Deity level strategy

[Ferd]

I can see where you could interpret that as being criticism or being preached at. Actually, it wasn't meant that way at all. More of a statement of fact. They have supplied us with several difficulty levels, the hardest of which is deliberately unfair. I certainly don't look down on anyone who doesn't choose to play on the deity level. I'm usually not that masochistic myself. Sorry I came off so arrogant.

I don't consider myself a know-it-all. Maybe a know-it-some. I thought you might like to know that although the manual doesn't tell us which "factors" they tweak to make the difficulties harder (except the "general discontent" of your citizens and the "average craftiness and intelligence of the AI leaders") you can see for yourself the production advantage by using espionage to look at any enemy city.

And I suspect it's not really everyone against you. It's everyone against everyone else. They trade stuff between themselves, and when you get something to trade, they'll trade with you as well. It just takes you longer due to your higher production requirements.

 

[Flynn]

Even if I did have some suggestions, I probably wouldn't share them with you after that. :/

Have a nice day.

 

[mark1030]

It's not a secret that the AI cheats on higher difficulty levels. I think it says it in the manual but I don't have it on me to check. The infocenter on this site says it though:

Below Prince level it cheats for the player, and above Prince level it cheats against the player. At Prince level there is no cheating.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3infocenter.shtml#levels

 

[Cybernut]

No harm meant, no harm done guys ... my fault ... Although, to contradict my previous post, I think that a viable strategy can be easily developed to win at this level.

I think that the AI bias manifests itself until about mid-way through the industrial age when the land-grab stops. Then the AI begins playing against each other for dominance. The key seems to be resource trading. If you haven't got a lot of resources to trade ... cnrl/sht/q ... you aint gonna go nowhere. If you do, you'll have caught up the AI in tech within no time.

My problem is that I've got to the start of the modern age, I have enough resources (virtual monopolies in Dye and Incense) and cash flow to be a tech trader in a limited sense, BUT how to win? I can't compete in the space-race, I'm reliant on blackmailing other civs for tech and my infrastructure is limited due to the limited size of my nation (a residue of the early game bias). The UN is an option, but that's a little unsatisfying. Cultural or histograph victory is out of the question at this level (I think).

The military option is essential when the time is right ... but this is my weak point, so I'll leave that for others' to surmise about.

My point is that it's essential to have a victory target in mind at this level and play for that goal (at some point I should have built a larger military with upgrade capabilies - spearmen become Mech Inf). I didn't and it's probably going to signal defeat in my current game .. live and learn ... that's unless I can find some way to weaken the Greeks ... hmmmmm ... I feel a knive coming close to the back of my "gracious" (and geographically distant) "friends".

 

[tetley]

Hey there Cybernut,

Glad you didn't mean any harm, cause that means we don't have to kick your butt. Just kidding. I've won Deity, but never on a multi-continent map (or at least, with other AI's on it).

Seriously, though, it sounds like the U.N. is indeed your best option. If you don't do that, my next suggestion would be that you start offering the Greeks your crap cities for trade (i.e. "What will you give me for Leipzig?"). Hopefully you can pull a hefty per-turn sum. Wait out the 20 turns (in which he'll probably grow the cities at Deity rate), get whatever mutual protection pacts you can, and launch an all-out surprise attack to take them back. Which should be no problem--they won't have resources, so they should have only Riflemen. Then after you've squelched the resistance, draft some infantry to help brace for the counterattack. Sell the Greeks a peace treaty when you get war weary.

Or better yet, see if you can surprise-attack all his oil (and maybe rubber). If you can bomb & pillage all his oil in one fell swoop, he'll be hurting. If you KEEP denying him oil, he'll be your next vassal. I do that with Iron & Saltpeter all the time, but it sounds like in your case that'll take either a broken Right of Passage or an Aircraft Carrier.

But again, I think U.N. is better.

 

[Killerdaffy]

I just finished this Deity game - 16 civs huge pangaea. The usual setup (I had two cities when everybody else had 10 and no chance to gain anything by culture as american vs. babylonian and egyptians nearby. Only thing I got right was to buy contact to all civs by 2500BC. After some tech-brokering and wars with the babylonians and egyptians (ok, 5 vs 1 wasn't fair but the idea is to kill them in max 5 turns) the whole thing was over in 980AD. Diplomatic victory about 20 turns from space ship launch. The AI will just too easily sell any tech if you offer enough money for it. And that's easy if you immediately sell it to 14 other civs. I had 1800 gold/turn coming in in the middle ages BC. In the end you can even afford to pay the outrageous espionage prices. Being expansionist doesn't hurt but I think this kind of victory is easier on huge map than any other.

 

[Cybernut]

Killer is right. I think that a huge panagea map with max civs will the easiest way to go (plenty of willing cash rich suckers out there!). In my current game (normal size, two separate continents and 6 other civs) it's getting really difficult to get value for money in my brokering. The Greeks are making all the advances, and the paradox is that they are the only nation with a substantial cash surplas ... I get the advance and often have to sell it at a loss.

More civs means: more available cash; more chance of the AI fighting amongst themselves - leaving you with the oportunity to pick up the pieces; more diplomatic options; basically, more chance to win.

I think that maybe a mid-size island continent map, with medium numbers of civs could be the most challenging (playable) format for Deity ... with diplomatic victory turned off! You have to kiss ass so much to get to the stage were you can build the UN first that diplomatic victory is almost assured!!! And invading accoss oceans is much more difficult than a land based war (even though defense is made easier).

Also the trading mechanism is too frustrating and needs simplification. It really sucks having to go through all the diplomacy screens every turn in order to view your active trades. A separate screen with all outstanding trades etc and easy to access interaction is absolutely necessary.

 

[Raenvan]

I've already beaten Deity on a tiny world with domination victory. It must be more difficult with more enemies, but an improved tactic of mine might work. It was the following:

1.) Restarting the game until I got an excellent starting territory with a river and a luxury bonus.
2.) I didn't estabilish any other cities but built a temple and a barrack and as many archers and later swordsmen as possible.
3.) I attacked the first enemy when he had five or six towns and occupied them. After defeating him I controlled a whole island.
4.) I didn't research any technologies between Iron working and the first ones of industrial age because the computer players were faster no matter what I did. The ideal way is building Great Library, but they overtook me. Here I could exploit the AI's biggest stupidity: computer players give technologies even after a small war. So I attacked and occupied one city, made peace and attacked again. The other way is simply buying technologies, with adjusting 0% on researching and luxuries I had enough money.
5.) I didn't build any great wonders only captured some. The most important small one is the Forbidden Palace. Luckily I got a leader from the fights and he finished it in one turn.
6.) Despotism is a great government ! It makes possible to hurry production by sacrificing useless (unhappy) people. I changed to republic and later democracy only after "building" temples, granaries, libraries, marketplaces, aqueducts and colosseums.
7.) Having built up a good empire with universities and banks computer opponents are beatable even in researching if you have two or three times more cities than they have. By this time I was able to conquer enough land to make domination victory.

 

[Dragon2]

While trying to win at Monarch I stumbled across the tactic of rush-building improvements under despotism using population, and I was amazed when I realized that I was in a situation where it was unattractive to switch to republic. Now that I've read the posts from people who can win at the highest levels, I realize that despotism is the standard approach.

In Civ2 I felt that winning became too easy once I had learned to do a population boom with "We love the president" under democracy. Is the consensus now that despotism and perhaps communism are the overpowered froms of government in Civ 3? Is this the loophole that Firaxis overlooked?

Has anyone managed to go straight from despotism to communism?

 

[Cybernut]

If rushing is your thing (as it is for everbody in despotism), the best plan is to pick a religious civ. Then you can instantly switch back and forth between the more profitable Republic or Democratic forms of govt when you need to rush. Then one turn later switch back. That way, you can get all the commercial and scientific advantages of Republic and Democratic civs, while at the same time being able to rush buildings via despotism and later communism.

Hope that's some help. But, this is a forum about Deity strategy, not tactics

 

[spork]

I for one am very happy that there is a Diety level. I am just now finishing the most exciting Civ campaign ever, and it wouldn't have been anywhere near as close without all the Diety cheating.

I played all the standard settings: 8 civs, standard continents map. I decided to do continents and not many civs because I thought that exclusively relying on science brokering would be boring. Indeed, sceince brokering totally broke down by about 700 AD, because there was one "research" state (Germany), me, and a several completely broke countries who offered me like 2 g/turn for something which cost me 1200.

What carried me through was solid war strategy--which would not have been possible without lots of rush-building under Communism. Every part of the last game was exciting, and I had to be making good decisions all the time in order to not fall off the horse. The cheats on Diety were perfect: they made the game hard, but winnable. Maybe when I'm really done I'll attach it.

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

Originally posted by Cybernut
Is it just me, or does Deity seem rather unbalanced. Are there some (many) underhand tactics being employed by the AI. I mean, no matter how lucky I get with resources and food production, no matter how unfriendly my opponents' territories are, by the time you've built your first settler, the AI has 2-3 cities (defenders also), countless scouts, at least one tech advance more (presumably from trades), meaning contact with at least 1 other AI civ, as well as numerous workers and improvements. This just becomes more and more exacerbated as the ancient era proceeds.

Had anybody finnished ( victorious ) a game on Deity level on a large or a huge map ????

I only succeded to win on a standard map !!!