Modes of Victory

[stoutfellow]

Another one for Civ IV players, under the cut.

As You Know, Bob: There are six ways of winning a game of Civilization IV. Two are military in nature: Conquest, by conquering all of your rivals, and Domination, by taking control of sufficiently high percentages of the population and land area of the world. The others are Diplomatic (persuading enough of your rivals to vote for you for Ruler of the World), Cultural (getting three of your cities into the Legendary Culture bracket), Space Race (building the world's first starship), or Timer (running out the clock and winning on points).

Now, I've never won a Conquest victory. The main reason is that, thus far, I've always played with the same set of parameters, including Ancient Start (each civilization starts with minimal technology) and Continental (two or three main land masses, each with at least one civilization). Conquering a civilization on another continent requires a fairly high level of technology, and by the time you get there, enough of the world has been occupied that a would-be Conqueror will trip the thresholds for Domination before finishing off all rivals. Diplomatic victories have been rare, but I've had a fair number of Domination, Cultural, and Space Race victories.

Until a month or so ago, my standard for a good game was an adjusted score of 9000 points or more. Rather suddenly, though, I started consistently getting scores over 10K, and I've broken 20K several times. I think the main factors are that I've gotten a better handle on when and how to go to war, and how to use Specialists effectively. The problem is, I've been going almost exclusively with Domination and Cultural strategies, depending on what Leader I'm playing. Space Race and Diplomatic victories require some very advanced techs, and I can't seem to get there early enough to get a 10K-plus score.

So. Has anyone had any luck getting victories of those two types in the 19th or early 20th centuries? Are there particular Leaders (Alexander? Peter? Saladin?) whose Traits are conducive to this? I suppose a direct drive to Literature and the Great Library, followed by climbing the pure-science ladder, could make the Space Race possible fairly early... Any thoughts?

Comments

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I've never gotten around to figuring out how to use specialists at all; I just leave them as producers for the most part.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

One of the key events for me was the realization that any Specialist generates more Great Person points than any Wonder, with the exceptions of the Great Library and, arguably, the Parthenon. If you want to fine-tune which kinds of Great People are being generated, Specialists are the key. (Of course, I'm the type who institutes Caste System as soon as it becomes available...)

[filkferengi]

obLMB: folks from democracies have an easy time getting used to aristocracies when they're the aristocrats. :)