Civ 6 Deity after patch

[JAWS___]

I was able to easyly win on Deity, mostly taking advantage of the crappy AI, not the case anymore.

I´m wondering if there is a kind of build order unit wise and tech/civic wise for the early/mid game which best make me close the gap in science and put me toe to toe to war in the mid game against other civs.

 

[Bobfregman]

Generally I find that I don't actually truly match/eclipse the diety AI in tech until quite late in the game unless I'm playing Australia. The important thing is to get a lot of cities and to take out at least one neighbor early on. To stay militarily relevant in mid game wars you need to mostly beeline military techs and civics and have the gold ready to upgrade earlier units ASAP. You aren't going to be able to make good use of knights if you research every classical tech beforehand and don't start training heavy cav until you get stirrups. However if you rush stirrups and then upgrade 5 heavy chariots you may find you have several turns where you hold a serious military advantage despite being down several techs overall.

 

[Victoria]

For cultural you have to play quite Savvy because you are unlikely to catch up science. Take advantage if the start to kill someone, if they are not close it is so much harder. 8-10 cities, no more and concentrate on tourism, especially museums ASAP and seasides. The main hassle is getting eiffel. Also politics are key and be ready for a big turtle when the AI works out you are going to win

You can make life a lot easier by playing Kongo, gorgo, teddy, and Vicky. Vicky is a little tricky now the double trade routes are gone but autotheming means speed in tourism is key., Gorgo gets the culture start as long as a victim is nearby, Kongo relics and Teddy boost late game is great.

Saying that... Has the spring patch sprung? I'm gonna have to go play and probably die!

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

I always find that whenever I play for Science, everything just goes better. I tend to surpass the AI in science, culture, gold, almost anything. I don't get the same results when going for culture, though, and I don't know the reason.

In my opinion, it may be because of combined improvements that gets better as you progress in the tech tree, and new governments or better policy cards don't scale as well.

 

[gimper42]

Build a campus in all of your founded cities. Do this early. Fill them with libraries and universities. Get 6 envoys into a couple of Science City-States. Try hard to get the Great Scientist that adds +4 to universities. Pillaging mines, if the opportunity arises, is totally worth it early on. +25 Science early game can be nice. I don't know if it's worth trying for Research Agreements. I've never had one offered or accepted in Civ 6 yet.

I'm really liking being the Suzerain of Stockholm lately. Those bonus Great Person points can kinda start to snowball as you take everyone's districts away from them.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

I can see the argument for Libraries, but are Universities strictly required too? They can be a heavy production investment mid-game. Maybe a few on your core cities would suffice?

 

[gimper42]

I like to build them anywhere that can do it in around 12 or fewer turns. The more the better. Then when you add in the +100% campus buildings yield card from The Enlightenment, your Science is suddenly #1 or #2 in the game.

And I'll have no problem at all with putting a university in a 3 pop city out in the middle of Bum F'd Egypt. Buy a builder. Connect the new luxuries. Use the rest to chop out the buildings and more more builders to finish the work in a timely manner.

 

[Victoria]

The thing is science gives you units which makes your army stronger so less people DOW you. Universities are well worth it but research labs are a little late for me.

My experience of tearing down the culture tree (which I do a lot) is
You get extra card slots faster, much faster
Your card swap efficiency quotient becomes better meaning you become more efficient if done right
Your control over CS's becomes greater which should not be overlooked.
For RV amd CV you have a faster game

So its not a simple choice but I look at it like this

Science at +.7 per pop and culture at +.3 per pop means science buildings are less value overall than culture buildings which are in short supply.
Early pop growth gives some stability and should be pushed a bit but the culture benefit of museums is fairly huge and once at that stage swapping to science to catch up as pop grows seems to be a good compromise to me.
I do not see monuments pushed in discussions at all but when I put them out first it just accelerates everything a lot.

 

[Bro]

Boosting your culture with a Monument or two is crucial in some of my tactics with China when I'm going for the Great Library or Mahabodhi Temple. Colosseum is usually always available and Oracle is easy to get. I usually build Great Library if I'm going for a CV, just because it has those great work and writing slots. The extra GP point and eurekas are secondary goals to have. Mahabodhi Temple is very good to evangelize your belief fast.

 

[EpicWestern]

I was able to easily win on Deity, mostly taking advantage of the crappy AI, not the case anymore.

Super early game, I have resorted to slinger, slinger, husbandry --> archery, in almost all circumstances. While you can usually defend with an early scout or builder, the risk is just too great. Four games out of five you'll defend easily against a single rushing civ or barb camp, and you wonder what you're worried about, then the fifth game you get double rushed by two different civs and a barb camp and the game just feels impossible.

Early/mid game ancient walls seem necessary to me, especially on border cities and coastal cities. An unwalled coastal city can be taken down by just a single Caravel, unless there are several archers there which you simply can't do for every coastal city and wouldn't be worth it anyway.

Mid/late game I am starting to feel the AI is strong enough that you must tech up to some sort of decent melee unit simply in order to defend yourself. I've even gone pikemen one game to stop a mass cavalry attack from Japan (not ideal since cavalry > pikemen still, but when you're severely outteched you have little choice). In my latest cultural game with Russia I forwent the usually beeline to radio in favor of early Cossacks. Sure enough, was eventually invaded by mass musketmen, which a single cossacks army was able to shred to pieces.

 

[Bro]

Super early game, I have resorted to slinger, slinger, husbandry --> archery, in almost all circumstances. While you can usually defend with an early scout or builder, the risk is just too great. Four games out of five you'll defend easily against a single rushing civ or barb camp, and you wonder what you're worried about, then the fifth game you get double rushed by two different civs and a barb camp and the game just feels impossible.

The TSL-Earth map is quite good as it has several other options for start than the good-ol slinger slinger slinger.

 

[sugerdady87]

In my past two games, I took the opposite approach to gimper42. Instead of competing directly with the A.I. against their strength, I haven't built a single campus (although I do capture them from enemy cities) and instead replaced them with early encampments. Dump +3 envoys to a militaristic CS early, +6 to a trade CS (to support your army), then the rest into militaristic CSs. Pump units NONSTOP and build encampments in every city. Working out well for me so far.

 

[Victoria]

Civ 6 is great because there is rarely just one option open to you. ... Deity early war is becoming more necessary though

 

[gimper42]

The TSL-Earth map is quite good as it has several other options for start than the good-ol slinger slinger slinger.

Word up! Both of my deity England and Japan games on a TSL-Earth map started with a monument build. Huge difference maker. I now try to move monuments up in priority whenever feasible.

I actually had barbarians spawn on Britain, but the starting warrior was able to handle the scout and the spearman in the camp. Not enough land tiles for the scout to maneuver around and see my city. I just herded the scout back to the barbarian camp and murdered them all.

 

[Bro]

In my past two games, I took the opposite approach to gimper42. Instead of competing directly with the A.I. against their strength, I haven't built a single campus (although I do capture them from enemy cities) and instead replaced them with early encampments. Dump +3 envoys to a militaristic CS early, +6 to a trade CS (to support your army), then the rest into militaristic CSs. Pump units NONSTOP and build encampments in every city. Working out well for me so far.

I tried this a while ago with good success. The early Generals help your army a lot, the +5 strength is good, but the +1 movement is even better.

 

[Victoria]

I have always had plenty of Admirals with Vicky. Admirals, good promotions and Great lighthouse means you can manage with a Navay tech level difference.

 

[sugerdady87]

I tried this a while ago with good success. The early Generals help your army a lot, the +5 strength is good, but the +1 movement is even better.

I actually don't know if it's even a good approach post patch, but it has worked for me so far.

 

[gimper42]

In my past two games, I took the opposite approach to gimper42. Instead of competing directly with the A.I. against their strength, I haven't built a single campus (although I do capture them from enemy cities) and instead replaced them with early encampments. Dump +3 envoys to a militaristic CS early, +6 to a trade CS (to support your army), then the rest into militaristic CSs. Pump units NONSTOP and build encampments in every city. Working out well for me so far.

On Pangaea and most Continents maps, investing in encampments can totally be worth it. The AI will build some campuses. And there are ways to overcome an opponent with a severe tech lead without resorting to matching and/or overcoming their Science output. Mainly just overwhelm them with numerical superiority on the battlefield and don't make many mistakes. The TSL-Earth maps really scream for Great Admirals and a strong navy. The AI will usually march their entire army, or whatever they can manage to spare, to defend or recapture a coastal city allowing you to destroy all of those units with relative ease and safety from the water tiles. Then a technologically inferior land force can capture whatever cities are within range of shore bombardments.

Overall though, my game play seems smoother when I put a priority on Science. Everything you need for producing cogs and gold are waiting to be unlocked. The sooner you get there, the better your empire will run.

 

[RaidandTrade]

I've been trying a Deity Continents as Egypt lately. I wanted to go culture but it seems like whatever my tactics I'm getting soundly spanked if I shift builds to anything but science and units.

Latest attempt: Took Norway out of the game early and self-founded three cities including capital. France DOWs and pillaged districts everywhere and is seemingly content to endure a bloodbath. Level 7 crossbows shredding everything. I move some units vaguely in the direction of a 48 defence city and they're insta-repairing walls so that three catapults are insta-toast. Peace out and switch to re-building infrastructure and try to get my culture game on track. I don't even have my first archaeologist out and France comes with more knights for shredding and their tourism is already 480 and they've got 50-something out of the 180 they need. At turn 210...

Back to another go...

 

[gimper42]

Latest attempt: Took Norway out of the game early and self-founded three cities including capital. France DOWs and pillaged districts everywhere and is seemingly content to endure a bloodbath. Level 7 crossbows shredding everything. I move some units vaguely in the direction of a 48 defence city and they're insta-repairing walls so that three catapults are insta-toast. Peace out and switch to re-building infrastructure and try to get my culture game on track. I don't even have my first archaeologist out and France comes with more knights for shredding and their tourism is already 480 and they've got 50-something out of the 180 they need. At turn 210...

Turn 210 sounds pretty late to still be fighting neighbors on your starting continent. I'm curious when you started your rush against Norway and what is your highest military tech at turn 210? How many cities do you have at turn 210 and how many of them have monuments and campus with library + university?

Cities insta-healing walls usually does not happen during wartime in my experience. Or if it can happen during wartime, it must take a really, really long time to trigger. I've never seen it. I've seen walls insta-heal in City-States that I make peace with, well after the peace deal.

City walls need to be taken down quickly. I prefer to use melee supported by battering ram for this. Add in a siege tower if you can manage it. Get a minimum of 3 melee units surrounding the city so that it is "under siege" and cannot heal. A red heart with a line through it shows up on the city name bar to indicate this status. Then pound those melee units into the city until the walls are gone. Then you should be able to wear down the remainder of the city health with range units over the next two or three turns. Then take the city with the most damaged melee unit or the one closest to a promotion.

The part where you give up fighting France (a militarily superior opponent from the sounds of it) and switch to infrastructure is where you lost this game. You have to know they're coming back. And with greater numbers.