Domination Victory Tips
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).
Be the first to comment