Victorious Civ players win first, and then boot up Civ...

[SquirrelCensus]

When playing a game of Civ IV, is the outcome of win or lose (and the kind of victory) determined from how you play right from the beginning of the game, or is there some leeway in the options you have to win? For example, if you want to win a domination victory, do you have to start playing a domination victory from the very first turn, or is there a period of time in which, say, a spaceship or cultural victory is also viable? If so, is there a rough benchmark for which your victory/type of victory is assured?

Side note: Do you victorious warriors choose what type of victory you want before the games begins, or do you go with the flow and adjust your gameplay accordingly?

From what I understand this also varies massively based on difficulty, at higher difficulties one needs to adhere to a much more rigid formula to win. This board seems to be full of Immortals who win conquest victories by 1000 AD...For what its worth, I play at noble.

 

[digitalcraft]

You don't have to, but the game sometimes goes better if you do.

The one caveat I would say is if you're going for cultural victory you generally have to plan it.

I usually see what is going on in the game before deciding what to do. There's so much variation game to game that it really does make a difference. Do you have 5 religions competing on your continent? One religious bloc? Are you sharing a continent with monty and shaka? All these can make the game go very differently.

 

[RD-BH]

On Noble you will have quite a bit of leeway as long as you outTech the AI.
You can waste alot of hammers on Noble before you endanger yourself.

Choosing Victory Condition then catering a game to that VC can be FUN 8)
... but I prefer as much random in map/scenario setup as possible.
... I turn off random events and huts. (I don't like that kind of random)

On Noble, you should be able to choose VC and play quickly to it.
Just adapt to the situation as you play. (should also be doable up through Monarch)

I think you just need to keep moving forward:
... more food
... more hammers
... more science
... more ???, etc
Ride the wave to victory 8)

 

[xenex]

The only victory type you might want to plan ahead of time is culture all the others can be started as you play the game.

It's usually not a good idea to set up a victory type before you start the game, for example you say your gonna go for a domination win before you start the game and once you start you find out your isolated until Astronomy, then your pretty screwed, yes you could still do Domination but its going to be difficult and a late win date.

The map is what usually gives you the victory type, if for example you have 2 close neighbors and you started with strategic resource then chances are you will take those 2 neighbors out and then you see you still have so many units and the other civs aren't too far out, so you decide to build up a few more units and then take out people.

 

[noto2]

It depends on the map. I may have a victory condition in mind early in the game, but never right at the beginning

 

[Verarde]

I think on lower difficulty levels, you can play for long periods of time before figuring out what VC you want, e.g. deciding between Space or Diplo. Or...<cough>...time.
But even for Conquest, Domination, Cultural, no matter what level, you should prep for those early. The higher the difficulty, the earlier.

On higher difficulty levels, you should figure out what VC to aim for quickly, then aim for that.

 

[vincentz]

"Give a man a civ 5 and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to play civ 4 and you feed him for a lifetime."

 

[rfcfanatic]

I usually decide for Domination victory when I start, but when I become bored in the late phase of the game, I tend to re-decide for Space Race, Cultural or Diplomatic victory.