a little deity tip

[Amask]

I recently moved up to deity, and what I found hard was to build all the needed improvements in my cities fast (sometimes I'd build a bank and a cathedral in my capital after a coal plant). The reason for that is that you need to build lots of settlers, which lowers your cities' pop, and therfore, production. Based on that, here is my strategy:

- Don't build lots of settlers in your core cities (the first 4-5 cities), unless you really need to (like when there is an 8-dye location nearby), in which case wait till the city grows to size 4-5. That way you could use the production from those citizens (instead of 1 citizen, which would result from building a settler at size 3) to build the marketplaces/temples/cathedrals, and an army. Use the army as fast as you can (when the AI is not too far ahead) to gain the territory you have lost by not building too many settlers (if that 8-dye location is taken, capture it). This strategy really helps me win those deity games, whereas before I usually found myself with no money (no marketplaces/banks/Wall Street), and lots of unhappy people (no cathedrals/colloseums).

Any comments?
Perhaps some better ideas for deity?
And perhaps a link to AESON's ICC (?) strategy???

Thanks

 

[anarres]

Originally posted by Amask
I recently moved up to deity, and what I found hard was to build all the needed improvements in my cities fast (sometimes I'd build a bank and a cathedral in my capital after a coal plant). The reason for that is that you need to build lots of settlers, which lowers your cities' pop, and therfore, production...

This is true, but your conclusion is not the best solution, certainly for the early game.

I would say that for a Deity game, even when starting next to an enemy you must first concentrate on building about 6 cities or so. During this time you must produce enough defensive units to hold off an attack (maybe 1 or 2 spearmen/warriors per city), but you must build these cities first. If you don't, then you won't be able to build an army.

Next build barracks in all your cities, then build the best offensive unit you can. I like horsesmen, so I go for the wheel first and build a city near horses. Failing that I try for iron. If you are waiting to connect a resource build spearmen while you wait. If there are no resources build archers. Once you have the tech you need to reveal a resource put all your money in to gold. Later you will get to upgrade those horsement with that money .

Pick a fight on the nearest civ, attack each city with a stack of at least 6 units if you can. There is nothing worse than attacking and not getting a city - your units that survive the initial attack face a journey back to your nearest city to heal, and often get killed in the process. Tech can be taken from the conquered civ during peace negotiations.

If there are other civs nearby you may as well turn on them now. When you have decimated your near rivals switch to city improvements, and build up as fast as you can. Marketplaces are the most important early improvement as money really does make the world go round .

As a final thought: most Deity players ignore Republic and just use monarchy so they can have a big army. I agree mostly with this, except when there are no nearby civs: in this case switch to republic for the gold and disband the weakest units to maintain a small army.

And perhaps a link to AESON's ICC (?) strategy???

I think you mean ICS (Infinate City Sprawl). This strategy is very basic: build lots of cities under a monarchy and get as many free units as you want. There are some important things to remenber:
- Don't crowd cities too close to your Palace or FP as all your productive cities will be small in size.
- Build a granary first if you want to produce lots of settlers (obvious why)
- Wait until you have killed nearby civs first, as you get a better benifit from weakening them first (and you can build on their land)
- Don't rush buy improvments in these cities unless you are milking or going for a cultural victory, as it will just eat your gold.
- Abuse the diplomatic situation (your power graph will shoot up, making diplomacy amazingly one-sided ).
- Have a big army if you can (or why else have all those useless cities?)
These are my ideas, and some may be misplaced or just plain wrong. I have only used ICS 3 times, but has worked in each instance. Aeson is the king of ICS and his thread is probably much more useful than this...

 

[Gothmog]

I think this really depends on the individual situation but a rule of thumb that I use is - grow to work bonus (or developed) squares. Any square with a cow or wheat should be used as soon as possible. Really any square that can produce 4 or more of food+shields. This is why, if I have a good starting location I build a granary first. It allows my capital to reach size 4-5 before I build a settler.

 

[Gothmog]

Oh, I do think that an early war is a good way to help keep up with the Jonses, esp if you have a good early SU. Getting your core up quick is key to being able to afford an early war and not be simply outclassed by the AI production bonus. One time as the Aztecs I built jags first thing and went right out and got myself a bunch of slaves.

 

[Amask]

Originally posted by anarres
This is true, but your conclusion is not the best solution, certainly for the early game.

What I meant was a couple of productive cities, like 4-5, will be enough. You can capture some more later.

According to this I've come up with a scheme for building in my cities.

Capital -
1. warrior/archer/spearman
2. settler
3. whatever is available - temple/archer
4. improvement/wonder/military, a settler only if the city grows fast

Maximum settlers I build in my capital is two

Second city follows the same scheme, perhaps squeezing a worker inbetween, as does the third. The forth and fifth concentrate on building my military

Now when I have 4-6 cities around my capital with a decent population (from not bulding settlers) I can stop building settlers because the new cities will not help me much as their production will be quite low.
All I do now is find someone to pick on, and voila - I have caught up in territory and got my cities to a decent size quite fast.

I've noticed the AI does the same thing - it doesn't build many settlers in its capital, and as a result it grows to be pop 6 or more very fast, thus producing units and building wonders.

Conclusion - the key (at least it is for me) is to get 4-5 productive cities with a decent population as fast as I can (by not building settlers), then focus on building infrastructure/army, which will be used to catch up on territory.