Most Common Victory Type (Pre G&K)

[comatosedragon]

I was looking through my hall of fame, and noticed that about 80% of my wins have been science victories. This of course made me curious as to my fellow forum-goers most common victory type. This is not a poll of your favorite victory type, but rather the one you have won the most games with. They may be the same, of course, but sometimes the randomness of the game may make you forgo your 'favorite' type for one which is more attainable in the current game.

[DevilHell]

I mostly win Cultural games because I never want to get late on SPs so I kinda focus on that though I want to win domination, and I end winning Cultural because I have just taken down 2 or 3 civs

[jeffah3539]

I mostly win Domination. Science takes way too long, the most important part of the game is the first 50-100 turns and I usually know if it is a win or not by then. Playing on Emperor+ there aren't going to be any time victories unless you puppet every city except one civ's capital maybe. Diplomacy i just stupidly designed so I don't bother with it.

I like culture games, though not as much as CIV. I have a decent amount of culture vics but it is more of a mood thing. I rarely just end up with one. I usually plan it from the first turn otherwise it takes too long and runs into the "just press 'End Turn' repeatedly until you win" syndrome.

[comatosedragon]

Science does make for a long game, but domination (to me anyway) can be way too tedious. I play at Emperor, and you are right, I have never won a time victory. Culture games can be fun but

Originally Posted by jeffah3539

it takes too long and runs into the "just press 'End Turn' repeatedly until you win" syndrome.

[notadummy]

science, it's the easiest victory at the highest levels, and I find it the most engaging (a little bit of everything, conquering, managing diplomacy/RAs, and culture/rationalism)

[comatosedragon]

Originally Posted by notadummy

science, it's the easiest victory at the highest levels, and I find it the most engaging (a little bit of everything, conquering, managing diplomacy/RAs, and culture/rationalism)

I agree 100% with this, but interestingly enough, both of my deity wins have been culture.

[strijder20]

I like domination. It's a pain on larger maps, though.

[smallfish]

Domination

But lately, thanks to me increasingly out-teching and out-wondering opponent civs everywhere (and nuking them before they get past Apollo), I have the option of choosing between Domination and Science vic!

[PhilBowles]

I seem to go for them more or less evenly. Probably I win most often by diplomacy because I like games that interact with CSes and it's also perhaps the easiest condition to switch to if you're going for another victory initially and fail to get it. I find science victories are generally the easiest, and so I've gone for several of those recently.

[Tabarnak]

Other.

I play what the GOTM or HoF games propose. In fact i already know the victory condition before i start a game. Multiplayer? Domination, of course.

[blackcatatonic]

Science, followed by Culture. I can never be bothered with Domination.

[apocalypse105]

In civ 5 its verry simple :

emperor or higher difficulties domination Because the AI are so agressive

prince king or lower or lower difficulties : mostly science

In general I allways win science I saw deity lets plays where the AI entered the modern era verry quickly(picking rationalisme) and even future era and jut doesn't go for the space parts. And then I win by science victory just because the AI only atacks eachother and takes out their entire continet but doesn't do anything with it.


THe AI sucks at winning a science victory or culture victory does it even know it exist does it know how to play the game I ask myself sometimes.


To anwer the poll I voted science victory basicly because i Don't bother for taking all the capital cities

[apocalypse105]

Originally Posted by notadummy

science, it's the easiest victory at the highest levels, and I find it the most engaging (a little bit of everything, conquering, managing diplomacy/RAs, and culture/rationalism)

True because the AI can't handle the spaceship parts I have seen ramses entering the fture era and he doesn't bother building spaceships parts.


You are usaly more forced to go domination on higher difficulties just because diplomacy becomes a mess at the end games

[PhilBowles]

Originally Posted by apocalypse105

In civ 5 its verry simple :

emperor or higher difficulties domination Because the AI are so agressive

prince king or lower or lower difficulties : mostly science

In general I allways win science I saw deity lets plays where the AI entered the modern era verry quickly(picking rationalisme) and even future era and jut doesn't go for the space parts. And then I win by science victory just because the AI only atacks eachother and takes out their entire continet but doesn't do anything with it.


THe AI sucks at winning a science victory or culture victory does it even know it exist does it know how to play the game I ask myself sometimes.

I've had the AI win science victories on Emperor. I also find domination difficult with larger maps on Emperor because it's very easy for AI unit spam to bog down your attack (especially if Germany is one of the opposing civs). It doesn't matter how bad the AI is at combat if you can't physically get close to their capital because every spare hex is covered in enemy units and/or other cities that you'll need to capture to avoid getting your forces isolated. This is why I pretty much never win domination, since I play mainly on Emperor.

So I'd say the opposite - domination is good for lower difficulties, science is the best route at higher difficulties.

True because the AI can't handle the spaceship parts I have seen ramses entering the fture era and he doesn't bother building spaceships parts.

I had this a lot on King and below - or they'd build parts and then not complete the ship. On Emperor I was therefore taken aback when Catherine completed her spaceship. In my last Emperor game, the Inca (who were technologically trailing me) started building spaceship parts as soon as they completed Apollo - they had two by the time my own spaceship took off.

[jeffah3539]

Originally Posted by PhilBowles

I've had the AI win science victories on Emperor. I also find domination difficult with larger maps on Emperor because it's very easy for AI unit spam to bog down your attack (especially if Germany is one of the opposing civs). It doesn't matter how bad the AI is at combat if you can't physically get close to their capital because every spare hex is covered in enemy units and/or other cities that you'll need to capture to avoid getting your forces isolated. This is why I pretty much never win domination, since I play mainly on Emperor.

So I'd say the opposite - domination is good for lower difficulties, science is the best route at higher difficulties.

I have never really seen the AI build too many units to kill except on Deity. Usually if they have a ton of units they are so outdated that they are just xp farms for your own units. It becomes especially amusing when you get to logistics Stealth Bombers and just start slaughtering every unit you see. On Emperor or even Immortal I usually find that I am out-producing the AI by the Medieval or Renaissance era.

Domination is a mentality. You have to be aggressive from turn 1 to be most effective. Most Civ players, especially newer players, are too passive. I noticed this in my current Succession Game playing with some other forum-goers. They kept wanting to stop and build wonders or long term-oriented buildings without realizing that the game was already won and we just needed to keep building units and attacking while we had our greatest advantage. Optimum Domination play is about building to an advantage (generally getting an advanced unit before the AI gets a hard counter to that unit) and then pressing that advantage until you win.

[JaGarLo]

I usually go for Diplomatic victory (on diff. 4) so I can say ''I managed to bring peace to the world... After some bribery and nuclear strikes''.

[PhilBowles]

Originally Posted by jeffah3539

I have never really seen the AI build too many units to kill except on Deity. Usually if they have a ton of units they are so outdated that they are just xp farms for your own units. It becomes especially amusing when you get to logistics Stealth Bombers and just start slaughtering every unit you see. On Emperor or even Immortal I usually find that I am out-producing the AI by the Medieval or Renaissance era.

Domination is a mentality. You have to be aggressive from turn 1 to be most effective. Most Civ players, especially newer players, are too passive. I noticed this in my current Succession Game playing with some other forum-goers. They kept wanting to stop and build wonders or long term-oriented buildings without realizing that the game was already won and we just needed to keep building units and attacking while we had our greatest advantage. Optimum Domination play is about building to an advantage (generally getting an advanced unit before the AI gets a hard counter to that unit) and then pressing that advantage until you win.

This was my approach this game - buy/build units whenever possible, race to Iron and then Steel, ally with militaristic states - including taking Warsaw for Dublin. The Iroqois (pledged to protect Warsaw) were unhappy about that and lost their capital for their trouble - but even with (at that early stage) a catapult and three Swordsmen (initially) against an Iroqois force that at the time had only a few archers and one Mohawk, it took from a war dec in the late BCs to 350 AD to capture the city.

Since then I've had everyone except Siam declare war on me (small map) - my war focus set me back technologically and I'm at least a tech or two behind America, who just captured Taghaza with minutemen (I'm currently researching gunpowder, and am 5th out of 6th in the literacy stakes, down from 1st before the first war began).

I've just seen off waves of attackers from the north (Indian knights and a crossbow) and west (a bunch of Mohawks), with the Americans coming up from the south bolstered by their ally Tyre. I so far haven't seen Babylon despite their also being at war with me - Akkad makes a nice target, but it's not a capital.

The thing the AI has done well this game (most likely by accident of CS map placement) is select CS allies well based on their locations. I can't get to India without going through Helsinki and Edinburgh, and can't afford the happiness hit from holding both, forcing a time delay when it's already 1150 AD. The Americans are allied with Tyre and Genoa, which are between me and their so far undetected territory, and result in the same issue; there's also the prospect of Monaco entering the war if the Iroquois ally them again. Being CSes, of course, they default to the maximum available tech level for their units. My army is as large as I can sustain it financially, mostly now focused on the attack on Taghaza, but also with garrisons and melee defenders around Tombouctou and the former Iroquois capital.

This is the sort of thing I'm getting at - obviously I'm outnumbered having three active enemy civs to fight simultaneously. Advancing will cost me time, funds and happiness (all of which I'm short of) capturing city-states before I get to any capitals - the only civ whose territory I can attack without going through/past CSes is Babylon, and that will require taking out Akkad - it also isn't a good idea since Babylon is far too far from my territory to defend while I remain at war with India.

EDIT: Well, turns out the map is heavily on the AI's side in this game - all approaches to American territory are surrounded by mountains, with only a single narrow route to go through. The attack path closest to me has mountains along one side, an inland sea on the other and a one-hex wide path of hills between; going around there's only a similar path between the mountains and the coast, blocked by the hostile city-states Tyre and Genoa. But repeated wars against every other surviving civ (I took Akkad and Babylon; the Siamese finished that civ) still bog me down.

It's a testament to bad AI and/or the Great Wall (which was conveniently located in the Iroquois capital) that I've been so far victorious while being at war simultaneously with four other civs and nearly all the game's city-states, have captured two CSes, recaptured Taghaza (twice) and razed San Francisco, while clawing my way back up to second place technologically from the bottom of the pack. At the same time it does support my point - I've been at war most of the game, have been on the offensive for most of it, clearly have an edge over all my AI opponents - and into the early 20th Century only two of six capitals have so far fallen.

Shouldn't have ignored India, though - they just captured Dublin.

[TheKingOfBigOz]

There should've been "I'm pretty open" option.

[Camikaze]

I used to do culture a lot, but then I changed to domination. I think domination is easier in terms of gameplay, but harder in terms of time commitment. It can take an age to finish a domination game, even if you're always winning by a wider margin.

[comatosedragon]

Originally Posted by TheKingOfBigOz

There should've been "I'm pretty open" option.

The reason there isn't is because this is a poll to see what your most frequent victory type is, not your 'favorite'. You could vote 'other', I guess.

As I suspected, it appears that most victories are science victories.