Tech victory: why would I ever do this?

[bryanw1995]

I had a very different experience compared to the the OP. I finished a tech victory last night, and it was quite enjoyable. I played on a huge map, continents, Prince, Ramses, epic. I was alone on a continent, which suggested to me that this might be a good opportunity to go for the space race.

The AI pretty much left me alone. So, I didn't need to militarize myself. Except when the AI hassled me once in awhile, in which case I produced a few military units to play it safe and shut them up. I couldn't afford a diplo victory, so that wasn't an option. I had four CS allies until late in the game when I ran out of money. Same deal with cultural. I didn't feel I was on par with the AI. So, I spent my time and resources on research, and had fun. I busied myself beating my main AI opponent, who had bought off most of the city-states, before he could build the UN. Anyway, I had great fun.

By the way, if you have the hardware, huge and epic is the way to go.

what do you have that you can play a huge/epic map???? my i7 @ 4.0 gets bogged down on even large/epic, I typically won't do anymore more taxing than large/standard or standard/epic. do you work at ORNL or something?

 

[bryanw1995]

I agree Diplo is too easy... Tech too difficult.

It's not that it is too easy, as much as it is too early in the game. Not to mention once the UN has been built there is a freakin election every 8 turns, (or whatever it is). That and the AI actually playing the VC correctly, I was playing a game where Alexander was trying to win via Diplo. He had 30K gold in his stash and apparently forgot to bribe enough CS's to come to his side. (He only needed like 2 more CS's and the CS's I was allied with were just on this side of allied, he could have easily won).

I think that with the loss of Espionage that all victories take on a lackluster appearance because really there is nothing you can do other than declare war and stomp on a city or two to stop someone from winning any of the victory conditions. Don't have enough money to stop a diplo victory, stomp a CS or two. Don't have the science to beat a player to space, stomp on a city or two.

Espionage could add a great aspect to screwing up someone's relations with other CS's...

Not to mention there should be better mechanics like more influence with CS's if you are on the same continent, have roads attached, have been trading with them, build certain buildings etc. The fact that diplo victories are dependent on something like gold which almost every player is going to try and build up anyway makes them inherently broken.

I think that if Diplo victories were more difficult and time consuming and reliant in some way shape or form on some other aspact rather than gold the Tech victory would be better by default.

Not sure if it is compatible yet with the new patch but the City State Diplo Mod really adds a great aspect to the game if you haven't tried it.

you mean the one that thal uses in balance-combined? yeah that does a good job of increasing CS costs, though it doesn't nerf maritimes as much as the 1.135 patch did.

I think that they should allow the UN to vote on peacekeeping, war declarations, etc etc, and not allow you to go for a diplo victory until you get to future tech.

 

[alpaca]

That's pretty epic. How did you take Berlin?

It was lightly defended because I killed a large part of their army during the war. I had defeated the other two civs. You can read all about it here if you're interested

 

[Paul+C]

what do you have that you can play a huge/epic map???? my i7 @ 4.0 gets bogged down on even large/epic, I typically won't do anymore more taxing than large/standard or standard/epic. do you work at ORNL or something?

It's an ASUS G73JW laptop. A great rig for gaming, and reasonably affordable.

 

[Misotu]

Diplo victory is the most ridiculous victory condition. It was bad in Civ4 where it could have been called population victory more correctly, but now it's asinine and doesn't have anything to do with diplomacy at all.

I don't disagree that the diplomatic victory as it stands in Civ V is highly unsatisfactory, but I think you are being very unfair to the Civ IV diplomatic victory. Certainly population can play a role in IV but, equally, diplomatic victories are achievable right up to deity level playing OCC or with very few cities. To do this, many factors come into play - shared religion (sometimes), shared civics, shared wars, providing assistance, long-term trade deals, open borders, not pissing people off ... It may not be particularly difficult, but it's a fun game and is absolutely not simply a question of population.

In fact, the scope of what is available, diplomatically, in Civ IV is what makes the Civ V diplomatic victory so very disappointing. Its role in my games so far has been to force me to upset Alexander by buying some of his CS buddies to stop him from winning a diplo victory before I launch a space ship or get a cultural win - thus guaranteeing that he will declare war on me. So it does serve a purpose - but should really be renamed "economic" victory (SMAC anyone? ). I'm very hopeful that the developers will introduce a properly-thought-through diplomatic victory condition in the not too distant future.