Attila Deity Domination Guide

[plaidwandering]

Did a round of annexing and filling out the university slots, almost tripled my science in 15 turns.(opening order gave tons of happiness which got me out of red)

I did get to artillery, and then flight, taking down Moscow and Poly. Unfortunately Russia had 12 other cities, and I couldn't pull enough troops away from Moscow to push through Babylon's 9 cities before he launched. Dang close game though.

 

[plaidwandering]

just tried it on great plains, it was a massacre, and there's my first deity dom win. thanks guys

 

[Mr. Shadows]

I also got my first Deity win using this strat. It'should loads of fun to play, elegant and brutally effective.

 

[zxcvbob]

I've been playing Attila a lot lately at Emperor level. (I start off good at Immortal but don't go fast enough and the last couple of AI's get too strong) Anyway, scouts are good for capturing cities. I use them for my first few conquests instead of rams, until I get horsemen. Rams are too slow; the good thing about scouts is they can almost keep up with the HA's. And they are cheap. Send them in 2 at a time after you've cleared out all the defenders and the city is down to zero (or almost zero) health. One scout might die, but they are surprisingly tough with the survivalist promos if all they have to defend against is the city bombardment.

 

[tetley]

This strat sounds a lot like my strat back in Civ3 when I was all over the HoF board. I just played Aztecs and slave-rushed jaguars every other turn.

On the ruin-saving for battering rams: upgrading scouts to archers is not that bad. Keeping their Ignore Terrain Penalty means they can move-and-shoot. I'll grant that rams are probably better, but not for all that trouble you spend getting your warriors there.

 

[zxcvbob]

I actually don't like getting a ram upgrade right away with my starting warrior. Rams suck at exploring. Once I've got a scout or two out it's okay.

When playing the Huns, the thing I have trouble with is after I've killed a few civs, I spend all my time and energy fighting barbarians. I have to leave units behind for defense. Maybe I need to crank up the number of city states when I set up the game.

 

[beetle]

I'll grant that rams are probably better, but not for all that trouble you spend getting your warriors there.

I actually don't like getting a ram upgrade right away with my starting warrior. Rams suck at exploring.

The main point of the Warrior -> Ram upgrade is (1) to get it early; and (2) take out an AI civ early — since early game a single Ram can take a city all its own.
If you have to trek all over the map to have your Warrior hit a ruin, then the Ram has trek all the way back and you probably missed the chance for (2).

 

[zxcvbob]

Most of the maps I've played recently, the nearest civ is a long ways away thru rough terrain (I haven't found them yet when I get a ram upgrade on turn 3, and the ram slows me down finding them) I'd rather take them out a little later with horse archers and scouts. I know a ram can single-handedly take out a capital on a flatland tile with no defenders; that just doesn't happen for me except for city states, and I avoid capturing CS's when I'm Attila -- they are the only friends I will have.

 

[zxcvbob]

I actually don't like getting a ram upgrade right away with my starting warrior. Rams suck at exploring. Once I've got a scout or two out it's okay.

When playing the Huns, the thing I have trouble with is after I've killed a few civs, I spend all my time and energy fighting barbarians. I have to leave units behind for defense. Maybe I need to crank up the number of city states when I set up the game.

Do you defend your puppet cities from barbarians, or just let them get overrun? (serious question) When I have just one or two civs left to conquer is when I get distracted by all the barbs. I've cleared the map so there's lots of empty space for camps to pop up, and they tend to pop up in the shadows just outside my borders. Perhaps I shouldn't enable "raging barbs", but they are just so useful for capturing AI settlers, and for leveling up my horse archers (before I have a barracks, etc) to Accuracy III. I'm playing at emperor and immortal level, not quite ready for deity yet. The other thing I'm probably doing wrong is not annexing enough cities.

 

[mbbcam]

not quite ready for deity yet

If you want to get ready for Deity it might be an idea to turn off raging barbs and get used to accumulating experience another way. The Deity AI tends to clear out barbs in a matter of minutes. They seem to have powerful bonuses against them. Moreover, if any of the AIs go Liberty they will fill up the map very quickly so there is no space left. I was dabbling yesterday, and I think one of the AIs had something like six cities by turn 100 or thereabouts. And they have an army to match. Raging barbs on Deity is a way of giving free experience points to the AI.

 

[BlackWizard]

Horse archer spam is the only way to go... They can take out troops up to musketmann with douple promos... They ARE BEAST!!!! REal beasts

 

[Sholugo]

Hi, I used to play at emperor and only have a couple of victories in immortal, must of the time I play Epic and large map, because every guide is for std std, I take a shot in std and Immortal, I´m the kind of player that uses tradition, rationalism, and order, and some patronage, basically I grow tall, take tech leadership by modern, be allied with all the CS and take by the force the cultural leader by the atomic era and have a diplomatic victory, one time with Venice I won without having a single war all the way, all this of course at emperor and std. Ok, I am not a warmonger and not a fast finisher, but I follow this guide and I have 3 consecutive domination victories with Attila in Immortal:
1.- Pangea, std, turn 292, for the last enemy I was beelining dynamite
2.- Plains, std, turn 246, the same thing, Germany was in the forest and I can´t take him on time
3.- Pangea, Epic, turn 172, for std will be 115, Cartago and Arabia were in two peninsulas far west and far east, Cartago had the great wall.
I normally have raging barbs.
After these, I take a shot with Gandhi Pangea std size, immortal, epic, after I had read this 3 guides: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/domination-on-immortal-deity-a-noobs-guide.547630/ , https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...-city-industrial-era-domination-guide.529482/ , https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/liberty-domination-walkthrough.503931/
I take Liberty, some honor, some patronage, open commerce, and autocracy, and dominate by turn 350 (Epic), being the only player to reach industrial era, in a very hard domination map to many interior seas, mountains and jungles.

Anyway, conclusion, this guide ROCKS!!!, I will try it in deity soon.

 

[Sakuragi-kun]

3.- Pangea, Epic, turn 172, for std will be 115

I don't think you can just take the 172 and multiply it with 0.66 to get a comparable turn size, especially not in dominatiom games where the number of turns your army has to move across the map is the same once the army has been assembled. In fact on epic speed it might even save more traveling due to smaller enemy resistance.
I think early warmongering on epic reduces the overall difficulty atleast by one level because strong units dont become obsolete.
On standard deity you can expect musketmen on turn 105+ already which can tank a lot of hits and be able to stop the horse archer push. Once I was on a personal best pace at about T120 with only Napoleon left but i wasnt able to take down his carpet of musketeers even though I had 9-10 fully upgraded Horsearchers

 

[Sholugo]

Hi Sakuragi-kun, I agree, I play epic because have its advantages and I like it , the point was to show that even though I wasn't a warmonger kind of player, this guide and the other 3 help me to be more aggressive and don't fear to fail.

 

[IJHaile]

9 years later I'm giving this a try but having difficulties. I can't seem to clear cities of units quickly enough early game. Then the AIs meet me and hate me for warmongering and won't trade. I also seem to have trouble picking up workers early enough.
Maybe I'll try it on immortal tomorrow, I was perhaps a bit optimistic trying a new strat on deity and expecting instant results.

 

[lerrocco]

Nice find. I will try this myself. I just learned a lot reading it. I tried Deity with Attila, but with the CB to XB rush. I think I would have won on turn 400 hehe.
The key to Attila is a ruin to upgrade to a ram, the first 2 cities you capture after that should have few or even no defenders. I hadn't realized the potential of the horse archers. I thought them a weak unit as they dont upgrade. Reading this, I see they dont need to upgrade, they win the game. Hard and fast.
I dont know, but maybe the Deity game would be easier at epic speed, as there is a lot more time to move the horse archers before the AI techs too far ahead or builds too many units.
Maybe the ruined warrior to ram, and epic speed might help, if you try again at deity. Though a run through at Immortal is not a bad idea to see the game mechanics.
anyway.. i will try myself, i like the strategy, it is a good guide.

 

[IJHaile]

My last run I found Persia nearby, got an early ram and rammed down his 2nd city supported by a warrior. By the time the ram healed and manuvered around his capital (on a river junction with jungle) I had a two horse archers to help but every time I tried the ram would get killed. I used a worker to bait out the defending unit but didn't have enough firepower to put it down. Maybe I should have waited longer to have more units.

 

[lerrocco]

Last time I played I sacrificed 2 scouts to take the second city. At Immortal, you would be capturing capital cities first off, that's the biggest difference. It is worth taking the capital first, at Deity, if possible. After the first 2 captures (or after the first) I hold my rams back until I have taken care of the AI defence troops first
I was getting my worker stealing policy wrong, stealing and then making peace, and repeating, but this is only possible for short while before the CS get upset collectively. I like the idea in this guide to DOW nearest CS while under fog, so no warmonger penalty, then just keep farming workers. Once the conquests are underway there are usually plenty of AI settlers.
I am new to civ 5 but played way too much civ 4, and this guide is the closest I have found to emulating my civ 4 strategy in civ 5. I did think I needed 2 cities to start, and then religion, but now I realise I might not need a 2 city start if I grow the capital fast enough, and religion happiness buildings I can gather in the same way I gather Great Wonders, by conquest.
I have a lot to do in real life, but I will start a deity game with the Huns today.

 

[lerrocco]

I am pleased to find this guide. This will be my civ 5 game for the next games I play. On an optimal map a 100T finish should be possible. When do you ever get an optimal map though?
I started to pillage more than I had previously, that is a big help.
I took my first capital (Dutch) easily but then had a 20T move just to reach Delhi through a choke point, river and forest tiles. I managed to take Delhi easily, just as it produced its first war elephant. Made the mistake of keeping Gandhi alive, next game I will finish off civs.
The Aztec cities fell without any resistance? Maybe they were in a war before I reached them? I picked up Borobudur, the great mosque, panthenon and stonehenge. I had 30 faith per turn. Religion is important, but I now know you dont have to found one, just capture one. The pagodas are a big happiness boost.
Berlin was beyond a choke in the mountains surrounded by hills, I reached it at T100 and lost 3 horse archers taking it, I think I should have waited and sent swordsmen in as meat shields.
America has twice my army size, is way ahead of me in techs and sits behind the Gt Wall.. will I take it? I will try today. If I fail I might reload and attempt Berlin again aiming to keep my horse archers.
I have 2 horse archers with logistics and range! Nice! (But I should have more.)
It might be wise to head for xbows anyway, as a back up if the horse archers are not enough, but I think they will be. That free first promotion is probably key to the success of this strategy.
screen shots of start and finish maps, at T100 attached.

 

[lerrocco]

It was impossible to take Washington with horse archers in that situation. The map was almost as bad as I can imagine, with the 2 warmongers sat behind choke points surrounded by mountains.
I was taking out one American melee unit per turn for several turns, luring them out with workers, and made my assault on T114 and was wiped out quickly by a treb in the city and comp bows whilst struggling through the great wall. The horse archers are a weak defensive unit by T100. I believe it would be an easy win from my final position, either sitting back for the tech advances (and then by conquest or science) or by building a stack of xbows or by changing the victory type.
I dont play civ to win the game, but to win the wargame scenario
Could I have won this? Maybe. I made several mistakes and I wasnt micro managing troop units. I wanted to reduce the size of Hamburg and ended up razing it, as I forgot the Hun's double raze rate I should prioritize crossbows to back up the final city captures. I should prioritize horse archer attacks for xp to get them all at double shot at range 3. More micromanagement basically, optimizing the strategy.
I will go back to the point where I took out the Aztecs, just to see, I am curious to know. When I have time...