zimmah wrote:

I think erasing a civ from the game should be possible, but difficult, and not rely entirely on military might. If you truly want to erase someone, you need to erase someone militarily and culturally. 

Because otherwise it simply becomes a game of who can make the biggest army the fastest.

I agree, and I like the fact that you can't eliminate someone before a certain age. It's a great part of this game.

Wredniak2003 wrote:

I think the idea of not allowing a civ to be removed from the map is an interesting concept but I don't think it works. Because how different is it really from razing everything and leaving them one province you surround completely? They got no shot at winning but remain an eyesore.

This^^

Something similar happened in every game I played now in the Victor OpenDev. In most cases I simply occupied their one territory forever, since I couldn't get a reasonable peace deal, and how much of their own culture can they even be said to have after 6000 years of occupation? Sure, it's a turn abstraction but I think the argument holds up regardless.

In one case, the one I eventually force-rushed to turn 150 just to get to the end-poll, I relented and forced peace for some 750 gold. They were dominated by my culture and religion the whole game, spawned no visible units ever but did eventually progress to the Classical era. With some 8 turns to go until the game ended.. in the Early Modern era.

I don't mind prohibiting elimination, I never played domination in Civ and military strategies don't appeal to me personally, but you should probably allow early-game elimination for the mentioned reasons and once past that era offer some kind of catch-up mechanic (that isn't just blatant cheating) so there's an actual reason for the civilization to still be around.

Heck, we're probably too far into the development at this point but several minor civilizations tend to be a larger threat and I'd love to see a mechanic whereby a dominated and lagging major civilization gets converted into a minor while a strong and vibrant minor could get transformed into a major one. There's a dynamism there that's not unlike what have happened in actual history.