Deity Domination

[hix]

I have managed to win diplo and culture on deity difficulty, but am having trouble with a domination. Just can't seem to keep up with the ridiculous AI production, quantity keeps beating quality.

I have tried Keshik rush, Babylon sword rush, etc. Can reliably win the first war now, at great length, but it takes all my production and cash, and I can rarely compete for the second war, nevermind anything after that.

I use RA's extensively, and can usually keep up in tech until the war.

Any tips from the players out there, other than the obvious core of well-promoted troops fighting an oligarchy war?

 

[Smote]

Longsword rush and rifle rush work best for me. Longsword because AI usually builds too many ranged/pikemen then doesn't use them well. Rifles for similar reasons. Everything gets harder once AI has rifles, because they stop having the option of building pointless units [besides cannons which almost never shoot].

Next opportunity is artillery, if you can RA to it fast. Hopefully you won't need more than that to win.

Building a core of super-elite troops is always key to defeating AI. Any alternative means:

1. You haven't been warring.
2. You have been losing too many troops.

I am curious why you dislike Oligarchy? It helps for those multi-front wars, because you can defend one front with 2 units while you attack on the other front.

 

[DaveMcW]

I have tried Keshik rush

You must be doing something wrong. The only things that stops my Keshik rush are happiness and oceans.

Are you using 8+ Keshiks? What date do you get Chivalry?

 

[HideInLight]

Yea I usually have a problem winning it too. It usually ends up with me wiping out 2-3 civs, having the biggest empire in the world, but someone like Alexander who have taken out a couple civs too has about the same sized empire, is slightly further in tech and has like 5 times the money I have. Obviously the moment he builds United Nations its game over.
The successfull games are when I manage to completely destroy my first enemy in like couple turns and am ahead technologically very early, but that doesnt happen too often.

 

[vexing]

what speed are you playing at? the slower the speed the easier it'll be, i would avoid quick.

 

[Airey]

Are you using 8+ Keshiks? What date do you get Chivalry?

Date doesn't matter with enough Keshiks, even on Deity. The 8+ Keshiks together are key
I don't think he techs that slow that AIs are in modern age already

 

[Smote]

what speed are you playing at? the slower the speed the easier it'll be, i would avoid quick.

On quick:

As a rule of thumb:
1. Invade guy next to you with longswords.
2. Send settler, army to highest tech AI, upgrade and invade with rifles immediately
3. Clean up everyone else with rifles. Kill AIs in order of their tech level.
4. Liberally declare war if you have siege weapons, it creates many free kills. All AIs are your opponents anyways, after you get riflemen. If possible, try to make all AIs eachothers opponents as well. A global free for all is most favorable to the human.

 

[mekane]

On quick:

As a rule of thumb:
1. Invade guy next to you with longswords.
2. Send settler, army to highest tech AI, upgrade and invade with rifles immediately
3. Clean up everyone else with rifles. Kill AIs in order of their tech level.
4. Liberally declare war if you have siege weapons, it creates many free kills. All AIs are your opponents anyways, after you get riflemen. If possible, try to make all AIs eachothers opponents as well. A global free for all is most favorable to the human.

Thanks smote, these are the kind of tips that I find helpful. Is there a concrete way to tell what tech level the AI is other than that once-a-game popup that shows how much tech each civ has completed?

Also, I have trouble with happinness... i've only burned a couple of the enemy cities, do you end up razing most cities? or do you only go for their capitals, or just luxyr resources you don't already have?

 

[Smote]

Thanks smote, these are the kind of tips that I find helpful. Is there a concrete way to tell what tech level the AI is other than that once-a-game popup that shows how much tech each civ has completed?

Kill whoever has the highest literacy on the demographics screen. If its you, kill whoever once had the highest, or else just the guy that makes the most gold per turn.

Also, I have trouble with happinness... i've only burned a couple of the enemy cities, do you end up razing most cities? or do you only go for their capitals, or just luxyr resources you don't already have?

I don't like the happiness effects of razing cities, so I generally give them to the weakest AI, who I will kill his capital last, so it doesn't really matter. Sometimes the AIs will even pay you for cities you don't want. Sometimes the AI will even raze the cities for you. Keep the good ones that are helpful to your economy. Check out what buildings are in each city to know if it is useful or not. Cities without a pre-built collosseum frequently aren't, unless they have wonders or excellent land.

Sometimes its even worth giving away your first-conquered cities, if they have bad land, even if you've owned them for 75 turns. Don't get too attached to any city! All of them are merely tools that help you towards victory. A puppet can serve his purpose, making a lot of gold and some science for a while, and then be scrapped for a bigger, better puppet, complete with a new luxury and a couple new wonders.

The thing about deity is you're always losing until you win.

 

[mekane]

Kill whoever has the highest literacy on the demographics screen. If its you, kill whoever once had the highest, or else just the guy that makes the most gold per turn.



I don't like the happiness effects of razing cities, so I generally give them to the weakest AI, who I will kill his capital last, so it doesn't really matter. Sometimes the AIs will even pay you for cities you don't want. Sometimes the AI will even raze the cities for you. Keep the good ones that are helpful to your economy. Check out what buildings are in each city to know if it is useful or not. Cities without a pre-built collosseum frequently aren't, unless they have wonders or excellent land.

Sometimes its even worth giving away your first-conquered cities, if they have bad land, even if you've owned them for 75 turns. Don't get too attached to any city! All of them are merely tools that help you towards victory. A puppet can serve his purpose, making a lot of gold and some science for a while, and then be scrapped for a bigger, better puppet, complete with a new luxury and a couple new wonders.

The thing about deity is you're always losing until you win.

Thats a lot Smote, I noticed you can't raze cities that you had puppeted anymore, but I never though of selling cities, I'll have to give that a try, I definitely have some worthless cities. It would be nice if I could control the size of the puppet cities better until they build coliseums. I should probably replace the pre-existing farms with trading posts to slow growth.

 

[Ironlyon]

A couple tips for setting up for your war as well, you may do this already. But once you declare war on the AI they will send units in waves. If you set up your army prior with good position, then it is easy to pick them off and lose very few if any of your own units.

In the early wars I will start attack with 3 melee, 2 horses and 3 or 4 ranged.

Horses = kill ranged/kill some non pikeman melee /low hp units
Ranged = Kill everything/wear down cities
Melee = Kill everything/Meat shields (defend with defensive modifiers)/take low hp cities

If it is an AI that borders you (Likely in the early going), then set up along their border of your closest city or a place that looks like they will encroach on you. If you can grab a city in a turn or two then focus on it so you can eliminate their multipliers and increase yours (fighting in friendly territory etc). Otherwise just set up so you are out of range of their city.

If it is away from your civ then choose choke points and land that benefits you and your ranged. So you want ranged being able to hit their units ending a turn within range, use mounted units along the flanks to take out the ranged that they send at you and use melee to clean up ranged or any other units within your "attack zone". And use them fortified in front of the ranged as meat shields, but even they won't get attacked often if set up correctly.

Focus fire and don't leave enemy units at low Health, or they will A) retreat or B) likely do a HP full heal promotion and be able to attack. Both cases wasted your round of attacks.

In between their waves gradually move your troops forward until you can set up for a city.

Rinse and repeat. Works ok even if they are a tier ahead in tech.

 

[ChuckVader]

Thats a lot Smote, I noticed you can't raze cities that you had puppeted anymore.

You actually can raze a puppeted city, you just have to annex it first. Sometimes I'll puppet a city if razing it immediately would push my happiness to -10 (Very Unhappy), then annex/raze it later once my happiness is higher.

Also, getting the "Theocracy" SP under the Piety tree helps a lot for reducing unhappiness in a growing empire.