Deity Q&A

paulmr1968

Chieftain
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
8
I'm trying to be more of a Deity player. I only won once on Deity in Civ5 (Venice) and have yet to win on Deity with Civ6; yet to even finish a game time (low play time recently).

I started a new game with Australia. Continents, Standard size. I'm 27 turns in and here's what I've done/faced with:

Built 3 Slingers that are now Archers with a 4th on the way. I've cleared 2 Barb camps. I've met 3 CS (Lisbon, Kumasi, Carthage). I beelined Archery and didn't get the Inspiration (CS warrior killed the barb before my Slinger). Science: Mining is close, have Pottery with boosted Bronze Working next as I beeline Machinery. With Code of Laws, I went Production and +5 Barbs.

I have yet to meet a rival Civ; one unmet is dead.

Should I attack a CS?
I'm planning on a 5 Archer - 3 Warrior force before any other builds. Yes/no?
How important is it to hold off on beeline versus getting Inspirations?

Thanks.
 
What victory do you want,
you have strong science but have you an uber hilled area as a monster production city.
You have Kumasi so you can power up the civic chart with 10 trade routes, kumasi suze and a city with lots of districts. This will end in a CV with 8 -10 cities and artifact museums.
You have the starting of a fine force but no foe, continuing in that direction is fine unless your continent is empty
You are too late to go for a RV
 
I've been reading this forum for a few weeks now - so thought I'd sign up and join the discussions!

At this stage - the beauty of Civ is that you have lots of choices depending on the kind of game you want and your surroundings. If you're just trying to get used to winning reliably on deity, I find early domination of nearby city states - and quietly focusing on early infrastructure in the first 100-120 turns is the best strategy. I like to attack any nearby city states early (especially if I've not met another civ) if they don't have a suzerain bonus that I think will be very useful for victory. The advantage of this is it is typically quicker than, or can be done alongside, settling your own cities and catches you up to the AI faster. Lots of relatively early cities is key. People say 10 by turn 100-120 - although I find something like 7 or 8 by then is fine. Pre-latest patch (which I don't have yet because I'm a Mac user) early game, I find 3 archers and a warrior are often enough to take a CS although more is obviously better. If they've got walls up - its still doable without - but much easier with a battering ram or siege tower.

Given you don't seem to have any super-close civs - I'd say you can get a builder (and think about a settler before too long) now you have a few archers to trigger any eurekas. Generally picking up eurekas you can along the way is a good idea - but only hold off if you know you will get the eureka very soon, or don't desperately need that tech yet - in which case leave it half complete and swap to another.

For me, the biggest difference for playing at deity is that I delay any warlike tendencies I might have as much as possible until I'm able to really take the fight to the AI with strong units they don't have because I've beelined for them (e.g., field cannons or frigates/battleships). So I stay isolationist for as long as possible then blast the top civs once I'm ready to go. Once you take out the top dogs you have a clear ride to whatever type of victory you fancy.
 
I'm thinking of a Kumasi-Carthage combo would be interesting. I'll have to watch for conquest opportunities/ build settlers. Hope I don't screw up the start I've had.
 
I'm thinking of a Kumasi-Carthage combo would be interesting. I'll have to watch for conquest opportunities/ build settlers. Hope I don't screw up the start I've had.

I haven't tried this on Deity but I have on lower difficulties and it works extremely well. The main downside is that you might lag behind on science but if you are going for domination then it's great. These are two of my favorite city-states and I almost always try to Suzerain them.
 
In general, it's usually not the best idea to fully complete a civic/technology until you need it or want to start on the one after it. This is because each civic/tech you research increases the production cost of districts. So research just under halfway and get as many boosts/inspirations as you can. Additionally, this can be super helpful for switching policies (or governments) quickly. If you just want some policies for 1 turn, you can swap them out quickly. (Particularly useful for serfdom/public works/professional army)
For archery in particular, I think this method is especially important. Research just under halfway and get the boost. Slingers are *much* cheaper than archers, so you want to build as many slingers as possible. Once you've built as many as you want, then you can put the 1 turn left of research into archery, then upgrade for 30 gold each.
Another helpful thing for districts is that you can lock the production cost of a district. Once you start the production on any district, the cost of that particular district will stay the same, no matter how many more techs/civics you unlock. So it's good to start on districts in a city as soon as possible. You don't even have to put a full turn of production in: just switch to building the district, then switch back to whatever you were working on.

Somewhat unrelated: you should have a very good idea of which victory type you want to do very early in the game, like by turn 20. If you want science, you'll be building campuses in every city. If you want culture, theater squares everywhere (and campuses).

Also, the notification for unmet player was defeated is pretty misleading because this includes city-states. The AI often will take over a city-state or two.
 
Hi,
I've tried last night my first game on deity. I choose Aztecs, on Continents, standard size and turn, 8 players, Australia patch. Settled in place, meet Scythia and Stockholm (west), Arabia (north), Palenque and Buenos Aires in east. Get envoys with both Palenque and Buenos Aires. Build slinger, slinger, builder, slinger and beeline archery, build two pastures and a quarry, destroy one barbarian camp between me and Palenque and I managed to build 4 archers and another jaguar by turn 35, third jaguar is on the way, got a trader with Palenque. Once Scythia declared war and attacked Stockholm, I moved my army toward them and dow on Scythia, I thought it will be easy with a part of their army attacking other city. But things get worse - Tomirys had already an army twice as mine - including one horse archer and two horsemen - she used them to flanked my archers , and I got mauled pretty bad - I lost two archers and one jaguar. From the snowy south came a barbarian scout that detected me, so I've renounced because I can't hold up the position. What went wrong with my strategy? Should I delayed my dow and try to settle the second city between me and Tomirys (one with two luxuries that might help me for a further war)? Even with two cities, I don't know if I can produce more troops than Scythia's 4 or 5 cities.
 
Hi,
I've tried last night my first game on deity. I choose Aztecs, on Continents, standard size and turn, 8 players, Australia patch. Settled in place, meet Scythia and Stockholm (west), Arabia (north), Palenque and Buenos Aires in east. Get envoys with both Palenque and Buenos Aires. Build slinger, slinger, builder, slinger and beeline archery, build two pastures and a quarry, destroy one barbarian camp between me and Palenque and I managed to build 4 archers and another jaguar by turn 35, third jaguar is on the way, got a trader with Palenque. Once Scythia declared war and attacked Stockholm, I moved my army toward them and dow on Scythia, I thought it will be easy with a part of their army attacking other city. But things get worse - Tomirys had already an army twice as mine - including one horse archer and two horsemen - she used them to flanked my archers , and I got mauled pretty bad - I lost two archers and one jaguar. From the snowy south came a barbarian scout that detected me, so I've renounced because I can't hold up the position. What went wrong with my strategy? Should I delayed my dow and try to settle the second city between me and Tomirys (one with two luxuries that might help me for a further war)? Even with two cities, I don't know if I can produce more troops than Scythia's 4 or 5 cities.
I'm getting more convinced that a super early DoW is really strong. When I first meet a civ, I always try to exchange city info, then send every unit I have to scout out their area. Then I steal the most I can get away with, be it a settler (hopefully), or a builder or two. So I almost always DoW by about turn 10.
With this strategy, I'm liking going for craftsmanship first, just hard teching it, not even waiting for the boost. Agoge is just so strong for early rush. If you meet a culture city-state, I feel it's almost overpowered. Doing this, you can focus completely on building your army (mostly slingers). I ignore even building builders, settler, or a trade route. You'll get most of the boosts from the cities you'll take. Barbarians are not really a problem since they won't be able to pillage or plunder anything, and they can't take your capital.

Tomirys is probably one of the hardest to do an early rush against (also Gilgamesh). Since a lot of her strength is ranged based because of horse archers, I might suggest doing more warriors instead of as many archers as you normally would. This is especially true for Monty. The Eagle Warrior is just super strong. It's another reason you can ignore building builders in your capital. Since she has a larger army, try attacking her fringe cities first, or at least where her army is not. The first city will be the hardest to take, but after that it will be easier, so it's ok to lose a couple units.

Also, put off finishing teching archery until you're pretty much done building slingers. Slingers are just so much cheaper. I usually build about 5 slingers first, then ~1-2 warriors, then maybe more archers as war goes on. For Aztecs specifically, maybe 3-4 slingers and then 3-4 Eagle Warriors.
I'm not sure there's much more you could have done, except maybe an earlier DoW. Or you could wait for her to declare on you, kill her units, then take her cities. Alternatively, you could turtle for a while and focus science. You're next best bet for a war is getting renaissance/industrial units. Those science city-states will be helpful for faster techs.

edit: fixed my incorrect usage of Jaguars instead of Eagle Warriors. That's my civ V coming out.
 
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Super early DOW is indeed strongest and easiest way to win if something is close. 5-10 slinger/archers/warriors

You do need to push up to better mines first, at least to currency anyway. You do need to get some money or you will starve a bit.

With high level agressive civs,they'll come nocking on your doorstep if you are close, if not forward settle them and Bam ... Turtle, kill , invade, pwn
 
You do need to push up to better mines first, at least to currency anyway. You do need to get some money or you will starve a bit.
Indeed, gold is usually in short supply with my above strategy, after upgrading all my slingers. After taking the first city, though, it gets a bit better.
I'm just so tired of barbs plundering my trade routes and pillaging my mines and districts that I hardly build any of those until like turn 50. It's just the worst, seeing my trader about to run into a barb, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. So many ragequits...
 
Mostly with the turtle method your children are not away from home too long and typically the come back when it starts getting dark (the walls get strong). At that stage you are possibly wanting to use some grown ups to pick your fights and you can keep a couple of the youngsters at home, perhaps with the odd GP. They keep the darkness and the beasts at bay fairly well.

I agree a long rampage with full force away from home has more issues than just barby. Jealous Ken next door is always eyeing up your back door and your foe can more easily flank you on foreign ground, quite a wearying time being away.
 
I've noticed since the Australia patch that the AI civs are building archers a lot more, and they are defending their cities better with those archers. This is going to make early DoW even more important to weaken them before they can get too much defenses.
 
Is it possible to win deity playing peacefully ? By that I mean without initiating wars, only defend if AI DoW against you, and not go after their cities ?
 
Yup, certainly is. Deity is not super hard once you have the hang of it amd there are remote locations or better is the passive agressive.
I won a Kongo culture a coup,e of days ago without my troops ever fighting on the TSL map. 5 allies. Try it.
 
Built 3 Slingers that are now Archers with a 4th on the way

If there are no AI enemies close you won't be DOW'd before turn 30, so there's no need to build more than 2 slingers.

I have yet to meet a rival Civ; one unmet is dead

No, the notification you got means that a CS is dead. Deity AI doesn't die so soon, but they do invade CS almost immediately.

Should I attack a CS?

If you want to. But not Lisbon, the commercial bonus is nice since you'll almost certainly build a bunch of commercial hubs. In any case, no need to do it early, especially if you were 1st to all of them and got all 3 free envoys. That small bonus is relevant early game.

I'm planning on a 5 Archer - 3 Warrior force before any other builds. Yes/no?

Not at all. You don't need to invade CS immediately. They will ALWAYS suck, and they'll take forever to get walls. You don't need to hurry with units if there's no AI close. Even when there's an AI close, try to squeeze a builder between units, for the 3 improvements boost (craftsmanship? I can't remember, but it's one of the ones that lead to Pol Phi so it's important).

How important is it to hold off on beeline versus getting Inspirations?

VERY important. On Deity you'll be behind the AI in both science and culture production for at least 100 turns (usually more). So you need to optimize everything you can, and boosts make a big difference. In this game, for example, you shouldn't have finished archery. Eventually one of your slingers (which are cheaper to build than archers and cheap to upgrade later) would have killed a barbarian, it happens in every single game. Try to boost as much as possible, especially the easy ones (archery, bronze working, the wheel...).
 
I would probably want to take at least one of those city states. Let them build a district or two first, and hopefully some farms as well. Those captured farms will be that many fewer farms you will need to build for the Feudalism eureka. Lisbon would be my first choice. Not ideal seeing as they can provide a probably needed boost to gold income, but the other two are much, much better to keep around.

As was mentioned earlier, you don't need to rush your military so hard if you have not yet met another major Civ. Just make sure you have enough to handle barbarians until you're ready to move on a military footing. But it would not hurt to build up your military first. None of those units have any maintenance. Add in at least 2 Heavy Chariots before you research Stirrups.

When you do meet another major Civ, try to get them to declare war on you or surprise attack them by liberating a City-State right away. That +100% production bonus is amaaaaazing.

Inspirations are pretty important. Sometimes you absolutely cannot get them. Like if you beelining Square Rigging, there is no way you're going to kill something with a musketman. But if you can get the inspiration, you should try to. Unless you are so far beyond that tech era-wise that it only costs a turn or two. Then it becomes trivial.
 
Yeah capturing cities is how I get probably at least half of my boosts early game. I can't remember: does capturing a city with a wonder grant that inspiration for building one? I think it does, but not sure.
 
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