic VCs OFF. During the game, I roll with the punches, in science/culture/domination.

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Turning off Diplo VC nerfs some of the AI. Or do you not use random civs?

I'm going with the flow of the game. The main reason while I will never beat Deity. That and other stupid decisions like attacking someone who stole land from me with a GG. That's *my* land. And I don't care if it would be better for me to keep you on my good site. Oh and by the way, your Missionairies are going on my nerves, too. Prepare for war!

Sorry, drifted off a bit. i think if you play for fun, you need room for obviously bad decisions like deciding to go Domination although you are so close to winning with another condition.

Generally right away - its heavily civ dependant - but also when I've explored a bit - found nearby terrain/luxuries/civs and CS's etc so I know what threats I face and how many cities I'm likely to want to have.

DocRock said:

I'm going with the flow of the game. The main reason while I will never beat Deity.

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Are you playing at Deity? I very much go with the flow of the game and can still win about half the time. It is a good game for me if I win before turn 350.

Nowadays, pretty much every game I start off thinking, “Okay, this time I win by CV or domination!” But I am a builder at heart and I can never stand to skip National Wonders. Even when I open Honor, my dominations runs have petered out and I end up falling back to SV or diplo. My CV games never get any traction either. I can have Internet, Hotels, and Airports, and CV still be 100 turns out. So I start building SS parts (if I have the time) or buying out CS (if I don’t think I can still get a SV).

The Science Victory is my default, and the benchmark I use when I play a civ for the first time, but it feels like a very legitimate win every time. I am even okay with diplo wins because, since it’s is a fallback strategy for me, they are very narrow wins!

DocRock said:

I'm going with the flow of the game. The main reason while I will never beat Deity. That and other stupid decisions like attacking someone who stole land from me with a GG. That's *my* land. And I don't care if it would be better for me to keep you on my good site. Oh and by the way, your Missionairies are going on my nerves, too. Prepare for war!

Sorry, drifted off a bit. i think if you play for fun, you need room for obviously bad decisions like deciding to go Domination although you are so close to winning with another condition.

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on Deity, if you're good, YOU set the flow of the game