[Deity Shadow] Making the jump to Deity :D

[Ocre307]

Hello! I'm Ocre307 but you can just call me Ocre

Been playing this game for over 10 years, recently wanted to get really good at it. Got through Immortal just fine, and can win most of the time there now, but having trouble with Deity. So I decided to try a shadow game for help

Generated up a new map, with standard settings. Standard world size, medium seas, Fractal, 6 opponents, temperate. No Random Events or huts, everything else default.

Our leader is Roosevelt (IND/ORG).
And here's our start:

Spoiler :

The Gems will have to wait for another city if we want the Pigs, which I imagine we do. We start on the coast and on Freshwater, so there's a good argument to settle in place. Maybe we should take a couple turns to look around a bit, though?

Save attached

 

[Kaitzilla]

Welcome Ocre

Settling in place isn't bad.
Roosevelt gets half-priced lighthouses, so even just hill pigs pasture + 3 lake (with lighthouse) + 3 farms north of the lake gets a nice +9 surplus at Size 5.

Roosevelt is also the best at getting early Great Lighthouse.


Animals start spawning on Turn 5 on Deity I think?

Jungle spawns more than 3 tiles away from starting settler in the middle lattitudes, so that is a hint on map position.
It also spawns Panthers.


The save appears to require Bug Mod 4.4 to open it.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/download-bug-and-bat-here.274636/

After downloading Bug Mod 4.4, I got it to work by right-clicking on the .exe file and running as administrator.
Then installing the mod using the 3rd option so it becomes a mod that can be loaded like Buffy.

Spoiler :

 

[Ocre307]

Oh, I should've started the save with buffy. My apologies. I could make a new one

Great Lighthouse is a good thought! We start on the coast and have lots of forest.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I took a quick look at other shadow game threads.
It is a mix of Buffy mod, Bat mod, and a lot of unmodded saves.

It's up to you.
Bug mod is pretty common.

 

[Ocre307]

the warrior moved south, and revealed...

Spoiler :

Two Gems!

Now I don't know what to do. I want both of the eastern gems in my BFC but that means I have to move off the coast.
I could settle in a spot with all 3 gems with a different city if I wanted to move my capital later (for a monster Bureau city!).

 

[krikav]

I would settle in place and hope for seafood or some agriculture resource 2S.
The gem SW of the warrior will be jungle in all likelyhood if you don't park a warrior on it, and I would be happy with just the lone gem in capital, that adds much extra commerce and also importantly the happines.

Since GLH might be a possibility, I would check demographics T1 and T3/T4 (when CRE ais pop borders) to make a rough assessment of how stiff the compeition is.

Mining->BW seems likely to me!

 

[Fippy]

Yup 1w has too many disadvantages and maybes.
Good point by Krikav with the jungle, but he forgot AH first if no other food appears
With gems it's certainly affordable, and just no way around since there's not even a 3 tile currently.

 

[krikav]

Very true, AH first is needed if there is no other food.
But oh... I would really really want to have that pig-hill mined so hope for the best!

 

[Kaitzilla]

There are many advantages to having a coastal capital for Roosevelt.
Settling in place still looks pretty good.

 

[Ocre307]

T0: Our capital is founded.

Spoiler :

No extra resources in the BFC Fortunately, that Fish is still accessible.

I start scouting with the Warrior to the north, as I'm not too interested in that jungle to the south.
Except... I am! Because there's nothing to the north!

Spoiler :

This landmass looks rather narrow to the south, too. I wonder if we're isolated?

T8: Buddhism is founded. Definitely some sort of Mysticism starter in our game.
T15: The worker is completed, as is Animal Husbandry. Start producing a warrior and researching Mining.
T16: We meet a barb Archer Fortunately we are on a forested hill. Hinduism also founded.

Spoiler :

I don't think we're isolated anymore. This isthmus will be a good bottleneck for defending in the future... I hope we don't have to though!
T17: The Archer dies attacking our Warrior. Only 1 XP though.
T22: Mining discovered. Onto Bronze Working! I also decided to move the capital's second citizen from the lake to a forested grassland, we'll need warriors to fogbust and the Gems will be online soon anyway.

Spoiler Fertile floodplains to our south :

T27: The capital hits size 3.
I switch to a settler, one turn left on the warrior.

T30: End of turnset.
Still no rivals met!

Where do we want to settle?

Spoiler :

(picture of the lackluster northern region at the beginning of this post)
Stone + Industrious is interesting

I would settle 3S1W of the capital, but I am not confident about that. Thoughts?

But oh... I would really really want to have that pig-hill mined

Really? A +2 mine is more valuable than a +3 pasture?

 

[krikav]

I think I would want to settle the fish even though it's annoying.

a mined pig is 2F3H which is really nice. But the main thing is that you just need mining so you save alot of beakers not having to go AH.
5F1H is ofcourse better.

I think you strayed too far south with the warrior. I would have prioritized keeping the region around your capital safe, and also revealed more of the coast to possibly find more seafood spots closer by.

 

[Nick723]

Hmm tricky. I agree with Krikav, if nothing else I would go fish. However in an ideal world that might be city number 3, as then the capitals borders would probably be nearly expanding to avoid the long wait for a monument (and teching myst).

I would get your second warrior out now to scout the northern coast, and use the first warrior to scout the coast NW of it. If any 1st ring seafood available that probably becomes the priority.

 

[5tephen]

As a serial loser on deity you might want to take my advice with caution. Agree with settling fish.

Even if there are warriors I can't see on your screenshots in the north, I think you are playing with fire with barbarians with one warrior and limited fogbusting around your capital on T30 - barbarians start entering borders around T36-40 and your capital could be lost before you even produce a settler if luck is against you. i.e. I would try and secure land with fogbusting a bit more rather than have explored so far south - will all be fine if no archers spawned between warrior and capital and north fogbusted already but there's substantial risk as barbarian archer can wipe out more than one warrior

 

[krikav]

Playing with fire is a really good description of the barb situation here!

 

[Ocre307]

I see! I stationed the 2nd warrior a bit south of the capital to fogbust. But I can see that the exploring warrior was too aggressive, yeah. I think I will delay the settler by a turn to get a 3rd warrior out to fogbust... the west seems better than the north.

I had the same thought with regard to capital border pop before fish city, in order to avoid Mysticism research.

The capital doesn't have too many good tiles to work already, giving the pigs to the fish city doesn't seem worthwhile. But maybe I'm wrong there.

With a continent this narrow, almost all my cities will be coastal. Should I go straight to Sailing/Masonry next for GLH? Or Hunting -> Archery first? Obviously this depends on if/where copper shows up.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Wow, no AI met?
Lots of good floodplains down south, but the barbs are no joke with that much land to spawn in down there.

Ugh, the next big decision will be where bronze is located in 4 turns.
All the worker can do is farm a bit and then get ready to chop in 4 turns.

Maybe grow to Size 4 and get ready to 2-pop whip the settler?


My 1st impulse would be to settle the 2nd city on that hill 1S1E of stone.
A warrior fortified on the forest hill 1S should keep it safe.
Tech Masonry and then Wheel. (Or maybe Wheel and then Masonry?)
With stone hooked up and industrious civ, great wall can be built pretty cheap!

Great Wall largely removes Barb worries, can pop borders in 5 turns for pig, and pop borders again after 50 turns for horse.
Masonry also opens up Great Lighthouse with Sailing.

The fish city is nice for commerce, but it doesn't fog bust very much or help against the future horde of barbs from the south.

 

[Ocre307]

Ooh, that's a very aggressive plant Kaitzilla. A lot further from my capital than I usually do.

Great Wall at a 150% production bonus is only 60 That's like, 2 chariots A very good deal!
Masonry first seems better, so we can start on the Wall earlier.

Two-whip the settler, hmm... and overflow into another worker? Or is that still too "farmer's gambit", and I should just make another warrior

 

[Fippy]

If you consider land-blocking barbs a valid strategy (i do but can see why some think it's an exploit ), you can try to form 3 warriors into a line south.
In any case you should build 2 more warriors before a settler asap

 

[Ocre307]

Land-blocking? Not sure what you mean by that. I know the AI doesn't path through units, is that it?

 

[krikav]

If you consider land-blocking barbs a valid strategy (i do but can see why some think it's an exploit ), you can try to form 3 warriors into a line south.
In any case you should build 2 more warriors before a settler asap

I was just about to write about that!

@Ocre307 If you build 3 warriors and block all tiles toward the south, barbs from the wast southern areas won't invade up north.