MeteorPunch
#WINNING
This thread is for tips for domination and conquest victories on a standard sized map in Civ 4. Why? Because I'm finding it *much* harder than Civ 3. I'm a little frustrated too, because with the emphasis being put on less number of cities, this makes expansion sometimes costly, even so much that it would be better to stay a small empire. Thus, domination becomes an even greater challenge.
This is for the Standard size map, the "real game." I enjoy small maps more, but for GOTM and SGs, which I play, most are playing standard. It's much easier to win on small maps because of less opponents and less challenges of cost which are listed here.
The goal is to get these victories as fast as possible, which means nonstop war or taking breaks from war only so that when you war again, you will be even more successful.
Some war challenges
1. The cost of upgrades. This is not a new one, however it seems gold is at a short supply and upgrades have become a little more expensive. You need the most up to date units to war effectively.
2. The cost of maintaining an advancing army. There is now a cost for having units in enemy territory.
3. Number of cities cost. The number of cities you have will take a toll on your bank account. This hurts the domination victory condition. Ancient age cities, and some others are not improved enough to pay for themselves, thus taking over some cities is not worth their price, but necessary to win.
4. Distance from capital cost. This one is killer. The further the city you've conquered is from the capital, the more it costs to maintain it. Pretty much the same as #3.
5. Siege Units. These units are invaluable for reducing casualties. They become casualties themselves however, when causing collateral damage vs. a city's units. Seige weapons need to be constantly resupplied to the front lines.
6. City resistance. There is a number of turns that appears once you capture a city before the resistence lets up. I don't know if this can be changed, nor any other factors such as whether a resisting city will revolt from you soon.
7. City unhappiness. After the resistence is over, the city of foreign population will resent you as long as you are at war with their civ. Is starving still a viable option?
8. City flips. A city is vulnerable to flipping to another civ if being pressured by cultural border (and probably other factors). Once I was taking cities from "Civ B." Soon after, while still at war with "Civ B," two of these cities flipped to "Civ C's" strong culture.
9. Science. You need to spend so much gold being at war that it's easy to fall behind in the tech race and soon you could be facing superior units. It may still be worthwhile to beat a civ down, take their tech, then beat them down some more after the 10-turn peace has expired.
10. Gold. A steady supply does not start coming in until your cottages develop and you have built markets or grocers.
11. No disband option. Unless you are really good at figuring out exactly which improvements are inside a city by looking at the town's city graphics, you can't disband a worthless town after capture. Make sure you know whether you want to keep a city before you use your final attacker against it.
Strategy Ideas
1. 1-Ring strategy.
- Around your capital, build a ring of 4-6 cities, whatever fits and grabs good land so that they are close, but not overly overlapping, say 15+ tiles each.
- Develop these cities and build a good military.
- Start taking over and hopfully the AI will still be somewhat in the "expansion phase."
2. Civ 3-style upgrade strategy.
- Find a good unit or combo of units for your purposes. For example, Horse archers, Swordsmen, Longbows, and Catapults.
- Research the necessary techs for these, then turn off science, using gold to upgrade prebuilt units.
3. No health improvements strategy.
- No building buildings like granaries, aquaducts, markets, harbors etc. for their additional health benefits, assuming that you will capture these health resources from your neighbors and have them connected to your empire for enough health to "get by" on.
Please feel free to add ideas and correct anything I have wrong here. I just wrote from memory everything I could think of in my limited play experience (~40 hours). I'm interested in learning as much as possible to enhance my warmongering, which I feel has been given the shaft, so to speak, in favor of peaceful play. Please don't post just to insult my or others' opinions.
This is for the Standard size map, the "real game." I enjoy small maps more, but for GOTM and SGs, which I play, most are playing standard. It's much easier to win on small maps because of less opponents and less challenges of cost which are listed here.
The goal is to get these victories as fast as possible, which means nonstop war or taking breaks from war only so that when you war again, you will be even more successful.
Some war challenges
1. The cost of upgrades. This is not a new one, however it seems gold is at a short supply and upgrades have become a little more expensive. You need the most up to date units to war effectively.
2. The cost of maintaining an advancing army. There is now a cost for having units in enemy territory.
3. Number of cities cost. The number of cities you have will take a toll on your bank account. This hurts the domination victory condition. Ancient age cities, and some others are not improved enough to pay for themselves, thus taking over some cities is not worth their price, but necessary to win.
4. Distance from capital cost. This one is killer. The further the city you've conquered is from the capital, the more it costs to maintain it. Pretty much the same as #3.
5. Siege Units. These units are invaluable for reducing casualties. They become casualties themselves however, when causing collateral damage vs. a city's units. Seige weapons need to be constantly resupplied to the front lines.
6. City resistance. There is a number of turns that appears once you capture a city before the resistence lets up. I don't know if this can be changed, nor any other factors such as whether a resisting city will revolt from you soon.
7. City unhappiness. After the resistence is over, the city of foreign population will resent you as long as you are at war with their civ. Is starving still a viable option?
8. City flips. A city is vulnerable to flipping to another civ if being pressured by cultural border (and probably other factors). Once I was taking cities from "Civ B." Soon after, while still at war with "Civ B," two of these cities flipped to "Civ C's" strong culture.
9. Science. You need to spend so much gold being at war that it's easy to fall behind in the tech race and soon you could be facing superior units. It may still be worthwhile to beat a civ down, take their tech, then beat them down some more after the 10-turn peace has expired.
10. Gold. A steady supply does not start coming in until your cottages develop and you have built markets or grocers.
11. No disband option. Unless you are really good at figuring out exactly which improvements are inside a city by looking at the town's city graphics, you can't disband a worthless town after capture. Make sure you know whether you want to keep a city before you use your final attacker against it.
Strategy Ideas
1. 1-Ring strategy.
- Around your capital, build a ring of 4-6 cities, whatever fits and grabs good land so that they are close, but not overly overlapping, say 15+ tiles each.
- Develop these cities and build a good military.
- Start taking over and hopfully the AI will still be somewhat in the "expansion phase."
2. Civ 3-style upgrade strategy.
- Find a good unit or combo of units for your purposes. For example, Horse archers, Swordsmen, Longbows, and Catapults.
- Research the necessary techs for these, then turn off science, using gold to upgrade prebuilt units.
3. No health improvements strategy.
- No building buildings like granaries, aquaducts, markets, harbors etc. for their additional health benefits, assuming that you will capture these health resources from your neighbors and have them connected to your empire for enough health to "get by" on.
Please feel free to add ideas and correct anything I have wrong here. I just wrote from memory everything I could think of in my limited play experience (~40 hours). I'm interested in learning as much as possible to enhance my warmongering, which I feel has been given the shaft, so to speak, in favor of peaceful play. Please don't post just to insult my or others' opinions.
