Easiest way to beat Deity difficulty

[Weewuh]

Hey there guys so I have just recently started playing this mod (latest beta version) experimenting in a few games on standard speed, Communitas map with different policies and leaders I am enjoying it however the difficulty spike from immortal to deity is crazy..
I am coming from vanilla mindset of defensive turtling into science/tourism win and never bothered with domination victory because I find moving tons of units offensively way too tedious especially the massive AI army sitting in fog of war ready to instantly kill one overextended unit unless I save scum which is not something I want to do.
anyways I find Immortal difficulty beatable a lot of times and am looking to beat the game on Deity but I cant seem to do it by myself.
On deity I seem not to be able to catch up to the tech leader but can get to middle of the pack and I am behind literally everyone in social policies, what is a decent era to reach tech leader or 1-2 tech behind tech leader same with social policies

Tech path:
i usually go pottery, wheel, (mining, trapping or calender depending on my regional luxury), animal husbandry (so i can produce settlers faster from horses and see where to settle), (trapping if i dont have it for archers), and tech towards writing, construction, bronze working, masonry, iron working, philosophy, drama and poetry, education, chivalry..... you get the idea - top bottom alternation usually going for science buildings first then production then finally culture and military last

Policies:
-I like order the most so far but I have tried Tradition as well
-i like fealty the most after here
-i like rationalism the most after that

Build order:
capital: monument,shrine, stonehenge, worker/warrior, spam settlers and purchase units
expands - something like: (monument,shrine,council) and then something around this: (markets,granary,barracks,library,watermill,stable,arena,workshop) but basically early infrastructure then science,production,culture - is this correct? if not what should i prioritise in general.

Population in cities:
usually try to grow in capital and then eventually use a lot of specialists (tradition or order)
usually try to get all good tiles in expands and less growth more production

Trade routes:
-to AI for culture/science yields

Any general advice for stuff i am doing wrong and suggestions for the easiest way to win on deity (civs, map settings, build order, specific strategies that have worked for you) are greatly appreciated

(below is only me crying just answer topic if you don't care)
In both difficulties my closest neighbor will without fail eventually declare war on me and it is usually sub-turn 100. However on Immortal difficulty the attack comes later and with a smaller army which will suicide itself on my closest city garrisoned with a frontline of spearmen and backline of archers. After I kill the AI army and get a bunch of promotions in the process I can push and take his capital and puppet the cities inbetween which guarantees I will have a good game because the AI cities grow stupidly fast and usually have some wonders inside and then it is very easy to win from there science or culture.
But when I try to play on Deity with same playstyle the attack comes much earlier just before/after I am done settling my cities. I need to tech towards luxury improvements so I can fight unhappiness but the AI is rushing horseman, spearman and catapult tech and sends like 15 units before I can reasonably get walls (need to build atleast monument and shrine in expansions first) while I barely unlocked spearman tech and dont have the money to upgrade all my early game warriors because fielding an army in the early game destroys your income. The problem is that the AI can tech ******ed path rushing military units and not care how many units die and cheat with infrastructure anyways whereas player will fall behind in science and culture and cannot afford to lose any units. If you build a coastal city sometimes you can get suprise war declaration on you and lose a city in 2 turns to 6 triremes because I have to build infrastructure and archers are worthless against triremes. The AI will forward settle the horsehocky out of you if you don't put blocker cities and then get negative modifier for contested borders sometimes settling in horsehocky desert or tundra in the middle of my lands with like one sheep that I had no reason to settle myself and then their border grows super fast over my road and other important tiles and then grow bigger than my capital somehow.. and then there is the AI chain wars declared on you by 3 AI on the same turn. I also cant seem to generate a decent map which seems super important, either I get a decent starting location/resources but it gets ruined by spawning my capital on the same screen as mongolia or zulus or some other warmonger. or the start is decent but one of the AI snowball really hard and its impossible to catch up

 

[Minh Le]

Priority Wonders and Great People if you want to do it peacefully.
P/s: And you need a religion, either found one or take one. You cant win Deity without religion.

 

[CrazyG]

Try taking military theory instead of trapping if you don't need it for your luxury. Horsemen may help you more than archers would in those early wars.

Don't go for science so early. Go for culture and production instead. Writing and libraries aren't as important as in Vanilla. Getting Masonry, arenas and watermills instead will help you more. You can catch up in science from trade routes and spies. Its much more difficult to catch up in culture, and production wins wars.

 

[chicorbeef]

Why are you building a Shrine before Stonehenge? Part of the whole point of Stonehenge is to ignore that Shrine and still get your pantheon quickly.

Building Stonehenge every time is not always the best choice. Sometimes you have a low production start, and sometimes you have to tech towards other things. Like if I have a sea monopoly, take Progress and beeline Fishing first/foremost, maybe take God of the Sea. If going for Springtime, rush Markets/Plantations.

It's a bit of an exploit, but one thing you can do is avoid finishing techs if you're planning on taking Progress then completing them the turn after you get the opener.

If playing Tradition, consider rushing Mathematics for Hanging Gardens/Horsemen/Temple of Artemis. Those things are all really important early on.

Deity is hard. Rightfully so. I lose plenty of games on Deity and I think most Deity players, whether on this forum or not, do as well.

Upgrading Warriors is something you do when playing as Authority and you want Spears ASAP for barb hunting and CS tributing. For peaceful games focus on better units, they get the job done better and are much more efficient.

You have to learn to use what you have. I know that's easier said than done but you need to find out with experience how to settle cities defensively (don't try and go for "the perfect city", just go for defensibility and easy access to resources).

When settling coastal cities try to see how many tiles on the coast it's exposed to. If it's exposed to one tile you can relax usually and make do with an Archer as a garrison. If it's exposed to multiple tiles make sure you have sufficient navy yourself!

If you want to fight so much in the early game you might have to go Authority. I don't like warmongering either but some games/civs just set themselves up for this.

What civs are you playing? You need to take this into consideration, you can't just play each civ the same way.

 

[CppMaster]

Build horseman and/or walls earlier if you struggle to defend a city. Also make sure that it has defensive position which is more important than prefect location resource -wise.

 

[Stalker0]

You have to learn to use what you have. I know that's easier said than done but you need to find out with experience how to settle cities defensively (don't try and go for "the perfect city", just go for defensibility and easy access to resources).

I think this is the most important lesson. Its so tempting to look at a spot and say "many years from now this will be the greatest city on earth". But high level civ is unforgiving, it is so much better to get a city that will develop quickly and defensively than one that will be top dog in 100 turns.

 

[LukaSlovenia29]

Weewuh, perhaps you could post a photojournal of a game that you think represents your typical Deity experience, and we can comment on it and give you advice on how to improve?

 

[Weewuh]

ok I will post one when i get back from vacation then