Deity difficulty Tips

[Martin Alvito]

As I figure out how to play, I'm learning that a Pangaea isn't really that bad. Alex defends Ancient rushes superbly with just a few Hoplites. You laugh at Chariots, and so your defense primarily revolves around bagging Warriors without getting caught out in the open on the counterattack. If you play your diplomacy cards right after that, you can gut a neighbor during your CC window and reach parity with the stronger AIs.

Then you just need to power your way through the weapons techs with your Great Scientists so that you have the quality armed forces you need to divide and conquer the remaining rivals.

 

[Dark_MadMax]

I just realized another massive AI weakness . The dominant AI gets so many units at end game it literally take almost all of their tiles.

But due to 1tp all those hordes are not very effective as i if you have semi defensible position you can keep killing his units with almost impunity (really just 2 arty and 3-4 frontliners you can swap out for healing). Worse it limits his more modern units as his frontlines are filled with old crap.

 

[pi-r8]

I find that the city states are a bit less powerful on deity than they are on the other levels, since the AI has a tendency to kill them off very fast, and sometimes even fights you for control of them. Anyone agree?

 

[PieceOfMind]

I just realized another massive AI weakness . The dominant AI gets so many units at end game it literally take almost all of their tiles.

But due to 1tp all those hordes are not very effective as i if you have semi defensible position you can keep killing his units with almost impunity (really just 2 arty and 3-4 frontliners you can swap out for healing). Worse it limits his more modern units as his frontlines are filled with old crap.

Check it out:

It was so bad in this game they started overflowing units into my territory (see 3rd pic). /

It's no longer the stack of doom - rather the blanket of doom.

Deity, Quick speed, Continents, Small map

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[kcmarkwell]

just looking at that makes my head spin pieceofmind

now the fun part would be figuring out how to actually win your way out of it

domination wise

 

[Ahriman]

Wow... that is a lot of paratroopers.

Why haven't they squashed you yet?

 

[PieceOfMind]

I'm afraid that game is a lost cause. I think there's only 20 turns left in it. I was really hoping to build my first GDR but it's going to take more than 30 turns to build. /

Wow... that is a lot of paratroopers.

Why haven't they squashed you yet?

I wonder the same thing. I'll put some other funny screens up in a sec.

Freshly settled: The AI on Deity clearly has no trouble settling garbage cities.

Spoiler :

That's a lot of pointy sticks.

Spoiler :

 

[pi-r8]

Those screenshots are hilarious! How long does it take in between turns?
I'm starting to get pretty annoyed with the AI troop spam on deity level. FIghting a war feels like driving through a traffic jam. The worst is when there's a 3rd AI around, who's at peace with both sides, and chokes up everything with his units that are just meandering around.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Those screenshots are hilarious! How long does it take in between turns?
I'm starting to get pretty annoyed with the AI troop spam on deity level. FIghting a war feels like driving through a traffic jam. The worst is when there's a 3rd AI around, who's at peace with both sides, and chokes up everything with his units that are just meandering around.

Maybe 10 seconds or so. Not too bad, but I am playing quick speed so even long turn times are not so bad.

Core 2 Duo (E6750) at 3.2GHz.

 

[QuothTheRaven]

Those screenshots are hilarious! How long does it take in between turns?
I'm starting to get pretty annoyed with the AI troop spam on deity level. FIghting a war feels like driving through a traffic jam. The worst is when there's a 3rd AI around, who's at peace with both sides, and chokes up everything with his units that are just meandering around.

Yeah, I'm finding that combat can get really, really tedious. There are so many guys that I have to spend like 5 hours fighting to advance several hexes in position

 

[Numi]

I have a question or 2, do you think the AI pays maintenance on its units? also on the topic of those crap cities that they keep making, do AI deal with happiness?

 

[Dark_MadMax]

Freshly settled: The AI on Deity clearly has no trouble settling garbage cities.

Yeah I noticed that too. Liz settles every friggin free spot. She settled 4 cities in tundra/snow 3-4 hexes apart . If I ever get to them they are razed for sure

 

[pi-r8]

I have a question or 2, do you think the AI pays maintenance on its units? also on the topic of those crap cities that they keep making, do AI deal with happiness?

They do, but on deity they get about 50% discount on everything. So they deal with the costs pretty easily.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Looking at those pics makes my head ache... stacks of doom seem vastly preferable to barriers of doom. Hopefully they'll do something about that - it just looks stupid (not to mention how tedious it would be to take them out).

 

[aimlessgun]

I was the one who won that game. It was a diplomatic victory as Siam.

My basic strategy was to tech straight for the Diplomatic victory and ignore the lower half of the tech tree, relying on city states to boost my food, culture, and science. I never even researched Metallurgy or Railroad.

Funny, I just did the same thing (greeks instead though).

The AI plays unbelievably passive to you if you just chill out and don't attack anyone, and manage your diplomacy right.

 

[alpaca]

lol just another reason not to play on Deity

It's already pretty bad in the ancient era but in modern times...

The AI plays passive on Archipelago. On Pangaea you'll usually get your fair share of DoWs

 

[lilnev]

The AI plays unbelievably passive to you if you just chill out and don't attack anyone, and manage your diplomacy right.

See, this is the part I don't get. 3 out of 4 games so far, I've been DoW'ed before 1600 BC. The AI shows up with 8 or 10 units, and I either get steamrolled or I barely manage to fend them off, but they keep sending more and meanwhile I'm not expanding, so I just fall further behind until I quit.

I've had my nearest neighbor Hostile as early as turn 6, on the grounds that my army looks weak. Of course it looks weak! It's turn 6! I couldn't have built a second warrior if I'd wanted to. And once they give that warning, I haven't found any way to turn their opinion around. They won't trade, form pacts, etc. It's like they're in WHEOOHRN at that point. Two of those three early DoWs followed this script. The third, I settled 8 tiles away from his city, and he decided that I was encroaching. Cancel our pact of cooperation, turn hostile, DoW, it all felt inevitable.

Am I missing something? Or have I just gotten unlucky so far? The one game where they DoW'ed each other instead of me, I feel like I'm keeping up OK. So far, at least, it's still early.

 

[Show]

The computer is a cheating bastard.

Spoiler :

Am I missing something? Or have I just gotten unlucky so far? The one game where they DoW'ed each other instead of me, I feel like I'm keeping up OK. So far, at least, it's still early.

As for DoW... generally I never have problems with that and declare war myself by 1600-1300 BC. on that game the screen was taken from it was max AI on small pangea, settled next to people and built no military whatsoever, and they didn't DoW until 2000 bc and those were pretty much extreme conditions. Also do you keep your warrior to garrison in your city ? if not the AI might consider your city "defenseless" or something like that.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The computer is a cheating bastard.

Spoiler :

Just in case you weren't aware, this is already well-known to Deity players. In civ games it's not unusual for the AIs to receive more free units the higher in difficulty you go. Especially at the hardest difficulty where the AI players typically get a free settler in their list of gamestart goodies.

Calling it a cheat usually doesn't make for any useful discussions.

I do wish the developers would document it properly though, so that when people discover these things they don't go create a new thread in the forum "Proof the AI cheats!!!11!"

 

[Show]

Just in case you weren't aware, this is already well-known to Deity players. In civ games it's not unusual for the AIs to receive more free units the higher in difficulty you go. Especially at the hardest difficulty where the AI players typically get a free settler in their list of gamestart goodies.

Calling it a cheat usually doesn't make for any useful discussions.

I do wish the developers would document it properly though, so that when people discover these things they don't go create a new thread in the forum "Proof the AI cheats!!!11!"

You need a sense of humor, badly.

As far as I know this is the first post in here about the exact composure of the deity AI at spawn(which some people might be interested in as it's possible to capture this 2nd settler even on regular maps), it's just a funny title as "computer is a cheating bastard" is generally a well-known expression on the net.