How to win before 1000AD

[Tubby Rower]

Ok. First of all I just started playing on Monarch level. I have a question that probably won't be able to answered with just a quick reply.

How do you win (any victory) before 1000AD. I realize that you have to be good, and obvoiusly I'm not there yet, but I'm trying...

Conquest I could almost understand, but how inthe world do you get a domination victory at 50 BC????

Here is wher I am:

• I just started learning how to trade better with AI
• I avoid wonders at all cost (unless one just became available and I have a leader) due to Ision's article on Wonder Addiction
• AI attitude's viel of secrecy is being revealed due to BamSpeedy's article
• I can usually win via either histographical, cultural, or conquest in that order. I've only lost twice in about 10 games (that not including the 2 games that I first played when I thought that this was Command&Conquer!!)

 

[Theoden]

Cultural victories are almost impossible before 1000 AD.

Spaceship victories can almost only be won before 1000 AD if playing on the higher difficulties due to the higher tech speed in these levels.

Conquest is possible if the map is not too big, and if you use fast troops like horsemen.

Domination just requires you to keep the cities you capture, but ToA is a help here as it helps to fill the gaps between conquered cities by giving them culture.

Diplomatic requires the same conditions as spaceship, that is a high difficulty to speed up techs.

If you want more specific ideas about how to win early the GOTM forum is good. Try reading some descriptions of games that were won very early.

Theoden

 

[The Last Conformist]

The ultimate way to win quickly is the Hexette map in my sig. Winnable in the BCs by conquest.

 

[Tomoyo]

Bah! Conquest victories on smaller maps are very easy to do early. My personal best is ~1500BC on Emporer, but boogaboo has done much better.

 

[Juka The Dumb]

i love archipelago when they put you on the same island,and then i eat them alive before they blink.

 

[viper275]

I recently got 1990 BC on Regent as the Aztecs. Build 2-3 jaguar warriors to scout, then barracks and then more jaguar warriors. When you find an AI, look at the capital. If you already have a few jaguar warriors and it's only defended by a warrior, you can win. Otherwise wait. Go straight to Horseback Riding for better fast units. I like this on a 60% tiny pangaea, 5 billion and arid so that nothing blocks your way. Try getting a good start with bonus grassland, hills, and forests. Easy early victory.

 

[Chieftess]

On small maps, archer rushes are very potent. Immortals also make it easy, since Persia can research Iron Working immediately.

 

[stachnie]

I suggest small Pangea maps. I am a novice Monarch player, I give a try to all civs and up to now about 50% games were won before 1000 AD. I had the best results with civs that suit my style of playing: Religious, Agricultural or Militaristic.


Best regards,

Slawomir Stachniewicz.

 

[sausnebb]

I hoped you would tell us...

But I think this question relies heavely on which map size you're playing, no doubt. Winning before 1000 AD on a huge map is mission impossible, especially if you're winning a conquest or domination. Try tiny/small/medium map I would say... And a lot of skills...

 

[bradleyfeanor]

This may well be one of the skills you have already acquired, but I notice you didn't mention settler factories. Maximizing early food for quick expansion is probably the most crucial aspect in any quick win, for any victory condition you pursue. Bamspeedy's war academy article is a great first place to learn about early expansion. For even more tips and tricks, I would go to the GOTM and Succession game threads. Some of them are fabulous.

A second good habit to have is to set your victory condition goal as early in the game as possible, and then stick to it. I notice in games where I don't pick my victory condition early, I end up building unnecessary things in my cities. To have a really good game, you simply can't waste that production.

A third aspect to a quick win is a little more difficult to give pointers on, but it plays a very important role: know your enemies. In other words, lets say you are going for a quick domination victory, and you are just about to go to war with the greeks. How fast can you expect them to acquire a tech that will make the war more difficult? How many units can you expect in each city? How many units will you need to destroy them quickly? There are lots of questions like these, all related to map size, type, difficulty level, etc., and I think the only way to get a feel for the answers is through lots of experience. But when you have the experience to predict these things accurately, you can shave a great many turns off your game.

 

[Tubby Rower]

I've started playing on random everything games. The only thing that I select is Monarch.

Over the weekend I played a game on a tiny map with the Americans, Mayans, & Incans where I was the Russians. I almost wiped out the Incans pretty quick, but then the Mayans wanted a piece of me. So I left the Incans with one city and held back the Mayans. Then good old Lincoln wanted some too. by then the Incans had a sizable army of ancient calvary. I signed an alliance with the Incans against the Americans (mainly because I couldn't handle them.) and the Incan Armies helped significantly. Now I'm on a tiny map with just the Incans. .

Lessons Learned:
1. siege weapons are good.
2. Knights templar is helpful, but not as much as I'd thought.
3. Leaving a civ with one city early on in the game can help you out later....(I can see the flip side to this too.)
4. Only one war at a time.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

with 50BC, i guess you refer to a recent gotm result. (I quit that gotm when i estimated my domination to become around 200AD )

Normal sized map, pangea.

Key is to focus on your goal. You want to conquer the world. You don't conquer the world with culture or with knowledge, but with millitairy units. So that is what you need. Barracks and units.

You must make an expectation when you are gonna win. Tech wise that is. Usually, games are won by either knights or cavalry.
If you expect to win by knights, do not research any further than knights. Instead, move research to 0 and use the gold for rushing the knight production a bit.
If you are gonna win by knights, you don't need libraries (maybe 0-3, but not more) If you are planning to win by cavalry, some libraries might be a good choise.

Build up your empire as fast as you can in early game without starting any wars and having extremely few units. The game you play has 2 distinct phases: Buildup and conquest. As i said, you need to have an expectation when to win, based on this expectation, you decide when you will end the buildup phase and when to start the conquest phase as well as when to stop researching.

In this particular gotm i think you refered to, the guy who reached that 50BC domination i think is one of those who went for ancient age conquest. Meaning he used only horsemen and swordsmen and didn't even research to knights. Therefore he had a very short buildup phase. I made the mistake to go for knights, my buildup phase was too long and therefore was unable to reach such an early date.
If however, you are overoptimistic and you target for a victory too early, you might find yourself in trouble. If you are stopping research by knights and your opponent gets to musketmen, things do not look so good. Therefore make the right estimation.

Now when you are conquering, with all the captured cities build settlers and fill in the gaps asap. Rushbuying is often needed as the cities are so corrupt it will take 30 turns to build settlers. As said, TOA will also help you a lot in this.

Skill finaly is needed to build up an empire as strong as possible in the shortest possible amount of time. (represented in the qsc stats) and to fight wars efficiently so that your conquest progesses rapidly (be prepared for flips, keep up with infrastructure and have stacks big enough to take cities with almost 100% certainty)

 

[Offa]

with 50BC, i guess you refer to a recent gotm result. (I quit that gotm when i estimated my domination to become around 200AD )

Are you only prepared to submit a game when you are sure of a medal ?
I think giving up because your domination estimate slips to 200AD is a little too perfectionist.

 

[citizen001]

Play Sid and with enough trading and so on you can get industrial age before 1000 BC!

 

[Tomoyo]

Meh. I get to the Industrial Age before 1000AD every game, even on Emporer. Winning diplo at 700AD is impressive though. goodjob: Sirian)