What are the most satisfying points victory settings for single player, so I don't win while the AI is still threat?
I am bad at this game. I have no idea on how to be efficient with my builds, so I have a lot of resources sitting around in the mid game and poorly improved cities.
I just had a game at "The Great" highest difficulty setting. I was behind Carthage all game and their military was incredibly strong compared to mine, like I am at 35% of their strength on the graph or something. I could probably beat them but it would be a real war. They are also ahead in tech and have far more developed cities.
However, I was able to win a points victory because I got a legendary city and just built all of the legendary wonders in the same turn. Without planning for it, just because I had resources sitting around.
Carthage got legendary two turns ahead of me, but didn't build any wonders to deny them. My tech is worse than them. Also the wonders I'm building to win seem a bit low impact, I'm just building them for points, it wouldn't really put me ahead of Carthage in either building power or military power.
The win will happen around turn 110ish. It feels cheap. Ideally I should have to take Carthage down a bit before the game awards a win.
Is there a more satisfying way to set up the victory points? Higher points needed to win? Lower points needed to win? If it was lower points Carthage would have won by now, but that would be dumb too, the game is still contested.
EDIT: Thanks everyone, apparently "the Great" has "Cutthroat AI tactics" on by default but not "Ruthless AI", so that explains the AI passivity. The similar names were confusing