18 Civs on Diety...?

[glooper23]

Lately I've been trying to play on a huge map, w/ no barbarians, with 18 civs on Diety. I quickly learned that it's no walk in the park.

What is your reaction to this? Was I crazy - is Diety supposed to be impossible? Am I wrong, or does the AI build crazy fast on higher difficulty levels?

 

[glooper23]

Sorry, I meant to put this in Strategy and Tips. Could an admin move this.

 

[mattspoker]

I play 18 on immortal. Tough to warmonger and not fall behind techwise. Usually I attack the nearest neighbour i can, and then look around for the pyramids or a holy city of a religion that hasnt spread too far. 2 civs are about all I can bite off before i have to convert from production to gold and tech. Then try to play diplomacy to isolate another civ and get a war partner against them. If I have 3 capital city sites I can always grind out a cultural victory. on deity I just cant catch back up the way I can on immortal. If Im number 1 land wise I can usually cottage my way to the top gold position. But deity Im not a factor at all, and the AI fights wars better on deity than immortal by far.

 

[PeteJ]

I think someone just wrote a guide about a diety strategy with 18 civs. Here is the link...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=179492

 

[SpikeSpy]

Yea the above link is for my Diety Guide. I suggest you give it a try! Just remember an empire thats not expanding is declining, so always be in a war of some sort (trust me that won't be a problem, you will be declared on many times!)

 

[PeteJ]

And my apologies to SpikeSpy for not posting his name with the link... Nice guide by the way

 

[SpikeSpy]

As a side note to the 'save your economy' I have found that capturing holy cities works great. Capture them whenever, don't wait till the AI builds the holy shrine, since you dont know when that is going to be. This may not be a new trick but here is what you do.
1) Capture holy city(s)
2) Keep an eye out on the news, when a neighbor(that you dont mind attacking) gets a prophet, GIFT them the holy city. AI will create shrine the next turn.
3) Use your army to retake your city WITH shrine immediately, since AI hasn't even had time to bring up many troops OR had the turns to fortify them. Repeat this untill you have all the shrines you possibly can!