Space Race

[Gandhi]

How do you win with the Space Race victory condition?

I can never get the SS parts built fast enough to win in the 100 turns that I have. Is there some way that I can do things early on in the game to prepare for a Space Race SS building?

I end up winning by either conquest or Diplomatic UN victories, normally.

 

[Xerhid]

There are SOOOO many possibilities here and without further info, I can only give a few tips. I have to assume you are playing on a pretty low difficulty setting, because AI usually finish the Race before 2050.

-Make sure you have a handful of specialized monster cities in your empire. A few producing 100 hammers each should be the minimum. Make sure all of those cities have all of the production upgrades.
-You probably are not researching fast enough. Be sure you have many cottages going on the cities that can support them.
-Make sure you have enough cities by the endgame. You should probably have around 10 at a minimum to be able to build the program, support research, maintain military, etc.

Again, it sounds to me as if you are playing below Noble, so perhaps there are other general mistakes you are making throughout the game.

 

[xGBox]

I would say building The Space Elevator to be maybe 60% vital to a space race victory. It helps you build all spaceship parts +50% faster for all cities, which is great if you're lagging behind the race, or if you want to maintain a lead.

I've done it a few times within the 100 turns, but your cities need to be completely focused on building spaceship parts. You can't be fighting a war or something or you're screwed.

 

[Andrei_V]

You have 460 turns on normal speed, actually. If you want to finish earlier, just start earlier. Build more cottages to speed up research, more mines for production. You don't need too many cities, actually. Two good production centers (80 hammers minimum) would be enough, the rest must be able to build casings and thrusters during the time you develop the last techs and build the principal parts.

If you play at the difficulty level of Prince or below, you can just produce 1 or 2 workers for each city, and automate them. This is usually enough.

The principal source of your income and science are cottages, the principal source of production, mines (and later windmills/ lumbermills). You also need enough food from farms to support the population working on mines and cottages.

 

[Gandhi]

I am playing on Warlord, and I am rarely at war when I am building the parts. It would seem that I need to build more cottages.

 

[CoolCat04]

what are cottages???

 

[Krazikarl]

You can probably get by with 1 super production city and 1 ok production city as long as you have aluminum. Your issue sounds like research. You need to get the tech in order to build the parts, and thats usually your limiting factor as opposed to manufacturing speed. For example, I won a game last night by space race in 1878 on a standard map and size because I was able to build an effective research machine, while I only had 1 city in the 100 hammer/turn range.

 

[tombeef]

personally I think the space elevator is overrated, it takes up too much time compared to the advantage it gives you. At least it does for me, since I have many parts done if i'm going for a space victory by the time I can get the space elevator.

I think most people agree that Space Victory is like the easiest way to win. You see people completing it in the 1600 and 1700's. Just get some cities with excellent producion, and start building. Also, give the longest to build parts to your highest production cities, and the shorter to build parts to your lower production cities, that way the parts finish the quickest, and all at about the same time.

"The significance of man is that he is insignificant and aware of it."

 

[Krazikarl]

Elevator is good if used correctly. The key is, of course, to jump to robotics early in the space race and then go back and pick up the SS parts. Build the elevator while you are doing the research and then you can whip out the parts real fast. It usually takes little time to build since you should have gold and Universal Suffrage to purchase it with.

If you go rocketry, satellite, then go through to robotics, its a lot less useful. If done properly it can save you ~10 turns, which is a big deal given the number of games I've lost by less turns than that.

I personally find Domination easiest. You just stay in the "crush" mindset all game long. Space race requires you to be aggressive at times to seize enough land, but you also have to have a very fast tech pace (hard on high levels). Balancing building parts, heavy research, and defense late in the game is often tricky.

 

[kordo]

man, idk if its just me, but ive palyed through civ 4 two times, and i haven't gone to war yet. its freaking me out, next time i play im going take control!

 

[Nestorius]

You really just need one monster city, as most of the parts are unique.

Space Elevator is a waste of time and production unless you can build it quick.

Getting Computers early is helpful, as the extra production and 25% increase in research will be helpful in outteching the AI.

Industrialization is good to have early, too, as you want to see if you have aluminum.

But, basically you want to beeline to Rocketry, and start the Apollo program right away. Then devote your entire civ to research or wealth so you have a 90% to 100% research rate.

If you need to practice, start a new game in a later era.

 

[Willem]

what are cottages???

It's one of the improvements that your Worker can build on your city tiles. It will give you some commerce and in time it will grow. There's 4 stages it goes through I believe, the last one being a Town, and each one gives you more commerce as it grows.