Revised strategy for Emperor and Deity levels

Having tried the peace and prosperity route (with limited success), I have gone the other route and tried the domination strategy. This is much more successful. You will never keep up in science or expansion of the AI at the harder levels (Emperor and Deity). The only path I could see was to exploit superior tactical and strategic thinking through use of early military. By capturing the AI cities, I am able to keep up with and exceed the AI in the number of cities. This tends to even out the production bonus.

1. My goal was to take over the first 1 or 2 civs I encountered and exploit the AIs superior production bonus in my favor.

2. To do this, I chose a

• Militaristic civ – cheaper barracks means veteran units in early days. Increased chance of getting heroes means advantages in building key wonders
• Expansionist civ – early scouts means I find resources and barbarian huts first. Bonus for booty in huts means I get a leg up on early expansion.
• Civ with a good early age unique unit (either superior attack or superior speed) – superior early unit means I have a military advantage over neighbors and can take them over fairly quickly, even if they are slightly more advanced
  [/list=a]Based on this, I chose the Zulus, who are militaristic and expansionist. The unique unit is the Impi, which has 1/1/2. The 2 in movement gives the ability to get to battle twice as fast and the ability to retreat if losing.
  
  3. Basic start was to make a barracks first and then produce 2 Impi to attack nearest enemy. My scout went out from the start to hunt for barbarians and the nearest civ. I would keep attacking the enemy and making more advanced troops (e.g., archers, horsemen) as I gathered more techs and cities.
  
  4. Rush building using up population solves both production woes AND disorder. Since I do not have temples in my towns, I need troops to quell disorder past 1 pop. (In this particular game I was fortunate to get an early luxury resource.)
  
  5. Science was kept to 10% (get a new tech every 32 turns, but maximize gold). Get techs through 1 of 3 ways:
  • Find in barbarian hut
  • Buy from AI
  • Receive from AI as part of peace treaty
    [/list=a]
    6. Process works like this: attack enemy towns with enough force to capture quickly, sue for peace. Generally I need to capture 2 towns, or 1 major town of a small civ to make them willing to sue for peace. At this point I can generally extract gold, towns, and all available techs from them. If I wipe them out very early, the computer will respawn that AI, with ADDITIONAL techs, and a new settler. I can continue to dominate that one civ until there are no respawning places left.
    
    7. Production in towns is devoted to building new warriors to continue expansion. Culture buildings come after I have dominated the first civ and have explored enough of the area to find next victim.
    
    8. Once I have taken over the nearest civ, I should have as many or more towns than any of the other civs (the AI keeps expanding even while I am conquering them). Now I can switch to production of culture, or I can continue conquest of my continent.
    
    9. I prefer to completely capture an entire continent to prevent long wars with the AI. It is much harder for them to sneak attack and maintain the war across the ocean.
    
    10. Avoid making combat units that are not fully upgradable. Impi get upgraded all the way to mech infantry. (Romans kinda suck for this since warriors do not get upgraded to Legions and Legions are obsolete. Horsemen can get to Cavalry, but Cavalry gets obsoleted by Tanks. Elite cav are still effective though for winning battles and making GLs.
    
    11. All this combat produces 4-5 great leaders. Use the first GL to make an army. Win a battle with it. Build the Heroic epic - this gives you a better chance of more GLs [note: like air superiority, this is probably broken, as I have not noticed much increase in GL production. @#$%ing Firaxis]. Use ALL of the remaining GLs to hurry key wonders. I leave it to the player to decide which wonders are key. My list is Pyramids, Sistine Chapel, Adam Smith's, Cure for Cancer.
    
    12. Late-game I switch to Democracy and aggressively go after Luxuries. I also try to deny the AI Strategic resources if possible. Cutting off their horses, iron, oil or uranium is a HUGE bonus - depending on the time frame.
    
    I am now in the late ADs with control over about half of the power graph, slightly higher culture than my nearest rival, and am #2 in techs. I dominate in production and military and will soon control all sources of uranium. My late-game strategy is to control the uranium and nuke the @#$%ers back into the stone age. Based on the success here, I think this strategy will also be viable on Deity level.
    
    Note: As the empire grows, corruption becomes a major problem. Past a certain distance from your capitols (palace and FP), NOTHING prevents total corruption (i.e., 1 shield, 1 coin). WLTKD, courthouse, and Democracy still cannot get those 1 shield, 1 coin cities out of the corruption pit. Only use for 1 shield, 1 coin cities is to be used as:
    • Culture producers - temples and libraries are a good start, but you have to hurry production at a huge cost in gold or population to get these
    • Access to resources - expanded culture boundary gives you access to additional strategic and luxury resources which you do not have to trade fromo the AI
    • Map control - with culture boundaries expanding, even at zero production, the AI cannot build there
    • Supply bases and staging - use the towns to heal up troops and the rail network to quickly launch major military operations
    • Draft military units - you can quickly call up a rather large military force if your 1 shield, 1 coin cities are of sufficient size - this can be used to great effectiveness in launching attacks or defending from AI attacks
      [/list=a]

Great strategy! I'm playing with the germans now (deity, standard map with continents, 8 civs) I started on the same continent as the english, very close to london. I started with three cities, built barracks (except for a temple to get to an extra iron resource), developed iron working and kept producing swordsmen. I conquered london first, so corruption would hit them badly. I now have around 20 swordsmen and 1 army in the field to take the rest of the continent. The romans will be my next target. They aren't really big, but when I conquer that land I have over 25% of the world. My plan is to build really good relationships with the remaining civs and so gain a diplomatic victory.

Great posts, thanks for taking the time to share so many ideas and experiences. I'm struggling and slowly winning on warlord, and it is great to hear from more advanced players instead of somebody who pops in and plays three games and considers themselves and expert ;-)

My deity strat is almost same as yours, except for some minor differences:

1) I use aztec instead of zulu. As a starter, aztec's jaguar warrior is the coolest unique unit in the game in that :
a. it's the cheapest unique units, yet a fast moving one(same as zulu here), so it can replace the scout unit.
b. It can be upgraded to swordman, the best all around ancient unit. So when you finally acquired iron working, you can quickly upgrade your hordes of vet & elite Jags into a formidable force of swordsman. ( I still keep about half of the elite jags, to use as a cheap horseman

2) Aztec is also religious, which IMHO is more important than expanionst or other traits in the long run , because:
a. Eventually you will have to built temple, cathedral etc in every of your town, and that bonus is huge.
b. be free to switch govment type is a HUGE plus in late game!

3) in my second game use this strat, I find it's ok to go 0% with science and totally forget about lib & univ etc, at least for a long time. Since in my first game I find out that no matter how many Sci. beaker I have, I can only reasearch as fast as 1 sci every 4 turns. Since obviously AI don't have this limit, I figure it will be ok just to buy/steal them from the AI. One of my favorite strat is to give a good city that's very close to my capitol to AI for a lot of goodies(AI will give an arm and a leg to you for good city), and then watch it revolt back to my empire , then repeat.


BTW, I have now tried various strat in Deity, and I am quite disappointed in that the early military expanding, which I tried in almost my first game, is about THE ONLY successful strat in deity level. I tried ICS, but simply cannot outexpand the AIs in deity(they cheat hard), and I tried peaceful scientific approach, but even with scientific russian I can't keep up with the AI in science. Besides, with a peaceful approach, you are never going to get great leaders, which is too important in the early Wonder grabbing.

In my opinion, this kind of lack of different strat is disappointing, especially compare to the relative rich paths we have in SMAC. I don't understand why they abandon several good designs they already have in place in SMAC instead of just adapt them in CIV titles. Maybe Firaxis tried too hard to be different in every game.


Well, I think that's more realistic, though. In history no great civilization can emerge without conquer their neighbours, I guess

Good thinking!
i will do this too!!

Originally posted by liupang
One of my favorite strat is to give a good city that's very close to my capitol to AI for a lot of goodies(AI will give an arm and a leg to you for good city), and then watch it revolt back to my empire , then repeat.
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Great Post Out4Blood! I really enjoyed it.

I've been working on making a go of peaceful strategies at emperor with near-success. I think I may try your strat as a nice change of pace... I need to thrash someone! A couple of questions:

1) After you take a couple of cities and sue for peace, do you goad the opponent back into war, break the treaty yourself, or wait the 20 turns? How bad does it hurt your rep to break a treaty?

2) You mentioned drafting military units... is this just another name for breaking out the whip under despotism, or is this an option when rush-building military under all governments?

1. Under despotism and during early wars, I just declare war on them again. It's better to declare war I think than just sneak attack. This hurts your standing with other civs though, so restrain yourself. Be careful not to do right of passage agreements. The damage from attacking out of a right of passage agreement is worse, I think.

2. Once you research Nationalism, you can "draft citizen" when your cities are greater than size 6. Under republic and democracy, you get 1 per turn, under communism, you get 2. This has some negative happiness effects, and the units you draft are conscripts with only 2 hitpoints. If they win a battle, they almost always get promoted to regular, so I only attack weak units with them. They are great for: a) back filling captured towns - they are just as effective at quelling resistance and preventing deposement as elites; b) homeland defense - I always keep at least one unit in all border and coastal towns.

Update - since I am now doing this strategy on Deity level.

It's fairly easy to wipe out 1-2 AI civs, but you REALLY fall behind in tech development. The other civs are angry at you and will generally be stingy with trades. If you do not make early contact with all civs, you can quickly fall out of the "inner circle" of tech trading. The only way to get back into it is to go to war with the tech leader and demand tech as tribute for peace treaties. Then sell to the other civs.

Another note: the best form(s) of government for this is definitely despotism/communism. Being able to work population to death is huge. Because of my early wars I was received leaders and was able to hurry both the Pyramids and Sun Tzu. Having free granaries and barracks in all towns is really helpful when using the whip to build troops. I can crank out a vet swordsman in 2-3 turns from just about every town, even the totally corrupt ones. Despite the AI tech lead, they are still using old units - they must lack resources somewhere.

What size map and how many civs are you playing against?

Are you selecting civs with later unique units like the Americans, Germans and Russians to play against?

Standard map with 8 total civs. I tried huge, but my comp cannot handle the AI turns - takes like 5 min each

I prefer an aggressive militaristic civ. Militaristic/expansionist works best here. You get the mil advantages and you get a better start.

I am currently trying the French because everyone seems to think they are the best. They might be the best on Chieftain where you have 100 city empires, but you get too slow of a start, IMO. I really liked Zulu - I kicked butt with them right form the beginning - my French game is still a toss up.

Since you are not doing much research or production of settlers, you are taking the AI advantages away, it pays to have the early stuff.

Another note: Anyone notice how the game goes so much faster at Deity level? The AI researches techs so fast. On a standard map, I generally reach modern age in the 600-700 ADs!

Interesting posts guys (and galls). But all seem to be based around militaritic approachs to Deity as the only option. At first I thought that this was the case. Now I've had a change of mind.

I see Deity as split into 3 sections:

1. The early land grab. You will always be behind in this stage. You simply cannot compete with AI. The AI works together in the early stages against the human opponent. However, this doesn't last beyond the initial stages. Building setters and securing as many resources and luxuries. This is of the utmost importance. Without tradable resources restarting is your only option. When your (small) empire reachs your nearest AI civ build cites all over the frontier. In time you will assimilate the other cities. These border cities are used for cultural purposes only. Build temples, cathedrals, libraries etc. Look over time to assimilate these border cities into your empire ... seriously weakening your nearest neigbour. Let him build dubious cities deep in your territory. It'll save you having to build a settler, and supress his expansionist potential. Maybe even use a luxury as bait, and setlle the land so as to leave space for the unwitting AI to settle and develop a city for you (except the AI's cultural buildings of course).

You'll be rushing so coruption is irrelevant. Key production (wonders, military) will come from your capital and the cities in the immediate vicinity (Colossus is the best option for if you want an ancient wonder (nead coastal city). Forget about the rest ... you've no chance). Build spearmen, not offensive units. Spearmen are gradually upgradable to mech inf. The more the merrier. Forget about science (except at the beginning ... you can research maybe 3 advances yourself before the trading begins). You'll be trading your resources and luxuries for tech in the mid-game. It's important that at this stage you grab as much territory as possible. Even dubious territory!

2. This sets the stage for the second phase. When contact is made with other civs, and trade routes opened up (harbour is usually essential), then the catch-up begins. Blackmail the other civs into paying extortionist prices for your goods. Like I said above. If you haven't got a lot of tradable resources you're screwed ... so give up early and avoid frustration.

During this stage you'll begin to assimilate your neighbours cities. Having rushed temples, libraries, cathedrals and now universites, your empire will begin to emerge from obscurity. The leading AI civs will still be miles ahead well into the industrial age ... but that'll all be brought back in time. Your goal is to become the tech trader in the final stage. As a consequence, it helps to starts with more AI civs (more potential trade partners and therefore more cash).

All of this trading has other advantages too. In this stage the AI begins to compete for supieriority, squabbling begins, wars start. Do not get involved. They also begin to guard their advances, allowing someone to become a tech trader - you.

3. Problems remain however. Namely winning. How to win? Diplomatic victory is the easiest. With all this trading, you'll be equal first (or a little behind) in tech. So you're in a position to be building the UN before that advance becomes available (e.g. be building the Forbidden Palace, or Wall Street in a city then switch to the UN after Fission has been bought). You may have to sabotage other civs production, so it might be advantageous to have the Int. Agency. And having avoided wars, all your partners will be polite or gracious towards you ... giving you the edge.

If diplomatic victory is a little hollow for you, then you need to have other ideas in mind. Space race and cultural victory seems near impossible. The AI is miles ahead in production and micro-management, and the game will be over to early too make your culture points count. This is were that early emphasis on Spearmen (mech-inf) could pay dividends. With the advance of mobile warfare (tanks) rush build as many tanks as possible and swamp your culturally weakened neighbours, or look to weaken supress or destroy the infra-structure of the leading civs and open possibilities for other forms of victory. This leaves the exact nature of this military end-game is up to you.

I guess I'm contradicting myself a little here in advocating a military option - but I'm presenting it as an alternative to diplomatic victory.

Other points: a "religious" civ seems essential. It allows the cheap building of temples and cathedrals, and more importantly, allows for instant changes in goverment, allowing you to crack the whip as a republic of democratic civ (note that communism also allows for population rushing).

Due to the limited size of your empire at Deity, perhaps "industrious" isn't absolutely necessary. Maybe Religious and scientific might be best (cheap libraries and uni's, but for cultural assimilation purposes, not research); or religious and militaristic (for that military endgame); or expansionistic (I think they get pottery right) for quick population rushing via granary. But pottery can be easilly researched first or second and expansionistic has no lasting use (unlike religious).

I still prefer the Egyptians though ... industrious and religious.

I could go on all day. One last point. Don't get frustrated by the AI bias in the early game. Get those luxuries and resources under your control and be patient. Culturally target AI cities with luxuries and resources in their scope. Have an endgame in mind from the mid-stage onwards (whether diplomatic or military). If you prefer the late military option, then plan in advance for it and upgrade those cheap ancient units as you go along (spearmen-pikemen-musketeers-riflemen-infantry-mech infantry).

Take Care.

Yesterday, I started a new game on Emperor. I chose the Japanese, because they are religious (this one is almost overpowered. You get cheap temples and cathedrals which helps a lot with culture and happiness, and you can switch governments easily) and militaristic (because I did want to kick some butt). Also, they have the Samurai which is one of the best units in the early medieval age - and needs only iron.

I found myself on the same continent with the Indians, the Russians, the Chinese and the English. The English and Chinese are on small "subcontinents" which are connected by a narrow land bridge to the main continent, while the other guys are on the main part of my continent.
I found iron right next to my capital, but no horses (there aren't any on the whole damn continent except for one source in the English territory). After I built the first few cities, I started building barracks and pumping out swordsmen. My first target were the Russians, then the Chinese. I managed to contain Chinese expansion and push them back to their subcontinent, and took a couple of cities from the Russians. All the fighting gave me a GL, which I used to hurry the Great Library in my capitol.

Then, the medieval age started. I got another GL, which I used to hurry the Sistine chapel. Then I set my sights on Music theory, while the AI's went after the more "useful" techs. I started accumulating shields in one city by building the Forbidden Palace, then switched it over to Bach's cathedral as I discovered Music Theory (this is a nice tactic that allows to quickly build wonders even without leaders). Trading away music theory also helped in catching up with techs.
With my first Samurai, I captured Moscow and with it a couple of wonders (most noteworthy: the Pyramids). The Russians were now down to 2 cities and no longer a threat. I also managed to "absorb" a few of the Indian cities culturally, because even though the Indians had tons of cities, they were lagging behind culturally. Since I have a long, drawn-out border with them I don't want to risk a war - so I'm now going after the English.

I've already beaten Deity on a tiny world with a domination victory. It must be more difficult with more enemies, but an improved tactic of mine might work. It was the following:

1.) Restarting the game until I got an excellent starting territory with a river and a luxury bonus.
2.) I didn't estabilish any other cities but built a temple and a barrack and as many archers and later swordsmen as possible.
3.) I attacked the first enemy when he had five or six towns and occupied them. After defeating him I controlled a whole island.
4.) I didn't research any technologies between Iron working and the first ones of industrial age because the computer players were faster no matter what I did. The ideal way is building Great Library, but they overtook me. Here I could exploit the AI's biggest stupidity: computer players give technologies even after a small war. So I attacked and occupied one city, made peace and attacked again. The other way is simply buying technologies, with adjusting 0% on researching and luxuries I had enough money.
5.) I didn't build any great wonders only captured some. The most important small one is the Forbidden Palace. Luckily I got a leader from the fights and he finished it in one turn.
6.) Despotism is a great government ! It makes possible to hurry production by sacrificing useless (unhappy) people. I changed to republic and later democracy only after "building" temples, granaries, libraries, marketplaces, aqueducts and colosseums.
7.) Having built up a good empire with universities and banks computer opponents are beatable even in researching if you have two or three times more cities than they have. By this time I was able to conquer enough land to make domination victory.

I have beaten deity levels sometimes on standard maps (the first few times with the Babylonians, but trying Japanese at the moment)
I have found out that the time of land grap is the most important time for the game. All of you said that you could not compete with the AI by that. But I found a way to manage it.

1.) In the very beginning you have to put your empire entertainment to 100%.
2.) With your first worker you can build some roads until your capital grows by 1 (size 2). Then join the city. Now you have the possibility to produce your first settler 3-4 turns earlier.

That gives you the advantage you need to compete in the game.
- You will not get into civil disorder because of growing cities
because your entertainmentlevel is high.
- In all of your new foudet cities whitch can produce settler
(cities must have food to grow to size 3) you should do so.

That gives you the opportunity to expand quite early. Build cities as long there is free land and turn out settlers as long it is possible (and you need them). Only with a big empire you can manage later in the game to keep up with the AI in science.

If land grap is over I usually rush Temples all over my empire (1 population point for a religious civ). That is for closing gaps. I have to mention that I would build nearly no defence units. The AI wouldnt start a war if I give them what they want (at least I have nothing that they would like to have).
After that I pump out as much worker as possible to work out the infrastrukture of my small empire (I usually have around 20-25 workers - if all the work is done I let them join my cities).

There are usually 2 or 3 civs that are really more powerful than I am, but I have a really good chance to keep up with the others. For the technologies I need normally I trade (with the luxuries I have or at least for money -> Monachie is very important to build up your population). Then I build up my culture!!! Its a must. If I am in the MidAges I go for Democracy as fast as possible and switch to it. At this time i have normally a good developed infrastructure of my empire. With Democracy I will now be able to get the most technologies within 4 turns and there should be still some money left. Now I trade massive for technologie because all the other civs are mutch more advaced than I am (with luxuries, ressources and money).
Don't care about ressources (iron, salpeter, ...) The time for war will come... I enter industrial age as fast as possible and go for Steam Power and Medizine. Then I create again a lot of workers for building railroads.
After that (with hospitals in most of my cities) I will see my population exploding.
I will trade for technologies as long there is one civ that will give me some, but I keep my science mostly at maximum and do the main research by myself. All the technologies i can sell I do so (There are more advanced and dangerous civs out there - especially for Space Race victory - my favorite - so why not sell technologies ???)
O.K. now my time comes. I head for Motorized Transportation and build tanks(up to 20), and a lot of artillerie(up to 50). Then I look for the weakest civallong my borders. They will have no chance. After a few years they are history. I build up there cities and sometimes prepare for war with the next civ (depends on the map). I dont forget science and head directly for Synthetic Fibres (Modern Armor) Most of the time I take controll of the whole continent. That depends on how fast the AI will go for Space Race.

One of the most important things is that I will not go for war until I have tanks... I concentrate my ressources to get a good build out infrastructure and when my time has come hit my opponent fast and very hard...
And this works very good for me....

Generally it is, but if you unlucky and have no oil, rubber how you will bild tanks? I start war few turns befor I get tech for tanks. My prime target is rubber and oil, normaly you can trade for rubber for resonoble price with ANOTHER AI. Prepare lots of Arty (10-16) and Inf (6-8), some Cav (3-4), bring it to the spot you like. If it on the cost land on hills or mountings two squares away from the target Cities (put Arty so, that it can hit 2 or 3 Cities, cover with Cav(!), use Inf to atack City, so put it next to the City. If resurses near border make RoP with Civ to approach the midle of continent with the same army + setler, you may also sing MPP with this Civ, they will help you atack (defend) when you move your setler and build City at (or near) resurses. Rush airport, suply Infs from mailand, with Arty and Inf you can withold many atacks. When oil come upgrade your Galleons to transport and land via shortest route. Their offencive forces will be near your prime spot and landing willbe easy. You may also build City at this spot for faster unloading. When tanks come rush as many as you can and try to brack through to yor first "outpost". Use single column, do not spread in many directions. Do noy rase Cities, if they flip back, return tand take it again. As you already capture rubber, they have only rifelmens, tanks can do it. At this stage all world will start war adaist your opponent, they will finish him on remote islands, but you will win their mainland. What to do next is another story...

Wow, this is an ancient thread. Where'd you find it?

Renata

This is an ancient thread, but it does reflect something interesting: at the time of writing, it was pretty near impossible to beat Deity with other than something like the narrow set of strategies mentioned. Firaxis has done a very good job of things though, and now there are a rich set of strategies with which you can beat Deity. It's possible to do it peaceably, and it's possible to do it as a bloodthirsty warmonger. I only had a couple of Deity victories on those ancient versions of the game, and really, the playing style one had to use to win was pretty limited. Kudos to Firaxis for making Deity challenging AND playable.

-Sirp.

Sirp: is this true? or do you just have a better understanding of the game and experience with more strategies?

My first Diety victory was continents/standard map, domination as the greeks. It involved early warfare with the Romans and then taking advantage of the enormous human advantage at staging maritime invasions.

My second Diety victory was on a pangea/small map, and was a diplomatic victory as the Indians. It involved holding out, scraping up techs from the gutter, and having a couple of stalwart alies.

This was all on the original patch, before I found out about CF. My play was dominated by these two stratagies for quite a while after that, adapted for individual situations. It wasn't until I could beat Diety most of the time that I started really branching out, of course I also found CF and SG's at about that time.

While I agree that Firaxis has done a great job iwith the patches I wonder if you would like to back up your contention about the broader range of strategies now available a bit?

Note: I am not ragging on you here, just interested. I haven't played a huge number of civ3 games and may have missed this progression.

Gothmog: To start with, now it *is* actually viable to do your own research past the first few techs. In the old days, there was no way you could even vaguely compete with research. The *only* viable strategy was to simply buy everything yourself.

Because of the insane tech progression, it was incredibly difficult to get anything resembling a decent military together while simultaneously building infrastructure. It was typical to have spearmen and warriors defending cities while AI tanks rolled past them. You'd either have to go for aggressive early warfare, or for cowering peacefulness, with no hope of defending yourself for quite some time if the AI attacked.

Nowdays, a balanced strategy is possible. You don't have to rely entirely on the goodheartedness of the AI, and it's not inevitable that you're going to fall half an age behind in techs at some point.

-Sirp.