How long before I should decide which victory to go for?

[Mental_Gear]

I realise that this is more of a general civ 4 question, but I guessed that since military is more of a necessity in FFH due to the lairs and barbarians then it may be easier to strike a balance in FFH.

Anyway, I've played 3 games of vanilla Civ 4 and have a game of vanilla FFH in progress. I lost my first Civ 4 game (Warlord difficulty) from pretty much not knowing what to do and ended up getting steamrolled by Cyrus. My second (Settler) was a 'just for lulz' test in which I had a one city challenge on a tiny map, I believe I lost to a cultural victory. My third (Chieftain), I came close to a space race victory, but lost to Catherine (again, cultural) as I was starting to build the parts.

My current game of FFH is about 400 or so turns in. My best bets seem to be a religious victory (30% of land cover, higher than any other religion) and a cultural victory (I have 3 cities at the level below legendary) - I have been considering going for the culture one, but even with culture slider set to 90 (there's not that much tech left to research) my cities will take another 100 (minimum) turns to go Legendary.

At the same time, over the course of this game I've rushed the Infernals as they spawned beside me and took their two cities, sailed to another continent (bizarrely, I'm the only one who can sail on ocean this far into the game) and helped Rhoanna take out the Clan of Embers, and am currently waging war on Auric Ulvin to finally boot him off the continent we share (though he outnumbers me a bit, my units are far, far more powerful, with good promotions and mithril gear, I took out his hero).

But sometimes I wonder if I'm approaching Civ with the right mindset at all. I seem to be playing the game by ear for far too long. In terms of score, I'm at the top by a bit, but only because I have a permanent alliance with Rhoanna (her army puts everyone else to shame - but for some reason once I allied with her I was able to speak to every single leader, on all other continents despite the fact she hadn't learned to sail yet).

It's only now, hundreds of turns in, I'm deciding how I want to win this (and so much land is unexplored, I've only really gone over one of the five landmasses), and I fear a cultural victory is going to be just too slow.

How long should I spend just playing the game as I go along before deciding on how to win, and once I do, how much focus should I put on this type of victory? Hell, if I'm going to try and conquer one civ, is there really any point unless I'm going to go for a full conquest / domination victory? Surely if I want a cultural victory I should have that decided from the very start, spamming culture stuff in my 3 first cities?

 

[Jarrema]

I almost always decide what victory I aim for before turn 100. I concentrate on one type of victory, but typically have second, backup plan.
Sometimes, it can be said that I decide what type of victory I will pursue before the game starts
(with proper selection of civ/leader and map setting)

 

[Skarn]

But sometimes I wonder if I'm approaching Civ with the right mindset at all. I seem to be playing the game by ear for far too long.

Just play the game like you want. Personnaly I think having a fun and interesting game is better than steamrolling the AI on turn 50 because you did the usual warrior rush or something. Nowadays I mostly do "roleplay" games on Settler difficulty, and I still manage to lose one now and then.

Anyway, two things determine which victory I will pursue in FFH (and the same could apply in base Civ). First, the choice of my leader / civ. Sheelba is built for war and Einion screams Altar victory. You could go for a cultural victory using Charadon, but you'll probably have a hard time. Then, the surroundings of my civ. If you're surrounded by guys like Tasunke and Tebryn, you should probably aim for military victory, because that's what they WILL do and you're better off taking their cities rather than them taking yours. If you're alone on a small island, forget about waging war or spreading religions, and go for an Altar or cultural victory, you won't be bothered much.

Easiest victory types are religious and conquest. Religious often happens out of the blue and switching to a warmongering economy is pretty easy in FFH. Altar and cultural victories are a bit trickier, since these ones are not about what you will do, but what you will NOT do, to get the useful Great People and not getting your pool polluted by merchants and the like. You will need to plan early to get them, and use a leader with a trait that will help you achieve it (typically philosophical). Domination is highly situational, and possible only on certain maps (like Pangaea). If your map is water-heavy, you can pretty much forget about it.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

The AI does not pursue any victory properly, so nether do I. Instead I play at the hardest difficulty level I can manage and your objective should be to simply stay alive.

If anyone is coming close to victory I gather the AI and try to stop him and than proceed doing so until I end up with either conquest or domination. (I keep Culture and Religion disabled)

 

[zbelg]

I agree with Skarn, just have fun with it IMO. Civ is an open simulation game. In vanilla civ I'd usually just dick around and build up my empire and either win by Space Race or Domination, but in FFH a lot of victories like Cultural and Altar are easiest if you prepare for them well in advance, and a lot of civs are oriented towards a certain type of victory.

Sometimes I'll go into a game knowing exactly what victory I'm planning on going for, but more often I'll just play the game and see what happens and not even bother trying to win, sometimes it's most fun that way. If you aren't sure how you're going to win and you're well into a game and having fun with it, just keep playing. Explore the uninhabited areas, summon the demons or cause the apocalypse, just roll with it.

 

[Tielby]

Besides just agreeing with the previous posts, I'll just add that which victories are easiest and/or most fun depends very much on your play style. As a dyed-in-the-wool builder, I've found the Cultural and Tower of Mastery victories by far the easiest for me, which is why I've DISabled them. Without those two options, I occasionally achieve a Conquest victory, but I have yet to achieve any other kind. I have read some of the strategies on this forum for those other victories, but whenever I try to follow them, I'm always in conflict with my own tendencies and favorite strategies, and thus have never succeeded. But pushing myself to pursue other strategies is great fun and a fantastic learning experience for me. And the fact that it's not easy for me is one of the things that keeps me playing this game, and especially this mod, when there are so many other games out there, including CiV.

 

[Jarrema]

I am a builder. But I also prefer really small empires - not more than 6-7 cities. For my playstyle, the easiest victory types are cultural and Altar (maybe long one, but it is easy to turtle with powerful disciple units and wait for winning)