Cultural, Domination or Conquest?

[phoenix_sprite]

The situation: I'm Germany, it's 1695 AD and I just got to Rifling (first one to do so), reason for late Rifling: semi-isolated start, axe rushed Shaka because I'd rather be alone than have to deal with him. Here's the known world as of now:



(Germany, Vikings, Russia, India, Ottomans, Maya)

I can either win Cultural or Domination (Conquest is more feasible on a Pangaea map ), I've built the Sistine Chapel so a cultural victory would be in the bag as well. But I'm also playing as Germany,

My prime targets to start a conquest would be India and the Vikings since they're so backwards. For Russia, the Mayans and the Ottomans, I'd want to send something a bit stronger than Riflemen since they're almost on par with me technologically.

Second part of the question: Nationalism or Vassalage at this point in the game?

 

[Pangaea]

I recommend you attach the savefile, as it's a lot easier to get an overview of your game if people can check it directly. Then you will get better feedback too.

 

[King Flevance]

If the Vikings and Maya are backwards, I would say domination is probably the easiest route. After you wip out the Vikings and keep there cities you should be almost done already.

 

[joanne]

Have you considered diplomacy/diplomation? Your civ looks large enough and still have time to grow for more UN votes, and as the voting nears you can use your tech lead on the AI to either gift them techs to befriend them else veto their existence permanently

 

[traius]

The situation: I'm Germany, it's 1695 AD and I just got to Rifling (first one to do so), reason for late Rifling: semi-isolated start, axe rushed Shaka because I'd rather be alone than have to deal with him. Here's the known world as of now:



(Germany, Vikings, Russia, India, Ottomans, Maya)

My prime targets to start a conquest would be India and the Vikings since they're so backwards. For Russia, the Mayans and the Ottomans, I'd want to send something a bit stronger than Riflemen since they're almost on par with me technologically.
game?

I always find the easiest way to win such a game is to hit the most tech advanced, not the least. Once you crush your closest competition, THEN hit the weak ones to get you over the domination limit. I don't think taking the indians and vikings combined would get dom anyway, and it may or may not improve the GPT of your empire with maintenance (of course if you run state property, essentially only 1 pop cities will negatively impact GPT). If you are playing on imm/deity or something though, I have no experience, but would imagine having a significant tech lead would help face their massive stacks.

EDIT: Actually, you should most likely just hit that uniform continent right beside you. Screw hitting anyone on the distant, 5-way-split continent (where your recently conquered cities will all be producing less hammers than the now-nearby, fully-developed cities of your new neighbours), when you can get a larger, closer, continent where you only have to consider the actions of one empire.

 

[Verarde]

I would go knock out the Vikings, then go for India. After that, you should have enough land for a domination win, and if not, settle down and beeline towards a Diplo.

 

[reddishrecue]

If you don't get bored easily go cultural and get the wonders in 3 cities. However, you could've started with cultural a lot earlier to get the win earlier. Since its late you can dominate but future technologies such as radio can really help out the culture in your cities. Go for domination. Its already too late to be cultural unless another civilization gets too cultural while you are dominating.

 

[digitalcraft]

What we need to know is the diplomatic situation. How do these people feel about each other? If you attack india are you going to get pounced making it slow going?

 

[Bisqit]

Go for the domination victory. Just attack india or the vikings first to gain a foothold on that continent. Itll be a large undertaking but very possible

 

[W|M]

Go for Culture, but nuke EVERY non-German city before you win.

 

[lindsay40k]

For a Culture win, ideally you have:

- several religions
- three cities each with a load of fully developed Towns and/or a stack of high Culture Wonders (and I mean a LOT)
- a bunch of Great Artists in hibernation
- a Great People farm that can be set to GA production
- in a large empire late game like this: a practical guarantee of Sushi and Construction

How many of these boxes can you tick? If it's all five, then a Culture win is a nice low-risk play, especially with no land neighbours and a load of mildly unimportant island cities to bear the brunt of naval attack. Taking Vikings as your vassal whilst the three main cities gear up for it will give the enemy another distracting target, too.