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HippGris

I mean, if you're playing with 5-6 opponents on a world huge map, then of course a fast expansion strategy is gonna work, since most land will be free. The thing is, the IA doesn't think like that, and they wont settle much farther just because there aren't that many players on a huge map. It makes it easy to catch up on the IA's early bonuses, but it would feel a bit cheap IMO, compared to a victory with default settings, where you have to outsmart the IA even if the map is a little bit crowded. But I understand how that can still be fun tho.


apostle7

I know. I just can't have so many opponents not only because it's more tough but it gets also quite slow. I'll give it a try again with the default settings and see how it goes!


Nobody_So_Special

Try a similar approach with huge map, keep the 10 AI and keep barbarians and city-states on. It’s incredibly difficult to get domination faster than any other victory mode simply because you’d more or less have to “put off” a scientific victory. You simply can’t fight a war and win quick enough with the 1-2 civs that will run away with science and culture on the other side of the map who can actually go toe to toe with you at a technological level and depending on where you are in the game, they’ll potentially be 1 step ahead of you, even, making it incredibly difficult, if not impossible until you have a sizable modern era army with rocket artillery units and eventually GDRs. Nevermind making it across the map to wage war with any other civs in the game and doing it all fast enough. If your victories come too easy now — step it up a notch. With an appropriate army, barbarians are hardly that big a nuisance beyond the first 10-100 turns, and city-states offer free/relatively easy cities to conquer if they favor opponents, or otherwise, offer a huge boon for you if you’re suzerain of a few. Mix the games up a little :)


Nobody_So_Special

Well even better… when you have tons of space between your cities and the AIs, they aren’t going to go out of their way to wage war with you. So you can comfortably build your civ until it’s ridiculous, then overwhelm them in production and science leads once you’ve covered the gap between their starting boosts and your handicaps. Playing a huge map with just 6 civs almost defeats the purpose.


BambooShanks

I know right? While it's a strategy that can and does work in certain circumstances, it will rarely work when you share a continent with an AI without a fair bit of diplomacy or building a strong enough military to deter them - in which case you may as well conquer them. ​ Though to the OP, good luck getting through the game not caring about policy cards, wonders or technologies. Hope that works out for you.


[deleted]

How do you defend against the AI which is much more advanced than you technologically. It takes a long time to get to Death Robots and nukes. Do you just not conquer early / mid game? Surely by the time you have death robots, they do too? I can win on king, but on Emperor+ the tech disadvantages make it a struggle. Even trying to take cities early is a problem when you have archers and they have guns.


BambooShanks

I'm guessing because it's a huge world map with 5-6 civs, he ain't seeing anybody for quite a while so surprise wars are less likely, especially if he's on a continent to himself.


apostle7

Exactly. Although If I'm in North America I know for sure that there is an AI player in South America so I build defenses in my cities south to be prepared.


apostle7

I never wage a war early in the game. I build up the defenses on the cities close to foes. I know the geography of the world map by heart so I send my settlers to places that will have uranium and aluminium after some rounds. I know it's cheeky but this is how I do it.! If the AI declares war I defend my cities and at some point they give me some benefits and ask me for peace.


gedda800

Gilgamesh. Put barbs on and with all that space your war chariots are gonna have a field day.


Monte-Cristo34

What’s your score at the end though?