[Please note this guide is still under construction, so while I value input, it might also be a good idea to wait and see if I add the thing that you think is missing
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3.
So the guide that you are reading now is more of a bringing together of information than a unique strategy in its own right. Very little of what I say here is stuff I’ve learned on my own. One exception is what I have to say about CS alliances, which are IMO the most underrated element of Domination, as I shall later explain.
I wanted to reply to thank you for this guide, and to provide my own limited experience after half a dozen games. Sorry for the length, I wrote notes over a few sessions.
I started with civ 2 when it was first released and also played the first civ board game for many years in my youth. I played civ 3 but civ 4 was my game until last year, although recently I only played one or two games a year.
I just moved to linux and getting civ 4 to run is possible, but a pain, so I thought I would give civ 5 a try on steam. I won all victories on deity in civ 4, and on different maps but got bored of so much micro management and button pressing I started to only play for dominance victories. The aim is to win as soon as possible by conquest. Pangaea map, I don’t have my sea-legs any more. I was winning all my civ domination games, I have over 30 years experience playing civ. So I jumped straight in.
I read this guide and looked at filthy robot’s guides. My first game with Egypt was aborted when I realized I wasn't playing civ 4. But the game is the same, just different flavours, civ 4 was money and corruption limited, civ 5 is happiness and money limited. Civ 4 was micro managing everything, except the army, and civ 5 seems to be micro managing troop formations and movement. The game play is way easier in civ 5 than civ 4.
On prince I played the Huns. My first real game and quite ridiculously I captured Paris after 10 turns after having my warrior upgrade to a ram in the first ruin. They have to be the easiest civ for a domination victory, the ram is way too powerful at such an early age. And is quite the tool throughout the game. I won in 143 turns at 660AD. I took in all of filthy robot’s tutorials, and was applying these mostly. I built a few wonders while my army was away.
Up to King, the Polish were great fun, they are powerful for any victory and I learned a lot having so many policies to play with. I won in 1510 AD after 212 turns. I used the mercenary army to great effect in this game. Only game I have had a lot of money. Easy to get distracted as the Polish, but fun.
By now I realized that filthy’s standard game play wont work for domination. His guides remain excellent, but invert the population and city growth advice to wage war.
Emperor level and China (who else at emperor?). I had a hard time getting started with china, I reset games due to terrible start locations, and my game did not have great a start up. The double shooting crossbow equivalent comes quite late in the game. I won in 1010AD, 161 turns, I managed to conquer the remaining civs with the terracota army, saving a lot of marching time. The generals are useful for grabbing resources, I tended to use most of my generals for happiness resource grabs (usually from a CS) , though if I can I will have one accompany the army. The general’s bonus is not needed, the comp and x-bows are powerful enough in themselves.
By now I realized that my standard comp bow rush was effective but slow. So at Immortal I switched to Epic speed, which is so much better for the domination victory. You need time to move the armies around. I hardly build roads in civ 5, and they were a priority in civ 4. same with barracks, and stables, for warmongers. Civ 5 has taken away the need for military infrastructure by making the archery units more or less immortal and invincible.
English longbows are ridiculous. Game winning. Given they come late they are second behind the hun’s ram for guaranteed domination victory. I won in 223 turns, 745 AD. If you want an epic war game, play the english vs all other war civs, the longbow upgrades would be immense (they are going to be double shot bows by the time they upgrade, or close to). . I defeated a big terracotta army and long swords that the swedes had using longbows. It was not a fair fight.
I see civ 5 is popular as a multi player, it is 2 different games vs AI and vs real players. My strategies wouldn't work vs real players, it is too fragile, I don’t defend captured cities.
I wanted to explore religion so the Celts were the next up. Another Immortal epic speed game. I won in 340AD 196 turns. Religion is important for the domination victory, the pagoda improvement alone is worth the effort, but also the extra resources and gold that a religion offers. This was my first game producing melee units, and it was fun, my Pictish warriors were quickly upgraded while collecting faith and culture. I still did the comp bow rush. I gave the warriors the cover protections for attacking cities.
The next Immortal epic is my current game, with the Germans. I am using barbarian hordes, and it is quite ridiculous. I sent my scout south, and by time they reached the Dutch there was an army in tow, collected from the barb camps. My warrior ruined up to Spearman, 4 archers and a couple of brutes. So I attacked Amsterdam, and realized archers don’t take cities. Good to know. I also explored the map, picking up troops on my travels. I was even gifting units to CS to keep my unit numbers in check, though the penalties for too many troops do not seem as severe as in civ 4.
So, I reloaded an early save and collected my army locally, while setting up a second city. Science rush to upgrade to comp bows (so troops have to be in city boundary?) and take the neighbour’s capital. I have never found a good AI resistance to the first city capture. I wanted to explore the possibility of wiping out the dutch before meeting other civs, but I don’t think it is possible if you wait for comp bows before the rush. The warmonger penalties are severe, though to be fair I think they need to be. Dom victory is possible without any trades from other civs, they will be hostile to you most of the game, and it is better not to rely on them.
In civ 4 I never built settlers, except for strategic purposes mid to late game. I had one city, built an army and sent it out. That's not possible in civ 5, as the city size limits army size. Its not possible to rush with archers, so there is the standard opening: Build 2 cities and 4 to 6 archers, and upgrade them to comp bows and take your third city with the comp bows. You will have a warrior or spearman to accompany them for the city capture. maybe a scout.
so.. after that ramble, here is my strategy for the quickest domination win. I realize this is a small part of what the game offers, but I like the wargame aspect of this scenario.
I like to settle cities on gold producing resources, usually hills. 2 food 2 production and 2 or 3 gold plus happiness (with mining). Dream on, but that is ideal. . the happiness bonus still applies once the tech to use it has been researched. The gold per turn, every turn is important, trade with other civs is almost impossible once you start your conquest.
I usually only settle two cities, the rest I capture.
First Build 2 scouts.
Early religion is essential, if no other option then build a shrine asap. Ruins after turn 20 give faith often and late ruin finds have given big faith points. Late game pagodas are a big help, 4 of those are a free city capture in terms of happiness. Faith bonuses to terrain and other resources are also required.
Then, maybe Archer. Maybe worker, maybe warrior, settler. Usually the scouts finds enough ruins for 1 or 2 pop increase, build the second settler as soon as possible, (city pop 3?) go towards your first victim, halfway would be ideal, but closer to your capital if this is not possible, Keep a unit to escort the settler. The second city needs to be a good location for gold income, luxuries. Buy important land tiles around cities but keep enough for the archer to comb bow upgrade costs.
With 2 cities build 4 to 6 archers. Upgrade to comp bows. 4 is probably enough for the first capital capture. Build as many as possible before machinery. I don’t usually build barracks, but if I do I sell them once the army is built.
By the second or third capital capture you will need some fodder for the city’s defences, scouts, injured units, any soft target the AI will stupidly attack. . Skirmish as needed after a capital capture, for xps for promotions, but otherwise make peace and onto the next capital with the army. Build more comp bows if the war is close to home, increasing the army.. Build horses / chariots if your cities are a long way from the army. 6 archers is enough. You will build more to cover barbs etc as needed. If you can have them easily, and afford them, then the more archers the better.
Keep going. 5 capital cities, one after the other and the game is won. The first 3 will be easy. Then other cities will get in the way, probably around this time crossbows appear and the final 2 capitals are taken.
Raze all captured cities except capitals. Path of least resistance, you only want the capital cities. Occasional exception, perhaps. Even discard good cities.. it is tempting to keep something with unique resources and gold. The problem is that future cities you capture may also have these same resources, and happiness is key to domination. If you have enough happiness for victory then its ok to keep good cities. You can raze them later.
There is no need to defend captured cities, once their capital has gone the civ is docile. Keep a unit for the culture and happiness bonus with military caste, a scout is a cheap option if you have to build one. A unit will be needed to defend vs barbarians. A city is sometimes needed to base comp bows in order to upgrade them to xbows.
Expect to be self sufficient for gold and luxuries, though occasionally you will get lucky with CS or a remote civ. I have sometimes razed big cities that I captured in the early game just to give me the happiness to finish the game. Trade is possible, especially early. Trade with civs furthest away, as much as you can before the crusade begins.
The warmonger penalties are high. I try not to break my word when asked if my troops are going to attack, but this is not always possible. Once you are denounced then future trading with civs is not usually possible.
If you start in the middle of the map, consider building a second army around your start cities to take the last civs, or it is a long march back across the map. If you have the resources consider a second army anyway, to finish the game quicker.
My cities are usually small, running on max production or max gold. I once let a captured city be retaken so I could recapture it to reduce the pop size, reducing unhappiness. From my limited experience negative happiness is no growth in cities, and up towards 10 unhappiness is massive barbarian problems as well. (though these can be a valuable resource).
When crossbows arrive your troops will be upgrading to double attacks or extra range. I don’t lose archers, I keep the same ones through the game. I will sometimes sacrifice one or two a game, but only if I have run out of other cannon fodder for city defences to bombard. AI is terrible at defending cities. Comical even. AI was bad in civ 4 but you still had a stack of doom to contend with.
Once the army is away resist the temptation to build inside your cities. Circuses are needed, I don’t usually have to build colosseums. It is a trade off in civ 5. Population is king. It governs army size, income, production, science/ tech. But pop also brings unhappiness, and happiness is the limiting resource in a domination rush. I think granaries are worth building, and once the army is built if I can have the national college with 2 or 3 cities, I will go for it., even delaying the archery tech route. Once the city numbers increase then libraries and NC are not built, the only important tech is construction. Any building for free, or UB will be built. It is possible to set up one city for troop production. Stables are good sometimes, as are other buildings to take advantage of local resources.
Use generals for land and resource grabs, especially luxuries.
A road between the first 3 cities is all I usually build, once the army is away and I have the workers to do it.
it should be easy enough to reach machinery. That’s all you will need as a minimum. Mathematics is needed for courthouses. If I am rich I will buy a courthouse, but always keep the gps for the comp bow to xbow upgrade. Courthouses cost 4gp per turn ! you pay for the happiness. Optics may be required for troop movement across water, when it is required it is usually a few turns research away. Obviously the basic techs are needed, build as required on your way to machinery, horse riding is usually needed, but not always metalworking (though usually it is researched).
I have not had much luck stealing workers, so I build some and use the liberty tree. I capture what I can, there are usually workers when you capture a capital.
It is unlikely there is a need to capture a CS, except to liberate it when they become a super useful source of happiness and other goodies. The game provides CS allies, so work around them and keep them sweet if you can, but paying them is usually not an option. I often steal resources from them with my generals.
The best warmonger wonder is probably notre dame. 10 happiness is a fee city capture. I have built the oracle and the statue of Zeus in a couple of games, while waging war.
Any chance to improve happiness has to be considered. An early captured wonder will give you a great person or two if the game goes that long. An GE to buy Notre Dame is a good strategy. There are wonders to be had as AI probably takes the top part of the tech tree, to education and beyond.. dominance victories need the bottom part of the tech tree. Games are won before or just into the Industrial era.
Policy wise, there is no place for Tradition, we are not building cities, we are building an army. Open Honor for the quick culture points and 2 or 3 early policies. Some city expansion and growth is needed, so its an option between Military Caste (better option if possible) or opening liberty, and maybe even taking the right side path down liberty. If possible, I think a full honor opening is the best strategy, but in most games I open liberty for the city culture points. Killing barbarians is a good source of culture and xps and gps. And with the celts, also faith.
I quite like civ 5. its fun, easy to play, maybe the easiest for the domination victory. I dont know civ 6 and have no interest just now. The game can become a bit tedious trekking the army across the continent but my game is specifically set up for a domination rush, maybe I will go the other way for a change and see what is in the Industrial era and beyond. Play sim city with babylon until I build spaceships.. But I doubt it, I like the flavour up to industrial from my wargaming days, and we really should be building a utopian planet rather than running off-world.
Anyway, that's my 2gp worth. Thanks again for your time in putting this guide together.
P.S. The comp bow to xbow rush works with any civ. The best warmongers (aside Huns and England) will be those that produce happiness easily, or gold and faith which can be converted to happiness. In civ 4 the Persians with financial Darius are the easiest way to dominance victory, the Persians with warmonger Cyrus are the most fun, until you became bankrupt. It will be the same theme in civ 5, I would guess.
) playing a game I lose the flow of the game and lose interest. I realise this is a small part of civ 5 and I am stacking the odds in my favour with a tiny map. It's finding the balance between playability / time / enjoyment whilst maintaining a decent challenge. The quick games give more time to explore the different civs as well.
