cutting science victory from options

i have yet to win a cultural victory on king. im just plain sick of getting within 5 turns of building the utopia sh*thole, and then agustus ceasar popping out 3 spaceship parts in those 5 turns like a little snake. if i uncheck science in the list of victory possibilites does that even matter? or will it be just as challenging, and can i still pat myself on the back for winning a king cultural victory?

20jordo said:

i have yet to win a cultural victory on king. im just plain sick of getting within 5 turns of building the utopia sh*thole, and then agustus ceasar popping out 3 spaceship parts in those 5 turns like a little snake. if i uncheck science in the list of victory possibilites does that even matter? or will it be just as challenging, and can i still pat myself on the back for winning a king cultural victory?

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I tried turning off science vic for similar reasons recently, and the AI civs mostly just seemed kinda lethargic in that game- like once you remove the (obvious) incentive for building up science as fast as possible, they seem to forget that it's kinda critical for all the other victory conditions, as well. They didn't grow and spread out nearly as fast, and their tech levels didn't take off like racehorses, like they normally do on King. It kinda turned it into a Prince game, seemed like.

In the game I finished last week, Askia was close to getting a science victory, my spy had alerted me to the fact he had completed the Apollo project, and he was making space ship parts in the two cities I had spies in. I was chasing a Cultural victory, and was a couple of turns from starting the Utopia project.

So I went to war, and nuked his two main cities. This not only slowed down his production, but he shifted his manufacturing to military units. I backed off and completed the win.

Use your spies and take the action you need to win. If you're aiming for a CV, then you're not worried about the diplo points. Just don't ignore your military and make sure you strike first. (and I built the Utopia project outside of my capital just in case that got nuked too....)

Jelster said:

In the game I finished last week, Askia was close to getting a science victory, my spy had alerted me to the fact he had completed the Apollo project, and he was making space ship parts in the two cities I had spies in. I was chasing a Cultural victory, and was a couple of turns from starting the Utopia project.

So I went to war, and nuked his two main cities. This not only slowed down his production, but he shifted his manufacturing to military units. I backed off and completed the win.

Use your spies and take the action you need to win. If you're aiming for a CV, then you're not worried about the diplo points. Just don't ignore your military and make sure you strike first. (and I built the Utopia project outside of my capital just in case that got nuked too....)

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There are plenty of situations in CV games where you simply don't have the option to go nuke the rocket builder, or overpower them or even seriously distract them with your military 'might'. Your strategy assumes you are close to their level in tech, have enough military power to go rough them up, have the techs to build nukes already, and have ready access to their capital city. Some or all of these things are frequently just not the case, in my experience. Especially since the last patch, where the runaway leaders are even more likely to be quite far ahead of you in all respects. If it's a close race and you have the horses, sure. When it ain't, then your strat just don't apply. Frankly, if I haven't won a CV yet before I get to the point where I can build nukes, then I'm likely in real trouble, having a poor game, and am well back in the pack in the tech horserace.

Nukes were just my option, there are plenty of other ways to put a Civ off of focus. Admittedly in that particular game I was lucky, and I had been going for a tech win when I realised that I was better off going for culture.

If I was as far behind as you suggest I should be, then there would have been no chance of a win anyway, and my strategy/tactics would have been poor much earlier.

Then I don't play at the very high levels, I'm still learning and tend to play at King level. All I know is that when I'm looking for a CV, I tend to buy most of my cultural buildings, as the sooner I get them the sooner they start making me points, and I use my spies to tell me what my competition are doing.

The AI is pretty much useless without the Science victory enabled. If you can't beat the AI with Science victory enabled, then you should work on improving your strategy or step down a level.

Slightly off topic, but does any one else think it is stupid that you can still build spacecraft factory when science victory is disabled? It feels like cheating as the AI seems to love them, even though it is useless and takes up an aluminium resource.

Kwami said:

The AI is pretty much useless without the Science victory enabled. If you can't beat the AI with Science victory enabled, then you should work on improving your strategy or step down a level.

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theres no stepping down levels. i blast out CVs on prince 10 out of ten times. defenitely improving my strategy and appreciate all the input... i was actually kind of hoping the ai would know that science victory was out and still be smart enough to keep his science up while prioritizing CV methods