And one more comes from me, pretty much as a tribute to the OP, I feel like I gotta share
I got my first Deity win on T243 with Babylon by following the ToA opening tactic. My starting location was good, but as I moved my warrior, I saw Darius' second settler, so it was obvious I should give him some space, so I moved to the nearby mountain, settling on turn 3 (which, of course is far from perfect). However, it was worth it, as I settled on top of sheep, which allowed for good production and decent defense (only 3 tiles to attack the city from the south and only 2 from the north, thanks to the mountains). The desert was everywhere, so I geared up for a Petra rush.
The thing is, I had the worst neighbors: Darius, Alexander and Oda. All of them are early rushers, and hit hard and fast - it is even worse on deity, as every AI starts with 3-4 units, 2 settlers, at least 1 worker, and tons of tech as bonus. I was feeling ready to throw the towel and try a new game, but I thought "what the hell, might as well try it". I just felt it would be a shame to throw 2 a desert start with oasis and 2 wheat tiles, river, sheep and 3 gem mines - not to mention I could settle in the canyon, where only a few units could attack.
I had my lone warrior scouting Darius, and he was cranking out a new unit every 3-4 turns, which got me worried a lot. However, I had an unexpected help - the Freaking El Dorado, God love it!!! That allowed me to hard buy Granary + Worker, and while Writing was researching, to build the Shrine too. With a planted GS Archery is only 3-4 turns, so I went for a ToA opening and finished it on T36 (!) during which time I sold the gems to the Vikings and Siam and bought the Library so that I don't accumulate much gold and don't lose time. As I painfully learned in this playthrough:
- Deity AI DoW's you if you have too much gold (as they expect you to give it to them as a buyout from the war)
- Deity AI DoW's you if the covet your lands (and suffice it to say, Darius, Oda and Alexander started coveting them right at the start)
- Deity AI will DoW you often if you have Swords into Plowshares belief to negate your advantage.
I had my doubts I would manage with GL, as any AI would surely have Writing pre-researched (and I have to waste 18-22 turns on it, unless I pop a ruin, which is very rare), so ToA was ok. I got it, the El Dorado helped a lot, but I popped only 2 ruins - 1 pop and 1 upgrade for the Scout to bowman. And then Darius invaded on T40 with 6 warriors and 5 archers, when I myself had only 2 Archers - so thank God for the location. I bloodied his nose a bit (no chance for early rush against a city on a hill unless you do it right) and offered him a 1-gold Peace Treaty, which he found generous
Unfortunately, since I had the Greeks, Alexander built the Oracle, and that hindered my efforts quite a bit - I got my first GS point on Pisa, which reduced my chances of getting 1 GS before medieval era. I had to go with HG before Petra just because I had so much production and nothing to spend it on. I was constantly DoW'ed by Persia, Greece and Japan, so the first 100 turns were a hard struggle for survival. Darius even CoD'd me once and I saw my capital hitting the red zone, and I had to buy myself out again.
Things started falling in place after Industrialization. Right after education, I had to go for a Machinery rush to survive (I was freaking envious of Sadato and his T149 screen where he still had his ordinary bowmen - and is such a location, where a CoD would be lethal), and then to Pisa, PT and Industrialization (otherwise I was toast). However, after I got the Gatlings, Darius finally decided to make peace with me and we became great buddies till the end. Oda eventually whittled Greece down to 1 city (and that was yet another awful Greece performance by the AI that I witnessed!). From this point on it was only beating Oda back regularly (he never made peace with me, even started denouncing - dunno what for, never did anything to him but ask friendship) and researching.
At the end only Siam was a threat - he built Appolo in 1230 AD (!!!) and cranked 4 parts out in no time. I got it later, thanks to the unwilling Persia, Japan and Viking ro RA with me. Still, it was a hot race to the finish line. Everyone was well equipped for it - AI with lots of cities, me with ToA + HG + Petra (good growth for specialists) + Rationalism and PT, and to boot I picked the Desert Pantheon (I thought it was a heresy to have like 15+ desert tiles to work and pick fertility rites), I also managed to buy 3 GS to help my efforts later on. The freaking Long-name nutty professor who cares for the people even built a 4th part, so thank god I placed my best spy in his capital to check on his progress - I even shaved him off a few techs (he was unhappy, but he already signed the RA 2 turns ago, so no going back, buddy) to level the playing field, as he built his 5th part while I was doing boosters. I thought the game was lost, but thankfully, he hadn't developed the tree to Nanotech at all. I was so relived to hear that "we eclipsed them", I even opened a beer
In any case, that freakingly tough game with my poor Babylon found between the hammer and the anvil ended on T243 with a science victory. Could have been sooner, but I am not so good with Medians and such, and I also lost a few turns from RA's (not signing a new one right away), and of course I was helped by Japan's erratic behavior, who never became friendly to me. OH come on, you pissed off cause I destroyed the 12 samurai units you sent me one by one through the canyon? Is that it???
