[C3C] COTM170 Germany Deity

I'll search the forums of course, but if anybody has general advice for Deity it would be greatly appreciated.

Don't pop huts with units, unless you don't have any attack/defense units. Instead, pop huts by planting cities next to a hut or let an AI pop a hut.

Use the 2nd city for wonder building so that you can use the palace to prebuild. Germany doesn't have good position early on, because they don't start with Alphabet, nor Masonry. Actually, with this map it could be best to move the settler to the 2-1 (keyboard strokes) from the starting position, and put the first city there. Then the 2nd city can go in place where it sits, and then it has the best shield position we know of, and a quite good spot for production.

The palace prebuild starts at 300 shields. Since this is a standard map, you need 14 cities to get the palace cost up to 400 shields, and 17 cities to get the palace prebuild up to 600 shields. So, it could help to conquer some AI cities early to get that prebuild up, if/when you run out of territory to settle. The Heroic Epic has high value in a 20k game also. 4 culture per turn for 200 shields makes for a very good ratio. That all said, since the cost factor is 6, the AIs pay 60% of what you do for wonders. So, like The Sistine Chapel (perhaps one of the hardest wonders to build at high levels), only costs them (.6 x 600) = 360 shields to build. Thus, if you started The Sistine Chapel with a complete palace prebuild of 300 shields, you would have the advantage to build that wonder. The issues though lie with the cascades from Sun Tzu's Art of War or Leonardo's Workshop can mean The Sistine Chapel can disappear quickly. Still though, there might not be any cascades for J. S. Bach's Cathedral. And a 300 shield prebuild would mean you have fewer shields to go when the AIs could actually starting building J. S. Bach's Cathedral, if you started it on the same turn.

As long as you can build all of the regular cultural buildings early, The Heroic Epic at some point, and some other small wonders, you either have enough culture to win 20k by 2050 AD or end up close. If close and you didn't snag any medieval wonders, I think industrial era great wonders and some modern wonders would do also, if you got there fast enough. But, the AIs either need controlled or killed off so that they don't win the game also.

But, IF you focus your city on making some cultural build as much as you can, you either need no or a small amoun of great wonders to win a 20k by 2050 AD, as Sirpleb showed a long time ago when he timed out a 2050 AD 20k victory exactly. Bartleby also did so recently. His cultural builds we can show in two pictures:

Madrid 1.png


Madrid 2.png


And that's it. No library, university, or colosseuum. The Colossus giving 3-6 culture per turn gives as much as a library. But, a library costs less. A Colosseum gives as much as Knights Templar. And a colosseum can come sooner. A university gives as much culture as The Oracle.

So, we need to make the 6-12 culture from The Great Library and the Museum of Mausolos. Heroic Epic + Wall Street gives 4-8 + 2-4 culture per turn. The Apollo Program produces 2-4 culture as the Museum of Mausollos does. O. K. the Apollo Program might never double in culture not getting built before 1050 AD or too close to 1050 AD. However, we're still in the ballpark with no great wonders at all. So, if we can get some great wonders along the way... hopefully some nice medieval wonders and then all three industrial wonders or at least the modern wonders, then getting enough culture by 2050 AD seems achievable.

Edit: forbidden palace + intelligence agency + strategic missile defense + pentagon can probably make up the culture from the palace.

Oh, also, I would advise against building The Miltiary Academy in one's 20k city. If you need/want armies, they probably need to come from elsewhere. If you get to a good position later, you can just abandon the city with The Military Academy and then put it in your 20k city.

AND I forgot the research lab too...
 
I tried a random map Deity game for practice. I got wrecked! I tried a similar starting position with a cow and river. I played the start two different ways, but got wrecked both times. First try I tried to standard expansion. I got about 6 cities out and was on par with other known Civs as far as cities and tech and had just hooked iron when boom ... a neighbor Civ declared war and took half my cities in two turns. My two warriors in cities got churned into chum like they were nothing.

On my second try from the same start I tried to beeline to iron and get swords quicker. I turned down tech spending to build up cash to mass upgrade warriors. I had 4 cities and and 8 swords before the same Civ wrecked me again. They took out two cities and 6 of my swords. I also lost two settlers to barbs that were escorted by vet swordsman. Lousy RNG!

Needless to say, I am a bit hesitant to start this quarter's match after getting pummeled so easily. I win on Emperor consistently with no problems and won on Demigod for COTM 168, but my Deity is smacking me around.
 
Use spearmen.

The AI, barbarians especially, will always make a beeline to where your weakest spots are. Swordsmen are fine if you are the one attacking, but if you're defending you need a defensive unit instead of an offensive unit. Focus on building up your defenses first - at least two defensive units per village - then build up your offense. The AI will assess where your weak spots are and, finding none, will either go about their business or build up more units to attack you.

The more you play, the easier it is to spot when an AI is about to attack you. Workers not being anywhere near your borders is a dead giveaway. A warrior not exploring and fortified at your border is a good indication too. Seeing units start to converge onto your border is an indicator too (which is why you should never turn the settings off for showing AI moves.) Sometimes the AI doesn't want to go after you at all, but needs to pass through your border to go to war with someone else. The more you play, the more you'll notice AI behavior when they're about to attack and effectively counter it.

In regards to barbarians, depending on the settings you will want settlers to be escorted by one or two spearmen. Three if your settler is going to travel a significant distance away.
 
отново AI твърде слаб. През 1000 г. пр. н. е. - 21 града, Австрия е била най-добрата до момента, а сега само 2 града, други 8,10.
Ще играем, докато видим колко задни думи са други AI и ....

Moderator Action: Please provide an English translation, so everyone can follow. -- Lanzelot
 
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I write it in english and google auto translated in Bulgarian.
AI again are too weak. At 1000bc I have 21 cities, almost kill austria which was the best till rush. Now Austria have just 2 cities, other AI - 8,10. I will play till see other AI in other continent. If they are also too backwards ... I probably do not finish again.
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I did get barbarians, and a lot of them. They slowed my expansion as I was not prepared. Even got one of the massive uprisings when an AI hit the next era. I'm not sure how it is possible - I thought they are in the save file settings, and that's it?

My game didn't look that good. The barbs slowing down early expansion to the northwest a lot. But the barbarians would not have been an issue if I hadn't made some misplays and stupid decisions, which ended up with me not being in a strong enough position especially compared to the south...

First, the Southern neighbor completed the Great Wall on the turn after I invaded, I think. Only got a couple of towns. I think they also completed Philosophy a turn before I would have - I got a good price for Writing earlier but looks like it wasn't worth it.
They started a war on the Northeast opponent, while I tried to go straight North. Some mismanaged diplomacy later and suddenly they sign an alliance against me - I think they grabbed a slice of 5 or 6 cities in one turn since their army conveniently was spread through my land...
 
Barbarian setting was Sedentary, but on Deity there are always some extra.
I also got a lot of barbarians. I thought the the first couple that I saw came from huts popped by the AI but then I got a massive uprising. I built archers and hunted down the villages which kept spawning on open land. This is a good source of income in the ancient age. I think that when creating a game scenario, some settings (including barbs) carry over from the previous game played and not the editor. This might be what happened. Anyway it was a fun and enjoyable game with a few surprises.
 
What did Otto von Bismarck do for you?
He was most helpful in the early game. He was able to meet England on turn 1 and France shortly after. I had some really good tech trades in this game and was able to keep up with the AI. This is surprising at deity level because the AI civs are usually unwilling to trade techs and they usually get a lead quickly so you have nothing available to offer them. Early contact is essential. Bismark also explored most of the continent so I knew where luxuries and resources were located. I had 4 luxuries hooked up early on allowing me to keep research at 100% without needing the happiness slider. He was eventually killed by barbarian horsemen.
 
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