Strategy discussion

[adhiraj.bose]

I've been trying different approaches to domination with different civs trying to follow the strategy guide recommendations for expansion. So far I've managed domination with only two civs on Viceroy with RFC vanilla *( BTS version is updated to 3.19 ), Russia and Arabia. All around 1880-1890. I managed diplo victories earlier with France and Arabia. Since then I tried working out India, Japan, England and Spain for domination and Rome. But without success. What killed me off with India, Spain and Japan was stability and in Spain's case lack of vassals ... . With Arabia it was easy, in fact I think I would have won it sooner if I started settlements across the Americas after conquering Iberia and vassalizing the Aztec and Inca. But I do remember failing once even with the Arabs *( and their vast stability area ) . With Rome and England I got stuck after the late 19th century. With England I was conquering till about 1940, but couldn't get more than 24.6% at my peak. Same with Japan, only I didnt conquer much. India collapsed by the mid 18th century because of a weak economy. I want to know if there's a generic strategy for getting a domination victory and whether only some civs are predisposed for a domination victory, because it certainly seemed that way when comparing the different civs. The main reason I tried India was because of suggestions earlier about the advantages of Cristo Redentor, since India basically starts out with that advantage, and because it has the Mausoleum UB I thought this would be the ideal imperialistic civ ! Alas, it's horrible land pulls it down. Any suggestions to play India with different victory scenarios would be welcome, because honestly the UHV for INdia is a drag.

 

[skyclad]

Well, there are some civilizations, I don't remember which exactly but India might be one of them, which have a hidden negative stability modifier. Babylon and Mayans are among them (they 99% of the time collapse, which makes me think Egypt might have this penalty as well since they also always collapse).

I think India can do for example space race. You know not to go over 10 cities if you don't want a reduced science rate right? So in India you can fit 6 cities with no overlap and no waste, so after that you can settle say phillipines and jayakarta and then two more, and ramp up the science.

For domination I would suggest France! Look at how huge their stability map is, and what good land it is. North africa, basically the entire north america, europe... Spain is another good contender who also have for example the phillipines and most of south america in their zone.

Take a look at my indian city placement, I dont think they are bad cities. Calcutta gets founded on the west coast on the tile that doesn't have corn on it... I dont remember so just load a late game save to find out where it shows up.

 

[adhiraj.bose]

Thanks for the tip and pics. Usually, I build the South Delhi with the iron in it's cross culture. I recently did Space Race with India, I am not sure I managed the techs properly and I was basically experimenting in that game to see how capable Indian cities can get and how useful Caste system is in speeding up Science. Turns out, with bureaucracy and the right improvements, South Delhi can get up to 185 hammers ! Takshashila got 92 hammers in that game mostly because Persian culture ate up a lot of it's Western Hinterland. I built Mumbai, Cochin, Dhaka and Pitikapuram, all with decent production. Settled Bandar seri for oil and Canberra *( turned out Kolhapur in the game ) for Uranium, Coal and diamonds. Aluminum was available in Cochin. I finished the Space Race by 1975, though I still think I could have achieved it 25 turns earlier if I focussed on commerce earlier and made libraries and univs earlier, also if I didn't get 3 plagues ! ~X( ..

Thing is about all my India attempts is, before collapsing I had 15% surface area and the largest army in the world by around 1700-1750. I consider this a threshold of sorts for most of my domination games. Starting at 15% I manage to accellarate to 19-21% around the early 19th century and from that point getting 25-26% becomes doable. I usually don't fail at the population goal. But as India the troubles started with a declining share of world population when the European civs spawned. I think you're right about the negative modifier but I would think it applies to all ancient civs *( pre-viking ) since in practically every game these civs collapse.

 

[adhiraj.bose]

I'm going to try France definitely, not necessarily because of their large stability area, but because of their special ability. Almost everybody wants to be France's vassal if it's strong enough ^_^. I got Khmer, Aztec, Inca, Mali and later on even the likes of Germany as my vassal ! :O. That game was a diplo victory. But could've easily become a domination victory if I kept playing. I didn't settle Australia in that game I still got 18% of world surface in 1784 *( year I won the victory ) .

 

[Zaanzie]

Can someone explain me how to quickly take all China's good cities as Japan. It seems I fail every time so I thought maybe someone else can give me some tips. I'm trying to have all the nice cities by 700 AD, like this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=222336&d=1248651199

 

[blizzrd]

Whip. Whip. Whip.

 

[Zaanzie]

So I managed to get the cities (see pic), but I discovered Aznan is in Mongol spawning zone... Any ideas how I can destroy the city and build another one to the SE (I think it's called Dairen). I tried to give it to the Khmer and immediately attack it, but I didn't get the option to raze the city =(

Note: Beijing was razed by barbarians but I built it in 710 AD.

 

[skyclad]

Hey i realize this is way late cos ur post is a month old, but for anyone who didn't know you can "liberate" cities under F1 --> fist icon. I just discovered this myself after a long time of playing, this has made them independent every time i've tried it but it might be that it goes back to the original civ if it is still alive. Worth a shot in these kind of situations anyway (otherwise theres always world builder )

 

[Zaanzie]

Can you liberate city per city? or can you only liberate the cities that want to be independent?

 

[baseballpie]

I think you can only liberate cities on a different continent. And I think it has to be all at once. (But I also think you can liberate cities in revolt)

 

[skyclad]

That is true in the real civ game. In Rhyes, it lets you do it city per city. I dont know which cities exactly gets chosen as elligible but i think its not limited to other continents. Its not like in the real civ game where u spawn a new civ etc the city just goes native.

 

[ales_]

the city just goes native.

Not native, but independent.

 

[Hercules90]

whoops wrong place.