Defeat without a reason?

[thargor6]

Hi, I'm asking question for my wife, I have the game not yet, but probably will buy it as well.

But, there seems some strange behaviour she faced all the sessions she played so far. I'm not sure if it is a bug, but it makes the game nearly unplayable for a novice.

She is playing the session for a while, all looks very good (she is not a pro, but does play the game not that bad from what I can see), and then: the game suddenly says, she was defeated.

There is no reason displayed, and when we reload the game (at state one round before) and look through all the goals, she is either leading or not that bad that she will lose in the next round.

It is absolutely unclear what is causing the defeat, and because of this, she can not improve anything.

Any ideas? Is this a bug? Or does anybody know how to see what causes the defeat?

[BIGmog]

Not a bug. Just poor design.

You probably lost because another Civ won by religon.

Load the last save and check the World Rankings (the button is in the top right corner)

[Viper]

Yes this is something they need to fix.. The win screen should tell you how the winner won. I am sure they will patch it. It should at least say something like cultural victory or religion victory if nothing else.

[Bouncer]

I am assuming the game gives you the 'one... more.... turn...' option after defeat so you can see what happened? Surely? Or did they mess that up too?

Anyway, perhaps the victory screen is bugged or you're looking in the wrong place? Probably not but just saying: It's in the upper right corner. Click on it and hover over the symboles to see whats what. Also useful to do throughout the game, tells you who is ahead in tech, army and such as well.
If those indeed show nothing, try opening trade deals to see if someone has a massive amount of great works or check cities to see if they all follow the same religion. Dunno how you can see someone ahead in science though.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Another possibility -- time limit => when the turn limit is reached, whoever has the highest score wins.

[SnugglePilot]

Yeah they don't do a good job of communicating on the gameover screens. Click "one more turn..." and check the rankings (Button on the top right), it'll show you who won/via what method.

FWIW you can also accidentally win the same way - I was going for a conquest victory, took out 2 capitals out of 6, suddenly BAM cultural victory?? Wasn't even trying for it, and it felt like it robbed me of my military might :(

[BrewHolmsted]

I had the same"defeat" occur. Playing as America, conquered my second Civ and when I took their capital, BAM, defeat. No, would you like to keep the city or anything. I did not click the one more turn though...shock of "wait, what?!"

[Anyzamarah]

Hi all, I'm the "wife". ;)

Somehow it was very strange to get a simple "you have been defeated" without any further information. Not to know who won and why, without any statistic or comparison - that really didn't help me to improve my skills.

In future sessions I'll have a more intense look at the worldrankings! Thank you all for your answers and advices! :)

Happy playing!

[Martin]

Just don't click retire.. you don't get a verification.. you just lost the game. As for the others.. Don't loose ;)

[055 Destroyer]

Originally posted by BrewHolmsted:

I had the same"defeat" occur. Playing as America, conquered my second Civ and when I took their capital, BAM, defeat.

Same thing happened to me. When i took the capital of one Civ with only 3 remaining (including myself), i just got defeat.

So i figured it might be a religion or cultural victory by other Civ and reloaded. Instead of occupying the city, i waited for another 5 or 6 turns but nothing happened. the moment i took another city (not limited to the capital), i got defeat.

Can someone please help to explain this, it's so frustrating and feels like tens of hours wasted.

[tgrund2006]

l had something very similar happen a couple days ago actually. I was just as baffled lol.

[Hempest]

If you dont turn off score victory the game will end at turn 500 and whoever has the highest score wins,

[Mike]

i had a religious victory happen out of nowhere when i conquered a city belonging to another civ that tipped the number of cities following that religion in my civ over 50%

[NobodyReally]

I have my game set to autosave every turn, so I was able to go back and test it out. At a certain point, the game is telling me I've been defeated any time I take another nation's capital. I'd been playing with a domination approach and had conquered most of the world and then I took Athens, and it told me I'd been defeated. I went back from my save and didn't take Athens, and the game kept playing. I took Athens a little bit later, and it told me I'd been defeated again. I reloaded and decided rather than taking Athens, I'd take England's capital and immediately the defeated movie came on again. What gives?

[Rhudda]

Originally posted by NobodyReally:

I have my game set to autosave every turn, so I was able to go back and test it out. At a certain point, the game is telling me I've been defeated any time I take another nation's capital. I'd been playing with a domination approach and had conquered most of the world and then I took Athens, and it told me I'd been defeated. I went back from my save and didn't take Athens, and the game kept playing. I took Athens a little bit later, and it told me I'd been defeated again. I reloaded and decided rather than taking Athens, I'd take England's capital and immediately the defeated movie came on again. What gives?

Probably this:

Originally posted by Mike:

i had a religious victory happen out of nowhere when i conquered a city belonging to another civ that tipped the number of cities following that religion in my civ over 50%

[OlBlueHair]

I can't tell if this is a bug or not but it has happened to me twice and I've only played it twice. Once when I had a cultural victory close and once when I had a science victory close. I tend to ignore religion as I don't really understand that part of the game and hate it...either way it is really annoying and disconcerting to suddenly have your game pulled out from under you, they definitely could give you more of a warning and more info. Frankly it makes me not want to play. It just feels unfair - even if it isn't, even if it is something I'm missing...it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ feels unfair and unfun. And yes I constantly check and understand the rankings during the game.