Tips for Victory: Domination Victory

Though the name may imply building for all out war, the requirements for a Domination Victory is to be the last empire still holding on to it original capital. While war is very direct, you can also gain a domination victory through trade and discussion with other nations.

The Price of War

Before starting to build a powerful army, you'll first need finances and defenses to form a steady production. In the countryside, you'll want to concentrate on building a mix of trading posts to increase gold, and lumber yard for production. Be sure to also connect roads from your cities to the frontlines. In your city itself, you'll want to build banks, markets and stock exchanges to increase wealth. Barracks and military academies will improve your army's default EXP, allowing them to acquire bonuses right after production. If you need further boosts, consider the Autocracy and Honor polices to further ready your nation. Order and Commerce can also lead to other advantages.

Diplomacy and Trade

Don't go straight into battle without first working out some world relations. Other nations can support you in your war effort as allies, or even provide extra resources. If you are unable to acquire strategic resources in your own lands, you can trade with your neighbors for items such as iron and oil.

Another ability of trading, is to bribe third parties into going into war with your enemies, keeping your country safe while an enemy takes blows. Typically, the nation you're bribing should already have bad relations with the defender. The attacker will also typically request a large amount of rewards, including gold, resources and open borders. This can be very much worth the high costs if it means troubling an enemy.

Battle and Victory

After gaining stable production and enough science to start building an army, it's time to set up some units. You'll want frontline melee attackers--the warrior is an early example--along with ranged attackers and siege weapons. An army in the Medieval era may consist of say some crossbowmen, trebuchets, knights and pikemen. You'll want to upgrade and diversify your army as you enter new eras. In the industrial era, planes aboard carriers can provide long distances strikes against far off targets.

Some nations are excellent for fighting. America has a vision bonus, allowing them to spot an enemy ahead of time. Japan is hand downs the strongest in a straight forward fight, due to their Bushdio ability, granting them now damage penalty from being weakened. Both England and Songhai has great boosts for holding the seas, either by producing fast ships or allowing embarked units the ability to fight.

Remember however, that you can only seize cities with a ground based unit. You should first weaken a city's defenses with boats and planes, and then move your infantry in for a steal. Annexing the city and building a courthouse, or even razing them, will be more helpful than turning them into a puppet. You only need take enough cities to make it to the enemy capital and take it from their grasp.

Stealth and Accidental Victory

As mentioned above, you don't have to take every city to form a Domination Victory. You can quickly come in a strike against a capital and take it without ever having attacked another party of a competing nation. Additionally, if several other nations are aiming for a domination, they may make the mistake of leaving you alone and wind up losing their own capitals, leaving you the winner by default. This is a rare occurrence among perceptive nations, but always a possibility.