The first domination victory is something you will never forget

[HerrDoktor]

I play Civ since II, but it was not until just recently that I've learned the deeper dynamics of the game. I played like all beginners, teching and building without giving a damn about terrain, citizens and specialists. When I finally realized how those features work, I was finally able to play and win in Noble level, and soon I also realized that you just can't win in Noble without starting an earlier war with your closest neighbor. Warring earlier, I've managed to win about 5 space races and 1 cultural victories. Then I, the repented pacific builder, decided to go for the hot sweet juice of my enemies' veins. Tried to win a conquest or domination with Kublai Khan, but got outteched and failed.

Then I tried Peter of Russia. Took the path of the warrior and ignored the foundation of earlier religions, as I usually did found one. So I chop-rushed the Pyramids and some axemen and got my next door neighbor Saladin, founder of Hinduism. Then Crazy Monty entered a stupid suicide war against me, lose one city but I left him for just one tech, as he was somewhat too distant to gain my interest. And also Isabella, a somewhat unorthodox Buddhist, was pissed at me for being Hindu, so she started a war against me when my troops were meeting Monty's. Managed to vassalize Isa and played two wars against Monty, the second one ending by 18XX AD, when I expelled him out of the continent and vassalized his two cities distant island as well. By 1950, with about 44% world pop, 39% territory, I was a juggernaut of science and wealth, got tanks, bombers and all the . .. .. .. .. So I decided to go after my "friend" Charlemagne, wiped him out entirely, and after that I was running over everything that moved with my absurdly huge stacks of modern armor, mech infantry, stealth bombers and so until 2014, when I won.

Took 11 hours, made a score of about 14 thousand, saw that neat "planet in blood" animation and for the first time in my life I was compared not to Neville Chamberlain or Nero, but to Hammurabi, the 2nd in the list before Augustus Caesar. Undoubtedly the best game in my life.

So now I think I can say I joined the dark side... Sing along, Alice Cooper: "No more Mr. Nice Guy!".

[CHEESE!]

Wow thats exactly like mine except i won at 1870 or so.

i was behind in tech tho.

[Diamondeye]

Ended my Conq game as Brennus today, 1890-like.
Started out by axing Justinian into the ground, then attacking and capturing most of France, led by De Gaulle, before assalizing him. Monty was warring Sitting Bull and got him as a vassal after some time. Only Zara Yaqob could catch up with me in tech, but he went optics->lib->Astro, while I went more military, so he got overseas (terra map) while I got rifles. So I killed off SB and Vassalized Zara and Monty, then Charlemagne, and it was a victory.
My graph was so grossly much larger than any other due to the land amount, I was just zergin out rifles and cannons Feels so nice.

[ganto]

My first noble dom win was recent and unexpected. Drawn an archipelago map, grabbed a decent % of starting land from island hopping but not a single suitable production city besides from the capital. Early warring wasnt much of an option. Worse, I even lose the liberalism race! Very rare for me. The dutch were first in tech, had a better army and close to me in navally, I remember thinking he was going to get scary when his UB (levees for any water tile, just just rivers) kicks in.

Luckily a handful of privateers stalled 2 competitive but navally challenged civs fairly well. When they finally had frigates to deal with the privateers I had destroyers. Looks like I solved my lack of production cities issue by taking them from these weakened civs. My slow growing cities were finally maturing too. A invasion with a superior air force surprised the score leader Dutch and it gave me the lead, which led to a long finish of riding in transports and taking everyone's costal city. Shaka's -maint barracks helped a bunch too.

[oPlaiD]

I just won my first Conquest victory but the start was so good it was unfair.

Usually I've been playing continents maps, since that seems pretty standard here, but I took a shot at a Standard Pangaea. So far in Civ4 I've played exclusively Monarch but I usually favor builder strategies.

Anyway, I chose random leader and ended up with Augustus, so I knew this would be a good game for conquest.

I usually build Worker/Worker/Settler, chopping the build of each after teching BW first, so I started that. The first goody hut I popped, though, landed me Bronze Working. With an Oasis in my capital's BFC, that meant I could get Iron Working the turn after I finished my Settler!

My second city, just outside my capital, netted me Iron, Wheat, and Gold.

And, the rest is history... My Praetorians swept over the globe as I stopped for peace only a few turns in between conquering my neighbors. I got through the Dutch and Japanese with Praets before even facing an Axeman. Pretty much a cakewalk.

When I'm not Rome, Inca, Persia, or China (especially Qin building Oracle for Metal Casting and chopping a Forge or building Pyramids for a GE to use on Machinery for Cho-Ko-Nus), though, I've had trouble executing a real warmonger strategy.

[AfterShafter]

Yeah, I remember it... I thought to myself "Good Lord, what a boring way to win." Never done it again.

[Diamondeye]

Originally Posted by AfterShafter

Yeah, I remember it... I thought to myself "Good Lord, what a boring way to win." Never done it again.

Agree

[EnlightenmentHK]

I usually play on an incredibly large, real earth map. And since when I reach the point in the game when my armies begin storming everywhere, I really don't have an interest in settling Australia or the Americas. Or sometimes even sub-saharan Africa. Once I get most of Eurasia, I tend to get a bit bored. If I finish the game, I tend to take my remaining stacks and raze the hell out of everything and everyone. I turn cultural off so that I don't hit that too early. (nothing like winning when you still feel like playing) And I tend to get an MAF before a space victory becomes possible. So conquest tends to be the modus operandi....since at this point everyone in the world hates me so much that a diplomatic victory is largely impossible.

[HerrDoktor]

Originally Posted by AfterShafter

Yeah, I remember it... I thought to myself "Good Lord, what a boring way to win." Never done it again.

Well, I was not playing for domination since the beginning of that particular game, that was not my initial plan, or else I would not have taken Peter or built so many universities. [EDIT:]Actually, I just rushed to early war as it was my standard Noble "big and small" strategy, after I was not sure what I was going to do[/EDIT]. I built that big military because I had two troublemakers at my garden, and I was angry at them - that is, a sincere - and rather silly, I admit - emotional response, something that you pros seem to be missing. When I was done with them I looked for that huge stack of tanks getting rust in the rain and just I thought: so now... what am I going to do with that? For me, that was the pleasure of the game - a domination victory not planned at all.

[IronCrown]

Actually, I did forget my first domination win... can't remember when or how it was

[Howard!]

Originally Posted by EnlightenmentHK

I usually play on an incredibly large, real earth map.

Tell me where to get it.

[Il Corvo Bianco]

Well, conquest might be boring, but the victory movie is something amazing
The chess mate with the nuke...beautiful.

[Echo of Celts]

I recently had my first 2 domination wins over the last few months.

First one, With Hannibal of Carthage, 20 Civs, Huge Map, Terra. Spent the whole game with a concentrated, small empire and focused on military supremacy. I engaged in lightning wars as I called them. Strike the enemies largest stack, move towards the capital, force capitulation, liberate the captured cities back. By doing this, I managed to vasalize the entire world, save 1 nation. I also founded 2 colonies, one of which became the worlds largest nation in land area in the new world. Victory occured in the early 1900's.

My next Domination win was more recent. I was Kublai Khan of Mongolia, 13 Civs, Hige Big and Small Map. Started warring from the start. Wiped out Carthage in the age of Axes, used Keshiks to take half of America and Korea. From their It was basically war mode all the time. Police State, State Property. Massive territorial gains. By the late 1800's I finished off Khmer and Babylonia (Vassal Alliance) who were the next largest force in the world. Babylonia's cities expanded, I reached domination Victory. Didn't get a chance to finish off the last 4 Civs.

In all, the second game was much longer and more drawn out than the first game. lightning wars with a smaller empire meant less warfare, less cities to maintain. But I admit is was fun to watch my the 6 Cities I founded with Mongolia grow into a 113 City Mega Empire.

In all I learned I prefer to manage smaller, more focused cities. In my Current Game as Korea, I have a military almost as large as my Mongolian Game with only 15 Cities and a mainly peaceful game.

[ICNP]

My first Domination win was my very first Vanilla game.

Basically a continents duel between Me (Toku) and Louis. I was out teching him from the beggining (easy on settler) then decided to do something against my peaceful opponent and pulled out some tanks and bombers on his poor knights. Was hoping for a conquest but as a newb I picked up every city and had domination very quickly.

[Ibuprofen]

I feel really lame: my first domination win was with Caesar, beating Gandhi on a duel sized map

I usually get diplomatic victories, I've only had one cultural. Speaking of diplomatic victories, I don't think I've gotten one with the AP yet, I'm never super active with spreading my religion to other territories

[Diamondeye]

Originally Posted by IronCrown

Actually, I did forget my first domination win... can't remember when or how it was

same here.

[hecubus]

My first Domination win was in Civ IV vanilla (I honestly don't think I ever won a domination in Civ III), playing as Alexander on a Lakes map. This was probably a Chieftain level game. No city specialization, really, beyond recognizing obvious production powerhouses. Even then I didn't so much plan them as get them by luck. You can almost tell from the first screen that I basically built every building in every city. This was early, after taking out only Spain. Once I hit rifles with a monster tech lead, everything else started falling. I had no concept of an early rush at this point.

I was actually going for a conquest in this one, I should've started razing earlier. You can see from the 2nd screen that I'd taken everything that wasn't Russian or Chinese (I captured all Mongol cities). I think I went after Catherine and started razing, and border pops from her disappearing culture pushed me over the domination limit (that 80% culture slider might've had something to do with it, too).

Going to try to finish out first domination on Noble tonight. Technically first. Elizabeth of Portugal on Terra was a space race that was very nearly a domination, but that combination felt like cheating.