What is the easiest way to win?

[umanwizard]

Besides histograph and Diplomacy because I think diplomacy is cheap. otherwise khofi annan (sp?) would rule the world. So besides these two what is the easiest to win.

 

[handy900]

Well I usually win by domination because I don't have the patience for the others & like you I think diplomacy is the cheap way to win. I can usually win by domination quicker than via spaceship, and spaceship is kinda boring to me.

 

[zorven]

Well, the easiest for me are domination and culture. But, I turn off spaceship and diplomatic. I suppose of all the options, diplimatic is probably the easiest.

 

[Baltimoretrader]

Dominate them. The easiest way for me to win is to establish communication and trade with the neearby civs. Attack the weakest one and take their land. Most of the time I capture their bigger cities, or the ones with good resources, and raze the others. Sometimes the cities I capture flip back a couple of turns later, so razing them prevents the civ I'm fighting from getting them back. You'll double your size and the other civs will struggle to keep up. Don't be afraid to trade away tech, it keeps the AI on the same level as you for future trades ......

 

[cgannon64]

I think Domination and 100k culture are the easiest.

 

[thedirk]

When I play a general game (not targeting any one victory conditions but just developing and expanding as I can) I find that I usually win by either 100K culture or domination.

 

[sysyphus]

I find conquest the easiest. Build a couple of cities, build massive numbers of units, never leave despotism and get on with it.

 

[Leeblan3]

I dont use diplomacy or space race either. There is just something about seeing all those hours come down to a vote, or the lack of a resource that allows someone else to build the ship faster. At least with histograph or domination, you COULD do it without aluminum, and you could definately do it even if none of te other Civs would vote for you!

 

[barron of ideas]

How big a map? What difficulty level? Sometimes, which and how many AIs are you playing against (and what UU and attributes do you have)? Are you on a giant single continent, several separate land masses, or a bunch of small islands? Circumstances alter cases. Raging barbs could hinder your expansion. No barbs at all cuts back your ability to learn technologies from huts, expecially if you are expansionist.

Do you prefer a builders game, or do your interests fall in the military expansion area? What are you good at?

In short, without a lot of information, it is difficult to say what is the easiest victory condition. On a tiny map, with one opponent, if you are on the same land mass, conquest is likely the easiest, at least at low difficulties. (Diety may find you the one eliminated, as they start with a lot of units and settlers, and after the available space is occupied, are likely to come for you.)

 

[sysyphus]

Originally posted by Leeblan3
I dont use diplomacy or space race either. There is just something about seeing all those hours come down to a vote, or the lack of a resource that allows someone else to build the ship faster.

That's what would make it more of a challenge: securing the uranium without it being within your borders.

Space race is definitely my favourite, though the one I find the hardest.

I agree with your view on diplomatic victory though, all one has to do is build a big military really.

I don't like histograph much myself, just racking up a score doesn't appeal to me, I like having a fixed goal.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Discounting Diplo, I think Spaceship is the simplest on a normal map with plenty of civs. On a Pangaea, conquest is easier.

I'm surprised seeing more votes for domination than for conquest. To pull of domination, you need to keep all those corrupt cities, which pin down troops that could be thrown to the front if you were simply burning everything in your path to a conquest win.

 

[Lord Beverage]

Definetly spaceship. I play Monarch-Emperor and with the exception of one game I've never even had an opponent start thier ship by the time I've launched.

As a builder who generally plays on huge maps Domination would probably be the hardest, not in difficulty, but in surviving the massive ammount of tedium that would entail.

 

[Kangaroo Boy]

I agree with you, Last Conformist- A conquest is much quicker and less tedious than a domination, specially on a larger map. Churn out those units from your core area(s) and burn everything in your way to the ground (except maybe some key cities with useful great wonders). Then again, most often you'll miss out on a lot of score (and culture if you keep those 95% corrupt cities).

 

[SinisterDeath]

You guys are wrong IMHO...conquest is when you take every last city, domiantion is the 70% land mass, 70% pop. thing (whatever the numbers are I'm not sure). I pin my troops down by winning on conquest, I ALWAYS uncheck the domination victory condition. I capture the AI cities, stockpile and heal my troops, and rush build a library (I like the Turks) to stop the flip.

I usually play Pangaea, Monarch, normal climate. This way you get lots of happy citizens (after the library, comes a marketplace unless it's right at the front, when I produce barracks instead). This way, you own the map, you have lots of science and production, and lots of fun captured slave workers to whip around clearing jungle/forest, railroading etc.

 

[The Last Conformist]

You get even more slaves by razing enemy cities.


If one's doing a Modern Ages conquest, there's no way having piles of ubercorrupt cities are going to help. They won't finish building anything before the game's over.

 

[nalves]

diplo or culture are the easy ones ... but not fun to finish the game that way

 

[Black Waltz]

How is Diplomacy 'cheap'?

 

[nalves]

don't be polite ... be gracious to all civs.
Build the UN and go to elections

 

[Ville]

In my all Monarch games which I have won (3 games) I won by Space Race, for me it's easiest, I'm 25% warmonger, 75% builder.

 

[amirsan]

I think 100k is the hardest and Diplomatic is the easiest but the last desperate option if all the others are taken away. My personal easiest is Space Race.