How to go for Domination on Large map?

Chomes99

Chieftain
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Aug 28, 2012
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I've started my first Emperor game on BNW with the Zulus. So I naturally thought I should go militaristic to take advantage of the UA, Impi and special barracks. I make the map continents plus Large with 22 civ to make it cramped and to encourage wars.

I've actually done quite well so far, just entering industrial era. I killed off Greece next door asap and have been nipping away at randoms civs that looked weak or without friends. I have monty right next door too and we are BFF, but I know he'll one day turn on me. So I have been baiting him into my wars and gifting him cities that I dont really like. most of the world is friends with each other and despite my warmongering I am still friends with most civs too. Despite all my success, it just occcured to me that it may be impossible for me to conquer all the civ capitals in these settings. I plan on taking autocracy and continuing to kill at will, but I fear someone will beat me to another victory condition.

Any advice? should I change strategy to perhaps space race? my culture isnt that great. I went full Liberty and almost full honour.
 
You need to keep monitoring all civs and choose your next target based on how close that civ is to win, and not because of "civs that looked weak or without friends". Also, its important not waste time with long wars, go straight to the capital. Sea invasion usually is the better way.

Because you are playing on Emperor, maybe is too late for you to win now. Next game, dont bother yourself with diplomacy too much, on a 22 civ large map everybody will hate everybody. Just go right to your closest neighboor and later DOW the runways civs. Usually if you conquer the AI capital that are making all wonders (most of the time all wonders end up being made by 2 or 3 civs max), you will have your victory.
 
You know, my last game was exactly the one you're playing now. I mean, a complete carbon copy. You don't mention the speed so I guess you're also playing in Standard speed.

I have bad news for you. Although I did really well, like you till this point, and I had lots of fun, I was beaten by Poland, World Leader election, bang. I managed to capture 4 AI's capitals: Greek, Shoshone, Russia and America. But, I was yet to conquer Indonesia, Assyria, Siam and Poland.

So, I don't think it's a good idea to go Domination on large maps on Standard speed with cultural and diplomatic victory on. If you go Epic, I guess you can stand a chance because everything evolves slower but you move as fast on the battlefield :) That would be my next idea for a Domination game.
 
Sew chaos on diplomacy. Try and intentionally split up alliances and keep people at war. Goal being to have as many civs capturing capitals as possible. Once there are few left, take those few capitals and win.

If I'm not mistaken the condition is to own the most capitals when no one else owns their capital. So you don't even technically need the most capitals, You just need to be the last to hang onto yours. Why do all the work yourself all game? Just prepare to take out the winners later.
 
Sew chaos on diplomacy. Try and intentionally split up alliances and keep people at war. Goal being to have as many civs capturing capitals as possible. Once there are few left, take those few capitals and win.

If I'm not mistaken the condition is to own the most capitals when no one else owns their capital. So you don't even technically need the most capitals, You just need to be the last to hang onto yours. Why do all the work yourself all game? Just prepare to take out the winners later.

DOmination rules have changed. Now you have to own all the capitals to win. So only let other civs take capitals if it will be easier for you to capture them from the new owner later.
 
So, I don't think it's a good idea to go Domination on large maps on Standard speed with cultural and diplomatic victory on.

You need to be quick on your wars and even fight 2 civs at the same time.

IMO, the best civ for domination right now is Assyria. Stolen Techs is a bless when you are focusing on building units and negleting science. Also, you can, right from the start, with the siege towers, eliminate 2 close civs and create a good 5 or 6 cities base empire.

Finally, its crucial to engage the runway civ as soon as possible. Conquering a capital with four wonders will make a huge difference for you and avoid that the most likely winner of the game stay powerful for too long, becoming unbeatable.
 
DOmination rules have changed. Now you have to own all the capitals to win. So only let other civs take capitals if it will be easier for you to capture them from the new owner later.

Well that's disappointing... I always considered that system an improvement on the idea of just capturing all capitals. Wonder why they went back on it.

+22 capitals though... haha.. good luck domination players :lol:
 
DOmination rules have changed. Now you have to own all the capitals to win. So only let other civs take capitals if it will be easier for you to capture them from the new owner later.

This is true...and sucks.

I won a domination game as Greece and took two quick capitals on my continent and watched as two more were taken by "unknown" civs from the other continent. I thought, "Hey, that makes my job easier". But no, you have to control all original capitals.

I would say playing on a large map with 22 civs and playing for domination is an effort in futility. Just taking the 10 I needed in my game became tedious.
 
You can also just un-check all VC's with exception of domination. I do it all the time. I know it's the "easy" way out in a way but it means I don't have to worry about anything else except gettin' my war on.

22 civs though? Man, better strap in, it's gonna be a long ride...
 
its on epic speed, so moving my men around the board is a bit easier. there is no clear runaway leader, but Assyria comes close with having the second largest landbase. It seems a lot of civs are going for diplo or cultural win.

I am keeping Atilla and Monty alive on purpose so they might raise some hell later on, unfortunately they are on my continent, so that could be an issue.

I figure even if I cannot win, I will want to play just to terrorize the world with my war machine. I think my next action plan is to create a beach head on the other contient (venice) and then move into Assyria from there only keeping capitals. If I am successful I would be hard to stop. I already have 9 cities and most civs only have 3. Happiness and cash are under control. I just need more culture to finish honour and grow into autocracy
 
I could post the save file tonight if anyone is interested. Would be cool to see how different players take one given situation half way through the game and emerge in different end points.
 
I'm trying the exact same thing you are at the moment. Large map, 22 civs, emperor, epic speed. I'm using Genghis Khan. I really don't like the rule change to domination. Having to capture 22 capitals before anyone gets a different win condition is simply too much imo.
 
I started a huge map as Genghis with 22 civs... there may be too much space between people to get everyone killed... I think someone will out-tech my Keshiks before I can conquer 22 civs... a large map might be better... I guess I'll find out soon enough...
 
Start early. Don't wait for your UU's, they will be a bonus later. 3-5 archers 1-2 warriors and a spearman for your first war, level up those archers. Chop your forests asap, chop your army whenever possible. You will run a negative GPt early on, but you can offset it by trading captured lux's for gpt, or gold from friends, which turns into more units. As long as you don't do stupid things and get 1/2 your army killed, you should do fine. Once you're rolling 10 archers 5 spears, you're going to dominate any civ. Once you get composite bowmen, you will just ravage them. Upgrade money comes from trade/tribute/barbs in the way. If you need sacrificial units to take initial damage barrage to save you main army's hp, use scouts. Early game they will survive an archer/city barrage. They also work well for capturing cities in forests/hills. You have to be aggressive from turn 0, or you will get out teched. Even if the last 2 civs have knights and xbows, a swarm of composites/pikemen will still overwhelm them. Good positioning helps too.
 
I think on large with 22 civs it might go past XB and knights, even on Epic. But the advice is very sound. It's a long way so start early and keep fighting multiple fronts as soon as you can. Beeline appropriate military techs.

I like the change as it was abused before with players selling AI caps and maybe controlling one or two at the end.
 
You can also just un-check all VC's with exception of domination. I do it all the time. I know it's the "easy" way out in a way but it means I don't have to worry about anything else except gettin' my war on.

22 civs though? Man, better strap in, it's gonna be a long ride...

sounds like a good gameplan. never tried anything like it. I think i will today later.
 
I took out the Vikings capital for the 12 iron he had, then built of a large navy of frigates and privateeers with my core 4 coastal cities, Zurich was just off the coast of my capital but had been annexed by Venice. I figured if I declared war on him, captured it, I could liberate it and not get the diplo hit, but alas, when Venice annexes a city state it loses that special ability to alway remain, it actually gave me the option to raze it. I didnt because I wanted the pearls, plus I didnt want a nice spot like that colonized by Hiawatha. Now everyone is denouncing me. Even my buddies Atilla and Monty. Even my old friends the Moroccans are massing armies on my weak southern border (former Greece). I press ahead with my navy fleet and take the mid ocean island of Sidan from Venice, a nice base for my final assult on Venice itself. Assyria brought his fleet of iron clads down just to watch Venice surrender with only Cahokia left. I will have to temp his fleet into a battle on my terms later and use my privateers to take over a few of those iron clads.
SAVE. go to bed.

I think my plan should be to increase my navy, and keep the army on standby if my home continent neighbors sneak attack me, which I am sure they will soon. But I want to keep those trade routes going as long as possible. My only hope is that Atilla distracts them long enough... surprisingly Monty is being very diplomatic with my other potential threats. My other option is to bring the navy back home and lay waste to Morocco from the sea and land at the same time. it would be a quick war.
 
it sounds like an update is needed - to revert back to the original way domination was handled. Domination is now near impossible on crowded maps.
 
I don't like playing the early rush game, and instead I do my domination wins by out-teching the AI so that by modern age I'm a full era ahead of them. Then it's a leisurely stroll to visit their capitals one by one with my battleships firing on their frigates (or artillery on their riflemen). I might have some earlier wars with close neighbours, but I don't normally do full-on conquest mode until artillery comes online.

The only problem is when you have a runaway civ on another continent. That's always an issue and unfortunately there isn't a lot you can do about those.
 
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