Apocalypse and Domination

[Abaxial]

Whenever I have played on apocalypse mode I have always won before the later effects start kicking in. But given how bad the AI civs are at actually achieving a victory condition, I thought it would be interesting to start an apocalypse mode game in autoplay and let six AIs duke it out..

So - relatively early on, the USA conquered the Japanese capital (followed by all the other Japanese cities). Round about turn 400 the map was an utter mess: only two civs retained their original capitals (the rest having been destroyed by comet strikes) and barbarians roamed at will as mechanised infantry and submarines.

The problem is this: how can you capture the original capitals of evry civ when some of them no longer exist? And when I checked, the USA was not getting credit for once having held the Japanese capital. Is it impossible to achieve a DV once the comets start striking?

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Is it impossible to achieve a DV once the comets start striking?

In the Maya/GC livestream they said that you do win a DV even if the other capitals are wiped out. I believe it was Anton that said it was "a technicality, but we allow it."

 

[Equilin]

it only counts "existing" original capital, not counting by number of civs. Civs that got their settler stolen before settling their capital won't count towards other's domV, if my memory served me right. The same should apply here.

 

[WillowBrook]

Related questions: Let's say we have four civs. I've captured two other capitals and the last civ has its original capital. Then my capital is destroyed by a comet.

1) The civ with its original capital would not win, right? Because it doesn't have the other remaining original capitals.

2) Can I win by capturing that civ's capital even though mine no longer exists? That's the impression I got from Anton's comment, can anyone verify this?

 

[Hans Castorp]

I played to turn 500 with comets for about 150 turns. At 350, I held all capitals (in fact, all cities) bar the Romans', and they had two other cities remaining. I took the two cities and parked a bunch of GDRs outside Rome and waited. In that time comets took out two of the capitals I had conquered and my own capital. On turn 499 I conquered Rome and won the domination victory. When your capital is destroyed, it nominates a 'replacement' original capital, but I don't think that was the case with the civs I had already wiped out.

 

[WillowBrook]

I played to turn 500 with comets for about 150 turns. At 350, I held all capitals (in fact, all cities) bar the Romans', and they had two other cities remaining. I took the two cities and parked a bunch of GDRs outside Rome and waited. In that time comets took out two of the capitals I had conquered and my own capital. On turn 499 I conquered Rome and won the domination victory. When your capital is destroyed, it nominates a 'replacement' original capital, but I don't think that was the case with the civs I had already wiped out.

Thanks for the story! I'm aiming for a similar scenario in my current game, don't want to accidentally lose or trigger victory before I meet my goals.