How to beat Deity difficulty with zero effort

[God of Kings]

Always wanted an easy way to get that Deity achievement?

All you have to do is to play as any civ (except Kongo; you can play as Arabia, but Arabia can only get the Great Prophet the hard way, as its LA only kicks in if another civ gets a Great Prophet) and set map size to Duel and map type to Pangaea. Set the opponent to Kongo at Deity difficulty. In the advanced settings, disable barbarians and disable all victory types, leaving only Religious Victory checked.

Since Kongo can't found a religion, you are guaranteed to found a religion, since duel-sized maps have only two civs. Not just that, but religious victory requires spreading your religion to the majority of each civ's cities. Given this, you are guaranteed to win, as long as Kongo doesn't take over all of your cities, not just your capital (since Domination Victory is disabled). Hint: stay friendly (or even neutral) with Kongo at all times and everything will go well.

This is so easy, someone who never played a strategy game can ace this.

However, this is definitely not a good way to beat Deity-level AI in a normal game, though it is a good way to practise founding and spreading a religion.

 

[MkLh]

A good way to beat deity on pretty much every setting is building warriors and slingers, upgrading to archers (just keep a slinger on your city area, a barb scout will come and by killing it, you get an archery boosted). When the AI declares around turn 25 destroy his warriors an take a war to his soil. Also capture 1-2 settlers at this point. Pillage everything. Taking the capital with only warriors and archers is totally possible but tedious. Instead it may be better to let him live and be an unlimited settler and builder supplier. Beeline military techs and policies and crush everybody.

This doesn't work on isolated starts though.

 

[God of Kings]

A good way to beat deity on pretty much every setting is building warriors and slingers, upgrading to archers (just keep a slinger on your city area, a barb scout will come and by killing it, you get an archery boosted). When the AI declares around turn 25 destroy his warriors an take a war to his soil. Also capture 1-2 settlers at this point. Pillage everything. Taking the capital with only warriors and archers is totally possible but tedious. Instead it may be better to let him live and be an unlimited settler and builder supplier. Beeline military techs and policies and crush everybody.

This doesn't work on isolated starts though.

This would be easier as Aztecs, as Eagle Warriors get free builders (three charges each) each time an Eagle Warrior kills an enemy civ's land military unit.

 

[rambow13]

This would be easier as Aztecs, as Eagle Warriors get free builders (three charges each) each time an Eagle Warrior kills an enemy civ's land military unit.

Faster perhaps, but not easier. This OP's strategy is impossible to lose because Kongo can't start a religion, and actually wants you to bring religion to them.. thus inviting you to beat them.

 

[God of Kings]

Faster perhaps, but not easier. This OP's strategy is impossible to lose because Kongo can't start a religion, and actually wants you to bring religion to them.. thus inviting you to beat them.

I'm the OP!

It would be faster to rush warriors and slingers, especially as Aztecs, but much easier to play the religion game against Kongo and Kongo is very happy to hand the victory to the player in doing so.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Achievements unlocked...

Alas, if you duel with Arabia you do NOT get the prophet on turn 1. The last prophet has to be recruited by another civ for the free prophet to trigger.

 

[MkLh]

Faster perhaps, but not easier. This OP's strategy is impossible to lose because Kongo can't start a religion, and actually wants you to bring religion to them.. thus inviting you to beat them.

True, but why take a "cheat" achievement with that kind of a setting when a normal deity game is a walk in a park?

 

[God of Kings]

Achievements unlocked...

Alas, if you duel with Arabia you do NOT get the prophet on turn 1. The last prophet has to be recruited by another civ for the free prophet to trigger.

I have clarified the OP.

 

[Monthar]

I tried my deity win using Gorgo with the AI set to random on duel map inland sea for those achievements as well. RNG was good to me and put me against Kongo and very close together. Although I had planned for a hoplite + archer rush I ended up just going for religious victory.

 

[Charybdis]

Even with domination turned off, they still bumrushed me at turn 25 But hey.. only way I'd ever win at deity.. I'm such a casual.

 

[Re/\/\eDy]

There's actually an even easier way than what the OP said. You can win on turn 1:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785037280

"Set up a game, pick Rome, due to the fact they have a free monument, set it to custom turn limit, turn it to 1, set difficulty to deity or difficulty of your choice. Start the game, found your city, end turn and bam, you just won on deity by doing nothing..."http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785037280

 

[MkLh]

Even with domination turned off, they still bumrushed me at turn 25 But hey.. only way I'd ever win at deity.. I'm such a casual.

They will always attack you at turns 20-30. Just get archers and kill 1-2 warriors without taking a single hit. The rest will run away. Chase them, kill them, capture settlers etc. Do what you want. No fine strategies needed. The AI is totally incapable.

 

[emmainthealps]

Did this today. Super cheesy win. But so many achievements! The hardest part for me was moving my missionaries all the way to Congo. We were so far apart he never knew where my capital was!

 

[S Dole Melipone]

Wait, so you get achievements even if you customize the advanced rules/AI?

Still sounds like non-zero effort to a lazy gamer :-D

 

[Japper007]

How to beat Diety with zero effort:

1. Leave all settings on default
2. Turn on Diety difficulty
3....

Oh wait that's it really

 

[Herod]

They will always attack you at turns 20-30. Just get archers and kill 1-2 warriors without taking a single hit. The rest will run away. Chase them, kill them, capture settlers etc. Do what you want. No fine strategies needed. The AI is totally incapable.

I didn't get attacked until turn 101. On that same turn my opponent declared war on me I spread religion to another city and won the game on turn 101 and unlocked 15 achievements!

 

[drubell]

Well, this wasn't with "zero effort" but I did set up a duel map as Sumeria against Russia and spammed war carts until I won. And even then I had to redo a few times because the map made the early rush quite the failure.

A few things I learned through the retries:

1. If there is water next to the city you're trying to take, you can count on ranged units to attack you from the water. That's a step up from Civ 5's AI behavior at least
2. The AI will likely send out unescorted settlers if you're not at war yet. Taking at least one of them makes things much less of a hassle
3. The capital will definitely have walls and a heavy chariot boosting the wall's strength. At Deity, a full strength war cart will hit a city for only about 2-3 points of wall damage. Bringing a battering ram and a couple catapults seem to be a must. Unless you're willing to sacrifice several melee units to bring the walls down.

 

[S Dole Melipone]

So just did this, 13 achievements in a night's work.

Was comical actually.

Mvemba a Nzinga's desire for enlightment, culture and art was so great he decided to plunge our little world into the darkness of war. He tried to lay siege to what was soon to be my Holy City -- which he wanted to be formed -- with a pile of chariots. I had to hold him off long enough to finish my temple, then sued for peace and got preaching'. Once my missionaries were on the move it took five minutes of easy turns to bless him to victory.

Poor soul, he could have got what he wanted a lot sooner if he hadn't tried to fight.

Does feel a tad colonial...

 

[MasterDinadan]

There's actually an even easier way than what the OP said. You can win on turn 1:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785037280
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785037280
"Set up a game, pick Rome, due to the fact they have a free monument, set it to custom turn limit, turn it to 1, set difficulty to deity or difficulty of your choice. Start the game, found your city, end turn and bam, you just won on deity by doing nothing..."

I think Russia is better since they claim a bunch of free tiles.

 

[Herod]

Here we go...my game is updating. It wouldn't surprise me if this easy diety win was patched.