Attila Deity Domination Guide

[teqofc]

Another great guide, Cromagnus. I just got back from a long break from the game and decided to try diety domination again since it has always been the hardest for me.

I've enjoyed my game so far but I just can't keep the pace. This always happens to me in dom games. I get off to a good start, fall behind, everybody hates me and won't trade with me. I get out teched and soon I know I will be getting rolled by pikemen, longswordmen -> musketmen, camel archers etc.

Here is my current game. Stockholm was easy enough and got it at turn 50 but Gao was a with the narrow pass and tons of troops to chew through. Is it too late?

Spoiler :

I kept Sweden alive but have 3 horse archers there to interecept caravans and settlers.

EDIT: I razed Helsinki for some happiness and started marching on Amsterdamn. I just knew Arabia would backstab me even though they have been at war with William. And pretty much everyone denounced me lol.

 

[Cromagnus]

1) Raze any city you don't absolutely need. (Basically any non-capital unless it has a wonder or some key strategics/luxes you desperately need)

So, I would have razed Helsinki. (2x faster with Attila!)

2) You might find it preferable to eliminate opponents in the beginning. Everyone's going to hate you anyway.

I would have finished off Sweden, most likely. It depends. If it's an easy target, definitely. Leaving Sweden alive could very well come back to haunt you. Even if he doesn't, if you leave 3 horse archers behind it will dramatically slow your conquest. You can only support so many units. All must be on offense. As long as you keep spawning them, you can handle the inevitable barbarians that will fill the empty spaces you leave behind.

3) Use your UU to full advantage. Yes, Gao is a hard target to attack from the north, but not from the south. Scouting would have revealed that. Horse archers can go around quickly because of their rough terrain bonus. Either through the CS territory, or around the perimeter of the city.

So, I probably would have attacked from the south. Even if it adds 5-6 turns before you can attack, you'll have less casualties and a much quicker capture. Although, there are enough tiles north of the city that 6 horse archers can all attack at once. You'll take damage, but that's what insta-heal and pillaging is for. For chewing through the initial resistance, bring a worker to use as bait. It's extremely effective at drawing out troops.

As far as continuing with 2 capitals on t89, well, yes, I'd continue. It probably won't result in a record finish, but that's fine. With 5 opponents left, you can still hit t150. (Which is about as far as horse archers can take you) However, given that it took you 40 turns to capture the second capital, I'm thinking you might run out of steam unless you really pick up the pace.

 

[beetle]

I've enjoyed my game so far but I just can't keep the pace. This always happens to me in dom games.

Thanks for sharing, I have been having too much trouble at Immortal to give it a try. I love reading about others attempts.

I kept Sweden alive but have 3 horse archers there to intercept caravans and settlers.

Why? XP farming? Free workers? How much gold do you get from hitting the caravans?

Gao was a with the narrow pass and tons of troops to chew through.

What units did have when you started the press against Gao?

EDIT: I razed Helsinki for some happiness and started marching on Amsterdam.

Maybe go back to the save where you made the first raze/puppet decision?

I would have finished off Sweden, most likely. It depends.

When would you not eliminate opponents in the beginning? If their last city is just too much of a bother to reach?

 

[Cromagnus]

Thanks for sharing, I have been having too much trouble at Immortal to give it a try. I love reading about others attempts.



Why? XP farming? Free workers? How much gold do you get from hitting the caravans?



What units did have when you started the press against Gao?



Maybe go back to the save where you made the first raze/puppet decision?



When would you not eliminate opponents in the beginning? If their last city is just too much of a bother to reach?

Bingo

 

[Atinuviel]

I'm not a big warmongering player (preferring to turtle my way to victory and then run over my sworn enemies with my horde of GDR and Stealth Bombers), so this guide is definitely a breath of fresh air! I was able to get a 123 turn victory on Emperor, and then a 97 turn victory on Immortal after, so I might give it a few more go before I really try this on Deity.

A few questions: if you get a Battering Ram via ruins, should you try to delay your scouting so you can potentially avoid warmongering penalty with other civs? Or is it always better to scout early and fast to find where everyone else is and possibly bribe another warmonger to get in on the action?

 

[teqofc]

Thanks for sharing, I have been having too much trouble at Immortal to give it a try. I love reading about others attempts.



Why? XP farming? Free workers? How much gold do you get from hitting the caravans?



What units did have when you started the press against Gao?



Maybe go back to the save where you made the first raze/puppet decision?



When would you not eliminate opponents in the beginning? If their last city is just too much of a bother to reach?

Sorry for the delay, I had to leave for work after that post. I left Sweden one city to farm for gold(100 per caravan) and xp and because with past experience you get everyone denouncing you finish off a civ but not if you leave them one city. I also didn't really have time once I saw the army Askia was sending my way and had to confront him ASAP and push him back to Gao. I did manage to get some of my guys around Gao from the south but it took a while getting past the mountains and logjam of CS units.

I think I will just restart and find a flatter map

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Very nice guide and really great read Cromagnus. I could read into your energy as you typed all this down. Seriously very fun to read that inital guide. Im heading in to mess about with it now, seems like alot of fun. I just want to ask you because it has been almost 6 months since you wrote this up... Where are the pictures and the next installment of this guide for more advanced tactics and what not? No rush really but could you stop what your doing and get on it? Thanks, I appreciate it

Ok so my first try at this style of play was going pretty good at first and after that it went really wrong. I made a few mistakes with micro which hurt a bit but nothing really game breaking. My first roll was pretty amazing I thought I got hills with 3 gems, 1 gold, 1 marble, 2 (6) iron, a river and enough trees to chop out some units. I met CS right away and DOW'd it to farm. I met Pacal, Japan and Shaka very close to each other but a little bit of a hike for my units. Anyway they all started to expand in my direction and close to each other. I stole a worker from Maya and Japan and got one from the CS and I figured 3 was enough to call it the day. I had to take a long route to get home but I got the lux's and farms going. I cranked out a few HA's and I found 4-5 ruins and my warrior popped into a Ram. I was thinking this is too good to be true and it turned out it was lol. Anyway I go and take out Mayas 2nd expo and as I do I get double dow'd from Zulu and Japan. I never see Japan and they give me peace later on but shaka is at war with Maya and now me. All three of us are on a collision course to burn down the world. The terrain was horrible for me with jungles and 3-4 rivers to cross. I really couldn't get to Maya's cap without Shaka messing with me and he started to backfill the land with more cities. His cities were very nice and tight beside each other for easy 2 combo shots at me. Im going to try to save this start and if anyone wants to try it and do better so I can learn that would be nice. This is my first try at this style so I figured it will take some time to learn. I really liked my start but was unhappy with the terrain heading into Zulu and Maya land. I did manage to raze 3 cities but had to call it quits after I seen Shaka had impis at turn 75 and I was pretty far from taking my first cap. Ofcourse I still have this game though and might go back in and play it out. I hate quitting a game till it is over but Im more so trying to practice the opening of this strategy to get a better feel for it.

 

[Cromagnus]

I don't hardly have time to play anymore, let alone update that guide. Sorry.

I will say though that with Attila, ideally you really should have captured a city by t76. You need to get more aggressive about spawning horse archers early and often. Focus on production, use scouting gold to buy some, get a ram or two and start taking capitals. My best runs usually start with having captured a capital by t50. Every ten turns that go by before you fight an opponent makes that opponent noticeably harder to fight.

Other than that it's mostly about optimizing combat tactics. This guide will only get you so far. You have to make good combat decisions. Horse archers can defeat any enemy prior to 150 or so. That includes impi. The trick is to use overwhelming force. Never fight a fair fight. It should always be like 4+ horse archers fighting one unit, so they never take damage. When they do take damage, it should only be from an undefended city as you quickly nuke it down. Lure units out of cities. Capture workers and use them as bait. Use your own workers as bait if you have to. Always fight on your terms, with a terrain advantage, even if you have to go around the long way to do it. And, sometimes it doesn't work out. But, there's no one better at early rush than Attila. Once you get the hang of it, it'll get easier and easier.

If you're struggling after a few tries, and you haven't tried this strategy on Immortal, I recommend doing that to warm up.

I think it's easy to underestimate the pace that it takes to win with this strategy. There's no time for a wasted turn. You have to keep the pedal to the metal, as it were. Given this start, I would have probably attacked Shaka first after paying him to DoW everyone else. That way you stay in people's good graces longer. Also, if you leave an undefended flank open with a warmonger, they'll attack. Your alternative would be to pay him to DoW the Maya, then swoop in to capture the city after they beat on each other for a while, then DoW Shaka. That can work out even better.

 

[DingleBirdy]

I think it's easy to underestimate the pace that it takes to win with this strategy. There's no time for a wasted turn. You have to keep the pedal to the metal, as it were. Given this start, I would have probably attacked Shaka first after paying him to DoW everyone else. That way you stay in people's good graces longer. Also, if you leave an undefended flank open with a warmonger, they'll attack. Your alternative would be to pay him to DoW the Maya, then swoop in to capture the city after they beat on each other for a while, then DoW Shaka. That can work out even better.

I think this is the key. Never waste a turn. It's easy to want to slow down and focus on a clean strategy, but every turn you wait gives the ai the ability to strengthen their cities. After your HA's get enough experience, split them up and fight on multiple fronts. The battering ram become too slow eventually to keep up. Switch over to a regular horseman to capture cities once they reach 0 health.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I don't hardly have time to play anymore, let alone update that guide. Sorry.
I will say though that with Attila, ideally you really should have captured a city by t76. You need to get more aggressive about spawning horse archers early and often. Focus on production, use scouting gold to buy some, get a ram or two and start taking capitals. My best runs usually start with having captured a capital by t50. Every ten turns that go by before you fight an opponent makes that opponent noticeably harder to fight.

Im guessing you meant a cap. I would of had a cap but I think where I went wrong I made some errors in diplo, I ended up backstabbing Maya and paid Zulu to Dow. So as he was taking a city near the cap I razed one of Mayas. I razed 3 cities before t76 by the way. It was working just fine and I did have 6-7 HA out at t76 with 2 Rams and a warrior. I would of had Pacals cap before t76 if I played the diplo right. after the double Dow I kinda got suicidal and it was hard in that jungle. Ill give it a go on another map very soon. I see how to do it I just need to work out the diplo strat. No need to move down a level but I understand how that can help. I was just kidding you anyway, your write up was by far more than enough for me to get the jist of it. When I get around to winning a pre t150 game Ill post it up for you to look at. Also after looking at the map maybe it was better to flank him on the west of his CS where the land was plains.

 

[Cromagnus]

Im guessing you meant a cap. I would of had a cap but I think where I went wrong I made some errors in diplo, I ended up backstabbing Maya and paid Zulu to Dow. So as he was taking a city near the cap I razed one of Mayas. I razed 3 cities before t76 by the way. It was working just fine and I did have 6-7 HA out at t76 with 2 Rams and a warrior. I would of had Pacals cap before t76 if I played the diplo right. after the double Dow I kinda got suicidal and it was hard in that jungle. Ill give it a go on another map very soon. I see how to do it I just need to work out the diplo strat. No need to move down a level but I understand how that can help. I was just kidding you anyway, your write up was by far more than enough for me to get the jist of it. When I get around to winning a pre t150 game Ill post it up for you to look at. Also after looking at the map maybe it was better to flank him on the west of his CS where the land was plains.

Ah, right, I missed the razed cities. And yes, I meant capitals. I agree, diplo and order of targets is probably what screwed things up for you. If Shaka is a neighbor, you have to expect you'll need to DoW him 1st or 2nd. Hence, paying him to DoW then backstabbing him once his troops are engaged with someone else is probably the best bet on that map.

Leaving the Maya for last is perfectly acceptable, in fact, preferable. It's nice to have a nearby target to fight later on when you end up on one side of the pangaea like that. The Maya are a juicy wonder target, and won't build up troops or build a lot of cities. If they build the great wall even better. If you have to fight through the great wall, better it be an easy target, near your production center. If you find yourself short on troops for the last capital and it's on the other side of the pangaea (and has Great Wall)... uh oh.

Plus, once you hit #1 in military, you could keep him down by DoWing and razing in peace deals until you're ready to take Palenque, at which point he'll be hamstrung by small population/low tech rate from having cities razed periodically.

I try to leave at least one, preferably two nearby targets for last, but that only works if they're peacemongers. If they're a warmonger, you can't afford to expose your flank. Heck, even a peacemonger will make an effort to destroy you once you become a threat to send the world into the dark ages.

In fact, as a counter-example to leaving nearby targets, sometimes the easiest pangaea to clear is the long linear one, because you never have to worry about defending a second front. But, easiest is not fastest. /shrug

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Hey Cromagnus! I thought you might like to know I finnally got around to trying for my second attempt of your strategy. I was busy playing the Imm and Deity Challenges the past week. Anyway I go in and use Pang Map (stand/stand) and I put all warmongers in the game except for Poland. Now this might be easier cause they will all fight each other, Im not sure, but I thought it would be a little more fun.

It was not as good a start as the last time I loaded up a game but I like all the hills for production but growth is in the tank. We are not trying to grow tall anyway he he! So I was mixing your strategy and Glory_7s Bootcamp Strategy together using CS's to get my units faster promos. I also mixed Liberty + Honor. This slowed the Honor side down since I waited till free settler to open. I did this because Bronze was close to the west with a Nat Wonder and I got a free panth from meeting CS's and I thought +4 Faith would help in the long run. Im sure this is not nearly as fast but something I was testing. I messed up alot in the start losing 3 HAs . That taught me that a CS with archer inside means my HA can only take one hit before having to retreat and heal. Also one turn the CS had 2 instant Spears and that killed one HA too lol! That slowed things down. Also Genghis Kahn took over the 3Cs's in my way pretty quick. Not a bad thing really since I denounced him and everyone loved me. I just liberated all 3 civs and that is nice.

Now I was thinking to go for Assyria first since the land is easier and Kahn has Longswords up most likely going to gunpowder. It really doesn't matter I wasn't really trying to finish this game, only practice for later games. What I like is you can pretty much do whatever you want after you get so much land/Caps. If you want to keep up the war thats great but if your a bit slow like me you may have to stop war and play for some peace and go SV or DV which some people think is cheese, but I think no matter how you play as long as you win it is a win. Anyway I posted a few pics and wanted to say hi and thanks again for your effort. Too bad you have real life things to do and can't play Civ lol, thats a bummer!

Ofcourse Im very slow at this but it is only the 2nd attempt and speed is not really important right now in this stage of learning. I am more worried about not losing units and doing a better job with micro. Ill get the hang of it soon!

 

[Cromagnus]

Hey Cromagnus! I thought you might like to know I finnally got around to trying for my second attempt of your strategy. I was busy playing the Imm and Deity Challenges the past week. Anyway I go in and use Pang Map (stand/stand) and I put all warmongers in the game except for Poland. Now this might be easier cause they will all fight each other, Im not sure, but I thought it would be a little more fun.

It was not as good a start as the last time I loaded up a game but I like all the hills for production but growth is in the tank. We are not trying to grow tall anyway he he! So I was mixing your strategy and Glory_7s Bootcamp Strategy together using CS's to get my units faster promos. I also mixed Liberty + Honor. This slowed the Honor side down since I waited till free settler to open. I did this because Bronze was close to the west with a Nat Wonder and I got a free panth from meeting CS's and I thought +4 Faith would help in the long run. Im sure this is not nearly as fast but something I was testing. I messed up alot in the start losing 3 HAs . That taught me that a CS with archer inside means my HA can only take one hit before having to retreat and heal. Also one turn the CS had 2 instant Spears and that killed one HA too lol! That slowed things down. Also Genghis Kahn took over the 3Cs's in my way pretty quick. Not a bad thing really since I denounced him and everyone loved me. I just liberated all 3 civs and that is nice.

Now I was thinking to go for Assyria first since the land is easier and Kahn has Longswords up most likely going to gunpowder. It really doesn't matter I wasn't really trying to finish this game, only practice for later games. What I like is you can pretty much do whatever you want after you get so much land/Caps. If you want to keep up the war thats great but if your a bit slow like me you may have to stop war and play for some peace and go SV or DV which some people think is cheese, but I think no matter how you play as long as you win it is a win. Anyway I posted a few pics and wanted to say hi and thanks again for your effort. Too bad you have real life things to do and can't play Civ lol, thats a bummer!

Ofcourse Im very slow at this but it is only the 2nd attempt and speed is not really important right now in this stage of learning. I am more worried about not losing units and doing a better job with micro. Ill get the hang of it soon!

I do agree it's better early on to focus on better troop movements and military strategy, but there isn't a whole lot of micromanagement in an Attila rush. (One city's tiles + tech/build order) The biggest micro to learn for early rush is *scouting efficiency*. But, soon you'll have to focus on speed. Otherwise you're fighting unnecessarily hard battles.

The things I'll say about speed:

1) Early warfare will drastically slow down your science. So if you don't win quickly, you're fighting a serious uphill battle to get to a tech level where you have an advantage again. Not to mention all the warmonger hate.
2) Attila is designed for *super early* rush. All of his advantages disappear by t150.
3) If you don't capture cities quickly, each city will be MUCH harder to capture.

#3 is really the critical issue. Liberty is fine, because the production advantages help horse archers, and the boosted worker speed helps too. But that second city, unless it's strategically awesome, is going to hurt you in the long run. Happiness is very important to manage, and if you're taking capitals quickly, you can't afford to have a pop 3 city (6 unhappiness) that you don't need.

Religion is fine if you can get it, but don't get distracted by it. I personally prefer +happiness or +production pantheon. God-King is quite good for Attila. You'll get faith from capturing stonehenge, and can always borrow someone else's religion.

Seriously though, here's the deal. *Speed is everything*

If you capture your first capital on t45 instead of t65, (with one built HA, one rush-bought HA and one battering ram) you'll be fighting a city without walls, with less defenders, and that AI won't have had time to get to 3 cities, making it easier to eliminate him. Furthermore, you won't have met everyone yet so you can keep making fair trades for a while. (Important for buying DoWs)

If you capture your second capital on t60 instead of t85, you won't be facing pikemen. If you capture your third capital on t75 instead of t105, you won't be facing knights and castles. If you capture your fourth capital on t90 instead of t125, you won't be facing crossbowmen. If you capture your 5th capital on t105 instead of t145, you won't be facing muskets.

It's seriously a snowball effect. There are a lot of things you have to do right to win an early rush, but the thing that matters most is speed. (And this includes scouting speed!!)

Otherwise, you'll end up facing hordes of troops, enemy CS, multiple fronts, closed borders, unknown terrain, etc. etc. etc.

It'll feel like an entirely different difficulty level if you play slow, and there is a point at which playing slow enough means certain failure. The AI is building troops and defenses and tech every turn. Every turn you delay makes them a harder target. So, the thing you should be practicing (IMHO) is speed, speed, speed. Go fast, and if you fail, analyze how you could have done things differently without slowing down. Did you need to build that granary before your first horse archer? Could you have captured a worker instead of building one? Could you have captured that city faster by going around, or by luring units out, or by using instant heal promotions to stay in the fight one more turn? Practice speed if you're going to play Attila. IMHO.

The exception is Continents play. You can quite leisurely take over your continent and still win as long as you finish your warmongering before the other continent gets caravels.

Even if you manage to stay friendly with most AIs by eliminating a warmonger, slow capture with Attila devalues all of the civs unique advantages.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I agree with everything you said for early Domination. I have to disagree with you on catching up in science though. In this game I decided to make peace and go for Assyria. Things are going great 2v1 right now. Im about to take his cap, although it is very late maybe turn 125-130. Now my diplo is going great since everyone hates Genghis. I will say that my style will finish the game much later if I stop warmongering... no doubt. However I know that if I stop at Assyria and build another city inbetween or two Ill be just fine, I just won't finish very fast, most likely over 300 turns. The thing about happy for this game only is I have 2 Happiness CS allies arlready and 1 Faith ally. So happy should never be a problem because of all the 3xLiberation. I do need to work on the speed as you say, that takes time and practice but this is a great strategy for my style to get me a huge head start in the game. The last Deity game I played was the Zulu Challenge. The AI was teching so bad I could of finished on turn 400. I finished at turn 359 so the AI really has no chance if you know what you are doing for late game or early game finishes IMO.

 

[Cromagnus]

I agree with everything you said for early Domination. I have to disagree with you on catching up in science though. In this game I decided to make peace and go for Assyria. Things are going great 2v1 right now. Im about to take his cap, although it is very late maybe turn 125-130. Now my diplo is going great since everyone hates Genghis. I will say that my style will finish the game much later if I stop warmongering... no doubt. However I know that if I stop at Assyria and build another city inbetween or two Ill be just fine, I just won't finish very fast, most likely over 300 turns. The thing about happy for this game only is I have 2 Happiness CS allies arlready and 1 Faith ally. So happy should never be a problem because of all the 3xLiberation. I do need to work on the speed as you say, that takes time and practice but this is a great strategy for my style to get me a huge head start in the game. The last Deity game I played was the Zulu Challenge. The AI was teching so bad I could of finished on turn 400. I finished at turn 359 so the AI really has no chance if you know what you are doing for late game or early game finishes IMO.

Well, the advantage you gain from capturing a few capitals and then taking a break is only there if you can somehow maintain good diplomatic relationships despite your early warmongering, or you're willing to settle for a "rather slow victory"(tm). I would argue that you could win faster and more easily by playing peaceful than by capturing a few cities. You're setting your science back for sure. And likely pissing everyone off. This situation of yours is the exception, not the rule. Genghis did you a favor by pissing everyone off and capturing CS for you to liberate, but that's not at all something you can rely on as a general strategy in my experience. But, as you point out, the AI is bad enough these days that you can often win *eventually* regardless of what the AI does. My point being, were you better off in the long run because of the conquest? Generally the answer is no, (if you don't win via early domination) although there certainly are exceptions. If you spawn next to a wonder pinata it might not matter that everyone hates you afterwards, and it might make up for the slowed growth, and complete lack of trading partners for money/happiness/research agreements that you'll likely be stuck with.

That all being said, I know not everyone agrees that speed of victory is an indicator of a better strategy. But, given that you can almost always win *eventually*, it might be the only relevant one. Which is one reason I like the Time Victory competitions. There's no ambiguity: Higher score = better strategy.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Oh no my friend... you misunderstood. I agree that your strategy is by far better. It is just I tend to play an odd style of game. I mix it up a bit with some warmonger and turtle for a more robust game. Im pretty good at diplo and figuring out who will hate and who will love me. Yes this game is an exception but every time I play I seem to find a way to get what I want. My way will certainly take longer, much longer in fact almost double your speed. Right now Im 18% behind in tech but not to worry PT almost done and I save another GS for 3. I have a few good allies for alot of RAs and my spy is stealing techs at a good rate without getting killed yet. Im putting up a few more pics. Im using shaka to help me take down Kahn, I love using the AI to help with wars and vulch right in . This being said if anyone else reads this, you must follow and listen to Cromagnus's strategy if you want to win lightning fast and you aren't very good at handling the diplomatic problems that occur from these wars. However if your sly enough you can get a civ or civs who have alot of red modifiers on your side when Ideology rolls around.

This game for me has been pretty fun, lots of wars and stealing and backstabs and what not. A full robust game IMO. I took Assyria's expo and cap and liberated the Faith CS once again after he took it down for the third time. I got Shaka to war him with me and I took Kahn out of the game now and sold his cap to Alex for 15gpt and its gonna be messy for him cause he is in the middle of a no win situation with Shaka in that spot!

Remember the days when the AI could win by turn 275... ahhh those were the days. What Im doing here would never work in those days. Ofcourse Civ V keeps changing ... I used to be able to win at turn 375 for a year and than they made it harder and you had to be more lightning fast. They really do need to make it harder than what it is today though but Im starting to fear we are never going to see another patch.

Also try to remember this is my 2nd time only trying this style of play with no reloads or replays so it is going to take me some time to be able to conquer caps by turn 45-65 or 2 or 3 even faster! My style is clashing with this style and I need to adjust. Also I did not go full honor and that is something you need to do to follow Cromagnus's Guide.

EDIT: On turn 216 now with no worry of attack, 3 out of 5 AI are all green modifiers. Time to pick an Ideolgy. I want Order since it will help with alot of things for me but Shaka is Autocracy ofcourse and he is a neighbor. I have to plan this one out just right. Time to save the game and take a break!

 

[Cromagnus]

Oh no my friend... you misunderstood. I agree that your strategy is by far better. It is just I tend to play an odd style of game. I mix it up a bit with some warmonger and turtle for a more robust game. Im pretty good at diplo and figuring out who will hate and who will love me. Yes this game is an exception but every time I play I seem to find a way to get what I want. My way will certainly take longer, much longer in fact almost double your speed. Right now Im 18% behind in tech but not to worry PT almost done and I save another GS for 3. I have a few good allies for alot of RAs and my spy is stealing techs at a good rate without getting killed yet. Im putting up a few more pics. Im using shaka to help me take down Kahn, I love using the AI to help with wars and vulch right in . This beings said if anyone else reads this, you must follow and listen to Cromagnus's strategy if you want to win lightning fast and you aren't very good at handling the diplomatic problems that occur from these wars. However if your sly enough you can get a civ or civs who have alot of red modifiers on your side when Ideology rolls around.

This game for me has been pretty fun, lots of wars and stealing and backstabs and what not. A full robust game IMO. I took Assyria's expo and cap and liberated the Faith CS once again after he took it down for the third time. I got Shaka to war him with me and I took Kahn out of the game now and sold his cap to Alex for 15gpt and its gonna be messy for him cause he is in the middle of a no win situation with Shaka in that spot!

Remember the days when the AI could win by turn 275... ahhh those were the days. What Im doing here would never work in those days. Ofcourse Civ V keeps changing ... I used to be able to win at turn 375 for a year and than they made it harder and you had to be more lighting fast. They really do need to make it harder than what it is today though but Im starting to fear we are never going to see another patch.

Also try to remember this is my 2nd time only trying this style of play with no reloads or replays so it is going to take me some time to be able to conquer caps by turn 45-65 or 2 or 3 even faster! My style is clashing with this style and I need to adjust. Also I did not go full honor and that is something you need to do to follow Cromagnus's Guide.

EDIT: On turn 216 now with no worry of attack, 3 out of 5 AI are all green modifiers. Time to pick an Ideolgy. I want Order since it will help with alot of things for me but Shaka is Autocracy ofcourse and he is a neighbor. I have to plan this one out just right. Time to save the game and take a break!

I fully support that approach. Taking what the map gives you can yield to way more fun playthroughs. I admit I'm super goal-oriented with regard to finish time, primarily because I only have time to play a few games a month, and I'm trying to fill out the VVV, and the *only* thing that matters in those games is finish time. Once I fill out the VVV (12 civs to go!) I'll probably go back to a more leisurely approach. For one thing, I miss the late-game experience. HoF games tend to be over before you get a chance to build a tank or bomber, or any of the fun wonders. One solution to this that Moriarte has found is to play Huge Deity maps, where you (usually) can't finish fast enough to avoid late-game techs. Anyway, nice diplomatic handling of the map. I've advocated all-warmonger opponents before and people seemed to think I was crazy, but it's actually easier to avoid warmonger hate when everyone's willing to attack each other. ;-)

 

[BlackWizard]

What is VVV?

 

[Cromagnus]

What is VVV?

Veni Vidi Vici. It's the Civ 5 Hall of Fame completionist rankings.

Basically, to complete the VVV you must submit an entry to the HoF for every victory condition, map type, civilization leader, map size, and game speed...

This takes a minimum of 43 games.

 

[frozen]

Great guide. I've never attempted fast victories before so I wanted to try this after I managed a couple of deity wins. It was a resounding success. I had to reload 3 times though (first time was because I had no idea how to get to logistics )

I'd say the biggest problem by far was the terrain. Mountains can seriously screw with the pace. One of my armies had to waste 15 turns just to get to Madrid and another had to spend a dozen turns traversing all the marshes/jungles/rivers to get to Japan. Basically almost all I did in turns 80-95 was move to the next location. Thankfully, the Inca had conveniently left a patch of land right next to their capitol unsettled so I could just swoop in with some horse archers and end the game quickly while my main force which was coming out of Kyoto drew out most of their forces. It all ended on t113 when I captured Madrid.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :