Opening Strategies for Conquest/Domination Victory on BTS

[dorkynorky]

I've been trying to learn the appropriate strategies for earning warfare dominated victories. I play BTS, continents, normal map size and speed, random leader/civ on Monarch level (currently, hoping to progress once I've gotten more of the game mechanics as second nature). Thanks to some very useful articles here I have gotten a good idea of how to employ a couple of tactics

1) an early rush or
2) a beeline to rifling tactic.

It is my impression that the first is good when there are a limited number of nearby civs and that the second works well if you can get a core civilization with 6-8 cities working.

Recently I was working on the rush tactic and had played several short games to get the mechanics down under various circumstances and I ran into a couple of starting positions to which the above 2 tactics don't seem to apply well and I was looking for some hints or links to other tactics that might serve well. These positions fall into 2 basic camps

1) being in a position where one is surrounded by 3-4 other civs (many which either seem to be aggressive or protective) and doesn't have copper and doesn't have the room to grow to more than 4 or 5 cities.

2) being on a continent with only one other civ which is either close or distant. If close, then one might destroy it in a rush but would then be left with no one to trade with until Optics. If far, then one might get a nice 8 city civ going, but meanwhile it would be my impression that given the advantages available to the AI at higher levels it might get a nice 12-14 city civ going that you couldn't beat so easily either economically or militarily. (I guess one could conduct a series of small campaigns to control this neighbors growth and pick up some gold from pillaging. Still, I'm not sure that under these conditions one could get trade for the lesser techs that one doesn't want to waste time researching. Gosh, it just occurred to me as I was typing this that in such a circumstance one might steal techs.)

Can anyone suggest tactics for these circumstances or give me links to appropriate articles.

Thanks

 

[MrCynical]

1)If you not only lack copper, but also iron and horses, then this is a Bad Thing (TM). The aim then has got to be to be merely to survive until at least Gunpowder if not Rifling before going on the offensive.

2)Unless it's Mansa Musa I will generally destroy a lone AI on an isolated continent with me in the early stages. This is simply because most AIs will refuse to trade tech if they only know of one other civ, so you lose nothing on that front.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Domination is better in the lower speeds. Epic or Marathon.

 

[ck07]

After 30 or so games on various levels, I haven't figured out how to get o a conquest victory without winning by domination first. I suppose you could if you razed everything you captured. Any other way?

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Yeah, taking vassals. If you accept everybody's capitulation as soon as it becomes available, sometimes you'll have to capitulate everybody to get enough land.

 

[Gwynnja]

After 30 or so games on various levels, I haven't figured out how to get o a conquest victory without winning by domination first. I suppose you could if you razed everything you captured. Any other way?

Choose a "terra" map. Its like a pangea where all the civs start on the same continent but it isn't the only landmass; there is a new world with barb cities. If you can wipe everyone out pre-astronomy, then you probably won't have a large enough land base for a domination victory.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Taking/keeping vassals is the fastest way to conquest. As long as everyone is your vassal or dead before you hit the domination threshold, you win conquest. I had it happen in one of my recent games in this forum .

 

[futurehermit]

re: conquest victory: I secure my own continent and then raze everything on the other continent with tanks/modern armor. works best when you are on the larger continent. otherwise take a vassal or two and then raze.

re situation 1: If you have iron/horses/ivory then you can still launch an offensive. Horse archers are severely underrated in these situations and a well-timed chariot rush can also work well. Elephants + catapults can take out pretty much anything pre-pikes. In these situations, bringing in war allies can also be helpful, so pay attention to diplomacy. If you don't have iron/horses/ivory/bronze then you are in a tight spot. Longbows + catapults can work. Otherwise muskets + trebs would be your best bet. Just manage diplomacy until you can strike. Take the softest target first so you can get the additional land you will need for a stronger assault.

re situation 2: Just claim your continent. Once you have all that land then you have what you need to overcome any tech disadvantage going forward. When you finally make contact with the other continent, just beeline techs they don't have and trade your way to parity if you are behind. Eventually you will be able to take over the tech lead because of your larger empire. Then just invade the other continent once you hit a tech lead either tanks + bombers or modern armor + stealth bombers.