An old timer playing with the new toy (domination victory advice)

[zenmurphy]

Ok, So I am not even sure I need help, as I am still midway through my first game playing domination, but I thought I would ask.

I started playing V about a month or so ago, I am a Civer from way back with Civilization I on an I386.

I started first playing cultural, took myself from Prince to Diety and had very few problems. Same thing with Science.

I don't play much domination, as I get sick of micromanaging, but I thought I would give it a try.

First domination game... Archipelago, small (6 nations 12 CS), Elizabeth. Standard rules except for quick turn pace.

I went with the NC strat to get my tech rolling then went into rex mode and established three more cities, 2 near good resources and 1 near a natural wonder. The french annoyed me and were the only ones on my continent, so I decided to finish them off when I got my UU Longbowmen (they were massing units at my borders). The war didn't last long, but I took some harsh casualties because I had no source of iron until late in the war when I built a city in a non ideal location just to grab an iron resource. So I had no siege... but it still worked out.

I am in pretty good position, except I am noticing I am being surpassed in technology and have mediocre happyness (mostly due to war). China denounced me and wants to go to war soon, I can feel it. I just saw them ship about 5 rifleman to my island which means they are way ahead of me as I just got musketmen.

In Culture/Science I had a great idea of what I wanted to build and I built it, but in domination I have no idea what to do. Most of my cities production is crazy slow, and I am not sure what to focus on. I have my capital focused on production but I really don't have any idea what to do with my original 3 and now 4 (for the iron city) other cities.

How do the experts set up their cities for a domination victory? Do you use 4 cities? less? more? one production city? two production cities? specialist cities?

I would like some advice. Specifically on what buildings I should build in my other cities and how I should focus them. I am only on prince, so I believe I will win this game no matter what, but it is going to be ugly and I like to play a lot smoother game than this.

 

[King Patrick]

I've played mostly diplomacy & cultural victories, halfway through a domination game now, so I'm certainly no expert. Sounds like you need fewer production cities, maybe just your cap & the iron city, and more science-oriented cities. A culture-oriented city wouldn't hurt for filling out the Honor & Piety trees to fuel your wars, too. Playing aggressive civs off each other to keep them out of your hair is key to science and culture wins, so I'm sure you know all about it, but it's also useful in domination games to occupy enemies or whittle down their military until you are ready for them.

For the upcoming war with China, cannons behind muskets can still devastate rifles on the defensive. Your casualties may be heavy, esp. if they manage a breakthrough, but you will probably win. If you can intercept reinforcements with some naval units, even better.

 

[KevinMiles90000]

domination on diety/immortal is difficult due to the shear number of units the AI throws at you. Even if you have a tech lead they still are going to be inflicting some serious damage on you. It's not impossible, just don't expect it to be the easiest way to win.

Building one city at first viable to get the heroic epic/armory/barracks combo as well as the ironworks. You'll be churning out units every 5 or so turns with 2 upgrades as well as collecting social policies faster. Mongolia is fun for this strategy because you can use 2 or so RAs to get chivalry and keshiks which are one of the best units in the game. A fully upgraded Keshik army can be viable until probably mechanized infantry, if the game lasts that long.

 

[slobberinbear]

The successful NC start domination games, at the higher difficulty levels, work best when they deliver you a tech edge and you have the means to quickly upgrade your troops. Archers to longbows in your case. Get six archers ready, get machinery and upgrade. I think this makes sense for Liz.

If you're going to sink all that time and hammer cost into the NC, you need to exploit whatever tech edge you get.

 

[zenmurphy]

Thanks for your responses. I started on prince with each victory condition so I could mess up and still have a chance to recover. I went home yesterday and focused my other cities on gold and beakers, while doubling the production focus of my capital, and annexing Paris when I had enough happiness because it was a power house.

To recover from China's technology and units lead, I worked to my strengths, pumping out Ship's of the Line as fast as possible and completely surrounding them. Lucky for me, they had about 12 fishing resources worked and pillaging put them in major trouble. I also managed to widdle away at their forces enough that I had 5 Ships with the 2 shots a turn upgrade... NASTY.

After denying a couple of peace treaties and taking Beijing and another city I agreed to peace after they offered everything they had. Then I surrounded the massive Indian army with my destroyers and then went to bed.

I think the Land Bombarding Sea/Sea Bombarding Land matrix is all messed up. My Ship of the Line gets decimated by Cannons from the land but those same cannons shooting from a boat do less than half the damage? That just seams flawed. But maybe they did this for balance reasons.

Also, this game was only on prince, but the new patch didn't do anything for the ridiculously dumb AI mistakes. China thwarted my siege of Beijing with cannons focused on bombarding my ships, but when I moved the ships north to a city not even six tiles away, the cannons never followed. In fact, I laid siege to two cities right next to Beijing, took out about 15 units, and the cannons never came.

 

[Pazyryk]

One way to go about a domination game is to start like you are playing for a science victory. That should be easy for you if you have won Science victory on Deity. Develop 1 - 5 cities and get as many RAs as possible (by aggressively selling resources). Get Iron Works and Heroic Epic in your best producing city, which is usually your capital. Then, starting around 1300 or so, produce your world dominating army/navy and take only capitals or key resource cities. 2-3 riflemen, 2-3 cannons, and >3 frigates does the job well. Keep producing units and open up a second front with your 2nd great general. As always, the more overwhelming your force, the fewer units you will loose. If all or most capitals are coastal, then you can get most of the job done with 6 frigates and enough riflemen to occupy the cities you take.

 

[ras9929]

I agree with most of what's been said here...
Science is the key to domination..
One thing I would also advocate though is settling near resources who benefit from stables. I've only recently learned it, but stables are a production beast when you have 4 resources that benefit from them.

 

[zenmurphy]

Yea. Prince was easy, I wrapped it up last night. Superior Naval forces ftw. Constant harassment is more than the CPU could handle. I was fighting a double front, which turned into a triple front, I just changed over to only pumping out naval units and they couldn't get units off their islands, and my 6 destroyers with double attack finished off any sort of artillery bombardment from the coast they tried to use.

Why can't I bombard improvements? I think this is silly that you have to be on them to pillage them. I should be able to pillage improvements within range of my destroyers.

Next up, Pangaea on king. I think I am going to change to standard speed though, booooo.

 

[snarzberry]

From the description of your game I doubt you'll hardly notice the difference between prince and king. I'd go straight to Emperor if I was you

As you increase the difficulty to immortal and deity ensure that you are playing powerful civs against each other as often as you can so they waste as much of their fighting resources before you get around to attacking them. Bribe money is usually a fantastic investment.