Will Science boost Domination?

[Prozac1964]

Hi everyone, it's been a long time.....

I have a question. It seems when I'm playing domination, that if I focus on increasing science first I get better weapons faster. I guess I'm speeding through the tech tree unlocking all the best guns, buildings and military wonders before other Civs.

Recently I played my first game on King and the other civs were flying through the tech tree, getting all the best stuff. I concluded that pushing science would actually improve my domination chances because of better weapons faster.

Is my theory right? Should I focus on science even if I'm going for a domination victory?
Thanks for any help.

 

[claudiupb]

Science is important in every Victory Condition with the exception of Diplomatic victory. To a Domination victory it could be less important if you have some overpowered unique unit (like the Mongols) but nevertheless it always helps to get the advanced units faster, especially if the AI is researching faster than you.

In my opinion there are two types of Domination, one where you are aggressive from early on, capturing capitals and good cities and adding them to your empire as you advance (with the hopes of finishing very fast), and another where you turtle to a specific tech which will give you a very good unit (for example beelining Dynamite to get artillery fast) and try to conquer the world with that.

In the latter case science is very important as you will want to get to your milestone tech very fast so you can conquer the world before your units become obsolete (so for example artillery is only good up until the enemy reaches flight).

If you are dominating right from the start the idea is to keep your enemies weak so bribing them to war each other helps, and a good idea is to maintain a good diplomatic relationship with at least one AI. You may lag behind in tech, since conquering cities and adding them to the empire comes with a cost (happiness, riot period, building Courthouses, etc). If you are behind in tech however not all is lost since there are some units that become obsolete very late, for example a promoted Crossbowman can be used in the industrial era, and it can also do damage later on.

 

[Prozac1964]

Thanks so much for your help. I will reevaluate my civ.

 

[Acken]

Domination is all about getting a tech edge for a military unit and push with that advantage.

 

[Prozac1964]

Yes, that is what I'm learning. If you want better military units than your foes, you have to push science hard from the start.
It is always a great feeling when your foe is still using a catapult while you have 6 gatlin's on your tiles.

 

[phillipwyllie]

Good play and ranged units with +1 range are prolly more important to DomV than science. Play as Mongolia and see how easy it is if you can keep your ranged units alive. Acken's got a few vids on YouTube on the subject.

 

[BlackWizard]

You can take all capitalhills in standard deity map before learn to write- key isto play huns or zulus

Vere opposite Exception is India and Venice. You need books to win with them

 

[Athenaeum]

Science is important to all victories including Diplomatic, although you can ride your opponents' science to some degree. Advancing eras increases everyone's delegate counts which brings you closer to Diplomatic Victory and Globalization is useful as well.