Avoiding war on Deity?

So I've been trying a few Deity games for the recent gauntlet. In one I had Shaka as a neighbour and avoided war all game by being his best bud and having a nice mountain range with choke points between him and me just for added safety. I also went Autocracy because he did.

More recently I had a start next to Morocco and across the sea from Ethiopia. No wars for the most part but as soon as ideologies hit it all went south. Morocco and I went Freedom. Everyone else (Sweden, England and Pacal) went Order and within a few turns I was multi-DoW'd by all of them. While I held them at bay it slowed me down and I lost to Ethiopia launching first.

In terms of military, it seems I can never get off the bottom rung. Mid-war and the pointy stick counter showed me at around 2000 and Ethiopia at around 82000.

I know 2000 is not enough so the question is: what is and how do you fit it into the build queue?


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If I will be conducting my own wars, then the build queue is mostly made up of units...

If I want to win a peaceful CV or SV (perish the thought) then I build a unit every 20 turns at a minimum. So I want to go into T60 with at least 3 archers plus the starting warrior, and actually, a couple more archers don't go amiss. By T140 I want at least 4 more units, preferably more, and so on...

When you're first to the Modern Era (as you should be, via Oxford University), then buy or build a couple of advanced units. That should stave off the DoWs.

Also, while Militaristic CS are of little consequence when you're warmongering, they're pretty cool when you're going peaceful. Ally them and you need to build less of your own.

Well, it's actually not that hard. You see, once you have a pretty strict victory path, you can set your priorities differently. For example, if you've just teched Sci Theory and saved up enough to rush buy schools, and have built operas, then you don't really need to build anything else other than cracking out a few rifles just to be on the safe side.

By far the best way to keep everyone out is just finishing Manhattan Project and buy a nuke, that would make even the craziest warmongers scared to death

I usually do ally as many military CS as I can afford/justify. Getting 10 units over the course of the game is pretty handy. It's turns you spent on infrastructure and wonders. And when you dont need them you can gift them to CSs for a little bit of influence.