Best domination strategy?

[CivAddict2013]

What's the best strategy for a domination victory? I seem to be able to conquer a few Civs then run into a Civ with seemingly endless units.

For instance, I sent an army of 50 strong towards Siam. I managed to take one of his cities, but he seemed to have infinite units and took it back.

It seems at a certain point; you just can't capture the civilization on the other continent.

So what strategy do I use to get around this? Could I rush Frigates or something and get him before he's able to produce a huge army? It seems to impossible to defeat him after a certain point. Like I said, I sent an army 50 strong at him; but he seems to have infinite units.

So is the only thing I can do pretty much to, rush Frigates and get to him early?

 

[duende29]

Work towards getting a tech lead in ranged combat (artillery, air). Locate a good coastal city you can take fast (ranged sea units, carriers), fill the place with ranged units and prepare for the eventual trickle of enemy units.

If you can't, conquer your continent, go full science and win by SV. If you can't, nukes.

 

[joshua43214]

50 units is wayyyyy too many.

When I start to steam roll, my army is typically ~5 artillery, ~4 melee and ~2 horse units.

My total military is bigger because I leave some strategically placed units behind.

In vanilla, the absolute best path to domination is the stealth arc, and Cathy is probably the best civ for it but it can be played with any civ.

You will want to search for "stealth arc" on this forum for a full guide, but the basic idea is to tech across the top of the tech tree focusing on science and then plow down into stealth at a certain point. Meanwhile you will build every type of barracks + the national epic in a high hammer city and start cranking out bombers while heading to stealth. Upgrade the bombers to stealth bombers and work them hard to get air repair and logistics. You couple this with an early knight rush and the knights get upgraded to modern armor.

You can plow an entire Pangaea map with this set up faster than you can move melee units to the front. Cathy is not nerfed in vanilla and still gets 2x strategics so you will have plenty of oil and aluminum, though you might have to conquer or buy the aluminum at the beginning of the push.

 

[CivAddict2013]

50 units is wayyyyy too many.

When I start to steam roll, my army is typically ~5 artillery, ~4 melee and ~2 horse units.

My total military is bigger because I leave some strategically placed units behind.

In vanilla, the absolute best path to domination is the stealth arc, and Cathy is probably the best civ for it but it can be played with any civ.

You will want to search for "stealth arc" on this forum for a full guide, but the basic idea is to tech across the top of the tech tree focusing on science and then plow down into stealth at a certain point. Meanwhile you will build every type of barracks + the national epic in a high hammer city and start cranking out bombers while heading to stealth. Upgrade the bombers to stealth bombers and work them hard to get air repair and logistics. You couple this with an early knight rush and the knights get upgraded to modern armor.

You can plow an entire Pangaea map with this set up faster than you can move melee units to the front. Cathy is not nerfed in vanilla and still gets 2x strategics so you will have plenty of oil and aluminum, though you might have to conquer or buy the aluminum at the beginning of the push.

So I should basically tech to the stealth bomber then attack?

 

[nathanfl]

i'm just feeling my way around Civ5 domination (and Civ5 in general), but i use a combo of naval and land units. i use carriers and bombers to project power in the late game, with artillery and infantry mopping up the rest. i also focus on resource depletion, destroying units then roads, then mines, then luxuries.

starting early resource wars are very important for denying your enemies the chance to build up. just rush in, grab some workers, pillage some tiles, maybe kill a few units, and rush out like the wind. a few of those surgical strikes makes a big difference in the enemies ability to continue the effort.

when starting a new continent, you need a beach head that is safe. look for the weakest city and invade there and puppet it - frigates are very helpful on the initial push. i also like to start on the opposite side of the continent of the continent's superpower, this puts a barrier between me and them that can be very helpful. i'll then use my navy to punish them while i stream in units from my empire's production cities. at this point, having a navy is helpful because of their mobility, strength, and inability to be attacked by melee. you can pound them with your navy while you buildup, and with bombers you can attack their melee too.

use diplomacy to weaken them by bribing their neighbors into border ways. ally CSes nearby to help with the fight.

cathy is my favorite civ, right with BNW's pocatello since you can use their UA to deny resources and happiness in the early game, preventing rivals from building up for a long time.

 

[Fish Man]

So I should basically tech to the stealth bomber then attack?

No, get plastics first. Preferably by t210. That way you get a +50% science boost in every major city. Then tech to rocketry for mobile SAMS, your new crack troops, and rocket artillery. It might also be beneficial to grab satellites for seeing everything, extra happiness from exposing all world wonders, and GE rushing Hubble for 2 GS (1 GP for 2 GP = worth it). THEN go to stealth.

Other notes: try to get education by t110 and scientific theory by t175. That way you will have enough science to out-tech the AI. If you beeline STRAIGHT to stealth without any science techs...well, you're gonna lose to a technologically superior AI.

One final word: stealth bombers are NOT as OP as others make them seem. By the time you get them the AI will have infantry or even modern armor so they take several hits to kill units. Also, if you're not careful, your entire air force can be destroyed by a single nuke. Finally, cities at this point have 120+ so be ready for your bombers to take some serious damage.

 

[Tabarnak]

I guess you are playing vanilla as i can see so here is a strong way to dominate :

4 cities sword rush strategy

Iron and swordmen are the best units early on for vanilla starting with Liberty who was overpowered at that time after they nerfed Landed Elite.

Here is an extreme example of this strategy at deity

And a youtube vid from me(gotm #31 immortal) :


Link to video.

And also DaveMcW's attempt(same overall approach but different strategy and warpath and faster time) :


Link to video.

Save can be found here if you want to try.

 

[joshua43214]

No, get plastics first. Preferably by t210. That way you get a +50% science boost in every major city. Then tech to rocketry for mobile SAMS, your new crack troops, and rocket artillery. It might also be beneficial to grab satellites for seeing everything, extra happiness from exposing all world wonders, and GE rushing Hubble for 2 GS (1 GP for 2 GP = worth it). THEN go to stealth.

Other notes: try to get education by t110 and scientific theory by t175. That way you will have enough science to out-tech the AI. If you beeline STRAIGHT to stealth without any science techs...well, you're gonna lose to a technologically superior AI.

One final word: stealth bombers are NOT as OP as others make them seem. By the time you get them the AI will have infantry or even modern armor so they take several hits to kill units. Also, if you're not careful, your entire air force can be destroyed by a single nuke. Finally, cities at this point have 120+ so be ready for your bombers to take some serious damage.

He is playing vanilla, so even if the AI does have infantry and MA, it does not matter.

In vanilla stealth bombers flat out rule, period. The AI does not make them and has no defense from them.

Do not tech straight to stealth. It is an arc, you go across the top of the tech tree aiming for high tech advantage, your early military is horse units. The knight rush was extremely effective in vanilla and gave you highly promoted units late in the game. Late in the game you arc down to stealth. 5 SB's will win a domination victory, 15 will destroy even a run-away civ. In vanilla there is nothing even remotely able to compete with SB's

 

[Fish Man]

Oh wait, just realized this was vanilla. I am STOOPID...
Still, if you ever get G+K, my tips will hold true.

Also, nice tips, Tab. The ironic thing was: back when I played vanilla and was a noob, I thought ranged units were useless. They actually were in vanilla (archers get obsolete quick and x-bows come late). I dominated with swordsmen on prince, but when I moved to G+K...well, it took the horrible deaths of many SM at the hands of walled cities with a ranged garrison before I finally learned my lesson.

EDIT: actually, Josh is right. I checked the values, and SB is more than twice as strong as infantry. This is another one of the reasons I recommend G+K: the combat values in vanilla are horrible skewed. The of units increases linearly up until the industrial era, which means each unit upgrade has less and less effect. A group of LSM with 2+ bonuses (fortified + on hill, etc.) could stand against infantry. Then in the modern and above eras the of units increases so exponentially that , as Josh said, 5 SB could destroy an entire continent. To make it worse, the 10hp system makes it so that it doesn't matter what era you're in: as long as you have high production you'll do noticeable damage.

 

[CivAddict2013]

I guess you are playing vanilla as i can see so here is a strong way to dominate :

4 cities sword rush strategy

Iron and swordmen are the best units early on for vanilla starting with Liberty who was overpowered at that time after they nerfed Landed Elite.

Here is an extreme example of this strategy at deity

And a youtube vid from me(gotm #31 immortal) :


Link to video.

And also DaveMcW's attempt(same overall approach but different strategy and warpath and faster time) :


Link to video.

Save can be found here if you want to try.

I'll definitely take a look at that.

However, I did try my frigate rush idea but I ran into a problem.

Hiawatha was on his own continent, but I brought tons of Frigates. I easily take his 2 naval cities.

But then when I tried to attack his capital, he seemed to have infinite units. Seriously, I would just kill his units and more of them would come. I had better units and brought tons of siege. But no matter what, he just had more units coming.

I couldn't even concentrate on the capital because he seemed to have endless units. I eventually quit that game because I know there was nothing I could. I had better units and still couldn't take his capital because of his infinite units.

 

[troublmaker]

And then all at once everyone remembered how bland vanilla tastes.

 

[joshua43214]

...But then when I tried to attack his capital, he seemed to have infinite units. Seriously, I would just kill his units and more of them would come. I had better units and brought tons of siege. But no matter what, he just had more units coming...

Not to beat a dead horse, but there is no problem in vanilla that can not be solved by a dozen stealth bombers.

You are encountering a very typical run away civ in vanilla. You can go in there with arty and then rocket arty and slog away for 50 turns, or just send over some SB's and kill him quick.

 

[Catan_Settler]

In Vanilla just build swords. They wreck everything, even pikes. Ranged was rather weak in vanilla too, so unless you're like Arabia or the Mongols, focus on getting mass swords out. Rome is also somewhat overpowering in Vanilla, so give them a shot.