Deity play

[DarkxL0rd]

OK, so i have mastered emperor and can win on any map type and settings with a bit of warrior spam in the beginning and taking the lead in tech toward the middle of the game. on immortal, I find the only way i stand a chance is heavy unit spam the whole game and playing no settlers, barbarian world, and really any map type is fine. I know all the ins and outs of the game as far as the mechanics go. but on deity i just can't seem to pull off a win. i think its because the AI gets so many promotions up front when creating units. What are some strats that you guys use to win on deity. I almost always play as the Svarts, so help me in this area. i.e. i dont want to hear about your pyre zombie rush.

 

[WarKirby]

Council of Esus is a good religion choice, as it doesn't give relations penalties.

I'd guess your best bet is to try to maintain friendships, and use hidden nationality units to cripple enemies. Pillage their stuff.

 

[DarkxL0rd]

maintaining friendships is impossible. once i have less military units than my neighbor, they start eying my land greedily. doesnt matter if i give them free resources or anything. and once one civ declares war they all start ganging up.

 

[TheGreatSteve]

Friendly civs are blocked from declaring war(Most anyways, I think one has Cathy AI, will backstab at friendly. Faeryl seems most likely). Start strong, agree to whatever demands your allies make, once you get friendly you can slack a bit, start looking at longer term goals. Use HN to keep people down without a bloody war, aim for a peaceful victory. Trying to slog your way to Domination/Conquest on Standard+ maps on Deity...

 

[cIV_khanh93]

And settling on hills for the boost against failed diplomacy... is a lifesaver.

 

[Honor]

Settle on hills, spam warriors (6+), build a palisade and start building your first settler. If you are lucky and no-one decides to declare war until this time, continue spamming warriors and build your second city (on a hill again) and repeat. Get to archery as fast as possible and make sure you fortify your frontline cities with enough archers (depends on how many opponents you are facing at once). Promote your archers with the Guerilla promotion as soon as possible. If you can also grab masonry for city walls, that would be an added benefit.

After you believe you have fortified your cities adequately, play for the specific strength of the civ you've picked or go for a powerful mechanic to help you out (RoK --> Arete --> Mines of Gal'dur (sp?) for instance).

Don't go for any of the earlier wonders (Heron Throne, Pack of the Nilhorn, Catacomb Libralus, Form of the Titan) as you will simply not be able to build them (unless you get really lucky). Don't try and found any religions either as your civ will usually not live long enough to reap its rewards anyway.

That's how I play it. Works so far with the Sidar.

 

[reverend oats]

Area effect mages are a necessity for huge Deity stacks.

 

[DirtyFinger]

survive the first barb rush.
expand.
meet the other civilizations.
get crushed.

after that, come back and ask real questions.

 

[xalien]

I'd put some effort in founding CoE, it's easy to spread which means a lot of gold and less diplomatic problems with different religions. If you don't have Amurites world spell hanging above your head then priesthood + AV is nice. Add some assassins to kill off catapults and other asassins and combined with ritualists your cities will be impenetrable. After that grab Guilds, build shadows and EaEN and enjoy the free techs.

 

[WarKirby]

Strip away all forest in the 8 tiles around your cities. And if possible, don't settle adjacent to hills. Try to pick city sites that force the enemy to approach you in the open, where they're vulnerable to counterattacks before they can hit you.

Aggressive defending works better than sitting behind your walls, in most cases. And attacking out will get you twice as much xp.

 

[ICanHasName?]

Give in to whatever the AI demands unless you can smash them. Except for declaring war or canceling trade. Streamline your teching as much as possible, you cant afford to research stuff you dont really need. Try to trade all tech that isn't an important state secret because the AI will just demand it sooner or later. Enchantment and a death mana are good for adepts, the AI doesn't understand that skellies are just summoned throwaways, and loves to attack them. Give out free tech to 'looser' empires, otherwise they will become the property of someone bigger and scarier. Before you have decent spellcasters, trade your mana for stuff. Although this is borderline sploiting of the AI because it has no idea of the true value of mana. Build the great library, because no one else usually does.

 

[DarkxL0rd]

yeah, nox noctis is a God-send certainly. Im doing all the things you guys are saying, except maybe the settling on hills part. i usually look for the best spot resource-wise, and i never chop forests. i find that when i play immortal, giving my guys woodsmen works better anyways. The trouble is making it to FoL to get fawns who already have woodsmen and can promptly take woodsmen II, effectively making my forests killing grounds. If i get to alazkan, my game gets easier by far, its just staying alive till that point.

 

[WarKirby]

woodsman is an extra promotion you could otherwise save on using for Combat or Shock.

Cut the forest, seriously. Leaving the enemy a nice little fortress around your cities to use against you, is just stupid.

 

[TheGreatSteve]

He's playing elves.

+40% attack for a Woodsman elf, +25% for the defender on a forest
Vs.
+20% attack for a Combat I elf, +0% for the defender on a cut square.

More forests, more production, more warriors to make up for slightly worse odds. Not to mention you don't have to waste worker time on chopping.

 

[DarkxL0rd]

yes...elves indeed. and then fawns with woodsmen 2 doubles that. I think I'll try the settling on hills exclusively and see if that changes anything. does anyone else win with the elves on deity play? if so, tell me how.

 

[Sephi]

You can find an example on how to play elves on deity here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=311778

My strategy might not be perfect, but it was pretty successful

 

[DarkxL0rd]

You can find an example on how to play elves on deity here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=311778

My strategy might not be perfect, but it was pretty successful

you got myst in a hut. i thought you couldnt pop techs from huts on deity? nice strat though. i should probably help my neighbors more. it seems to have helped you. i just cant stop them declaring war on me is it because im evil?

 

[psychoak]

I once got three in a row on deity, so they're definitely there. I won that one too, one of very few deity games I've played to completion. Bad ass luck is bad ass.

If you don't have another side in the game that will rush FOL, it shouldn't be hard to get it. Don't switch while weak though, founding it is good, spreading it is good, switching to it without the holy site built and enough of an army to deter an attack... suicide.

It's a much better religion to be as an elf, you want to get the benefits of shadows, but you don't need to actually switch to COE for the boost of having it in your cities. I've never been able to make it without a religion founding, too much coin from the holy site to pass up the opportunity, COE is late, very late. By that time you're usually doomed if you haven't already made a play for someone's turf.

My best Deity win was as Khazad, I stuck to my capital, founded kilmorph, got arete out, popped the wonder with an engineer, and walked all over the goblins with a shitload of highly promoted axemen and Bambur. War can be nice, especially against an occupied opponent.

Don't be afraid of declaring war on an enemy of the stronger AI, you'll end up at war with one of them anyway, and probably fast.

Hmm... Come to think of it, my advice may be useless. When I'm playing deity, it's with aggressive AI on a small map with six players crammed into it. Never tried it without the agressive AI, they tend to declare war on each other rather quickly, it might actually make the situation easier, but who knows.

 

[WarKirby]

He's playing elves.

+40% attack for a Woodsman elf, +25% for the defender on a forest
Vs.
+20% attack for a Combat I elf, +0% for the defender on a cut square.

More forests, more production, more warriors to make up for slightly worse odds. Not to mention you don't have to waste worker time on chopping.

That still works out for 5% better strength in the last example.

But more importantly, you forgot about Ancient Forests, which give a 50% defence bonus. When an enemy is using those against you, he STILL has a defensive advantage against a woodsman I elf. Filling your territory with terrain, that requires TWO promotions to overcome the natural defence that an unpromoted enemy has, is not a good idea, from a tactical standpoint.

Personally, I see this as a fundamental problem, and I'm exploring solutions to correct it myself, but for now, I would say even as Elves, cutting down forests in the squares adjacent to your cities is a better option, for defensive purposes.

Generally, you'd only need to do it in frontline cities. Not core financial places. And if you're using FoL, you can always put the forests back when your frontline moves.

I'd say the same about settling adjacent to hills, too. Having hills in your BFC is very important for production, but ideally, you want them 2 tiles away from the city square, not adjacent.

 

[Sephi]

you got myst in a hut. i thought you couldnt pop techs from huts on deity? nice strat though. i should probably help my neighbors more. it seems to have helped you. i just cant stop them declaring war on me is it because im evil?

All leaders have a different baseattitudevalue (it's invisible). Most evil leaders have a negative value so yeah it's more difficult for them to maintain peace.