The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #7 - Ethiopia

DingleBirdy

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The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #7

Welcome to The Deity Challenge Lineup. This is a biweekly event with games being posted every other Friday. All games in this series will be set to DEITY difficulty. User civilizations, maps, and opponents will change with each challenge, but the pace will always be set at standard and the starting era will always be ancient. We will try for a variety of starts, and not just having a crazy warmonger as your next door neighbor (although there will be that too). This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions. There is an informal spreadsheet of previous challenge finishers that you can find at the bottom of this post.

DCL Game #7
You – Ethiopia
Total Civilizations - 8
Total City States -16
Map – Pangaea
Settings – Quick movement and quick combat(turn them back on if you would like). Everything else is set to default.
Game Version - 1.0.3.144
Downloadable Content – G&K, BNW, Conquest of the New World Deluxe, Genghis Khan's Mongolia, Harold Bluetooth's Denmark, Isabella’s Sapin and Pachacuti's Incan Empire, Kamehameha's Polynesian Empire, Nebruchadnezzar's Babylon, Sejong The Great's Korea, Wonders of the Ancient World. The map pack are intentionally excluded.

Starting Location

The save can be found at the bottom of this post.

Rules and Misc
Spoiler :
Who can play?
Anybody can play. The more the merrier. Even if you normally don't play deity games you are still welcome to try. The games can become great learning resources for the player trying to improve. Even if you don't finish the game, we are still interested to hear about your experience.

Do's and Don'ts
We are going to be using the honor system. Feel free to restart, reload, play the same game multiple times, but don't use the science overflow exploit. Also please don't edit the game in IGE. If you do chose to cheat, please don't share your results in the comments. Also, please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, comment about neighboring civs, close by wonders, or locations of ancient ruins.

Also, please tell us about your Build Order, Social Policies, Tech Order, and what type of wonders you went after. I know a lot of this stuff seems pretty mundane to the experienced player, but the details are incredibly useful to people trying to learn.

Why no vc's? And what is the point if this isn't competitive?
Having freedom to do whatever suits you best, whatever suits the map best, freedom to experiment and even fool around is, probably, one the main appeals of these games. We have two restrictive types of games. Why would we need another speed race?

I obviously don't want to forbid people from proposing (deity challenges) but if at least one was aimed to regroup more people that would be great.

The Deity challenge series is not about winning as fast as possible imo, its just about people playing the same start and telling the story of their game, unlike for example HOF and GOTM.

Future Games
I want users to submit saves from turn 0. Preferably the person submitting the game has played enough turns to know the map is either difficult, fun, or unique in some enjoyable way. Write a short description as to why it is special and email the save to DeityChallengeLineup@gmail.com

Schedule
Game #1 - June 20th as The Zulu
Game #2 - July 4th as America
Game #3 - July 18th as Persia
Game #4 - August 1st as Sweden
Game #5 - August 15th as The Inca
Game #6 – August 29th – Byzantine Empire
Game #7 – September 12th
Game #8 – September 26th
Game #9 - October 10th

Important
If you submit a game for the challenge, you must have the DLC map packs disabled. Not everybody has them and they are honestly kind of useless. Having them disabled will allow more participants.

DCL Finishers Spreadsheet
 

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I like what I see here. I might want to move a little ... and I guess I should build a stele at some point.

Thanks for keeping this series active :)
 
No pics, no civs mentioned - just few thoughts on T10.

Spoiler :

Hah, the start looked liked something that I'd normally reroll in a split second so I moved a bit, settled on the hill and things started to become alive on T2 though I still haven't DoWed anyone on T10 - this must be so called peaceful start; I've heard of them but rarely dared to try myself.


---add.----

It seems Olodune is also way faster in writing than I am.

I like what I see here. I might want to move a little ... and I guess I should build a stele at some point.
Thanks for keeping this series active :)

I didn't but then again I didn't see much of anything.
Moving sounded good to me, too.
Stele(s) seems probable.
Indeed.
 
I've never used those Rifles for anything. Maybe this time I can.

I would move my warrior to the pigs in preparation to settle 1 E on the grass.
 
Remembered this: Freedom vs Order. Your chance to prove which is better :D Although I think you'd need more games with different civs and conditions to tell for sure :)
 
Only up to T72 but this game is weird/insane/interesting - take your pick.
This time there's a pic within spoilers.

Spoiler :



The peace didn't last that long after all as on T16 there was an opportunity to double steal which I just couldn't let slip besides hampering Liberty Rome early is always good.
Stone Circles Pantheon T19 - could've taken One with Nature as well but it seemed more risky and I teched Masonry before Pottery. Liberty/Piety mixing Hiawatha offered DoF on T37 which I gladly took, Casimir is not too happy but surpringly I've managed ~50 turns without being denounced by Alex.

2nd city a bit late on T42 but couldn't be helped without culture ruin. After that few more settler otherwise the BO contained little else than archers due to Augustus who only builds workers & ballistae. By T60 I had stolen 6, killed 2 and captured one settler so I spent quite a few turns early on with hammer penalty instead of just killing'em - a new one will available shortly seems to be the Roman policy here. Polish settler has been stuck on that hill quite a while which seemed to diminish his expansion ambitions greatly.

T72 met Pocatello so one is still hiding somewhere and made DoF with Japan. 2 more stolen & 1 killed worker and no sign of legos yet. Alex is neutral but I'm expecting a message from him any turn now. Few lucky camp clearings and some money from Hiawatha has been keeping me mostly on positive happiness even with 5 cities. Going for Oracle before NC since Libs are far from ready.

Japan & Greece have huge armies but not a single war apart from me & Augustus so far. I don't have a clue what I've been doing but I've enjoyed the space & free workers.
Equally I have no plan whatsoever what do next apart from finding the missing link. Bribing Oda vs Alex or vice versa before Alex comes kicking my door seems like a reasonable thing to do.
 
The problem with Rifles is they are so far from Education/ST. If you get rifles early they are a huge step up from muskets especially if they are promoted from swords. Get march with a medic II and you can attack cities without dying on the next turn. Which is awesome except your science suffers and you can't carry on well enough to Infantry which is another massive upgrade.

I did have success as Japan though by taking out 1 civ with 6 swords (he was last in military and I forward settled his capital so he had only 1 ring border) then taking Korea's OCC attempt with LS plus 3x trebs. This allowed me to only need to use one city to produce units while my two primary coastal cities grabbed NC/Oracle and ran all my ocean trade routes.

Swords wont allow you to take cities that have difficult choke points or lots of hills because they retreat to slow making them more situational than CB/XB.
 
I am constantly surprised how differently each game begins.
Spoiler :
Did NOT like start. Moved Warrior SE and saw Mtn hill, but lux kinda poor, so moved settler 2 NW onto hill and settled. Met Rome, ugh. I need to know where iron is!

Very early Rome settled Antium, and I was able to steal 3 Workers and nearly take the city. Spawned a GG but lost an Archer and Scout, and he finally had troops arrive, so white peace. Rome still hasn't repaired my pillaging, LOL. I see a new Settler, might buy tiles to block. My Expos are decent, and there is Whale Heaven to the E - I assume Alex is that way though. 4th city may go in mtn pass 2 W of Kilimanjaro, or 2 S of gems up N.


Ruins - 50g, culture, Archery, Scout upgrade. BO - Scout x2, Archer x2, Granary, Settler x2, building Caravan, then more Archers. Tech - AH, Pottery, Mining, Masonry, BW, Wheel, Trapping soon. I first thought of beelining Construction, but if Rome has no iron (?) I may go Writing and maybe Philosophy first. I may build walls after Granaries (Rome has been OP in every game I've had him). I have been really late with science my past several games, but I hate settling too much not knowing where strategic resources are...

Happiness is insane so far, Allied with Zurich. 3rd pantheon - God of Open Sky. I used to take this one a lot, I have 5 pastures in range. Poland took Sun God, which I was considering, and 1st to go was Goddess of Protection, which I may have taken to survive Rome's early UU's.
 

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Spoiler :
I lost. Not the kind of game I enjoy, losing tiles in my cap. Anyway, I sorta attacked Rome but not hard enough. Meh.
 
to t100
Spoiler :

I moved one tile to the East - I want more of the good stuff in the first ring.

Scouting showed that moving east might have been a mistake. There be Romans a-roaming. That is a close settle!



Well at least I know where my workers are coming from. The funny thing is that there is a ton of space to our West so if the Roman problem can be handled this should be a large empire game.

I went Tradition this game. With a capital that has such a high growth ceiling it seemed only natural.

I took Cumae with CBs and CAs - it is not a great city but does have two unique luxuries including one to start WLTKD in Addis Abada.

No caravans sent or received, but beakers are fine - I'll have Education at t101.



Issues:

- My religion is getting stomped by Hiawatha's - I think I will give up defending mine.

- There is too much space around. If I don't claim more territory someone else will.

- I've made peace with Rome. Caesar offered Antium but I don't have much use for that city.

- I have too big an army for peaceful play - but have not been militarily focused enough to push to early domination.
 
Turns 0-65

Spoiler :
I decided to take my settler for a walk and I ran into Rome on turn 3. I decided to try to settle next to his cap in hopes to get his settler and warriors. That plan worked pretty good and I stole two workers and 3 settlers total. Took out Rome turn 65 but I had to trade out Spt and Expansion. Im hoping to found some cities now and take the game from here with no Rome. My B.O. was Scout, Steele, 6x Archers. Going full Tradition.


Turns 66-140

Spoiler :
Played out another 75 turns. Poland attacked but I drove them back and after Alex and Hiaw went to war with them, they decided to give up a 3gpt peace deal. The other Civs are a bit far and Im a tad too lazy to try to war with anyone else. Ill try to turtle up and SV or Diplo VC.
 

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to t150 - building
Spoiler :

So far I have the Oracle and Hagia Sophia. I would like the Forbidden Palace, but I missed out on that one before any hammers were invested. I did get Pisa and founded the WC.

The militaristic CS Budapest gave me a couple interesting units. Thanks, mate.




I made it to Scientific Method at t142 (bulb), and am working towards Radio. I'll bulb that in 2 turns since I need some happiness. Schools are timed for a push on the World's Fair but my hammers are a little low. Hiawatha religion bombed all my cities, including the capital. At least he has monasteries for a decent faith sink.

First in tech and food. t150.



Science, Culture, and Domination are all on the table - I will decide next session which to pick up.
 
I started out moving east looking for some better starting resources. I went for an early steele into stone circles to get an early religion, I'm into 300 faith without a prophet -.- I grabbed 3 workers from Ceasar, but we are having peace now and he has even set up a trade route with me :D

Libraries is going slow, so I think I can manage to setup my fourth city on the coast and buy a library there before going for NC. If anyone have any idea's and/or suggestions/tips I would appreciate it much, since I'm looking to improve :)

Spoiler :
 
Not terribly happy with this game so far. [edit - although my best NC and Education of the Deity series, t93 and t109.]
Spoiler :
This map is choked so tightly, and has been all game. Too claustrophobic. Yet there have been so few wars, everybody is asking for DOW's, but nothing happens. Passed a Scout twice thru Japan and I could barely move with all his units.

I am getting insane religious pressure from Iroq. My religion has Tithe, Pagodas, Choral Music, and Itin Preachers. I haven't influenced a single Roman city, as he went Tradition/Tall. My 4th northern city has Iroq's religion. I probably focus too much on religion! I am postponing Pagodas to pop a 3rd GP to spread to Zurich, my 4th city, Cumae, and Wellington CS, so I can get some spread going. I may not get any Pagodas at this rate, actually considering delaying Sci Theory to stay in Renn - stupid is as stupid does, I guess.

Went Tradition and 2 deep in Piety, in retrospect I probably should have abandoned religion and taken Rat open instead of Organized Religion - or just done Patronage open before Rat open. With God of Open Sky and Choral Music I thought I'd be moving thru policies faster.

CS quests have been few. I finally have some cash with 4 Markets. As usual, I buy up every extra resource as it comes available, or trade my last remaining copy. For once I now have WLTK requests for lux I have, seems like this was an easier strategy pre-BNW.
 

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T100

Spoiler :
Kind of a strange game so far. I have six workers and five of them came directly from Rome. The other was a barb camp steal which also happened to be a Roman worker. Usually when Rome is this close he can be a total pain in ass, but not this game. He built his first two cities and that has been it so far. I am thinking the fact that he lost six workers really slowed him down. He has just been sitting in the corner doing nothing and we just signed a DOF.

For religion I took the Earth Mother pantheon and couldn't for the life of me figure out why I wasn't getting faith on my marble and stone quarries. Then it clicked with me that I am dumb and selected the wrong pantheon. Luckily I have been able to get three iron and three copper tiles inside my borders, so that kind of made up for the mistake.

Other than that, it has been a fairly standard four city tradition start with some pretty good growth in the capital. I got the Oracle in Harar, tried for Chichen, but one turn in Poc finished it. I reached Education on t97 thanks to getting two free techs through ruins. Got two WLtKD's already in my cap, but my last city has been asking for crabs the whole game and I don't know where they are on this map. I'm thinking maybe one extra city by Kalish, or possibly going somewhere east of Harar since there is a spot where I can get spices and silk.

Happiness is only now starting to be an issue because I returned two workers to Zurich in the early game. I have not built a single happiness building yet, so that is probably next on the agenda.

Picture
Spoiler :
 
Turns 141-303

Spoiler :
Nothing really to report after taking down Rome early. Poland and Japan were taken out of the game mid/late turns. I had 1 to 3 DOFs all game. Nobody tried to attack after Poland, instead they all ganged up on them. This map felt more like a Cont Map rather than a Pangea but still fun for me as usual playing to win and not worring about how. I may have been able to shave off some turns faith buying a GS instead of another GE. Also, taking out Rome early might have done more damage than good in the long run.
 

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My play through was typical of everything I hate and find frustrating with peaceful play.

Religion: I founded the 2nd religion, but by the time I had enough faith to enhance/spread, Hiawatha AND Casimir were able to churn out unreal numbers of spam, so that not only did I not spread to Rome (which I wanted to do not only for the tourism booster but so he would stop plotting against me), but it was knocked out of my own cities as well. Since faith is quite important to a CV, this was strike #1.

Science: I think I played well in terms of growth and science. When I began to feel I could win, around T189, I had 500ish science and was 2nd only to Harun, but through RAs and spying, I fell to 5th by turn 210 and by this time ALL the CV wonders had gone, and the WC made sure that I was only really going to win by a DiploV.

but

Diplo: Even with 4 levelled up spies, and Patronage/Consulates, I couldn't hang onto my CS alliances for very long. Typical scenario: successful coup and then it flips back with 60-90 surplus influence for the AI within 2-3 turns. My economy wasn't in good enough shape, and my caravan options were poor. Either give 3 science a turn to the AI and give them 2x as much GPT as me, or food/production internal. CS had been embargo'ed by Hiawatha who used Forb Palace to enact the most stupid cr*p ever.

Had my civ been someone with a decent UU that lasted longer than 5 turns before obsoletion, I might have made a late rush and tried to sweep the left hand end of the pangaea, but the isthmus would have made Harun and Pocatello tricky targets.

I can't wait for a Deity Challenge that favours DomV and isn't too tricky. The Immortal Arabia one was hard enough, having those two early-game loons double DoW-ing me every time in 4 play throughs.

TLDR: I found this much trickier than previous peaceful games, and would like whoever picks the maps to consider giving one that doesn't have isthmuses and DOES have balanced resources.
 
In the Red corner, representing Team: Order we have an SV.

Turn
Spoiler :

t220


Report
Spoiler :

When I looked at my last save I decided to go for space since I picked a scientist with the Pisa GP choice. For culture I would have preferred an Engineer, so space it is.

What makes this map fairly good is the space we have + nice rivers. It is a little low on gold and mountains for a really fast SV.

Of course I couldn't just sit back and build for space: Alex is around. I saw his attack coming from half a continent away - and I wasn't concerned enough to check for bribe options. What was surprising is Casimir joining the fray.

Greece (who have already lost most their army) and Poland marching towards my city of Cumae:




After sinking roughly 1,200 gold into Gatlings it is an easy fight. I signed white peace with Alex and got 44 GPT from Cas - which basically pays for the war effort :)

Last lab is finished (t188), this is nice and early for me:



When I go Order I usually end up production constrained so I bulbed more aggressively into Rocketry and Satellites. This let me finish Apollo on t201. Unfortunately I miss timed by a few turns - everything is built and purchased at t215, but I have to wait 4 turns for the last tech. Not too far off, I guess.

t220 Victory



Thoughts

- This map is easier than it appears initially due to decent expansion options. I suspect we will see some early victories.

- I am fairly happy with the t220 win since this is a map with no early mining luxuries, and few mountains (only 1 Obs for me). I also didn't get any early AI caravans and ruins were fairly weak: just a pop ruin and a 2-turn saving Pottery (+ gold, maps, and barbs).

- My good luck happened with coups - I think I made the first 6 I attempted :) Oh well.

- I think this is more of an Order map than a Freedom map because of relatively low GPT and poorer AIs (at least my Friends were poor).

- My play has been helped by this series - previously to the Zulu game I would have been happy getting to Plastics around turn 220 ;)

- Plenty of culture: I had 4 more policies than I needed and didn't build any Amphi/Opera. Low faith due to Japan killing La Venta early.
 
Up to turn 105 and interesting stuff is happening. It’s nice to have a more challenging map after the last couple of easy-mode ramp-fests.

Spoiler :
It seems like the opening actions on this map will have a big effect on the character of the game. My Warrior’s movements on T0 revealed the Cattle, so I moved my Settler one tile NW in order to get the Cattle in the first ring while leaving Marble and Truffles within the third ring. This gave Rome the space to forward-settle me and steal the luxury tiles. The upside of having such a close neighbor was that it enabled easy Worker-steals. I got three Workers from Rome with the help of my Spear-upgraded Warrior (which was the only ruin I found this game).

I went into the game with the intention of going for a Liberty Domination Victory, so my plan from early on was to go after Rome at Machinery. Things got complicated when Hiawatha DOW’ed me. I was forced to change my plans, but it wasn’t all bad. I managed to take Hiawatha’s capital with an assist from Poland, securing Notre Dame, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and Terracotta Army. Not bad.

I think I have to go after Poland next. I encountered some serious gold problems when Hiawatha attacked me, and I handled it by sending three Caravans to Rome. I’m not going to waste those Caravans, so attacking Rome isn’t an option for another ~25 turns.

For social policies, I have full Liberty and the Honor opener, and am going to work my way through Honor. Liberty finisher was used on a Great Scientist, which I bulbed to unlock Machinery on turn 93. I’m now teching towards Education, since I figure I’m going to need Artillery to finish on Deity.

Religion is Initiation Rites, Ascetism, and pasture culture. I decided getting gold up front would be more valuable than long-term Tithing. I also really wanted to push culture and felt that I was guaranteed to pick up plenty of pastures through conquest, even if I didn't have a ton at home. I think I’ll use my next Prophet to clean up Hiawatha’s Protestantism, which will earn me some useful gold.

Trying for a Domination Victory could be tough with such strong and expansive AI’s. It’s going to be very interesting to see how far I can get.
 

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Finished a SV as well but looking at Olodunes finishing time, i need more cities :D

Spoiler :
T269 SV

After a very slow start and some early warring with Rome for worker stealing and settler blocking purposes i did not think i could win so i did not take any early game screens.

I basically did settle on the same hill as Grendeldef, and blocked Romes Settler on the way to Harar. I did settle a 3rd city on the coast and but i got late NC and Education (T110+).

But the terrain around the capital was nice for growth so i worked all of the without going for any production which lead to no wondersbuilding at all. (PT in late game only one i tried and got)

Was the 2nd to reach Ideologies one turn after Harun and we both got Order (I felt i needed the 25% bonus from factories and gold was short for me, so buying parts was not really an option).

Got Plastics T190 and chilled on from there. I did build some defensive Bombers but all the melee units were donated by lovely CS.

Spoiler :


My religion was smothered by Poland and the Iroquois so did not even try to get something going in that direction (Religion-change-counter in Harar : 52 !!!!, sometimes the religion changed 2 times per turn for 4 turns because two prophets just dumbly converting thecity....)

I had quite some RAs going this game mainly with Harun (tech leader most of the game) and the Iroquois.

Finishing screen:

Spoiler :


Post game thoughts:

- I really need to build more cities :D or go to war
- i did prepare for a backstab from my friend Rome all game long but i never occured
- no major wars or conquering happened by the AI, although i kept them all at war most of the time
- harun did propose +scientist production which got through in the first World Congress which helped A LOT (never happened to me before that AI proposes this AND it got through)
- in the same voting Worlds Fair got denied (Never happened to me before O_o)

Quite a nice game but i have a ton of room for improvements if Olodune can do it easily 50 Turns faster xD


 
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