Before game
Ind/org America does not really help military operations and, on the contrary, is well suited for a peaceful game. At the same time, the org trait is universal, although it is more useful at higher levels than at lower ones. But on the contrary, ind trait, at the deity level, is usually almost useless - AI builds wonders faster anyway. In addition, on the deity, usually, for a successful game you need to fight a lot.
After studying the ring map, for some reason I was sure that we were starting on the mainland, and cornucopia is located on the central island, So to establish a capital in cornucopia is a bad idea because of the maintenance of colonies. You need to look for a place for the capital on the mainland. Thus, the lack of a clear "fat" start also did not motivate
to play on the deity. Unfortunately, I did not tested how AI would play at such a start.
Game
Therefore, I tuned in to a peaceful game and chose a noble save, what turned out to be the first big mistake. The second big mistake turned out to be that I don't wanted lose 1 turn and not checking the coast near sugar... This is the best place for the capital on the whole map and passing by it I lost a lot at the start. Another mistake was some pattern of my game in the segment up to 1 AD, and a very early (and 20-turns) expansion into cornucopia. After pausing after the first segment, after reading the forum, I realized that I was far behind in expansion and made corrections to my strategy.
As for the type of victory, I considered 3 options: domination, space and culture, but in such a way as to score as many points as possible. Therefore, I excluded domination, since the fastest possible domination will not give a lot of points. And the later one domination is guaranteed to lose to the deity level on points and most likely will not be the fastest. On the other hand, in general, the "sea map" (just one city off the coast), with almost no rivers, is not very suitable for space. I don't think I've ever specifically played for culture before, so I decided this was a good chance for her. culture + points = sid sushi. Actually, the strategy is clear. After medicine and music, stop science, saving money, building cathedrals etc. after then 100% culture.
Initially, I did not plan to fight at all, but at some point Spain quickly built the 3rd city, then the 4th, and ahead of my setler built the 5th, blocking me 2 fat cities. This provoked me to a war, which I decided to carry out with only 2-3 maces, against bows and chariots. But it turned out that bows perfectly protecting from single maces, crossbows and horse archers. And only the appearance of 2 knights allowed me to capture cities. I destroyed 5th city, 2,3 and 4 captured, and Madrid vassalled. Later I captured 3 barbarian cities and that all military actions.
AI has not built a single wonder. Buddhism and Judaism were founded by Spain, which actively sent missionaries to me. Confucianism, Christianity, Taoism and Islam were founded by me. Hinduism was founded by England. In the front-line city (on iron), England had 1 axe and probably I needed to make 5-7 chariots and capture it, but I was sure that Hinduism somehow comes to me. It's only 3 tiles to the my banana-gold city. But it didn't happen until the end of the game. as a result, -50% of culture in 3 target cities. In addition, I was born only 1 artist and a bunch of merchants and prophets. But this is a delay of only 3-5 turns. The spread and maintenance of Sid Sushi in all cities delayed the victory by about the same amount or even more.
Cultural victory, 1580 ad, 303k points.
It is unlikely that I will try to play for culture again in the near future, so I hope to get the fastest culture now. As for points, the result is not bad for a noble level, but there is almost nothing chance versus those who played on the deity.
After game
In general, I have several complaints about this BOTM. the noble and the deity in the same tournament are very unequal
in terms of the result. The second point is the need to look for a place for the capital, everyone who passed by the sugar lost a lot. Well, as it seems to me, the weakness of AI, especially at the deity level, is a controversial decision if it is intentional ...
On the other hand, the game turned out to be very unusual. The fact that there is no point in fighting suits me completely.
Various template actions are not the best for one reason or another. for example, a quick conquest is extremely unprofitable in terms of final points. I had to think more than usual) From this point of view, sometimes such a tournament does not hurt.
Addition to game
Well, to fully understand the situation, I played the 2nd game this time at the deity level.
This time I knew the map (sugar capital), knew how bad AI was and made adjustments for development taking into account the 1st game. It turned out that AI is not just weak, he is even worse than at the noble level. England was killed by barbarians, Spain and Japan spent the whole game with one city. Sitting Bull had 2 cities and only at the end built the 3rd. And only Ragnar at the end had 11 cities and a somewhat developed empire. At the same time, the barbarians did not bother me at all (except for galleys), I built only warriors to disperse the fog.
No any war (only with knights take 7 barbarians cities), domination, 1590 AD, 743k points. Ragnar built a statue of Zeus.
All the other wonders were supposed to be mine, but a turn before the Apostolic Palace was built, I accepted a free religion
and lost the wonder. 4 turn before the end of the game, Ragnar had an Great Engineer born and I was forced to finish the Hanging Gardens, and he built the Apostolic Palace. deity level... really? )) One turn before the end of the game I gave one city to Isabella, but unexpectedly exceeded the limit of domination by one tile (across the strait between north and south, I took it from Ragnar). If another city had presented it, then in 7-8 turns it would have been possible to raise the points to 790k. Then they starts to decrease.
P.S. But the way, what is it Espionage Cultural Victory? )