Winning on Deity - suggestions?

Aaron90495

Aaron90495

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After beating Immortal pretty well a few times, I decided to move up to Deity a few weeks ago. I've played probably ten games and have come pretty close a few times, but I've always fallen short.

My biggest problem seems to be balancing production, food, gold, etc. With the ridiculous rushes on Deity (I play Quick BTW), I often find myself without much of an early-game infrastructure due to having to survive onslaughts. I didn't have too much of a problem with this on Immortal, but on Deity it's killing me. I've been living at a deficit of 5-30 GPT for the past 100 turns or so, narrowly avoiding getting into the red by selling luxuries. Most of my cities have the gold buildings in them, and there just doesn't seem to be a way to get enough gold.

Anyways, any tips would be welcome. And I'll attach my current game - Maya, shooting for a science victory - that is pretty close but I'll probably lose. (My two closest games were with the Maya, for the record.) If anyone could be so kind as to look at the save and figure out what I'm doing wrong, it would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks!
 

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I play only on Emperor, but from what I understand, Quick is harder on the human, as you have less turns to catch up with the AIs, and also have less turns to conquer neighbors (as movement points remain the same). try playing standard maybe?
 
I looked at your save. Couple of things. First of all, you might win this one. You lose only 2% to the overall science lead. And even though Caesar progressed in building 2 boosters already, technically you and him are even in science. Plus, you have a good chance to get 2 free techs from rationalism in 30-40 turns and a scientist is coming up in Itza, plus RA with Sejong. Problem is - it'll take forever to produce space parts.

So the problem is food. You cant afford to have such small cities on Deity, especially considering the fact there is 20(!) excess happiness. Expect your main 5 cities to be at least twice the size they are now by turn 192, or go with less cities, but grow them! The core of this problem is working right tiles. Farms should be a priority over lumber mills, riverside farms should be improved ASAP. Big city produces much more science & hammers you know that.

Advice would be: try growing few core cities very fast. If you manage that, you' ll end up with more options in the time of need.
 
Attached a screen shot to give you an idea of city sizes. (Deity, Standard speed)
 

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Moriarte said:
Attached a screen shot to give you an idea of city sizes. (Deity, Standard speed)
Click to expand...

This is something I don't understand about Deity. How can you possibly have enough techs to build the spaceship (by the 1600's) with only 660 bulbs per turn :eek: :confused:
 
kamex said:
How can you possibly have enough techs to build the spaceship (by the 1600's) with only 660 bulbs per turn :eek: :confused:
Click to expand...

He must have built porcelain tower and had several RAs going. Looks like Korea DoW'd him near the end, but maybe he was friends with everyone else and used a ton of RAs to zip through the tech tree? Also, it looks like he didn't settle many (if any) great scientists, instead saving them up and bulbing them at the end.
 
Moriarte said:
I looked at your save. Couple of things. First of all, you might win this one. You lose only 2% to the overall science lead. And even though Caesar progressed in building 2 boosters already, technically you and him are even in science. Plus, you have a good chance to get 2 free techs from rationalism in 30-40 turns and a scientist is coming up in Itza, plus RA with Sejong. Problem is - it'll take forever to produce space parts.

So the problem is food. You cant afford to have such small cities on Deity, especially considering the fact there is 20(!) excess happiness. Expect your main 5 cities to be at least twice the size they are now by turn 192, or go with less cities, but grow them! The core of this problem is working right tiles. Farms should be a priority over lumber mills, riverside farms should be improved ASAP. Big city produces much more science & hammers you know that.

Advice would be: try growing few core cities very fast. If you manage that, you' ll end up with more options in the time of need.
Click to expand...

Many thanks. A few notes to add: I was struggling with negative happiness for much of the game and I only recently got it to be stable. About 10 turns ago I got the policy that provides happiness from science buildings, and when I used Oxford to get Satellites, I discovered a natural wonder for 2 mercantile CSs. I probably still could have built more happiness buildings, though. The problem with that is my economy, which is in the tank. If you didn't notice, I spend a whopping 110 GPT on building maintenence. So each building I put up that didn't seem essential (i.e. science) hurt me even more. I suppose bigger cities would help a lot with that, right?

A few questions, too:

Generally, I put lumber mills on forests, mines on hills, farms on plains/grassland, and trading posts on jungles. I guess this isn't really the right way to do it, so other than putting farms on rivers, what else should I change? I've never really figured out how to use trading posts.

Also, should I not focus on production early-game unless under attack? I put my cities on production A LOT, and I guess that's hurting me.

Thanks again.
 
@Kamex

The screenshot was taken after all specialists were disabled. Game was a while ago, but as i recall bpt was above 800.

@kamikazees

Exactly that on every point :). Ton of RAs (notice 7 Oranges), lots of friends and 200 turns of war with Korea and Boudicca.

@Aaron

Yes, big cities rock, they will provide enough gold to stay afloat. Prioritize all sorts of farms early on, number of citizens will compensate for pitfall in production. Trading posts shine on jungle, otherwise i don't use them in a tall game.

Also, Maritime alliances really help, try scouting actively in the beginning to be able to do barb quests and such.
 
either i am terrible at this game, or winning deity is a lot harder than people would like to admit.

obviously its going to be a cakewalk if you play babylon/pangea, spawn next to a mountain on flood plains, and manage to get dof with 5+ other civs... but for mortal starts it becomes a lot harder imo, especially if you spawn next to an aggressive civ or another civ gets a ridiculous starting pt.

try winning a science victory as japan on an archipelago map before turn 240... if at all... or as isabella on tundra next to alexander or boudica



my point is that deity can be extremely challenging on certain settings. OCC science victories before turn 250 are the exception, not the norm. Or i could totally be wrong who knows.
 
Winning on deity is "gimmicky". I never really feel like I'm playing a "real game" when I play to win on deity difficulty.
 
Aaron90495 said:
Many thanks. A few notes to add: I was struggling with negative happiness for much of the game and I only recently got it to be stable. About 10 turns ago I got the policy that provides happiness from science buildings, and when I used Oxford to get Satellites, I discovered a natural wonder for 2 mercantile CSs. I probably still could have built more happiness buildings, though. The problem with that is my economy, which is in the tank. If you didn't notice, I spend a whopping 110 GPT on building maintenence. So each building I put up that didn't seem essential (i.e. science) hurt me even more. I suppose bigger cities would help a lot with that, right?

A few questions, too:

Generally, I put lumber mills on forests, mines on hills, farms on plains/grassland, and trading posts on jungles. I guess this isn't really the right way to do it, so other than putting farms on rivers, what else should I change? I've never really figured out how to use trading posts.

Also, should I not focus on production early-game unless under attack? I put my cities on production A LOT, and I guess that's hurting me.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I would say your production is hurting you the most. It's ok to do for critical wonders, but otherwise you should always have your city on default focus.

A rule of thumb for improvements: Always make sure any non-hill tile has at least 2 food. This will allow your cities to grow at a good pace, as population is everything in a science victory. All river tiles should have a farm on them until Fertilizer, as the growth and gold is critical in early game. You can switch them out later with trading posts if you need more gold or finish Scientific Theory. If you want to transition to diplo, you can build a few more trading posts than normal, but that's what I've found works for me.
 
patsfan454 said:
my point is that deity can be extremely challenging on certain settings. OCC science victories before turn 250 are the exception, not the norm. Or i could totally be wrong who knows.
Click to expand...

Yes it can be extremely challenging. Archipelago should be easier on Deity though, since you won't be warring obviously. And if you decide to do that, you have an advantage, since AI is sad with ships.

But i agree, generally. You can cook some settings to make it next to impossible, like: middle of pangaea, sparse resources, raging barbs and no trading with AI. Yeah.. And pick Gandhi.

To me 'normal' Deity games still present a challenge though.
 
The reason you have no gold is obviously your lack of any sort of expansion whatsoever. That much bonus happiness...

Why are you playing aztecs like that...

Aztec are all about war, war and more war!
 
Im just into Diety myself but I have had a few games as Pacal, get that religion up early go liberty and suffer early unhappiness expand early sell luxuries early even if it is early game unhappiness you will get it back 6 or 7 cities early game aim for, get gpt going with religion (iteritant preachers and gold per turn for followers (cant remember what its called). ). 6 pop for your capital is nowhere near good enough for Diety. It should be pushing if not past 18 at that year. Maybe you reclaimed it from some wars?

With pacal you get the pyramid so writing early isn't such a big deal but with a lots a cities with pyramids you could fly early game.
 
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