I've played dozens of failed games, mostly on the Terra map (smaller land space = smaller enemy civ empires), usually at tiny and small map sizes. Tried early attack strategies playing Romans, Malinese, Persians, Japanese (Agg/Pro is an outstanding military combination!) and even the Incans (the Quechua rush would work if there were an "AI will not build cities on hills" setting) - but there isn't time to build enough troops to pull it off.

Does playing at epic or marathon speed improve the odds of combat-heavy strategies like the ones I've been trying?

I've also considered a classical start - keep reloading the map until I get copper in my city radius. Or horsies, if playing Cyrus. (Immortals are cheaper than axemen...)

I have also considered a strategy involving a small Terra map with 6 or 7 enemy civs. Start as if playing OCC - build one city, build library and Great Library ASAP (building GL and Pyramids at Deity is almost impossible). You'll have Alphabet before GL finishes - you won't be that far behind after tech trading, and techs for Macemen (or Samurai!) and Catapult will be in reach. During peacetime, use "open borders" agreements to scout out enemy city troop strengths. Even without the Pyramid your city should be able to pop out a big enough army to wipe out your weakest neighbor. Build up the new cities, build massive army, attack new civ, repeat. Keep a sharp eye on enemy civs' military tech - don't attack gunpowder units with macemen, or infantry with musketmen! Choose enemies wisely - leave alone the ones that like you, unless they're getting too powerful.

Anybody got ideas?

there's a deity cultural victory guide. Also, quecha rushes do work.

Marathon greatly improves militaristic strategies(which are needed when the AI's are as bugged as in warlords deity) and as such makes this a whole lot "easier". Not only do you get +100% movement compared to epic(and +300% compared to normal) but the cost of units is also 2/3 of normal... Praets, quechas and cultural victories should all work.. Building pyramids + GL on deity with stone in your bfc isn't very hard... Btw if you are aiming to get something on the hof you should use mapfinder so you only play really good start(tripple gems corn cows is nice no?). This will also make the game somewhat easier... Seriously though praets should work pretty much every time on pangea style map(all land) on marathon(as long as you get iron that is...). The AI just isn't programed to handle praets properly...

This is for BtS, but it has lots of solid info ( that also applies to Warlords ) and is a thread where 2 of the biggest HoF scorers until now ( Killercane and VirusMonster ) had discussed extensively how to get fat HoF scores:

Guide to 500k+ scores through Huge map domination on Immortal difficulty (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=260902)

This thread is not really appliable to warlords at all due to the extreme differences in the early game AI behaviour as well as the very different scoring and inceased bonuses the AI get in warlords. Quecha rush isn't really doable in BTS for example while it works perfectly fine in warlords... Though i guess there are some things that can be taken from there like the general idea with praets to smash face for example...

I was able to Quecha rush four games using BTS to knock out Monarch through Diety levels for the HOF QM tables. It took me an hour total to play all four games. Cheesey wins, I know, but I can always play higher quality wins on the higher levels to increase my Q score after I fill out the table. All I have left is a Major Gauntlet now.

So yes...Quecha rushes do work with BTS.

I'm no good with Quecha rush, I haven't even tried it for my Deity win. I choose quick duel future cultural domination strategy. Try this:
Settings:

Pick Gandhi (Warlord) or Saladin (Vanilla) and as opponent choose a non Industrious, peaceful AI - I took Asoka
Duel sized, high sea level, Pangaea
Quick speed
Future Start


First city building: factory (turn1) - switch to US, Free Speech, Caste System- rush buy it on the next turn. Put science at 0%. After the factory is ready run as many engineers as possible. Use the worker to build farms. Other cities: take your two other settlers and try to grab as much land as possible. (block the AI)

Start building the wonders: Tower Eiffel, Hollywood and Rock & Roll. Use the great engineers to rush them. I got the three Wonders on my first try, two on the second. I could win only with two of them.

It's a domination game, so you have to REX as fast you can and get as much population as possible. I lost the first game because didn't have the required population before the AI launched the ship.

After building the Wonders, I started farming Artists. I used the artists for culture bombing. Before you culture bomb, use the trick: hire all citizens of your city that is not working a high commerce tile as artists, put the culture slider at 100%, culture bomb, and undo everything still on the same turn. You will lose no pop or money but you will get more culture (you get 20 turns worth culture) and more tiles.

As I said, my problem was that the AI had very high population. Other players got an earlier finish than me, so what I said might not be optimal but I won the game. .

Before you culture bomb, use the trick: hire all citizens of your city that is not working a high commerce tile as artists, put the culture slider at 100%, culture bomb, and undo everything still on the same turn. You will lose no pop or money but you will get more culture (you get 20 turns worth culture) and more tiles.

I'm not sure I understand. Does this actually increase the culture from bombing a GA? I was sure that it only produces fixed amounts according to game speed - 2680 on quick, etc.

I'm not sure I understand. Does this actually increase the culture from bombing a GA? I was sure that it only produces fixed amounts according to game speed - 2680 on quick, etc.
Read the culture mechanics disassembled article. It explains it very well.

This no longer applies to BTS.

This thread is not really appliable to warlords at all due to the extreme differences in the early game AI behaviour as well as the very different scoring and inceased bonuses the AI get in warlords. Quecha rush isn't really doable in BTS for example while it works perfectly fine in warlords... Though i guess there are some things that can be taken from there like the general idea with praets to smash face for example...

Ahem, only rolo had a BTS based post, I'm sure glad to see that everyone else's posts don't count.

If things like quecha rushes are too hard, just play a lower level and learn. There's no shortcut to hard work.

The person is asking about warlords, not BTS. In BTS, quechua rushes do not work, due to improved AI, but many other things that won't work in warlords now works fine in BTS, due to reduced bonuses.

I did not know about MapFinder.

Downloaded it this morning, now I'm trying to figure out how it works. When I start a game and hit Alt-M like the instructions say, Civ4 repeatedly regenerates the map, and none o9f the regenned maps fit the parameters I set up in Rules Builder.

I see how it works - the game keeps regenerating as it normally does and saves any maps that happen match the parameters. I was thinking it would artificially plug in the params into otherwise randomly generated maps. A bit slow when dealing with larger maps - will have to run MapFinder while I'm sleeping in those cases.

HOF = handholding.

Anything that ever worked on Warlords deity works for HOF.

A **peaceful** Cultural Deity win in Warlords is impossible, at least on worldwrap maps. The AI takes up available land fast - I have enough problems building THREE cities, much less six. Maybe it's possible on one of those oceanless maps.

I managed to get a deity win with a Cyrus chariot rush - dual-sized Terra map, marathon speed, fighting against Asoka and Washington. Think I'll try Egyptian chariots next time.

A **peaceful** Cultural Deity win in Warlords is impossible, at least on worldwrap maps. The AI takes up available land fast - I have enough problems building THREE cities, much less six. Maybe it's possible on one of those oceanless maps.

I managed to get a deity win with a Cyrus chariot rush - dual-sized Terra map, marathon speed, fighting against Asoka and Washington. Think I'll try Egyptian chariots next time.

You are your worst enemy. Impossible is nothing.

To learn how to settle lots of cities peacefully on Warlords deity, dig for Snaaty threads here.

For cultural wins on deity, try getting hold of jesusin on the HOF subforum.

Maybe the computer's been going against the statistical odds, but my cultural victory attempts on small pangaea w/ 4 enemy civs has been putting two civs close enough to me to cut me off from most of the map before I can even build my first settler. (Production is always Worker > Settler, I research Bronze ASAP for the forest-chopping.) Maybe medium or low sea level is in order.

I spent half the day at Firestone getting AC fixed, so I'll have to check those other threads later.