Domination!!!

[SilchasRuin]

Inspired by AgedOne, I am going to attempt a domination victory with every civ (in no particular order) on monarch.

I've done this sort of thing before, and have found a few strategies:
1, don't expand out of stability area early
2, begin expansion after astronomy and democracy, you want resettlement and the democracy civic
3, have a massive treasury

the reasons for 2 and 3 are so that you can buy essential buildings in you new cities immediately, ie, granary, harbour, courthouse, and if you're running free market (risky) lighthouse. Do that and your economy stability rating will go up along with the bonuses from resettlement.


Anyhow, I decided to start with Carthage, here are some screenshots of where I am now, I will update later, but since each game will last a long time, I want to go through each attempt with the esteemed members of this forum, for hints and help for next time.

I was very lucky here, I sent my three numidian horsemen to Egypt, to see if it was weak enough to conquer. I found one city with 2 warriors, and their capital had just been captured by independants, and only had warriors, it also had stonehenge

Also, Rome and Greece were inept, I got to maths first, founded conf., got to construction, built the great wall, founded taoism, and then christianity.

Currently at war with Arabs, but they're not really doing much, but I'll have to deal with them if I'm to settle the Levant at somepoint.

I did have Ethiopia as my vassal, but the Wall just funnelled barbs into them and they were wiped out.

Spoiler :

Any comments of suggestions would not be unappreciated, my main issue is stability atm.

 

[corovanrobber]

Your mistake is you don't conquer production houses but instead found unusable cities - Iol, Lixus, Caralis while you need only Rusadir (1N from horse); settle Rome as first city, wait for roman spawn in Yugoslavia an only then start expanding into your core area in Africa. Control both Athenes/Byzanion (or Chalkedon if you want), Egyptian capitol and Alexandria - so in total you have 7 cities and don't want to rush europe until fascism/industrialisation in very long golden age (save great persons). Vassalise Netherlands/Russia/Aztecs/Mongolia/Khmer (liberate them cities on each continent, like all your cities in America, with an exeption with powerful Missisipi, to Montezuma, Australia to Sury, Africa to Willem, Asia to Mongolia, Europe to Russia etc).

 

[AnotherPacifist]

It's been done for every civ except for the unstable ones...Mali, Ethiopia, Egypt. There's a thread devoted to a former version of the mod.

 

[SilchasRuin]

It's been done for every civ except for the unstable ones...Mali, Ethiopia, Egypt. There's a thread devoted to a former version of the mod.

oh, cool, never mind then, I suppose this thread is superfluous to requirements, oh well

 

[AnotherPacifist]

You're welcome to try. Carthage is a hard civ to do:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6980946&postcount=55

 

[Tlönitte]

I think someone (pos Usi) has dominated Ethiopia in 1.187

 

[AgedOne]

Hey! I'm an inspiration
Don't think I've been one of them before.

Go for it, SilchasRuin.
It doesn't matter that it has been done before. Like my challenge, it's something you haven't done before - not the world.

I did think twice before starting my first thread (Who's going to be interested?) but I've been pleasantly surprised by the responses.

I'll be watching your progress.

 

[SilchasRuin]

cool, I'll keep it up, I failed in the one I posted above, and I'll start posting updates for my next try

 

[SilchasRuin]

Ok, next try, did a different approach to starting, I built Hippo as capital, immediately began on Moai statues, then waited for the Romans to spawn, and build Messana.
I sent my numidians to Egypt, ignored a city with an archer and attacked their capital which only had an axeman, which I took without any casualties, it had stonehenge as usual. I then made peace with egypt because their rather large army was on its way back from conquering Jerusalem.

Egypt and Rome collapsed, an ind. egyptian city founded christianity, i razed it when it flipped from my culture. Roma went to the greeks, but it was soon conquered by barbs, I took it and mediolanum from the barbs.

I built my two iberian cities a couple turns after they the spanish spawned, and its only now that I have destroyed Madrid that they are stating to realize their full potential.

I am at a critical stage here, I am about to start colonising (Louisiana, Quebec, and Australia are my first targets, however, I am not very stable, and I fear that switching from Viceroyalty (vassals: Mali, Portugal, Netherlands, and Vikings) to Resettlement may cause collapse.

Should I wait until I can found multiple cities at once before switching? Or is there another option? I have a spare GP, I could wait until i get another and do it during/after a GA, but that would mean waiting quite some time. I could even arrange for a collapse with units nearby to recapture, but although that would help stability, I would suck because I would have build up all that infrastructure, esp. in Rome and Niwt-Ris

Spoiler :

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Forget Australia and Quebec. Worthless land.
Go for New Orleans, Chicago, and Denver. You'll understand why, if you ever make it before Rome or Spain respawns.

 

[SilchasRuin]

I need to cover as much land as possible, I can't get domination with only three cities

 

[AnotherPacifist]

You have a lot to learn then. Those are the 3 most productive cities in NAm, and without them, America is powerless. They might very well vassalize to you if you're nice to them (e.g. give them a world map) and protect them against the Brits.

Denver can churn out an infantry or tank in 1 turn if suitably improved.

You CANNOT do domination alone. You have to have vassals to absorb land which you have zero stability in (e.g. Alaska, Canada).

 

[SilchasRuin]

I understand all that, except that I can't vassalize the entire world. Usually I have Portugal and the Netherlands, who colonize S. Africa and S. America, I go and colonize N. America (incuding all those cities you mentioned) and Australia, it's not like I don't get those cites, but I need to get more than just those cities, whereas you implied i only need those ones to get the Domination, which is a complete farce.

Anyway, that game failed, I left it a bit too late and in my rush to colonize ended up collapsing, net time, i will beeline the liberalism -> astronomy route, get a lot of settlers in position, wait until I get demoracy and economics, have a large treasury and a few GP for GA and do it all at once in a golden age

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Once you vassalize an AI, they tend to found colonies VERY slowly. It's much better liberating cities to "indigenous" civs. Portugal and Netherlands are not very good civs for vassals. Ideally you want 5 of the following (voluntary or forced):
NAm: Aztecs or America
SAm: Inca
Asia: Russia or China (Russia will vassalize to a 3000BC civ if you're nice enough and your science is good)
SE Asia/Australia: Khmer
Africa: Mali or Ethiopia

Conquering under occupation is better than founding cities under resettlement.

And I'm not saying you JUST need those 3 cities for domination. You just need those 3 cities in NAm. And yes, towards the end I often plop several settlers in Australia and turn up the culture dial, and sending a great artist to exile in the middle of Africa, but as far as sending settlers off early and costing maintenance and stability, and driving down your science rate, it's suicide.

Note the "Carthaginian" names of American cities:

 

[SilchasRuin]

hmm... I would like to vassalize Russia, but they are generally too large for me to do so, I usually end up vassalizing the native civs as well, but portugal and the netherlands, esp. portugal often colonize very extensively, I mean all of Brazil, right up to the Andes. I haven't survived long enough so far to vassalize the americans yet. I also vassalize Mali and Ethiopia, but Ethiopia always falls to barbs and natives, and mali constantly fending barbs and natives off so never really does anything

My main issue is how to keep the economy stability rating from tanking really early on, clearly you've had some succes at this, how do you have a good economy rating with an ancient of classical civ when you get around 800AD and onwards? even if you're not expanding?

 

[hoplitejoe]

Australia looks so sad in that pic

Spoiler :

 

[AnotherPacifist]

hmm... I would like to vassalize Russia, but they are generally too large for me to do so, I usually end up vassalizing the native civs as well, but portugal and the netherlands, esp. portugal often colonize very extensively, I mean all of Brazil, right up to the Andes. I haven't survived long enough so far to vassalize the americans yet. I also vassalize Mali and Ethiopia, but Ethiopia always falls to barbs and natives, and mali constantly fending barbs and natives off so never really does anything

My main issue is how to keep the economy stability rating from tanking really early on, clearly you've had some succes at this, how do you have a good economy rating with an ancient of classical civ when you get around 800AD and onwards? even if you're not expanding?

One windmill replacing a non-plains mine, and one cottage replacing a farm. That way you ensure that your economy is growing each time.
Farm only plains, even if it means slowly growth initially.

Build colonies in America one at a time, not all at once.

Russia will vassalize around 900-1000 AD when they are still small. Just be nice to them (i.e trade them an expensive tech).

 

[SilchasRuin]

so i build mines and farms, then one at a time replace them with windmills and cottages? sneaky, I'll give it a go in my next game.

failed again, got closer, I squatted Rome and conquered Greece with minimal casualties, stability wise, I had to collapse and retake my cities, but I was prepared for it so no problems there, and afterwards settled two cities in N. Africa so became very stable. I built those three cities in America around 1650 onwards, one at a time, then it stalled, I vassalized the incans and started building cities and giving them to the incans in S. America, but i needed a larger empire, because I was losing stability when I liberated them, and i think with a larger empire, it's the opposite.
Maybe I'll conquer much more of Europe? give me more production and less rivals, as well as sorting out the problem above.

Also, i won't vassalize the Dutch anymore, because they'll found New Amsterdam and I'll end up at war with America when they spawn, which I don't want.

Also also, Viceroyalty vs Resettlement? Which do you use AP?

 

[Jusos2108]

You have to keep in mind that those earlier dominations that AP is taking about aren't so easily doable with the current patch, because Rhye made city liberation less profitable for stability.

 

[Tlönitte]

Though its possible to reach a domination victory without relying on liberation stability boosts, they're only necessary for conquest victories