Best Civilization For a Newb at Domination Victories?

[Bfoxius]

Alright, I rock in the Science, Diplomatic and Cultural victories when it comes to Civilization 5, but I lack in the Domination areas. Since I have seen all the stuff about BNW, and it makes me feel like I am missing out on the cultural and diplomatic parts of the new expansion, I have decided to try my hand at a domination victory. I however, am stumped at what civ to choose. Any suggestions for a Culture/Science/Diplomacy player trying their hand at Domination?

 

[jungleman3955]

I would suggest Arabia to ween yourself off of just going for science victory every game (or cultural/diplo). I used to just get 4 city start and then push straight for a SV every game. I would suggest Arabia because in my experience you will revert to turtling out of habit and they are are strong civ for that with there economic advantages so you're not shooting yourself in the foot for picking say the mongols and turtling with them.

Another fun strategy I've been doing lately is playing Carthage on Pangaea and only making coastal cities and literally just puppeting every coastal city the AI puts up. Maybe not optimal on pangaea but when you've played hundreds of games as I have, weird strategies makes the game interesting.

One game I decided to roleplay like the AI. I assumed an aggressive, religious attitude toward my diplomatic relations with other nations. So I went heavy religion and militaristic. Any nation that would not adopt my religion I would act hostile towards and any nation that did adopt I was peaceful with. Just different ideas to make the game more fun for you.

 

[beestbijnacht]

Attila is brutal. He's pretty much designed to start the game and annihilate your nearest neighbor upon meeting.

 

[khdou]

Mongolia, with arguably the best UUs in the game. A few Keshiks are more than enough to level cities. Make a rush towards Chivalry(shoot for t90ish), with preferably 6+ chariot archers waiting to be upgraded, and proceed to kill everything

 

[Deau]

Any difficulty below deity, I'd take Babylon to have a tech edge super early in the game and plow through.

Attila is great but is a double edged blade. If you don't get much done by the time rams are obsolete, you might as well quit and play a new game. Thus, if you don't have any very close neighbors, you might be disappointed.

Mongols and Arabia have the arguably best UUs in the game.

Pachacuti is underestimated, but the hills movement is of extreme benefit for military strategy.

Ethiopia is outstanding because of all the extra happiness from easy faith as well as the UA for the very first war of the game...depending on your difficulty level.

 

[Unresolved]

If you're trying to learn how to do warfare better, I would not recommend Arabia or Mongolia. Their UU's are the strongest in the game and they don't play like normal ranged units. So you don't really learn better combat strategies by using Keshiks and Camel Archers. I think China would be a good beginner domination civilization that doesn't use a very unique strategy.

 

[Novalia]

You should just go off the grid and try the mongol scenario.

But first I'd fire up the Mongols in a normal standard game.. Play against your normal nature.. Capture CSs.. Kill your neighbors.. Make everyone hate you.. Then kill them all.

When you play against type.. Science or culture in this case.. You just gotta go balls out.. Fail.. Learn.. Do it again...

It's really fun sometimes to be the bad guy.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Erm, China.

 

[Supersonic]

I'd say Mongolia aswell. Keshiks are pretty easy to handle and by the point you earned some khans and the March promotion you can overwhelm everyone easily(at least up to emporer).

 

[jungleman3955]

If you're trying to learn how to do warfare better, I would not recommend Arabia or Mongolia. Their UU's are the strongest in the game and they don't play like normal ranged units. So you don't really learn better combat strategies by using Keshiks and Camel Archers. I think China would be a good beginner domination civilization that doesn't use a very unique strategy.

I did suggest Arabia and I agree with you. If you want a super easy domination victory (just to have a domination victory) then the civs to do this with would be the Mongols (Keshiks), Arabia (Camel Archers), the Huns (Ram and Horse Archer) and maybe England (Longbowmen in particular as SotL are situational).

If you want to improve your ability at warfare so you can adapt to higher difficulties then try China, the Inca (they may be a stretch because being able to move on hills and attack in a turn is incredibly powerful), Sweden (play relatively peaceful until caroleans come on board then go ape $#!* on everyone), Bismarck (who doesn't like more units?), and Eithiopia (great at higher difficulties, I can't think of a better designed civ to mitigate the bonuses the AI receives).

There are other civs great for domination but if you were anything like I was learning warfare you have a natural tendency to revert back to old habits, of turtling and pushing tech hard after a puppet or two, and the civs in the second list have some nice advantages that will help you in that endeavor.

 

[montalaar]

it really doesnt matter which civilization you will choose.
it doesnt matter if you want master combat and conquest type of play.
then, first and foremost - stay away from any unique units like keshiks, longbows or chokonu etc.

why?
1.simple - because you don`t need them. none of them. u can win conquest with any civ.
2.you can found yourself trapped in skill wage war with only certain unique unit and lose much of fun from play differently each time.

what u need are basic units:
3-4 archers.
1-2 spearman (or whatever melee with plan to promote drill, cover, medics; second melee is optional and if u have mounted unit, second melee may be not needed)
1-2 siege (second is optional for me, because in many cases you don`t have enough space to arrange all ranged units in good spots and u HAVE to master not lose any single unit at all)
1 horseman(horse archer, chariot, not matter)

you need reckon city terrain and plan ahead where and when your units take what place(remember that tiles may be inaccessible because occupied by enemy a time u enter war, then maybe its worth wait turn or two) well before you are near targeted city.

once you master conquer cities with such basic units formation, nothing can stop you. game is simple in fact. and it will not matter anymore which civilization you will choose from point of warfare. because now you can fight with any of them.

my personal preferences are for religious civilizations. very much like celts for guaranteed beliefs and later happiness. it gives a lot of flexibility to me if i plan longer game. developed, spread religion gives me very good handicap in any direction i go and any type of victory. all i need is plan.

 

[Bfoxius]

I have thought about China, but I am not a big Great General guy, and I like civs that have more interesting bonuses, I am also a control freak when it comes to picking a civ, e.g. playing as Sweden and going for a dom victory. In the end, I believe that I am going to go with Persia for 2 reasons.
1. The bonus to your armies when in a golden age does not seem to farfetched for a Culture player. I could just play for happiness like I do in my Culture games, and wait for Golden Ages to pop, or I could get Great Artists through culture, and pop Golden Ages through them.
2. They only have 1 unique unit (Immortal), and it is not a game changer, so I won't be able to use them as a crutch.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Crafty Bison]

Nice choice, I wouldn't neccessarily recommend them for a noob, but they're certainly both very powerful and very fun, if you can string the GA's enough. If you haven't played them before, there's a nice article in the war academy. It's for vanilla, but most of it still applies. Imo the extra point of movement is OP, especially for siege units, who can move, set up and fire in 1, so getting first shot on cities.

 

[azzaman333]

Get a tech lead, and start building ranged units with a handful of mounted units to snipe cities when they're low enough of health. Works with every civ.

 

[OwlRaider]

Persia is very not newbie friendly because it takes a lot of knowledge and finesse to make the most out of their UA. I'd agree with some others here who recommended China. First of all, if you want to go for a domination victory than Great Generals will be of great use to you, they're always useful but especially for domination. So if you don't like using them now, better get used to start using them if you want to be serious at domination games. Secondly, unlike other civilizations who have UUs that you use instead of the standard army composition, China's UU is the main part of the standard composition, just an improved version of it. Since you've won by all the other methods than I must assume you're familiar with the CB rush and than its natural followup into Crossbows and Gatling Guns. China simply makes this very standard army tremendously stronger, both due to the Chu-Ko-Nu as well as their Great General bonus, which allows you to field multiple armies and have a Great General for each, and even some to spare for defensive citadels. Going for domination, especially on Immortal/Deity will force you into multiple front wars since the AI loves to DoW warmongers, and going for domination you will be a warmonger and will piss off a lot of AI civs. Therefore you will need to be able to fight on 2 fronts on a regular basis, and occasionally more than that. You'll want to do this regardless of AI DoWs by the way, since it speeds up the process and teaches you how to make the most out of your troops, which is another skill you need to master as a domination player. All in all, China makes for the best beginner nation to domination victories as it's both easy enough thanks to the UA and UU and because it doesn't force you out of the standard composition like Arabia, Mongols and Huns who were also mentioned here. You always want to start with the standard, before moving onto different variations.

 

[Lucius_]

I could just play for happiness like I do in my Culture games, and wait for Golden Ages to pop, or I could get Great Artists through culture, and pop Golden Ages through them.

This will be a challenge in domination games. You will definitely need great artists for Golden Ages but I don't have any tips for you there. I play domination with a focus on keeping a massive tech lead. I've never tried Persia's golden age UA. Playing domination I see great artists as a waste of a great person.

 

[Ninakoru]

Totally agree with owlraider. China doesn't need any out of the standard army composition, plus their UB is a library with 3 extra gold (1 from mant.), wich you will build early anyways, and help a lot with army maintenance. My vote goes for china.

 

[Loucypher]

In case of water-rich maps, Denmark is also an interesting choice. Sail a Catapult/Treb/Any other siege engine onto the coast, and you can set up/shoot at once. While it doesn't have the very best of UU's, Berserkers are pretty strong, as is Ski Infantry, but mostly in invasions from the Sea they shine. Only on Small Continents/Maps with even more water, though.

 

[kirbdog]

Arabia. Mongolia. Or Arabia. Or Mongolia. Or maybe Mongolia or Arabia.

Their unique units that come with Chivalry, the Camel Archer or the Keshik, completely change the way warfare is done. You can move in a city's range, plink it with an arrow, and then move back out. You can destroy enemy units in the same hit-and-run manner. It's a playstyle that's absurdly easy to use effectively and not available from regular units without a lot of promotions. And it's available fairly early (go Philosophy then Chivalry).

Once you've done that, I'd say ease your way into a second victory with China or England. And once you've done it with their overpowered versions of the crossbow, you'll probably be ready to take on the world with any civ and just regular crossbows (along with the artillery and flight pushes).

 

[jungleman3955]

It really matters what you want here. You want to improve your game and be flexible regardless of civ then China is a great place to start. Or do you just want a dom win for the achievement? If so Arabia and the Mongols trivialize warfare as Camel Archers and Keshiks are ABSURDLY OP.