Help me win my 1st Scientific Victory.

[Deaga]

The one biggest tip I think for the science victory is: it's not science victory, it's production victory. The Spaceport and all Space Race projects cost a truckload of production, so make sure you have one or two cities with VERY strong production. Cluster those factories together, etc. Try to get the Great Engineers and Scientists that boost the Space Race projects too; use the district projects to get more Great Person points when they show up, as they'll speed up your win considerably.

 

[AmosBurton]

Remember that teching really fast gets you to later eras where districts cost more as do new troops. Better to build a solid base of an empire that can build and pay for everything it needs rather than be way out of balance with high tech but unaffordable troops.

Quick clarification here, is it the era or the number of techs? I thought I read that the production scaling for districts is based off of the number of tech/civics. Changes how I would approach research, ie beeline for an advanced tech which keeps total number down so production stays low or research everything in a era before moving on to keep production values low. Which is the correct approach?

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

I don't know what this crazy 20 city stuff is re SV. I'm not saying it won't work but if you're going to conquer that many cities just do a Domination victory. You can get pretty lazy turn 340'ish SV victories with 4-6 good cities. I had a turn 265 SV with 7-8 cities but there the magic wasn't that I had 7-8 cities, it's that I had 2 free settlers + an AI capitol by turn 45.

Anyway, long story short, you don't need to be militaristic to get an SV on Emperor or below.

 

[TheJokker]

I see what you are saying about needing to conquer many cities to get enough science. I just hardly get around to that since when I already have an army, why not keep conquering until I have won? Strange that we shouldn't be able to achieve such a victory (with a decent date) peacefully.

Sometimes circumstances will allow a quick domination victory but sometimes the logistics of invading another continent makes a science victory just as fun. I personally prefer building great cities and winning through science but that is easier when you are the dominant civilization.

 

[Fahim]

What 1st goverment should i pick? Classical Republic, Oligarchy or Autocracy for SV?

 

[Zenstrive]

campus
industrial districts
Commercial hus
and lots of traders
and chop all the trees.

Go Classical Republics, Merchant Republics, Democracy

 

[Sascha77]

it's not science victory, it's production victory

This!!

Production times for space-missions is pretty insane. Ideally, you should probably have three production-heavy cities with spaceports and overlapping industrial zones. Since the Mars-mission needs three projects to complete, anything more than three spaceports would be pointless. A nice production-heavy wonder (Ruhr Valley for example) in one or more of them wouldn't hurt either. Plus trade-routes... lots of trade-routes.

In my science victory, the science-output itself didn't much matter by the time my spaceports came online - I was making so much science that I probably re-researched future-tech 20 times on Epic before my Mars mission completed. However: You do want lots of scientific buildings for those Great Scientist points. I *think* there are two on the roster (I only recruited one in my game) that give your hammers towards space-projects.

campus
industrial districts
Commercial hus
and lots of traders
and chop all the trees.

Go Classical Republics, Merchant Republics, Democracy

Good summary.

Harbors also help. They (and their buildings) give you extra production, plus there's a policy that grants you 15% production towards space-projects in cities with either a seaport or a military academy.


S.

 

[elitetroops]

Nope, it's first and foremost a science victory. You need some production, but given the time it takes to get through the tech tree, you have time to get up Industrial Zones with all buildings in every city around your spaceport(s) in time. As long as you don't build lots of unnecessary stuff. Go through the upper part of the tech tree first to unlock everything for IZ, spaceports, the moon landing and the first mars module. Then you have plenty of time to build your spaceport(s) and the first couple of projects while teching the lower part of the tech tree.

Lots of early campuses are important, not only for teching, but for GS points. The three iInformation era Great Scientists give +3000 production towards space projects, +100% production towards space projects and all information era eurekas. They are all extremely good, but you need lots of GS points to unlock them early enough. Great Engineers can give you +1500 production, +20% and +100% production towards space projects. If you get all Scientists and Engineers, you don't need any production at all, except to build one spaceport, since the Great People take care of all Space Projects. The 100% boosts also apply to the +3000 and +1500 boosts to make them +9000 and +4500, or more. Overflow is infinite, so +9000 would build all three mars modules.

You can also leave some forests and production resources to harvest around your spaceport. In the late game they are worth a lot of production, and this production is multiplied by whatever modifiers you have towards space projects. I sometimes build a spaceport at the edge of my empire close to tundra, if there is lots of forests in the tundra that would go to this city when chopped. Depending on your modifiers, 5-10 forests should be enough for a mars module.

 

[Fahim]

Is it possible for me to play domination style until I conquer all civs and city states on my continent and then go for SV?

I am planning to do this as Germany, so basicly spam and improve military, use military civics and conquer the entire continent your on. After that well, smoke a joint and hit SV.

 

[Genghis_Sean]

Agreed that this is less of a scientific victory than a production victory. Getting to the tech is relatively easy compared to the production. You'll want at least two cities of high production value with spaceports. There are many steps in the space victory and if you can't tackle two at once, you'll likely hit 2050 before you can complete it. You'll also want spies at work defending both your industrial center and spaceports because your enemies will try to sabotage both.

 

[Sascha77]

Is it possible for me to play domination style until I conquer all civs and city states on my continent and then go for SV?

If you're playing continents, I would aim for "cleaning up" your own continent before you hit Cartography/Caravels. If you're out of "conquest-mode" by the time you meet the civs on the other continent, you'll have a much easier time with those guys diplomatically.

Unless I have Greece on the map, I usually leave CS' alone (Suzerain-boosts are nice, after all).

And yes: Conquering lots of your opponents' lands seems the best way to set you up for any sort of victory. Otherwise the next strongest civ will probably turn runaway by founding city after city and you'll end up with too few cities of your own to stay competitive.

IMO, it's also best to kick the Civs you target in war off the map. They will never, ever come off their warmonger-penalty towards you when you're occupying their capital. So the chances for normalizing relations after a war are very, very slim. In my last game, Kongo was kind enough to declare on me (they were my next target anyway). This was around the time gunpowder hit, so probably still in the first third of this game. I took 5 cities from him, including Sparta which he had conquered earlier and - naturally - his own capital. I did however let him "live", but I might as well have killed him off, since he was still on more than -100 warmonger-penalty towards me on the last turn of the game (turn 532).

S.

 

[Fahim]

Just won my 1st SV, thank you guys for your help. All them tips and suggestions helped me alot.

Picked Germany, and played on continents map. Conquered all the city states and civs on my continent, and then focused all cities to increase production, hansas and campuses everywhere until I can build spaceports. Took me about 300 turns to win.

 

[TheJokker]

Just won my 1st SV, thank you guys for your help. All them tips and suggestions helped me alot.

Picked Germany, and played on continents map. Conquered all the city states and civs on my continent, and then focused all cities to increase production, hansas and campuses everywhere until I can build spaceports. Took me about 300 turns to win.

Great minds think alike!!!

 

[manu-fan]

I'm going for science victory right now in my latest game. I went with a mix of Campus, Commercial/Harbor as first districts and then did Industrial. I took out my closest neighbor, because he settled in a couple of spots I wanted. I am now making nice with everyone. I'm on a the western side of a large continent, and my Caravels have found great land off to my left that just has city states, so I'm starting to get cities over there. I'm getting Great Scientists that give Eurekas and other bonuses, and I'll try to get Great Engineers later.

I'm only playing on Prince, but I'm already 5 or 6 techs up on my rivals. The only thing that concerns my is Brazil going for a Religion victory (3 already), so I built some Apostles to take out his Missionaries.