The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #6 - Byzantine Empire

Well...things were going well in my game, until I kinda disregarded Askia... He smashed Harold? early and I had DoFs with him all game. I paid him to declare on England, and I kinda unleashed a monster. He took Lizzies cap about T230. Then backstabbed me (wiped me out in ~7 turns - he had 5 CS allies and I'd neglected my military a bit :/).

I was 6/7 cities, and it was the best I'd done with that many cities (missed a religion, as I stopped exploring to keep Lizzie from the dyes). My SPs was Liberty (full), Trad (opener + culture buildings), Order adoption (went Autocracy to stay friendly with Askia, but had to change due to Boudicca and Inca having massive tourism) and 4 in Rationalism.

It was my first attempt at Diety and it was going ok (I guess?) until that point. Only been really playing for ~2 months (just moved to Immortal).

Thing I found I need to work on are:
Military - I keep 'Sim Citying' and focus too much on infrastructure
Culture - not getting enough policies in a good time
Science - too low at all points of the game. Was sitting on ~600 bpt at T240ish

All in all, I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did. I'll definitely try the other Diety challenges and will give this one another try sometime soon.
 
Your comment doesn't make much sense regarding workers. The AI start with one. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't wait 40 turns to make another one.
I am talking about City-States. Sometimes, they just don't build workers early enough on Immortal.


Regarding the AI: I watch LP's and see how people easily steal undefended workers from the AI, but in my experience on Deity, there are always a couple of warriors around, so the times I can actually steal a worker is later in the game and from a weak neighbor like Brazil. Once, I tried stealing from the Maya, and three turns later 5 Atlatists and 2 warriors came to my fresh early expo and oneshot it. :lol: Maybe I just have bad timing on worker stealing.
 
I am talking about City-States. Sometimes, they just don't build workers early enough on Immortal.


Regarding the AI: I watch LP's and see how people easily steal undefended workers from the AI, but in my experience on Deity, there are always a couple of warriors around, so the times I can actually steal a worker is later in the game and from a weak neighbor like Brazil. Once, I tried stealing from the Maya, and three turns later 5 Atlatists and 2 warriors came to my fresh early expo and oneshot it. :lol: Maybe I just have bad timing on worker stealing.

Well imo the stealing of workers is the easiest on Deity because of two things.

1. Ai starts with extra settler which he plants early and transfers his workers over and the 2nd city is seldomly defended by a bunch of units.
2. Ai has sometimes ridicolous border growth which leads to worker improving tiles on 3rd or 4th ring where the city cannot shoot at and this means an easy workersteal if there are not 3 warriors around.

(3. Some AIs tend to build very fast a 3rd city to which applies number1 as well, stealing transferring workers)

But as always Practice makes perfect ;)
 
Well imo the stealing of workers is the easiest on Deity because of two things.

1. Ai starts with extra settler which he plants early and transfers his workers over and the 2nd city is seldomly defended by a bunch of units.
2. Ai has sometimes ridicolous border growth which leads to worker improving tiles on 3rd or 4th ring where the city cannot shoot at and this means an easy workersteal if there are not 3 warriors around.

(3. Some AIs tend to build very fast a 3rd city to which applies number1 as well, stealing transferring workers)

But as always Practice makes perfect ;)
Well, yes, I have had more success stealing on deity than on immortal. That game was on Immortal, though, and he stole 3 workers from Rome without any repercussions.

Acken is a great player, though, so I guess he just feels the game better.
 
Looks like I settled differently than anyone else.

Spoiler :
Sent Warrior E and saw desert, Settler E/NE to Mtn hill. Next turns Warrior found desert heaven with fish and crab, so decided to try my first Deity Petra game, settled coast hill t3. I had no idea what I was doing tech-wise - tried to bee-line Currency as much as possible, but started with Pottery and diverted to Mining at some point.


Ruins were gold, pop, culture, and maybe a 2nd culture or faith. Meeting Rel CS's early gave Desert Folklore. Stole 4 workers from Geneva and 2 from Liz - she killed my Scout and captured one. Scout for a Worker, still nice.

Started Petra t64, finished t78. Then went for HG and got that. Currently food focus in cap gives +41 with no caravans, prod focus still +25! My science has been crap, didn't get NC until t108.

Cap had only 1 lux, but since I saw FoY I plopped 2nd city W of Mtn and bought the tile for 10 happy. 3rd city went on wine hills where everybody else settled cap (beat Harold's Settler by 1-2 turns, and then trapped him by the coast). 4th city was tough - I wanted to go W of copper Mtns and back-fill tiles, but I didn't like being so exposed, so went E side. (Other spot had 5 pastures and 2 iron in reach!) So 4 coastal cities, 2 have Mtns.

Everybody offered DOF but I didn't take Harold's - he got double DOW'd and Askia wiped him off the map. I am wary of starting a war between them - am afraid Askia will end up in beast mode. He is spamming Missionaries like crazy, and has 2/3 of the map converted. Both he and Liz went Piety.

After Desert Folklore I took Tithe, Monasteries, and Festivals (Pagodas was probably better, but wanted to kick-start culture and border expansion). Enhanced with Swords-Plowshares and Itin Preachers. I will pop 1-2 Prophets before Industrial, and should have 1/2 the continent or more to my religion. After Tradition I opened Piety and will take 1 more before Ren. I diverted from Astronomy to get XB's as I am very weak with 6 range, 1 Horse and 1 Warrior, no Walls.

I have met Venice. Only built 1 Dromon and no Cataphract.

 

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Spoiler :
I question the fact that you went Piety if you recognize that you will have few policies this game.

Spoiler :
I guess you're probably right. Patronage/Aesthetics might have been more useful.
 
to t200, starting the Great War

Spoiler :

I've played too peacefully recently so it is time to get my God-King to prod Lazy-Sexy off her couch and get some armies rolling.

When the English swooped in and captured my XP farm, the perfect opportunity to Liberate those Sidonese presented itself. They'll forgive me for 5,000 years of war, right?



Because of missing cultural city states I made a very conscious effort to push culture this game. That means early guilds, Amphitheatres, Opera Houses, The Hermitage, and a fully themed Broadway.



I went to Radio for Order, then to Flight, then Labs (t188). Late attempt to begin fighting, but the other continent it keeping itself busy. There is an Egypt <-> Incan war that has seen Thebes conquered and liberated 4 times :eek:



I've pushed through the English and am advancing quickly on Gao.



At home most of the economic infrastructure is in place. Soon it will be unit spam time. I could bulb to Radar now, but will wait for a little more value.



 
Education at T100. Crazy map.
Spoiler :

Spoiler :
You're lucky to get the spot with the copper. One of the other 3 AIs has stolen that from me before I get a first settler out in 3 playthroughs!
 
Spoiler :
You're lucky to get the spot with the copper. One of the other 3 AIs has stolen that from me before I get a first settler out in 3 playthroughs!

Well you can use your units to divert enemy settlers or even declaring war if you want to settle there.
I used my warrior to divert two danish settlers wanting to settle there...
 
So on my 2nd play through I launched on T328. I had to keep buying Egypt's Aluminium over the last 40ish turns...

Really slow I know, but my first Diety win!
 
Spoiler :
You're lucky to get the spot with the copper. One of the other 3 AIs has stolen that from me before I get a first settler out in 3 playthroughs!

That depends how soon you make your first settler I guess. That city was founded T48 in my game.

Also if necessary, it's a very easy spot to deny since the AI never settles on a ressource.
 
So I've finished T212 with a culture victory.

Lucky beginning + no terrible runaway made for an easy game I won't deny it. Still the general strategy wouldn't change that much: Push culture output early, play a normal science game up to secularism, get archeology, buy schools, spam archeologists, win WF, make hotels, go for Internet/Radar.

Spoiler :


If Pachacutti had been a bigger runaway, one additional musician would have taken care of him probably.
 
Nicely done Acken. I'm assuming you sold Adrianople? Really excited to see the videos.
 
t226 Domination

Some advanced weaponry used at the end :)

Spoiler :

After Askia was eliminated my highly promoted Infantry and Bombers cut through Harald's obsolete units like butter. (He was fighting with Muskets, poor fellow.)

Swimming the "long way" to a beach in Cardiff.



Once Boudicca lost her palace she was willing to trade Venice for peace. Sure, I'll take it. The Byzantine skunkworks had been busy developing X-Com and Stealth so Pachacuti died. Quickly.




Thoughts

- This map is really strong. It is only slightly behind the Incan game in dirt quality, but easier to win due to weak AIs.

- I had several Janissaries and Tercios gifted earlier so I used melee more than I normally would have done. Of course these were melee who had drunk the waters ... I think the Fountain of Youth should only provide the healing buff and +3 happy. It would still be very strong.

- I like the deep tech domination style but it shouldn't be competitive with an earlier aggressive move.
 
T268 SV and 1st time ever game as Byzantium :)

Egypt was 2 space parts away from winning :lol:
Spoiler :

Not the best game but managed to win. I didn't even get religion so no unique Byzantium's benefits this game (don't need their UUs :D)
I think I've made a few mistakes:
* not enough food ships and my cities were too small. I usually play rivers and this is somewhat different.
* realized I was playing on continents instead of pangaea.
* maybe I had to try getting religion but not sure if that would benefit me since AI spread pretty decent religion to my cities.

Wars:
Was paying them all from time to time for various reasons. First England, Songhai, they killed Denmark. Then paid Inca, Egypt, Venice to fight each other and to slow down their WF progress, also to get some wonders in time (Kremlin).

Policies:
Full Tradition/Rationalism
Order up to 3rd level to buy spaceship parts. Egypt was a runaway and they got Order 1st like 15 turns before me.

Wonders:
Kremlin, Hubble, Hermitage, Eiffel
Pisa and PT gone before I even started.

WF: I won it but barely and expected to pay others to fight Egypt runaway cause they were really strong.

WLTKD:
Was OK till all cities requested Ivory which was sadly banned.

Faith:
Bought 1 GS and 1GE.

Ideology:
Only Egypt chose Order, had -40 resistance but still managed to stay happy. Became much harder at the end when Venice started buying all CS



 

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Interesting game for me, my first Freedom SV (I always do Order). 5th best score - 2,856. I delayed blast-off 1 turn to finish 2 wonders, Lost CN Tower by 1 turn. :mad: Another first - using Rat finisher for Plastics, and I used Oxford for Satellites (I always use it for Plastics). Also, I didn't build any RR's, just used Harbors.
Spoiler :
I got my cap to 47 pop, which has to be my best, since I had Petra and HG I only ran 1-2 food ships early, if I had run 3 all game who knows how much bigger it would have been (switched 2 to production after Hubble). Hard built all but 2 SS Parts, I had no idea how much they cost and whether I would have enough gold - could have bought them all, LOL). My SV tech path always leaves the top until last, so very late on Hospitals and Med Labs. (I go Satellites to Adv Ballistics to Nano to Part Physics, as per Tich's excellent guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=506043)

Pretty mundane game on my continent after Askia and Liz wiped out Harald. I was Friendly with Askia all game, Liz denounced me 2x after Ideologies. I bribed 2 wars between them, but since I had allied all 3 central CS no major cities were swapped. The other continent had Inca and Celts moderately dominant, until late game when they easily wiped Egypt and then Venice from the map.

I was in a strange position of mostly having Mil and Religious CS allies - my army was much stronger than a usual science game, and I gifted or deleted obsolete units a lot. Even with Desert Folklore, Festivals, and Monasteries I never won a faith quest. I had 24 faith tiles in my empire for 28 terrain faith. I spawned 4 GP and almost faith bought a 5th for late spreads.

I popped all GA for GAges and hit 3 or 4 naturals, so won WF by 100 hammers even with food focus. I still had decent Tourism because of Eiffel and some decent Arch digging - that is the one way I often depart from Tich's tech path, I just have too much fun in the middle of the top tree. Didn't hit science lead until t200-ish. I think I screwed up my Petra start.

It looks like Acken and I settled the same city spots - his cities are much larger earlier. :) I put a warrior and worker on the 2 islands by Rock of Gibraltar - I never did settle it, lots of good sea tiles nearby.

Policies: Tradition, 2 Piety, 2-3 Rat, 3 Freedom, finish Rat, 3 more Freedom, Theocracy (love it), Commerce open, patronage open.

Wonders: Petra, HG, Eiffel (GE), SoL, Neuschwanstein (yes!), CR, Hubble, Pentagon (GE), Big Ben, Gr Firewall.


 

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