IGE 3 Change Challenge

I found myself stuck between levels for some time with Emperor too easy and Immortal too difficult so I'd tweak my home city a bit and play Immortal/Deity to have decent wars but also a bit of a chance while still trying to level up my play (failure to do so was mostly to do with my interactions with other AI, and overly optimistic/risky battle strategy).

I made this concept for a Capital city. you open up the IGE mod (in-game editor) and you are allowed three changes.

1 Natural wonder
1 tile improvement (any combo eg change a tile to a hill AND add gold or to a grassland and add cattle) - your choice
1 Building (not wonders and not something without the prerequisite e.g. not a temple before a shrine).

The variety of strategies that can be born off the base of this concept are endless, e.g.

REX - fountain of youth, shrine
Diplo - A faith wonder, a monument
Domination - King Solomons mines, barracks
Culture - Kilimanjaro, monument

etc etc etc

Done right you can turn specific nations into juggernauts. Done without attention to long term effect the AI will still swallow your amateur ass up.

Yes it's cheating. it's also creative, and a lot of fun.

Have to play Deity in this mode now, but for a while immortal was still challenging.

Am interested to hear other peoples thoughts on strategies they might create within this framework.

Seems pretty obvious that Spain would be unbeatable if you can just pick a natural wonder to have in your capital, especially if you get the 500 gold discovery bonus.

Yep. But you wont get the gold you don't 'discover' things already in your territory. Spain is a bit naff for this.

It's only fun for a very short time if it isn't challenging. Hence my advice to play above your typical level to get some challenge/fun out of it.

I imagine if Deity is something you regularly beat on a random roll this wouldn't be much fun at all. Lesser mortals like myself find Deity victory a serious challenge unless exploiting 1 vs 1 with specific civs or maps or similar.

Adding the fountain of youth is really useful on some maps that have very few rares per land area eg Australia and Africa. I've had lots of fun kicking the Brits/Germans/French/Dutch out of both these countries - Africa as Zulus, Australia as Aboriginals from a Colonialist Legacies mod.

And of course each map roll can vary significantly, adding a layer of complexity to what you might want to edit in.

This is a great idea! It's fun to find a way to play between levels. I spent a fair amount of time finding a way to make Deity more enjoyable for me. I didn't want to necessarily have any game-long advantages, but I found that simply giving myself a Worker and Scout on t0 really opened up a lot of options, and made the AI early game advantages less harsh. Another tweak I often use on Immortal is either to not use Rationalism, or just limit myself to the Opener and Secularism.

Glad you like it. It certainly helped me transition up a level getting to play harder levels but not feeling so insecure about those damn neighbors.

Starting with a worker and scout'd be nice but when I'm lucky on immortal I've got both by turn 8.

Fun idea, but too much faff for me. I work around it by getting to know the NQ mod, which makes base game Immortal slightly more difficult but still not harder than base game Deity, which is somewhat of a sweet spot for me

Yeah, this sounds pretty fun. To make it a bit more exciting, you could use a randomizer and play whatever combination it gives you, ranging from Barringer/0 yield Snow tile/Caravansary to Uluru/Salt/Water mill

I like that idea vadalaz it'd really make it interesting. Be a great concept for some multiplayer too. Everyone gets their roll and an observer to edit them in so you don't know what others have...

Natural Wonder: Uluru, I like how it looks and it's a great wonder.

Tile: is pretty difficult, depends on what you see. The ideal setup: I already have marble around so I add a hill with stone and quarry in the first ring, but only if the city can build the Stone Works. Another option: grassland tile with Salt and mine: 4 food, 1 hammer and 1 gold. Or maybe just add a mountain for the observatory.

Building: Most likely Granary or Aqueduct. I'm too lazy to figure out which one gives more food for having it from T0.

A stable could potentially be good if you have lots of sheep/cow, but unfortunately you can't see the horses at T0. I guess Hydro Plant would be a total cheese if you have a nice river around.

Observatory could also be pretty nice, it's basically a NC from the start.

Or maybe something totally crazy like Spaceship Factory, just for the +3 production, but it will be difficult handling the maintenance for it.

Maintenance - learned that the hard way.

If I don't see them, I quite like placing gems under the Capital for the initial gold...

Uluru's definitely a nice choice and typically my first. Though Kilimanjaro is great for it's extra boost to early policies and a Kilimanjaro army is a lot of fun albeit a bit OP.

I lucked upon Uluru while scouting before settling playing with the prehistoric mod at epic pace yesterday. Natural Wonders pantheon and settled 2 more of them promptly... I was Polynesia so i found everyone before they could even sail and had religion before they had faith. With the religion I spammed culture (before they had culture) via buildings, took out the piety tree before I'd hit writing, got sacred sites and had 6/7 opponents fully influenced before I'd hit renaissance and I hadn't made a single great artist. I just wiped out spain, wasn't going to wait for 2-3 musicians.