Domination tactics

[G4zMan]

Hi there.

I was wondering whether people would mind sharing their views on the following?

I currently play civ 5 at emporer level and I am able to obtain pretty much every victory condition (although I haven't tried diplo) at this difficulty. I am about to move up to immortal and I'm trying to review my tactics to allow me to dominate.

I recently played a game as Mongolia whereby I was technologically ahead of all but two of the AI nations. Iroquis and America were pretty much on par with me and Iroquis even decided to Dow on me. Neither of the two powerful civs were at my borders so I was not worried and I sent an invading force forward to attack Iroquis. I must have spent the best part of 1000 years fighting the war in distant lands and despite razing two of their cities and puppet ing two more, I was not able to take their capital before America started giving me problems on my eastern front.

I decided to make peace and finish Iroquis later and devote my military power to America whilst playing defensive on my western front.

The question I have is should you go for the powerful cubs first before rifles or dedicate your earlier years to conquering the lesser empires whilst building up an experienced army? Or do you guys feel that it is a better tactic to fight long wars against those that can match the power if your army even if they are bit in your doorstep.

I guess I have always tried to take put the competition early but I'm not sure if it would be better to go about it a different way.

Thoughts please?

 

[G4zMan]

Civs* not cubs lol

Sorry my iPhone has changed the word civ to cubs and not to bit.

 

[G4zMan]

No one has any advice on the above? I just wondered how other people play at domination? Do you pick on the weak and save the strongest for last or do you go for the most powerful nation once all the local empires are conquered?

 

[edcrane]

I usually prioritize by geography and strength: I'll go after the closest civ if it poses a real threat (e.g., has research lead and production capacity to screw me over). If the closest civ is comparatively weak and we have decent relations, however, I'll go after a stronger civ first.

 

[qyll]

I just go for whoever is closest to me. If I then have a choice between the stronger and weaker, I'll attack the stronger one. I've found that if you let a strong AI get stronger, you won't be able to catch up in terms of number of units and tech even if you concentrate solely on economy.

 

[Creepy Old Man]

Pay attention to unique units, too. You don't want to fight Greece early on, or Siam when he gets his elephants. So although a particular civ may be a significant threat, it will often be better to wait.

 

[G4zMan]

I decided to bypass darius early on in my game since his immortal spam would have caused me problems with my horses.

 

[boehj]

If you're going for a Domination victory on Continents I find it's fairly important to get across there pretty quickly if you spot a runaway. The reason being that if you leave it too late, s/he will have a massive upgraded military which can be very tricky to take out. I find it harder than dealing with a runaway on your own continent. You'll also have a base over there now to capture the caps of the weaker civs too.

Luckily, the move across is pretty simple because the AI mangles it's navy. Simply push a huge force into the water under the protection of two of your own destroyers.

The other option is to just go for the cap of the runaway last... but wading thru' it's massive army causes issues for me.

 

[scytheavatar]

If your opponent is on par with you technology wise and number wise after 100 turns, you are doing it wrong. At least for Immortal difficulty, there's no reason why you should not have a significant technology edge over your opponent if you are beelining to the correct technology. This is even more so for that broken Mongolia; all you need is Horseback Riding and a Khan to conquer everyone easily. Don't be afraid of spearmen; if you attack them correctly, abusing the broken ability to move after attacking they will still not be a match for you. Only Pikemen will give significant problems to a Mongolia horsemen squad with a Khan, and it takes a while before the AI builds them.

 

[G4zMan]

I get what you say but I find it's usually turn 60 to 70 by the time I have 3 or 4 horsemen built. Then I find it takes time to conquer each civ and heal up before moving on.

I dont get how people can say that by turn 100 you should have conquered most of the AI. I would say that at that point I may have captured 3 caps but the others are likely further away or in rough terrain preventing rapid conquests. By this time, horsemen are coming up against more powerful troops.

I play normally on standard continents but I have found that even on a Pangea map I still get well into industrial era before success.

Is turn 260 ish bad for a standard Pangea domination at emporer?

 

[scytheavatar]

I get what you say but I find it's usually turn 60 to 70 by the time I have 3 or 4 horsemen built. Then I find it takes time to conquer each civ and heal up before moving on.

I dont get how people can say that by turn 100 you should have conquered most of the AI. I would say that at that point I may have captured 3 caps but the others are likely further away or in rough terrain preventing rapid conquests. By this time, horsemen are coming up against more powerful troops.

I play normally on standard continents but I have found that even on a Pangea map I still get well into industrial era before success.

Is turn 260 ish bad for a standard Pangea domination at emporer?

If you want to see how broken the horsemen are, start a new game, beeline straight to horseback riding, get horses ASAP, go down the honor tree and get Warrior Code ASAP (after that get Military Tradition ASAP) and build 2 horsemen ASAP (you don't need 4). Then just rush attack your nearest neighbor with 2 horsemen and a Khan, you should be able to do so before turn 45. Then use the money you get from your invasion to buy more horsemen and rush to your next neighbor. Don't think of anything else, don't think of building settlers or what you are researching next. On standard Pangaea as Mongolian you should indeed be able to conquer the majority of your world by turn 100. To win even faster, use your promotions only for healing (you'll win the game too fast for you to need any promotion bonus).

Alternatively, you can try the riflemen rush instead, with just 4-6 cities having 2 scientists each you should be able to get the rifling by turn 130 without using any special tactics if you beeline straight for it. On the way you can build some Longswordsmen and crush your enemies with them. Outside of Deity you should be able to win the game easily with that.

 

[G4zMan]

Thank you for all the advice guys