Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and recently have been playing an insane amount of Civ Rev since it became available on PS now. I have won now with every civ on deity and I think I have developed a pretty good strategy. I know there are probably people of all different skills levels so I'm sorry if some of it sounds too basic.
This is not civ specific but obviously some civs are much better at it than others. I just won with the Mongols in 1400AD with it, so it indeed works with everyone.
Personally, I save at 4000BC and look around with the settlers. It makes it much harder to develop a good plan if you don’t know the surroundings at all. With a good efficient start I can usually end the game by 1700AD (1250-1450AD if I take and enemy cap at the start). If you don’t look around you can have a terrible start. For instance- wasting time building warriors and then realize you are on an island or realize later than you were right next to an enemy cap and could have easily walked in. It’s not impossible to win but it may take an extra 2 hours and take until the mid 1900s to win.
First thing I look for is a close civ to steal their capital. If you can get a goodie hut and get to another capital by 3500BC, you have a shot. You just settle your capital one space away from them. Rush a warrior with your goodie hut gold.
If this isn’t feasible, I just look around for the barb huts and goodie huts and develop the quickest pathway to get to them. If I can’t steal a capital, I usually place my capital very close to the starting point just to not waste any further turns. I would recommend the standard (at least 4 prod, 4 food, 4 tech) capital most of the time. I usually send out 3 warriors while putting the city to all production. Then switch to 2 food, 2 tech. I research techs in the following order- Pottery, Masonry (free wall), Alphabet, Writing (free spy), then Code of Laws (Republic and free Trading Post).
Gold is the real limiting factor at this point. Best thing you can get from barb hut is a caravan (can be used to explore and usually at least 50 gold), second best would just be pure 50 gold, next would be galley. The next several turns are just trying to get that 100 gold for the free settler. Sometimes this takes awhile and is frustrating (especially when you have to use 2 turns to heal in between barb attacks and then they give you a spy).
Once you get the settlers, make a city with at least 6-8 tech available with the rest food. Of course finding fish (just buy bronze working from the AI) at this point is the best, but also finding dye and whale for later in the game is great.
At this point you should place your warriors at the borders of the other civs to spy on them and try to block them from coming into your area. Fortify them in choke points and the AI will leave them alone for a really long time. This is good because you are setting up to expand and don’t want the AI messing around in your part of the map.
You should start expanding past your 2 cities (or 3 with early enemy cap) after you get into the Medieval period (after the 5 techs above) and you have Code of Laws and change to Republic (this should be no later than 500 BC). You then change the cities to production and try to rush out settlers with your 100 gold. Micromanagement of your cities is crucial at this point of the game. After your cities produce the settler, if they are at 2 population place them on food, if 3 population then 2 food and 4 tech.
Use your settlers to make cities with trade and food. Some production is fine, best is a specialty square obviously. It is usually good to make a central city between you and the AI as a production hub. You must have some food though.
- If you see an AI unprotected settler, take them and build a city quickly, then offer the civ peace.They will usually give it to you for free.
It should be around 200-400AD and you should have 7-8 cities and still be in republic (It is possible to have many more with some luck). You should be focusing on food and tech, and should have gotten Literacy and Irrigation bonuses. You will be hurting for gold, which is why I would recommend the next tech be Currency. This is another huge bonus because you get a free market (wherever they put it, make that a gold city obviously) and a free caravan. It is important to avoid the 250 gold bonus prior to obtaining this tech because it negates the bonus for some ridiculous reason.
**Note- If you start on an island, you may only be able to get 3 cities or so on the island. You must rush a galley and try to expand to islands. It will undoubtedly take you much longer to expand and makes early domination impossible. However, you will be protected from attack for a very long time, so you don’t have to worry about building any units.
*Defense- Somewhere between 100-1000AD you will probably be getting threatened and declared war on. Hopefully you have created you network of cities where there are only 2 or 3 you actually have to defend from the AI. The AI should not have anything better than horses/legions at this point, so archer armies can hold their own (always keep them fortified).
- I rarely give into the AIs threats. Sometimes if I'm getting attacked on 3 sides by different civs or am unprepared and they are asking for a non-important tech I may give in.
At this point you can go a couple different directions. If you feel you can attack someone successfully, you can research Mathematics (if someone is close only, catapults can only move 1 space), or if you wanna get whale use or free galleon with Navigation (bonus negated if Spain is in the game) after that. If you are behind or barely ahead in tech, (Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Egyptians AI can by crazy fast at tech) going for Democracy might be the best option. However, this will make you unable to declare war. If I have a good tech lead I generally go Monarchy for the free Great Person (negated if English are in the game) and dye (huge for trade). I would usually stay in Republic if I’m going to continue to expand.
*Great People
-Great Artist is the worst early in the game. Generally in the early game you have no culture, because you have so many cities and no temples. Therefore, you can’t convert any cities and you don’t have any culture for your Artist to add to. I usually just hold on to them until something comes up.
-Great Scientist- Usually settle, in best science city- adding a library is great too. If you get several and don’t wanna settle or are in a really tough situation, find the most expensive/helpful tech available and use them to finish it.
-Great Explorer/Industrialist- Always settle in gold city with market. Unless you are getting attacked like crazy and need gold to rush, I would never use the one time gold.
-Great Builder- AMAZING. Use to complete a wonder of your choice. None of the Ancient Wonders are worth it. Best Medieval ones are East India Company (amazing, basically getting democracy trade bonus), Samurai Castle (great for attacking early), Trade Fair of Troyes (if you have good gold city). I wouldn’t use Leonardo’s Workshop until later in the game when you have advanced units.
-Great Humanitarian- Always use to add 1+ population to your cities.
-Great Leader- Amazing, always settle and build a barracks.
At this point, it might be around 1300-1500AD, you should think about attacking. Several civs have knight bonuses and after Monarchy you can go Feudalism and start attacking. If you have a solid tech lead, the AI should have only have archer armies which you should be able to take out. Before you build an army make sure you have at least one Barracks to have veterans (sounds obvious but sometimes I’m ready to fight and totally forgot). Your cities should be a decent size and you should be getting some production. If not wanting to go to war, you can focus your gold rush/production 3 places.
- If wanting a cultural win or if other civs are dominating your borders, you can build a temple in every city and you should be good.
- If wanting to focus on getting more gold, choosing 2-3 cities to build a market
- If wanting to expand tech, building libraries in most cities
***Note- Roads are generally needed to rally up armies quickly. They are cheaper in the early eras but you need your gold for more importantthings then. If the civ has a bonus for half price, generally build them when they get it. Otherwise, I usually build them in the 1400-1500AD prior to attack.
If not wanting to attack, I recommend researching Invention (free Great Person) or University (2+ science in every city). Don’t research Banking, you will get this at 250 gold bonus. I rarely Research Religion (1+ culture ineach city, but negated by Indians and Arabs). Engineering is good for bonus only (1+ production in every city), and to get Invention, Steam Power.
Artifacts- You can start looking imediately if you get a Galley from a Barb hut. You can of course build one. At the latest you should get a free Galleon for Navigation and start looking (the AI is generally bad at finding them).
- Angkor Wat- random Wonder, usually garbage
- Ark of the Covenant- can be AMAZING if you find it after you have expanded and have many cities. It savesthe whole step of building all the temples.
- Knights Templar- usually useless, Knight early or Tank later but only one unit so it can’t do much
- Lost city of Atlantis- You MUST find this. Make it a priority once you get a Galleon. Will give you the 3 cheapest techs available. Always in deep water.
- School of Confucius- Can be good/great depending on the GP you get. See above for details.
- Seven Cities of Gold- Really good in the early game when you are hurting for gold, it can be huge for settler rushing. Later game when you have gold, it’s not that great.
By 1600AD, you should definitely be planning an attack to some degree. If you deferred Democracy late, I would just research Gunpowder to bypass Pikeman altogether. If you already have a good amount of Pikeman, go for cannons with Metallurgy (it is very expensive tech). Steam Power is also reasonable (naval support can really help out 50/50 matches of cannons vs. Pikeman or Rifleman).
*Attack
- I generally take at least 2 armies of my best offensive unit (generally cannons/tanks, plus 2 or 3 knight armies and 2 defensive armies (pikeman or rifleman). You should be able to take any city in 1 or at most 2 turns.
- I always take a couple spies when leading a big attack and attempting to take a capital. Sometimes destroying fortifications is the only way to take the city with the current unit type you have. Also stealing their GP is very helpful. However, if the city has a spy, I usually lose the fight like 90% of the time. But it’s still worth a shot.
- I usually change to fight in Monarchy if I’m in Democracy. Republic is only good for expanding. Fundamentalism will kill your tech development but can be helpful if you have it early. Communism will kill your culture and cities will get flipped right when you take them.
*Elite Units
- Infiltration/Blitz- if you need the bonus to take a capital, take infiltration. Otherwise, blitz is definitely the best.
- Scout- can be helpful, if they are better defended than you think, you can maybe use spy to destroy fortification or add a cruiser.
- Medic- sometimes helpful, but usually should be culturally solid during an attack and be in your own territory.
- March- great for defensive units and cannons/catapults
- Guerilla- I don’t know why you would be attacking frequently in your own territory and would need this bonus. If so, you were way behind in tech.
- Loyalty/Engineer/Leadership- all good for defensive units
***Note- After you take a city, depending on the culture level of the AI, you may have to rush a temple the next turn to avoid getting flipped. I do this with almost every city I take.
If you are at 1700AD and maybe it hasn’t went well, it is okay. As long as you still have 8-10 cities and a tech lead, you can still win unless someone is going crazy with culture (I have seen this a couple times). Getting tanks with Combustion is usually a game changer as only modern infantry can stop them and they have 3 moves per turn. Getting Industrialization then The Corporation first will both give you 5 gold per city. This is huge for an offensive unit rush. Industrialization (Factory) and The Railroad (2+ production in each city and can build iron mine) can be great to help make a mega production city (which is needed for cultural and economic win to build United Nations/World Bank).
I usually don’t get The Automobile or Communism because they are dead end techs (they don’t lead to other techs). Artillary units are only needed for modern infantry which none of your AI should have. Communism destroys all your culture so your cities get flipped if you go into it. Electronics has a good bonus of 2+ trade in all cities. Flight is a game changer as well, but very expensive.
*Winning
- Cultural- Generally this happens just by attacking and taking over several cities with Wonders and Great People. If you build a temple in every city like I recommended, it will be easy to acquire the 20 GP/Wonders even if you are going for a domination. Especially if you got the free GP with Monarchy/Invention and 2 free with School of Confucius. The real limiting factor is building the United Nations. Even with a 50 production city,it will take 10 turns. A lot of domination can be done in 10 turns of attack, so domination may still be a quicker way to win (in terms of the year, not in actual time and effort).
- Economic- Gold begets more gold. When you have gold and nothing to build, you can rush markets/banks/courthouses which just give you more gold. In general once you are making over 1000 gold per turn, you could just sit there until you get to 20K. That isn’t very fun though. You also have to build the World Bank which costs the same as the United Nations. Domination is quicker, but much more work.
- Technology- Definitely takes the longest of all the wins, can be satisfying though. Sometimes if you have a massive tech lead but are fairly isolated from everyone, (on an island, or peninsula) taking out everyone would be very time consuming and a tech win may might be the best way to go. Get your defenses up though. It is likely that by the time you are launching the space ship, other civs will have flight and good ships. Therefore, they will annoy the hell out of you.
- Domination- Definitely the easiest especially if the enemy capitals are not protected by other cities. If you or they start on islands it will obviously take much longer.
Individual Civ Strategies
- Greece- Dominate tech starting with democracy but have difficulty expanding well without Republic unless you change back in forth. Starting with courthouse is good, allows you change city easily from production to tech to food. Usually a defensive civ to win with tech or economic victory.
- Germany- offensive civ for sure. Spend time cranking out units early to attack in the medieval era with the production bonus and auto-upgrades. If you get a great leader, you will dominate quickly.
- Russia- Defensive civ, bonuses are only defensive but you can still stay ahead in tech and eventually win.
- Egypt- varies greatly based on starting position and wonder. No Irrigation Bonus which is annoying but the extra food/trade from the desert can give you a bigger early tech lead.
- England- good overall. Archer bonus makes no rush for pikeman or rifleman necessary, so you can focus on offense units and ships. Ship bonus helps you dominate any coastal city. Monarchy helps with culture and using dye for tech is huge.
- India- use of resources at the beginning is helpful and if things go well, early religion can give you fundamentalism for an attack. Nothing else that helpful.
- Mongolia- really depends on location of barb villages. If you can race to feudalism, you can dominate early with their extra movement. Mountain production is helpful too and well as bonus from captured cities.
- Spain- can immediately go find artifacts and use whale, which is huge. Gold bonus later helps economic victory and rushing out units.
- Rome- starting with Republic can change the tech start completely because it is not longer your goal. However, you still shouldn’t expand until medieval era. They are built for cultural domination with more GP and cheap wonders.
- America- rapid expansion due to ½ price rush in medieval era. Allows you spread and dominate early. Can build massive production cities with factories, iron mine, communism if the game lasts that long.
- China- good tech and expansion with big cities. Literacy and Writing given so it is easy to keep a tech lead early.
- Aztec- Best overall bonuses. Instant warrior rush and Autoheal allows to you plow through barbarians and capitals early. Cheap roads in Industrial era, so put them off until then. Gold production in Modern era allows massive unit rush.
- France- good culture at the beginning to keep enemy from bothering you. Cheap roads early is helpful. Goal is get Gunpowder and Metallurgy as soon as possible to use their bonuses.
- Arabia- More gold with caravans is helpful if you get caravans. Fundamentalism at the beginning can be helpful but horseman bonus isn’t until Industrial Era so you have already expanded with republic.
- Zulu- Warrior movement bonus is huge for early enemy cap taking and barb huts. Good city growth in medieval era and lots of gold later.
- Japan- Basically start with harbor you can focus completely on tech which is super helpful. Race to feudalism to dominate with knights.
I would not classify civs as best or worst. There are civs that are much easier to win a quick domination with than others. Zulu, Aztecs, Americans, and Germans early bonuses given them the best chance to immediately steal an enemy capital which usually ensures an early victory. Japan, China, Greece, England, and Egypt can help you get a massive tech lead. Spain can get you early artifacts to dominate and expand to islands. Rome can dominate culturally early. France and Russia usually take longer to win but can still be done. Mongols can be good or terrible based on the location of barb huts. Arabs and Indians can attack with fundamentalism early if the conditions are right. Overall, like I said, the above strategy can be applied to every civ.
*Frustrating things can happen like playing against Egypt, China, Spain and England. So Writing, Literacy, Irrigation, Navigation, and Monarchy bonuses are gone. That actually sounds like kind of a fun challenge…
I have read many other strategies for Deity and would love to hear any comments or disagreements.
This is not civ specific but obviously some civs are much better at it than others. I just won with the Mongols in 1400AD with it, so it indeed works with everyone.
Personally, I save at 4000BC and look around with the settlers. It makes it much harder to develop a good plan if you don’t know the surroundings at all. With a good efficient start I can usually end the game by 1700AD (1250-1450AD if I take and enemy cap at the start). If you don’t look around you can have a terrible start. For instance- wasting time building warriors and then realize you are on an island or realize later than you were right next to an enemy cap and could have easily walked in. It’s not impossible to win but it may take an extra 2 hours and take until the mid 1900s to win.
First thing I look for is a close civ to steal their capital. If you can get a goodie hut and get to another capital by 3500BC, you have a shot. You just settle your capital one space away from them. Rush a warrior with your goodie hut gold.
If this isn’t feasible, I just look around for the barb huts and goodie huts and develop the quickest pathway to get to them. If I can’t steal a capital, I usually place my capital very close to the starting point just to not waste any further turns. I would recommend the standard (at least 4 prod, 4 food, 4 tech) capital most of the time. I usually send out 3 warriors while putting the city to all production. Then switch to 2 food, 2 tech. I research techs in the following order- Pottery, Masonry (free wall), Alphabet, Writing (free spy), then Code of Laws (Republic and free Trading Post).
Gold is the real limiting factor at this point. Best thing you can get from barb hut is a caravan (can be used to explore and usually at least 50 gold), second best would just be pure 50 gold, next would be galley. The next several turns are just trying to get that 100 gold for the free settler. Sometimes this takes awhile and is frustrating (especially when you have to use 2 turns to heal in between barb attacks and then they give you a spy).
Once you get the settlers, make a city with at least 6-8 tech available with the rest food. Of course finding fish (just buy bronze working from the AI) at this point is the best, but also finding dye and whale for later in the game is great.
At this point you should place your warriors at the borders of the other civs to spy on them and try to block them from coming into your area. Fortify them in choke points and the AI will leave them alone for a really long time. This is good because you are setting up to expand and don’t want the AI messing around in your part of the map.
You should start expanding past your 2 cities (or 3 with early enemy cap) after you get into the Medieval period (after the 5 techs above) and you have Code of Laws and change to Republic (this should be no later than 500 BC). You then change the cities to production and try to rush out settlers with your 100 gold. Micromanagement of your cities is crucial at this point of the game. After your cities produce the settler, if they are at 2 population place them on food, if 3 population then 2 food and 4 tech.
Use your settlers to make cities with trade and food. Some production is fine, best is a specialty square obviously. It is usually good to make a central city between you and the AI as a production hub. You must have some food though.
- If you see an AI unprotected settler, take them and build a city quickly, then offer the civ peace.They will usually give it to you for free.
It should be around 200-400AD and you should have 7-8 cities and still be in republic (It is possible to have many more with some luck). You should be focusing on food and tech, and should have gotten Literacy and Irrigation bonuses. You will be hurting for gold, which is why I would recommend the next tech be Currency. This is another huge bonus because you get a free market (wherever they put it, make that a gold city obviously) and a free caravan. It is important to avoid the 250 gold bonus prior to obtaining this tech because it negates the bonus for some ridiculous reason.
**Note- If you start on an island, you may only be able to get 3 cities or so on the island. You must rush a galley and try to expand to islands. It will undoubtedly take you much longer to expand and makes early domination impossible. However, you will be protected from attack for a very long time, so you don’t have to worry about building any units.
*Defense- Somewhere between 100-1000AD you will probably be getting threatened and declared war on. Hopefully you have created you network of cities where there are only 2 or 3 you actually have to defend from the AI. The AI should not have anything better than horses/legions at this point, so archer armies can hold their own (always keep them fortified).
- I rarely give into the AIs threats. Sometimes if I'm getting attacked on 3 sides by different civs or am unprepared and they are asking for a non-important tech I may give in.
At this point you can go a couple different directions. If you feel you can attack someone successfully, you can research Mathematics (if someone is close only, catapults can only move 1 space), or if you wanna get whale use or free galleon with Navigation (bonus negated if Spain is in the game) after that. If you are behind or barely ahead in tech, (Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Egyptians AI can by crazy fast at tech) going for Democracy might be the best option. However, this will make you unable to declare war. If I have a good tech lead I generally go Monarchy for the free Great Person (negated if English are in the game) and dye (huge for trade). I would usually stay in Republic if I’m going to continue to expand.
*Great People
-Great Artist is the worst early in the game. Generally in the early game you have no culture, because you have so many cities and no temples. Therefore, you can’t convert any cities and you don’t have any culture for your Artist to add to. I usually just hold on to them until something comes up.
-Great Scientist- Usually settle, in best science city- adding a library is great too. If you get several and don’t wanna settle or are in a really tough situation, find the most expensive/helpful tech available and use them to finish it.
-Great Explorer/Industrialist- Always settle in gold city with market. Unless you are getting attacked like crazy and need gold to rush, I would never use the one time gold.
-Great Builder- AMAZING. Use to complete a wonder of your choice. None of the Ancient Wonders are worth it. Best Medieval ones are East India Company (amazing, basically getting democracy trade bonus), Samurai Castle (great for attacking early), Trade Fair of Troyes (if you have good gold city). I wouldn’t use Leonardo’s Workshop until later in the game when you have advanced units.
-Great Humanitarian- Always use to add 1+ population to your cities.
-Great Leader- Amazing, always settle and build a barracks.
At this point, it might be around 1300-1500AD, you should think about attacking. Several civs have knight bonuses and after Monarchy you can go Feudalism and start attacking. If you have a solid tech lead, the AI should have only have archer armies which you should be able to take out. Before you build an army make sure you have at least one Barracks to have veterans (sounds obvious but sometimes I’m ready to fight and totally forgot). Your cities should be a decent size and you should be getting some production. If not wanting to go to war, you can focus your gold rush/production 3 places.
- If wanting a cultural win or if other civs are dominating your borders, you can build a temple in every city and you should be good.
- If wanting to focus on getting more gold, choosing 2-3 cities to build a market
- If wanting to expand tech, building libraries in most cities
***Note- Roads are generally needed to rally up armies quickly. They are cheaper in the early eras but you need your gold for more importantthings then. If the civ has a bonus for half price, generally build them when they get it. Otherwise, I usually build them in the 1400-1500AD prior to attack.
If not wanting to attack, I recommend researching Invention (free Great Person) or University (2+ science in every city). Don’t research Banking, you will get this at 250 gold bonus. I rarely Research Religion (1+ culture ineach city, but negated by Indians and Arabs). Engineering is good for bonus only (1+ production in every city), and to get Invention, Steam Power.
Artifacts- You can start looking imediately if you get a Galley from a Barb hut. You can of course build one. At the latest you should get a free Galleon for Navigation and start looking (the AI is generally bad at finding them).
- Angkor Wat- random Wonder, usually garbage
- Ark of the Covenant- can be AMAZING if you find it after you have expanded and have many cities. It savesthe whole step of building all the temples.
- Knights Templar- usually useless, Knight early or Tank later but only one unit so it can’t do much
- Lost city of Atlantis- You MUST find this. Make it a priority once you get a Galleon. Will give you the 3 cheapest techs available. Always in deep water.
- School of Confucius- Can be good/great depending on the GP you get. See above for details.
- Seven Cities of Gold- Really good in the early game when you are hurting for gold, it can be huge for settler rushing. Later game when you have gold, it’s not that great.
By 1600AD, you should definitely be planning an attack to some degree. If you deferred Democracy late, I would just research Gunpowder to bypass Pikeman altogether. If you already have a good amount of Pikeman, go for cannons with Metallurgy (it is very expensive tech). Steam Power is also reasonable (naval support can really help out 50/50 matches of cannons vs. Pikeman or Rifleman).
*Attack
- I generally take at least 2 armies of my best offensive unit (generally cannons/tanks, plus 2 or 3 knight armies and 2 defensive armies (pikeman or rifleman). You should be able to take any city in 1 or at most 2 turns.
- I always take a couple spies when leading a big attack and attempting to take a capital. Sometimes destroying fortifications is the only way to take the city with the current unit type you have. Also stealing their GP is very helpful. However, if the city has a spy, I usually lose the fight like 90% of the time. But it’s still worth a shot.
- I usually change to fight in Monarchy if I’m in Democracy. Republic is only good for expanding. Fundamentalism will kill your tech development but can be helpful if you have it early. Communism will kill your culture and cities will get flipped right when you take them.
*Elite Units
- Infiltration/Blitz- if you need the bonus to take a capital, take infiltration. Otherwise, blitz is definitely the best.
- Scout- can be helpful, if they are better defended than you think, you can maybe use spy to destroy fortification or add a cruiser.
- Medic- sometimes helpful, but usually should be culturally solid during an attack and be in your own territory.
- March- great for defensive units and cannons/catapults
- Guerilla- I don’t know why you would be attacking frequently in your own territory and would need this bonus. If so, you were way behind in tech.
- Loyalty/Engineer/Leadership- all good for defensive units
***Note- After you take a city, depending on the culture level of the AI, you may have to rush a temple the next turn to avoid getting flipped. I do this with almost every city I take.
If you are at 1700AD and maybe it hasn’t went well, it is okay. As long as you still have 8-10 cities and a tech lead, you can still win unless someone is going crazy with culture (I have seen this a couple times). Getting tanks with Combustion is usually a game changer as only modern infantry can stop them and they have 3 moves per turn. Getting Industrialization then The Corporation first will both give you 5 gold per city. This is huge for an offensive unit rush. Industrialization (Factory) and The Railroad (2+ production in each city and can build iron mine) can be great to help make a mega production city (which is needed for cultural and economic win to build United Nations/World Bank).
I usually don’t get The Automobile or Communism because they are dead end techs (they don’t lead to other techs). Artillary units are only needed for modern infantry which none of your AI should have. Communism destroys all your culture so your cities get flipped if you go into it. Electronics has a good bonus of 2+ trade in all cities. Flight is a game changer as well, but very expensive.
*Winning
- Cultural- Generally this happens just by attacking and taking over several cities with Wonders and Great People. If you build a temple in every city like I recommended, it will be easy to acquire the 20 GP/Wonders even if you are going for a domination. Especially if you got the free GP with Monarchy/Invention and 2 free with School of Confucius. The real limiting factor is building the United Nations. Even with a 50 production city,it will take 10 turns. A lot of domination can be done in 10 turns of attack, so domination may still be a quicker way to win (in terms of the year, not in actual time and effort).
- Economic- Gold begets more gold. When you have gold and nothing to build, you can rush markets/banks/courthouses which just give you more gold. In general once you are making over 1000 gold per turn, you could just sit there until you get to 20K. That isn’t very fun though. You also have to build the World Bank which costs the same as the United Nations. Domination is quicker, but much more work.
- Technology- Definitely takes the longest of all the wins, can be satisfying though. Sometimes if you have a massive tech lead but are fairly isolated from everyone, (on an island, or peninsula) taking out everyone would be very time consuming and a tech win may might be the best way to go. Get your defenses up though. It is likely that by the time you are launching the space ship, other civs will have flight and good ships. Therefore, they will annoy the hell out of you.
- Domination- Definitely the easiest especially if the enemy capitals are not protected by other cities. If you or they start on islands it will obviously take much longer.
Individual Civ Strategies
- Greece- Dominate tech starting with democracy but have difficulty expanding well without Republic unless you change back in forth. Starting with courthouse is good, allows you change city easily from production to tech to food. Usually a defensive civ to win with tech or economic victory.
- Germany- offensive civ for sure. Spend time cranking out units early to attack in the medieval era with the production bonus and auto-upgrades. If you get a great leader, you will dominate quickly.
- Russia- Defensive civ, bonuses are only defensive but you can still stay ahead in tech and eventually win.
- Egypt- varies greatly based on starting position and wonder. No Irrigation Bonus which is annoying but the extra food/trade from the desert can give you a bigger early tech lead.
- England- good overall. Archer bonus makes no rush for pikeman or rifleman necessary, so you can focus on offense units and ships. Ship bonus helps you dominate any coastal city. Monarchy helps with culture and using dye for tech is huge.
- India- use of resources at the beginning is helpful and if things go well, early religion can give you fundamentalism for an attack. Nothing else that helpful.
- Mongolia- really depends on location of barb villages. If you can race to feudalism, you can dominate early with their extra movement. Mountain production is helpful too and well as bonus from captured cities.
- Spain- can immediately go find artifacts and use whale, which is huge. Gold bonus later helps economic victory and rushing out units.
- Rome- starting with Republic can change the tech start completely because it is not longer your goal. However, you still shouldn’t expand until medieval era. They are built for cultural domination with more GP and cheap wonders.
- America- rapid expansion due to ½ price rush in medieval era. Allows you spread and dominate early. Can build massive production cities with factories, iron mine, communism if the game lasts that long.
- China- good tech and expansion with big cities. Literacy and Writing given so it is easy to keep a tech lead early.
- Aztec- Best overall bonuses. Instant warrior rush and Autoheal allows to you plow through barbarians and capitals early. Cheap roads in Industrial era, so put them off until then. Gold production in Modern era allows massive unit rush.
- France- good culture at the beginning to keep enemy from bothering you. Cheap roads early is helpful. Goal is get Gunpowder and Metallurgy as soon as possible to use their bonuses.
- Arabia- More gold with caravans is helpful if you get caravans. Fundamentalism at the beginning can be helpful but horseman bonus isn’t until Industrial Era so you have already expanded with republic.
- Zulu- Warrior movement bonus is huge for early enemy cap taking and barb huts. Good city growth in medieval era and lots of gold later.
- Japan- Basically start with harbor you can focus completely on tech which is super helpful. Race to feudalism to dominate with knights.
I would not classify civs as best or worst. There are civs that are much easier to win a quick domination with than others. Zulu, Aztecs, Americans, and Germans early bonuses given them the best chance to immediately steal an enemy capital which usually ensures an early victory. Japan, China, Greece, England, and Egypt can help you get a massive tech lead. Spain can get you early artifacts to dominate and expand to islands. Rome can dominate culturally early. France and Russia usually take longer to win but can still be done. Mongols can be good or terrible based on the location of barb huts. Arabs and Indians can attack with fundamentalism early if the conditions are right. Overall, like I said, the above strategy can be applied to every civ.
*Frustrating things can happen like playing against Egypt, China, Spain and England. So Writing, Literacy, Irrigation, Navigation, and Monarchy bonuses are gone. That actually sounds like kind of a fun challenge…
I have read many other strategies for Deity and would love to hear any comments or disagreements.
This is an elaborate topic of discussion though and much different than playing "nice" with the AIs.
