[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
75. China 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 3, DomV challenge
76. Mongolia 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 4
77. Brazil 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
78. the Shoshone 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
79. Assyria 2 (Terra Incognita, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
80. Indonesia 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Liberty challenge
81. Portugal 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
82. Japan 2 (Ice Age, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Order challenge
83. Persia 2 (Random map, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
84. the Netherlands 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
85. Denmark 3 (Tiny Islands, Standard speed, Large size, Raging Barbarians, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
86. America 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded)
87. the Incas 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)

 

[Tiberiu]

Yay! Finished Edge #78 today. It was an entertaining game and I also learned a few things while playing it, that will be very helpful in future games.

Spoiler :

Diplomatic Victory on turn 320. Was also building Spaceship Parts just in case. So late because I had a lot of setbacks - lost 2 cities early, later lost the best city from a Revolt.

I decided to use the opportunity to test a Liberty-Tradition mix wide strategy with capital+11 cities with Representation and all the food bonuses from the religion. My idea was to try to have many mountain cities and use 5 coastal cities to boost Hukadeka - the coastal city with mountain and 3 fish to have strong National College later. Turns out, 12 cities were too many - 10 would have been the ideal number, as later I would have no happiness to grow, despite having all the luxuries in the map. They were also a hell to micromanage since they are close to each other too.

Portugal rushed Steel so I felt that I need to do the same, since I forward settled them and wanted to also declare war and that delayed my tech too much so it was probably a bad idea, but at least I neutralized Portugal.
Kept my cities on 1 population until they converted so that I make sure to spread my religion. - this worked very well and never had need of any missionaries.

my final settling ended on T123, with one more city not fitting in the picture, to the SouthEast of Te-Moak, made with the purpose of stealing Salt+Marble from Portugal, and crippling them.

I started war on T125 with the help of a general which I obtained by attacking Ormus. I just wanted to steal the Salt and the Marble and then make peace. The attrition war lasted for a while and killed a lot of units from Portugal but with minimal army I wasn't able to capture anything else. The longswordsman remained fortified there for the rest of the game.

After that I just kept peace with everybody in order to grow quickly from Swords into Plowshares and permanent We Love the King. (i had all luxes) Turns out, SiP was overkill - I had already taken Fertility Rites and Temple of Artemis and anything with happiness would have been better.
So middlegame I mostly didn't grow at all despite having 2 Mercantile Allies, all luxuries, and all happiness from Tradition+Liberty, and Forbidden Palace.

On the other continent, both France and England were strong, I kept paying France to attack England. But Elizabeth started a war against me with SOTL, and because she was also allied with Prague, I lost Duckwater and Tukudeka - but I gifted them to Inca instead, so that I take them back faster. This setback was severe enough and because of it I lost any hopes of building any Renaissance wonders. Also because of it, I chose to pass Scholars in Residence, to make sure I won't be left behind. Venice was captured by France just as Renaissance came, and nobody had taken Patronage except Venice, so I was able to build Forbidden Palace for a lot of happiness. This allowed me to - at least - be the second one after France to enter Modern Era. He chose Order so I went Freedom to have 2 free policies. Unfortunately, all the others went Order too, except Mongolia who went Autocracy. So me and Mongolia were having Revolutionary Wave.

My plan was to try to hold as much as I can without switching my ideology, in order to build Statue of Liberty and to pass Freedom as world ideology. But that didn't come in time, and the core of my empire, the NC city and the city where I had Brandenburg gate, revolted! First time for me! Thankfully, at least it didn't go to France, but to Inca, who were weak.

Thankfully, Neuschwanstein was built with an Engineer before Statue of Liberty finished, and that helped to alleviate a little happiness - that's why the cities are building Walls and Castles. I was able to grow a little despite Very Unhappy. With the help of Zoos and Banks (capitalism) I managed to recover from this, hoping to be able to buy back my city from Inca with the buildings intact. I waited until it was down to 1 population and then conquered it because Inca wouldn't sell it to me. For that I made 6 bombers and an artillery just to make sure. With the help of trade routes, I grew it back from 1 pop to 36 in only 35 turns.

World Fair would prove helpful in defending from France's Tourism, but not enough. He built Great Firewall so I couldn't defend from Internet. He was influential on all but me, and only needed 13 turns to win. I wasn't in any real danger - I could increase my culture quickly if I wanted too, but I saw no point of doing that since it wouldn't have a big effect on anything else.

Even with World Ideology Freedom, France managed to put my Empire at under -30 unhappiness again in T313 so I was forced to finally give up my ideology, but at least I kept the bonus from Statue of Liberty. But France had more than -40 unhappiness himself from the Public Opinion so I knew that his empire is finished while mine is safe because it's under his influence.

Wonders built: 11 : Stonehenge, ToA, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Forbidden Palace, Neutschwanstein, Statue of Liberty, Brandenburg Gate, CN Tower, Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station.
Policies taken: Liberty+Tradition 6 (mixed, both late finish), Patronage 1, Rationalism 2 (late), Freedom 7 to Order 6 (Anarchy t313)
World Congress proposals: Scholars in Residence, International Games, Cultural Heritage Sites, Historical Landmarks, World Fair, World Ideology (Freedom), International Space Station.

final screen:

 

[raider980]

Yay! Finished Edge #78 today. It was an entertaining game and I also learned a few things while playing it, that will be very helpful in future games.

Nice game. Comparing it to my game I'm way behind in all the metrics. You've got more than triple my science, double the culture, and almost double the gold. Still if I would have gotten the WL vote on T220, I could have won. What exactly determines the timing of the WL vote, is it just how fast you get to the first one? I've read about it but still am not sure.

I can't believe -40 happiness. I get paranoid about -4 happiness and take immediate action to rectify it, sometimes to the detriment of my game. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it quite so much.

And interestingly in my game, the Inca were near the top and so was England (obviously because she won). That's why I like comparing games so much - sometimes the AI does vastly different things. In my game:

• France and England were fighting a lot but Elizabeth must have had a better army than in your game. Plus, France was going for Portugal.
• The Inca were owning the Mongols. That's the only reason I could drive my army deep into Mongol territory - because the Inca were taking over their cities too. In your game, the Inca were weak.
• Portugal nearly got wiped out by Brazil. In your game, Brazil got totally killed off.

 

[Nizef]

Portugal nearly got wiped out by Brazil. In your game, Brazil got totally killed off.

I remember that in my game Brazil was down to one crappy city, but astonishingly recovered to take a couple of cities from Portugal. Both were fighting to avoid last place (Mongolia and Venice were out of it though).

 

[Tiberiu]

Nice game. Comparing it to my game I'm way behind in all the metrics. You've got more than triple my science, double the culture, and almost double the gold. Still if I would have gotten the WL vote on T220, I could have won. What exactly determines the timing of the WL vote, is it just how fast you get to the first one? I've read about it but still am not sure.

Once any civ enters Information Era, OR once half of the civs still in the game enter Atomic Era, World Congress becomes United Nations and the first World Leader Vote is sheduled to take place.

I can't believe -40 happiness. I get paranoid about -4 happiness and take immediate action to rectify it, sometimes to the detriment of my game. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it quite so much.

No no! You are very right to try to avoid even small unhappiness! I didn't want to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. This was just me playing a bit too experimental because I felt that I would get away with it, and the game went bad enough that I felt I could keep experimenting and still win. This should not happen in normal circumstances. In the long run, I would have been better off by taking Order right from the start, but I am very stubborn and sometimes fixated on the idea that I need 2 free policies from the ideology, when sometimes, like in this case, it was more logical to go for Order just to avoid all the hassle. In the game I didn't do it, but building Statue of Liberty and then switching immediately would have been better too.
But that's how I play, I try to make experiments during games that I am confident I will win, in order to try to find some new ideas.

The thing is, there is a prank that you can play on a tourism leader: Go same ideology as him, and then pass a different ideology as world ideology. You will be safe because you are under his influence, but he will get Dissidents.
I think another problem with Cultural civs like France that are trying to win culturally is that it is way slower than Science for the AI. I think Science runaways are the most dangerous since if they try to get to Sattelites first and build Hubble, and the human player is in real danger of losing the game unless he can stop the AI with strong military. That's why I felt I could do what I want against France, who missed a possible opportunity to build Hubble and instead went for Internet, which is not as powerful for an AI. Had the AIs know how to use Musicians and try to "attack" you with concerts in the same fashion that they use missionaries and prophets, then it might have been quite interesting.

And interestingly in my game, the Inca were near the top and so was England (obviously because she won). That's why I like comparing games so much - sometimes the AI does vastly different things. In my game:

• France and England were fighting a lot but Elizabeth must have had a better army than in your game. Plus, France was going for Portugal.
• The Inca were owning the Mongols. That's the only reason I could drive my army deep into Mongol territory - because the Inca were taking over their cities too. In your game, the Inca were weak.
• Portugal nearly got wiped out by Brazil. In your game, Brazil got totally killed off.

Very interesting! I think how the AIs perform during the games in various playthroughs depends on a few factors but the most important one is what attitude you take towards it and what measure you take against the said civ. For example when you have a luxury and you can choose who to sell it to. I usually assume that I am helping my trading partner a little since the AI benefits more from 4 happiness than from 7 gold per turn. A few other random evens might affect how a game goes. Even Barbarian Camps do not spawn in the same places and they can also affect games, or CS quests...
Other times, sometimes a civ might get his 3-rd city settler captured by barbarians, and then plays poorly, while in another playthrough, if he settles correctly he can perform well.

 

[raider980]

Freedom 7 to Order 6 (Anarchy t313)

One question I forgot to ask. You switched to Order on T313. Does "Order 6" mean you had six tenets in Order? Do we get to keep a certain number of tenets when we switch ideology? I always figured I'd lose all the tenets and just have to start over on the new ideology with zero so I've never done it. If we can keep tenets then that's not so bad.

 

[Tiberiu]

One question I forgot to ask. You switched to Order on T313. Does "Order 6" mean you had six tenets in Order? Do we get to keep a certain number of tenets when we switch ideology? I always figured I'd lose all the tenets and just have to start over on the new ideology with zero so I've never done it. If we can keep tenets then that's not so bad.

You do not lose all the tenets. You are given back any tenets that you put in the ideology tree, but the free tenets that you might have taken are an exception and you don't get those back, so you still have something to lose. But interesting to point out that in theory you can sort of compensate by building your ideology wonder for a free policy, thus getting a policy regardless. The 2 turns of anarchy can be quite a cost, though...

 

[raider980]

Finished EDGE#86. America. Science Victory T322. My 3rd Deity win!

This game made me think that the map and starting land is far more important than which Civ you are playing.

Spoiler Map description :

The land was excellent - a good mix of coast and interior settling spots with a good mix of food and production. It was in the corner, protected by mountains.

I had desert and got Desert Folklore and was able to spread my religion far and wide. America is by most accounts a middle of the road civ, but this game was pretty easy. I've looked at tier lists before, including the one right on this page with recent comments. And I think you might be right with your comment in there, Nizef, about there being a top tier and then all the rest.

Spoiler Now on to the game. :

I took two turns to move the settler to the southeast to settle on the river/desert hill/next to a mountain. Observatory and garden in my capital is nice; plus on hill for defense.

Other cities:

• T40 Second city, NY to the west by mountain and river for protection against Genghis.
• T52 Third city, Boston
• T76 Philadelphia on the coast forming a nice little square defining my territory.

Spoiler Empire T78 :

View attachment 558378

T106 Atlanta and T120 Chicago, not the best spots but both coastal cities in the corner of the map.

Spoiler Why you attacking my City State Genghis? :

I played a peaceful game while the rest of the world fought each other. I was not in one single war until T225. T70 I did have to bribe Genghis to attack Napoleon because French troops were heading toward NY. I was itching to settle the desert to the west of NY but it was too close to Genghis. France settled two cities in it in the T140's. Then on T225 Sweeden asked me to go to war with France, I said yes because I wanted those two desert cities. I got them on T235. The rest of the game was a cruise to victory.

For social policies I went full Liberty, one in Patronage, then full Rationalism. I interrupted Rationalism to get one tenet for happiness in Autocracy. I went Autocracy, even though it wasn't really the best choice for my SV attempt, because Genghis, Shaka and Gustavus all took it. Mongolia was the cultural runaway and was right next to me so I knew I could keep the peace and stay happy by taking the same Ideology as him. I only took one tenet the whole game. Alex took Order and Sejong Freedom. The rest of the civs were irrelevant.

Fun for comparison: Monty was killed off early by Shaka. Elizabeth and Ashurbanipal were killed off late. France was behind all game since the war with The Mongols early and was finally killed off by Gustavus late. Genghis was on top with Shaka and Alex right behind. All three had spaceship parts built. Alex may have done better but Shaka and Gengis were ganging up on him all game, I'm actually surprised he did so well. Sejong was in trouble toward the end, both Shaka and Genghis attacked shortly before I won.

From your writeup, almost the opposite of your game Nizef. Gustavus and Genghis did bad in yours but good in mine. Napoleon and Monty were mighty militarily in yours but were both taken out of my game.

Spoiler T322 Science Victory :

 

[Nizef]

Well done raider! I enjoyed your report and I am happy that you had such a good game.

I think it is very nice that games can turn out so different. I guess one reason is, that many wars might lead to more diversity. If you remember GotM175 with Byzantium, it was mostly peaceful (on the other continent) and Austria did extremely well regardless of who was playing.

About tier lists. I admit that a two tier system is a little rough. There are civs that are more difficult than most civs in the second tier. For example Byzantium has no UA at all if you don´t get a religion. But if you get one, then they are in the middle of the pack. But demoting some civs to a third tier seems harsh. In my opinion, the whole idea of having different civs is that the player should, if needed, adjust his/her game according to the strengths/weaknesses of the civ in question.

 

[vadalaz]

Finished EDGE#50 with a T162 DomV, definitely an enjoyable map for conquest.

Spoiler :

Really strong map for Austria with a central but uncontested starting location and a bunch of CSs around. I think you can finish much faster here if you don't build any infrastructure and just focus on units (and Epic speed is more forgiving than Standard for this), but I was planning for a longer game in case I'd face some strong resistance. The AIs had relatively few units though and they never even made it to Knights.

Liberty 3-city into archer spam (expands went Archer - Monument), completed some barb camp quests and then fed the archers to nearby CSs. Manilla started upgrading them into CBs around T70 so I married them and captured Washington pretty quickly. This army then captured Venice, Marrakech and Carthage.

I got my 2nd army by marrying Kabul when I had a big enough happiness safety net, and sent it to Sweden. Gustavus was the only AI who managed to put up a bit of a fight with his Great Wall. After taking Stockholm I sent the second army to London and in the meantime I built my third army and captured Karakorum.

 

[Nizef]

Finished EDGE#50 with a T162 DomV, definitely an enjoyable map for conquest.

I know that you have cleared the map with Autria in 91 (wasn´t it?) turns on Standard speed, but 162 turns on Epic is equally crazy in my book! Wow! I hope that somebody else will try it also to compare notes. Will anybody else get a DomV in less than 300 turns here?

 

[vadalaz]

I think it was in mid-90s on a Lakes map. I also tried to pull off something like that as Venice a couple of times. The idea is the same: you feed archers to a CS and then GMoV it once it upgrades the units. Venice gets two GMoVs early, so you gift away two archer armies to CSs and build the third one in Venice, which you'll have to upgrade yourself once you've researched Construction, and then try to win before turn 100 with three armies of 7-8 CBs and some melee. I ran into some problems when I had tried to execute this, but I don't remember what went wrong. My guess is that the terrain or map layout wasn't good enough for superfast domination. It's a risky strategy and you do need to get lucky.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I just assumed it was t162 on standard and thought it was already impressive. turns out it's epic. vadalaz never ceases to amaze

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Finished EDGE#86. America. Science Victory T322. My 3rd Deity win!

I concur with Nizef - well done. I'm still playing, but my prospects look iffy (plus, I've already failed once). They'd almost certainly be better if I had gone to war or even if I had sponsored wars. Instead, I built enough units early so that Genghis (nor anyone else) DOW'd me. Without taking any commerce, I've had economy issues - not debilitating, but certainly not great. So far, I haven't actively pursued any city states because it didn't seem like my economy could handle it. After stealing four or five techs from Sejong, I finally have a spy in Antananarivo. Overall, my game feels equivalent to that of an irrelevant AI.

Screenshot of Turn 55 (initial expansion complete):

Spoiler :

Screenshot of Turn 175 (current status):

Spoiler :

Details and Thoughts:

Spoiler :

I hard built the Oracle in Phily (Solomon's Mine) and the NC in Washington (was approximately a 20-turn build completed very late), but I felt Machu Picchu was a "must-have". Used the liberty finisher to engineer Machu Picchu in New York (needed to wait six or seven turns to tech Guilds). Somewhat surprisingly, I was able to comfortably get Ironworks in Washington.

Eventually, I decided to found Seattle because I noticed copper five tiles away (buy two tiles then General for the copper). That along with extra salt to sell, excellent growth potential, and lots of desert for faith made it seem like a good idea. Unfortunately, I made that decision too late - after sitting on two cities for the longest time, Napoleon finally settled the copper - I decided to found Seattle anyway (settler was already on the way). Right now, I'm marching a settler to the southeast of our mountain range for the dyes and more coal (plus more truffles, I think). I don't really need the coal - hoping I can sell/trade it.

I seem to be in a strong 5-way alliance with Sejong, Napoleon, Gustavus, and Shaka, but I don't know how much longer that will last (plus, I think most of my DoFs have expired). Shaka just took the first ideology (autocracy), and I'm sure Sejong isn't far behind. I need to prepare to take out Sejong (or at least debilitate him) to prevent a science loss. I'll also need to secure enough city states to prevent Alex's potential diplo victory. I don't yet know if anyone might get a culture victory.

Religion: (Desert Folklore, Tithe, Pagodas, Cathedrals, Itinerant Preachers, To the Glory of God)
I had the chance to take Mosques when I enhanced, and I think I should have - I'm going to need all the faith I can get for great people. Instead, I picked Cathedrals thinking I would make great works with my GAs to help prevent ideological pressure and maybe help defend against a culture victory. As it stands now, it's looking like mosques and using GAs for golden ages would be better, but the game's not over yet.

Social Policies: (full Liberty, full Piety, Rationalism 2)
I don't have much experience with making religion effective. The reformation belief should be useful, but I've been less than impressed with the Mandate of Heaven and Theocracy policies and wish I had invested in either Patronage or Commerce instead.

I have not yet decided which ideology I'll take. I'm leaning towards order, but I don't have much experience with Order science victories. Although I love freedom for the ability to work more specialists, I don't think I'll have the economy to make good use of Space Procurements.

Science:
Three behind Sejong. Two behind Alex. One behind Liz. Not too bad, but I only have one GS so far. I have industrialization and scientific theory - working towards (edit: electricity first - hopefully will find time for some hydro plants, following electricity, maybe ...) biology to find oil and in anticipation of trying to go to flight pretty quickly.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#88: Trolled
I don´t know what to say about this one, other than that it is for sure the roughest game in this entire series. Still, I wanted to add pluralism to the thread and chose to upload this afterall. This is a kind of Via Dolorosa... The task is to play as Korea on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Quick speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. The starting position is decent but after that the problems start! Can I expand at all? Will I get any luxuries? Can I catch up to the AIs? Do what ever you need to do to win this one. I failed my first game miserably and this was a good reminder why I almost never play QS! But maybe you will do it better. Go for it!

There is a short recap of my game behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

SIP and Scout-Granary-Worker-Shrine-Settlerx2. 3 city NC on t68 and Education on t83. I met Kathmandu early and got the first pantheon and took Stone Circles. That gave me the first religion (Tithe/Pagodas/Plowshares/Defender of the faith). Every turn is so valuable on Quick and it is pointless to try for wonders... but I still tried. Failed the Great Lighthouse on the last turn, tried again with Borobudur and failed with two turns to go and then I tried with Sistine and failed on the very last turn. Ouch. The capital is good but the expands are crappy and I have never before tried to play a 3 city opening with only two luxuries. I managed to pull it off but it slowed me down a couple of turns. That doesn´t sound much but on Quick it was still too much.

I was last to Renaissance and seventh to Industrial. The only AI I didn´t meet before the WC was Russia and they were on 12 cities at that point! Catherine just blew everybody else away and when she built PT on t115 I was worried but then she managed to enter Modern before I entered Industrial (t122) and when she built the Hubble on t164 I decided to call the day. I was in Atomic but I had only just finished Plastics.

 

[beetle]

Finished EDGE#86. America. Science Victory T322. My 3rd Deity win!

Congrats! It really is a challenging game!

This game made me think that the map and starting land is far more important than which Civ you are playing.

Starting dirt >> civ choice. But you can’t really control that, and the RNG makes it seems like most Deity maps are not worth playing. Which makes a thread like this one so valuable!

From your writeup, almost the opposite of your game Nizef.

Playing the CDG series series made me really appreciate just how much RNG there is, especially among AI behavior and performance. So much so, that it never fails to surprise me!

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Completed EDGE #86 - T293 SV. This is the first Deity win I've had where no AI DOW'd me. In the end, Alex and Sejong were the main threats. It's a bit ridiculous that Alex didn't find a way to win - he dominated all facets of the game.

How to roll through Shaka:

Spoiler :

Ideologies:

Spoiler :

I tried Order - Sejong had already adopted Order and no one had taken Freedom yet, but I thought Order would be more useful. Due to ideological pressure, I switched to Autocracy while building Apollo; I don't think I would have made it to Spaceflight Pioneers anyway. Liz and eventually Napoleon went Freedom. Sejong and surprisingly Ashurbanipal went Order (didn't think Ashurbanipal would make it to ideologies). Everyone else went Autocracy.

Making great works ended up being pointless. In fact, they were somewhat counterproductive. Early, they made it more difficult for Sejong to gain influence over me to counteract Alex's influence.

Switching ideologies - since I only had one bonus policy in Order, I thought I would only lose one policy when I switched. Instead I went from Order 4 to Autocracy 2.

Techs:

Spoiler :

I spawned 8 7 GS, faith bought 3 GS (reformation belief), built the Porcelain Tower (not sure why Sejong didn't), and combined engineer/build Hubble (the GE left me two or three turns short). Both Alex and Sejong were already in the information era when I started bulbing the 14 13 GS {edit: I included the PT GS in my spawn count and still added the PT GS separately - I only spawned 7 GS naturally}. I used oxford for Nanotechnology. The bulbs left me several turns short on Particle Physics, but my capital had to hard build three parts anyway - Particle Physics was done in plenty of time. After particle physics, I ended up one turn short on Nuclear Fusion despite my cities being on production focus for most of that time.

The bulbs briefly put me in the tech lead, but Sejong finished with one more than me. Alex finished with the same number of known techs. Based on research costs, I think I was the only one with Particle Physics.

Liz and Monty both made it to the Information Era - Liz was 8 techs behind me and Monty was 13 behind me. Shaka, Genghis, and Napoleon were Atomic Era. Gustavus and Ashurbanipal were in the Modern Era.

Religion and Production:

Spoiler :

When I was still attempting to defend against ideological pressure, I faith bought one GE for Neuschwanstein in Philly (took several turns to complete even after the GE - was still focusing more on research). The second faith-bought GE was for Hubble. After the outcome was no longer in doubt, I faith bought a third GE to try for a nuclear missile in New York - wouldn't let me. I switched to a mobile SAM and it still wouldn't let me. Instead, I planted a manufactory for Washington which saved one turn on the final spaceship part.

New York, Boston, and Phily each built one spaceship part. Washington handled three. Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, and even San Francisco built units - mostly XComs, but no one ever attacked.

Social Policies (in order):

Spoiler :

full liberty
Piety 3 (opener, Mandate, Organized)
Rationalism 2 (opener, Secularism)
finish Piety (Theocracy, Tolerance, Reformation)
Rationalism 3 (Humanism)
Order bonus (Socialist Realism)
Order 4 (Young Pioneers, Workers' Faculties, Hero of the People)
Switch to Autocracy 2 (Fortified Borders, Elite Forces)
Autocracy 3 (Militarism)

T293 screenshot:

Spoiler :

 

[Nizef]

Completed EDGE #86 - T293 SV. This is the first Deity win I've had where no AI DOW'd me. In the end, Alex and Sejong were the main threats. It's a bit ridiculous that Alex didn't find a way to win - he dominated all facets of the game.

I enjoyed reading your report. It sounds like you had a solid game! Well done!

 

[raider980]

Completed EDGE #86 - T293 SV. This is the first Deity win I've had where no AI DOW'd me. In the end, Alex and Sejong were the main threats. It's a bit ridiculous that Alex didn't find a way to win - he dominated all facets of the game.

You had a lot of GS, I need to work on that. I never start working my science specialists soon enough. The AI's didn't DoW me either, with all those warmongers in the game they must have been too busy fighting amongst each other. Funny Shaka got beat up in your game, he was doing the beating in mine; but looks like Assyria did poorly in both - how was Assyria in your game @Nizef ?. Assyria always seems like a weak Civ, they may start fine but then fall behind later.

 

[Nizef]

You had a lot of GS, I need to work on that. I never start working my science specialists soon enough. The AI's didn't DoW me either, with all those warmongers in the game they must have been too busy fighting amongst each other. Funny Shaka got beat up in your game, he was doing the beating in mine; but looks like Assyria did poorly in both - how was Assyria in your game @Nizef ?. Assyria always seems like a weak Civ, they may start fine but then fall behind later.

Assyria finished with two cities. Alex took some of his cities and Monty joined the fun.