I have won a Domination, Cultural, and Economic War, but I cannot win a Tech War. I have gotten as far as launching a Nuke, and bulding the Space Ship and launched it, but that did not win it, and every time it says the person with the most in the next five wins by Domination. It is getting very frustrating. This has happend numerous times. I even used the tech tree here to get to that point as fast as I can, but it did not work. I was even less advanced using it than on my own. Can someone tell me how to do this. What I mean by that I tech, by tech learned in order to get there faster so that I do not run out of turns. Or show me were to get a Tech Tree that tells me only what I need and bypassing all of the unnecessary stuff.
How to win a Technology War
- Thread starter Z1ldjian
- Start date
Apolex
Chieftain
Here are some suggestions that might help. Specialize a couple of cities to only do science. These should have lots of water tiles to work. In these science cities, make sure they have all improvements that increase science, like the library or university, and then settle any great scientists there. If you can build a wonder like East India Company, it will really help (+1 trade per sea square). When researching techs, go for the ones that give you a science bonus if you're the first to get it: Literacy (+1 Science in every city), University (+1 science in every city), Atomic Theory (+2 Science in every city), Electronics (+2 trade in every city). Make sure you're in Democracy to get the extra trade bonus.
Once the population gets higher in these cities, they should be producing around 500 science per turn each. Over 1000 science per turn for each city is possible if done right.
Another tip: keep yourself at a contant state of war if possible with the other civs the whole game. As long as you're in the tech lead, you should always have defensive units advanced enough to repel any attack. With them at war with you, they will focus on sending army after army to be slaughtered by your defensive units, and they will all fall way behind you in tech.
Make sure that you have developed 2-3 cities specialized for production (near hills, mountains), with all the improvements needed for production (factory, iron mine, workshop, etc.). When you have the necessary tech for space travel, switch to communism (for the production bonus) and build/launch your spaceship fast.
You can also have some cities specialized in Gold instead of (or in addition to) production cities. Then you can just buy each space ship component each turn and quickly launch your ship.
The key is getting your science cities going early enough in the game so that you're not getting close to the game ending on turns.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Once the population gets higher in these cities, they should be producing around 500 science per turn each. Over 1000 science per turn for each city is possible if done right.
Another tip: keep yourself at a contant state of war if possible with the other civs the whole game. As long as you're in the tech lead, you should always have defensive units advanced enough to repel any attack. With them at war with you, they will focus on sending army after army to be slaughtered by your defensive units, and they will all fall way behind you in tech.
Make sure that you have developed 2-3 cities specialized for production (near hills, mountains), with all the improvements needed for production (factory, iron mine, workshop, etc.). When you have the necessary tech for space travel, switch to communism (for the production bonus) and build/launch your spaceship fast.
You can also have some cities specialized in Gold instead of (or in addition to) production cities. Then you can just buy each space ship component each turn and quickly launch your ship.
The key is getting your science cities going early enough in the game so that you're not getting close to the game ending on turns.
Hope this helps, good luck.
I always am at war with at least one other nation almost the entire game.
What ends up happening the last part of the game is I have everything built in all cities ( this is usualy around 5 cities I have ) Everything maxed out, everything built. All upgrades built, and just hitting B on all cities because there is nothing left to build. ( waiting for techs to finish so I can go onto the next tech, and move up. So all cities have all sciences, all upgrades etc...
I just always seem to run out of turns at the end. I did launch the space ship once, but it still did not give me the win, it ran out of turns even after I launched the space ship ( it ran out of turns about two turns after I hit the launch button ). It is realy pissing me off spending friggin like 4 hours, and not getting it.
Kev
Hired Goon
I would not necessarily ignore the sword in your games - especially early. By paring down your competition (perhaps even eliminating a few) and blocking them from expanding, you can ensure that you have a massive amount of land and cities with which to work. Some games I'll wipe up the competition until one civ is left with one city (obviously their capital). I can send spies in to kidnap any great people and destroy buildings so that city has no culture, and breeze on to launch my ship. Not sure how that affects score, but there are times when I feel like winning in a different way.
Don't ignore the small island cities either. They can be great gold/science cities if they can reach dye along with whales or fish. Definitely settle all over.
I would also be sure I DO have some gold cities running as well. Great to rush units if there's an emergency, but buying infrastructure can really speed things up.
Also, I find it helpful to find Atlantis and 'stalk' it until a very beneficial time.
Other than that, try to work in some tips here and see what works best for you.
Don't ignore the small island cities either. They can be great gold/science cities if they can reach dye along with whales or fish. Definitely settle all over.
I would also be sure I DO have some gold cities running as well. Great to rush units if there's an emergency, but buying infrastructure can really speed things up.
Also, I find it helpful to find Atlantis and 'stalk' it until a very beneficial time.
Other than that, try to work in some tips here and see what works best for you.
Kadazzle
Emperor
What difficulty are you playing on? That might help us help you.
You should always be at war with all your enemies, as well as focusing on taking some of their good cities. I think one of your problems is that you don't have enough cities. Assuming you're playing on King, try to get around 8 cities, while focusing around 2 for science, gold, production ect..
You should always be at war with all your enemies, as well as focusing on taking some of their good cities. I think one of your problems is that you don't have enough cities. Assuming you're playing on King, try to get around 8 cities, while focusing around 2 for science, gold, production ect..
AND, it is important NOT to max out all cities as you said you do. You have to specialize them. In other words, never build market/bank in a city focusing on science and never build library/university in a city you wanna focus on gold. In producing cities focus on hammers and related improvements. The rest of production you might have left over from not maxing out should be put into units, e.g., settlers to grow your empire or fighting units. Depending on the difficulty you are playing on, you might have to ensure that you manage your workers actively, e.g., manually putting them in the right squares or at least putting your city on science/gold/food/production, and never balanced.
Question to the experienced players here: do you need to retain your capital city to win a Tech (or any) victory?
Last time, I reached Alpha Centauri by 2020, but it didn't give me the Victory screen. I was playing as the Spanish, at the 2nd-hardest difficulty (just below Diety). I was getting my ass handed to me, so I launched the bare minimum Spaceship (1 of each unit) around 2004, and turned Science down to zero, just focused on surviving w/ Production and Gold.
During the following turns, I lost about half of my cities (bad defense, oops) including my capital. A few of the other civs were also pursuing Victories (building World Bank, closing in on United Nations, etc). But I figured, long as I get to Alpha Centauri first and keep my remaining cities, I'm good.
So I make it to arrival -- 2020. But no victory. Spaceship Report even says, "You arrived!" and the whole junk -- but the game kept going. 2021. 2022. WTF?
Any insight?
Thanks much! Oh, and this is my first post, hey all! ;-)
sea lion is right. If you had recaptured your capital any time after it arrived I believe you would have won, but not certain.
re: the original question, clearly the problem is that you're building everything everywhere (as someone already pointed out.) In addition to the general advice on specializing your cities, you also have to learn to think through some of the numbers sometimes. How big is the city, and how long will it take it to grow? How much benefit will you really get from that market, and how long will it take to build it? Even in a technology victory, many of my cities at end-game are still small (6 or less pop) and have few if any buildings. I had to learn this the hard way myself, in civ 1 and 2 I used to always want to maximally improve all cities, eventually I realised you only need a handful of core cities to win almost any victory type and the rest of the cities you build are generally tactical - producing military units and generally acting as a buffer to keep enemy troops away from your core cities. These tactical cities need few if any improvements to do that job.
re: the original question, clearly the problem is that you're building everything everywhere (as someone already pointed out.) In addition to the general advice on specializing your cities, you also have to learn to think through some of the numbers sometimes. How big is the city, and how long will it take it to grow? How much benefit will you really get from that market, and how long will it take to build it? Even in a technology victory, many of my cities at end-game are still small (6 or less pop) and have few if any buildings. I had to learn this the hard way myself, in civ 1 and 2 I used to always want to maximally improve all cities, eventually I realised you only need a handful of core cities to win almost any victory type and the rest of the cities you build are generally tactical - producing military units and generally acting as a buffer to keep enemy troops away from your core cities. These tactical cities need few if any improvements to do that job.
