Advice for new player attempting domination victory?

[fish gameing]

I played this game about a year or two ago after getting it for free off Humble Bundle, forgot about it until recently when I decided to pick it up again. So far I've been struggling to get any victories, my most recent attempts have involved trying to get a domination victory with Tomyris but I always end up falling behind due to poor science before I can get very far. Does anyone have any major tips or advice they can give? Thanks in advance.

[fish gameing]

By the way, these are the settings I usually play with:
- Gathering Storm ruleset
- 6 players: Tomyris (me) and 6 AIs
- Small Continents
- Prince difficulty
- Standard speed
- Barbarian clans on

[grognardgary]

No bigger than a standard map pangea map type. Really almost any one that gets a good early game unit. Gilgamesh with his warcarts for early rush is probably best.

[Cryten]

Preferably a small map with 4 players to keep from getting bored. Pangaea is preferable as well since it means no big ocean voyages to get to an enemy. Turn off religious victory so you dont accidentally end the game early. Focus on science and production districts with some trade districts as well. Make sure to take a battering ram early and do not rely on ranged to take on walls as they suffer massive penalties to combat strength. Early game is swordsmen and archers / x-bow (for anti unit) mid and late game is Calvary plus bombards with range upgrades from support sighting unit.

[Daughterof Maat]

Search Youtube for great advice on each type of victory. Its too complicated for discussion here.

[Oaks]

Do you understand adjacency bonuses? Those took me a little to understand when I started but seem pretty crutial.

Most districts don't produce their own output, they need buildings for output. However, placing districts next to certain things gives the district its own production.

For example, a science district needs a library to give you science points. However, if you put that science district next to mountains or jungles (if I recall correctly), it will give you science points without a building. You will eventually want to build buildings in it anyway, but early game especially, a few extra science points go a long way.

Perhaps you already knew that. That was kinda the big thing that made me better when I started out.

Oh yea, also pay attention to your policy cards. Nearly every card can boost the production of a certain type of thing, so try to align what you produce with your policy cards.

[colostmy4]

I haven't won a domination victory yet, but that is because I usually have my non-domination victories turned on, and I end up winning with a cultural victory first instead. I would recommend turning of all the other victory conditions first to ensure you can only win with domination.

[grognardgary]

The biggest trick to a domination victory is to start early as early as you can the more you can get done before Medieval the easier it will be.

[Rift]

When it comes to Tomyris, I'm not a fan of the Saka Horse Archers. They're basically archers that trade mobility for only 1 range. I will train 1 (which gives 2) for the era score and then delete them. You want to be able to plink a unit with the ranged attack and then move in with the light cav to kill them, which is what they excel at. Saka's have to be next to them, which means sometimes they're in the way.

Anyway, train 2 settlers ASAP and then crack out your Saka for era score (then delete), then 2 or 3 trains of Horseman (which will give 4 - 6 Horsemen). Make good use of Kurgans to help with the maintenance early on. Blitz the nearest AI, having ~3 regular archers for support (the -1 maintenance card helps a lot, btw).

You shouldn't need to train any more Horsemen to deal with the AI early enough, so while you're pummeling the AI, drop down some campuses and then commercial hubs. Usually, the AI will have between 2 and 4 cities, depending on if they have the "Expansionist" agenda and/or got Religious Settlements first. So, you should have at least 6 cities after this, which will give you a significant edge over the AI. Early wars are extremely beneficial, and Tomyris is very good at early game rushes.

If you're still struggling with Science, drop Pingala in whichever city has the highest population and give him the +Science promotion.

[plaguepenguin]

Getting every victory type depends on getting and staying ahead in science by the mid-game. You tell us you've already found how this works in attempting domination.

There are ways to optimize your science yields, as there are for every yield, and they're nice, but the foundation is to get more campuses and their buildings than your competitors. No way to do that except by getting more cities.

You always have to get some new cities peacefully by building settlers, but conquest is quite useful also at expanding to new cities and the campuses you are going to build there. Early conquest helps all victory types, because all depend on high yields, and more cities means more districts of all types, thus higher yields.

If you're going for domination, it is true that early conquest has the added advantage of starting to get your units promoted early, which is nice but not critical. If your map leaves you a lot of open space you can grab by churning out settlers early, go for that instead of early conquest, even in a domination game. Conquering cities is how your game is going to end, but expansion to more cities and more campuses as efficiently as possible is how it begins.

Whenever you do start to conquer, it's cities you'll need to conquer, and the challenge will be to conquer them quickly enough to overcome loyalty problems. Defeating the AIs' field armies is going to be relatively easy, so your mainstays are going to be the melee line (supported by rams and towers after the AI gets walls) and the ranged unit line, then siege artillery later, and finally bombers. Despite Scythia's early unique unit and bonus with light cavalry, those just aren't very helpful with your real challenge of taking cities. You're tempted to make light cav and Sakkas, but you really need melee and ranged and the rest of the city-busting package. Light cav is nice for pillaging, which you can use to help your economy, which is going to need help because you are going to be shortchanging development to some degree to make units, but pulling off a pillage economy is a skill that takes some time to master, so you can't shortchange development too much.

You should have campuses in most if not all of the cities you settle or conquer. As they grow larger and can build more districts, commercial hubs or harbors are a good second priority, because payroll for a big military is also big, and upgrading your units is done with money. You also need to keep up with the civics tree, so theater squares are a consideration as well. I like industrial zones for their help with production, but many players put a lower priority on them. Encampments aren't actually a huge priority. They're definitely nice to have for conquest, especially the great generals, but keeping ahead in tech and having enough money to upgrade your units are need-to-haves. Save up enough money and you can buy a great general.

[The Bored Chairman]

At the start of the game, use ranged units like Archers to chip down cities and make sure to put those cities under siege with melee units so that the city doesn't heal over the end turn.

Once walls come up, bring Battering Rams and Siege Towers to support your melee units. By this time, they should have their promotions, making them tanky against City shots and ranged defenders.

If you're going to use Siege weapons, try to bring a Great General, as the extra movement will allow you to move 1 tile and shoot, as opposed to being forced to wait a turn, potentially taking massive retaliation damage.

Around the mid-late game, you're going to want to phase out your infantry for Heavy Cavalry, right around when Observation Balloons become available. Due to the extra range of your siege weapons when paired with a Balloon, you can safely siege down enemy cities from outside their range.

Finally, build an airforce of Bombers when you get access to Advanced Flight. The AI is really bad at countering Air units, so you should have free reign to annihilate them.

If the game goes really late, build GDRs or nukes. At this point, you should only have a few cities left to capture, so just beeline the important cities and ignore the others.

When engaging with an evenly matched force, prioritise eliminating units over capturing cities. Use pillaging to sustain your economy, because you're likely not going to be building it unless you're very far ahead. Only ever build Anti-cav units if you're facing an enemy like Mongolia or Scythia (who will have a ton of Cavalry units) or if you're playing as Gorgo with Hoplites, as proper positioning can allow these units to rival even Men-at-Arms. Only build a few Light Cavalry, as their primary purpose is rushdown (targeting vulnerable units like Archers or stealing Civilian units) and pillaging, so you don't need too many of them.

Early game Heavy Cavalry generally isn't worth it, as the Heavy Chariot suffers too much from terrain and Knights can't take cities as well as Infantry units with Support units backing them up.

Use your ranged units primarily to either bait city attacks (most AIs will prioritise Archers over Siege units if they can target both) and for supporting eliminating enemy units. Once you've taken a city, leave a Ranged unit inside for a garrison Loyalty bonus.

If you are suffering Loyalty problems in cities you've captured, don't worry about this: The city first has to flip independent before rejoining your enemy (the exception being going to war against Elanor, you may just want to raze those cities instead). Instead, just move on to the next city as it starts flipping. If you're quick enough, you can take out the enemy cities and every city you lost to loyalty will flip back to you because you've eliminated the enemy's loyalty pressure nearby. This also means you won't lose extra pops by retaking it through force.

Finally, if you can, sign a peace treaty with the civ you're at war with and leave them with a weak, newly founded city. Chances are, that city will be lost to loyalty and you won't take the global grievances penalty for eliminating a player. Normally this doesn't make much of a difference, but it can help you avoid compounding grievances when you target another player, making loyalty in their territory easier to manage.

Remember, Loyalty is impacted by how much grievances an enemy has against you and vice versa. Ideally, especially in the late game, it's better to go to war with Casus Bellis rather than declaring Surprise Wars (exception being Persia).

[rob_easom]

I struggled with my first victory but Alexander is the best for most domination victories as his unique units are brilliant for early game warfare. He gets a good unique building for encampments as well early game and his unique units only need iron and horses to build. So you can take over cities quite quickly building up the empire.

He also doesn't have any issues with long term warfare and any cities that have a wonder that he captures heals all units to full health. I would recommend him

[grognardgary]

Note before anyone has walls even slingers can take a city in combination with warriors. Just make sure you kill their troops first.

[The Bored Chairman]

Another thing I should mention is Diplomatic Visibility. If you haven't researched Printing and the enemy has, they'll have a Combat bonus against you and vice versa. Use Spies to perform the Listening Post operation in a low priority city, as this increases your Diplomatic Visibility as long as the operation is in effect. This operation is guaranteed to succeed every time (but grants your Spy no Exp).

If you're friendly with an AI that is located far enough away that they are probably the last player you'll attack, try to get a Military Alliance with them to get a Combat Bonus. Try to avoid using Surprise Wars against them though, because you'll likely be subjected to a Betrayal Emergency.

[fish gameing]

I just got my first Domination Victory as Simon Bolivar! Thanks to everyone that added their bits of advice here, I've added in a bit of stuff I've learned from looking up tips and tutorials and here's what I've learned so far:

- Trajan, Alexander and Simon Bolivar are the best leaders for domination
- Focus heavily on Science alongside building a strong military to keep your units ahead of the curve
- Keep cities that will not rebel for a few turns or that can be turned around to be used as puppets for producing military units
- 2 to 3 Generals are good for most attacks
- Update policy cards where possible and use ones that are most relevant, such as Limitanie if struggling to keep cities loyal
- Start with mostly melee and ranged units in the earlygame, then switch to heavy cavalry around when tanks start appearing / observation balloons become available
- Plan where to place districts ahead of time before settling, and make the most use out of adjacency bonuses as possible
- Delete useless units where possible

If anyone has anything else they'd like to add then please do, I'm still learning!

[Cryten]

A more advanced trick is using corp and army forming strategically. For example you can fire with a ranged unit inside a cities bombard area and then form a corps with a unit behind it to take the ranged unit outside of the bombard area. Also when combining if they have different leveled up skills the corp with gain the skills of both units.

Also remember that unit power is logarithmic. What that means is that each new point of power is worth more then the last. So a 50 power units is much much stronger then a 40 power unit despite it only being 20% more points. This is why corps and armies are worth doing.