Difference between conquest and domination victories?

[Malachi256]

Seems like these two victory conditions are basically the same - if you can achieve one, you can achieve the other, it's mostly just a matter of time or style.

Perhaps I'm missing something?

 

[Dragonxander PR]

A conquest victory requires to have no rivals. This is achieved either by conquering them, vassalizing them or combining those 2 methods.

A domination victory is achieved when you get the most land area & population (can be achieved by the same means of conquest).

If you want to assure a conquest victory, raze the enemy cities, don't keep them.

 

[Malachi256]

What I'm saying is that conquest obviously requires total military activity, and it seems like domination works basically the same way. The only difference is whether you take vassals or you're just a genocidal maniac.

I guess I'm asking if domination victories can be achieved by something other than military might.

 

[Kesshi]

You can win a conquest victory with one city.

You can win a domination victory without meeting some of your rivals.

 

[Dragonxander PR]

What I'm saying is that conquest obviously requires total military activity, and it seems like domination works basically the same way. The only difference is whether you take vassals or you're just a genocidal maniac.

I guess I'm asking if domination victories can be achieved by something other than military might.

In smaller worlds or in Archipelago-like worlds (especially with few civs), the other way to achieve Domination is by monstrous REXing with the aid of a big tech lead. Try the following:

Archipelago, medium-sized map, high sealevel, rocky, Darius (Victoria also works) of the Portuguese, epic speed, no barbs, no tech trading, no vassals.

When playing this, make sure to focus on city building (preferably with more spaced cities), commerce & teching. Make sure to have a really strong infrastructure to survive crashing after REXing waves, beeline Code of Laws & Optics, spam settlers, some garrison & carracks, then beeline Astronomy & Economics (Liberalism helps a lot here). Afterwards, go for Communism (State Property = more production & no distance manteinance penalty). Using Privateers to kill rival galleons will help a lot. Don't open borders & block off coast.

With all that in place, you just need to spam settlers, a bit of garrison & ocean-going transports (don't forget the workers, for some commerce & food land improvements). THEN it's just a matter to settle all the land you can get, develop your empire's population & get a Domination victory.

Maybe we should make a Role-Play challenge out of this...

 

[cleverhandle]

Seems like these two victory conditions are basically the same - if you can achieve one, you can achieve the other, it's mostly just a matter of time or style.

Basically true. The addition of vassals in the expansions makes Conquest somewhat harder. If you push a Civ too hard and don't accept their capitulation, then they'll capitulate to someone else, whom you perhaps weren't ready to fight. But if you accept their capitulation, then you'll need to find a way to force their independence once you've neutralized your other rivals. In the end, you can probably do that, but it's pretty tedious. I think Conquest on medium+ size maps has always been the least attractive VC. It's mainly there for small/pang maps or for the people that just love to be the last man standing. I always play Standard Continents maps and have yet to win by Conquest after dozens of games - it's just not worth the time.

 

[bestsss]

What are you talking your vassals are not counted towards the remaining enemies. So vassalling everyone = conquest.
If you mean that domination is way more likely to happen prior to conquest: it's true, however that's not the point and disabling domination victory will effectively enable conquest by mass vassalage.

 

[cleverhandle]

So vassalling everyone = conquest.

Ah... sorry. I'd never tried it. I only got the expansions recently and have played just a few games with them. Apologies for the misinformation. In that case, I'd say Conquest got a whole lot easier.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Ah... sorry. I'd never tried it. I only got the expansions recently and have played just a few games with them. Apologies for the misinformation. In that case, I'd say Conquest got a whole lot easier.

50% of vassal land and pop is considered "yours" for domination/score purposes though, so ultimately it is still quite common to trip domination before conquest, or to get them simultaneously if you go vassal crazy.

Domination is just a means to end the game that is already out of hand sooner. I have no problem with it since both kinds of diplo, culture, and space tend to be easier to win, and its difficulty is about on par with conquest (unless you consider tedium, where conquest is a bit harder w/o vassals ).