BuShiDo - the Way of Exploit - Tackling 1 vs. 7 Deity Standard Pangaea

[maltz]

Hello,

After a couple of 1 vs. multiple AI games, I gathered some ideas and courage to tackle a challenge that I have been thinking about for a long while - playing against 7 AIs teamed as one in a standard Deity game. In this article I am going to provide a complete walk-through of my ideas and how they are applied in the actual game. In short, I am going to apply my entire knowledge of how to take advantage of the game's designs and AI's weakness. The only rules are the rules of the game.

By the time of starting this thread, I just started the game and didn't know where it will lead to. Maybe my nimble civilization will be instantly castrated by the furious AI team. Maybe I will have an opportunity of a sneaky steal at some kind of inglorious victory. Maybe my few but elite soldiers will fall victim to the numerical advantage. Maybe the AIs will fail miserably and act like complete idiots, as they sometimes are capable of. Or maybe the game will be my best Civ5 experience ever.

I wish to stress that this is not a show of skills, but rather a demonstration of an average, curious players' journey of challenge- and fun-seeking.

Civilization: Japan
This is the only war-friendly civilization that I have never tried. My strategy, as I will detail later, involves endless war-peace cycles with the AI team. Japan's advantage is that wounded soldiers fight at full strength. This could be exceptionally handy after the first round of a city siege, and also very important when facing superior numbers. The open-terrain bonus of its unique Long-swordsman (Samurai) is welcome. As we know, most cities are surrounded by multiple open-terrain tiles.

Map Type: Pangaea
I would definitely prefer not to be born in the dead center. If I get assigned to the very edge of the map, Pangaea might be actually easier than Continents, since I don't have to waste precious cash to purchase a good navy.

Map Size, Speed: Standard

Advanced Settings
- Randomly selected 7 AIs are all assigned to Team 2. I definitely prefer some AI opponents than others (I will discuss them later), but I believe the chance of getting at least 1-2 of those I like is very good here.
- All other settings default.

Summary of Early-Mid Game Strategies

1. National College opening. Sit a rushed Settler on 6 units of Iron.
2. Policy to Liberty - Meritocracy for Steel.
3. Start a 3-4X Samurai rush ASAP to bring down the first two neighbors. Sabotage their Irons.
4. Next policies go to Patronage - Scholasticism to accelerate research.
5. Keep a constant war-peace cycle to extract the maximum amount of cash from the opponents.
6. Use Great Scientists to pop Rifling and Chemistry ASAP to bring down the third opponent, the fourth if possible.

Challenges

1. Enemy's rate of technology advance. From experience, I know that teamed AIs definitely progress faster than a single AI. But I don't think the advantage is a simple multiplication (7 AIs get 7X speed). It is a lot slower than that at least in early game. But they definitely get 7 times more Great Scientists to rush techs. It is reasonable to expect 4-5 Great Scientists from each free growing Deity AI by Industrial Era. So I really have to destroy as many of them as possible before the AI team starts popping Great Scientists from Universities.

2. Strength of enemy's military. AIs now do not fight each other and consume their army. So I can expect a full force almost anywhere I go.

Advantages

1. The AI team can easily piss off all City States in the world (I will discuss why later). So there is little doubt that they can't win a diplomatic victory, and I will be able to freely ally with anyone I want to as long as I have the extra cash, and the City State actually survives...

2. The AIs are far inferior to humans.

3. I can always load a save if things go seriously wrong, such as the starting warrior got mauled by a hidden horde of barbarians. I will reveal all the places where I resort to loading.

My update rate will be very slow since I will be quite busy in the future. I expect to finish this game in about a month or so... So please bare with me.

 

[Itstoearly]

I for one cannot wait

 

[TheDice]

I've been waiting for this since "The Empress and Turkey". Eagerly anticipating the game!

 

[maltz]

A. Map Selection

Spoiler :

001. A good starting location matters a lot in a tight game. I am mentally prepared to spend an hour or so to collect some of the best-looking maps and pick one to proceed.

Other than the critical Iron deposits, I need lots of early resources to boost my early incomes to start my first rush as soon as possible. This means that most luxurious resources should be aligned to the same technology branch - either Calendar, Trapping, or Mining. Mining is the best since they can be tapped very early, allowing a resource to be sold TWICE before I decalre the first war.

The very first map I got was a surprising blast - 3 Gold, 1 Whale, 2 Wheat, 1 Fish, and River! On a closer examination, however, the wheats are not beside the river. One of them strangely falls on Desert. Saved this map and try some more.

Spoiler :

002. A few maps later I got this one. Two accessible Gems (1 unfortunately too far away), 1 Dye, 2 Cows, and 1 Fish. Great food sources, but no river. Money will be short - not good. Skip this.

Spoiler :

003. A few more maps later I saw this. Two Silver, 1 Fur, 2 Riverside Wheat and 2 Sheeps, plus Mountain. Perfect for defense. Although if I have to defend my capital, I may as well start over and play more aggressively. A very good map generally.

Spoiler :

004. Then came this - upon sitting down a 3rd Gold is revealed. 3 Gold, 2 Sheeps, 1 Incense and River! Very nice as well.

To tell the truth, throughout my Civ5 experience, I have never seen so many Mining resources lining up like this. Is that because Japanese are bound to have rich mines? Or am I just being very lucky today?

I haven't decided which map to take. Will leave that for the next update.

 

[Tabarnak]

The last map seems very interesting. Maybe lose a turn to settle on hill south of settler? +1 production for many turns can be helpful to accelerate some things. Unless you pray for windmill.

 

[Itstoearly]

Sorry if this is a dumb comment, but in the first map, isn't one wheat beside a lake/oasis? Wouldn't that give it the same boost as being beside a river?

 

[TheDice]

Sorry if this is a dumb comment, but in the first map, isn't one wheat beside a lake/oasis? Wouldn't that give it the same boost as being beside a river?

It will get the Civil Service bonus for fresh water, but it loses one gold for not being riverside. It's also a desert tile (weird) so it's on a zero food tile by default.

 

[maltz]

Sorry if this is a dumb comment, but in the first map, isn't one wheat beside a lake/oasis? Wouldn't that give it the same boost as being beside a river?

Yep. Wheat on lake-side desert is:

1/0/0 without improvement
+1/0/0 with Farm
+1/0/0 with Granary
+1/0/0 with Civil Service

So potentially it will reach 4/0/0.

 

[Itstoearly]

Oh, ok, thanks! I am still new to really paying attention to tiles and what does what for them... which is probably why I still lose almost every time on prince

 

[trueblue]

When they DOW the carpet swarm will offer some protectoin simply because the various AI's wont be able get at you with all their units. But get you they will. They team DOW and when they do your game is over.

 

[trueblue]

oh aye, id take the first map offering ,with the gold. Hammers & Gold, with plenty food options, would be a tasty capital. And it could be built tall enough without ever using those wheat's.

 

[Rex_Mundi]

I would seriously consider one of the costal maps, that could give you one relatively safe flank.

You should also consider putting a few forts on the fronts where you do not plan an immediate assault.

 

[maltz]

Thanks for your patience. I hope to make some progress of the thread every few days.

Spoiler :

005. So I decided to use the very first map I got, since I soon discovered two more Gold to the east. If I settle one tile east to the starting location, I will have 5 Gold and 1 Whale, plus a total of 7 tiles that produces food surplus (1 Whale, 1 Fish, 1 non-freshwater Wheat on Plain, 2 riverside Plain, 2 Flooded Plain). This is more than satisfactory for early-mid game.

 

[MadDjinn]

Thanks for your patience. I hope to make some progress of the thread every few days.

Spoiler :

005. So I decided to use the very first map I got, since I soon discovered two more Gold to the east. If I settle one tile east to the starting location, I will have 5 Gold and 1 Whale, plus a total of 7 tiles that produces food surplus (1 Whale, 1 Fish, 1 non-freshwater Wheat on Plain, 2 riverside Plain, 2 Flooded Plain). This is more than satisfactory for early-mid game.

It's a nice location, and when you can get a mint in there you're be swimming in gold for unit maintenance.

the problem I see is that there's too much desert, so a lot of dead tiles unless iron/oil appear there.

Maybe try to grab the Colossus and drop in a lighthouse for working the water instead.

 

[maltz]

B. General Diplomatic Strategy for 1 vs. 7

Spoiler :

006. I first queued a Scout to maximize my Ancient Ruin gains, followed by a Worker to start working on the Gold Mines. Research goes to Mining first, obviously.

Very soon I got in contact with a Songhai Scout, and instantly greeted all leaders of the AI team. I have an interesting selection of opponents. Here I wish to discuss the general strategy for diplomacy in the game.

Diplomacy in a 1 vs. 7 game is all about two things:

(1) Repeating war-peace cycles to extract the maximum amount of gold from the AIs through resource sales and pre-war loans. Every war lasts at least 7 turns. Every peace lasts at least 10 turns. So the fastest I can resale all of my resources and exchange all my Gold Per Turn (GPT) for cash is every 17 turns. But usually things are not ideal - so I expect the cycle to range from 17 to 25 turns.

(2) Bribe AI to war City States. Some AIs are more willing to be bribed to war City States (CS). According to Bibor's Diplomacy by Numbers Spreadsheet (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=409062&highlight=diplomacy+number), 7 AIs have 7 or above Conquest tendencies towards city states (the first column on the right): Songhai, Aztec, Germany, Mongolia, Russia, France, and Japan. My personal experience shows that I can sometimes bribe other Civs to war CS, or sometimes the above will be unwilling to to take the money.

I worked out the math that while randomly select 7 leaders from a pool of 20 (I bought the Inca/Spain DLC, but not others), the chance of receiving at least one of the above 6 CS conquerors is 95.6%. So I don't really even have to preset a CS conqueror in the game setting. There is a very good chance that I will be able to bribe someone to declare war on CS - and indeed I got two of them on my opponent's roster - Songhai and France. Gotta love them.

In a regular game, while bribing a Civ to war a CS, they can make peace with the CS for the first time, while it will be permanent war with whatever CS it declares war to on the second time (does not have to be the same City State). And the second CS might even drag other CS into the permanent war deal.

In a team game, things are getting quite a bit more dramatic for the team. Whenever one team member in the team declares war to a CS, all other team members are forced to also declare war on that particular CS. That could have a disastrous outcome - as the second member of the team makes it an immediate permanent war, AND with the possibility that there might be more CSs joining the permanent war. And you can imagine what a terrible mistake it is to declare war on a CS in a 7-member team, since there are 6 chances that extra CS will become the team's permanent enemy! After 2-3 such bribes, it could be safe to say that the AI team will have no possible CS to ally with. Then it is the human player's freedom to choose whom to ally with.

Even better, the original targeted CS of the bribe will offer missions of "killing N enemy units". This mission gets offered 7 times, as they are declared war by 7 different Civs. They will quickly gain +100 influence point when the human player dispatched the first N number of units from Civ 1, then another +100 from Civ2, another +100 from Civ3... Pretty much a permanent alliance towards the end of the game.

However, CS are usually very weak and they will be conquered quite easily by military-type Civs. They might be able to provide some well-timed distraction when the human player engages in the early expansion. And then they get conquered miserably.

 

[maltz]

C. Gearing Towards the First Rush

Spoiler :

007. Luck is always a huge factor in video games nowadays. I guess it adds some replaying value. I actually had my best luck of all of my Civ5 games (about 15) so far regarding ancient ruin exploration - I visited a stunning number of 8 with some extremely nice outcomes (as shown above) all without the New Random Seed setting!

The two technologies are given to me exactly as if I can make the choice myself. With early Writing, I am able to quickly purchase a Library and start building the National College. (Unfortunately, Open Border can only be sold once to the AI team, not 7 times.) And I got 2 cultures, 1 population, and even the Scout gets upgraded to an combatant.

Spoiler :

008. I plan to get about 4 unique Long-swordsman (Samurai) as soon as possible.

Time is really tight in a 1 vs. 7 game, as the AIs will have a much higher research progress rate once they completed their own National College and start popping out 7 times of Great Scientists from their easily built Universities (last time it only took 4 turns for my AI partner). While I was only trailing 5% to 11% on Turn 12, I expect the gap to widen significantly in mid-game, where I can only hope to temporarily ignore with my Long-swordsman.

Long-swordsman rush is the fastest rush I know.

To get to Long-swordsman as soon as possible, I need a few things to work in coordination:

(1) Liberty Social Policy to Meritocracy - Free Great Scientist -> Steel
More on policy later.

(2) Research Metal Casting on my own. Once I complete the National College, this is not so hard to achieve before Meritocracy is activated,

(3) Collect enough cash to field a 4-Sumurai army. (3 is enough in a regular Deity game, but not here - the AIs easily get 20+ City Defense starting in Turn 60-70.) Each Samurai costs 200 (Warrior) + 110 (upgrade) + 160 (upgrade) = 470 gold. To field 4, I need a total of 1680 gold (initial Warrior is free).

If I sell all of my 6 resources, I will gain 1800 gold. But in practice that 1800 gold has to pay for many things: Library, tile purchases, Work boat for Whale, and even a Settler to sit on a 6-unit Iron if I don't have it at home (the chance is usually low). So there is no way for me to get enough fund in the first round of resource selling. But I am not willing to wait till the second round, which easily goes beyond Turn 70...

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

The map above is drawn based on map knowledge of a later stage. After the early exploration is completed, I can easily decide whom to go after first - Songhai - and whom to go after next - Egypt.

Songhai spawned really close to me, while Egypt spawned really far away from me. Seven City States (out of 16) were discovered. Most of them form a nice buffer zone between Egypt and I, but it is probably me who will invade Egypt, so they and not really helping.

Ideally, I would like to have the AIs all close to each other, as I don't want to waste 10 turns of my previous "Samurai invincibility" on traveling. But on the bright side, if Egypt spawns way back there, then the other 6 AIs all have slightly less room for development.

 

[Omega124]

Hey, if you go down the Autocracy path, one of the policies makes wounded soldiers fight stronger. Combined with Bushido, units will be stronger when injured.

 

[maltz]

D. Early Home Development and Resource Trade

Spoiler :

009. Early home development is all about resource trading, and spending the cash on Library and to earn more cash (tile purchase, etc.). By the help of a +95 gold ruin, greeting gifts from City States, and the Tradition & Liberty policy opener, I easily purchased the Whale Tile and rushed a Workboat. (Research sequence: Mining - Sailing)

Spoiler :

010. I prefer to sell resources to Songhai, my first target. I have observed AI rush buying City Walls/Castles and units if they have the extra cash. So I want them to have the minimal amount of cash possible when my Long-swordsman close in on the city.

Songhai actually tried to ask me to declare friendship. Silly. There are just two teams in the game, so it is either they get owned or I get killed.

Spoiler :

011. Bought Library with the Whale money. Right after the capital's population grows to 4, I am going to completely stagnate the population growth to rush out National College as early as possible.

Spoiler :

012. There is a large empty space between Egypt and I. Lots of good city founding spot. Give an AI 30 turns and it can populate this entire region. But only one tile is good for me - the tile that has 6 units of Iron.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

013. The AI team entered Classic Era on Turn 23. This is not early at all - I have seen un-teamed Deity AI entering Classic Era before Turn 20.

Some people claim that 7-teamed AIs get 7-times of flasks requirement, so they aren't really getting any research bonus. From personal experience, though, I find teamed AI seriously out-tech an un-teamed AI as early as Turn 50. They do research faster when teamed up (at least in my games so far).

My explanation for their seemingly average research rate in early game is that the fastest they could do is to finish ONE tech per turn. So there are a lot of overflow wasted.