Ok, well, I finished the prince game, where I took back pretty much all my cities except for Theodosiopolis from the Huns. That play through gave me a good idea of the terrain, but that's it. i got surprised by the fact that the vandal invasion of Greece did indeed pop up, but that was the only real setback.
Deity brought it to a whole other level.
I've since finished one deity game, which was a loss. In the end;
The Goths still controlled Dyrrachium(barely though!), Nassius, and Sirmium
The Huns controlled Theodosiopolis, Trebizond, and Amaseia.
Looking back, I know I screwed up early game, in particular, against the Huns. I just didn't have enough experience against a full Hunnic onslaught, and the vandals took me by total surprise.
On Prince, they only ever showed up and attacked Mistra. They usually then run out of steam, and it can be recovered.
Not so.
I had the nastiest shock of my civ experience ever when I realized that on top of the group attacking southern greece, there was also one near Cyprus, off coast of the Levant, and near Cyrenaica. Because of this, I basically panicked and sent my entire navy to combat them. They still took Mistra, although I made it costly, and they managed to snag Seleucia quite comfortably. However, I was able to obliterate the force attacking Cyrene, as well as the one that attacked Caesaria. However, I was able to take back these cities relatively early on, and that was the last of my troubles with the Vandals for pretty much the rest of the game.
The Goths honestly gave me no surprises, other then their ferocity and numbers. Nassius fell first, and then Sirmium not to long after. Dyrrachium fell to, and then it was a matter of keeping them out of Greece, as well as defending Thessalonica and Adrianople, both of which spent almost the whole game under heavy siege. I was actually able to take back Dyrrachium once, but lost it right after, not seeing the massive Gothic force hidden in the fog of war around the city... they retook it in one turn(I had done a naval assault, so only one unit). I was actually a turn away from taking it back when the scenario ended.
The huns are where I screwed up. With no drowns present, or too much else for that matter(reroute too many troops due to the shock the vandals gave me. I both underestimated them, then overestimated them, so the Huns had a weak point to exploit). They took down Trebizond quite quickly, then, although it gave out stubbornly, Theodosiopolis, after that they broke through to take Amaseia. In my shock from that, plus my attempts to establish a defense at Antioch and to counterattack the vandal conquests, they the ripped up the coast to Sinope, which was more costly for them at least, before taking the audacious move of taking Amastris, and then, in a ludicrous move of RNG, took out Dorylaeum with two battering rams, despite a defending Cataphract.
The Sassanids only took Edessa and Melitene, before they slaughtered themselves on the defensive line at Antioch, and the Huns stated attacking them(despite their massive gains, I did wipe out the hunnic army, so the AI must've decided not to much it's luck/blessing from RNGesus and hit the Sassanids instead). They lost Melitene to the Huns late game in fact.
In a short summary, I was brutally crippled by my mistakes in the early game, which seems to be the biggest reason I lost, not helped by the divine blessings of the RNG gods upon Attila.
I was able to hold the Goths off, and although Adrianople almost fell once, I was able to keep Greece safe after the Vandal adventure, and no barbarian ever threatened Constantinople. In fact, I was staging a very successful counterattack against them when the Game ended. I estimate that if i had only 10 more turns I certainly would have recovered Dyrrachium for good, as well as Naissus, though Sirmium would've likely stayed under Gothic control.
In the East, the Sassanids remained a minor threat, after their initial assault the had to deal with Huns. It appears(never played as the Sassanids, only got a bit of scouting done in my prince game) that all their luxury resources are in the north, which they lost to the Huns.
Basically, my approach against the Huns started with a naval assault on Amastris, which was a success, cutting of Dorylaeum from the rest of their conquests. Dorylaeum must've been the staging ground for the next attack, because they had a lot of units there. Despite surrounding it, I actually had to go on the defensive because of the attacks coming from there. That ended up begin late game that I took it back. Once enough of that army was lost, I was able to push in and retake it. Next on the hit list was Sinope. That was a bloody costly city to take. The Huns did invest in a navy, so my Dromons had substantial resistance, and my army and no easy time of moving in, coming under assault from the city, eastern reinforcements(one the Huns realized I was on the warpath finally XD), and southern assaults from Amaseia. This was only solved by me sending my defensive line holding the middle of Anatolia to attack Amaseia, distracting the units from there and allowing my Sinope assault army to have secure flanks. They isolated the city, and then it fell.
At the same time, I was pushing against the Sassanids. I moved my ridiculously powerful Antioch army out of their fortifications, and sent them at Edessa. Like the iron fist they were, they smashed the few Sassanids defenders, and retook the city easily. I wondered why they had so little units defending it... my question was quickly answered when the Huns seized Melitene from the Sassanids, and finished off their army. Thus, I attacked North in to the weakened Hunnic army, and was able to push it away rather than wipe it out, retaking Melitene before immediately having to defend it form a Hunnic counter-attack. I then began a general assault on Amaseia, which never was successful because apparently the huns(and their horses) breed like rabbits. With 10 more turns... I may have taken it. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. That fight lost any predictability whatsoever.
The Sassanids did have enough steam for some last-10-turn-action however. They finally attacked Palmyra, and attempted to take back Edessa. I was able to push back the Palmyra assault, although they came bloody close to taking to back, and with some legionary intervention, Edessa never came in danger of falling.
Thus was how my first attempt on deity ended.
This was what my ally and left at the end of the game. i never had the ability to interfere with his fights, save for my obliteration of a massive Vandal fleet off Syracuse.
Me at the end of the game...
The Gothic front:
My Just-in-case-premium-anti-Vandal Insurance policy off the coast of Cyrene:
Palmyra post-Sassanid assault. A good chunk of the defending force was sent north to help Edessa deal with it's own Sassanid woes:
Sassanid assault on Edessa as the last turn ended:
Melitene on the last turn:
And, last, but certainly not least, the Hunnic front:
Also, map at the end of the game:
Any tips and feedback would be great, especially as to how the heck I contain the friggin' huns! They are the single biggest reason I lost, seeing as I would never have lost so much happiness, gold, production(not to mention the culture I gained from losing the cities) if I had been able to hold them. I definitely would've had the steam to push the goths back sooner, as well as potentially kick the Huns out of my territory for good. Heck, I could've helped Western Rome out. But I guess you can't have it all XD.
Anyways, I hope my next try is more successful.
Roma Invicta!