[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[vadalaz]

Yeah, it has 4 decent growth tiles, 3 quarry tiles boosted by stoneworks, and the rest is garbage. I was sending a food caravan there ever since I conquered the city. Still, the city did its job - gave me a unique lux (and a copy to sell thanks to the Bazaar), spawned a GS, boosted bpt and other yields.

 

[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), No Tradition challenge
87. the Incas 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
88. Korea 4 (Pangaea, Quick speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
89. the Ottomans 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded)
90. Arabia 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
91. Ethiopia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Pantheon challenge
92. Greece 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
93. France 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge

 

[beetle]

Finished #91 with a T204 DomV

Just amazing! It never occurred to me to try for DomV with Ethiopia, since the UA and UU are so defensive oriented.

EDGE#91: Gold & Silver (Pantheon challenge) Here I was thinking that we should go for a pantheon challenge, so the one rule you have to follow is that you have to take Religious Idols as your pantheon. I don´t think that you will disagree with me much on this! Anyway, the task is to play as Ethiopia on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. If you do not like that the map offers surprises, then this is maybe not for you. However, I am sure that most of us will fall for this highly surprising (and sometimes annoying) map. As a bonus task, in your after game report, you should write on which turn you met Cape Town.

I really struggled with this map, but eventually persevered, so that makes it an enjoyable deity game for me!

Initially I moved two hexes East, which was a strong start, but I ended up being annoyed by the AIs encroachment. Game kept crashing, so I had to start from scratch anyway. So the next time I moved N along the river for two turns, which works out better in the long run. Lost my first try (T329 SV) with this set up, so I reload back to NC and resolved to be more aggressive with spying and war bribes, and maybe try Order instead of Freedom.

Just four cities with war at the end to keep the leading AI busy. I won by SV turn 341. I was 1st to Freedom, but switched to Order after building SoL and getting the FLeas. Closed out Piety by the end, and had all the National Wonders except NVC.

Monument was first in my build queue, so getting Religious Idols was no problem. I only opened Piety for the RP aspect.

I met Capetown T141. Map was annoying with the ice lock, so I was pleasantly surprised that Capetown was not even more remote!

EDGE#93: Magnifique!, CV challenge I had to redeem myself for the misleading introduction in the previous game and hastily played a game with France to get closer to completion of the line up for this year... I know you will not believe me, but this IS the first roll and Napoleon was granted a Salt start. We play an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. Also this map is surprising and you will not have to fear any early invasions. In fact you will likely have the opposite problem, where are most of the AIs? This is a Pangaea map after all... All AIs were selected randomly but it turned out to be many competent AIs on this map! You will most likely go for 4-5 cities yourself and take it from there. As described in the headline the aim of the game is to achieve a cultural victory.

Edit to mention that I am playing this one next. I really struggle with CV, and have not gotten one with France despite more a few attempts.

I will take a turn to move to the mountain.

 

[vadalaz]

Moving on to #89. Played to T95:

Spoiler :

The teaser text mentioned a lot of land available so I went Liberty. Had to stop at 6 cities, I've been focusing on allying CSs which actually gave me enough happiness for a natural Golden Age before I got the one from Liberty. It's a bit annoying that many of the CSs are "Hostile."

Spoiler :

T95 NC with a Liberty finisher GE. The cities aren't great for the most part, but I managed to get Petra in Edirne on T84, so that's going to be a fantastic city eventually. I think Catherine was building Petra in Moscow, but she'd been busy fighting Napoleon in the early game and I bribed Genghis to attack her at some point as well. I'm friends with both France and Russia now; everyone else hates me.

The AIs didn't scout very well and I found 4 or 5 ruins after turn 20, but unfortunately I didn't get a faith ruin. I didn't build any early shrines, so I only got my pantheon in the late T70s. There are two religions left so I might still get one. I wonder if I can still get Oracle too.

I think the plan here is total domination. I kind of want a long game where I get to use the UUs and promote Janissaries all the way to Infantry.

 

[raider980]

Edge 5 Byzantium SV T330.

Played this one because of that awesome start and I'd never won with Byzantium. Was a very fun game - I did something I normally don't do; went to war early and stayed at war off and on almost the entire game
.

Spoiler :

Settled Constantinople in place. Did a 3 city plus one puppet National College around T125. Ended up with 6 self founded cities and 3 captured cities. I settled my second city late, don't remember why.

• T56. Settled Adrianople too far to the east. But that was where the luxury was located and it set my borders nicely.
• T68. Settled 3rd city.
• T101. Captured Venice and put him out of the game. I got revenge for Edge 85 where Enrico helped take me out. Saw Venice next door and knew I wanted it. Theodora has two early UU's so I went for it. I built up for war and took it with CB, Dromon and Cataphract.
• Spoiler Map T104 :

  
  
  
• T160 Settled 5th city to prevent an AI from taking a void in my territory. T165 settled a nice city on the island to the west.

After taking out Venice T101 I figured why not try and take the Mayan capital. It already had a few wonders. So I DoW him and attempted to take it with CB, Spearmen and Cataphract. I failed. I backed off and waited for XB and Pikes. Failed again. That river and marshland to the west of Palenque made for rough going and Pacal defended well. I was at war off and on with Pacal for the rest of his time in the game.

After my XB failure, Pacal tried to take Venice. I fought him off fairly easily. I set up a defensive front and decided to wait for Artillery. At some point I bribed Genghis to attack Pacal to keep him busy and fighting. It worked too well. Genghis was getting too close to Palenque so I had to attack before I was ready. Pacal had built a couple more cities between me and his capital so I had to take the coastal one first, Frigates helped. Then I got to Bombers ahead of him and was able to take Palenque with Artillery and Bombers on T277. Unfortunately, Genghis had peaced out a few turns before and got the last Mayan city in the peace deal. So I was hit with the massive killing off a civ penalty. It didn't really matter though, William and I were friends with the same ideology and Genghis didn't care.

Social Policies were full liberty. Opened patronage and commerce; 4 in rationalism. Went Freedom with William and got one free tenet. Only got 3 tenets because I wanted to get rationalism for the science. I never even got to the tenet for buying spaceship parts for gold so I had to hard build them all. I would have finished quite a bit sooner if I'd have planned ahead better.

Edit. How could I forget to talk about religion with Theodora. Probably because it was good but not all that great. I got 3rd Pantheon and picked Goddess of Festivals for the Wine. I didn't get religion until late for some reason so couldn't get a building. Took Feed the World and Earth Mother as the bonus. There didn't seem to be anything better and Pacal was spamming missionaries at me. Took happiness from shrines and faster spread to finish it out. It ended up making me rich at least. And I left my eastern empire in Pacal's religion because he had Jesuit Education.

Spoiler T330 SV Eastern and Western Byzantine Empire :

 

[Nizef]

I really struggle with CV, and have not gotten one with France despite more a few attempts.
I will take a turn to move to the mountain.

The trick here is to get the science going early on, so that you can reach Uffizi and/or Louvre ahead of the AIs. I struggled early on but I had the option to beeline the top half of the tech tree, thanks to the isolated starting location. I also settled next to the mountain.

Moving on to #89. Played to T95:

The cities aren't great for the most part, but I managed to get Petra in Edirne on T84, so that's going to be a fantastic city eventually.

Edirne looks definitely promising. I remember that I was not very satisfied with the cities in my game either. I also made a couple of dubious decisions on where to settle. I usually play too fast and that of course affects city placement as well.

Edge 5 Byzantium SV T330.

Played this one because of that awesome start and I'd never won with Byzantium. Was a very fun game - I did something I normally don't do; went to war early and stayed at war off and on almost the entire game.

I admit that the start is too cheesy, but at the time of that game I was really frustrated with Byzantium. I was always getting absolutely appalling unmodded starts (for example I still remember getting seven jungle starts in a row, some of them with Pearls and other with marsh Sugar). However, I am very pleased that you enjoyed the ride! Out of all the modded games in this series, #5 is my second choice right after #15.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#94: Smooth operator (incense challenge)
Here comes one of my smoothest journeys for a long time. The task is to play as Siam on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. At first glance this game offers a more "normal" map. But... I was very wrong about that. Also here there will be a surprise or two and as a bonus quest, in your report you should write the turn on which you discovered Sri Pada. The real challenge hinted in the headline is different though. To complete the game successfully, you must have at least four copies of incense inside your borders. I chose five of the AIs myself, to get an "east asian" flavour to the game. This means that among your opponents you will find China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Mongolia. Given the possibilities with incense and cotton, you can pretty much rule the world with those two alone! This was one of the easiest tasks I have had for a long time and make sure that you fulfil CS quests to sweeten the deal. Now I finally got a game with Siam, where they had the chance to shine and they really showed me how fantastic they might be when the stars align in the best of ways! You will enjoy this ride! As in the previous game I also uploaded pictures, this time from t99 and t295.

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

Spoiler :

Settled t1 next to the mountain on the Gold and BO was Scoutx2-Shrine-Granary-Settlerx2-Worker. I stole one worker from Polynesia and cleared two camps with Workers. 3 city NC on t96 and Education on t115. I built Oracle before NC and got the 3rd religion with DF/Tithe/Mosques/Plowshares/IP. This was more or less a perfect religion for this game and 11 cities had my religion at the end. Polynesia could hold their own religion only in their capital. I had good faith output and at the end I made over 80 fpt and got 50-55 gpt from the religion alone. Japan and China were on the brink of attacking early on, but I diverted their efforts elsewhere. In fact, I was not at war at all during the whole game. Fourth city directly after NC and Lampang became a very good city. I also managed Machu Picchu and Sistine early on.

I was catching up fast in the midgame, however Gandhi beat me to Uffizi by one turn and Wu beat me to the Louvre by 3 turns. Obviously a CV was more or less off the board. Mongolia had a rough game and eventually they got eliminated. I was second to Industrial and first to pick an ideology. Once again I had no Coal, but I had money in abundance and easily bribed Bogota, which gave me instant access to Coal. I also had enough money to buy 3 factories, making this part of the process extremely smooth. I was second to Archeology and managed to fill my Museums easily. However with only four cities I directed my efforts towards a SV instead. Japan had fun at the expense of India and China was badly beaten by the united front of England&Polynesia. About ideologies: I took Order and since nobody else but Gandhi cared about culture, both Japan and Polynesia followed. England went Authocracy and India (not so surprising) took Freedom. My sensational cultural pool (I was allied with Bogota, Prague and Monaco and also friendly with Buenos Aires) gave me a lot of culture due to the UA.

In the endgame, Japan took out India and left Indonesia with one island city only. I focused on getting the required techs. As a sidenote, I filled out the entire Patronage tree and got one GS from a CS. The AIs were all far behind (nobody in Information) when I launched on t295. Incense and Cotton was an awesome combination, because I could buy not only my factories but also my public schools and research labs. Heck, I even bought some units to keep my empire safe. This was almost crazy, I rarely experience such smooth rides with a "normal" civ (Babylon and Korea aside) and the win was extremely uncontested. Btw. I found Sri Pada only when I discovered Satellites. SP: full Tradition, full Patronage, Aestethics 3, full Rationalism, Honor opener and Order 6.

 

[raider980]

EDGE#93: Magnifique!, CV challenge

I'm going to try this one too. I have never been able to get France to work for CV even on lower levels but hopefully I can learn something. I just don't get the Chateau, it just doesn't seem that good. Its like a tile improvement that I don't really want to put anywhere because the standard improvements would be better. I guess maybe treat it like Moai; replace standard improvements with Chateau later in the game?

 

[Nizef]

I'm going to try this one too. I have never been able to get France to work for CV even on lower levels but hopefully I can learn something. I just don't get the Chateau, it just doesn't seem that good. Its like a tile improvement that I don't really want to put anywhere because the standard improvements would be better. I guess maybe treat it like Moai; replace standard improvements with Chateau later in the game?

That is the right way to go about it in theory. I think they are good on grassland and almost ok on plains or hills. However I do not like them on tundra until very late in the game. Maybe vadalaz or somebody else can enlighten us more. However, I tend to focus more on getting Uffizi and Louvre.

 

[so_what]

That is the right way to go about it in theory. I think they are good on grassland and almost ok on plains or hills. However I do not like them on tundra until very late in the game. Maybe vadalaz or somebody else can enlighten us more. However, I tend to focus more on getting Uffizi and Louvre.

In general, I think the easiest way for CV is to do Science well, and go for Archaeology / Internet + International Games. I build culture wonders because it is good to have (speed up victories by 1-2 turns), but it is definitely more important to hit the key tech timings. This is because if you hit Archaelogy early, you can steal a lot of antiquity for the AIs. If you hit Internet+International Games early, you can just bulb you musicians to insta-win the game.

I went through some of the threads and I noticed that some games just don't have enough cities. If you follow the recaps posted by me or Vadalz, you would noticed that we almost always go for 6+ tradition cities, or 8+ liberty cities on pangea map. This is because this will give you the science to beat deity AIs easily.

 

[Nizef]

In general, I think the easiest way for CV is to do Science well, and go for Archaeology / Internet + International Games. I build culture wonders because it is good to have (speed up victories by 1-2 turns), but it is definitely more important to hit the key tech timings. This is because if you hit Archaelogy early, you can steal a lot of antiquity for the AIs. If you hit Internet+International Games early, you can just bulb you musicians to insta-win the game.

I went through some of the threads and I noticed that some games just don't have enough cities. If you follow the recaps posted by me or Vadalz, you would noticed that we almost always go for 6+ tradition cities, or 8+ liberty cities on pangea map. This is because this will give you the science to beat deity AIs easily.

I totally agree with your assessment. However, I find it rare to settle 6-8 cities on a Standard sized map. In EDGE#93 there is not room, nor luxes for more than five cities. The northern neighbour has some good cities though...

 

[beetle]

I totally agree with your assessment. However, I find it rare to settle 6-8 cities on a Standard sized map.

My science game is never good enough for CV. I used Oxford and Rationalism for Telecommunications and Internet. Missed the early Wonders except Porcelain Tower. Late game I got Kremlin, SOH, CN Tower, and GFW. None of that would have been enough, and game was crashing on me anyway. I stand with only getting CV from Brazil or Polynesia.

In EDGE#93 there is not room, nor luxes for more than five cities. The northern neighbour has some good cities though...

I had six good cities and lots of lux and Chateaus. (Darius let me snag a couple of his Elephants.) Late game tourism, even with Internet and NVC, was less than 500 tpt.

 

[Nizef]

I had six good cities and lots of lux and Chateaus. (Darius let me snag a couple of his Elephants.)

Once again, I fell into the trap of assuming that other players will have the same issues as I had. In my game there were no Ivory to pick up, since Attila demolished both Alexander and Darius so early. Well done! But less than 500 tourism? Did you get Uffizi or Louvre? I had them both and that helped me to about 650 in the late game even with only four cities.

 

[so_what]

I totally agree with your assessment. However, I find it rare to settle 6-8 cities on a Standard sized map. In EDGE#93 there is not room, nor luxes for more than five cities. The northern neighbour has some good cities though...

Yes, sometimes expansion through wars is necessary to reach the minimum number of cities. This may have varying difficulties/cost depending on what kind of neighbours you have. You probably have noticed that in the fastest SV threads, players mostly hand-pick peaceful AIs who are easy to bully. Anyway, the easiest way is to pick just one neighbour (who is not Shaka or Alex) and beat him up hard. If you playing Liberty, you can build 7-8 archers early and fight with them since ancient era. For Tradition, you can probably build a composite army from Medieval era.

Once you have enough cities, it is about securing happiness through trading lux, doing CS quests (somewhat luck dependent), and growing your cities as fast as possible.

If you want to know how good your skills in acquiring happiness and growing, you can compare yourself with Vadalz's game for #89 (or similar replays by other players) across two area 1) total cities, total population at around T100. 2) how explored is his map and how many CS he allied. Haha, hope that Vadalz doesn't mind me quoting his game as an example, coz his games are always near perfect.

There are other common practices such as saving writers to bulb after world fair and saving all scientists to bulb after labs (if you are confident of fast victories you can bulb 1 or 2 pre-plastic). I assume most people should be familiar with these as long as they watch enough deity replays.

 

[vadalaz]

#89 isn't going very well for me. Making some questionable choices, but having fun regardless. Janissaries are a very, very nice UU.

Spoiler :

The main issue is the sheer number of units the AIs have on a Large map. Total domination isn't happening; it's T228 and I finally have all the capitals on the starting continent.

Spoiler :

I'll consider this a mini-DomV and probably go DiploV here to wrap this up as quickly as possible. I revived Russia so they should vote for me, and I might try to find some Celtic city to liberate as well.

Casimir's been having a hell of a game on the other continent with a ~T150 Autocracy and top demographics all game long. Lost World's Fair to him and my culture has been low with just one cultural CS ally. I've been focusing too much on killing units and not enough on other things. That happens to me sometimes with Deity domination games.

 

[Nizef]

If you want to know how good your skills in acquiring happiness and growing, you can compare yourself with Vadalz's game for #89 (or similar replays by other players) across two area 1) total cities, total population at around T100. 2) how explored is his map and how many CS he allied.

Yes, I sometimes compare my own games to those of better players. I am painfully aware of the fact that I fall behind decisively in the first 100 turns. All of us can compare my screenshots to vadalaz´s in EDGE#91 with Ethiopia as a text book example. My cities are pop9-6-6-5 on t104 while vadalaz has pop12-10-9-8-8 on t108. That is a heck of a difference (47-26)!

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#95: All that land, part 3
Here comes a very special case. This is a game that I have already published on Youtube (under Nizef G), but I thought that some of you may be interested in it anyway. The thing is, there is soooo much space for you to grab. However, it resembles a little bit of EDGE#89 with the Ottomans, because a lot of space does not automatically transfer into unique luxuries. So what is this then? The task is to play as Byzantium on an unmodded Continents map with Large size and Epic speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. Both main continents are of equal size, but on your starting continent there are only 3 AIs while there are 6 on the other continent. You will not need more than Sailing to find the other continent. Go in any direction with this. Enjoy!


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

Spoiler :

SIP and 3 city NC. I took out Babylon with CBs (saved Babylon and Akkad) and conquered Venice with XBs. After that I transfered the game into a peaceful SV on t443. As an odd thing: late in the game Lhasa fell out of the sky into my hands!

 

[mbbcam]

Yes, I sometimes compare my own games to those of better players. I am painfully aware of the fact that I fall behind decisively in the first 100 turns. All of us can compare my screenshots to vadalaz´s in EDGE#91 with Ethiopia as a text book example. My cities are pop9-6-6-5 on t104 while vadalaz has pop12-10-9-8-8 on t108. That is a heck of a difference (47-26)!

So the question has to be: "How does he do it?"

 

[Nizef]

Here comes a funny moment from EDGE#90. Can you see it? The sailors of Prague have some awesome magical powers! Ha-ha.

 

[raider980]

So the question has to be: "How does he do it?"

That's the million dollar question. I've watched videos of good players "Lets Plays". I've even written down their turn by turn moves. And while it has helped me learn things, when it comes to my games, I just can't replicate it. I mean, I can watch Bob Ross paint a happy little tree but that doesn't mean I can do it. My trees always end up as sad little bushes.