ICS Immortal/Deity Strategy

[dannyk2011]

In my opinion it all depends on what version of civ5 you are playing.

In vanilla the best civs for ICS strategy were

1. Egypt
2. France
3. Rome

They are there for a reason. Egypt plus piety is ridiculous. Their temples can offer +3 happiness with the piety tree, with an additional +1 happy from each monument. So essentially each city is free. Then you add Liberty +1 happy from each road. Any luxuries and wonders that you acquire are just toppings on the cake.

France gives the extra +2 culture for each city planted. Making it easy to go through Liberty and Piety

Rome for the Glory of Rome. Each xp city from the capital is basically on a miniature GA as long as the Cap has the building already.


However in GnK ICS require mass amounts of faith and very specific city placement. ICS in GnK is not as powerful as it was in Vanilla unless you are either Mayans or Egypt. The only difference is that Mayans get the very early science boost (add the +2 science per trade route) which can be very crazy... Just my opinions

 

[Seven05]

However in GnK ICS require mass amounts of faith and very specific city placement. ICS in GnK is not as powerful as it was in Vanilla unless you are either Mayans or Egypt. The only difference is that Mayans get the very early science boost (add the +2 science per trade route) which can be very crazy... Just my opinions

ICS in GnK works, and works very well, with any civ. The right combination of beliefs renders the civilization choice mostly irelevant. Obviosuly civs with UBs that require other buildings that you won't have in most cities won't work as well as others but they'll still work well.

 

[Magil]

Just curious, what is the typical approach to mid-to-late game with ICS? I see how the early game can go very well and transitioning to Industrial Era, but how do you build up your empire from there, in terms of buildings? What do you do when you run out of room to expand? Since you don't really grow your cities much, do you put lots of trading posts down? How do you build up a decent research rate with a lot of low-pop cities? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions!

 

[Tich]

Just curious, what is the typical approach to mid-to-late game with ICS? I see how the early game can go very well and transitioning to Industrial Era, but how do you build up your empire from there, in terms of buildings? What do you do when you run out of room to expand? Since you don't really grow your cities much, do you put lots of trading posts down? How do you build up a decent research rate with a lot of low-pop cities? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions!

Mid-to-late game should be combat orientated. You'll definitely have run out of room to expand on higher difficulties, so the only way to move forward is to conquer. Spam Trading Posts to get your GPT high enough to support a big army and focus on producing units instead of mid-game buildings. Your research rate will be terrible and the best way to solve that is to get some puppet cities up and running. Churn out Muskets and Cannons, support them with whatever Crossbows you still have (they may or may not be Gattling Guns at this point), and start conquering the world. Rush Artilleries and get a good half dozen of those online, and from there every computer should just crumble before you.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

In what order do you unlock the liberty policies?
I rarely play wide empires, so I have no clue if I rather need faster settlers or reduced policy cost / extra happiness.

Why not unlock honor for garrison/defensive building happiness boost?

And a final question:
Why pick the +34%/66% spreading power belief over doubled range?
The latter might start a bit slower, but you create a huge center of faith that will infect EVERYONE around you and maybe ultimately surpress any other religion.

 

[Terakahn]

I may be off, but here's what I've been doing policy wise.

I obviously go Liberty first. And depending on what my situation needs more, I go the quick settler or quick worker. ie: Do I need to chop a ton of jungle to get my luxuries?

I finish Liberty, grab a GE for a quick wonder, and then usually open Order for the happiness boost, and then go to the bottom of Commerce for the Luxury happiness bonus. I might be doing something wrong here, but with this route along with religion bonuses, I've been able to let my cities get as large as I want, with absolutely no stopping growth, and stay in positive happiness. Last game I went for a science victory, ending with about 40-50 cities at 15-20 pop each.

I feel like I should be grabbing tradition as well, but I can't seem to justify missing the other policies. The lower building maintenance costs is also pretty crucial and frees up a TON of GPT for me mid-late game.

Edit: I also pick increased spreading range for the religion. my cities are packed tightly enough that I usually overpower everything else in pressure anyway.

I'm still new to ICSing, so I could be off here.

 

[Wek]

ZOMG Joshinda THIS !!!!!!!

I am new to civ (only got it a month ago) but like a good (ex) hardcore wow raider I try to do my homework.

So I was just owning emperor. I would team up all 8 ai civs and they still had no chance. Then I would go immortal and just get mashed.

Then I found your work of complete brilliance. It is just so simple. So completely effective. First time out of the gate and I had them for breakfast. Even when Ceaser comes at me toward the end.... those endless cities, 4 squares apart completely pwned him (esp with rocket launcher garrisons

Careful management, following your recipe, and I never ran out of cash, never had an issue with happiness. In fact I think I only lost mb a score of units in 380 ish turns.

It would seem that the most valuable offensive and defensive unit is the city.

Moving directly to deity when I finish typing this. (made this account just to say thanks)

You are obviously a very tall and handsome man