How the heck do you get a quick domination win?

[Requies]

I've been practicing with Romans on Prince to prepare for the GoTM and considering their great UU and expansive trait, I decided to try warmongering with them.

Well, fighting wars becomes REALLY easy if you have iron but the problem I find is that I have NO economy to sustain it (except for the plundering).

So, my question is how the heck do you get an quick domination win?

It seems to me that you can't really sustain a pre-middle age spurt except maybe to grab more land in the beginning. For instance, in my Roman practice game, I was on the continent with 5 of the 6 other civs. And I was able to prosecute wars with FOUR of those five civs (and winning). But I'm so behind in tech, that I'm not sure the early push is worth it. Of course, I've been razing cities because my economy just can't sustain 20+ cities, but even then, I'm still in the red running 0% tech .

So, is it feasible to even win with domination using pre-middle age units? Or do you have to build up slower and then dominate later?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Req

 

[DaemonDivinity]

I find that gunpowder means you go for the domination, but before that it's easier to go for conquest. I'd say you gotta slow down the war machine to get a domination victory going.

 

[akots]

On a Pangea standard size map, there is no problem on up to Monarch level and even to a certain extent to Emperor level since you only need Code of Laws (obtained by Oracle chop-rushing) and may be Calendar for luxuries. Or course Construction would be nice but not required imho. You've got to chop courthouses and switch to Castle system to expand borders. Some AI cities are quite possible to raze just to get the borders expanded. But on the continents map, you might want to be more flexible than just going straight killing everyone.

 

[DaveMcW]

Caste System is awesome. 2-3 merchants will support your city, then anything else the city produces is profit.

Use all forests in conquered land to chop-rush workers, then have the workers irrigate everything.

 

[Draetor24]

Ya, but you can only use specialists if you have nice flat irrigated lands to support them. I'm currently playing as Incans on a highlands rocky map, it's standard size, but starting in the left top corner and exploring, the map seems HUGE and it takes centuries to get my units to other civs for war.

 

[Requies]

On a Pangea standard size map, there is no problem on up to Monarch level and even to a certain extent to Emperor level since you only need Code of Laws (obtained by Oracle chop-rushing) and may be Calendar for luxuries. Or course Construction would be nice but not required imho. You've got to chop courthouses and switch to Castle system to expand borders. Some AI cities are quite possible to raze just to get the borders expanded. But on the continents map, you might want to be more flexible than just going straight killing everyone.

Hmmm, ok, thanks for the comments from everyone. So, it isn't really possible on continents, then? Also, Conquest isn't feasible on Continents which is why I was shooting for a Domination win.....

Oh well. Need to think up a new strategy, either that or dominate later....

One thing I might want to do differently I guess is beeline for Code of Laws after Iron Working. I basically ignored all religions my game and went on a military/improvement tech chain. But then, after that I teched to Construction instead. I was stuck at 6/5 pop for a while with NO religions. So, Code of Laws would have helped for Confucianism, Caste System and Courthouses.....

Seems like Code of Laws is a priority for pre-middle age warmongering....

Req

 

[TealVeal]

Hmmm, ok, thanks for the comments from everyone. So, it isn't really possible on continents, then? Also, Conquest isn't feasible on Continents which is why I was shooting for a Domination win.....

Oh well. Need to think up a new strategy, either that or dominate later....

One thing I might want to do differently I guess is beeline for Code of Laws after Iron Working. I basically ignored all religions my game and went on a military/improvement tech chain. But then, after that I teched to Construction instead. I was stuck at 6/5 pop for a while with NO religions. So, Code of Laws would have helped for Confucianism, Caste System and Courthouses.....

Seems like Code of Laws is a priority for pre-middle age warmongering....

Req

I just won a domination victory on continents late 17th century, I could have done it much sooner if I had realized the size of my continent. Once I realized how large it was I just pumped out the settlers, rushed theaters and libraries and bam, victory. If I hadn't gotten such a nice continent...I got lucky with the size of my continent.

 

[DaemonDivinity]

Yeah, it's possible. But you may need a fleet to achieve the victory, which probably delays you even more.

 

[baboon]

I think the Courthouses are indeed important. In my current game, I rushed them with Slavery. After a while I had 6 cities (normal size Pangea at Prince level) and I was running at 100% research and still got something like +3 gold per turn.

All you need to do is build units then

 

[baboon]

Hmmm, ok, thanks for the comments from everyone. So, it isn't really possible on continents, then? Also, Conquest isn't feasible on Continents which is why I was shooting for a Domination win.....

Oh well. Need to think up a new strategy, either that or dominate later....

One thing I might want to do differently I guess is beeline for Code of Laws after Iron Working. I basically ignored all religions my game and went on a military/improvement tech chain. But then, after that I teched to Construction instead. I was stuck at 6/5 pop for a while with NO religions. So, Code of Laws would have helped for Confucianism, Caste System and Courthouses.....

Seems like Code of Laws is a priority for pre-middle age warmongering....

Req

I'm using the Oracle to get Code of Laws and only after that I research Iron Working.

 

[Holbek]

Early prophet (from stonehenge?)
Early religion. Holy building. Missionary designated city.
Spread religion along with your conquering armies.

 

[zafyro]

I don´t see why it shoud be impossible and less whith the roman empire [organiced = courthouses]. Build Praetorianas, have lots of workers wood choping for the courthouses and more praetorians don´t forget to discover economy, get some specialist to merchants to provide extra income and do not keep unnecesary cities [those that would not increase your culture frontiers] anyway its a try or loose because for sure your research is going to suffer...

 

[Astax]

We are not sdupposed to discuss GOTM. However I will lay out a hypothetical for you.

On a continents map, where the continents are spread far apart you cant win domination or conquest in early game. You can take out your neighbor on your own landmass BUT I advise you not to! Untill you get galleon you will not be able to conquer the world. Possible culture victory? Hmm that would take a while as well, and conquest would still be faster. Either way playing Romans you will not get to use your UU agianst people on other continents Im afraid. Once you get it you should be little bit past the macemen stage but not up to riflemen yet. It may be possible to raise hellw ith a macement/knight army backed up by catapults provided the game is noble difficulty and the AI will be unlikely to out-tech you. Reason to leave your neighbor alive is simple, you want to climb the tech ladder so trade tech with them! (Unless the tech trading is off in which case kill em )

 

[cfacosta]

Requies, if you are still having trouble using Rome to conquer...I wrote a guide that might help you out.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144520

I think those are some decent tips for managing the economics of an early war.

 

[JKJK]

I managed to get a Domination win in 1530 on Noble, Standard size Pangea map Normal Speed for a score of 75,491.

The strategy was not something that you could repeat on most maps or with most civs/leaders. I've also never played multiplayer or past monarch difficulty but it probably wouldn't work in either.

I was Elizabeth for the Philosophical/Financial mix. I had a start with some rivers, flood plains, 2 wines, some hills, and a marble nearby. And ample forests to chop and ample flood plains/grasslands next to rivers to spam cottages on. I chopped every single forest as soon as I could(Except for a few key pastures, mines and cottages). I chopped warriors/workers first, then settlers, more workers, libraries in new cities, courthouses in conquered cities far away.

London and Hastings happened to be close to the tundra, and had lots of nice forests to chop, and I had marble, so I chopped/built the Oracle for the free tech, the Parthenon for the +50% GP growth, Great Library, and then built the National Epic for another +100%. London had +250% bonus for a final Great Scientist growth of 42 per turn! I think I got about 7 or 8 scientists, 1 prophet, 1 artist, and 1 free merchant from a tech.

Looking back I may have been able to win earlier if I attacked countries in a different order, I didn't plan that out much. I attacked one west of me, then south of me, then farther west, then the last 3 countries all at once. I also underestimated Asoka, he actually had the largest army of anyone, probably due to me trading techs with him earlier on.

My economy hit a hard wall around 1000 AD due to huge expansion and only a few courthouses that I chopped. I built the forbidden palace in a nice spot, and built some banks/grocers in my older cities and that helped a lot. I never had to worry about happiness, ever. I had tons of resources, gold, silver, silk, furs, etc. I only had to build aqueducts in the 2 oldest cities to keep them growing.

As for military, Vassalage/barracks is key until you get to riflemen. I built as many swordsman/macemen with city raider 2 as I could, and stacks of 3 or 4 catapults(alternating 1 city raider and 1 + bombard damage promotion or level 2 city raider)for each 3 or 4 sword/maceman. Later I used funds from capturing cities/great merchants to upgrade them to riflemen for super easy city taking. Some of my Redcoats with city raider 3 didn't even take damage while taking a city from upgraded longbowmen.

I stayed away from religions until I founded Confucianism. In the start, especially when chopping every forest in sight, bronze working is the first priority. I also never pillaged anything, I kept every city I could, for earlier domination. Near the end I adopted free speech and put the culture slider to 10% to push my cities borders since the only culture I had in half the cities were chopped libraries.

Sorry, this probably doesn't help you much with the Romans, but so far this is the best way I've found to dominate quickly.

Attatchment pic 1- My highest score
Attatchment pic 2- London in 960 AD with +42 Great Scientist growth