Going Domination

[ArnoldI]

I'm a crappy player when the matter is Domination, so I thought some tips could help me. The things I want to know are:

Civs: America, for the UUs? Russia, for the Resources? Huns, for obvious reasons? Mongolia, Japan, Songhai, France, Germany. Which is the best Civ?

Policies: Is Honor worth it, or should I go for Liberty?

Cities: Wide or tall? Should I keep my empire small to be able to bare the Unhappiness that will appear in conquers?

Map: Continents or Pangaea?

I play on Emperor and any tips help. Thank you.

 

[Light Cleric]

Nearly every civ has their own perks for going domination. Mongolia is absolutely broken for domination and Arabia is pretty close behind. They can help you learn the empire management aspect of domination but they won't do anything for you with traditional warmongering. China is kind of the same way; they're not broken after the Gatling Gun nerf a while back, but they can still play a lot differently. If you want to learn more "traditional" warmongering, i.e. bringing in meatshields + ranged units + siege, then there's not really a "best"; all the ones you listed are solid choices so I would suggest trying them out to see which one you like.

Tradition vs Liberty is a map based thing and both can work for domination. Tradition gives you a strong core of cities to work with, especially a strong capital(although I find in most cases 3 cities > 4 for domination), whereas Liberty gives you the ability to claim land early for resources, Meritocracy for happiness in a large empire, Representation to buffer policy costs of annexing cities, etc. Honor is an entirely different(And somewhat polarizing) debate and, rather than derail this thread with my opinions, I would point you to this thread about it.

Map is entirely preference. Continents present the challenge of dealing with a runaway on the other continent, but the game in general feels slower and you also don't have to worry about said runaway going after you, leaving you free to rampage on your own continent. Pangaea seems to get the best AI behavior in my experience because naval combat is kind of silly in this game by the time Battleships roll around and the AI doesn't handle that well.

I think the biggest advice I can give is to not wait too long to go fighting; it's very easy to get caught in the trap of "I'll go once I get X tech...actually, wait, I can get Y in a few more turns...". At some point you just gotta go kill stuff.

 

[Browd]

I think the biggest advice I can give is to not wait too long to go fighting; it's very easy to get caught in the trap of "I'll go once I get X tech...actually, wait, I can get Y in a few more turns...". At some point you just gotta go kill stuff.

^ This. Hardest thing to resist, and most important to overcome.

 

[Huntyadown]

^ This. Hardest thing to resist, and most important to overcome.

This is my biggest problem right on Deity. Not so much the inability to act but I have no idea WHEN to act. I've been doing the last two deity challenges and on the Arabia one I see people talking about taking a city or two around turn 60 and I'm thinking how do you do that with only 3-4 archers and a warrior ? At that time I'm just struggling to get 3-4 cities up , and libraries so I can NC.

 

[smallfish]

Hmm, I disagree that Pangaea gets the best out of the AIs. One game I was at war with some runaway France and managed to ally some random mercantile CS in the middle of the ocean - the very next turn Nappy took it. If anything, its like Archipelagos - two extreme ends of the spectrum, one being entirely ground-based and the other heavily focused on naval. Not very fun imo

3 things that would go in favor of Continents over Pangaea:

1) slower science rate, Astronomy is actually important because you don't get to meet everyone at the start and get reduced beaker costs for whatever techs they start with

2) People will actually hate you if you are "settling new cities too aggressively" - if they have two cities and you have four, even if they have space to expand elsewhere, things can and will get rough.

3) Meeting the other continent/s and seeing what they are like. Always different and always a chance for some runaway to take over some other continent by its lonesome (or failing miserably - just ask Bismarck).

 

[budweiser]

Research shows that Honor is not needed at Emperor level.

 

[Light Cleric]

This is my biggest problem right on Deity. Not so much the inability to act but I have no idea WHEN to act. I've been doing the last two deity challenges and on the Arabia one I see people talking about taking a city or two around turn 60 and I'm thinking how do you do that with only 3-4 archers and a warrior ? At that time I'm just struggling to get 3-4 cities up , and libraries so I can NC.

If you're going to take cities early like that then NC is going to probably be delayed a bit because you need Composites; simple Archer rushes don't cut it. I usually do it to keep a neighbor from getting too big if he starts spamming into me, but you can sometimes go all the way in and take their capital. This is a lot more feasible if you attack flatland cities even though the AI does rush buy Walls sometimes(which still aren't enough on flat land).

My first attack usually comes at Composites/Swords, but sometimes it comes at Xbows/Muskets/Trebuchets. If you wait much longer the AIs will have gotten much bigger and be a pain to take down. Usually if I haven't attacked someone by the time Chemistry rolls around I've waited too long.

Also @smallfish, as a huge warmonger I actually like those because it slows the overall tech pace down(I can keep up much better) and pissing off my neighbors is what I'm going to do anyway. Although runaway AI's can be pretty funny, especially when they aren't careful with nukes...

Spoiler :

 

[sufficiency]

I would suggest (in no particular order) England, China, Arabia, Ethiopia, or Mongolia.

 

[Love CiV]

Although runaway AI's can be pretty funny, especially when they aren't careful with nukes...

Spoiler :

What a waste of uranium.

 

[smallfish]

Also @smallfish, as a huge warmonger I actually like those because it slows the overall tech pace down(I can keep up much better) and pissing off my neighbors is what I'm going to do anyway. Although runaway AI's can be pretty funny, especially when they aren't careful with nukes...

Spoiler :

I too find it funny they'll rebase everything on a "frontline" city even though its about to fall. Wished they wouldn't do that unless that city is in no danger.

 

[alpha00alpha]

I'm a crappy player when the matter is Domination, so I thought some tips could help me. The things I want to know are:

Civs: America, for the UUs? Russia, for the Resources? Huns, for obvious reasons? Mongolia, Japan, Songhai, France, Germany. Which is the best Civ?

Policies: Is Honor worth it, or should I go for Liberty?

Cities: Wide or tall? Should I keep my empire small to be able to bare the Unhappiness that will appear in conquers?

Map: Continents or Pangaea?

I play on Emperor and any tips help. Thank you.

Other than the nations mentioned, China are also very good, their Chu-Ko-Nu is literally the best ranged unit in the game because it can shoot twice, so you effectively double your crossbowmen. And their great general bonus is awesome. Providing you have a good start you can easily win.

 

[Unresolved]

Other than the nations mentioned, China are also very good, their Chu-Ko-Nu is literally the best ranged unit in the game because it can shoot twice, so you effectively double your crossbowmen. And their great general bonus is awesome. Providing you have a good start you can easily win.

If I had to choose the best archer-line UU, I would probably pick the Longbowman over the CKN. While the CKN's promotion is unique and carried over, it's effectively the same as Logistics until you get mechainized infanty or you're Persia. So then comparing the two units, the CKN get free logistics and has 14 attack strength while the Longbowman gets free range and has 18 attack strength.

 

[Light Cleric]

Remember, though, China has a stronger Great General than other civs. With a GG(you should have one by Machinery especially as China) it's a comparison of 18.2 vs 20.7 strength.

More importantly the Longbow has to deal with that super annoying 3-range restriction/bug. It's written about in the war academy, I'll go find it on a bit.

 

[Mesix]

If I had to choose the best archer-line UU, I would probably pick the Longbowman over the CKN. While the CKN's promotion is unique and carried over, it's effectively the same as Logistics until you get mechainized infanty or you're Persia. So then comparing the two units, the CKN get free logistics and has 14 attack strength while the Longbowman gets free range and has 18 attack strength.

Logistics gets you 2x attacks every turn which means they level up twice as fast as Longbowmen. It is true that Longbowmen can get a promotion for 2x attacks, but a CKN can get the promotion for +1 range twice as fast.

 

[Mesix]

@ the OP...everyone seems to concentrate on the UU when discussing domination, but (especially at higher levels) the limiting factor is often happiness. Having a strong UB or UA which can provide the necessary happiness to keep up with all the conquered cities and population is also beneficial. The earlier post hit the nail on the head: Nearly every civ has their own perks for going domination.

 

[Unresolved]

I'm not debating that logistics > range. But when you take an upgraded Longbowman and an upgraded CKN, the Longbowman will have a higher attack strength. And hopefully you would have been training your CB's before upgrading to the UU's and be close to level 4 already. Plus, if you're going for a fast domination win with crossbows, most of your units will be level 4+, so the only difference between the UU's is the attack strength. Of course, the GG bonus is great, but that's not really in the scope of the UU discussion.

 

[Buccaneer]

Speaking of Russia and Domination, check out this starting location (small Pangaea, Immortal) in which I am planning on going domination as soon as I settle cities with production instead of a gazillion food. Just got Desert Folklore, obviously.

 

[Klasker]

arabia easily strongest.

they have the strongest UB in the game
they have the strongest UU in the game
Their UA is somewhat average, but double oil is sick for lategame, if you are going domination, which you should imo