CSs on Deity

[Socrates99]

I've been lurking for a while and thought of a question I wanted to ask so I finally registered.

I've been banging my head against the deity wall for a while and I decided to try an experiment and play a game without CSs. I was suprised at how much easier the game was and how the AI gold advantage counted for so much less without CSs. It made it so I could finally get the Flawless Strategy acheivement. It was still tough but much easier. The civs also stayed much closer in strength as well since they had to rely on themselves rather than getting outside help from CSs.

It seems like in most of the games I've played on deity Greece, Austria or Ethiopia will by out CSs like mad and start to run away with the game. How do you keep this in check? Every time I invested in a CS Alex would step in and snatch it away. I couldn't DoW him without losing all benefit of my investments. On the lower levels I usually denounced him and made him into the "world wide whipping boy" since he generally would offend all the other AIs but this approach hasn't worked out on diety yet. Ethiopia and Austria have also been just as bad although to a slightly lesser extent since they're usually not as aggressive as Greece.

Anyway, how do you prevent one civ from running away with the game by buying up all the CSs? I've tried draining their gold by selling resources to them but usually by midgame keeping their gold supply down by that method is impossible because of the insane Diety GPT.

 

[Moriarte]

There is not much you can do about it, except improving your playstyle to a point where this particular problem affects you less.

One way to keep this in check is to aim for Domination from the very beginning. If you developed army/fleet thoughtfully, you actually have tools to freeze their scientific advance.

I ve been practicing Deity domination games lately and find them quite flexible. Once you succeed in gathering momentum you can turn around and pursue any type of victory you want.

 

[Socrates99]

Yeah domination seems to be the easiest victory of any. I was just wondering if there was any way to reign them in a little more that didn't include facestomping. Deity games progress pretty fast though and I have a hard time really punishing any civs I don't share borders with. I was hoping there would be some way to slow down a civ who it wasn't really feasable to go to war with but I guess not. The bordering civs are actually pretty manageable it's the wonderspamming or CS hogging civs on the other side of the map that are posing the biggest challenge.

 

[LostInTime]

Anyway, how do you prevent one civ from running away with the game by buying up all the CSs? I've tried draining their gold by selling resources to them but usually by midgame keeping their gold supply down by that method is impossible because of the insane Diety GPT.

Do you have GK? It's quite easy keeping CS then. Just flip a CS, then put lots of gold into it, and you will keep it. I've never had a problem with AI's keeping CS that way.

You can also keep flipping a CS to waste AI money if you do it right.

 

[Socrates99]

Do you have GK? It's quite easy keeping CS then. Just flip a CS, then put lots of gold into it, and you will keep it. I've never had a problem with AI's keeping CS that way.

You can also keep flipping a CS to waste AI money if you do it right.

Yeah but the quests weren't coming in fast enough to keep flipping them or do you mean coups with spies?. I've noticed too that once you hit a certain amount of influence they'll move to investing in different CSs and leave yours alone but some AI do not seem affected like that. Alexander is the worst imo. In my last game with him it seemed like he would buy a CS then a few turns later have over 200 influence. I'm thinking I'll have to go back to denouncing any CS hoarding civ as soon as I can comfortably defend myself and hope to turn the other civs against them and get them bogged down in war. That usually is the best way to slow a civ down a little.

I'm almost to the point of picking the Mongols and just going the total war route but I like having CS allies so it's not really the type of game I usually like to play.

One more question I was thinking of is does having one of your spies in a CS inhibit coups the same way it slows tech stealing? I tend to use my spies mostly for tech stealing and on defense but they could be a way to help slow them down a little more.

It's funny how I'm progressing. It used to be the AI's happiness bonus that I needed to overcome but I got past that. Then it was their tech lead they start with and I got past that. Then it was their military and I passed that too. Now suprisingly it's their gold advantage that's kind of getting to me. I just need to get better at mitigating that.

 

[Sidor1982]

You can always conquer enough CS to disable Diplomatic Victory for the AI (which they always go for first on Deity). That's the easiest way to go. Just make sure to conquer them during war-time with their masters, otherwise You'll be considered a warmgoer or the CS will declare a combined war on You.

 

[Socrates99]

You can always conquer enough CS to disable Diplomatic Victory for the AI (which they always go for first on Deity). That's the easiest way to go. Just make sure to conquer them during war-time with their masters, otherwise You'll be considered a warmgoer or the CS will declare a combined war on You.

That's kind of what I was thinking when I was considering playing Mongolia. That 30% bonus would bring them down super fast but wouldn't you still take the diplo hit for conquering a CS even though you don't get the one for declaring war?

 

[Sidor1982]

That's kind of what I was thinking when I was considering playing Mongolia. That 30% bonus would bring them down super fast but wouldn't you still take the diplo hit for conquering a CS even though you don't get the one for declaring war?

You still get a diplo hit, but way less then on war declaring. And going for Gengis only to deal with a couple of CS is a bit of overreacting in my opinion. Other UA are way better in the long run.

 

[notam]

id say if you want total war, try out Huns.

Point and shoot

From logistics, point and shoot-point and shoot.. I think you get my picture..

 

[apocalypse105]

Anyway, how do you prevent one civ from running away with the game by buying up all the CSs?

through WAR!!!!!! If they don't have land they lose

 

[Socrates99]

id say if you want total war, try out Huns.

Point and shoot

From logistics, point and shoot-point and shoot.. I think you get my picture..

Yeah they were the civ I won my first immortal victory with. The UUs go obsolete kind of fast on deity and immortal but their production bonus and the free AH tech are awesome.

 

[Socrates99]

You still get a diplo hit, but way less then on war declaring. And going for Gengis only to deal with a couple of CS is a bit of overreacting in my opinion. Other UA are way better in the long run.

Yeah you're right. Of course it's not just the UA Id be interested in. I haven't played them post G&K yet but I imagine having Kahns would make the nice citadel bombs easier to set up and the keshiks would make sure I have a steady flow of kahns for a while too.