[BTS] DIETY Continents - Darius Conquest

[as2w]

Best advice you'll get here is to post the initial save and do a shadow game. Post the picture of the initial starting position. Wait for some feedback and then play a small turn set. Based on what I read, your first 50-100 turns are the issue.

 

[sampsa]

Well, at least you have stumbled into the right place. Right now you can't even spell deity. I'd drop save-scumming immediately as it's certainly not needed in order to beat deity and won't get you any sympathy. Attach screenshots and saves, not sketches, they are not useful at all.

 

[Fippy]

Sampsa has beelined diplomacy today

 

[Qactus]

...
My strategy is to go straight for the throat. Athens. There is a hill next to it. This hill is to be my springboard. I have maybe 15 knights, 10 mace, 5 muskets, and 15 cannon. The fog is busted as I declare war and drop my stack on the hill. I see the army waiting for me. It’s infantry. It’s goddamn 20 strength infantry, with stacks of cavalry in support. I fortify my insane xp army lower tech army and hope for some pacifism. I bombard Athens with my Frigates and watch the army come at me.

Pericles begins his bombardment with Airships, with limited effect. Luckily it hits mostly my cannon stack and misses the General units. I whole bunch of ancient tech siege hit my position, first catapults then some trebs. I easily rebuff this but it starts to take some edge out of my stronger units. From the Greek heartlands comes the endless stream of cavalry. They strike me one after another, ceaselessly. My mace kills some but it quickly becomes a slaughter. Cavalry destroy cannon on masse by flanking my position and my meticulously crafted army is decimated.
...

This is fascinating, I experienced this exact same situation so many times! The other way around of course, with the AI landing small, hopelessly outdated stacks on my shores...

 

[dietydunk]

Best advice you'll get here is to post the initial save and do a shadow game. Post the picture of the initial starting position. Wait for some feedback and then play a small turn set. Based on what I read, your first 50-100 turns are the issue.

Here you go. The 'war' save is the latest i believe.

 

[dietydunk]

Well, at least you have stumbled into the right place. Right now you can't even spell deity. I'd drop save-scumming immediately as it's certainly not needed in order to beat deity and won't get you any sympathy. Attach screenshots and saves, not sketches, they are not useful at all.

Well would you look at that. I did spell deity wrong. Huh.
I disagree that saving and reloading liberally is not needed on a map of this type. I've played alot of civ4 and done a bit of searching on these forums. Winning conquest deity on a map like this, it's really not easy. And its how I choose to play. It becomes kind of redundant toward the late game anyway, as lost production isn't as damaging and warfare becomes more chaotic.

 

[AcaMetis]

My advice would be to roll a new map if you want to do a shadow game, honestly. Playing as Persia and having goody huts enabled allows for some cheesy strategies that simply wouldn't be possible otherwise. For a shadow game I'd recommend a pangaea map with a random leader (doesn't have to be Toku, but Inca, Persia, Egypt and Romans have some busted early UUs) and standard settings - normal amount of AIs, temperate climate, mid sea level, NHNE, all victory conditions enabled.

Well would you look at that. I did spell deity wrong. Huh.
I disagree that saving and reloading liberally is not needed on a map of this type. I've played alot of civ4 and done a bit of searching on these forums. Winning conquest deity on a map like this, it's really not easy. And its how I choose to play. It becomes kind of redundant toward the late game anyway, as lost production isn't as damaging and warfare becomes more chaotic.

Mansa Musa's name too, for the record .

If save/loading is your way of getting a fun experience out of the game than feel free to use it, but I wouldn't say it's needed to win conquest on non-Pangaea Deity maps. If you want examples of how crazy difficult Deity maps can be won (or lost, in a few instances) I'd recommend checking out Lain's channel on YT. I believe the Willem playthrough should be a good example of how to conquer a starting continent with an admittedly really solid leader, FIN/CRE, but no early UU like Immortals to just roll over the AIs.

 

[sampsa]

I disagree that saving and reloading liberally is not needed on a map of this type. I've played alot of civ4 and done a bit of searching on these forums. Winning conquest deity on a map like this, it's really not easy. And its how I choose to play. It becomes kind of redundant toward the late game anyway, as lost production isn't as damaging and warfare becomes more chaotic.

It's not only "not needed", there are players on these forums that win close to 100% of deity games. I never said it is easy.

 

[dietydunk]

My advice would be to roll a new map if you want to do a shadow game, honestly. Playing as Persia and having goody huts enabled allows for some cheesy strategies that simply wouldn't be possible otherwise. For a shadow game I'd recommend a pangaea map with a random leader (doesn't have to be Toku, but Inca, Persia, Egypt and Romans have some busted early UUs) and standard settings - normal amount of AIs, temperate climate, mid sea level, NHNE, all victory conditions enabled.

Mansa Musa's name too, for the record .

If save/loading is your way of getting a fun experience out of the game than feel free to use it, but I wouldn't say it's needed to win conquest on non-Pangaea Deity maps. If you want examples of how crazy difficult Deity maps can be won (or lost, in a few instances) I'd recommend checking out Lain's channel on YT. I believe the Willem playthrough should be a good example of how to conquer a starting continent with an admittedly really solid leader, FIN/CRE, but no early UU like Immortals to just roll over the AIs.

How does having goodie huts enabled allow for cheesy strategy? You at most get two or three huts, one of which may be a tech. I'll check out the youtube though. I'm interested to see how it's possible even with the cheese. I have won with Willem on a New World map playing immortal once which was alot of fun. The difference between Immortal and Deity is ridiculous imo.

 

[AcaMetis]

Conquering a continent with Immortals wouldn't go as smoothly without the gold from huts to keep your slider going, as well as the odd tech that might end up being something useful (Fishing not to much, but you could have gotten something like Bronze Working or Animal Husbandry very early on). Without the huts you'd have to spend more time recovering your economy before you could continue to take over AIs, which would give them time to muster some kind of defence/counter-offensive and the other continent time to continue to tech. Speed is key on a Continents map, since you have to get to the other continent while you can still take them on, and goody huts help speed you up.

Lain's definitely played more than a few games that had me asking myself how a map could possibly be won, and he managed it more often than not.

 

[dietydunk]

Conquering a continent with Immortals wouldn't go as smoothly without the gold from huts to keep your slider going, as well as the odd tech that might end up being something useful (Fishing not to much, but you could have gotten something like Bronze Working or Animal Husbandry very early on). Without the huts you'd have to spend more time recovering your economy before you could continue to take over AIs, which would give them time to muster some kind of defence/counter-offensive and the other continent time to continue to tech. Speed is key on a Continents map, since you have to get to the other continent while you can still take them on, and goody huts help speed you up.

Lain's definitely played more than a few games that had me asking myself how a map could possibly be won, and he managed it more often than not.

Yeah I see there is a deep diplomacy game that I wasn't aware of, seems crucial to maintain tech parity. My tech was trashed during alphabet, code of laws, and currency. Lain has an overlay that I don't have, is that a mod?

 

[AcaMetis]

Diplo, as well as maintaining an affordable empire until you have either Alphabet or Currency, are indeed crucial. Without those techs your cities can't build Research or Wealth, meaning you'll have a very hard time trying to recover your economy. Mind you that failbuilding wonders can substitute for building Wealth, and very effectively depending on what you've got available in terms of resources/leader traits/etc., but Currency also allows you to sell techs and resources for gold. Both can be worth tons of gold, which you will need to keep up with Deity AIs in tech.

Yes, Lain uses either BUG or, on a few of his later games, BUFFY. Personally I use BUG/BULL, and I would recommend it since you don't have to run them as mods. BUFFY has more features than BUG/BULL, but because it runs as a mod any save game made with(out) BUFFY can't easily be played with(out) it either. BUG/BULL doesn't have this limitation.

 

[Imploding]

Welcome @dietydunk! I appreciate a guy that has the ability to spell deity wrong! I did that for 3-4 years and I still have the occasional slip-up!
I'm a big fan of semi detailed writeups/let's plays on deity players. If i ever had a hobby it would be to play, read and watch civ 4.

Even tho your sketches was extremely nice and detailed. I Would as other have mention appreciate screenshots. Its probably 1000x times easier to post pics over sketches as well.. especially when they are as nice as the ones you posted.
Just press the "print-screen" button in game. you find all the pics you take "My Games\Beyond the Sword\ScreenShots".. You post the pics in a forumpost by hitting the "upload a file" button. choose between Thumbnail (as under) or "full image" (recommended).


Looking forward to see some more detailed write ups from you! Just go HAM.

PS.
Would actually hope more people on this forum started with diety lets plays on youtube.
It's not hard and actually really fun.
You need a mic (cost 20 $), a recording software like https://obsproject.com/ (free) and a Youtube account (free).

 

[gavenkoa]

Lain has an overlay that I don't have, is that a mod?

# BUG BAT BULL

http://civ4bug.sourceforge.net/BUGMod.html
Home page. Pure UI enhancements.
http://bug-mod.blogspot.com/
Blog for BUG mod.

http://civ4bug.sourceforge.net/BATMod.html
Home page. Collection of XML + Python mods under single project, alters game mechanic.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/civ4bull/
BULL mode download.
There is no v1.3 release as binary release.
BULL v1.2 includes Unofficial Patch v1.50.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/download-bug-and-bat-here.274636/
Download BUG and BAT Here!

INSTALL mods by replacing main game .dll and into local assets so that your saves can be opened by other! See README from downloads.

 

[OldDude]

Planning the Fourth Attempt – Advice from Civfanatics
Anyway, does anyone have any advice on my current play-through? I’ll post updates if I have any success.

As a Monarch level player I don't have any advice but I sure enjoyed your write up! Very entertaining.