Deity on huge maps

Greetings fellow civ fanatics!

I've been reading this forum for quite a while - there are tons of really cool thoughts, observations, tips, etc. here. Thanks a lot!

However, nowhere did I find any comments or guides on how to efficiently play huge (biggest) continents maps on Deity difficulty level. It just seems that everywhere the standard map size is assumed to be a "granted" condition.

From my own experience I found out that huge maps on higher lvls of difficulties are extremely different from smaller maps. I sometimes feel like the size acts as an additional difficulty level.

So... any quick tips on "do's" and "don'ts" for Deity huge maps?

Thanks in advance!

Restart if Alexander is in the game.


(And, of course, on the other side of the map ...)

Or, max out CS count and BE Alexander.

Huge maps make domination more difficult because your units move at the same speed, but have WAY more distance to cover.

You can compensate for that by having a marathon game. This will take forever to play of course.

Huge maps also make it a bit easier to find city locations and the number of cities and happiness problems scale up a bit. This *might* tip the social policy choices in the favor of liberty a wee bit, and Honor as well (more empty space for barbs). Piety also tends towards wider play styles (more temples, etc). I have not done the math here, just waxing philosophic about it. I am sure tradition is still the most reliable opener in general.

I used to like Germany ion huge maps. More barbs, more free units. I would open honor then straight tradition. I would raze any AI cities that got close to me and just go from there. I doubt this would be a viable strategy for Germany now, or on Diety in general.

On huge maps assuming more CIVs and CS, domination is going to be more difficult, diplomacy is going to matter more than on smaller maps, religion is going to matter less as the picks get more disbursed, and Liberty and Commerce get stronger than on standard size maps. I still don't think they are better than tradition but they are better.

Huge Deity is an excellent way to spend days and days on a game you're going to eventually lose.

tetley said:

Huge Deity is an excellent way to spend days and days on a game you're going to eventually lose.

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i.e. i should abandon any hopes of winning one eventually?

Thervold said:

i.e. i should abandon any hopes of winning one eventually?

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It's winnable just lot harder. Experience with large map first if you havent already or choose water map.

I don't play huge maps, but I suppose that not even a runaway AI that ate all other civs on a continent will beat a sub 300 science victory?

For huge i tend to find that liberty is a better tree than tradition even if you plan to stay small as you still want a good number of cities and with all those extra trading partners you can better sell lots of resources to help you along so the more resources you grab the more you can generally sell.

If going for domination it is actually more advisable to start reasonably early rather than waiting till artillery/planes as is common on standard maps. Depending on the situation generally going in small step but often is best to keep your warmonger score down.
Try to pick on other warmongers first or at least other civs that have taken cities so you can liberate them.

The hardest part i found with huge maps is getting the balance of civs and CS right as the default setting is just way too low. I usually play with 22 civs and 22 CS as that tends to give a reasonable spacing so you can expand but civs aren't so far apart it is easy to expand and later on there are large gaps between civs.

Diplomacy is much more of a minefield on a huge map with a lot of civs and then adding to that a marathon setting because with all the complex relations going on and the long expiration period of DoF's it is very easy to go from a reasonable situation to everyone hating you in a short period of time so you really need to pick sides and friends carefully with a long term viewpoint.

If your playing a continents/island style map you really need to get out exploring the other island(s) as soon as possible to get both information on what is happening over there but also extra potential trading partners. If someone is starting to get big on the other island you want to start chipping away at their coastal cities as soon as you get frigates/privateers and hopefully before they get planes although with logistics you can stay out of the way of their aircraft a lot of the time as you can move in, fire and move back out of range/sight so they can't target you.

A decent PC and the quick turns mod will greatly improve the experience as turns can get quite long.

Walter E Kurtz said:

I don't play huge maps, but I suppose that not even a runaway AI that ate all other civs on a continent will beat a sub 300 science victory?

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I played one Deity game on a Large map where there was a runaway and Apollo was built around turn 210 by China, so I don't think I'd suppose that.

You can check out video's from Moriarte. He has quite a few domination oriented games on huge maps on deity difficulty. Though be prepared to sit down for it.

Thervold said:

i.e. i should abandon any hopes of winning one eventually?

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Absolutely not. It takes a bit of getting used to, but, eventually, if you can beat std. sized deity, you will be able to beat huge. Try shooting for science victory - the easier victory condition first. Eventually, you'll be able to win domination and culture too.

It's very rare that AI strikes a good science balance when expanding and actually extends itself to a t.260 victory. Most of the time they just keep expanding blindly and horribly, which kills their science, while you can saturate a strong 5-6 city empire and achieve science VC before they do, or divert to other VC of your liking in the process. I never won a science vic. on huge, as i always go for either domination or culture, but winning before t.300 shouldn't be a problem, just as it is on standard.

Few things you should know and leverage them to your advantage:

The king of huge water maps is Kamehameha.

Culture and happiness costs of expanding on huge are lower. In effect, that gives you an extra city to settle.

Water maps are the same easy mode. Extra scout or two will grant you incredible amounts of ancient ruins, as AI is terrible at exploration

Pangaea is easier than Continents. A lot easier. The reason is - techs. that are already discovered by other AI's become cheaper to you, and, since you've met everyone early, you will get quite a bit of gold from embassies too, access to extra happiness, gold from CS, natural wonders, etc., etc. That process is a lot slower on continents. The other side of the coin, is that more water = less land to settle for the AI. Overall tech. pace is slower on continents/archipelago. So, from that point of view, continents are easier than Pangaea.

Vastness of space to settle and increased number of opponents means you need to get as many resources as you can within your borders, as you want to trade it all for happiness, gpt and lump sums. Hence, value of animal husbandry and bronze working before the settling process starts is high. Gold is king in this game, and it becomes increasingly apparent on huge maps.

Barbs can be a big problem if you spawn far away from everyone else. 4-5 defenders is a must in this situation.

The best way to befriend ANY AI is to send a caravan their way.

Best starting polity trees are tradition or liberty. Or tradition opener --> free settler --> full tradition, if you can get a lot of early culture. (which is rare)

You can see approximate turn times to win on a huge map here

Great info Moriarte! Also:

Moriarte said:

Pangaea is easier than Continents. A lot easier. The reason is - techs. that are already discovered by other AI's become cheaper to you

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Just to clarify, he means that techs discovered by AI's *that you have met* become cheaper to you. Hence, you lose typically half this bonus on Continents for the first 120+ turns.

Up the number of civs. The standard amount on huge is 12 - that is gonna lead to runaway AI's like no tomorrow. Instead, pile in 18 civs, and ai's keep each other more in check, leading to more interesting games where diplomacy becomes a hugely important factor.