Taking Capitals and the Warmonger Penalty

[meteo63]

Hey, when is it a good idea to take an opposing civ's capital to eliminate them from the game? I know, when you are trying to do a domination victory, it is probably a good idea, but what about for the other victory paths like culture or science?

I'm in a game as the Mayans and the only other civ on my continent are the Danes. I was planning on doing a science victory, but he declared war and I've already captured one of his cities. Should I go ahead and finish him off by taking Copenhagen (the capital), or maybe not? It turns out my army is much better than his, so maybe I can turn this science lead into a domination victory. But if I'm still planning on a science win, how much should I be concerned about being called a :warmongering menace" and getting a diplomatic penalty with the other civs? Also, I haven't explored the other landmasses yet, so I've only met Kamehameha and Harald so far... Does that have any effect on the warmonger penalty?

 

[Esoteric Arcane]

Rule of thumb in video games, if you have the chance take it. I personally play a peaceful game but its been hard to keep people from Declaring war on me randomly. Anyways. Your troops get better if you can protect them when fighting enemy nations, so why not keep a war going? There really is no reward in peace in Civ 5 compared to the gains of war.

Plus if you have their capital I'm pretty sure that takes them out from any of the victory conditions.

If someone can verify that, let me know.

 

[EwIck]

reasons to capture capitals:
1- winning a domination victory
2- preventing a constestant player/AI from winning a domination victory
3- duh. resources! and wonders!
4- just for the fun of

You need not worry about the war mongering thing -*they* declared on you. You could finish them off, or you could tear them apart to force them to give you everything for peace. Some turns later they could become your best trade partner

 

[Esperr]

Capitols are always worth it, there always well developed and on really good land(ussually), hence why domination is pretty much the easiest way to win, the game just snowballs once you start steamrolling fools.