Can't ever win a game on immortal

[jmeyer73]

The screenshot I added was the last game I played. On emperor I would be winning by a TON. This game would have been a total landslide. Yet i'm about to lose, America is about to win a cultural victory within 50 turns and I have no way to stop it.

Some variant of this is always what happens. This was my best attempt yet with a perfect start on an incredibly defensible peninsula on an OP civilization and i'm nowhere near winning. It seems no matter what I do the AI will cheat so much it's impossible to win against them. I've got no idea at all how to beat the AI but emperor is way too easy so I have no way to have fun playing this game at the moment.

 

[Equilin]

50 turns is plenty of time, try nuke america to oblivion and/or take their cities and see how they like it. You control most city-states so winning should not be a problem.
You should be trying to intercept AI progress early on and all the time, steal workers, bribing them to war with each other, winning wars etc.
also you have too many farms, change some to trading posts next time
and too many academies, 1-2 is enough as the rest should be saved for multiple endgame bulbs
also, use that gold! them sitting in your treasury does nothing, buy factories and labs or even units to beat america with

 

[Sholugo]

Hi jmeyer73, I just had the same problem, I didn't know how to win in immortal, now I feel that is almost impossible to be defeated in immortal; you have to do 2 things:
1.- Micromanage is the key, every turn you have to check what your citizens and workers are doing, what you can trade and how is your relationship with the CS's.
2.- You must read this 4 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/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/attila-deity-domination-guide.519905/
And then you can make a strategy that can beat immortal. You can play at epic speed, is easier than standard because you have more time to use your UU's

Regards.

 

[Equilin]

Hi jmeyer73, I just had the same problem, I didn't know how to win in immortal, now I feel that is almost impossible to be defeated in immortal; you have to do 2 things:
1.- Micromanage is the key, every turn you have to check what your citizens and workers are doing, what you can trade and how is your relationship with the CS's.
2.- You must read this 4 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/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/attila-deity-domination-guide.519905/
And then you can make a strategy that can beat immortal. You can play at epic speed, is easier than standard because you have more time to use your UU's

Regards.

Those are all domination guides. Domination is not the only strategy on any difficulty, and peaceful deity SVs are plenty on this forum. I don't recommend having those guides as mandatory because it will harm/tunnel your planning in the long run. Also as said in one of the guides there, not all maps favor conquest.

 

[beetle]

The screenshot I added was the last game I played.

What are your settings? T445 is quite late, and so much of the map is still under fog.

On emperor I would be winning by a TON. This game would have been a total landslide.

That is the challenge with this game, finding settings that are not too hard and not too easy! Also, finding a play style that keeps working across settings can be a bit of a trick. Some exploits are game breaking on Emperor, but don’t work at all on Immortal. And vice-versa too. At Emperor, I can run any social policies I like. At Deity, it almost always has to be Tradition if I want to win. And I do like to win!

Yet i'm about to lose, America is about to win a cultural victory within 50 turns and I have no way to stop it.

You could up load the map and see if anyone finds a path to VC in 50 turns.

Some variant of this is always what happens.

Are you talking about THIS map or every time you play Immortal?

This was my best attempt yet with a perfect start on an incredibly defensible peninsula on an OP civilization and i'm nowhere near winning.

If you are playing normal pace, you are just progressing too slowly. At Emperor, the AIs are hardly interested in winning. At Immortal, T450 is about when I would expect one AI or another to win by CV or SV.

 

[Nizef]

Hi,
This seems to be Epic speed, right? I would not expect an Immortal AI to win before t500 on Epic speed. On Deity they (usually) are capable of winning between t450-500, sometimes a little later and on the odd occasion already before t450. But not on Immortal. Of course, once in a while there will be this crazy game, where the AI just has it all. But those games are really rare. Based on this one screenshot, I would like to ask you:
1. Have you planted all GS? It seems so to me. The general rule is that "optimal" play means planting 1-3 GS before Industrial and saving the rest for bulbing in the endgame. Even if you plant a GS on t200, it will only give you 8 science/turn for maybe 300 turns = 2.400. By bulbing you should aim for, as an example, 1050 science / turn x 12 turns (8 on Standard speed) = 12.600 science. That is a huge difference.
2. I would expect cities to be larger than 21-24-18-18 at this stage of the game. Micromanaging the population is an important factor of growing faster and thus setting you up for a better endgame. I would like my capital to be at least pop30 at this stage of the game. Are you using internal trade routes to boost your population growth?
3. This also goes into point #2, but what Specialist slots are you working? Your science output of 785 is absolutely decent, but (with Secularism) by working most of the Specialist slots you should aim for at least 1000 and preferably between 1050-1150 or even more. This will have a huge impact on how fast you advance through the tech tree. In fact you could challenge yourself to have most techs by t450, and eventually you will do it much faster.
4. You are building the Research labs? With your income, you could easily buy one or two right when you hit Plastics.
5. Are you beelining for the science techs? I understand that you don´t want to do the same routine over and over again in every game, but at least Education should in my opinion be an early priority. On Epic speed, try to get Education before t180 (and eventually much faster, like t150-160).
6. Even when you go Tradition, five cities are usually better than four cities. Try to find space for a fifth one (perhaps not on this map though). I would probably have conquered either Byblos or Vienna early to have that fifth city.
I hope this will help you!

 

[MrRadar]

On top of what's been said by others, I see you have 4 DoFs. Do you run research agreements with those AI? Do you trade with them? At this point they won't take iron or horses, I imagine, but perhaps oil and aluminium? As long as you're not using them, that's wasted money. At least use them to bribe them into wars between themselves. Do you trade luxuries? Trading can bring in more money, which yes, should be better used to buy those buildings you're building. And when you have a DoF you can get the best deal - the biggest lump sump payment and now, instead a bit less and and over long time as gpt. In Civ less but now is usually better than more but later, but Civ 5 has this inverted and offers you even better deal - in case of friendship you can get more and now in terms of payment for a trade deal.
Also, why have you stopped the growth in those two cities? You've got enough happiness for now.
Also, three untouched archaeological sites in your territory. Why? Two should be converted into landmarks and worked, another one, which is beyond city radius, dug up as an artifact. Then all of them will help out your culture and defending against American tourism, now they're just being wasted. Or, probably it was worth to plant a 5th city next to that marble in the south. Production would've been a bit lousy, but it could have gotten and worked that marble sooner, also two fish, also used lumbermills or trade routes to help it out.

 

[beetle]

This seems to be Epic speed, right?

How can you tell?

OP has not replied to anyone in a week, so I suspect he is not really engaged. People have been suggested all kinds of nuanced things, when I think OP is missing fundamentals. Like not exploring and not chopping forests. It looks to me like Akkad has an unimproved fish in 3rd ring?

FWIW exploring = free gold, science, and happiness.

 

[Nizef]

How can you tell?

I figured that t445 and the year 1855AD correlate with Epic speed.