Deity guide

[Shadowsong]

This is a guide for Civ 4 (patch 1.61) Deity level. In this guide, I will go through all victory conditions in Deity and show strategies for each of them. Deity was the first difficulty I played after I bought the game, and since then I have explored various tactics for each victory condition. This guide is intended to use the easiest and most effective strategies to win. Our goal is simply to win, winning with certain settings, quick finishes and milking will not be discussed here.

The key to a Deity win is mainly war. The AI has such big bonuses, there is no way to race with them. They tech, produce and expand so much faster than you. However, by razing their cities, their bonuses are neutralized. The best maps for war are Team_Battleground, Balanced, Pangaea and Great_Plains. Further info on these maps in this link. If you are playing Hall of Fame, Team_Battleground and Balanced are not allowed. Anyway, it does not affect our chances of winning.

See some of my submitted games here as proof that my strategies work:
Hall of Fame
Beta Hall of Fame

 

[Shadowsong]

Conquest

IMO, the easiest of all victory conditions in Deity level. Since you still would be declaring war, this is the core of the whole guide (How to fight a war). There are many tactics of winning Deity by Conquest, however I will only provide two of them. Both guarantee you a win, don't worry.

Strategy 1:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: Inca
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny too.)
Map type: Team_Battleground (Four corners) or Great_Plains
Era: Ancient
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs. Bismarck works too.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Unchecked

Note: Team_Battleground is easier so unless you are playing Hall of Fame, consider not playing Great_Plains.

Before I begin, check the map guide if you are not familiar with Four corners. Ok, let's begin. Make sure you start in the middle of the map or at least close to the crossing. If not, regenerate map until you get that start position. During the first turn, do not settle! Start scouting with your settler towards the opposite side of the map, move your Quechua the same direction. Soon, you will see the AI's scout(s) appear. (If you didn't make contact after three turns, restart.) Head towards the direction the scout(s) came from and you will find the AI's capital. Note: If the AI already founded their 2nd city, restart . You will see their 2nd settler moving out, follow up with your own settler. Once your Quechua has reached the border of the capital, locate a worker and attack it. Meanwhile settle your city in a position so the AI's 2nd settler won't be able to settle (2 tiles) in 2 turns. Don't worry about the archers, they won't attack you . Now move the captured worker to a tile adjacent to the capital. Make sure that tile does not have any road! Now hit enter, the next turn the AI would have attacked the worker so now there is only 1 archer defending. Take him out with your Quechua (20% chance success). If you are lucky you will win.

3835 BC Deity Duel Conquest.
3520 BC Deity Tiny Conquest.

Strategy 2

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: Roman
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny and Small too.)
Map type: Team_Battleground (Four corners) or Pangaea. (Either way, choose Temperate.)
Era: Ancient
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Unchecked

This strategy is much less luck dependent. It's called Praetorian rush and all you have to do is this:
Settle on the first turn and start producing a worker. Set research on Bronze Working and explore with your warrior. Try to find as many huts as possible. When the map is out of huts, scout the AI's capital location. When your worker is done, build another worker. Have your first woker to improve any tile but make sure he is placed in a forest within your fat cross when Bronze Working is researched. Set The Wheel as research and chop 1 forest (that yield 60 hammers) to finish your 2nd worker. When the 2nd worker is produced build a settler. Chop 1 forest to hurry that settler, only 1. When you have The Wheel start researching Iron Working. If your settler finishes before you have Iron Working, build a barracks. Meanwhile pre-chop some forests with your workers. After Iron Working is researched, set research to 0%. Use your 2nd settler to hook up Iron and hook that city up with your capital. Now start building Praetorians, chop all pre-chopped forests and when you have 5 Praetorians with City Raider promotion it's time to attack. If you did not build barracks, attack when you have 7 Praetorians. Raze every city you capture and it's a win. If the AI has Axemen, locate their Copper source and pillage it. This strategy works well for Tiny and Small maps too. PS: No anarchy is required.

1040 BC Deity Small Conquest.
160 BC Deity Duel Conquest.

 

[Shadowsong]

Domination

Depending on the map size, Domination is slightly more difficult than Conquest, the smaller the map is. But if the map gets too large, it will become too hard, so here are two strategies for Duel maps. (It works for Tiny and Small too but requires very much skills .)

Strategy 1:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: Mongolia, Kublai Khan
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny and Small too.)
Map type: Team_Battleground (Four corners)
Era: Ancient
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

The start is the same as Conquest, settle and build a worker. Research Mining and then Bronze Working. Meanwhile, use your worker to build roads toward the AI's cities. When your 1st worker is ready, build a barracks. When Bronze Working is done, put research to 0% and chop a worker. When the 2nd worker is built, bulid a settler if you do not have Copper within your border. Hook up Copper and start chopping Axemen. Give all Axemen Cover followed by City Raider promotions. When you have around 7 Axemen with Cover, declare war and capture the cities. Leave the AI with a poor located city and make peace. Wait for your borders to expand and win.

1490 BC Deity Duel Domination.

Strategy 2:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: Roman
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny and Small too.)
Map type: Team_Battleground (Four corners)
Era: Ancient
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

Settle and start building a worker in your capital. Reaserch Bronze working followed by The Wheel and Iron Working. Chop another worker and pre-chop as many forests as you can. When you finish Iron Working, set research to 0% and start chopping Praetorians. Of course, hook up Iron with your 2nd settler. If you already have Iron in your capital build your second city in an area with lots of forests. This time, do not chop all forests, save 40% of them. When you have 5 City Raider promoted Praetorians or 7 non promoted praetorians, declare war. Now start building settlers instead of Praetorians in your cities. Capture as many cities you can without being out of money. If the AI has built Stonehenge, capture that city. If not it's ok, we can still win . As soon as you chop a settler, put him in position. (Put him somewhere to settle but do not settle!) Leave the AI with a poor located city and make peace. Settle all settlers and win. Note: If you did not win after settle it's ok if you have Stonehenge. Otherwise, you need to restart, so make sure you reach the land limit % before settling.

1330 BC Deity Tiny Domination.
1420 BC Deity Duel Domination.

 

[Shadowsong]

Cultural victory

Cultural is my least preferred victory condition. However, I am still able to win.

Strategy 1:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: Roman
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny too.)
Map type: Team_Battleground (Four corners) or Pangaea.
Era: Ancient
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs. Victoria works too.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

The start is the same as Conquest, settle and build a worker. Research Bronze Working and then The Wheel and Iron Working. When Bronze Working is done, chop a worker. When the 2nd worker is built, bulid a settler if you do not have Iron within your border. Hook up Iron and pre-chop some forests. Now beeline Mathematics while building as many Praetorians as you can without chops. When Mathematics is ready chop all forests for Praetorians and move them to your borders. Put research to 0%. Declare war and raze all captured cities except one. Have a settler ready and settle in the middle of either desert or tundra. Gift the city to the AI for peace, but after 10 turns declare war again and raze the AI's last city (Not your gift). Surround your gift with Praetorians and starve the city. Note: If the AI is not down to one city by 1200-1400 BC, you are too slow . Now build a third settler and settle somewhere near any coast. Important: If you settle in the middle of the map you risk to achieve Domination as your borders grow huge. Build as many wonders as possible, but do not build all wonders in one place. Beeline Liberalism, use Nationalism as free tech. Adopt Representaion, Free speech, Caste system, Mercantilism and Pacifism as soon as possible. After Liberalism, turn Culture to 100% and wait for your win.

1875 AD Deity Duel Cultural.

Strategy 2:

Although I know a peaceful Culture win in Deity is possible, I have no experience from that myself. Anyway, here is a good Deity Culture article.

 

[Shadowsong]

Space Race

Space Race is basically divided into two tactics. Peaceful/not peaceful . On larger maps, peaceful is the way to go, but for Duel war is best.

Strategy 1:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: India, Asoka or Gandhi
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny and Small too.)
Map type: Pangaea
Era: Future
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits. Victoria works too.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

Since you have all techs researched by starting in the Future era, see the map. Are there any Oil resources in the opposite area? If there are, regenerate map. As soon as there are no Oil in the area where the AI start, we can begin. Turn 1: Settle your capital, move your remaining settlers to key resources such as Aluminium and Oil. Coal is the 3rd important resource . Have 2 of your Fast workers work tiles in your capital and the 3rd Fast worker connect your three cities. Change civics to: Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, Mercantilism and Free religion. Move your Mech Infantries to your cities closest to where the AI might start. The first thing you build in a city is always factory. The last thing is to put research to 0%. After a few turns religion will be founded. Now, switch civics to State property and Organized religion. Also choose your State religion now. Make sure your spread it to all your cities. After a while when most key improvements are built, switch civics to Universal suffrage and Emancipation. Buy any factory not ready and build a barracks in every city. If you have any Great Engineer, rush The Pentagon or The Three Gorges Dam. Otherwise start building Modern Armors. Once you have more than 5 promoted Modern Armors, declare war. Give your new units Pinch followed by City Raider promotions. Raze all captured cities except 1. Do not make peace, surround the last city with Modern Armors to make all tiles unworkable. Now start building the Apollo program followed by Spaceship parts. Note: Be careful to not over expand in the beginning. If you do, you will probably achieve Domination instead.

Strategy 2:

Settings:
Game speed: Quick
Civ: India, Gandhi
Map size: Tiny or larger
Map type: Pangaea
Era: Future
AIs: 2 or more, Peter is preferred because of his traits. Victoria works too. Otherwise it does not matter.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

The peaceful way of winning is not as safe . Settle down, send your other settlers to hook up key resources like Aluminium and Copper. Coal is also very important . During your first turn, set production on settler and chop a forest to rush it. Switch your civics to Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, Mercantilism and Free Religion. Set research to 0% and finish the turn. When your settler is out settle anywhere quickly. Move 2 of your Fast workers to your city with most forests (Not capital). Chop all except 4 forests for settlers, chop the remaining 2 for Fast workers. Meanwhile set production on theatre in all cities. If you have any happiness problems, turn culture up 10% (More if necessary). After you have more than 400 gold, switch civics to Universal suffrage and Environmentalism. Rush buy any theatres not ready, otherwise start building a factory. Chop forests outside the fat cross to hurry production, but do not clear cut. We need to save some for lumbermills and spaceship parts . Have some of your Fast workers to work tiles in your capital, while the rest chop rush Fast workers from your new cities. Make sure you have at least 6 cities with good tiles before Apollo program is finished. As soon as you have the factories ready, rush (Chop or buy) Coal plant (Hydro plant if possible). After that is done have your capital building Apollo program. Btw, you should have Aluminium hooked up by now. Meanwhile, build Observatory followed by Lab in your other cities. As soon as Apollo program is ready, rush Observatory and Lab in your capital. Use your Great Engineer to rush the Space elevator in your capital or your second production city. Now, start building the spaceship parts. Always begin building the hardest parts in your most productive cities. If any part takes more than 20 turns to build, don't bother building it in that city. If you don't have Copper yet, leave those parts alone. After the hardest parts are finished, start the Thrusters followed by the Casings. You will catch up very fast with the AIs. Note: You do not have time to build the Scotland yard, do not waste your time. Warning: This strategy is risky and does not always work. If the AI declares war on you, restart .

1726 AD Deity Duel Space.
1679 AD Deity Standard Space.
1910 AD Deity Huge Space.

 

[Shadowsong]

Time

Time victory looks impossible because you will either win or lose before 2050 AD. But the thing is, it is possible, it just requires some quick thinking. Anyway, there is only 1 strategy for this condition.

Strategy:

Settings:
Game speed: Quick
Civ: India, Asoka or Gandhi
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny and Small too.)
Map type: Pangaea
Era: Future
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits. Victoria works too.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

Since you have all techs researched by starting in the Future era, see the map. Are there any Oil resources in the opposite area? If there are, regenerate map. As soon as there are no Oil in the area where the AI start, we can begin. Turn 1: Settle your capital, move your remaining settlers to key resources such as Aluminium and Oil. Coal is the 3rd important resource . Have 2 of your Fast workers work tiles in your capital and the 3rd Fast worker connect your three cities. Change civics to: Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, Mercantilism and Free religion. Move your Mech Infantries to your cities closest to where the AI might start. The first thing you build in a city is always factory. The last thing is to put research to 0%. After a few turns religion will be founded. Now, switch civics to State property and Organized religion. Also choose your State religion now. Make sure your spread it to all your cities. After a while when most key improvements are built, switch civics to Universal suffrage and Emancipation. Buy any factory not ready and build a settler. Have the rest of your cities building Fast workers. By now you should have access to both Oil and Aluminium. Start building The Pentagon in your production city. Note: It also works if you build The Three Gorges Dam instead. Meanwhile, build a barracks in the rest of the cities. If you have a Great Engineer, rush your wonder. Now, after your wonder is finished, switch civics to Vassalage and Theocracy. Rush buy the barracks and build Modern Armors in your cities. Give all Modern Armors Pinch and City Raider promotions. When you have more than 5 Modern Armors, declare war. Concentrate your units by using all of them (Not your defending Mech Infantries.) to attack the same city. Always choose the closest and the least defended city. Leave the AI with a poor located city and make peace. Watch out for the Domination limit. If you are getting close, gift your city away. Play until 2050 AD and you have won.

18738 points Deity Duel Time.
11655 points Deity Tiny Time.
24049 points Deity Tiny Time.

 

[Shadowsong]

Diplomatic

The first strategy is to vote yourself a win while the second requires true diplomatic skills.

Strategy 1:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: India, Asoka or Gandhi
Map size: Duel (Works for Tiny too.)
Map type: Pangaea
Era: Future
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits. Victoria works too.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Checked

Since you have all techs researched by starting in the Future era, see the map. Are there any Oil resources in the opposite area? If there are, regenerate map. As soon as there are no Oil in the area where the AI start, we can begin. Turn 1: Settle your capital, move your remaining settlers to key resources such as Aluminium and Oil. Coal is the 3rd important resource . Have 2 of your Fast workers work tiles in your capital and the 3rd Fast worker connect your three cities. Change civics to: Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, Mercantilism and Free religion. Move your Mech Infantries to your cities closest to where the AI might start. The first thing you build in a city is always factory. The last thing is to put research to 0%. After a few turns religion will be founded. Now, switch civics to State property and Organized religion. Also choose your State religion now. Make sure your spread it to all your cities. After a while when most key improvements are built, switch civics to Universal suffrage and Emancipation. Buy any factory not ready and build a barracks in every city. If you have any Great Engineer, rush The Pentagon. Otherwise start building Modern Armors. Once you have more than 5 promoted Modern Armors, declare war. Give your new units Pinch followed by City Raider promotion. Raze all captured cities except 1. Do not make peace, surround the last city with Modern Armors to make all tiles unworkable. Now start building the UN. As soon as it is ready, vote yourself a win.

Strategy 2:

Settings:
Game speed: Marathon
Civ: India, Gandhi
Map size: Duel or larger
Map type: Pangaea
Era: Modern
AIs: 1 or more (Preferred are: Mao, Victoria, Elizabeth, Mansa, Cyrus, Bismarck and Julius.)
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Unchecked
No barbarians: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Unchecked

This strategy is a little bit harder. Important: Be careful when you choose your opponents, make sure they have the favorite civics you will use. I suggest using AIs with Represention as their favorite civic. The key is to make the AIs hate each other so they have at least the Cautious attitude. They will have different religions so make sure you use Free religion. Keep the AIs pleased by using their favorite civic, gift key resources like Oil, Coal or Aluminium if necessary. Note: Never invest in your rival, that AI will never vote for you.

The peaceful way of winning is not as safe . Settle down, send your other settlers to hook up key resources like Aluminium and Copper. Coal is also very important . During your first turn, set production on settler and chop a forest to rush it. Switch your civics to Representation, Bureaucracy, Serfdom, State Property and Free Religion. Set research to 0% and finish the turn. When your settler is out settle anywhere quickly. Move 2 of your Fast workers to your city with most forests (Not capital). Chop 1 forest for a Fast worker. Meanwhile set production on Library in all cities. Follow up by Observatory and University . When your last Library is finished switch civics to Universal Suffrage and Emancipation. Have your Fast workers to build cottages on every workable tile. (Of course build mines on hills and hook up necessary resources.) Build lumbermills in all forests. Rush buy Observatory and University, meanwhile make sure one of your city is using an engineer specialist. When your second Observatory is finished, set research to 100% and beeline Radio (Use 10% culture if necessary.). If your Great Engineer finishes, let him stand by in your production city. When Radio is finished research Mass Media. Your Fast workers should have improved all tiles now. Use your Fast workers to farm any tile within any fat cross, but do not finish. Pre-farm the tile . When you have researched Mass Media, set research to 0% and Culture to as much as necessary. Hurry production with your Great Engineer and finish the UN. Now farm all tiles and vote for secretary. See how many votes you recieves, make sure every AI except your rival is voting for you. Now, select diplomatic victory and win.

Hints: To improve relations make sure you:
Trade with the right AIs.
Gift Radio or Mass Media for free.
Sign pacts but be careful, we do not want to upset anyone else.
Always have open borders.
Always have the AIs' favorite civic.
Have better relations with the AIs than your rival. (If your rival has "Pleased", you need "Friendly".)
Gift key resources, but be careful to not upset someone.

1612 AD Deity Duel Diplomatic.
1612 AD Deity Small Diplomatic.
1600 AD Deity Standard Diplomatic.
1848 AD Deity Large Diplomatic.

 

[Shadowsong]

Thanks to Dianthus and Kalleyao, the order of the victory conditions.

There are six differnet victory conditions.

Now here's my question. What happens if you reach all victory conditions at the same time?

Imagine it's year 2049 AD, one turn left until you win by time. Now, during this turn your modern armours will take over the last AIs cities and by doing that you reach the domnination land %.

Also, the UN election is held this turn and you vote yourself a diplomatic victory because you have almost all population in the world.

You already have two cities with legendary culture and you have a city currently at 49900 with 500 culture per turn so you will achive cultural next turn.

One of your cities is producing the last space ship part with one turn left to be finished.

The next turn is year 2050 which means a time victory.

So which victory condition will you win by?
Is it conquest and if it is, what is the order after that?

I believe the order is the same as the order in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml, so that would be:

1. Score
2. Time
3. Conquest
4. Domination
5. Cultural
6. Space Race
7. Diplomatic

Score isn't enabled by default for single player games. So, that means you would get a Time victory.

Thanks for taking your time to read my guide , I hope it was helpful . Feel free to comment or ask any questions . I will do my best to answer them.

 

[Shadowsong]

Reserved for future use.

 

[pi-r8]

Wow... those conquest/domination strategies are really, really lame. All you've done is rigged the map settings so as to take away the challenge from deity.

 

[Kalleyao]

Well written Shadowsong!!! Thanks for improving my skills.

 

[mudd]

I won my first Deity game. Thank you!

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Era: Future
AIs: 1, Peter is preferred because of his traits and starting techs. Victoria works too.

Since you have all techs researched by starting in the Future era

If all the techs are researched, why on earth would you care what Peter's starting techs are?

 

[Shadowsong]

If all the techs are researched, why on earth would you care what Peter's starting techs are?

Right , thanks for pointing that out.

 

[VirusMonster]

Nice article! Some cheesy strats, but I always wondered how people pull of such fast conquest wins. Overall, I rate 5stars, because it is a nice collection of tactics.

 

[Sullla]

Hey, nice work here. It does appear though that the key to winning is to set up, umm, EXTREMELY selective situations on the map where the AI's Deity bonuses are negated. Since you've put a lot of time and effort into this, I don't want to call this cheezy. Let me ask you a question, therefore, if I may.

Let's say I set up a Deity game on fairly standard map parameters: Standard size, Continents script, 6 AI opponents, Normal game speed - playing whatever start you get without reloading the map. Shadowsong, what would be your advice on how to win on Deity in this more conventional setup? I'd be really interested to hear what you have to say, since I've won on all levels except Deity so far.

 

[Shadowsong]

Well written Shadowsong!!! Thanks for improving my skills.

Nice article! Some cheesy strats, but I always wondered how people pull of such fast conquest wins. Overall, I rate 5stars, because it is a nice collection of tactics.

Hey, nice work here.

Thanks.

I won my first Deity game. Thank you!

Congrats.

Let me ask you a question, therefore, if I may.

Let's say I set up a Deity game on fairly standard map parameters: Standard size, Continents script, 6 AI opponents, Normal game speed - playing whatever start you get without reloading the map. Shadowsong, what would be your advice on how to win on Deity in this more conventional setup? I'd be really interested to hear what you have to say, since I've won on all levels except Deity so far.

Alright, we will eliminate Conquest, Domination, Space Race and Time. So the 2 remaining victories are Cultural and Diplomatic. I will start on these guides soon. Btw, a Deity win is not hard, meanwhile I am working on the Cultural and Diplomatic strategies, try one of my other strategies.

 

[Sullla]

I'm not sure you understood my point. I KNOW you can win on Deity if you setup the map so the AI can't fight back. Naturally you can beat the AI by playing one-on-one on a Duel map (on the unbalanced Marathon speed) and reloading until you get the perfect setup. I know you can do that, and your guides demonstrate how to do this admirably. Like I said, they are very good work!

I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to win under more normal circumstances; that is, a normal map script, Normal game speed, normal number of opponents, leaving all victory conditions on the table, etc. I don't mean this in an unfriendly way, I'd just love to hear whatever advice you could give. I have very little experience with Deity myself.

 

[Shadowsong]

I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to win under more normal circumstances; that is, a normal map script, Normal game speed, normal number of opponents, leaving all victory conditions on the table, etc. I don't mean this in an unfriendly way, I'd just love to hear whatever advice you could give. I have very little experience with Deity myself.

Ok, but I do not know if this will work 100%. And I do not know if you like this strategy but anyway.

Settings:
Game speed: Normal
Civ: Roman
Map size: Standard
Map type: Continents
Era: Ancient
AIs: 6, No aggressive AIs.
Difficulty: Deity
Other options:
No city razing: Checked
No barbarians: Checked
Permanent alliances: Checked
Lock modified assets: Checked
Require Complete Kills: Unchecked
(As you see, it is very hard to win with normal settings. )

Anyway, do the Praetorian rush as described in the Conquest section. Try to eliminate as many other civs on your continent as possible. Make sure you are friendly with the civ you do not attack. Adopt their religion or anything else necessary. Make sure you conquer the other civs before you are out of money. Then just wait until your neighbour to research Military tradition and sign a Defensive pact. After a few turns the AI will hopefully accept Permanent alliance. Then you will recieve every tech the AI has and adopt State property. With your economy recovered, you can start producing units. Now, it is much easier to win. Vote yourself a victory or build a Spaceship.

 

[Sullla]

Thanks for responding (twice!) I don't think a Permanent Alliance was really what I had in mind, but I'm glad to hear that there really is no easy way to win on Deity. That would disappoint me on a lot of levels.