Spaceship Victory in BTS

[TyranusBonehead]

Every time I've tried for a SS victory in BTS, I've lost due to one of the AI civs sneaking up on me and winning a culture victory.

I'd like to discuss some surefire tactics on how to best go for a SS victory. Apparently, the means I used in Civ4 vanilla and Warlords no longer applies. One thing that's changed is it takes much more research to be able to even begin building the parts. Another is, at least the way I play, I'm so committed to production and researching techs that I'm reluctant to go to war with anyone in order to take one of their cities, thereby preventing them winning a culture victory.

What do you guys think are some of the best ways to go for SS victory in BTS? Thanks.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

Gain and maintain a Tech Lead for as long as you can. You want to be the first to start building every piece, and the main/only way of doing this is to have the tech lead.

Gain hold of Copper, Aluminum, and a few other materials. I forget what they are, I don't have the civopiedia open. They'll bolster your production speed.

Remember, it doesn't have to be complete to fire off. You need one of every piece to launch into the stars. That's a slow, prone to fail rocket, though.

Also: While teching like a madman, don't neglect your production OR your military. You need the production for the parts/Apollo Project, and no military = dead capitol. Dead Capitol = No ship.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I need to read this site more often. I didn't realize that I could customize the SS, and launch with a minimum number of parts instead of building the entire ship. I don't think that would've saved me this last game, as it still takes time to reach Alpha Centauri.

I'm assuming you can't build parts after you've launched, so maybe I could go on the offensive to buy myself some time after the SS is on it's way.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

More parts = more speed and reliability.

Pre-BtS, you had to build them all, and it didn't have a chance to fail.

ANd that sounds like a good plan post-launch....if you can cover it. Start pumping out soldiers from the old part producers, eh?

 

[qwertz]

Check the victory screen more often. You should have foreseen that the guy is going for cultural victory long before you started to build your spaceship.

 

[MrCynical]

The quick fix for an enemy cultural victory is always going to be attacking and burning a culture city. You get the most warning of any victory type thanks to the victory panel, so they shouldn't be that hard to stop. Attempting to race your spaceship against culture is not a good move. It's easy to shave turns off a culture win, but hard to do that on a spaceship (and impossible once its off the ground).

 

[Quagga]

Comments toward the OP's circumstance:

Although racing ahead with tech help you that you beat cultural victory, I'm pretty sure that approach will not work every time. Also, it's a passive approach, since you are just hoping you win, rather than making it happen.

Skipping space ship parts can mean you won't reach the destination. A big gamble. The only thing you can short safely is the second engine. It doesn't buy much in terms of getting there faster, so leaving it out is probably a good bet. However, I'm often able to build engines while waiting for some other part to be buildable or to complete; in that case, build the second engine.

To ensure nobody beats you with culture victory, you first have to keep an eye on it. That means first meeting all the other civs. Some of the civs that go for culture victory are not aggressive about sending out caravels, so you can't count on meeting them unless you go looking. If you don't meet them, you won't see on the advisor screens that they are going for culture victory.

The key screen is the victory conditions screen (the fist icon). You have to take a look at the top culture cities regularly to see whether somebody is cranking out culture. Keep in mind that there are a bunch of culture wonders in the late ages, so this culture growth rate can suddenly accelerate.

You can also look at the culture graph to get an idea that a civ is cranking out culture and may be going for a culture victory. Unfortunately, if you don't have enough spy points, some civs won't show on it, so that's not foolproof.

Once you see that someone is going for culture, you have little choice other than to go kill one of their three culture cities. If you're lucky, one of them is on the coast. Attack with enough forces to capture and raze. You don't have any need to hold it. Get peace as soon as possible and go back to your space race. And go back to regularly checking the victory conditions: Somebody else might be going for culture victory.

If you ever see the message, "XXX City has achieved Legendary status," you are in trouble. The other two cities won't be far behind. You probably won't have enough time to launch an intercontinental invasion if you wait for this message to begin a build-up.

 

[r_rolo1]

The best way of avoiding a AI cultural is understanding from here the culture is coming. Most of the times you can severely decrease a AI cultural buildup just by cutting key resources ( if the AI is using a corp for culture, like Sushi ) or forcing them out of civics that give culture bonuses ( like free religion). Of course if that is not enough you can always bribe other AI to war or take the problem with your own hands ( nukes help a lot )

 

[Munch]

If you ever see the message, "XXX City has achieved Legendary status," you are in trouble. The other two cities won't be far behind. You probably won't have enough time to launch an intercontinental invasion if you wait for this message to begin a build-up.

I recently played a game where the Dutch were on the edge of cultural victory, but were on a different continent. I built up as large a stack of carriers (+ jet fighters) and transports (+ marines) as possible in the few turns that remained, along with a few bombarding escort ships, in a bid to attack and raze their capital, Amsterdam, which had already turned legendary. Question is: if I had succeeded in razing the already-legendary Amsterdam, would that be enough to stop them? Or would the fact that Amsterdam had at one point existed and reached legendary status still count towards their target of 3 such cities?

(Btw, the landing attack at Amsterdam was a total failure, as they had a stupid quantity of men in the city itself, and in the adjacent cities. I couldn't land next door to it and wait a turn to attack, because of a huge stack of tanks etc that my spy found nearby ready to crush anyone who tried to wait next to a city. You're right, it is too late to start building up to raze a city already with legendary culture it seems, as it will be defended to the utmost. I couldn't nuke it because of the ridiculous non-proliferation treaty.)

 

[qwertz]

Question is: if I had succeeded in razing the already-legendary Amsterdam, would that be enough to stop them? Or would the fact that Amsterdam had at one point existed and reached legendary status still count towards their target of 3 such cities?

You must own 3 legendary citys at the same for the victory.

 

[ShannonCT]

Another possibility for delaying an AI's culture victory without full scale war is the use of spies. Try to pick out the AI city that is getting most of its culture from town income and specialists (rather than wonders). Spam a couple dozen spies and use them to poison water, foment unhappiness, and destroy every improvement in the city's radius. With no towns/villages, little food and hammers, and no surplus population, the city's capacity for making culture will be greatly compromised.

 

[Chimera]

If you are able to see the ai's research because of passive espionage, you will see their research grind to a halt once they start going for a cultural victory. This can often give you a couple of turns head start over noticing the increased culture in the victory panel.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Thanks for the tips guys.

Basically, I have been too passive in keeping tabs on my AI opponents. Reluctance to go to war has made me into a poor leader, so that has to change. I've started over again. Currently I am the tech leader and am gradually massing troops in each city.

 

[Munch]

You must own 3 legendary citys at the same for the victory.

Ah, so if he hadn't had had dozens of Mech. Inf. and I had managed to raze Amsterdam, I could have won the game

Danke schön!

 

[jimbob27]

Yeah, the safest way is to ensure you have an army cabable of ruining any other AI's chances of victory.

I usually end up attacking at least one rival during the late stages of a space race victory.

 

[Quagga]

Ah, so if he hadn't had had dozens of Mech. Inf. and I had managed to raze Amsterdam, I could have won the game

One thing you can't do is rely on other AIs to take out another civ's culture cities. AFAIK, the AI is not programmed to prevent another civ's cultural victory. Even if you bribe them to go to war with the culture leader, chances are they'll attack weakly-defended and/or nearby border cities and won't touch the three culture cities.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

Since posting this I've played 2 games trying for SS victory. I lost both, one game I lost by 1 turn! The game was to end in 12 turns, and I didn't have enough time to build the second SS engine, so I launched with only one, and, you guessed it....ETA 13 turns....

Anyways, I had some more questions. How many cities do you guys have in a scenario where you go for SS victory? What do you do to reduce research time? (since that seems to be the stumbling block for me), I will trade for techs and have several cities producing research, put the research slider @ 100%, etc, but it still takes too long to research. I emphasize production in all my cities and can usually build the SS parts pretty quickly, but research time is killing me. In Warlords it took less time to research all the techs necessary to build the SS. I'm not sure I like the changes in BTS, but I have to adapt. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, by the way, I've been playing Unrestricted Leaders, with Darius (Fin/Org) and Holy Roman for the civ.

Also, I just updated to the 3.13 patch last night, and am getting ready to start a new game.