What kind of victory to go for?

[King Kyle]

Hello out there all Civilization fans! It has been a while since I actually played any form of civilization up until V. I think I skipped IV. But the changes with 5 are fantastic!

Anyway, long time reader, first-time poster...

So in my game (Egypt) I'm in 1950, and I finally rid the continent of all other civilizations (Babylon, Persia, China, India) and then left facing only one opponent on another continent (Russia). After playing about 15 games over the last month I've usually one through time victory and score. Last week I finally achieved the space victory. Never done cultural, diplomacy, or domination.

I've never been in this position before where it is just me versus one other civilization for the next 100 years. I have my options with all different victories available. My score is 500 points more, two cities are working on the Apollo Project, and the Manhattan Project. I have completely unlocked THREE cultural branches, and have started with about five left in Tradition, and about three left in Honor. Right now if I won my score would not be in the top five of my Hall of Fame list. But I'm ahead militarily, culturally, have five city states aligned with me, and have built a crap load of Wonders -- Egypt, go figure!

So if you were me, in this position with 100 turns left, would you:

*Build the Manhattan Project and go for domination using nuclear weapons (never done that before)

*Build the United Nations which I'm one of Tech away from in about six turns and try for a diplomacy victory

*I'm a little short on aluminum so I'm not sure if the space victory is achievable, but I've kind of been there done that.

*I'm receiving a new cultural policy about every 20 turns so I doubt in 100 turns that I can unlock the other two unless I build a ton of cultural improvements.

ULTIMATE GOAL -- the highest score I've achieved which was 3500. So since all these options are available at my disposal, what will make the next 100 turns the most enjoyable for victory?

 

[smallfish]

Dominate.

But first, let that sweet Time victory come to you, just to hammer in on the Russians how horribly outclassed they are. Then go dom.

 

[King Kyle]

Dominate.

But first, let that sweet Time victory come to you, just to hammer in on the Russians how horribly outclassed they are. Then go dom.

how would you dominate across the ocean? Thanks for the reply by the way. Right now I have five bombers, four destroyers, and a bunch of mechanized infantry and a few modern armor. I have two great generals just sitting idle, and a great engineer to complete a wonder like the UN if I want or speed up the Manhattan Project instead of waiting 12 turns. Russia is running around with riflemen and frigates. I just peeked a golden age ended my 12 turns by crushing India that was giving me a hard time but now have a united continent. There is a city state within about five moves, but I don't think you can station your bombers in a liberated city state. Otherwise I need to build a carrier to knock down their city defenses and start a land war over on her continent. so in terms of domination which you:

*Build a nuke and send it over there?
*Continue to improve my military was something like Death Robots?
*Or go over there now and liberate a city state or two and have them help in the battle for ultimate domination?

 

[smallfish]

Are there any city-states where Russia is, or any piece of uninhabited land where you can pop a squat settler city? Wait, there is a city-state? Conquer it. Make it yours. That should provide you with the basic toehold on Russia's continent.

How much gold do you have in reserve now? Hopefully its in the 30,000+ range...

Does your list of wonders include Big Ben?

Have you unlocked Autocracy (ie. Fascism/Militarism) and Commerce branches?

If you have the resources to spare (with Fascism), my advice would be to build up a 6-unit fleet of Missile Cruisers and nuke subs, load them to the brim with nukes, and position them along Russia's coastal borders. Then rush a sizeable ground force to your toehold, and wait till you are aligned with your desired happiness/gold reserve amount before you start the war to end all wars.

Alternatively, you can just build up a fleet of stealth bombers (hopefully someplace with Barracks/Armory/Academy - you *will* want that city busting upgrades and air heal/logistics) and then take apart Cathy's cities one by one with combined arms.

 

[King Kyle]

To answer some of your questions, I have 10,000 in the treasury but I'm currently losing money (-50) because of my war with India. The three branches I unlocked were (Patronage -- I'm really liking this one every time I play, Freedom, Honor... so unfortunately no Autocracy). I opened up Tradition just to get the Wonder bonus and started with Honor knowing I was going to battle.

Yes I do have Big Ben. I think one of the city states asked me to build it. As a side note, the one thing I've learned in my most successful games is that if you're stuck on a continent with a bunch of friendly or neutral city states it is definitely worth your time to work the Patronage Tree. I don't mess with hostile or irrational and would not choose that route if I were stuck on a continent with those options. Instead I would conquer them, but with friendly cultural and maritime city states, I don't have to worry about granaries or even starvation during unhappiness periods. The Patronage tree is overlooked.

Anyway, here are couple of questions in my game. If I nuke her, as in past Civilization games, will all of the city states that I am now solidly aligned (180/60) start to get pissed at me??

The other question is hypothetically if I complete the UN, and win a diplomacy victory, but then want to go back and try for the domination victory, will they both show up in my Hall of Fame?

I think I know the answer to the question, but with 100 turns left I bet my chances of achieving the highest score are going to be through trying to achieve the domination victory and wipe her out. The science victory that I achieved in 2005 using Siam only got me a little over 2500 points. A domination game that I played on level III instead of Warlord got me 3500 points with Germany. Right now I'm sitting a little bit over 2000, and that's really my goal... Highest Score, because sitting around for the next 100 years on my own little continent with Russia lacking so far behind in technology and my military advisor telling me that her army looks lonely and sad, seems like a waste of time for 100 turns.

Thanks again!! This game is addictive. It's funny how up until about the Medieval Period, each turn go so fast, and then once you enter the Industrial and Modern era, you analyze every turn for like four minutes.

But I'm telling you, there is part of me that really wants to see a nuclear bomb go off right in Moscow. I just don't know what the ramifications will be on the city states.

 

[King Kyle]

OOPS! When I just reread my post, I said that I completed Honor, I meant Order. this cut down on my building maintenance with socialism as that was my biggest expense. I was just using all of the city states that were strategically placed as kind of a buffer between myself and India. I knew it was going to come down to the two of us. So the Patronage Tree with friendly cultural and maritime status was a no-brainer.

On a continental battlefront, I also think I can't understate the value of Bombers!! There is no easier way to get rid of some units off of your border and then they keep sending them and you keep knocking them down before you can get to their cities. Meanwhile you're racking up promotions. And hiding your melee troops behind your cities.

I still have not figured out the value in me antitank unit. Maybe if I was playing against Germany in the Panzer. But I'd much rather just take out a tank with a bomber or artillery/missile artillery. I think the antitank gun is useless. Kind of like the submarine.not the nuclear one which is awesome, but I just think that for your valued the destroyer is the best way to navigate the sea and be protected.

I love how each game is so different which is why I'm trying to finish this one was something exciting. Maybe I will drop a nuke.

 

[Muskie]

I tend to win easiest via diplomacy. You can build the UN, use the 10 G's to buy more friends and just vote yourself king.

 

[King Kyle]

I tend to win easiest via diplomacy. You can build the UN, use the 10 G's to buy more friends and just vote yourself king.

Totally agree with you, if I wanted to go for the easiest victory in the shortest amount of time I could be done by 1980 or 30 turns or I could take about 50 turns and go for the science victory. But I don't think that either one of those is going to give me the highest score like going for a complete domination victory would. Do you?

I would like to see the end of a diplomacy victory though at some point, but if it is as underwhelming as the space race, which just happens when you click the final piece and then your on the endgame screen (I miss the videoof the launch from previous Civilization games).

Yes, this would be very easy to do. But I'm going for my high score.

 

[smallfish]

ie. Anti-tank - they upgrade nicely to gunships, and gunships make super field recon units for dat ability to stay on top of/cross mountain tiles.

If Russia has a lot of mountains and you have a lot of land that jet fighters can't cover (more than six tiles), they make for boss recon units. Also the occasional fodder for roving fighter/bombers the AI might have in the fog.

As for nuking Russia, UNLESS your nuke happens to catch a CS border in the blast, no, there will be no shortchanging of influence (ie. City-States Grow Worried). That only applies to Russia (you nuked her!) and the other major civs (warmongering menace). I'll advise that you get out of the -50 income before starting a major war with Russia, unless you are certain that you have the upper hand in military units. Even then I would advise against it - AI might decide to pop up a surprise or two in the form of a nuke on your beachhead, and that will be that.

Speaking of which, has Cathy gotten past Manhattan Project yet?

 

[smallfish]

I would like to see the end of a diplomacy victory though at some point, but if it is as underwhelming as the space race, which just happens when you click the final piece and then your on the endgame screen (I miss the videoof the launch from previous Civilization games).

IIRC, you do get to see the spaceship launching if you are fast enough to click off the victory screen.