At what difficulty level do you play Civ 7 (Poll)

[Tuvok694]

I have 465 game hours according to steam, I am on level 46 and have won a complete game at least once with every leader, mostly on sovereign, but lately I could also win several games on immortal.
Foolishly I thought it may be time to try deity for the first time in Civ7, so I could get that 37th steam achievement. Although I managed to survive antiquity (but on last place, as Ibn Battuta/ Aksum), I couldn't believe how big the difference between "immortal" and "deity" actually is. The AI was far ahead in every category, especially science. It will take me years to reach deity.

 

[Taefin]

I have 465 game hours according to steam, I am on level 46 and have won a complete game at least once with every leader, mostly on sovereign, but lately I could also win several games on immortal.
Foolishly I thought it may be time to try deity for the first time in Civ7, so I could get that 37th steam achievement. Although I managed to survive antiquity (but on last place, as Ibn Battuta/ Aksum), I couldn't believe how big the difference between "immortal" and "deity" actually is. The AI was far ahead in every category, especially science. It will take me years to reach deity.

In my experience, playing on deity on civ7 is about chugging along in “last place”, until you suddenly win because the AI won’t pursue victory projects. It’s certainly possible to end antiquity and start exploration leading in yields, but in most games, 1-2 AI just get inexplicably high yields. It does provide more resistance against easy conquest, until you learn how to pace your attack by holding a strong position for 4-5 turns to deplete and then overrun your opponent.

 

[MutilationWave]

In my experience, playing on deity on civ7 is about chugging along in “last place”, until you suddenly win because the AI won’t pursue victory projects. It’s certainly possible to end antiquity and start exploration leading in yields, but in most games, 1-2 AI just get inexplicably high yields. It does provide more resistance against easy conquest, until you learn how to pace your attack by holding a strong position for 4-5 turns to deplete and then overrun your opponent.

Yeah every game on a standard map I have one or two enemies pulling 1000+ culture and science in antiquity and 2000+ in exploration. That is until I rectify the situation. I don't start "winning" on deity until mid-late exploration, sometimes modern if I'm playing peacefully and not very well or unlucky. You can always win because, as you said, they don't pursue victory.

I've seen them roll up with enough landships to take my city, then hold half in reserve while I reinforce and then win the engagement. We really need something harder, and I don't mean more impossibly high culture and science.

 

[Disgustipated]

so I could get that 37th steam achievement

There's an easy way to do that. I won't even consider it cheese since it's well within the game option. Tiny map, 2 civs total. Just rush them with warriors and slingers. I don't normally play deity, but got the achievement this way. Tactically it's easy to beat the AI even on deity.

I'm only missing 4 achievements at this point, which I can't get since I don't have the dlc. They may end up adding more I'm guessing.

 

[aelf]

In my experience, playing on deity on civ7 is about chugging along in “last place”, until you suddenly win because the AI won’t pursue victory projects. It’s certainly possible to end antiquity and start exploration leading in yields, but in most games, 1-2 AI just get inexplicably high yields. It does provide more resistance against easy conquest, until you learn how to pace your attack by holding a strong position for 4-5 turns to deplete and then overrun your opponent.

I think being last place would make winning a bit difficult. Possible to be last in culture or science if they're not the win condition you're aiming for, but you have to be top 3 in the important one, I feel, to win comfortably.

Being last early to mid age does happen a lot, though.

 

[Yzman]

I actually just lost my first game...sovereign level. I typically am able to get dual paths on each age at this level and I shoot for that in each game. I had succeeded during antiquity and exploration and then when I was one turn from finishing my artifacts Augustus over here had just finished building the world fair. So not only did I not get any path completions, I also just straight up lost.

Frederick science sucks.

 

[Disgustipated]

Glad I'm not the only one who couldn't make Friederick work. I didn't lose (at least not after a reload ), but it was easily my worst game.

 

[Yzman]

Glad I'm not the only one who couldn't make Friederick work. I didn't lose (at least not after a reload ), but it was easily my worst game.

I chose not to reload because I figure i still get some credit and I'll have to pkay him again and will further level him up. They did something right with that I feel.

 

[Tuvok694]

In addition to my previous post: I will completely go back to level sovereign because my last immortal games all went terribly. Mostly I have to quit in exploration when several AI leaders declare war on me at the same time then and they come from all sides with tons of units. War weariness doesn't seem to affect them, even if I have more than +3 war support on my side. I try to be friendly with everyone but this doesn't seem to make surprise wars less likely. I will obviously have to learn much more about diplomacy before trying immortal again.
(...and I thought I was "good" at civilization after playing Civ6 for nine years...sometimes I am such an idiot.)

 

[MutilationWave]

In addition to my previous post: I will completely go back to level sovereign because my last immortal games all went terribly. Mostly I have to quit in exploration when several AI leaders declare war on me at the same time then and they come from all sides with tons of units. War weariness doesn't seem to affect them, even if I have more than +3 war support on my side. I try to be friendly with everyone but this doesn't seem to make surprise wars less likely. I will obviously have to learn much more about diplomacy before trying immortal again.
(...and I thought I was "good" at civilization after playing Civ6 for nine years...sometimes I am such an idiot.)

If you're finding yourself short on influence in exploration, don't overbuild your villas and monuments. They will provide 3 influence each at the cost of 3 happiness each. Pretty good trade most of the time.

EDIT- actually I think the villa only costs gold

 

[Taefin]

I think being last place would make winning a bit difficult. Possible to be last in culture or science if they're not the win condition you're aiming for, but you have to be top 3 in the important one, I feel, to win comfortably.

Being last early to mid age does happen a lot, though.

To clarify, I’m not saying victory is guaranteed if going into modern trailing a few AIs (and it’s good to hear AI sometimes build their victory projects/wonders), but culture, economic, and military can be won while trailing significantly in science and culture (culture saving gold to buy archeologists ASAP).

Mostly I have to quit in exploration when several AI leaders declare war on me at the same time then and they come from all sides with tons of units.

What I like most about VII (relative to VI) is this can actually happen, and does regularly. I enjoy building walls and planning settlements defensively knowing I will likely be defending at least one of them. Also, 1-2 lost settlements doesn’t have to be game ending, since settlement limit is usually stopping you from settling something that can replace the lost ones. If you focus on one AI threatening your core cities while using strategic retreats to weaken the other AI as they capture peripheral towns, you can usually turn the one war in your favor in time to get defenders to your next core city (or a defensive position near it) before the advancing AI arrives.

Unfortunately (from a challenge/immersion perspective) this is aided by the AI becoming less effective after capturing the first settlement.

 

[Disgustipated]

Mostly I have to quit in exploration when several AI leaders declare war on me at the same time

I do think a recent patch even upped their aggressiveness. Mostly I believe this comes after the age transition if you didn't build enough troops and commanders at the end of the previous age. I've learned my lesson on this. It's kind of annoying, but the only fix is to have a pretty large army. Of course this still isn't easy on immortal. I've seen some deity games on youtubes that just devolve into continuous warfare with the recent patch making the game virtually unplayable since you'll just fall further behind. But better to build the units before they are needed rather than during.

 

[glaivemaster]

I do think a recent patch even upped their aggressiveness. Mostly I believe this comes after the age transition if you didn't build enough troops and commanders at the end of the previous age. I've learned my lesson on this. It's kind of annoying, but the only fix is to have a pretty large army. Of course this still isn't easy on immortal. I've seen some deity games on youtubes that just devolve into continuous warfare with the recent patch making the game virtually unplayable since you'll just fall further behind. But better to build the units before they are needed rather than during.

I definitely feel like there's a hidden strength calculation in the AI diplomacy - approaching a neutral AI, or sometimes even a near-friendly one (have some positive pips but not enough to tip over into a thumbs up) when I'm weak, especially in Antiquity and early Exploration, I often get simple endavours rejected. But in similar situations, even AI that are bordering me will accept my endeavours if I've built a strong military.

This is pretty good as far as I'm concerned. If it is true that they're choosing who to sanction/support at least partly on military strength (at least while they're neutral) it means that having military is an important part of the diplomatic game. Pro-actively building a military is important not just to make sure you're prepared, but also to make sure you don't have to be. Hopefully I'm not just imagining that.

It feels like that does fall off in the Modern era though, and I'm not sure if that's because I tend to only reach Modern if I'm already quite strong, or if it's because the hidden value gets taken away to make ideology more effective.

 

[aelf]

The question is how does the AI know your military strength? There's no visible military rating in Civ7, right?

 

[Tuvok694]

Today I reached 1000 game hours on steam. Which is embarrassing because I still haven't mastered level "immortal" and must keep playing on sovereign if I want to win a game now and then.
Especially after patch 1.2.2 I got my ass kicked so hard by the aggressive AI. I can stay alive for about 20 to 30 turns in exploration age, and then they roll over me from all sides with insane amounts of units.

 

[tedhebert]

Today I reached 1000 game hours on steam. Which is embarrassing because I still haven't mastered level "immortal" and must keep playing on sovereign if I want to win a game now and then.
Especially after patch 1.2.2 I got my ass kicked so hard by the aggressive AI. I can stay alive for about 20 to 30 turns in exploration age, and then they roll over me from all sides with insane amounts of units.

It's really important, at the last quarter of each age, to make sure you allow some gold and production into making units and commanders so that when the next age starts, you're not seen as
a weak civ by the AI. you'll get 6 units + 4 units by commander when explo starts... I usually manage to have at least 4 full commanders, so a total of 22 units. The AI will then be less tempted to attack you.
I then do the same at the end of explo, so that modern is also less aggressuve.

Yes, it does mean that you will NOT be producing or buying other stuff that you wanted, but if it means less hassle further on, it's really worth it

EDIT: Sorry just reread that @Disgustipated already answered pretty much the same thing a few post back...I agree 100% with what was written. Also, I play at immortal all the time, so it IS possible

 

[tedhebert]

The question is how does the AI know your military strength? There's no visible military rating in Civ7, right?

There's a mod that calculates army strength for all civs and shows it in the banner. If a mod can do it, the AI can do it ;-)

 

[Nic@Melbourne]

I favor war support and walls over many units. Works on Immortal. Not game for deity.

Main issue on Immortal for me is the AI builds all the wonders after the early few in antiquity which takes away some of the fun (but for some reason doesn’t prioritize them in Modern)

 

[MutilationWave]

The question is how does the AI know your military strength? There's no visible military rating in Civ7, right?

Yes, there's an invisible one that a mod makes visible.

 

[tedhebert]

I favor war support and walls over many units. Works on Immortal. Not game for deity.

Main issue on Immortal for me is the AI builds all the wonders after the early few in antiquity which takes away some of the fun (but for some reason doesn’t prioritize them in Modern)

well… I also build walls everywhere as soon as I got the tech and the money… I think combination of both that and units makes for a game where DOWs on you will be more limited…

Of course when I get DOWed there’s almost a certainty that the attacker will have an alliance and that the allied will have an alliance with someone else also, so I usually wind up at war with 3 but hey, that’s the ways the game is designed

at least with walls and units galore, it doesn’t happen as often and you can defend