1. Introduction
3v3 and 5v5 Inland Sea Classic Teamer games are getting popular online, so we may as well practice with Deity AI. It turns out SP (Single Player) is quite different from MP (Multiple Player) in this era; nevertherless, this guide will still help you playing online significantly.
This is my seventh, and hopefully the last Deity Guide, one for each era. There are a few tactics, which are specific to this Era. As usual, a large amount of files will be available for download. Let me get right to the point: there are four important strategy/tactics to win Deity 3v3 team games:
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
Among these four tricks, the most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, if your team owns 50% of the land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
Different people will rate AI’s overall skill (research, production, strategy,) differently; here is how I rate AI’s skill level at the Medieval Era:
Settler AI = 1
Noble AI = 2
Monarch AI = 3
Emperor AI = 4
Immortal AI = 6
Deity AI = 10
i.e. Deity is much harder than Immortal.
1.1 Deity AI Advantage
Deity AI has the following advantages:
· At the Deity level, AI starts with 2 settlers, 2 workers, 5 archers, and 2 scouts. You start with 1 settler, 1 worker, 1 archer, and 1 scout.
· Technologies cost less (40 % less?).
· Building and Units cost less (40 % less?).
· Happiness costs less (40%?).
· Inflation, city, and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
· Health costs less (40%?).
· Cities grow faster (40% less food? (Deity AI takes 7 food growth the first size)).
When you team up with Deity AI, you will need to take full advantage of your teammate, especially:
· Technologies cost less (40 % less?).
· Building and Units cost less (40 % less?).
· Inflation, city, and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
1.2 My Niche
Well, as many Deity Guides have shown before, some balance has to be found:
(1) Select a supporting position instead of a front position.
Front position is significantly harder than a supporting position so we will settle in the supporting position in this guide.
(2) Team Research.
Teaming up with Deity AI is my biggest niche. This means I basically release my pressure for Research initially.
1.3 Setting
Difficulty: Deity
Speed: Quick
World Size: Tiny
Map: Inland Sea
Sea Level: Low (largest tiny map)
Era: Classic
Leader: Random * **
Teaming: 3v3
* Spiritual Leaders Can be nice.
Spiritual can be helpful; many civics are required and no anarchy will help.
The starting civic is for production:
Organized Religion (+25% + priests production).
Feudalism will cause a switch:
Vassalage.
Civil Service will cause a switch:
Bureaucracy (50% capital)
This will be followed by unit production:
Theocracy (+2 EP)
A short burst of Great Person production will follow, causing the switch to the following and then switch back to the original civics:
Cast System
Pacifism
Happiness becomes a problem:
Nationalism (+2 for barrack)
And finally at the Deity level, the civic for Happiness is:
Police State (-25% WW)
** Protective Leaders
Protective Leaders help in two ways:
(1) You will play defense 75% of the time, & play offense only 25% of the time.
(2) Half of the units produced in this guide are Longbow units. Longbow can get a city garrison III promotion. This promotion (+75%), together with fortification for 5 turns (25%), can produce a unit with a defense strength 12 for 33 hammers, which is a good return on investment.
1.4 The Most Important Factors
I consider the following the most important factors in winning Deity game:
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
1.4.1 Early Expansion (Phase II)
Among these four tricks, the most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, if your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
1.4.2 Early Production (Phase I and II)
The Deity game is different from online team games. You should forget about science, forget about cash and focus only on production. You will get gold from your teammates.
Slavery and chopping are the key to early production. There are a few things about slavery:
Your high food (4 – 6 food) tiles should be worked first.
Granary reduces the cost of slavery by half, so you should get a granary per city.
Slavery to maximum, i.e. slavery all the time, as soon as possible.
City must be growing all the time, i.e. workers and settlers must be produced with leftover hammer, unless there is 1 turn left for the settlers or worker.
High Food
This is obvious, it take 14 foods to grow from size 1 to 2. The turns required are:
Food Turns
3 5
4 4
5 3
6 3
So we prefer to have a 6-food tile.
Granary
It takes 14 foods to grow from size 1 to 2. With a granary, it only takes 7 food. The turns required are:
Food Turns
3 3
4 3
5 2
6 2
So we prefer to have a 6-food tile + granary.
Maximum Slavery
You should use slavery to produce, in the following order,
Worker
Granary
Worker
Settler
Slavery will generate around 30 hammers; if you have a 6-food tile + granary, then 2 turns will generate 30 hammers. You might use it more afterward.
Growing City
Once again, let me make it clear, you should slave the following building/units:
Granary
Worker
Worker
Settler
Then you ask, how do I slave them with a city of size 1? The trick is to produce them with overflow hammers only, so your city will grow all the time with exception of the overflow turns. The exception can be made if the settler/workers will be completed in 1 more turn.
In order to make the city grow, produce units between.
For example,
Let us produce archer (14P) to grow the city;
Let us assume we have 1 6-food tile and the city tile production is (2F2P); and
Let us assume no granary.
Turns City Size Production _____ Food
0 _____ 1 _____ Archer (0/14) _____ (0/14)
1 _____ 1 _____ Archer (2/14) _____ (6/14)
2 _____ 1 _____ Archer (4/14) _____ (12/14)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (18/14)
3 _____ 2 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/16)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/14) Slavery now=> 20P
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (26/14) _____ (4/14)
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 (overflow)) _____ (NA)
5_____ 1 _____ Archer …
As you can see above, you have applied 12 overflow hammers to a worker, which merely halts the city from growing for 1 turn only. Now the city is growing again.
You do not want slave away your high yield tiles either. Assume a tile is 3F2P1C = 6 yield, and the food tile is 6F, then you might want to keep this 3F2P1C tile and slave city from 3 to 2 intead of 2 to 1.
To summarize, production of settler/work should not stop your cities from growing. In fact, you must not let settlers/workers to stop your cities from gowing to win Deity game.
Now let us talk about chopping. After high food tile, the next tile should be horses so you can produce chariots to grow the city. After that, you should start chopping. At the turn the chopping end, you will get 13 hammers. At that point, switch to settler/worker to apply the hammer to settler/worker only.
If you time both right:
Turns City Size Production _________Food _________Food
0 _____ 1 _____ Archer (0/14) _____ (0/14)_____
1 _____ 1 _____ Archer (2/14) _____ (6/14))_____ chop (0/3)
2 _____ 1 _____ Archer (4/14) _____ (12/14)) _____ chop (1/3)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (18/14)
3 _____ 2 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/16)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/14) Slavery now=> 20P
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (26/14) _____ (4/14) ) _____ chop (2/3)
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 (overflow)) _ (NA) _____ chop (3/3) ==> 13 P
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 +13 + 6 + 2) _ (NA) _____
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (33/40) _____ (NA) _____
12 - overflow
13 - chop
6 - food tile
2 - base city production
33 - total
5_____ 1 _____ Worker (41/40) _____ (NA) _____
You get a worker in 2 turns.
1.4.3 Unit Production
Unit Production, after Early Expansion and Early Production, is the third most important factor. There are two types of unit production, units to be used by you and units to be gifted. Since you are in the back, you will not need your own units until longbows; therefore, all of your early units will be gifted.
The gifted units are:
Chariots (to be upgraded to horse by AI)
Pike (to be upgraded to rifle by AI)
Knight (to be upgraded to cavalry by AI)
It is very, very, very important here; you must produce the largest amount of cheap units for your Deity AI partner; they, in turn, will upgrade the chariots to horses and rush. This is how your team takes more land.
1.4.4 Currency
Since you pay attention to production only, your economy is really supported by your Deity AI teammates; therefore, research Currency ASAP. Based on your situation, these are the Early Research items:
Horse
Math
Construction
Calendar
Currency
Monarch
Feudalism
1.5 Game Strategy
(1) Deity game is a game of Happiness.
In the Classic game, the War Weariness (WW) will reach above 10 at some point; that is if you play the game carefully.
WW is controlled as follows:
Police State: -25% (all cities)
Jail: -25% (in that city)
Mount Rushmore: -50% (all cities)
Total: -100%
However, that is long way away. As a result, the capital with a global theater does not have the Happiness problem; the rest of the cities are basically size 5 - 6 cities.
Your cities will grow from 1 to 7 initially; then you will slowly bring it down to 6 with –1 food deficit and do whatever necessary to maintain the city at size 6. Getting Pyramids is paramount here, which it opens both Police States and representation early.
(2) Basic Strategy
The strategy in this guide has 4 phases:
· Initial Expansion
· Rush
· Turtle
· Offense
Phase I. Initial Expansion
In this phase, you will set up 2 - 3 cities and have 4 - 5 workers. The worker to city ratio is 1.5 at minimum. The cities will need the following:
Barrack
Religion
In addition, each player in your team needs to have iron, horses, and elephants. If there are not enough resources, make sure your teammates have them since you are the supporting player.
Rush
The most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, either through rushing the enemy, or building the city forward, your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold. If your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game.
Rush does not just happened; you have to work to make this happen. The way the make this happens is:
Research Horse Early.
Build 14 chariots, gift to each front player 7 chariots.
In this phase, your team will rush 2 cities, 1 city on each side.
Turtle
Turtle is your job and longbows are your units. You will defend your entire team on both sides. Do not count on any of your teammates. You defend both sides of the Inland Sea as if your partners do not exist. You must do so without losing units.
Final Offense
When you are ready to attack, your teammates have been pillaging the enemy. AI force is roughly divided into:
Mobile Offensive Force (50%): Attacking force.
Mobile Defensive Force (25%): Homeland defense.
Stationery Defensive Force (25%): City defense.
Newly produced units.
When AI still has Mobile Offensive Forces, attacking is nothing but disaster. Thankfully, your partners are very good at consuming the enemy’s Mobile Offensive Force. Your partners are also good at pillaging, which will reduce the Mobile Defensive Force and damage the enemy’s economy for production of new units.
(3) Your Roles
You must understand the following four tactics and execute them with precision
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
1.6 Research Path
Early game research:
Horse
Math
Construction
Calendar
Currency
Monarch
Feudalism
Middle game research:
. Civil Service and Machinery
. Guild for Knights or Theology
. Theology or Guild for Knights
. Grenadier /Chemistry
. Nationalism for Nationhood (Happiness)
. Constitution for Jail (Happiness)
. Cavalry
The game should be over by now. If not:
. Rifle
. Infantry
. Fascism for Mount Rushmore & Police state
2. Basic Strategy
The tactics used will be in the next chapter. This chapter will focus on strategy.
2.1 Initial Expansion Requirements
The objective of the initial expansion is to get 3 cities and 4 – 5 workers (1.5 ratio).
The production assignments are:
Starting:
Worker 1
City 1:
Build Granary worker 2, settler 2, worker 3
Worker 1: chop
Worker 2: send to city 2
Worker 3: chop
City 2:
Build Granary worker 4, settler 3
Receiving worker 2: high food tiles, chop
You must use both chopping and slavery to accelerate the production. This is a balance between unit production and early expansion:
· If the early expansion takes too long, the game is lost because your team will not rush.
· If the early expansion is not big enough, the game is lost because of weak economy.
· Three cities and 4 workers seem to be a good balance point.
2.2 Phase I Initial Expansion
Now, it is the time to play for real.
The objective of this phase:
· Get 3 cities
· All cities have Religion
· All teammates have iron, elephants, and horses, and you have at least one horse.
· Produce 4 warriors and 14 chariots
I.1 Select Slavery, and Organized Religion.
I.2 Early Research Path.
Horse – teammates upgrade
Math – for construction
Construction - elephants
Calendar – money for research
Currency – use AI support your economy and research
Monarch - happiness
Feudalism – start producing your own units (LOL, finally)
I.3 Use the drill in the last section to get 3 cities and 4-5 workers.
I.4 Build more cities if necessary to obtain resources.
Notes about city placement:
· You will eventually have 6 cities and 9 workers, but not in this phase;
· The first 2 cities are selected purely for their location, i.e. Food resources and Mountains. Food is always priority 1. Do not worry about resources, otherwise, your city will not be powerful enough.
· Plan cities for size 6, except the capital. However, you will need to change working tiles often.
· After 2 cities, make sure each of your teammates have iron, elephants, and horses. It is more important that your two teammates have horses and iron first; gift yours to them. Use cities 3 and 4 to ensure all three teammates have iron and horses.
I.5 Connect to horses and starting massive chariots production.
I.6 Make sure everyone has iron and horses ASAP.
I.7 Building Order.
(i) Finish the drill in the last section.
(ii) Building Order
Barracks
Happiness filers (warriors)
Missionaries
Chariots
Note:
The warriors are Happiness fillers. Each city gets a warrior before size 4.
Vassalage provides the initial unit promotion. Soon after that, Theocracy will provide the unit promotion for the rest of the game. Produce enough priests before switching, including the anticipation of new cities.
In this guide, you can count on the culture expansion from Religion.
Produce units in this ratio:
Gifted units:
Chariots (14)
Your units:
4 longbows
1 catapult
Chariots: your teammates will upgrade them and use them to rush. This is how your team gets 55% of the land.
Catapults: when the enemy stack attacks your city, use your collateral damage units on the stack before it attacks.
Longbows: do nothing except switching cities when necessary.
I.8 All of your citizens should work on the improved tiles now. As soon as all citizens work on improved tiles, take 2 workers out to build roads to both fronts. These two workers will remain at the front for the rest of the game.
Notes:
There is no city specialization in this phase. All cities produce military units to take down two enemy cities on each side (total of four cities).
I.9 Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy
The game provides you the military strength of each player. Go to the game chart; the default setting is the score. Use the pushdown menu to select “Power”. The Power graph indicates each AI’s military strength, so at any given moment, you should know precisely the strength of each of the 6 players; act upon this information.
1.10. Build Pyramid and switch to Representation first, then to Police state.
This completes this phase.
2.3 Phase II: Capture 2 Cities
The objective of this phase:
· Take 2 or more cities
· Hold the line
AI will build a few cities with a fairly light defense, i.e. two longbows. AI will also initiate attacks after reaching to a certain strength. When you put these two things together, your team can take four cities easily.
II.1 Keep Producing Chariots until Knights
Your opponents will have two cities; each city will have 2 longbows initially. This defense will, of course, strengthen over time. Continuing from Phase I, continue to build more Chariots. Each of your teammates will rush at least one city on each site.
II.2 Strengthen your Teammates
Your teammate will attack when he reaches to a certain strength. Gift each AI 7. This should be enough to for your Deity Teammates take down one city on each side.
II.3 The AI will not hold the city, so it is your job to hold these captured cities with longbows.
This completes this phase. At end of the expansion phase, you start producing longbows. At this point, look at the map: if your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
2.4 Phase III: Defense
The objective of this phase:
· Complete your expansion
· Control WW (War Weariness)
· Produce offensive force
III.1 Killing without losing Your Units
It is very important that you do not lose many units for two reasons:
(1) Deity AI out produces you, so you can not keep up;
(2) WW increases faster if you lose units.
But, you do not have to lose units. There are a few things you have to do:
(1) Take as many workers as necessary to build roads in every square in the front city and cut down all trees;
(2) AI will send a large amount of pillaging units. Resist the temptation to fight with them. Have your teammate take care of them;
(3) When the enemy pillaging units are injured, take them out with your knights and then retreat your knight back to the city;
(4) When the enemy stack attacks your city, use your collateral damage units on the stack before it attacks.
Therefore, the only time you lose units are when you are attacked inside a city. Unless the attack stack has a 2 to 1 ratio against you, then you will not lose many units.
III.2 Cash Support from Teammates
Deity AI has many advantages, including;
· Inflation, city and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
· City grows faster (40% less food? (Deity AI takes 7 food growth the first size).
As a result, they have gold left over; take the gold to increase your Research rate.
III.3 Completed Expansion
Each of your teammates has 3 cities to start with. After their initial placements, all land inside are yours and both of them will expand forward, so make sure you do not give them room to expand toward you. Build a city to stop them from expanding toward you. Build as many cities as it takes to fill the land around you.
III.4 City Specialization
Strangely enough, when you team up with Deity teammates, you get gold you’re your teammates so you need only be concerned with production and most importantly, Happiness. There will not be a Science City; there will not be Commerce City.
All cities need Happiness buildings.
Religion building
Theater
Ideally, get two Religion so you have +2 Happiness
III.5 City Size and WW
WW starts with 1, 2, 3, 4... eventually it will reach above 10. Controlling WW is a must. There are a few things you will need to do:
Stop the city from growing at size 7.
Gradually bring the city down 6 with –1 food deficit.
Build Happiness buildings
At the proper time, build 5 theaters and put the global theater in the capital; this will keep the capital building growing.
Do not put +2 Happiness buildings in the capital.
Do not lose units; your production is simply too poor to replace them.
III.6 Research Path is:
. Civil Service and Machinery
. Guild for Knights or Theology
. Theology or Guild for Knights
. Grenadier /Chemistry
. Nationalism for Nationhood (Happiness)
. Constitution for Jail (Happiness)
. Cavalry
III.7 Maintaining the Roads
Your front city roads will be pillaged by AI; repair them as soon as possible.
III.8 Defense Intelligence
Watch the Power graph every other turn and send your defense to compensate the imbalance between the your teammate and his opponents.
If you notice that one of your wings is falling behind in power, you need to send more units to that direction.
III.9 Heroic Epic + Global Theater
Build Heroic Epic and Global Theater in the city with the best production, i.e. capital.
III.10 Opportunities
When you hold the line, your teammates are preparing offense. From time to time, there will be opportunities when with your cooperation, you and your teammate can take down a few cities; make sure you take these opportunities.
You should not initiate offense during this phase because of WW.
III11. WW, WW, WW, ….
Your most serious problem in this phase is not that you do not have enough units, but how you manage the production of both units and Happiness:
You need to find time to produce:
+1 Happiness Religious building (first religion)
+1 Happiness Religious building (second religion)
Representation (+2 for 4 cities)
Coliseum
Switch to nationhood (+2 for barrack)
Market
+2 Happiness Religious buildings (first religion)
+2 Happiness Religious buildings (second religion)
5 Theaters + Global Theater
Theaters + 10% culture slide
Theaters + 20% culture slide
This should keep up the unhappiness and keep the city constant size at 6.
How long this phase is will be determined by a single factor, how much land did you rush in phase II? This can be a very long phase and it is quite possible at the end of this phase, your team has taken another 2 - 4 cities.
2.5 Phase IV: Offense
Objective:
· All out attack
· Wipe out the weak AI
· Win
At this point, the only opponent that has high power is the one in the back; both front AI opponents should have power lower than yours. Your primary target is the weak AI. On the other hand, attack only when you have a good opportunity.
IV.1 Pillaging
AI force is roughly divided into:
Mobile Offensive Force (50%): Attacking force.
Mobile Defensive Force (25%): Homeland defense.
Stationery Defensive Force (25%): City defense.
Newly produced units.
At this point, your team has destroyed their Mobile Offensive Force. Your teammates have been trying:
(1) To destroy his Mobile Defensive Force.
(2) To destroy his capability to produce new units.
IV.2 Capture enemy cities.
This will last to the end of the game.
3v3 and 5v5 Inland Sea Classic Teamer games are getting popular online, so we may as well practice with Deity AI. It turns out SP (Single Player) is quite different from MP (Multiple Player) in this era; nevertherless, this guide will still help you playing online significantly.
This is my seventh, and hopefully the last Deity Guide, one for each era. There are a few tactics, which are specific to this Era. As usual, a large amount of files will be available for download. Let me get right to the point: there are four important strategy/tactics to win Deity 3v3 team games:
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
Among these four tricks, the most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, if your team owns 50% of the land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
Different people will rate AI’s overall skill (research, production, strategy,) differently; here is how I rate AI’s skill level at the Medieval Era:
Settler AI = 1
Noble AI = 2
Monarch AI = 3
Emperor AI = 4
Immortal AI = 6
Deity AI = 10
i.e. Deity is much harder than Immortal.
1.1 Deity AI Advantage
Deity AI has the following advantages:
· At the Deity level, AI starts with 2 settlers, 2 workers, 5 archers, and 2 scouts. You start with 1 settler, 1 worker, 1 archer, and 1 scout.
· Technologies cost less (40 % less?).
· Building and Units cost less (40 % less?).
· Happiness costs less (40%?).
· Inflation, city, and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
· Health costs less (40%?).
· Cities grow faster (40% less food? (Deity AI takes 7 food growth the first size)).
When you team up with Deity AI, you will need to take full advantage of your teammate, especially:
· Technologies cost less (40 % less?).
· Building and Units cost less (40 % less?).
· Inflation, city, and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
1.2 My Niche
Well, as many Deity Guides have shown before, some balance has to be found:
(1) Select a supporting position instead of a front position.
Front position is significantly harder than a supporting position so we will settle in the supporting position in this guide.
(2) Team Research.
Teaming up with Deity AI is my biggest niche. This means I basically release my pressure for Research initially.
1.3 Setting
Difficulty: Deity
Speed: Quick
World Size: Tiny
Map: Inland Sea
Sea Level: Low (largest tiny map)
Era: Classic
Leader: Random * **
Teaming: 3v3
* Spiritual Leaders Can be nice.
Spiritual can be helpful; many civics are required and no anarchy will help.
The starting civic is for production:
Organized Religion (+25% + priests production).
Feudalism will cause a switch:
Vassalage.
Civil Service will cause a switch:
Bureaucracy (50% capital)
This will be followed by unit production:
Theocracy (+2 EP)
A short burst of Great Person production will follow, causing the switch to the following and then switch back to the original civics:
Cast System
Pacifism
Happiness becomes a problem:
Nationalism (+2 for barrack)
And finally at the Deity level, the civic for Happiness is:
Police State (-25% WW)
** Protective Leaders
Protective Leaders help in two ways:
(1) You will play defense 75% of the time, & play offense only 25% of the time.
(2) Half of the units produced in this guide are Longbow units. Longbow can get a city garrison III promotion. This promotion (+75%), together with fortification for 5 turns (25%), can produce a unit with a defense strength 12 for 33 hammers, which is a good return on investment.
1.4 The Most Important Factors
I consider the following the most important factors in winning Deity game:
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
1.4.1 Early Expansion (Phase II)
Among these four tricks, the most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, if your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
1.4.2 Early Production (Phase I and II)
The Deity game is different from online team games. You should forget about science, forget about cash and focus only on production. You will get gold from your teammates.
Slavery and chopping are the key to early production. There are a few things about slavery:
Your high food (4 – 6 food) tiles should be worked first.
Granary reduces the cost of slavery by half, so you should get a granary per city.
Slavery to maximum, i.e. slavery all the time, as soon as possible.
City must be growing all the time, i.e. workers and settlers must be produced with leftover hammer, unless there is 1 turn left for the settlers or worker.
High Food
This is obvious, it take 14 foods to grow from size 1 to 2. The turns required are:
Food Turns
3 5
4 4
5 3
6 3
So we prefer to have a 6-food tile.
Granary
It takes 14 foods to grow from size 1 to 2. With a granary, it only takes 7 food. The turns required are:
Food Turns
3 3
4 3
5 2
6 2
So we prefer to have a 6-food tile + granary.
Maximum Slavery
You should use slavery to produce, in the following order,
Worker
Granary
Worker
Settler
Slavery will generate around 30 hammers; if you have a 6-food tile + granary, then 2 turns will generate 30 hammers. You might use it more afterward.
Growing City
Once again, let me make it clear, you should slave the following building/units:
Granary
Worker
Worker
Settler
Then you ask, how do I slave them with a city of size 1? The trick is to produce them with overflow hammers only, so your city will grow all the time with exception of the overflow turns. The exception can be made if the settler/workers will be completed in 1 more turn.
In order to make the city grow, produce units between.
For example,
Let us produce archer (14P) to grow the city;
Let us assume we have 1 6-food tile and the city tile production is (2F2P); and
Let us assume no granary.
Turns City Size Production _____ Food
0 _____ 1 _____ Archer (0/14) _____ (0/14)
1 _____ 1 _____ Archer (2/14) _____ (6/14)
2 _____ 1 _____ Archer (4/14) _____ (12/14)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (18/14)
3 _____ 2 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/16)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/14) Slavery now=> 20P
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (26/14) _____ (4/14)
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 (overflow)) _____ (NA)
5_____ 1 _____ Archer …
As you can see above, you have applied 12 overflow hammers to a worker, which merely halts the city from growing for 1 turn only. Now the city is growing again.
You do not want slave away your high yield tiles either. Assume a tile is 3F2P1C = 6 yield, and the food tile is 6F, then you might want to keep this 3F2P1C tile and slave city from 3 to 2 intead of 2 to 1.
To summarize, production of settler/work should not stop your cities from growing. In fact, you must not let settlers/workers to stop your cities from gowing to win Deity game.
Now let us talk about chopping. After high food tile, the next tile should be horses so you can produce chariots to grow the city. After that, you should start chopping. At the turn the chopping end, you will get 13 hammers. At that point, switch to settler/worker to apply the hammer to settler/worker only.
If you time both right:
Turns City Size Production _________Food _________Food
0 _____ 1 _____ Archer (0/14) _____ (0/14)_____
1 _____ 1 _____ Archer (2/14) _____ (6/14))_____ chop (0/3)
2 _____ 1 _____ Archer (4/14) _____ (12/14)) _____ chop (1/3)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (18/14)
3 _____ 2 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/16)
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (6/14) _____ (4/14) Slavery now=> 20P
3_____ 1 _____ Archer (26/14) _____ (4/14) ) _____ chop (2/3)
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 (overflow)) _ (NA) _____ chop (3/3) ==> 13 P
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (12 +13 + 6 + 2) _ (NA) _____
4 _____ 1 _____ Worker (33/40) _____ (NA) _____
12 - overflow
13 - chop
6 - food tile
2 - base city production
33 - total
5_____ 1 _____ Worker (41/40) _____ (NA) _____
You get a worker in 2 turns.
1.4.3 Unit Production
Unit Production, after Early Expansion and Early Production, is the third most important factor. There are two types of unit production, units to be used by you and units to be gifted. Since you are in the back, you will not need your own units until longbows; therefore, all of your early units will be gifted.
The gifted units are:
Chariots (to be upgraded to horse by AI)
Pike (to be upgraded to rifle by AI)
Knight (to be upgraded to cavalry by AI)
It is very, very, very important here; you must produce the largest amount of cheap units for your Deity AI partner; they, in turn, will upgrade the chariots to horses and rush. This is how your team takes more land.
1.4.4 Currency
Since you pay attention to production only, your economy is really supported by your Deity AI teammates; therefore, research Currency ASAP. Based on your situation, these are the Early Research items:
Horse
Math
Construction
Calendar
Currency
Monarch
Feudalism
1.5 Game Strategy
(1) Deity game is a game of Happiness.
In the Classic game, the War Weariness (WW) will reach above 10 at some point; that is if you play the game carefully.
WW is controlled as follows:
Police State: -25% (all cities)
Jail: -25% (in that city)
Mount Rushmore: -50% (all cities)
Total: -100%
However, that is long way away. As a result, the capital with a global theater does not have the Happiness problem; the rest of the cities are basically size 5 - 6 cities.
Your cities will grow from 1 to 7 initially; then you will slowly bring it down to 6 with –1 food deficit and do whatever necessary to maintain the city at size 6. Getting Pyramids is paramount here, which it opens both Police States and representation early.
(2) Basic Strategy
The strategy in this guide has 4 phases:
· Initial Expansion
· Rush
· Turtle
· Offense
Phase I. Initial Expansion
In this phase, you will set up 2 - 3 cities and have 4 - 5 workers. The worker to city ratio is 1.5 at minimum. The cities will need the following:
Barrack
Religion
In addition, each player in your team needs to have iron, horses, and elephants. If there are not enough resources, make sure your teammates have them since you are the supporting player.
Rush
The most important factor is Early Expansion. At end of the expansion phase, either through rushing the enemy, or building the city forward, your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold. If your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game.
Rush does not just happened; you have to work to make this happen. The way the make this happens is:
Research Horse Early.
Build 14 chariots, gift to each front player 7 chariots.
In this phase, your team will rush 2 cities, 1 city on each side.
Turtle
Turtle is your job and longbows are your units. You will defend your entire team on both sides. Do not count on any of your teammates. You defend both sides of the Inland Sea as if your partners do not exist. You must do so without losing units.
Final Offense
When you are ready to attack, your teammates have been pillaging the enemy. AI force is roughly divided into:
Mobile Offensive Force (50%): Attacking force.
Mobile Defensive Force (25%): Homeland defense.
Stationery Defensive Force (25%): City defense.
Newly produced units.
When AI still has Mobile Offensive Forces, attacking is nothing but disaster. Thankfully, your partners are very good at consuming the enemy’s Mobile Offensive Force. Your partners are also good at pillaging, which will reduce the Mobile Defensive Force and damage the enemy’s economy for production of new units.
(3) Your Roles
You must understand the following four tactics and execute them with precision
Early Expansion (strategy)
Early Production (tactics)
Unit Production (tactics)
Cash from teammates (tactics)
1.6 Research Path
Early game research:
Horse
Math
Construction
Calendar
Currency
Monarch
Feudalism
Middle game research:
. Civil Service and Machinery
. Guild for Knights or Theology
. Theology or Guild for Knights
. Grenadier /Chemistry
. Nationalism for Nationhood (Happiness)
. Constitution for Jail (Happiness)
. Cavalry
The game should be over by now. If not:
. Rifle
. Infantry
. Fascism for Mount Rushmore & Police state
2. Basic Strategy
The tactics used will be in the next chapter. This chapter will focus on strategy.
2.1 Initial Expansion Requirements
The objective of the initial expansion is to get 3 cities and 4 – 5 workers (1.5 ratio).
The production assignments are:
Starting:
Worker 1
City 1:
Build Granary worker 2, settler 2, worker 3
Worker 1: chop
Worker 2: send to city 2
Worker 3: chop
City 2:
Build Granary worker 4, settler 3
Receiving worker 2: high food tiles, chop
You must use both chopping and slavery to accelerate the production. This is a balance between unit production and early expansion:
· If the early expansion takes too long, the game is lost because your team will not rush.
· If the early expansion is not big enough, the game is lost because of weak economy.
· Three cities and 4 workers seem to be a good balance point.
2.2 Phase I Initial Expansion
Now, it is the time to play for real.
The objective of this phase:
· Get 3 cities
· All cities have Religion
· All teammates have iron, elephants, and horses, and you have at least one horse.
· Produce 4 warriors and 14 chariots
I.1 Select Slavery, and Organized Religion.
I.2 Early Research Path.
Horse – teammates upgrade
Math – for construction
Construction - elephants
Calendar – money for research
Currency – use AI support your economy and research
Monarch - happiness
Feudalism – start producing your own units (LOL, finally)
I.3 Use the drill in the last section to get 3 cities and 4-5 workers.
I.4 Build more cities if necessary to obtain resources.
Notes about city placement:
· You will eventually have 6 cities and 9 workers, but not in this phase;
· The first 2 cities are selected purely for their location, i.e. Food resources and Mountains. Food is always priority 1. Do not worry about resources, otherwise, your city will not be powerful enough.
· Plan cities for size 6, except the capital. However, you will need to change working tiles often.
· After 2 cities, make sure each of your teammates have iron, elephants, and horses. It is more important that your two teammates have horses and iron first; gift yours to them. Use cities 3 and 4 to ensure all three teammates have iron and horses.
I.5 Connect to horses and starting massive chariots production.
I.6 Make sure everyone has iron and horses ASAP.
I.7 Building Order.
(i) Finish the drill in the last section.
(ii) Building Order
Barracks
Happiness filers (warriors)
Missionaries
Chariots
Note:
The warriors are Happiness fillers. Each city gets a warrior before size 4.
Vassalage provides the initial unit promotion. Soon after that, Theocracy will provide the unit promotion for the rest of the game. Produce enough priests before switching, including the anticipation of new cities.
In this guide, you can count on the culture expansion from Religion.
Produce units in this ratio:
Gifted units:
Chariots (14)
Your units:
4 longbows
1 catapult
Chariots: your teammates will upgrade them and use them to rush. This is how your team gets 55% of the land.
Catapults: when the enemy stack attacks your city, use your collateral damage units on the stack before it attacks.
Longbows: do nothing except switching cities when necessary.
I.8 All of your citizens should work on the improved tiles now. As soon as all citizens work on improved tiles, take 2 workers out to build roads to both fronts. These two workers will remain at the front for the rest of the game.
Notes:
There is no city specialization in this phase. All cities produce military units to take down two enemy cities on each side (total of four cities).
I.9 Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy
The game provides you the military strength of each player. Go to the game chart; the default setting is the score. Use the pushdown menu to select “Power”. The Power graph indicates each AI’s military strength, so at any given moment, you should know precisely the strength of each of the 6 players; act upon this information.
1.10. Build Pyramid and switch to Representation first, then to Police state.
This completes this phase.
2.3 Phase II: Capture 2 Cities
The objective of this phase:
· Take 2 or more cities
· Hold the line
AI will build a few cities with a fairly light defense, i.e. two longbows. AI will also initiate attacks after reaching to a certain strength. When you put these two things together, your team can take four cities easily.
II.1 Keep Producing Chariots until Knights
Your opponents will have two cities; each city will have 2 longbows initially. This defense will, of course, strengthen over time. Continuing from Phase I, continue to build more Chariots. Each of your teammates will rush at least one city on each site.
II.2 Strengthen your Teammates
Your teammate will attack when he reaches to a certain strength. Gift each AI 7. This should be enough to for your Deity Teammates take down one city on each side.
II.3 The AI will not hold the city, so it is your job to hold these captured cities with longbows.
This completes this phase. At end of the expansion phase, you start producing longbows. At this point, look at the map: if your team owns 50% of land, the game is lost and you need to restart the game. Your team should at least own 55% of the land at the end of expansion; land is gold.
2.4 Phase III: Defense
The objective of this phase:
· Complete your expansion
· Control WW (War Weariness)
· Produce offensive force
III.1 Killing without losing Your Units
It is very important that you do not lose many units for two reasons:
(1) Deity AI out produces you, so you can not keep up;
(2) WW increases faster if you lose units.
But, you do not have to lose units. There are a few things you have to do:
(1) Take as many workers as necessary to build roads in every square in the front city and cut down all trees;
(2) AI will send a large amount of pillaging units. Resist the temptation to fight with them. Have your teammate take care of them;
(3) When the enemy pillaging units are injured, take them out with your knights and then retreat your knight back to the city;
(4) When the enemy stack attacks your city, use your collateral damage units on the stack before it attacks.
Therefore, the only time you lose units are when you are attacked inside a city. Unless the attack stack has a 2 to 1 ratio against you, then you will not lose many units.
III.2 Cash Support from Teammates
Deity AI has many advantages, including;
· Inflation, city and civic upkeep, upgrade cost less (40%?).
· City grows faster (40% less food? (Deity AI takes 7 food growth the first size).
As a result, they have gold left over; take the gold to increase your Research rate.
III.3 Completed Expansion
Each of your teammates has 3 cities to start with. After their initial placements, all land inside are yours and both of them will expand forward, so make sure you do not give them room to expand toward you. Build a city to stop them from expanding toward you. Build as many cities as it takes to fill the land around you.
III.4 City Specialization
Strangely enough, when you team up with Deity teammates, you get gold you’re your teammates so you need only be concerned with production and most importantly, Happiness. There will not be a Science City; there will not be Commerce City.
All cities need Happiness buildings.
Religion building
Theater
Ideally, get two Religion so you have +2 Happiness
III.5 City Size and WW
WW starts with 1, 2, 3, 4... eventually it will reach above 10. Controlling WW is a must. There are a few things you will need to do:
Stop the city from growing at size 7.
Gradually bring the city down 6 with –1 food deficit.
Build Happiness buildings
At the proper time, build 5 theaters and put the global theater in the capital; this will keep the capital building growing.
Do not put +2 Happiness buildings in the capital.
Do not lose units; your production is simply too poor to replace them.
III.6 Research Path is:
. Civil Service and Machinery
. Guild for Knights or Theology
. Theology or Guild for Knights
. Grenadier /Chemistry
. Nationalism for Nationhood (Happiness)
. Constitution for Jail (Happiness)
. Cavalry
III.7 Maintaining the Roads
Your front city roads will be pillaged by AI; repair them as soon as possible.
III.8 Defense Intelligence
Watch the Power graph every other turn and send your defense to compensate the imbalance between the your teammate and his opponents.
If you notice that one of your wings is falling behind in power, you need to send more units to that direction.
III.9 Heroic Epic + Global Theater
Build Heroic Epic and Global Theater in the city with the best production, i.e. capital.
III.10 Opportunities
When you hold the line, your teammates are preparing offense. From time to time, there will be opportunities when with your cooperation, you and your teammate can take down a few cities; make sure you take these opportunities.
You should not initiate offense during this phase because of WW.
III11. WW, WW, WW, ….
Your most serious problem in this phase is not that you do not have enough units, but how you manage the production of both units and Happiness:
You need to find time to produce:
+1 Happiness Religious building (first religion)
+1 Happiness Religious building (second religion)
Representation (+2 for 4 cities)
Coliseum
Switch to nationhood (+2 for barrack)
Market
+2 Happiness Religious buildings (first religion)
+2 Happiness Religious buildings (second religion)
5 Theaters + Global Theater
Theaters + 10% culture slide
Theaters + 20% culture slide
This should keep up the unhappiness and keep the city constant size at 6.
How long this phase is will be determined by a single factor, how much land did you rush in phase II? This can be a very long phase and it is quite possible at the end of this phase, your team has taken another 2 - 4 cities.
2.5 Phase IV: Offense
Objective:
· All out attack
· Wipe out the weak AI
· Win
At this point, the only opponent that has high power is the one in the back; both front AI opponents should have power lower than yours. Your primary target is the weak AI. On the other hand, attack only when you have a good opportunity.
IV.1 Pillaging
AI force is roughly divided into:
Mobile Offensive Force (50%): Attacking force.
Mobile Defensive Force (25%): Homeland defense.
Stationery Defensive Force (25%): City defense.
Newly produced units.
At this point, your team has destroyed their Mobile Offensive Force. Your teammates have been trying:
(1) To destroy his Mobile Defensive Force.
(2) To destroy his capability to produce new units.
IV.2 Capture enemy cities.
This will last to the end of the game.
