Deity Fun

[Bjarkov]

I am new to Deity, having played a handful of Deity games and ditched most, I've managed to win a 600AD domination with Incas. So I decided to move a little further out of my IMM comfort zone to try this one out. (I really dislike Cyrus as a leader so this is good for learning)

Spoiler :

Played to 125 AD. Got pretty much the same cities up as everyone else (SIP, got Rice, Stone and southern helper cities up and backfilled with fish and clam city), went for early Writing this time but wasn't able to fastbuild libraries outside my cap and got started late on the GS. Founded Academy in ~500 B.C. and caught up in tech by trading Compass for Currency, CoL, Calendar and Monarcy, then self-teched CS and traded it around for Aes and Metal Casting. Tech then went paper, as Lib is definitely possible (Church is the only with philo, none have paper) I have enough gold stashed to run 250 BPT for 30 turns and a GS coming out in 9 turns. Edu takes 10 to research so i think I have time to take a minor detour in order to secure horses from Mansa: Machinery into MacePult expansion.

Diplomatic situation:
Julius, Qin and Churchill are neck-by-neck at 10-12 cities.
Churchill has a small-ish tech lead, good land and good wonders. need to watch out for him
Qin and Julius just decided to settle their differences on the battlefield. Both are pleased to me and in WFYABTA mode
Mansa is hated by everyone else but decided it wasn't enough and DoW'ed me around 800 B.C., suicided a bunch of HAs on my freshly whipped spears, giving me a GG and then a 100g peace settlement. Never did anything to piss him off, what gives? I am coming for him first thing to wipe him and be on par in land with the other AIs
Nappy is pleased to me, is behind the other AIs for now but has some decent wonders. I fear he will prepare an invasion on me any turn since my military is pitiful and he does that kind of thing
There are currently 4 factions of religion between 5 AI. JC has spread happy buddhism to all my cities but I have not yet declared a state religion for diplomatic reasons. I'm trying to be Sweden in WWII

Trade:
I get ~35 GPT through (mostly) health ressource trading. Some of my cities are becoming unhealthy now but I think it is worth it. AIs are finally starting to generate some gold and I am able to broker some of the techs I receive through other trades for gold, keeping me well afloat. Mansa is a nice candidate here as he is completely isolated, being W.E. of everyone and hating somebody else. He shall be missed..

Status:
Gained tech parity (at least for techs that count)
Ahead in lib-race, paper monopoly
Bureau-Academy capitol established
Settled 1 GG in my HE-city-to-be (stone city)
relatively peaceful relations with everyone, very few maluses due to not running a religion
Running 250 BPT at very low deficit with big gold stash

To-Do:
Establish HE-city
Establish NE GP-farm (TGL is out of reach, too bad )
Tech Machinery
Kill Mansa and secure horses

Then bulb edu, try and trade for philo (or just tech) and try to lib MT, kill or vassal Churchill before he runs away then proceed to stomp my other neighbours. Cyrus has two warmonger traits and it is soon time to put them to use. I can't wait to see my the level of my GG city units in the end

 

[georgjorge]

@Bjarkov: Good job, especially on fending off an attack (if only from Mansa) while in the build-up phase!

I wouldn't bother at all with the National Epic in your game, not in 125AD and without Marble - you want as many Great People as possible before Liberalism, and thus want to run Caste + many Scientists NOW rather than work hammer tiles for building the Epic. After Liberalism, you don't want to run many specialists but rather whip away everything for troops, and you can only bulb Printing Press on your way to Cavalry anyway.

 

[Bjarkov]

@Bjarkov: Good job, especially on fending off an attack (if only from Mansa) while in the build-up phase!

I wouldn't bother at all with the National Epic in your game, not in 125AD and without Marble - you want as many Great People as possible before Liberalism, and thus want to run Caste + many Scientists NOW rather than work hammer tiles for building the Epic. After Liberalism, you don't want to run many specialists but rather whip away everything for troops, and you can only bulb Printing Press on your way to Cavalry anyway.

Thanks

Spoiler :

JC approached my border with a rather large stack of praets+pults and gave me a heart-attack before he moved on to DoW Mansa (what is he thinking? He's on the other side of the continent fgs), pushing back any plans of conquest the golden king may have entertained and taking the city of Djenne, settled near the stone, before signing peace again and going for Qin. As Mansa started a new push I got peace and 100g from him due to his abysmal war success. Thanks JC
Djenne is now under massive border pressure and will flip back any day. Gotta love AI silliness

hum, good point. I've shied away from Pac+Caste due to my new-found love for slavery and my fear for committing to the heavily fractioned religious game ( I swear, any choice of religion will make me 1 friend and 3 enemies ), but if I'm honest with myself I'm not whipping all that much any more, what with my happy cap being raised and a lot of my grasslands being cottaged.. What do I need the GSs for post-lib? Wont Optics/Astro take priority in my GS bulbs once Edu is unlocked?

Spoiler :

I feel I need to secure the northern horses from Mansa. I have culture in the tile so I 'just' need to take his city. To me, this gives hammers a priority over GPP atm

 

[Fippy]

What do I need the GSs for post-lib? Wont Optics/Astro take priority in my GS bulbs once Edu is unlocked?

Nopes, Printing Press does (and then SciMe).
PP is good for Rifling. Extra Golden Age person can be useful.

In Astro games (isolated) Civil Service often gets avoided, so no Paper + Edu "steals" bulb options
You have no chance on Astro bulbing anymore if you get CS, countless techs ahead.

You can also bulb Lib if you avoid Machinery trades until then (so no Printing Press), and tech or get Compass (and MC but that should be easy on Pangea). For cannons games Chemistry has rather high bulb priority, but not sure currently what needs to be avoided.

 

[Bjarkov]

So, relating to the game at hand, I've spent my first GS on a capital academy and have one coming out in 9 turns.. I have planned to use that GS for Edu bulb and tech the rest on my own with my decent beaker rate and large treasury.
Would it make sense to burn him (heh.. burning a scientist, and I'm not even running Theocracy!) for a GA instead, switch into a religion and run caste/paci to generate 2-3 GP (GS or GM) while teching my way to lib through specialist beakers?

 

[Doshin]

In my experience, burning a GS to start a Golden Age to generate more GSs is inefficient, unless you can switch into Pacifism. Even then it is far from clear cut.

To take your game:

• GS 1 = Academy
• GS 2 = Golden Age

The third GS (or GM) just replaces the one that you burned to start the GA:

• GS 3 = 300 , i.e. 34 Scientists, which means running ~5 Scientists (for 7 turns) during the GA/Pacifism.

After that, you will gain beakers or gold by generating:

• GS/GM 4 = 400 , i.e. 45 Scientists/Merchants, which means running ~7 per turn (for 7 turns) during a GA, while in Pacifism.
• GS/GM 5 = 500 , i.e. 56 Scientists/Merchants, which means running ~8 per turn (for 7 turns) during a GA, while in Pacifism.

So you need to have three cities with enough food and pop to run 5, 7, and 8 Scientists respectively, while you are in Caste/Pacifism, to come out on top. And even then it is not so simple: the worst of the three cities (the one with enough food to run 5 Scientists per turn) will generate its GS more slowly than the best of the three cities (the one with enough food to run 8 Scientists per turn).

Of course, there are other benefits to starting a Golden Age, namely zero anarchy turns and a boost to your commerce and production.

FWIW, I used the Music Great Artist to start a Golden Age, to switch into Monarchy, Civil Service, Organized Religion, and Judaism, while also generating a second Great Scientist to bulb Liberalism.

In your game, two Great Scientists really should guarantee you Lib, and one will likely be enough (1 = Education; 2 = Liberalism, if you delay Machinery and have Compass).

 

[georgjorge]

A little visit to Mongolia...

Spoiler :

A little visit to England...

Spoiler :

A little visit to Rome...

Spoiler :

A little visit to France...

Spoiler :

(only one of several stacks).

I'll have to conclude my scenic tour by a visit to Mali, and hopefully then have enough land for the win.

However, not everyone values my contribution to this world...

Spoiler :

 

[Fippy]

I see you are doing too well..it's time for something special

 

[Doshin]

Cavalry swept the globe:

Spoiler :

Hill city with Machine Guns and Infantry? :

Spoiler :

Commando + Blitz on one of my veteran Cuirassiers:

Spoiler :

Victory in 1520AD:

Spoiler :

Final stack:

Fun game, as ever. I guess those Charismatic promotions aren't so bad after all.

 

[Bjarkov]

played till 700 AD

Spoiler :

I geared up for Mansa with Machinery and started building some maces and pults after my forges came online. 5 turns after Mach i have 7-8 pults and 4-5 maces without slaving too hard. Nappy moved a stack through my territory in this time and jumped Mansa the turn before I was going to. It suicided on the walls of the first city it encountered, but two turns later it's Mansa vs the world through AP vote (everyone but me voted for the resolution). Nappy has another stack coming through, and Qin is also on the move so I close my borders and win a few crucial turns in which I manage to get the 3 best cities Mansa had to offer (he had 4, I'm up to 9). I get my horses and also got another GG (immortal medic) + most of the 3rd - hooray for imp

Lib is well in the bag so I traded around paper and Edu for everything, got Gunpowder and Nat + PP and a lot of backfill so everything should be ready for some serious Cuir spam while getting the last two techs to rifling.
The diplomatic situation has changed dramatically: Everyone but JC is now hindu and everyone have mutual struggle bonuses from the Mansa wipeout, so it's a great big love-fest right now.. I jumped the Hindu train and harvested love-points big-time, friendly with Nappy and Qin, pleased with KK and Churchill. KK peacevassaled to Churchill not long ago, and the two are happily steaming ahead towards Grenadiers, KK already has MT. JC is in WHEOORHN mode and could be targetting Qin or Nap (I keep hoping for churchill but it isn't happening)

What is next? Churchill/KK is too much to handle right now, they have three times my land and five times my strength and will be matching my cuirs 1:1 with grens and cuirs of their own shortly. Nappy has a few good cities and is relatively weak in military and tech, so he will probably be my first target. Then, when the snowball is rolling, I can reevaluate the Churchill situation and also have a good look at next chapter in the JC/Qin feud to see who is next.

 

[georgjorge]

Phew...I forgot how slow cannon wars were.

Spoiler :

Last two centuries literally consisted of me hitting enter hoping in vain to trigger that last half population percentage point for Domination by growing all my cities . I still would sit there if Qin didn't have mercy and built the UN for a very late diplomatic victory.

 

[dutchfire]

Why can I see workshops if population was your issue? I'd farm everything.

 

[georgjorge]

True, the real issue was laziness. After a millenium of cannon wars, I just wanted to get Domination without any more worker movement or splitting up of armies to prevent revolts in half of my cities. With a bit of effort I could have secured Domination almost right away, but hitting enter seemed less of it (it was late) .

 

[Gwaja]

I am sorry but.... I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.... Give Fippy the most unfair maps and ask her to play it.... Like I always used to do!

Anyways, it's good to see you are still active, Fippy! ^_^