Conquest/Domination Victory on non-Pangea Maps?

[riapopia]

In short - is it possible? I'll admit I tend to win via Space Race. Probably because I'm still learning the game. But the few times I've tried to invade and hold land overseas I've failed. I can harass and hurt someones economy but it seems like it takes ENORMOUS resources to invade another continent.

If you're on continents/archipelego should you even try to win domination/conquest?

 

[reverend oats]

Maybe not archipelego, but continents is doable. 40-50% of land on your continent, then an industrial invasion of one neighbor on the other.

 

[Cer]

It's possible to win domination/conquest on archipelago, but setting that as your goal may mean you have to play a couple levels below your usual difficulty level. Invading another continent is very hard, especially if you're using slower, lower capacity ships (compared to say transports with a +1 movement bonus from circumnavigating the globe earlier).

 

[Daedal]

You can achieve conquest on any map if you make it your main priority. Remember that the AI really sucks on watery maps so more than likely you'll find them spread out over lots of little, undeveloped, isolated islands that you can pretty easily pick off with relatively few, even outdated attackers. Transports are nice, but if you wait that long to start your conquest on archipelago you'll have to travel to every darn island on the entire map to kill everyone off. Send swordsmen on galleys and you might get a few quick kills.

 

[J-man]

If want to try a domination/conquest victory on a archipalago map choose Ragnar.

 

[DragonHawk]

Yes, the key is to plan your attack carefully. Also you need to vasalize some of your conquests to minimize maintenance in distant lands.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

It's possible but you shouldn't bother doing it.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

It's possible but you shouldn't bother doing it.

Why? It's very rewarding. I got a domination victory on the Earth 30 Civ map. It was great!

 

[futurehermit]

Definitely possible, even if isolated (although archipelago would be annoying probably).

If isolated: Just tech your way to cavalry or tanks after astronomy. Build up a fleet of galleons (around 20) and an army of cav or tanks (around 60) and invade the weakest opponent (watch for defensive pacts and diplomacy generally). Once you've mopped up the weakest opponent you have a foothold on the new landmass. From there just continue attacking the weakest people until you are the strongest, if you weren't already. At some point you can switch to trying to vassal opponents asap (take out their capital/core cities) which can speed up your victory.

Continents you do the same thing, just clear your continent first.

 

[Morgrad]

If I have:

Flight.
A GA.
4500 gold.
Universal Sufferage.
Airports in all of my home-continent production cities.

Then I have an instant beachhead.

Take coastal city. Move the GA in on the ship so you don't lose a turn with him. Culture bomb the city to bring it out of revolt. Buy an airport.

Survive the counter-attack for 1 turn for the airport to complete. (Pillaging all roads to/from your beachhead city is not a bad idea to facilitate this).

Next turn, airlift something from every city into your new beachhead, and continue doing so until you have destroyed your enemy.

 

[futurehermit]

^^^Good description and the proper way to invade a new continent imho.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

In BTS GA's don't end revolt, though, or did that change?

 

[Morgrad]

I don't know - I don't have BtS yet. That certainly increases the challenge level of intercontinental conquest if true.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I don't know - I don't have BtS yet. That certainly increases the challenge level of intercontinental conquest if true.

They very well could have changed it in a patch, I don't follow every single detail, but out-of-the-box I know that, for whatever reason, GA's don't end revolts. The culture comes after the revolt is over. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

 

[mystyfly]

Fox09

Fox10


Fox09 is a Monarch (IIRC) Archipelago OCC Always War Conquest win.

Fox10 is an Emperor Archipelago OCC Always War Conquest attempt (meaning its still on the way )


I think the main disadvantage attacking overseas is the gigantic cost. So raze many cities (all if youre going for conquest), and only keep the core cities for domination. The corecities usually have their borders pop faster, giving you the land you need. Another advantage of razing cities (other than no cost) is that you dont need to bother about guarding them. However you can't airlift units. An alternative is founding your own citites, and buyrush airports, as Morgrad described.
On the other hand, a great advantage is that when you plan to attack a coastal city, you may want to send some reconing ships which can bombard the cultural defenses. While doing this with cats/trebs/even cannons takes WAY to long, ships can do this quite smoothly. You don't need to have the defences at exactly 0% to attack anyway. Of course, if you have enought EPs against that civ, you can use Spies, but I'd rather save them for the inland citites.

 

[hiddie]

I've just finished a game on Normal and Prince (my 100% win rate difficulty) and I had a continents map, I had a capital, founded my second city in a place to get bronze and Ivory, my 3rd city was close to his borders, and when i builded the roads to his city i killed him with a phalanx rush, then I placed some cities in a line so that the other AI's could not get there, I expanded slowly, the other 2 went in to war, then I build up some units, they declared peace and one of them attacked me, I totally kicked his ass, then the 3rd one he declared war to me when I was about to. He still had war elephants and I had Infantry..., that was 60% of al the land mass, i got the continent for my self, I declared war to one dude on the other continent who had 1/3 of the land mass their, and made him a vassal, then I won domination.

Dude, it really isn't that hard, but I won in the late game, when i used transports send mechanized infantry and stuff.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

They very well could have changed it in a patch, I don't follow every single detail, but out-of-the-box I know that, for whatever reason, GA's don't end revolts. The culture comes after the revolt is over. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Quick worldbuilder test says that in 3.13, great artists do bring a freshly conquered city out of revolt. I am using an extremely young version of Bhruic's patch, so that's not going to be a factor in my test.

 

[lilnev]

Modern wars move very quickly (in number of turns; very slowly in number of minutes) once they're rolling. Get your production ramped up first -- factories, coal plants, dikes, railroads on mines, etc. And if at all possible, Mining Inc. I generally play for domination wins these days, and all game I'll keep an engineer in my GP farm for that lucky GE. Save him for 150 turns if I have to, I might not get another. If you don't get lucky, a factory and then industrial park should let you run enough engineers, and you could even consider putting Ironworks in the NE city. I know it sounds stupid, but Mining Inc is just that strong -- whatever it takes to get the GE. One of the food corps can help too, but it's usually easy enough to get a GM (or win Economics and save him).

Once you're massively out-producing everyone, it's a question of hitting hard and fast. If you can get two opponents to fight each other, that can bleed off their excess stacks. Either establish a beach-head and reinforce by airlifting, or stick to amphibious assaults and simply raze all their coastal cities. In the modern era, the counter-attacks are more dangerous than the fixed defenders; a vulnerable stack can find itself decimated by artillery counter-attacks. Gunships can help by pillaging roads around your stack.

Also, you're going to be in Police State, with Rushmore and jails everywhere. That's just a given.

peace,
lilnev

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Quick worldbuilder test says that in 3.13, great artists do bring a freshly conquered city out of revolt. I am using an extremely young version of Bhruic's patch, so that's not going to be a factor in my test.

That's good to hear! I thought it was a pretty stupid change.