The story of one man vs a Deity

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

After all of the discussion about difficulty in the aptly named 'Difficulty level' thread, I thought it might be fun to have a run at Deity and keep an account of my progress, mostly as an experiment to discover just how ‘absurdly easy’ it really is. I have never won a Deity game but I have neither tried very often nor with much enthusiasm, since I mostly play Civ to relax. I consider myself a distinctly mediocre man, with limited 4x / Civ experience, of only average intelligence, and very little time or inclination to ‘git gud’, as the youths say.

Some points of order before we get into it:

• I’m playing on PS4, shoot me
• No re-rolls, no reloading saves, no deliberate exploits; this is a warts and all account
• If sub-optimal play makes you wince, weep, or otherwise feel violated, I suggest you go elsewhere
• I will be happy to hear your thoughts but I’m not especially interested in your advice because I simply won’t listen. Listening and heeding advice requires effort, whereas learning on the job (or indeed not learning) does not
• I suffer from chronic verbosity for which I have no intention of apologising

Now, without further ado, I give you the first 49 turns in the story of an average man against a Deity. The TL;DR version is that I’m still alive and it seems to be going just fine but I’m expecting some fireworks in the next round.

Spoiler The Ancient Era :

Turn 1 (screenshot below): moved one hex South since it looked like there might be some more hills down there, which indeed there was. I went for pottery, thinking about getting those Seowons up as soon as I could, and the traditional Scout. Move warrior to the South.

Turn 7: meet Vilnius, however not the first civ to do so – balls! Complete scout and send him up North.

Turn 8: meet John Curtin – balls! But at least I have the boost to writing and he accepted my delegation, perhaps he’s not so bad after all.

Turn 10: John Curtin tells me he just plain doesn’t like me. What a pillock! I meet Antananarivo, and I am the first to meet them, gimme that culture!

Turn 11: Political Philosophy boost! I meet Zanzibar and I’m the first to do so, my scout is doing me proud.

Turn 12: I have achieved Chiefdom and decide to enact Discipline and Urban Planning upon my unsuspecting populace. I believe they love me and start work on a Settler immediately in order to spread the love.

Turn 13 (screenshot below): I meet Pedro and I don’t like his face but he accepts my delegation and I get an envoy from my first goodie hut. The situation is cramped to say the least!

Turn 18: Pedro declares war on John Curtin! I rub my hands with glee at the thought of these hateful buffoons killing each other.

Turn 19: realise that I forgot to switch out of Craftmanship and now it’s nearly done, switch to Foreign Trade anyway since I’ll probably get the builders in one day…

Turn 20: I have discovered Seowons! But I still don’t know where the horses are or how to mine; Animal Husbandry is next

Turn 22: the Settler is out but I’m anxious about two barb camps spawning nearby so I go for a warrior to protect my glorious empire and bring in some gold

Turn 24: meet Buenos Aires to the far West of our continent

Turn 25: a second goodie hut, it must be my lucky day – sailing boost!

Turn 26: the glorious Gwangju founded and put to work on a slinger. I have a shiny new warrior in my capital, finally time to get the builders in (just like at home, I’ve put this off for long enough)

Turn 27: Pedro tells me he just plain doesn’t like me, I respond in kind. I remember that I’m supposed to lock in district costs even if I’m not ready to build them (only 7 turns too late!) but I don’t have a good tile and decide to save money for a builder in Gwangju. Discovered Animal Husbandry, now onto Mining

Turn 30: complete foreign trade, move on to Early Empire. Taking stock of my empire (because I forgot to do this at turn 25), the yields are: science = +4; culture = +4.1; gold = +9; era score: +5. I also have 2 cities, 2 warriors, 1 slinger and another on the way, 1 scout, and a builder coming to my capital.

Turn 32: attempt to get archery boost foiled by Vilnius – annoyed

Turn 33: Mining complete, onto Irrigation. Builder complete in capital plan to send him North to chop some bananas and build a mine, time to grind out another Settler and expand. Purchase builder in Gwangju; plan to harvest some stone and plop down a second mine. Feel extremely chuffed with my decision making.

Turn 34: boost to early empire, splendid!

Turn 35: Slinger in Gwangju complete; 2 turns from having enough money to purchase the best tile for Seowon, decide to put some production into a Trader in the meantime. Find another goodie hut, yippee, experience for a warrior, balls. Accidentally move builder instead of warrior and he goes back to city centrel away from the bananas, FUUUU. Realise I don’t have the tech to harvest the stone or chop the rainforesty bananas, FUUUU.

Turn 36: barb camp spawns 4 tiles from capital, I immediately dream of an archery boost

Turn 37: build camp over the deer in Gyeongju, have sneaking suspicion I should have chopped it but don’t really know and no one is around to tell me otherwise

Turn 38: improve Maize in Gwangju, have sneaking suspicion I should have chopped it but… you get the idea. Craftsmanship finally complete and timely boost to Irrigation

Turn 39: Early Empire complete, swap to Colonization policy to help the Settler in Gyrongju. Remember the plan to buy a tile for a Seowon, only 2 turns late, promptly do so and set my people to work. Start on State Workforce and know I will get the civic boost from building the Seowon at just the right time, feeling smug. Appoint Magnus as first governor and move to Gyeongju since I am about to channel my inner lumberjack. Archery boost received!

Turn 40: John Curtin offers me money for open borders… J’accepte rather tentatively. Settler complete in capital, suddenly notice Pedro has forward settled me like the bearded baboon he is, blocking my planned site for city number 3. Head South to Lake Bujon instead. Realise that war might be upon me, whether I like it or not, but notice that Pedro’s military strength score is lower than mine – colour me intrigued! Irrigation is complete so with my new found knowledge of Pedro’s frail position, I push for Archery, clear a barb camp to avoid any chance of a dark age and harvest some Maize in Gwangju which gives me enough money to purchase a good Seowon tile for Gyeongju

Turn 44 (screenshot below): Jeonju founded, this time I’m getting the builders in immediately because this place needs work; realise I am pointlessly running Colonization since there isn’t much room for more settling

Turn 46: Melbourne founded very close to Gwangju, immediately faced with loyalty problems. First and second Seowons come online at the same time giving me the anticipated boost to State Workforce. Archery complete, enough gold to upgrade one slinger now and one next turn, not too shabby. Decide to research Bronze Working to see if I have iron and immediately start working on an Archer in both Gyeongju and Gwangju

Turn 47: remember to upgrade second slinger, feel immensely proud of this feat of memory

Turn 48: State Workforce complete, switch to Agoge and Ilkum, now heading straight for Political Philosophy, eta turn 63. Appoint Pingala and place in Capital, move Magnus down to Jeonju for some chopping once the builder arrives

Turn 49 (screenshot below): World Enters Classical era, normal age for me. Taking stock of the situation: science = +13; culture = +5.3; gold = +8.

 

[Socrates-]

Nice one!

Been reading through the difficulty-topic & was thinking about taking my chances on Diety myself (King is my current setting). I also regularly forget things like chopping & eureka/inspiration switching during research and was wondering how punishing these kind of misses are on Diety.

Is there a specific reason you choose Korea?

Looking forward to how your game will unfold. I think after finishing my current Maya space race attempt I'll take the Diety plunge myself.

(I'm also playing on PS4: welcome to the team )

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Yes, I picked Korea because in the difficulty level thread @Vizurok posted a list of simple steps to guarantee beating deity and the first point was 'pick a good science civ'. I've never played them before but there's nothing complex about them, so it seemed like a sensible choice.

Only one instance of PS4 related silliness so far (moving my builder instead of warrior because I accidentally pressed the dpad twice), hopefully not too much of a handicap.

Hope to get the classical era done tonight.

 

[montalaar]

i would always turn on yield visibility on map. lakes are bad. really bad tiles. settling next to them, instead of rivers or straight away coast is crippling self. then, its very good idea to settle on luxuries or bonuses.

 

[Vizurok]

Yes, I picked Korea because in the difficulty level thread @Vizurok posted a list of simple steps to guarantee beating deity and the first point was 'pick a good science civ'. I've never played them before but there's nothing complex about them, so it seemed like a sensible choice.

Only one instance of PS4 related silliness so far (moving my builder instead of warrior because I accidentally pressed the dpad twice), hopefully not too much of a handicap.

Hope to get the classical era done tonight.

Hey, very nice to see that you took on the challenge. I am flattered that you followed rule #0, but I am a little bit concerned that you mised rule #1 (get a good start). However, you are the player, and you set your own rules, and I'm very glad to see you managed to salavge this bad-to-average starting location for a T60ish Political Philosophy. I don't want to jinx it, but based on what I can see, you have practically won the game, you only need to follow through with the chores of the next 200-250 turns.

I kind of like your approach of not listening to advice, but I can't help to provide at least some "food for thought" that may or may not be followed.
0. You should consider turning on yield icons if it's possible on the console version. It does dampen the aestechtics, but it helps immersely with your city planning (and also provides additional information for viewers)
1. Be aware of the fact that Seowons should be placed in isolation as each adjacent district comes with -1 Science (your Gwangju and Geongju Campi are clashing).
2. It's high time to clear up the diplo picture, focus on selling anything that you can to the AIs. I would suggest to pick Amani with PP and make a tour with her in all city states to pick up the suzerainity era scores and some diplo favor that you can sell.
3. Pedro might declare on you, but based on your forces, you will do fine - I don't think that you need any more units after you are finished with Archers. You should consider picking up Melbourne after it becomes a free city.
4. It could seem that your position is not ideal for colonization but you should do just fine. There needs to be room for 3 cities to the north, 2 cities to the south and one near Melbourne.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Hey, very nice to see that you took on the challenge. I am flattered that you followed rule #0, but I am a little bit concerned that you mised rule #1 (get a good start). However, you are the player, and you set your own rules, and I'm very glad to see you managed to salavge this bad-to-average starting location for a T60ish Political Philosophy. I don't want to jinx it, but based on what I can see, you have practically won the game, you only need to follow through with the chores of the next 200-250 turns.

I kind of like your approach of not listening to advice, but I can't help to provide at least some "food for thought" that may or may not be followed.
0. You should consider turning on yield icons if it's possible on the console version. It does dampen the aestechtics, but it helps immersely with your city planning (and also provides additional information for viewers)
1. Be aware of the fact that Seowons should be placed in isolation as each adjacent district comes with -1 Science (your Gwangju and Geongju Campi are clashing).
2. It's high time to clear up the diplo picture, focus on selling anything that you can to the AIs. I would suggest to pick Amani with PP and make a tour with her in all city states to pick up the suzerainity era scores and some diplo favor that you can sell.
3. Pedro might declare on you, but based on your forces, you will do fine - I don't think that you need any more units after you are finished with Archers. You should consider picking up Melbourne after it becomes a free city.
4. It could seem that your position is not ideal for colonization but you should do just fine. There needs to be room for 3 cities to the north, 2 cities to the south and one near Melbourne.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

Thanks, I will certainly keep you posted!

In terms of not following the 'get a good start' rule, this was partly deliberate. I actually do not care greatly whether I win or not, it's more an experiment to see whether a competent but fairly average player can beat Deity simply by taking their normal approach, because in my opinion it is only fair to call Deity too easy if it's possible to beat it without aggressively min-maxing, without employing slightly counter intuitive strategies (like moving Amani around to harvest and sell diplomatic favour), and, crucially, without re-rolling to get the right map. If it really is too easy then none of that should matter, let's see!

I'm glad you're optimistic for my chances, you're certainly more confident than me!

 

[yung.carl.jung]

nice premise for a thread, I will be following

I think if you can fend off Brazil (who will attack you) without crippling your economy too much the game is essentially over. if I could give you one tip it would be to promote either Moksha or Reyna enough to buy districts, and try to buy a Spaceport as soon as you have the tech. You will need 3600 faith or 7200 (unsure :X) gold saved up. somewhere around that. It usually saves you between 15 to 30 turns (!) on your victory. you are doing very well even though your start is average or below average, I can see this going places!

Been reading through the difficulty-topic & was thinking about taking my chances on Diety myself (King is my current setting). I also regularly forget things like chopping & eureka/inspiration switching during research and was wondering how punishing these kind of misses are on Diety.

you simply finish a few turns slower, it has absolutely no effect besides that. it is entirely unnecessary, in fact you could probably win without chasing a single Eurekah, or without chopping once, or both. as others have said, optimal play is required to win fast, not to win.

 

[Casualty of war]

Do you want a tip that may feel like a cheat? If your neighbors go to war, sell them EVERYTHING that will keep them cash poor. They won't be able to afford to broker peace and they will keep pounding away at each other and make them depleted targets for you.

Those are two rough neighbors to have. Pedro is a contrary fellow.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

It is the moment we've all been waiting for, I have warned the moderating team to expect a huge surge in server activity as I bring you Part 2 of my quest, The Classical Era or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Beard.

For those who desire a pithy synopsis: I ignored all of your suggestions and advice above (or rather, I read it and found it interesting but forgot to implement any of it), had a cheeky little war with Pedro, instigated by the bearded one himself (top prediction @yung.carl.jung), captured and kept a Brazilian city before realising it was the worst city in all of human history, and entered the Medieval era with 6 cities and a normal age. I am currently last in every category but feel slightly more confident about my prospects.

Full write up below!

Spoiler The Classical Era :

Turn 49: Decide to take Free Enquiry and 'science the s***' out of this era, feel a vague sense of bitterness about Curtin’s Golden Age so decide to interrupt him EVERY 30 SECONDS to say it looks more like gloating to me. Feel doubly aggrieved since this has solved any loyalty problems in Melbourne, and become really quite annoyed when Pedro and Curtin make peace having laid barely a scratch on each other. Pathetic!

Turn 50: major flood near capital, 1 population lost, day of mourning announced

Turn 51: ominous approach of Australian warriors. Thankfully I have just discovered bronze working which will give me a really terrific edge, oh no wait there isn't any iron within 100,000 miles of my civilization, quelle surprise. Gwangju begins to lose loyalty and I am most seriously displeased with this subordination. I feel scared of Australia so begin researching masonry and start another builder in Gyeongju (because that'll learn 'em)

Turn 54: archer complete in Gwangju, time to complete my first trader (because apparently all the other civilizations have roads and my people are tired of crawling through mud, ungrateful swines)

Turn 56: masonry complete and I decide to head for currency given the lack of iron. Builder complete in Gyeongju so it's time for go for another Settler; plan to switch into Colonization once the big PP drops

Turn 57: the citizens of Gwangju tell me they need more amenities and I tell them to piss off. My trader is complete so I send them off to Antananarivo for the envoy and my first Suzerainityship (pretty sure that's a word); meet Caguana as a result and immediately desire a Batey. Builder complete in Jeonju, I think walls might be useful in both cities.

Turn 58: Political Philosophy! Feel quite proud of achieving this on turn 58. I go for Classical Republic but wonder if this might be a mistake given the likely wars ahead – put together my manifesto of Ilkum, Colonization, Diplomatic League + Urban Planning, and decide to begin a Settler + Builder push in earnest. Begin researching Mysticism purely for Inspiration

Turn 59: John Curtin sends a delegation, which I accept through gritted teeth

Turn 60: Walls built in Jeonju, Sewon placed and chopped immediately, switching to a Settler

Turn 61: currency complete, head to machinery for those delicious crossbows

Turn 62: notice Pedro sending a settler up North and worry that I might be too late to capture any of that remaining land

Turn 63: meet Tomyris, which I'm not best pleased about, but at least she accepts my delegation

Turn 64; Begin research into Drama & Poetry, figuring that some culture might be useful at some point. Review diplomatic landscape and conclude that everyone is reasonably happy with me apart from Curtin who still has a big yellow face. Settler complete in capital, high time for a Government Plaza adjacent to both Seowons. Deeply unattractive options for Settler up North but head for a coastal city nonetheless

Turn 67: realise I can prevent losing a pop in Jeonju if I research Recorded History before Drama & Poetry in order to get the Magnus promotion, action this marvelous idea immediately. The great Aryabhata is born and does some fancy science thing. Settle Jinju in the North and crack on with a builder. Pedro has a happy green face, perhaps we will have a long and fruitful friendship after all!

Turn 68: walls up in Gwangju, time for another builder

Turn 69: Pedro declares a surprise war against me with units heading straight for my capital, so much for that green face, the nincompoop! I decide to risk finishing my Government Plaza (2 turns) because I'm that kind of guy, no sweat

Turn 72 (screenshot below): feel obliged to buy a warrior in my capital just in case since it is perilously close to falling - probably a waste but I'm a cautious man, what can I say?

Turn 73: fend off the attach, no big deal. Cconsidering counter attack, become suzerain of Caguana and thus meet Valetta

Turn 74: trade route plundered, balls! Settler complete in Jeonju but there is an annoying barb camp to the South so decide to build a warrior for the escort. Builder complete in Gwangju, not much to do there so go for another and being advancing on Fortaleza

Turn 77: Hypatia is born and immediately builds a library in my capital, how very precocious. Have now surrounded the wall-less Fortaleza and begin the attack. Begin re-building my trader and pillage a holy site for my first faith of the game

Turn 79: I get a Pantheon! Not sure what to do so just go with Divine Spark, more scientists would be welcome.. Warrior escort complete in Jeonju – another settler? Yes! Walls complete in Gyoengju – another settler? YES! Fortaleza captured, take that Pedro, you scumbag. Decide to keep the city as a symbol of my magnificence but only then do I realise that it is the worst city of all time.

Turn 80: Antananarivo declare war on me, those backstabbing bastards. I decide to peace out with Pedro to avoid dealing with them and because his other cities look annoying to capture

Turn 81: Chuncheon founded, appoint Liang and stick her in Jinju where a builder is due shortly

Turn 82: unlock crossbowmen, glory be! But I have no money, ugh. Feel deeply that it is time to get some infrastructure in my cities, decide to head towards Education.

Tunr 84: I have a trader again and start working on a Commercial hub in Gwangju, because why have one trader when you can have two?

Turn 87: notice that I am losing loyalty in Fortaleza. Do not care, 'tis a silly place.

Turn 89 (screenshot below): enter the Medieval era with a normal age. Taking stock: science = 30.7; culture = 12.2 culture; gold = 7.2. I have, 6 cities and 2 settlers on the way, 1 trade route, and not much else. Thankfully both Curtin and Pedro are also in a normal age, I decide to pick Monumentality and begin building some juicy stuff in Part 3