When do you decide what victory to go for?

Hey guys new player who is struggling a bit now that I'm upping the difficulty level. When do you decide what victory type do you go for?

The only time you really need to decide before you begin, is when you're going for a One City Challenge (OCC)... otherwise, I tend to see what I'm dealt with, and how things are going, including who my neighbours are, before deciding... I usually try to keep Science and Domination, as possibilities, as long as possible, before I make a decision about which to really go for... these are my usual types of Victory Condition (VC).

If I'm going for culture, then I decide that when I start the game. Otherwise, I begin as if I will take over the world. Depending on how things develop, and the AI, sometime around the industrial era - when the powerful weapons start appearing - I make a call whether to focus on heading toward a space victory or continuing on with domination.

I don`t usually decide on any kind of victory type. I work like this:

1. Survive and build.
2. I`m doing ok? Great let`s go for peaceful rule.
3. Oh no, someone started war or wars are everywhere- let`s change to war and beat everyone down.
4. Someone`s building a space rocket? Fair enough. I`ll just keep building my Civ.

So I don`t really have a goal except to watch my city grow and prosper. In fact, I switch off most of the goal options off except Domination since that`ll warn me if an AI is dominating the world.

Occasionally I will try a Civ or a map I haven't played for a while, just to try out a new playstyle and go for a particular victory. The other 90% of the time, I know pretty much from turn 0 that it's going to be Science, usually very Wide with as big a puppet empire as I can get myself without harming my RA relationships.

I would see how many cities you can reasonably build. If you are cramped, you might have to go 4 city Tall. In this case, Culture would be a good bet. Diplo could also be a possibility. If you get a massive chuck of land, aka lots of "lebenschraum," pump out as many cities as possible, go Science, and if you happen to have a nice military, go use it.

I normally look around the map before settling on a condition. If I see nearby strategic resources, then I go with domination. If I get an early tech through a goody hut, then I go with domination. If I see a lot of nice hills or choppable forests, then I go with domination. If I have nearby enemies, domination it is. I might be need to mix it up a bit...

Dogmouth said:

I normally look around the map before settling on a condition. If I see nearby strategic resources, then I go with domination. If I get an early tech through a goody hut, then I go with domination. If I see a lot of nice hills or choppable forests, then I go with domination. If I have nearby enemies, domination it is. I might be need to mix it up a bit...

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LMAO...to funny

Honestly, depends on difficulty level.
Science is by far the easiest VC on immortal+. Or conquest depending on map size. Doesn't require you to succumb to the AI's will.
Diplomatic is a tad harder because the AI have insane gold banks, and if Alex or Austria are in your game, it's almost lights out. Patronage isn't an obvious choice in the early game because you usually don't have enough of a bank to use on CS's.
Culture is probably the hardest unless you can get a good religion going.

Every civ is best at one or two victory conditions. I choose my victory path before the game starts and if I'm unable to meet that victory condition I count it as a loss

Well assuming a game with only base features, you could go for any victory condition. They should theoretically all be equally difficult to achieve.

But we don't have only base features do we? So what affects which victory condition is a better bet? I am assuming Continents/Standard size/Standard speed.

-Which civ you are
-Terrain
-Location of enemy civs/CS
-Type of enemy civs/CS
-Goodie huts

You know which civ you are on turn 0. So you can play to the strengths of your civ, and pick a victory condition your civ is good at.

The other 4 factors can be influenced by your actions. If you build a scout, you will be able to know more of that information and you will get it sooner. This should let you choose a victory condition earlier, AND make it easier to compound the strengths of your civ with those of your environment. Clearly playing to as many strengths as possible will make you most likely to win.

Personally, if I get a civ that has strengths going tall, I do so. If the terrain favors wide, I am simply not taking advantage of it. But worse would be to prepare to go wide and then realize I have no room. Or prepare to conquer and realize I have no enemies!

If the civ favors conquering or going wide, I build a scout and check on the other 4 factors. If I have room to expand, I will go wide, and if I have enemies, I will either go tall or build an army.

If I choose to go tall, I almost always choose Cultural. But sometimes science.

If I go wide, I will either conquer lategame for Domination (which I've never actually achieved, I always win some other way first) or sit and get science.

I think from this point forward, I'm only going to have diplomatic victories as a back door if I can't reach the intended victory condition...
Anyway, while some leaders are heavily favored towards a victory condition, what the map provides you has much more of an impact. I'd say the first point of no return comes with selecting your pantheon...

I usually choose what VC I'm going for before starting a game. But situations often change mid-game: one game I took Arabia and planned for a wide science/diplo victory and then saw byzantium start near me in an awesome spot. Decided to kill Theodora off with my camel archers, and then Askia declared war on me with a very inferior military. Saw Gao to be yet another awesome spot and decided to take it as well.
After capturing Gao I thought 'heck I might as well go for domination with these beastly camel archers'.

I usually start the game with two or three possible victory conditions in mind, and I generally work towards all of them. I like to have room to stray and follow whims when I play, so it's usually a "multiple outs" kind of situation. Needless to say, I like playing Civs that are particularly good at this: Monty, Wu, Alexander, etc.

I'm still locked in the mindset where I'm looking for the fastest victory option. More often than not, that's domination. If I'm on a Pangea map, I'm going to kill everybody sooner or later.

Continents and Archipalego can discourage my all out warfare approach, and then it's usually fastest to a Science victory. I'll contemplate Culture if I've been allied with cultural city-states from the get go and I'm Wonder-heavy.

I don't remember the last time I went diplomatic. By the time the UN is built, I could usually win some other way. Although, that said, in my last cultural victory, I probably could have won diplomatically quicker, but once I committed, I never reevaluated. Maybe that's my issue.

HB

I usually spen the first dozen or two turns seeing my whereabouts, exploring the land, and (hopefully) meeting the competition. When it comes to pick my first social policy, I make my VC choice.

Princeofnigeria said:

I usually spen the first dozen or two turns seeing my whereabouts, exploring the land, and (hopefully) meeting the competition. When it comes to pick my first social policy, I make my VC choice.

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Could you elaborate a bit on that?

There are only 3 possiblities. Tradition, Honor and Liberty.

Which do you pick for which VC and why? What factors help determine your choice?

I ask because I always go for a cultural victory because it's really the only type I feel comfortable achieving. I play on Emporer. I moved up from King? (level 5) a while back where I won most of my games through Diplomatic/Culture victory. I find Diplomatic to be too hard on Emporer because the AI just destroys you on gold. If Greece is in the match and they survive long enough for the UN to be built you can almost guarantee you will not be winning a Diplomatic Vic. Austria too makes this difficult because they buy your allies outright and get all their resources! You spent thousands of gold on them in the game and then, whoops! Sorry. We're part of Austria now.

So far I have only won two games out of like 10-12 on Emporer and both have been Cultural Vic. Once with Theodora and once with Rome I believe. I am trying to break out into other types of Victory and I have no idea where to even begin. Also I realized recently that I don't even understand how Dominiation Vic actually works. So you only have to capture the enemy's original capital cities and that's it? None of their other remaining cities? So if there are 11 civs playing then you only need to occupy the 10 other enemy capital cities + your own Capital and you win the game? This would make sense because I truly can't figure out how people are winning Domination Victories in Civ5.

In previous Civ Games (3 or 4 I think) "Domination" victory required you to control 2/3rds of the world's habitable land OR 2/3rds of the world's population right? At least that's what I always thought it was.

Anyway, any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Of course:
Should I see it favorable to go culture, I choose tradition or honor (more happiness/ culture adds onto culture from piety, killing barbs= city state =))
If it's diplomacy, I choose Liberty (more cities= more money, more happiness from trade routes= more routes)
If it's science, I go liberty.
If it's warfare (very rare) I go liberty or honor.
NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS:
If aztecs, I always go honor first.
If Egypt or Etheopia, I always go Tradition.
If France I always go liberty.
If inca I always go liberty.

adsin15 said:

I am trying to break out into other types of Victory and I have no idea where to even begin. Also I realized recently that I don't even understand how Dominiation Vic actually works. So you only have to capture the enemy's original capital cities and that's it? None of their other remaining cities? So if there are 11 civs playing then you only need to occupy the 10 other enemy capital cities + your own Capital and you win the game?

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Domination victory just requires that you be the last civ in control of your original capital. It does not require that you be the one doing the conquering, or that you continue to occupy the other capitals. It is often the case that some civs will have fallen to others long before you get around to conquering their conqueror. Take a game where there are 8 civs including you: Rome conquers the Mayan and Byzantine capitals, France conquers Carthage after Carthage previously eliminated Ethiopia. The only civs that haven't done any conquering at that point are Japan and you. You then conquer Japan's capital and, to manage your happiness, sell the conquered capital to France (who, you can be sure, has no interest in liberating Japan). 10 turns later you conquer Paris, leaving just you and Rome in possession of your original capitals. After an epic struggle, Rome falls. That would be a valid domination victory, even though you only conquered 3 capitals and only ended the game occupying 2 of them.

Decide from the start when I pick my civ. Rarely I might change my mind and switch to a domination if I've been dragged into some wars and I'm crushing.