One of the best things about the Civilization games, I find, is that there are so many ways to win. It’s not as simple as “yay! I’ve got all the army and I’ve destroyed the map” kind of thing. Sure you can do that and get a Domination victory, but what about beating the other civs into space and colonizing Mars? Or how about winning by becoming the predominant religion across the map? Well, you can! There are five victory conditions, and this guide is going to give you all the information you need to know to help you get that perfect win.
The English Redcoats doing their stuff
Domination Victory
So this is the most obvious way of winning the game. Basically, you need to defeat every other civilization on the map, while capturing their capital cities, in order to get a domination victory.
In order to do this, you need to remember that not only do you have to have the forces to attack but there is no doubt going to be some retaliation so you are going to need to defend well too. Ideally, you need to have a decent force early on in the game to start making an impact ‘straight off the bat’. Start by looking at conquering civilizations that aren’t doing so well on technology or in production.
One of the big mechanics which will help with a domination victory is a new one called casus belli. This basically translates to “case for war” and means that you can justify starting wars. There are 7 types of war you can declare on an opponent — formal, holy, liberation, reconquest, protectorate, colonial and a war of territorial expansion. All of these are a much better way of declaring war and will have an effect on your warmonger status.
One of the main ones to focus on when aiming for a domination victory is the Colonial War. This casus belli allows you to declare war on a civilization that is at least 2 technological eras behind you and cuts your warmonger penalties in half.
Civs ideal for this: America, Aztecs, England, Germany, Japan, Norway, Scythia, and Sumeria.
Useful Wonders:
- Venetian Armory – Each time you train a naval unit, get a second one for free.
- Terracotta Army – Grants all land units a promotion level when built.
- Great Lighthouse – All naval units gain +1 mobility
The Terracotta Army stood motionless and proud
Science Victory
Personally, this is my favorite type of victory. It is far from being the easiest and does take a bit of planning on forethought but, don’t worry, follow these steps and you’ll manage it.
Civs ideal for this: Arabia, Japan, Rome, Russia, and Sumeria.
The end aim of the science victory is to colonize Mars. To do that you have to first launch a satellite into space then land a man on the moon and finally head to Mars. Follow these three steps:
1. To launch a satellite into space, you first have to establish a space program and launch the Earth Satellite. Follow the tech tree path below.
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Rocketry allows you to create a Spaceport district (cannot be built on a hill) and means that you can launch the Earth Satellite Project.
2. Next, you need to land a man on the moon. From Advanced Flight/Rocketry tech, now you move on to Satellites. This enables you to launch the Moon Landing.
3. Now comes the hard part. It will take a bit of time, but next you need to colonize Mars. You do this by building Mars Habitation, Mars Reactor, and Mars Hydroponics.
For Habitation (leading on from Steampower tech):
For the Reactor (you will need to go back and research the ones you have previously missed to get to this point):
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For the Hydroponics (satisfy all the other tech research until you get to this point):
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You want to focus on as many of the education-related districts, improvements, etc. as possible. These not only give additional science points but will also give you Great Person points which will turn into Great Scientists, who give substantial bonuses.
Useful Wonders:
- Oxford University – It gives + 3 Great Scientist points per turn and grants +20% science increase within its city. In addition to this, once it has finished building, it awards 2 randomly-chosen free technologies.
- Great Library – If built early on in the game, it will boost all Ancient and Classical era technologies. It also grants a +2 to science and gives and additional +1 Great Scientist point per turn.
One of the greatest educational institutes in the World — Oxford University
Religious Victory
This is a new victory condition and to win this your chosen religion must be the predominate religion in all civs in the game. This equates to roughly 50% of all cities need to be following your religion for you to win.
The main thing you need for this is, obviously, vast amounts of Faith. Faith allows you to purchase Missionaries from Shines and Apostles from Temples. These are the guys, and gals, who will travel across the map spreading your religion.
A good starting point for generating Faith is to build Holy Sites in your cities. They also generate Great Prophet points. Another key thing is to make sure you choose the right religion. Make sure you read the descriptions of them thoroughly before making a decision.
Civs ideal for this: Arabia, Egypt, India, Russia, Scythia, and Spain.
Useful Wonders:
- Hagia Sophia – To build this, you must already have founded a religion. However, once it is built it means that your Missionaries and Apostles can spread religion 1 extra time when in other cities and it yields +4 Faith and +2 Great Prophet points every turn.
- Mahabodhi Temple – This wonder grants you 2 apostles when it is built and goes on to giving +4 Faith every turn.
- Mont St Michel – When you build this, you get +2 Faith and +2 Relic slots and your Apostles can get an ability called Martyr which means that when they die, they leave behind another Relic.
- Stonehenge – Stonehenge allows you to found a religion on it rather than on a Holy Site and grants a free Great Prophet. Additionally, it yields +2 Faith every turn.
Stonehenge was the centre of Druidry in England for many centuries
Culture Victory
To win in this way, you need to generate as much Culture and Tourism points as you can. The aim is to have more visiting tourists to your civ that any other civ has domestic tourists. A domestic tourist is a tourist that is quite happy to vacation within a civ whereas a visiting tourist is one coming into your civ from the games “tourist pool”.
There are lots of game mechanics which will allow you to build up your culture and tourism points as well as a good number of Wonders which also help. The Theater District is one of the main drivers towards this victory so you want to get it up and running as soon as you can and upgrade it whenever possible. Archaeologists are also good to have many of. They will go out and find artifacts from different locations and put them in your museums.
Civs ideal for this: America, Aztecs, Brazil, China, England, France, Greece, and Kongo.
Useful Wonders:
- Bolshoi Theater – This wonder will provide you with Great Work of Writing and Music slots by generating +2 Great Writer and Musician points.
- Broadway – Like the Bolshoi, Broadway generates Great Writer and Musician points (+3).
- Chichen Itza – This great Mayan building will give you +2 Culture, when built, for every Rainforest square within the city boundries.
- Colosseum – This will generate +1 Culture and will also give +1 Culture for every city within a 6 tile radius.
- Cristo Redentor – As well as giving +4 Culture, this Wonder also doubles Tourism from seaside resorts.
- Estadio Do Maracanã – Grants +4 Culture .
- Forbidden City – Yields +5 Culture and also gives you an extra Wildcard policy slot so make sure you read them fully and use one that could boost Culture, Tourism or even generates Great Person points.
- Great Pyramids – Generates +2 Culture.
- Hermitage – This Wonder gives you +3 Great Artist points per turn as well as +4 Great Works of Art slots.
- Sydney Opera House – A very beneficial Wonder to have in your civ! It will give you +8 Culture on top of +5 Great Musician points per turn and
+3 Great Works of Music slots.
Original home of the Olympics
Score Victory
This one has got to be the easier victory to aim for. Can you last until the end and just generate as many points as possible and beat the other civs on the map? You get points which basically show how good or bad you’ve performed during the game. The civ with the most points at the end wins!
So I hope that this has helped you out a bit and that you can now win the kind of game you’d like to play. How have you won so far? Do you have anything to add which has been good for you and you want to share? Drop a comment below for folks to read!
