First Deity Win, Parting thoughts

[durron597]

So after this thread and watching lots of Marbozir, MadDjinn and Acken videos I finally played Deity and won on my first try!

Parting thoughts:
1. Deity is in some ways easier; they ALWAYS have enough cash to buy my strategics and extra luxuries, and to do research agreements. They sometimes don't on Immortal and often don't on Emperor, but always do on Deity.
1a. Scientific Revolution is way better on Deity than on lower difficulties. I got it before Humanism and I don't regret it at all.
2. I didn't decide to do Science victory until around Industrial Era. I was considering domination but I never felt I had time to build an army if I wanted to pull ahead in Tech.
3. AIs give DoF way more easily in Deity than in lower difficulties.
4. I'm pretty confident I could win Science again but I'm not sure I could win the other victory types, yet.

• Diplomatic: AI has WAY too much cash. Hard to win race to Forbidden palace but maybe I could take it. It was really hard to take CSes even with all level 3 spies (capital defense promotions + National Intelligence Agency)
• Cultural: No time to build Sistine chapel and other relevant wonders. Not hard to get some of the later ones, but I feel like I'd have to steal wonders to do it; Also would fall behind in Tech and also piss off the AI for making them unhappy, which means war.
• Domination: I don't think I would have been able to start taking cities before Artillery. Would have taken a really long time. I'm not sure how people start warring effectively at Physics without falling behind to the other civs.

tl;dr Story:

Spoiler :

1. Science Victory, Shoshone
2. Map: Fractal
3. I steal a worker from Austria with my scout and peace out soon after. No consequences ever.
4. It turns out my section of the continent is pretty isolated; Austria and Polynesia are right next to each other at the choke into my section
5. I use my Pathfinder -> Composite Bowman to block a choke and stop Polynesia from taking my 4th city location; he did not have Optics. By the time he did I got the city down myself.
6. I bribe Austria to DOW Polynesia
7. Finish exploring my continent to find Portugal, Assyria and China. Assyria DOWs China and takes Beijing
8. I get DoF with both Austria and Polynesia and tech to Civil Service, then Education, then Acoustics. I miss opening Rationalism with my 7th policy by 7 turns, so I open Commerce.
9. Babylon finds me (different continent) and I notice that he has an enormous amount of Tourism. Arts funding passes in first world Congress.
10. Carthage asks me to declare war on Babylon and I say yes, because we're on different continents but they're on the same continent. They fight. I see zero Babylonian troops.
11. I steal one tech and then decide to just defend my capital with my least experienced spy so it levels up.
12. Babylon builds Porcelain tower after I've only been working on it for 1 turn.
13. I rush Industrialization before Scientific theory; I am 10 turns behind getting to Industrial Era. I have lots of coal.
14. I have enough gold saved up that I buy two factories and hard build the third in my capital. Assyria is not the tech leader but he beats me to three factories and takes Autocracy.
15. I get Second ideology and take Order. Hero of the People and Skyscrapers. Mostly Order > Freedom because I expect Babylon to go Order because the AI always does.
16. Portugal takes Freedom which sucks for a little while, but it's only -7 or so happiness.
17. I Oxford Radio and eventually make Eiffel tower. I am the first one to Modern Era but I am still in 5th or 6th in Literacy. I still don't have Astronomy.
18. Babylon and Carthage both take Order and my happiness recovers. So does Polynesia. Babylon gets ideology with Modern Era and not factories.
19. Assyria is a pain in the ass but he can't get to me without going through Austria and Polynesia so I don't care. I bribe him to DoW Portugal, a war which he seems to be winning but Portugal manages to stop him after a city or two.
20. Austria takes Freedom and starts fighting Polynesia but ignoring me.
21. I occasionally bribe Assyria to go to war with other people to keep him fighting multiple front wars; he's happy to oblige. Everyone hates him and ignores me.
22. I catch up my tech tree and I'm a little late to Atomic era, but my cheap techs are all caught up. I am still using my spies for capital defense and Cultural city states, not stealing tech.
23. I build some Comanche Riders because why not; may as well have some UU in case I get attacked. Fourth one finishes on the same turn as Combustion and I upgrade to 4 Landships.
24. I enter Atomic Era with Atomic Theory (I have 4 factories) and then rush to Satellites. I am first one to Information Era by a large margin.
25. Babylon is the first AI with an influential Civ: Me!
26. I hard build Hubble. I am still the only one in the Information Era.
27. I hard build Apollo program. Babylon completes it before me.
28. I tech Nuclear Fission and buy a Nuclear plant in all my cities for cash.
29. Assyria revolts and switches to Order. AIs still hate him, he asks me for DoF but I don't because he's at war with China and Polynesia. I consider bribing him to make peace with them but it's still not worth it for a Research Agreement I no longer need.
30. I tech Robotics and make a Spaceship factory in all my cities. I am still only one in Information Era
31. I pop all my saved GSes and buy two more with saved up faith for Particle Physics. Babylon builds one Booster.
32. I build 4 spaceship parts in each of my cities. My capital is faster due to production trade route. I buy one Great Engineer with faith and the other from level 3 order tenet.
33. All 6 spaceship parts finish in around a 5 turn window.
34. Spaceship victory on around turn 290!

 

[Nokmart]

Congratulations on your first deity win!!

 

[Aea]

One thing to know about Diplomatic is that the AI will only ever drop 500 gold a turn to retain alliances. In fact it's probably one of the easiest victories.

You don't really want Physics for warring, maybe you could fit a trebuchet or two in there but X-Bows should be your primary sieging force in the Medieval. They're fantastically versatile units.

 

[durron597]

One thing to know about Diplomatic is that the AI will only ever drop 500 gold a turn to retain alliances. In fact it's probably one of the easiest victories.

You don't really want Physics for warring, maybe you could fit a trebuchet or two in there but X-Bows should be your primary sieging force in the Medieval. They're fantastically versatile units.

Interesting. I was thinking promotions, because Gatling guns suck without +1 range and even then kind of suck. Meanwhile Trebuchets become Artillery and are the primary land based army unit later, so they're the ones I'd like to have lots of promotions.

I dropped back to Immortal to practice Domination last night and I crushed Brazil's face on around turn 180 (standard speed) with 5 Trebuchets and 3 Pikemen despite him having the Great Wall. I know Pikemen suck compared to Infantry type units but I'm Persia and they're upgraded Immortals for the UU promotion. I guess I can take 1hp cities with Lancers later???

 

[Aea]

Gatling guns are actually okay for their era, they just get rapidly out-classed by [Great] War Infantry making their window of opportunity less then ideal. But Machine Guns and Bazookas are great units and will probably make up the bulk of your land forces. The 1-tile range seems troublesome at first but keep in mind you take no damage when attacking and have almost equal combat strength to other melee units of the era.

Pikemen are a double-edged sword (or pike really). They come cheap, they come early, and they hit very hard. But they are a terminal unit. They do not upgrade to anything useful. If you build too many you're stuck with them.

I prefer building [Long]swordsmen as well provided I have the opportunity and it doesn't interfere with my game. They're a bit inferior but when playing against the AI you can upgrade them all the way to Information Era. I build Pikes too, they're just not my exclusive melee unit.

As for Trebuchets, yeah you can use them, and you can get some promotions on them but honestly, with timing and tech order... They come pretty damn late, so when you're moving them around they're pretty damn fragile units 12 CS is basically asking to get one-shotted by a city in the late medieval onward.

 

[Sclb]

3. AIs give DoF way more easily in Deity than in lower difficulties.

That isn't necessarily true and it has to do more with their personalities. However DoF is much more beneficial than lower difficulties due to their high amount of gold for borrowing and also their RA.

 

[durron597]

That isn't necessarily true and it has to do more with their personalities. However DoF is much more beneficial than lower difficulties due to their high amount of gold for borrowing and also their RA.

Austria, Polynesia, Assyria, Portugal, China, Babylon, Carthage.

I had 5 DoF for most of the game, even into Ideologies. I don't think Portugal denounced me until the Atomic era at the earliest.

 

[fyar]

Congrats! It sounds a lot like my first Deity win, as China. (Ok, I'm not counting my first Deity win where I played a 2-player Pangaea map as Attila until I popped a battering ram ruin! )

I've been playing mostly Deity lately, but to be honest I think Immortal is more fun because it allows more varied gameplay. But if the challenge is more important to you than the diversity of gameplay, you'll enjoy playing Deity. Welcome to the club!

 

[ShakaKhan]

Ok, I'm not counting my first Deity win where I played a 2-player Pangaea map as Attila until I popped a battering ram ruin!

Why not?!? Does that mean my first immortal victory, where I set max turns to 1, picked the Shoshone, and had his extra territory score lead me to a turn 2 time victory doesn't count either?!?!

 

[Aea]

Why not?!? Does that mean my first immortal victory, where I set max turns to 1, picked the Shoshone, and had his extra territory score lead me to a turn 2 time victory doesn't count either?!?!

There really needs to be an achievement for that.

 

[Lay_Lay]

My first and only deity win was a very different experience.
Sweden tundra 3 city Diplo win with no war and tons of great people gifted to city states.

 

[danaphanous]

Why not?!? Does that mean my first immortal victory, where I set max turns to 1, picked the Shoshone, and had his extra territory score lead me to a turn 2 time victory doesn't count either?!?!

lol, that is hilarious. I can honestly say I've never played a duel map, but I guess if you just want achievements it makes sense.

 

[Primacide]

Congratulations to you! I was pretty elated after my first deity victory (science, England, archipelago). I was absolutely terrified the entire game, like the deity AI was going to jump out of the screen and eat me.

There really needs to be an achievement for that.

Well, you asked for it. Ima shamelessly necro my own favorite thread.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=534805

 

[meatpardle]

tl;dr Story:

5. I use my Pathfinder -> Composite Bowman to block a choke and stop Polynesia from taking my 4th city location; he did not have Optics. By the time he did I got the city down myself.

Completely irrelevant now but do Polynesia need Optics? I thought they could embark from the get go.

 

[fyar]

Why not?!? Does that mean my first immortal victory, where I set max turns to 1, picked the Shoshone, and had his extra territory score lead me to a turn 2 time victory doesn't count either?!?!

LOL. No it doesn't, because we're talking Deity here. If you're going for a cheap victory, you might as well cheat at the big boy table. Why didn't you play at Deity anyway if that was your intent all along?

 

[danaphanous]

maybe the unit score on Deity makes them win over shosone human? dunno...they do get a starting settler as well.

 

[fyar]

It takes a few turns to settle that second city though. It has to get at least 4 tiles away from the capital. Assuming they start next to each other, the earliest it can settle is the 2nd turn, if both settlers move in opposite directions on open territory. I don't believe the extra units count for the game score.

 

[durron597]

Completely irrelevant now but do Polynesia need Optics? I thought they could embark from the get go.

Oh yeah! I wonder why they didn't go around from the get-go.

 

[beetle]

^^I am pretty sure the AI is more careful nowadays with unescorted settlers. So, if you had not signed a DOF, Polynesia saw your Pathfinder hanging about and would have been shy.

 

[ShakaKhan]

maybe the unit score on Deity makes them win over shosone human? dunno...they do get a starting settler as well.

I believe that the combination of extra units and technologies that deity AI start with increases their score more than the extra land does for the Shoshone, so this turn 1 or turn 2 victory cheese doesn't work on deity.