Generally accepted strategies

As a complete new player to this game (and gaming in general actually) I REALLY appreciate this thread.

I downloaded CivV Campaign Edition before a recent business trip overseas. Didn't expect to even open it but I couldn't sleep on the plane and decided to check it out. Totally hooked me. I must have played for 40 hours on my trip. And again, I really don't play any other games.

Anyway, despite playing for 40 hours I don't have a lot of time to research this platform and most threads are pretty detailed and way beyond my experience. This thread is a great idea and again I really appreciate it.

I hope you don't mind if I ask a couple very random questions kinda related to some of the above strategy tips:
How soon can you start thinking about a domination play? IS there a rule of thumb here? For example, I conquered my continent by turn 216 but there are lots of other countries out there.
I have gifted a couple units to city states and there seems to be no benefit (as mentioned above) Am i missing something?
How quickly can another AI win, culturally or scientifically? Rule of thumb...So if Im screwing around on my own while far off AIs are advancing, what are the signs to look for that they may be getting close to a non-military win?
And similarly, at a high level, how long do these games generally go? Do they all go to the modern era? Or do you sometimes win in earlier days?

THANKS to all!

Welcome to the forum!

How soon can you start thinking about a domination play? IS there a rule of thumb here? For example, I conquered my continent by turn 216 but there are lots of other countries out there.

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Depends on the level of difficulty. The higher you go the faster you need to move. War economies tend to saturate pretty rapidly though. For example, it takes, like, 10 turns to move around your crossbows and trebuchets to take a single city sometimes. When you get to great war bombers and land ships you will be taking a city every 1-3 turns. So, there is no rule of thumb, essentially, you just have to make sure your happiness and gold per turn is rising and at some point your civ will "explode". In short, the answer is - keep warring, you're probably alright.

I have gifted a couple units to city states and there seems to be no benefit (as mentioned above) Am i missing something?

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Your units have to physically reach city state lands for you to get +5 influence. And it isn't worth it, usually.

How quickly can another AI win, culturally or scientifically? Rule of thumb...So if Im screwing around on my own while far off AIs are advancing, what are the signs to look for that they may be getting close to a non-military win?

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On prince you have until turn 350, i guess. Subtract 30 turns for each consecutive level of difficulty. Roughly. Sometimes deity games last past t.300. (that is if you make sure your opponents don't run away too far), sometimes king games end before t.300. Same reason.

Analyze demographics screen regularly for literacy rates (% of tech tree filled). And cultural screen on tourism influence level. Scout well, so you know what your foes are up to and in what shape their economies are.

CivNewbie2701 said:

How soon can you start thinking about a domination play? IS there a rule of thumb here? For example, I conquered my continent by turn 216 but there are lots of other countries out there.

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Before the game ends
more seriously, I tend to make the decision once ideologies are available. Autocracy is best for Dom. Order is great too. Freedom = less good.

The general consensus is: artilery or bombers are a must. I find artillery more reliable, slower.

Domination depends heavily on the geography / speed at which you can move your army into capitol-capture position for each capitol. If you can do it faster, you can wait longer.

CivNewbie2701 said:

I have gifted a couple units to city states and there seems to be no benefit (as mentioned above) Am i missing something?

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Gifted units only provide a small influence boost (unless you have certain social policies). The real value is when the CS gives you a quests to supply units. That gives a big boost. The more subtle advantage is when you gift units to CS at war with your enemies : it can be a waste, or a huge benefit if the CS manages a city capture of your competitions' city.

generaly, I dont gift units unless
-they ask me to.
-I need to get rid of useless units (rare!)
-I have the freedom policy to get more influence

CivNewbie2701 said:

How quickly can another AI win, culturally or scientifically? Rule of thumb...So if Im screwing around on my own while far off AIs are advancing, what are the signs to look

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On higher levels, its safe to assume the AI can win by turn 315 (Diety)
On lower levels, much longer turn counts. I have played Emperor games into turn 375 before. Global warfare seems to slow it all down.

it depends on game speed, above numbers from standard.

Keep an eye on the tourism screens and you will know who the leaders are for culture.
Space race notifications will also pop up on the screen. When you see the apollo program has been built, you might want to start paying attention!

Diplomacy: I often disable this VC because its too easy and I find it cheapens the game (my opinion only), but it can happen fast and early if you leave it in there.

CivNewbie2701 said:

And similarly, at a high level, how long do these games generally go? Do they all go to the modern era? Or do you sometimes win in earlier days?

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Lots of players here can get a Victory before turn 200 at Diety. Its very impressive (IMHO).

My fastest time is probably only turn ~250.

There is a thread here somewhere where people were using Egypt (or mongolia?) to get early game domination using mainly chariots by turn 100 or less.

Moriarte said:

On prince you have until turn 350, i guess. Subtract 30 turns for each consecutive level of difficulty. Roughly. Sometimes deity games last past t.300. (that is if you make sure your opponents don't run away too far), sometimes king games end before t.300. Same reason.

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These are a bit over-conservative, IMO, when it comes to BNW. I play mostly on immortal, and I try to win by turn 300 or so. But every time the game has gone on to about 350, the AI is still not that close to winning unless they are a VERY strong runaway. I really doubt the AI on Prince is going to create the same type of runaways.

Not that it's a bad idea to plan conservatively. But I wouldn't be surprised if you are totally safe playing through turn 400 or possibly even higher, on Prince.

CivNewbie2701 said:

As a complete new player to this game (and gaming in general actually) I REALLY appreciate this thread.

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Thank you for finding this thread, rather starting a new one.

I downloaded CivV Campaign Edition before a recent business trip overseas. Didn't expect to even open it but I couldn't sleep on the plane and decided to check it out. Totally hooked me. I must have played for 40 hours on my trip. And again, I really don't play any other games.

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Yes, very addictive. Civ is great even if you don’t care for the xBox or likes of Candy Crush. With the benefit of hindsight, I think the Campaign Edition would have been a better choice for me than Steam. Do you have the expansions?

How soon can you start thinking about a domination play?

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You can decide at the start, which is how the game of the month (GotM) are organized. I highly recommend those starting files and archived discussions about the game. You can also decide much later.

Is there a rule of thumb here? For example, I conquered my continent by turn 216 but there are lots of other countries out there.

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You are in fine shape either way. Save the game, then play trying for domination. Win or lose, go back to that save, then play to a science victory. That will give you a real feeling for which you like better, and which is faster. Domination is nice because you will be busy every turn. SV can be nice because it is probably faster, and you get to the next game quicker. Personally, I very much struggle with domination wins at the higher difficulty levels, so I like SV for those. I don’t have BNW (yet) but my diplomatic and cultural victories have not been satisfying. Your mileage may vary.

I have gifted a couple units to city states and there seems to be no benefit. Am i missing something?

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As someone else mentioned, it takes several turns for you to get the influence. It only gets you a little bit of influence anyway, so not really worth the bother most of the time.

How quickly can another AI win, culturally or scientifically? Rule of thumb...So if I'm screwing around on my own while far off AIs are advancing, what are the signs to look for that they may be getting close to a non-military win?

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Look for the drop down that is “victory progress”. Let us know if you need more help than that. One of my early games was for a domination win that I thought was going great — when Darius snipped a cultural victory. I did not know about the victory progress menu back then...

And similarly, at a high level, how long do these games generally go? Do they all go to the modern era? Or do you sometimes win in earlier days?

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By “high level” do you mean “generally” or “high difficulty level”? As I recall, a time victory is 500 turns. At lower difficultly levels, the AIs just spin their wheels, and games can really take that long. I very much enjoy the modern era, but my games rarely last that long unless I play at Immortal (which, happily, I still find quite challenging).

chazzycat said:

But every time the game has gone on to about 350, the AI is still not that close to winning unless they are a VERY strong runaway.

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I agree with this, and especially with BNW (seems to have slowed AI a bit). The only way I could see the AI consistently winning sub-400 on Prince/King would either be through the player unlocking diplo vote while AI holding on to majority vote, or perhaps with the new culture game if the player purposely ignores culture. I cannot recall specific numbers but last king game I played I purposely went slow science to draw out the game and no one had reached modern yet at ~330-ish range. No way they'd finish the tech tree and build parts within 20 turns.