Best settings for conquest + a question about continents

[futurehermit]

Hi all,

What are the best settings for going for a conquest victory? I find that, even if I try to be aggressive, playing on standard map size and normal time speed, there are usually at least 3-4 civs left when I am in the 16th-18th century and it seems impossible to take them out by the end of the game (or before Musa blows off his rocket).

Also, it seems that most people here prefer continents and think of it as "the real" civ map. Why is this? I started off with Terra, but people here seem to say that since the AI doesn't settle the new world that it's not really a good map. So I've switched to continents, but I find that I am usually on an island by myself and by the time I get to optics and then astronomy that the other civs are quite ahead in tech and I don't know that I can catch up. A conquest/domination victory also seems impossible when that happens!

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[MrCynical]

Conquest and domination will generally be easier on the smaller map sizes, and with pangaeas or continents. It simply makes it easier to do within the time limit if you have fewer cities to take or destroy.

Pangaea, continents and archipelago are the traditional 3 map settings Civ has always had, so many regard these as the only proper maps. The AI generally plays at its best on continents and pangaea (archipelago it sometimes has trouble with). The other map types tend to result in rather weird games, and the AI is nowhere near as good at coping with odd situations as a human player. On Terra for instance the AI has immense difficulties dealing with the barbarians in the New World compared to human players, and will lose far more resources trying to colonize it (not always a good move anyway).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

well Pangea is almost certainly the best for conquest because you never have to research Astronomy, it does make the 'politics' more complicated though. Also the invasions are more supportable, as a long sea voyage isn't stopping you.

 

[Mutineer]

Please, define best?
Best as easiest for a wimpy player or best to give more challege to make it fun?
It is posible to conquest continental map, but continental map is map which give you the most challenge for any kind of victory.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

I am starting to get annoyed with my continents map generator. Take my last game for example...

pros
-other civs on continent
-I have iron

cons
-started out in the tundra
-no copper
-no grasslands for farming/cottage spam
-I'm playing as india, therefore no military UU
-a lot of desert
-no religion due to slow teching(would have gotten confutism but i need IW more due to very early defensive war)
-high unit upkeep cost(why not disband?)
-the civs on my continent are monty, toku, and Huyana(that's why)
-monty got a really cheap start, have a desert between him and toku, and the choke point between south and north parts, giving him about 30%-45%
of the continent
-monty got the only copper on the entire island
-civ on other continent are building the sistine chapel while it takes me 99 turns to research currency

have I said enough yet? continents really suck most of the time.

 

[Older than Dirt]

The new "continents" setting in patch 1.61 seems to only give 2 very large continents usually running north to south and running into the poles. About 12 of 15 that I had generated had the sea blocked by ice so that the globe could not be circumnavigated (at least entirely by ship). There are very few islands - very few.

 

[futurehermit]

yeah, on my new game i have 2 continents, no settlable islands...i was able to circumnavigate though...