Has anyone won a victory by something other than military?

from Elemental Forums

Here's my dilemma.  I want to be a turtle.  I really, really do.  Laboring in the darkness, bringing the best minds in my faction together with me to research the spell of mastery; the incense hanging in the air as a tapestry against the droning of their voices, intoning the proper phrases to reveal the mysteries of the titans to me.

However, there aren't a LOT of best minds, mind you, because I need food to feed them.  So, either I invest heavily in the magical research path, and eventually get swallowed up by the bigger, more martially inclined neighbors, or I have to become so inclined to get enough food to feed my bookish minions.

Yes, I can research lost bounty.  Yes, I can cast nature's bounty.  But it just seems like you MUST go on the offensive early, and take neighboring factions down quickly (before they become...erm...unmanageable), in order to have enough food.  At that point, you're so far ahead militarily that there's simply not any point to working your way down either the master quest or spell of mastery victory conditions.  They don't really have the "come from behind militarily to win the game through other means" feel to them, they're just a late game alternative choice, after the game is all but won by force of arms.

Anyone else seeing this?  Alternatively, if you have won the game by the master spell, could you tell those of us with less well developed strategies how it's done?

Winni

elemental
4,543 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

A 'pure' way like that.. not yet, usually requires knocking at least one other civ on their ass.

though thanks to always having kids/grandkids who are channellers (and with that nice EoT heal & mana-recover(so far)).. I just keep a couple of them around to patrol my overall land area.. and nothing really survives.

 

NOTE: Due to some screwup with Impulse.. or Elemental itself, I'm stuck at v1.09e (official patch).. It won't patch me up to any Betas even though I HAVE BETA updates visible and allowable. 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I have strategy that involves no war and only two citys are needed (well only one if your patient). So here it goes.

My aim at the start is to build a level 5 city that focuses on tech and only has 8 villa's. This city will have 16 librarys and the world wonder that adds 100% to tech. The initial goal is to be able to provide the 8 food for the 8 villa's. So I take a sov with green thumb and of course you get the starting farm, this gives you 7 food. The extra one food you can get however you want. enchant your city/wait for son/daughter with green thumb/build a granary.

Then you focus on building up your librarys to speed up your research. Research should be plowed into civics so you can gain the houseing improvement tech to get a level 5 city with 8 villas and also into the tech that allows for you to build the 100% tech bonus improvement along side the librays. Well using this tactic you should build up a nice level 5 city producing alot of tech and with plenty of space to build other things also.

So what now? Well now is the time to invest your large amounts of tech into making you city secure you do this in two ways.

1) you place your points into the diplomacy tree so that you can offer treatys to the potential AI warmongers. Also importantly you learn to build the city improvement which gains you diplomatic capital per turn (build at least four). Now alot of people think diplomatic capital is useless but it actual gives you a large bonus in faction relations and if you build your diplomatic capital high enough you can effectively counter balance the negaitive points on the factions relations screen which you gain from having a low power rateing compared to the ai war moungers. You also should marry off sons and daughters in order to gain further diplomatic bonuses with any faction that seems to be particularly hard to impress. All this should stop the ai from reaching the point where it will go to war with you no matter how rubbish your power rating. Of course a liitle defence never hurt anyone.

2) So this is where the second point comes in. It is quite quick and easy to place some learning towards warfare just to gain the ability to create some defensive troops to bolster you power rating (I build some in light armor with broadswords or axes). You can also research magic in order to equip you champions with magic gear as the tax income from your level 5 city should be pretty good at this point but don't go expecting to kit out more than one champion at a time. This second step is optional as if you do it right you can stop the ai from attacking you just being good diplomatically.

Right so now time for the final strech. You should be safe from ai attacks and can now focus on your alternative victory condition. Quickly pump some learning into the adventure tech to make some resources pop and then pick a good spot for your second city. This city should be built in order to allow you to achieve your desired victory condition. If you want to learn the spell of mastery then build loads of building that give you arcane points or if you want to do the master quest then focus on gold and equiping your champions.

 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I prefer to play turtle and usually, I can make alliance pretty easily with the AI being on normal. So, if you want, go and make some alliance early game (before they make an opinion of you) and "invest" in those. When you level up, you can take the random guardian to boost your power rating.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I have actually never won a single conquest game. I'm to lazy and the AI's never want to attack me... Mind you this is only on hard mode. Either Magic, Alliance, or Quest is how I win. Although the one time the alliance victory was just me and one ally and everyone else I killed. They really should change that.

 

Magic Vic:

-Get Shards

-Devote at least one city to nothing but tech

-Devote one city to nothing but Magic

-Level up all your cities to get bonuses and buildings

-Race up Civ tree ignoring every tech that doesn't help tech

-Race up Magic Tree

-Use enchanted hammers to help boost building speed, so that you can build libraries even faster!

-Cast Spell

-?????

-Win!

 

I usually manage this in about 250-300 turns.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I have won by quest and magical victories recently.

But I could of finished faster if I could be bothered to drag my army across the (large) map and crush the AI.

Right now with the AI not putting up much of a fight (i know it's being worked on) the other victory conditions seem to be there for you to leisurely work towards while you toy with the AI.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

A really easy way to have as much time as you want for any victory you want is to take a sovereign with the terraforming tech. Just turn your borders into a nice little moat and the AI won't ever bother you.

 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

The AI hardly bothers you as it is now. Once you eclipse their power rating by about 20%, they'll never willingly attack you.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I have won by spell of mastery once - on normal difficulty with 8 opponents.