[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[Nizef]

Here is a recap of the games in the Enjoyable Deity Games Experience (EDGE) series so far in 2020, (games from last year are listed on page 9 of this thread):
42. the Mayans 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Piety challenge
43. Siam (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Patronage partial challenge
44. the Shoshone 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
45. Poland 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Honor challenge
46. the Netherlands (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Liberty challenge
47. the Aztecs 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
49. the Zulus (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
50. Austria (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
51. Persia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
52. the Ottomans (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
53. Rome (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
54. Songhai (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
55. the Incas (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
56. Russia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
57. India 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge
58. Germany 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
59. Byzantium 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
60. the Iroquois (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
61. America 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge
62. Sweden 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Petra challenge
63. Morocco 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial Commerce challenge
64. England 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial UN challenge
65. Portugal 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial elimination challenge
66. Egypt 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
67. Polynesia 3 (Archipelago, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
68. Sweden 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
69. Germany 4 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded), War academy, part 1, DomV challenge
70. the Huns 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 2
71. Spain 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Huge size, Unmodded)
72. Denmark 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
73. Venice 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DipV challenge
74. Carthage 3 (Hellblazer´s Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazer´s map script), CV challenge

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#75: War academy, Part 3
This civ is particularly well suited for warfare and that is what we are doing here as well. The idea being that you settle just two or max three expands and off you go. The task is to play as China on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Epic speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. There is just one rule: you have to go for a DomV. As in the first and second part of this war academy, there is a lot of bad terrain so your workers will have something to do. I would classify this as a medium challenge. I am sure you will make the most of Chu-Ko-Nus and the generals. If you do not like this one... well, that would be a surprise. Can you really pass on the opportunity to take out Ram very early? Once again the start is powerful and it will help you in the early game for sure. Enjoy!

I played according to HOF rules and submitted my win. There is a short recap behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

Settle hill/river/mountain on t1 and then Scoutx2-Granary-Settler-Archer-Settler. 2 workers from a CS and 1 from Ram and Oda respectively. First expand to the SW for Mt. Sinai and second up NE on the coast. Third religion on t96 (DF/Tithe/Pagodas/Peace Gardens/IP). 3 city NC on 110 and Oracle on t124. Education on t155 and then switching to the bottom half of the tech tree. Oda attacked Ram on t157 and I joined a few turns later. I took Lampang with CBs but Oda took the capital. No harm done since I was about to get the UU. So when Siam was out, Oda and I took a detour far S to deal with Babylon. I took the cap on t205 and burnt two other cities to the ground and only left them with the crappy Dur-Kurigalzu. I was also on par in tech count.

There was a brief lull and I built LToP and dealt with some annoying CS. On t249 I started the crucial war against Japan (how fitting!). This was the hardest part, since they were very strong and based on the shape of Pangaea, I knew that I had to eliminate them alltogether. On t312 Kyoto finally fell and Tokyo a few turns later. The real struggle before that was about Sukothai though. I had to bring Artillery to finally take out Oda and the last city, Nara, fell on t323. Then I had to regroup and build roads over the narrow land bridge and also settled Nanjing in the middle of the bridge to be able to move GWBs and Triplanes. Then on to Gao (t356) and Venice (t368). I picked Autocracy and England and Venice went Order. The rest of the pack never made it so far. England had used the time to chew up Indonesia and the final struggle had to include a push for 5-6 cities to take both London and Jakarta.

I had good science output and waited patiently for Rocket Artillery. Then England stood no chance. The tourist tour ended in frantic pace and I "visited" Nottingham (t409), Jenne (t411), London and Denpasar (t420), Surabaya (t424) and finally Jakarta on t425. Hugely satisfying game even if the UU really only got me Babylon. SP: full Tradition, Honor opener, Commerce 2, full Rationalism and Autocracy 5.

 

[Nizef]

I put this in the funny screenshots section but it was such a surprise that I wanted to share it here as well.

After more than 7.000 hours in this game, something NEW happened. An AI voted for ME to host the World Congress. I had not bribed it either and as you can see from the screen shot Venice put ALL 18 votes on me! I didn¨t know this was even theoretically possible!

 

[mbbcam]

I have actually had something similar happen to me in recent months, and it surprised me, as well. An AI voted for me to be host, which was ironic because I voted for them, on the grounds that I couldn't win but they would if I gave them my votes and that would stop a more irritating opponent from being host. So neither of us won! After that, I made sure I voted for myself.

 

[beetle]

@Nizef, I have had that happen a few times. It is unpredictable, but can happen if I installed them as host the previous round.

EDGe72 Denmark, Lakes (Seas), younger (3B v 4B, so more hills/mountains), colder (so more snow/ice/tundra), Raging Barbarians.

I have played this through once, lost by CV on turn #376. I was on a rampage, but needed another twenty+ turns. I am going to try rolling back to ~T200 after my second cap with the UU, and turtle until Arty. I was at war the whole game, but did not take a third cap until RA got online. Also, I got up to ten UU/Berserk Muskets, but could not keep them alive. I did learn a few things about the UA.

 

[Nizef]

I finished EDGE#72 and lost to Cathrine (SV) on t309. She had a blast of a game.

 

[beetle]

I finished EDGE#72 and lost to Cathrine (SV) on t309. She had a blast of a game.

Yikes! That is very fast! She built Porcelain Tower in my game, and after that I bribed everyone to DOW her constantly. Gustavus is my problem. He opened Autocracy before I did and I am having a hard time winning before his CV. Really fun map though.

Edit to say I accelerated my end game, and Gustavus wins 30 turns sooner!

 

[Nizef]

Yikes! That is very fast! She built Porcelain Tower in my game, and after that I bribed everyone to DOW her constantly. Gustavus is my problem. He opened Autocracy before I did and I am having a hard time winning before his CV. Really fun map though.

Yes, she built Apollo on t233 and Hubble on t242. I was closing the gap at the finish and I was 12 turns from a CV and 7 turns from a SV. As it turned out, those two GS from Hubble were decisive. Sweden was no problem at all, they succumbed to Songhai (which was my secondary threat). Dido and Shaka were fighting each other and Theodora ended the game on one crappy tundra city. Enrico did not finish at all. I took Cape town from him but Russia took Venice before I could reach it.

 

[Tiberiu]

Finally finished #42 Maya-Piety challange. It was a great game that required more concentration than a normal game, due the limitations of the piety tree and the task at hand itself.

Spoiler :

Cultural victory on turn 315! Not something to write home about but I am satisfied with it, given the overall limitations in place.

My early game suffered from the lack of workers and late Theology (failed Baktun T86 but at least built Hanging Gardens to compensate as I saw nobody went Tradition. Religion T66 with Sacred Sites but it wouldn't be very useful with only 4 founded cities + 1 puppet.

Failed to settle the FOY quickly enough so I needed to fight Brazil for it but I managed to get it eventually, before he built Walls in the city. With Brazil being eliminated after Carthage took his remaining cities and his capital, my focus was now on Inca, who was building too many wonders and made me covet them. But Dido became too strong and I had to first deal with her before being able to reach the Inca.

Having enough happiness from the FOY, I decided to give Machu Picchu a shot, only to fail it and waste 9 turns.

I rushed Radio in order to fight Dido, wonder whoring along the way, this time checking with my spy what others are building in order to not mess up again. I managed 2 extra wonders I usually never even think to build (Globe Theatre, Uffizi) while keeping a minimal army. Seeing my production too low for World Fair, I proposed Cultural Heritage Sites as first resolution, planting the seeds for a CV. With the Foreign Legion units that Freedom gives I was hoping to take out Carthage. Decided to wait for Plastics instead, as she had too many units and 42 strenght wasn't enough for that. An unexpected friendship with Venice allwed me to have enough money to upgrade to infantry, and after that Venice was eliminated as they were attacked by all others.

Indonesia's capital was captured by Bogota, and eventually Indonesia would also be eliminated from the game.

Plastics came soon enough and then, in turn 240, the fun started. In the picture below, I saw 4 Great Generals not protected and easy targets, and decided that it's a good time to start the war. 3 were killed in sacrifice attacks by Scouts, and the 4th was killed by Infantry. AI sucks at protecting Generals and this is why it's handy to keep few Scouts as suicide assassins of great people. (correction-2 were killed by scouts, 1 pike, 1 infantry)

My second choice for World Congress was World Fair, and I managed to win it despite having only ~400 production - by injecting 850 with overflow in a single turn and the rest up to 919 afterwards. The World Fair finished in 2 turns so I only had 1 turn to fully contribute.

All that culture would be really useful in order to send ideological pressure as quickly as possible to Carthage. (culture peaked at 1770 with the help of Historical landmarks being passed exactly 1 turn before world fair bonus ended.)
I bulbed 7 great writers at the end of it for ~10.500 each, instantly inflicting Civil Resistence to Carthage and Dissidents to Inca despite Inca having more then double my tourism.

With almost no ranged support (only 1 artillery), my Infantry were making very slow progress towards the enemy lines. All my pikemen died now, but I wasn't going to upgrade them anyway so I wasn't upset. Infantry managed to put Carthage's capital under siege eventually, and in T267 I planted my citadel next to her city. With the capital surrounded and under siege, a deluded Dido was asking for my complete surrender and all of my cities, only adapting to reality after the city fell. I was content with peace after I took her Capital and her 4 Wonders, as now I had to focus on England, the score leader.

Being tech leader by a small margin I could win in any way I wanted at that point. Wanted to go for Stealth Bombers but eventually decided that Internet would be faster because I could simply fortify and click "next turn". Passed International Games and World Religion for extra tourism. International Games bonus ended exactly the turn Internet started, denying me the chance set a Tourism record.

In turn 314 I settled 2 more cities, in order to donate them to Inca and England and hold concerts with 4 Musicians. The last musician wanted to come out one turn before the internet, so I sold my guild and rebuilt it one turn later. 3 other musicians were bought with faith.

Maximum Tourism: 1139

Overall, a nice challange to complete. Hard early game, easier late game due to Fountain of Youth (great wonder for infantry!) and also because it solved all happiness problems.

I forgot the Policies:

 

[ForkOfSpite]

EDGE#73: Introduction to Deity

Turn 281 DipV - thanks for the game. Throughout most of the game, I was nervous about having a dismal military score (in part, due to limited number of available units). In playing, I essentially needed to make three decisions ...

Spoiler :

1) Where to settle
Settling on the gold would have been better, and I probably should have. Instead, SIP to save a turn, immediately work the deer rather than a 2f-0p tile, and improve an otherwise nearly worthless tile.

2) Religion
I don't remember all the details, but I'm pretty sure I had the first pantheon and chose God King. With only two salt due to SIP and no guarantee of any iron, I didn't really want Earth Mother. I also considered DoA, but decided to go for the extra culture and science with GK.

Think I founded the second religion (GK/Tithe/DI/Plow/Reliquary), but Ram's religion already had 15-ish cities. Didn't try to spread my religion, but at least Venice was big (Tithe probably still wasn't worth it, but nothing else appealed to me). Bought Pogaodas and Cathedrals from Ram's religion in the two nearby city states. Used faith to GE SoL, SOH, and because I could, CN Tower.

Was playing a peaceful game - best friends with Alex despite never joining any of his wars (Alex had a bad game) until a couple of turns after William chose Order (even though he voted yea for Freedom World Ideology just a few turns prior). On Turn 245 ...

3) How to handle DoW by William and Pach
My military strength was finally respectable - way better than the Dutch, but supposedly inferior to the Inca. Initially, I was just worried about my trade routes, but I had a few nearby possibilities. Then, a couple of city states fell and I had no reasonable chance to liberate - no longer could get enough votes despite being allies with all (remaining) CS unless I made it to Globalization and enough of the other civs would allow me to have a diplomat (by not DOWing me). A well-timed (luck) GS helped me get Telecom. A faith GE gave me SOH which finished Rationalism - made it to Globalization.

While making my way towards the Information Era, Ram was eliminated - Neb took the last city. This potentially put a CV loss into play, and I doubt I could make it to the second round of WL vote without Arabia winning. Of course, it also opened up the possibility to recall Ram to life. I had to go through Neb to get to the easiest Siamese city, so I DoW'd Neb. After taking Akkad, he gave me Si Satch in the peace deal. For whatever reason, no one DoW'd Ram in the remaining 8-ish 15-ish turns of the game - I only had two three infantry nearby to defend - that third one must have made the difference. (Was more than 10 turns remaining; he was recalled in time to vote for his own proposal which was his religion as WR. More votes for me!)

In the end, I had plenty of votes. Of course, Arabia should have won - Harun was sitting on about 50k, but that's AI logic for you. Just to mention all of the AIs, Kame was marching an army to Venice. He was a run away in military score, but the game was over before I even saw the army at my borders.

Presumably, this won't be normal for Deity, but I was able to hard build a lot of wonders. I ran out of things to build while researching Philosophy, so I built Temple of Artemis - successfully. At some point very late, I tried to build the Great Lighthouse (had already built Artemis, National College, Oracle - might have already built Hagia as well). It was a quest for three CS, so I tried and missed by one turn. The Forbidden Palace was my only long build (15 turns). William was in Patronage, and it felt late, but I was successful. Big Ben was also late, but I don't think anyone else took Commerce.

 

[Nizef]

Finally finished #42 Maya-Piety challange. It was a great game that required more concentration than a normal game, due the limitations of the piety tree and the task at hand itself.

Cultural victory on turn 315! Not something to write home about but I am satisfied with it, given the overall limitations in place.

I understand that you have high standards, but a CV on Deity is not easy. I mean, a SV is almost always doable even with a dissapointing start, but for a CV you need certain buildings and sometimes you just can´t get them. As in this challenge, we deliberately played a suboptimal Social Policy tree. Still you won! In my book that is an overall good performance. Besides, most AIs on this map usually prioritize Culture a lot.

 

[mbbcam]

@Tiberiu Interesting pictures. I like the use of Citadels and Forts. Hadn't really considered that technique before. I'll have to try it.

 

[Nizef]

Turn 281 DipV - thanks for the game. Throughout most of the game, I was nervous about having a dismal military score (in part, due to limited number of available units). In playing, I essentially needed to make three decisions ...

Welcome to the "EDGE club"! I don´t know what level you usually play on, but with EDGE#73 I wanted to show that Deity is not always that bad. You mastered it very well! If you are interested, I could recommend "normal" Deity games that still are a little easier than average: EDGE#1 with Korea, EDGE#37 with Babylon, EDGE#44 with the Shoshone and EDGE#45 with Poland. Also many of the modded games (like the much loved EDGE#5 with Byzantium) are a little easier compared to standard games.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#76: War academy, Part 4
Also this civ is very well suited for warfare and that is what we are doing here as well. You are a little short on good land, so you will probably not settle more than two or maybe three expands. After that, well you know what to do. The task is to play as Mongolia on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Epic speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. There are no rules for this one, just enjoy it. Once again, I would like you to make the effort to found a religion. The tools for that will be found nearby. This is, in my book, a medium challenge because you have one friendly neighbour and one that is not. Production will not be your problem but maybe the start is a little shy on growth. Your capital might be very big though, at least in my game it was. Have fun!

I played according to HOF rules and submitted my win. There is a short recap behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

Settle on the Gold on t1 and then Scoutx2-Granary-Settler-Archer-Settler. 3 workers from Sydney and I stayed at war with them and eventually conquered them as well. First expand to the W for Mt. Kailash and Marble&Cotton and second up N to hook up the Salt. Reasonable religion OwN/Interfaith Dialogue/Pagodas/Plowshares/IP). Plowshares are of course not very useful with Mongolia, but all better options were gone. 3 city NC on 128 and Oracle before that. Education on t163 but that was still fine.

Then on to Keshik time. Askia was the first target and also one of the harder nuts to crack. Taghaza was easy but then I had to grind through the whole empire before I finally could take Gao. It was not hard, just tedious. Theodora attacked me so she was the next to go. Nicaea was in a nice spot and it became very useful in the endgame. I continued by conquering Constantinople. Then on to the big struggle against Assyria. It took forever and I needed real Artillery to cripple them enough. At the same time I was fighting William and a LOT of CS. Once again, tedious. I finally took Utrecht. Now I was already very short on happiness. I didn´t help that I was the only one who took Order. The Netherlands and the crippled Assyria and Byzantium took Freedom. Songhai was out of the game but the rest of the pack (Indonesia, Spain and Venice) took Autocracy. So far it had been very enjoyable, but whereto next?

My science was very good and I opted to turtle for a SV, since I really wanted to secure a HOF win. It turned out to be easy and I launched on t413. Karakorum was pop35 at the end of the game. Enrico wanted to challenge me, but otherwise the endgame was peaceful and uneventful for me. Indonesia was the main opposition and they chewed up Spain. SP: Liberty opener, full Tradition, Commerce 2, full Rationalism and Order 7.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Welcome to the "EDGE club"! I don´t know what level you usually play on, but with EDGE#73 I wanted to show that Deity is not always that bad. You mastered it very well! If you are interested, I could recommend "normal" Deity games that still are a little easier than average: EDGE#1 with Korea, EDGE#37 with Babylon, EDGE#44 with the Shoshone and EDGE#45 with Poland. Also many of the modded games (like the much loved EDGE#5 with Byzantium) are a little easier compared to standard games.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try EDGE#45 - hopefully HCA domination. Had success with that on Immortal (Huge, Pangea) with America.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

EDGE#45: In the footsteps of King Jan III Sobieski, Honor Challenge

Since it's an honor challenge, went with an HCA strategy. Well, just an HC strategy - retired on turn 131 before ideologies. Despite reading Consentient's noob guide, I spent too many hammers on buildings (Ducal stable in both expansions). I went to war on turn 127-ish with an army of six crossbows and two knights (and a catapult from a city state). Captured one city but didn't hold and lost the knight in the flip.

Other mistakes:

• miserable attempt at worker steals from a city state
• not enough food - capital was only size 10
• if starting with crossbows, maybe it's better to research machinery before education?

 

[Nizef]

• if starting with crossbows, maybe it's better to research machinery before education?

I think you are right. You should have XBs on approx t100 to be effective. Peddroelms LPs on Youtube give you good insight of the tech path. I usually play on Epic speed when I want to go to war early, for the exact reason that the window of opportunity for each unit is so short on Deity/Standard speed. Just as a benchmark, I went for Education first in my game and on t100 my four cities were only 11-6-6-4 and I was in no shape to take on anybody. But on t148 I had just conquered Venice with 4 XBs and 4 Trebs, 1 LS and 1 Knight and my population was 18-12-10-9-9. Then I had to wait for Artillery to go to war again. It would also help much, if at least some of the ranged units are promoted all the way to +1 Range when you start your war. I use a CS as target practice to upgrade early units. In the Poland game, Zurich could have been a good "boot camp".

 

[ForkOfSpite]

EDGE#45: In the footsteps of King Jan III Sobieski, Honor Challenge

Spoiler :

... the third to the S to grab the Spices. Turned out that this was a key location in many ways (both militarily and for resources.

Out of curiosity, do you remember where you settled the southern expansion? If I were to settle that area and include the spices, I guess I'd choose the plains tile between the horses and salt, but then I'd need to buy tiles to the spices. If I were to settle closer to the spices, the city's production would be too poor for me to consider it viable.

(I'll be shocked if this attempt to post the screenshot works ...)

Spoiler :

 

[Nizef]

Out of curiosity, do you remember where you settled the southern expansion? If I were to settle that area and include the spices, I guess I'd choose the plains tile between the horses and salt, but then I'd need to buy tiles to the spices. If I were to settle closer to the spices, the city's production would be too poor for me to consider it viable.

I checked it, and I settled directly W of the Spices (worked the Horses and grew out to the Salt). I rarely settle low production flatland cities in border areas, but this time I did. It turned out to be the correct decision (actually the best tile!) when I worked my way through Industrial! In the late game this city had 60 production without bonuses from engineering specialists.

 

[beetle]

Hi again,
This time I will share a totally different experience. EDG4 is an unmodded Continents map with standard size and speed with Denmark. It is much in the spirit of the other saves in this thread (as defined in the beginning of this thread), but as you can see from the screenshot, the start is quite bad and there are more limitations down the road... In my own game, I had huge problems with the early game. All VCs are enabled, but probably DomV should be the priority here?

I had so much fun with Denmark in EDGe72 that I am playing this one next. Wish me luck!