[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[billby]

Back after an 12 to 18 month rest from Civ 5. My word it was a good thing to have during lockdown. Leapt back into the EDG series with EDGE30 and realised I need a warm up. First attempt saw my wiped out before turn 70 by the English. Surprised to see them that aggressive so early in the game,. Started again and made it all the way to Plastics before being piled on (despite playing nice with everyone). Going to look for something easier to get my skills back before trying this one again. The good thing is that I will have forgotten where everything is by then.

 

[billby]

Here comes EDGE19. The task is to play as China on a standard sized Pangaea map with Epic speed. The starting location has been modded with Really Advanced Setup as you can see for yourself. My idea for this game was to wait for Chu-Ko-Nus, spam them and win a DomV early. With that I failed spectacularly, but my core cities were growing nicely and I could take to the warpath again with Cannons. And this time I got the snowball rolling. At the end I used a couple of nukes and Paratroopers to finish the game with DomV on t411. But the core cities are so nice that you can probably go for any VC. Try it out, and I am sure you will enjoy it!

Spent a week playing this in between other summer holiday relaxation things (Christmas is summer in New Zealand).

It's an enjoyable game OK. Managed to get a Tradition-Commerce domination victory on turn 366, which is roughly equivalent to 222 at standard speed. I don't usually go for a religion in my domination games, but couldn't resist Mt Sinai and the Earth Mother pantheon. At one point was simultaneously at war with six other nations, which was a challenge. My only niggle is that the prices are different on Epic Speed and I was making decisions based on memorised prices,,. got caught out a couple of times. Also felt Epic speed dragged a bit at times when waiting for longer builds. Otherwise excellent fun.

 

[Megalou]

Enjoyed my first EDGE game, diplomatic victory as Sweden, #148. In the early game Japan pushed us hard but I totally steamrolled them with the 6 upgraded foreign legions.

 

[Megalou]

@Nizef, is there an EDGE game you’d like to recommend as a cultural challenge? Hard but not imoossible.

 

[Nizef]

@Nizef, is there an EDGE game you’d like to recommend as a cultural challenge? Hard but not imoossible.

There are many candidates. I will mention games 6, 49, 72, 93 and 147. The ultimate challenge is number 42. However, that one is very hard, since it is also a Piety challenge.

 

[fiddlesticks]

EDGE#62: Big dreams in peaceful times
Even if the crazy things in life have to be virtual these days (thanks to the Corona virus), it is still beneficial to try something slightly less mainstream. When I (and probably most other players as well) play Sweden, I usually get the tundra bias screaming in my face but once in a while there will be something different. If you recall EDGE#28 where we got a jungle start, this is also a quite unique start with Sweden. You play on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. The self-imposed rule is to build Petra! Just as a hint, you are not the only one with a desert start. You will have to have the wonder completed before t70 to have a chance to get it. However, there are also some hidden advantages with this one. Enjoy!

With the HoF update leaving me hungry for Civ5 challenges, I'm looking back through the EDGE series. I'm working on Diplo win with Sweden for EGDE 62, with a successful Petra build around turn 68. I'm really surprised at how much a few trade routes can make up for the lack of libraries.

 

[Mods]

EDGE #42: Piety Challenge
Given the lack of response, I will probably not be uploading a lot to this series in the future. I am definitely not pointing fingers nor am I disappointed. Mostly it proves that there is a very limited demand for this. Anyway, I still wanted to give this thread a new addition and this time it is a tough nut to crack. You will play as the Mayans on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard speed and Standard size. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. But this time there are some self-imposed limitations to take into account. My idea with this is that you have to open Piety first and you will have to finish Piety with your nineth social policy at the latest. The idea behind this is to make a Piety challenge a little less impossible, after all, the rules will allow for taking three points in another (or several) policy tree(s) during the early game. As you can see the starting location is good and there are some nice possibilities along the road as you scout around, but this is by no means easy. As a benchmark, I failed my first attempt. Enjoy the early pain!

I recently won my first culture victory on deity, so I will be giving this one a go
Thanks for the hard work maintaining this thread over the years Nizef

 

[raider980]

EDGE #42: Piety Challenge
Given the lack of response, I will probably not be uploading a lot to this series in the future. I am definitely not pointing fingers nor am I disappointed. Mostly it proves that there is a very limited demand for this.

Funny to read this statement said at game #42 - then the series went on to more than 100 additional EDGE games and I would say become the most popular recent series there is!

 

[Mods]

EDGE #42: Piety Challenge
Given the lack of response, I will probably not be uploading a lot to this series in the future. I am definitely not pointing fingers nor am I disappointed. Mostly it proves that there is a very limited demand for this.

Funny to read this statement said at game #42 - then the series went on to more than 100 additional EDGE games and I would say become the most popular recent series there is!

To be fair, I noticed Nizef got a little carried away around game 42 then and posted like 5 savefiles in a single day Ain't nobody who can play civ5 that fast!

 

[Mods]

I recently won my first culture victory on deity, so I will be giving this one a go
Thanks for the hard work maintaining this thread over the years Nizef

Boy this was tense, I got nervous forward settling Brazil, so I bribed Carthage to keep them busy, karma caught up with me as Carthage proceeded to wipe out Brazil in no time at all and becoming a crazy runaway from that point. The last 50 turns they could have wiped me out whenever they wanted, I bribed them against literally every civ in the game so they couldn't do a joint war against me and that seemed to work.

Messed up the start a little I feel, while I made it to fountain in time (rushed out a 3 pop settler) I settled Uxmal poorly and didn't make it to the turn 86 great person for Maya because I wasn't used to rushing shrines as the first building. But can't really complain as I still ended getting leaning tower with a free Maya engineer, kind of first world civ problems I know.

Otherwise I kind of misread the challenge as I opened straight piety and just finished it first thing. Not sure how bad this is though as missing jesuit education because you for example went left side liberty first would be devastating. If I did this again I would've opened tradition first though as I like the culture growth bonus as a filler policy. Really makes me feel a lot safer when AI borders are not so close to my own This game I would've also gotten hanging gardens as AI built it extremely late so that would've been nice

Spoiler :

 

[penguin74]

Haven't played in over 2 years, but they keep making Civ games worse, so I came back during free time (seriously, what is Civ 7 anyway). Gonna try to complete the challenge I started a couple years ago and replay all of them (the ones I can, i dont have all the mods). If anyone ever starts a new series, I'll be around at least to try them out

EDG-1 Korea. Turn 313 loss
Same problems I had last time I tried this one. Starting location isnt great, and that's with salt. Fell behind in tech, and had to go much more militarily than I'd normally like due to Mongolia grabbing every city state in the area.
Eventually between me and China we took him out, but that left most of my units in the north when Indonesia attacked. I recovered enough to fight him off and actually turned offensive taking 2 of his cities before stopping at the capital.
Tech problems killed me. If you arent ahead in science as Korea you're in trouble and Indonesia hit flight before me, so instead of pushing forward I had to pull back. For some reason, thats when every civ but China declared war on me, so I had to go full defense.
I had little to no culture and now a dom victory was out of play, so I went full turtle and tried to catch up in science. Indonesia then declared again and I had to sell a city to give me a buffer to hold them off.
Never fully caught up in science, but did manage to get to the point where Id have launched around turn 340 when China launched, but is it even a win if you launch that late with Korea. Not sure what I could do differently in the early game to not fall so far behind.
0-1 so far.

 

[penguin74]

EDG-2 Shoshone. Turn 343 SV.
Not happy with the time, but I lost last time so I'll take it.
Starting area is great, so I feel like this should be easy, but I just cant take advantage. 7 city liberty.
Found Shaka snooping around early, which is always scary, but he went after Venice so that bought me some time. By the time he came for me, I had enough defense to hold him off, but as usual I fell behind on science trying to stay alive.
Eventually was able to move into Shaka's lands, but so did Austria and Polynesia, so I took Venice, but never got to Shaka's capital.
I tried to go after Babylon next, but they were ahead of me in tech and hit flight before me, so I had to back off.
Really shouldnt have won. Poland was the runaway most of the game, but was on the other side of the map, so we didnt interact much. They launched their first part before I even finished Apollo. I ended up popping 11 total GS to catch up in tech, but still was 2% behind Poland.
Almost lost a sneaky diplo victory to Babylon, but I saw it just in time to buy/coup 2 city states and declare war so he couldnt get them back.
Poland/Babylon/Polynesua all launched 4, but none ever sent up the 5th, despite me being 4th in tech. No clue why, but I finished the last 3 parts in different cities within 2 turns of each other and launched.
1-1 so far

 

[penguin74]

EDG-3 America. Turn 348 SV
Had to play it twice. First time was a weird one. Incans got mad at me over a CS worker, so DOWd. Slowly moved into their lands (Great Wall is so annoying) when Askia DOWd. he was mad I forward settled, but the city was between mountains so easily defendable. Got dicey when William joined, so I had to pull back from Inca. Would have been OK til England declared. They were allies with like every CS, so my happiness tanked as I even lost a city to a CS navy. Ideology hit and I was at -29 happiness, so started over
Rd 2 was better, but close. Had the same issues with the Incans and Askia, but made sure to keep the CS in between me and William as an ally, and that buffer helped alot. Dom was never an option as I didnt see a way to get the Egypt and England with them on opposite sides of the map.
Was at war for most of the game (was this map coded for that, seems like constant war every time I play it)
Managed to take one of Askia's city, but not the capital. Did take Amsterdam.
Getting towards the end and I had a good defensive force, but not great. Oil was scarce, and only Poland liked me, so trading was hard. When Egpyt DOWd, i didnt care, they werent close to me. But when England declared, I got nervous. Nuclear subs killed 2 frigates before I could do anything, and i didnt have oil to upgrade them, so had to fall back. Whats crazy is england was about 35 turns away from a CV and I was about 50 turns from launching, so they might have won (woulda been close, I had 2 GS to pop to get tech faster). when they declared, their CV time went to 47 turns.
Askia declared then too (i was the only one who had gotten space started) and soon after the Incans did as well. Came near losing Amsterdam and Philly, but B17s kick ass ( thats where all my oil went) and managed to hold them off long enough to buy the last part before anyone got too close.
Not a great time, but it was a win 50 turns or so faster than when I tried it a couple years ago, so I'll take it
2-1 so far

 

[penguin74]

EDG 4 Denmark. Turn 325 loss
Game was never competitive, and I was relieved when France launched.
Jungle start killed production early. Gold wasn't exactly plentiful as I had few trade partners the first half of the game. China and Japan spent most of the game at war, and it was clear China would end up winning, so I joined them any time they asked. They likely could have conquered me if they really wanted to, but we were allies almost the entire game and they never once DOWd me. We were the only 2 Freedom civs, so that helped keep the peace.
I got a religion easy enough, but never really generared alot of faith. Culture wasnt great either,. Met the other continent in the 140-150 turn range, so that helped with trading/money/happiness. Conquest was never an option. I had built up a decent navy to stop any invasion, but was never able to build more than a defensive force to protect from China so had no real way to invade the other continent.
At the end only me, France, China and Genghis were left, the 2 continents split. France had gotten influential with all but China, who had also gotten influential with everyone but France. CV was 200+ turns away though given how much they were each generating.
I was 2 turns away from launching my first part when France won. They were about 17% further on techs than I was, so as I said, not very competitive.
2-2. That one was rough.

 

[penguin74]

EDG 5 Byzantium. Turn 339 SV
Kids were marathoning Stranger Things, so had time to get through this quick.
After #4, needed an actual fun map. This qualified. Had to restart once as somehow I missed a religion and that seems a 1 in a million shot.
Played sloppy though. Forgot a couple times to switch build orders or move things around and probably cost myself at least 10 turns.
Went Liberty and got 6 cities. Meant to get to at least 8, but as I said, played sloppy and just forgot to do stuff. Built alot of Dromons hoping to get domination going, but the map layout messed me up.
Eventually managed to take most of Pacal's lands (including Venice which he had taken) leaving both those civs with 1 city each.
Tried to move south to invade Isabella's lands but an allied CS took the first city I attacked, so I had to circle around to other coastal targets. once I moved my navy away, Spain ended up taking the CS. My offensive had to stop as bombers tore apart my battleships. This didnt seem fair as I had 2 carriers with interceptors on board, but they hit nothing.
Right around then I got the rumor that Mongolia was plotting against me, and given the amount of land Id have to defend I had to pull back.
I was allied with all CS but 1 and had gotten World Ideology and Religion, so diplo was on the table, but the next world leader vote would have been 12-13 turns after I launched.
3-2 so far. On to Germany

 

[raider980]

EDG-3 America. Turn 348 SV
Had to play it twice. First time was a weird one. Incans got mad at me over a CS worker, so DOWd. Slowly moved into their lands (Great Wall is so annoying) when Askia DOWd. he was mad I forward settled, but the city was between mountains so easily defendable. Got dicey when William joined, so I had to pull back from Inca. Would have been OK til England declared. They were allies with like every CS, so my happiness tanked as I even lost a city to a CS navy. Ideology hit and I was at -29 happiness, so started over
Rd 2 was better, but close. Had the same issues with the Incans and Askia, but made sure to keep the CS in between me and William as an ally, and that buffer helped alot. Dom was never an option as I didnt see a way to get the Egypt and England with them on opposite sides of the map.
Was at war for most of the game (was this map coded for that, seems like constant war every time I play it)
Managed to take one of Askia's city, but not the capital. Did take Amsterdam.
Getting towards the end and I had a good defensive force, but not great. Oil was scarce, and only Poland liked me, so trading was hard. When Egpyt DOWd, i didnt care, they werent close to me. But when England declared, I got nervous. Nuclear subs killed 2 frigates before I could do anything, and i didnt have oil to upgrade them, so had to fall back. Whats crazy is england was about 35 turns away from a CV and I was about 50 turns from launching, so they might have won (woulda been close, I had 2 GS to pop to get tech faster). when they declared, their CV time went to 47 turns.
Askia declared then too (i was the only one who had gotten space started) and soon after the Incans did as well. Came near losing Amsterdam and Philly, but B17s kick ass ( thats where all my oil went) and managed to hold them off long enough to buy the last part before anyone got too close.
Not a great time, but it was a win 50 turns or so faster than when I tried it a couple years ago, so I'll take it
2-1 so far

I don't remember playing this one so gave it a try. Pachacuti attacked me too; must have rolled the max for aggressiveness because he came at me hard for no reason. I didn't even make it to T100 . He took my capital six turns after this screenshot.

 

[raider980]

EDGE 6 Germany. T312 Science Victory. My 8th Deity win I believe. I missed a surprising number of EDGE games; maybe they were too daunting to tackle back then. Although this is one of the easier ones and as described by Nizef, one to try - great land, plenty of room and good resources, perhaps I am getting better lol so I'll try some more.

Spoiler :

For this one it was pretty much smooth sailing. Peaceful on my part except for one war with Indonesia because he was sending settlers up into my territory. So I took his closest city and build forts along our new border to prevent any further incursions. The rest of the civilizations however, were not peaceful - everyone attacking everyone, even Ahmad who is usually one of the nicest guys out there. And toward the end of the game Casimir went on a rampage and took out Indonesia and, with Ahmad's help, Venice completely. I just sat back, watched the fireworks and built my spaceship to the stars.

 

[penguin74]

EDG 6 Germany Turn 361 loss
feel even worse about this loss after the post above. Game wasnt really close
Never got decent growth in the capital. Founded 6 total cities in good locations, but all my trade routes were internal just to get cities to grow, so lost out on any added beakers. Couldnt really fill specialist slots, lacked culture, had no tourism and fell behind in science.
Probably would have been better off going honor and full war, but went Liberty due to all the space. Every time I invaded Morocco they seemed to have endless units just off screen, so if i made a real move to a city, things swarmed in out of nowehere.
Indonesia, Siam and Egypt were all well ahead of me. was just a matter of who laiunced first. I was give or take 30 turns away and out of GS to pop, so had no real chance.
3-3 so far

 

[raider980]

Oh no. Not sure why my game was so smooth, I did get a lot of units from barb camps and that may have deterred the AI. Plus I stole quite a few techs. And interesting that Siam was a leader in your game, he got wiped out by Liz and Ramses in mine.

 

[raider980]

Well the next two games didn't fare so well.

EDGE 7 Polynesia.

Spoiler :

Loss to Gustav who achieved a Diplo Victory T300. Gustav dominated the game; he could have gotten a SV and a Dom V, his territory encompassed most of the world. Germany was also in a superior position until Gustav attacked him and decimated his empire. I was doing pretty well I thought, at least everyone was fighting amongst themselves and friendly with me; glad for that isolated start as I'm sure I would have been toast way earlier otherwise. Only settled three cities on my home island (until late in the game I settled a fourth way up north where there was some Silver, Iron and Oil - having no Iron, Coal or Oil near the home island really hurt; there weren't many luxuries around to branch out either. My cities were decent population and I had started building Moai but just too slow and too late.

EDGE 8 Brazil.

Spoiler :

Resigned T54, its not happening. I am ashamed. I did not settle all the best sites; I did get both NW but I just now, on T53, settled my second city next to FoY. Again, too slow and too late. Plus, Pacachuti is forward settling me like mad, I even stole one of his settlers but this rough terrain with his hill advantage is hard to deal with.