ratrangerm
Prince
I spent an offline game trying out a new strategy that I aimed to get me a domination victory as quickly as possible. In this game, I was able to wipe out three opponents, two of them pretty quickly, then was on my way to eliminating a fourth when I secured a domination win in 1718 AD with my highest score in a Civ IV game yet.
First of all, I still play Vanilla CIV, and second of all, I used Kublai Khan. I picked him because of his Aggressive and Creative traits. I believe these are still the same in Warlords, so my strategy could still work there.
Kublai's Aggressive trait is good because of the free Combat I promotion for Melee and Gunpowder units. I never built any Gunpowder units in this game, and used mostly Melee units for attacking cities, with Catapults in tow for bombarding cities prior to my earliest raids. This means I can make the most of the Aggressive trait and I can pick the best promotion possible for my units, plus at least one can get a Medic promotion to start (although I ended up never using one until late in the game, as I had a Chariot that came from a city with Barracks, and thus Combat I, and that won a battle and made that my Medic in the early game).
Where the Creative trait comes into play is your border expansion. The +2 culture per turn in each city is a vital part of this strategy, and a reason why Creative civs tend to be ideal for pursuing a domination strategy.
What I did to start the game was this:
First city I was able to found right at my starting location and I immediately started a worker. I then research appropriate worker techs, depending on my surrounding land. If there is a grain resource, go for Agriculture. If you have livestock, go for Animal Husbandry. If there's something good to mine, particularly Gold and Gems, then go for Mining.
Kublai starts with Hunting and a Scout so I was able to cover a lot of territory early and find sites for future expansion.
When my worker was completed, I then built nothing but Settlers in my first city for a while. I did this until I had secured four additional city sites. I aimed to have my second city be a production city, and first build a Worker, then a Barracks, so I could crank out promoted units. The third city was to be a commerce city, while the fourth city I wanted to be a GP farm. I was fortunate to find good city sites for each of these. My capital, I decided, would become my science city and could build gold improvements as well. My fifth city became yet another commerce city.
Each city makes a Worker as its first build. Once the four additional city sites were secured, the production city builds military units to defend all the cities, then starts building Axemen for the early rushes. Until you have all five cities with a garrison, do not sign Open Borders with anyone as this prevents somebody from scoutign you, then possibly attacking when you are still weak. Once you get the garrisons, you'll quickly catch up in power as you start building your army.
When every city has a worker, and when the first city builds its last Settler, I then concentrate on the buildings that will benefit each city. GP farm gets a Library, Market, Theatre, Forge and Temple so it can run any of the specialists as needed. My capital was the chosen site for the Great Library. I could have built Oxford University there if I wanted to, but I never got to it as my game finished up before I did (I might have gotten it sooner, but I was busy using it to pump out some spare city defenders).
OK... so once you get your Axemen army together, that's when you rush your first opponent. As with any rush, you want to pick the closest opponent you can, but may have to adjust slightly depending on who is there. For example, in this game, I had Hatshepsut next to me, but went after Izzy first... she wasn't too far away and fewer people were on good terms with her.
As you would in any game, you take cities based on whether or not they will provide a benefit to your empire, or if they have a Wonder or holy city. It's OK to raze cities that aren't placed well, as between your Creative trait and producing more Settlers, you can claim that territory that's left open from the razed cities.
I attached my saved game so people can see how things played out. I had been warring with Catherine (I had planned to do so after rebuilding, but Louis XIV, who was fighting Catherine, asked me to go to war and I decided to jump on it while Catherine was occupied with Louis) and was taking her down when I claimed the Domination victory.
This game was played on Noble with Pangaea landform. I like playing Pangaea maps because they allow you contact with all other civs early in the game and it makes the path to Domination faster. But my strategy should work well with any landform.
The only drawback in this strategy is that it relies a lot on keeping at least some of the cities you take over. This can be a problem if you are dealing with somebody like Monty, who will do everything he can to take back a city you capture, no matter what it takes, unless you catch him very early.
I'm probably going to try this strategy again on Prince level (my first game on that level) to see how it works.
And I'm sure a lot of you know about how effective Kublai can be in a Domination strategy, but I thought I'd share this as there's always new folks dropping in. I learned a lot from the vets here and I hope the newbies can learn from them, and maybe a little from me.
First of all, I still play Vanilla CIV, and second of all, I used Kublai Khan. I picked him because of his Aggressive and Creative traits. I believe these are still the same in Warlords, so my strategy could still work there.
Kublai's Aggressive trait is good because of the free Combat I promotion for Melee and Gunpowder units. I never built any Gunpowder units in this game, and used mostly Melee units for attacking cities, with Catapults in tow for bombarding cities prior to my earliest raids. This means I can make the most of the Aggressive trait and I can pick the best promotion possible for my units, plus at least one can get a Medic promotion to start (although I ended up never using one until late in the game, as I had a Chariot that came from a city with Barracks, and thus Combat I, and that won a battle and made that my Medic in the early game).
Where the Creative trait comes into play is your border expansion. The +2 culture per turn in each city is a vital part of this strategy, and a reason why Creative civs tend to be ideal for pursuing a domination strategy.
What I did to start the game was this:
First city I was able to found right at my starting location and I immediately started a worker. I then research appropriate worker techs, depending on my surrounding land. If there is a grain resource, go for Agriculture. If you have livestock, go for Animal Husbandry. If there's something good to mine, particularly Gold and Gems, then go for Mining.
Kublai starts with Hunting and a Scout so I was able to cover a lot of territory early and find sites for future expansion.
When my worker was completed, I then built nothing but Settlers in my first city for a while. I did this until I had secured four additional city sites. I aimed to have my second city be a production city, and first build a Worker, then a Barracks, so I could crank out promoted units. The third city was to be a commerce city, while the fourth city I wanted to be a GP farm. I was fortunate to find good city sites for each of these. My capital, I decided, would become my science city and could build gold improvements as well. My fifth city became yet another commerce city.
Each city makes a Worker as its first build. Once the four additional city sites were secured, the production city builds military units to defend all the cities, then starts building Axemen for the early rushes. Until you have all five cities with a garrison, do not sign Open Borders with anyone as this prevents somebody from scoutign you, then possibly attacking when you are still weak. Once you get the garrisons, you'll quickly catch up in power as you start building your army.
When every city has a worker, and when the first city builds its last Settler, I then concentrate on the buildings that will benefit each city. GP farm gets a Library, Market, Theatre, Forge and Temple so it can run any of the specialists as needed. My capital was the chosen site for the Great Library. I could have built Oxford University there if I wanted to, but I never got to it as my game finished up before I did (I might have gotten it sooner, but I was busy using it to pump out some spare city defenders).
OK... so once you get your Axemen army together, that's when you rush your first opponent. As with any rush, you want to pick the closest opponent you can, but may have to adjust slightly depending on who is there. For example, in this game, I had Hatshepsut next to me, but went after Izzy first... she wasn't too far away and fewer people were on good terms with her.
As you would in any game, you take cities based on whether or not they will provide a benefit to your empire, or if they have a Wonder or holy city. It's OK to raze cities that aren't placed well, as between your Creative trait and producing more Settlers, you can claim that territory that's left open from the razed cities.
I attached my saved game so people can see how things played out. I had been warring with Catherine (I had planned to do so after rebuilding, but Louis XIV, who was fighting Catherine, asked me to go to war and I decided to jump on it while Catherine was occupied with Louis) and was taking her down when I claimed the Domination victory.
This game was played on Noble with Pangaea landform. I like playing Pangaea maps because they allow you contact with all other civs early in the game and it makes the path to Domination faster. But my strategy should work well with any landform.
The only drawback in this strategy is that it relies a lot on keeping at least some of the cities you take over. This can be a problem if you are dealing with somebody like Monty, who will do everything he can to take back a city you capture, no matter what it takes, unless you catch him very early.
I'm probably going to try this strategy again on Prince level (my first game on that level) to see how it works.
And I'm sure a lot of you know about how effective Kublai can be in a Domination strategy, but I thought I'd share this as there's always new folks dropping in. I learned a lot from the vets here and I hope the newbies can learn from them, and maybe a little from me.
