[NFP] What's the best way to get a Score Victory on standard settings with NFP & GS?

[CoconutTank]

I don't think there'll be an elimination thread for Score Victory, and I don't know if any particular civ has an advantage for ScrV either. I'm mostly curious since I have yet to win a ScrV on standard settings, and am wondering if I will actually ever do so w/out cheating the settings.

ScrV is different from other victory types since it takes a lot of control away from the player. A ScrV (on standard settings) is won by having the greatest score when 500 turns have passed, and currently there's no way for players to change the turn limit after the session has started.

I'm not sure that getting a high score will be the main difficulty here. I think the main problem will be in preventing any player from winning before the turn limit is reached.

One can prevent oneself from winning by just avoiding most win conditions. Don't do any space race projects. Leave foreign capitals alone. Delete GWAMs or any other source of Great Works of Art as they come by. Don't convert beyond one's borders (but do note that getting a religion is worth a lot of points). Consistently vote onself down on diplo victory points (lol).

Pseudo domination could partially help. Leaving each other civ with only their capital means they lack the means to do much, so they're unlikely to finish space race projects, muster a large army, or build districts. But Religious Victory and Cultural Victory can end the game early at that point, and it's not possible to shut off passive religious spread and tourism.

I'm curious about what thoughts and ideas y'all have!

 

[Lupine]

I have never won a score victory.
Without turning off victory conditions I don't see how it would be possible. You would basically go for a domination win and not compete it, and ride til time expires.

 

[playshogi]

It seems you have the basics down, like deleting GWAM's. To play with Apocalypse Mode on, though, you have to avoid triggering the asteroid storm which means not polluting (I think). You have to militarily dominate the AI, (more cities for you means higher score), so they don't pollute, either. Play as China to build the Great Bath and use the floodplains +1 faith strategy with soothsayers.

 

[CoconutTank]

Oh, I don't know if including optional modes like Apoc and Secret Societies would require consideration as well, though I agree that meteors coming down would make things much harder.

Is it possible to turn off passive religious spread and tourism? The problem with pseudo dom is that once the other civs are at few cities, they become easy to enthrall with religion/culture, so waiting might not work at that point.

 

[lotrmith]

Expand like crazy (high score) but don't build any tourist attractions (culture improvements, resorts).

Found a religion and defend it within your borders.

Don't DOM unless to take out a science leader or to pillage spaceports. This may be the most difficult task, but is primarily accomplished with spies.

 

[MrCynical]

I suspect preventing the cultural victory from triggering will be the biggest problem. Passive religion spread is so slow as to be almost irrelevant - it's never, ever going to convert an AI with its own religion by itself.

You're going to have to have to keep the AIs weak to stop them winning space, which does tend to mean you'll be much larger and inevitably generating more tourism. Best you can do is avoid building theater squares, tourism related wonders etc.

Diplo wins by the AI might also become an issue if the game runs for a long time. It's easier to avoid this if you keep disasters on a low setting, as then there are fewer aid request missions to generate points.

 

[playshogi]

Oh, I don't know if including optional modes like Apoc and Secret Societies would require consideration as well, though I agree that meteors coming down would make things much harder.

Is it possible to turn off passive religious spread and tourism? The problem with pseudo dom is that once the other civs are at few cities, they become easy to enthrall with religion/culture, so waiting might not work at that point.

Turning off victory conditions ruins the effect of winning by score. Build lots of cultural improvements, because culture is your defense against losing to an AI culture victory. Absolutely never build anything that produces tourism and you cannot win culture victory. As long as you found your own religion you can't lose a religious victory, but do not spread it unless necessary to defend against losing or play continents map to reduce passive spread. Diplomatic might be toughest to defend against, let the AI build the wonders that provide diplomatic victory points and raze that city if necessary. You could also play on settler level if you don't want to deal with a competitive AI at all. If you accidentally discover a relic that gives tourism, sell it to the AI. Play online speed, only 250 turns required.

 

[JesseS]

You could use cultists to completely eliminate remaining civs, without actually capturing their capitals, founding a religion, or launching the space projects. Make sure to avoid tourism but pump faith up. Online (or at least quick) speed would be required for sanity.

 

[Enfant_Sauvage]

Winning a Score Victory on Deity would be a nice challenge to try, 500 turns seem really long. Preventing Culture and Religious victories seem to be easy, I think the real challenge is to prevent Diplomatic and Science victories.

 

[Equilin]

Winning a Score Victory on Deity would be a nice challenge to try, 500 turns seem really long. Preventing Culture and Religious victories seem to be easy, I think the real challenge is to prevent Diplomatic and Science victories.

It's not too much of a challenge to prevent DipV and SciV if you destroy most of the AIs (without getting domination of course); the catch is it's difficult to prevent Culture/Religion victory and Diplo/Science victory at the same time.