Victory

There are five types of victory in Galactic Civilizations III: Conquest, Influence,Technology, Ascension, and Diplomatic. Each has its own specific goals that must be met before you can claim supreme rulership of the entire galaxy.

Conquest Victory

There’s no sugar-coating this one. In this condition for victory, you kill everything, and you win.

Conditions Defeat all other races.

Strategies

• Don't ignore your cash flow. Invasion Tactics like Biological Warfare make a huge difference when conquering enemy worlds, but they cost money. Population growth can be a major factor, so limiting your battle casualties is helpful.
• Acquire Galactic resources. Prototype ships make an enormous difference early on and quickly establishing a mining starbase or two can make all the difference in the space war.
• Be careful of your approval ratings. You'll probably always be fighting to keep your people happy to some extent as a warmonger, and it's not the end of the world if they're grumpy, but population growth and wealth can be more important to an aggressive empire than to others.
• You don't have to go to war early and often to win by conquest. It's perfectly viable to "turtle up" and explode out of your worlds with devastating effect later in the game. It’s even better if you can build up a big war chest, research your fancy new lasers, then mass-upgrade right before launching the offensive.
• If you research warfare techs early, make them work for you either by bullying your way into tribute or favorable treaties, or by outright conquest. Remember, if you get better lasers and the other guy gets better laboratories, you're on the clock -- he'll outrace you unless you can use those lasers to make him pay before he passes you in technology.

Influence Victory

This is sometimes called a “cultural victory” and is achieved by influencing other powers in the galaxy and convincing them to see your ways.

Conditions

• You must control 76% of the galaxy within your influence borders.
• You must hold that control for 10 turns once achieved.

Strategies

• Build Influence improvements.
• Starbases are obvious candidates for spreading influence. Placing them strategically for the maximum effect is absolutely crucial.
• As with all the peaceful victories, managing how much war aggressive neighbors declare on you is key. Diplomatic technologies can help with this.
• Influence Victories are also well-suited against aggressive players because taking enemy planets denies them that influence while adding to yours.

Technology Victory

This victory condition does not require you to control the map, but it does require researching an enormous amount of tech.

Conditions

• Beyond Mortality must be unlocked.
• Precursor Understanding must be unlocked.
• Cultural Affinity must be unlocked.
• Ascension Gate must be constructed.

Strategies

• Few empires will research this much technology in a single game. To win this way, you will want to prioritize research throughout all stages of the game.
• Tech Victories are well-suited to players who want to expand as far as possible and then "turtle up" in their perfect empire. Your (presumed) tech lead will give you excellent starships, but you may not be able to afford the additional manufacturing, monetary, and population costs of offensive war. Small but high-tech defensive fleets can be extremely effective at keeping the bad guys off your turf -- or even considering starting a war to begin with.
• Don't be afraid to fill a planet up with laboratories and switch it to maximum science in its planetary Govern screen. Planetary specialization is always important for advanced play, but particularly so when gunning for a tech victory.

Ascension Victory

Transcend the mortal universe and control the required points in order to achieve an Ascension Victory.

Conditions

• You must reach the Aura points threshold designated on the Victory screen.
• Aura points are gained by controlling Ascension Crystals.
• You must control the majority of the Ascension Crystals in the galaxy.
• Control Ascension Crystals by building a starbase nearby and adding a Xeno Archaeology Lab.

Strategies

• The Ascension victory is a "softer" warlike victory than the genocidal goals of Conquest. But it still requires military power as you have to capture the Ascension crystal starbases from other races.
• Be ready to defend your Crystals once you start making significant progress toward the threshold.
• The difficulty of achieving an Ascension victory is tightly tied to the map layout. If you have a crystal or two in your natural sphere of influence, think about gunning for this victory type.
• Some maps lend themselves to early Ascension victories. Don't just look at your own territory -- if a rival empire is primed for an early Ascension run, take steps to prevent it.

Diplomatic Victory

Sometimes called an ‘alliance victory,’ this victory condition is involves making friends with as many people as possible.

Conditions

• You must form alliances with all remaining major races.

Strategies

• Diplomacy technology is your best friend. Use it to dominate the United Planets, get peace from the warlike, trade from the friendly, and form alliances whenever you can.
• Trade is a cash cow. You should have plenty of friends -- take advantage of that by building freighters and establishing trade routes. Remember to research techs that increase your maximum number of trade licenses.
• If a rival simply refuses to entertain the thought of friendly relations, just remember you only have to be in an alliance with all remaining races in order to win.
• Don't get complacent when you aren’t being invaded. You still need to constantly grow your power, through infrastructure development, expansion, or better treaties and trades.
• Holocall softly and carry a big particle beam. If rivals see you as strong but not directly threatening them, that's the best diplomatic position you can be in.

Turn Victory

Time keeps on slipping… in order to achieve victory through turns, you need to reach the maximum amount!

Conditions

• You must have the highest score when the turn limit is reached.

Strategies

• Be the biggest and the strongest -- every facet of your empire counts toward your score.
• Generally you wouldn't want to try specifically for a Turn Victory -- it's more of a fallback for if the typical win conditions become untenable for whatever reason.