[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[billby]

Finished #5 with a satisfying and drawn out domination victory on T335. I wasn't sure how to play Byzantium so went with what I know best... It's an incredibly strong start... but ran into problems when I found all the city states disappearing in front of my eyes and three rivals were running away with the game. Dug in and ground it out. Even at the end my army was the third largest and I was third in science.

 

[Nizef]

Did you go Liberty or how did you play the early game?

 

[billby]

Did you go Liberty or how did you play the early game?

I planned to but this game turned out to be complex:

Spoiler Starting EDG#5 :

Byzantium is a tough civ to play on deity. The unique units are only worthwhile if you have an early close neighbour to take out - although Honour and Dromons can be fun if there are lots of barbarians. You have to get an early faith producing pantheon to make use of the unique ability. Uluru helps in this case.

My initial plan was to start Liberty... move to Piety, get sacred sites and a religion with three lots of religious buildings then head for a culture victory.

That didn't work.

There's salt and a total three luxuries. That's powerful, so yes Liberty would be a good choice and Honour if there are plenty of barbs. In this case my warrior opened a culture ruin on turn three or four before I had seen the lie of the land, so I played safe with Tradition. Built three initial cities, stole a worker from Kiev and a second from a barb camp. Had NC at around 85, built city number four on the island to the west to pick up more faith and planned to head for education when I noticed Kiev turn purple and an ominous Maya build up to the east so switched to machinery built ten crossbows, took out Kiev and Venice, then a Mayan city and Palenque before running out of steam.

Waited for frigates, cavalry and artillery to press on... ran out of steam again until battleships and land ships to tackle Mongolia. I never got about number three in science and until the last five turns was never better than number three in solider numbers. Even at the end I had a smaller army than the Maya. On a couple of occasions happiness dropped below -20. Those snowballs never rolled, just relentless aggression, at the end my army was depleted... and I doubt I would have won if it wasn't for Autocracy and Clausewitz's Legacy.

 

[Nizef]

Yes, domination can sometimes be a little tricky. The reason for creating the Byzantium game in the first place was that I was fed up with AIs snatching all religions. With my skill level back then I thought I wanted to have a fantastic start to secure a religion and the start is of course crazy. However, I am very pleased with how the map turned out with an extra bonus for the island to the west.

 

[consentient]

Hi there,
I was not sure where to put this so I started a new thread for the purpose of sharing deity games that any of us has played and enjoyed. I have no fixed rules in mind for this, but my first example might enlighten a little bit what I have in mind. The starting location has not to be OP in itself, but I generally like deity starts where I:
1. can freely choose whether to go tradition or liberty,
2. have enough room to settle at least four cities,
3. have enough growth and production to be competitive,
4. have enough resources (strategic as well as luxuries) and
5. have land that makes religion a possibility.

Given this framework I am clearly not thinking of superb players, for whom normal deity is too easy. Instead I am perhaps more referring to casual deity players as myself and perhaps also players who want to make the leap into deity.

My first contribution is an unmodded Pangaea roll with Korea on standard speed and all settings are standard but quick combat is on. The AIs are selected randomly but at least I enjoyed the mix. A jpg-screenshot of the starting location has been added.

Spoiler Hint (yes, really) :

I didn´t SIP.

I hope for short reports of what you made out of this game. And not to raise the bar too much, I would say that any tradition start has to include at least 5 self founded cities and any liberty start should aim for 7 self founded cities. NC with just 2 or 3 cities is a no-no. All VCs are enabled.

I'm very happy upon returning to the game to see that there is yet another shared game series to work my way through.

Still not sure about the criteria you're using to choose the maps though.

Could you expand a little? (if you're still about)

 

[consentient]

EDGE#161: A, A and A and some other issues (DomV challenge)

Here comes another play along game. I noticed that we haven´t had a plain war game for a long time and thus this had to be corrected. This time we play as the Zulus on a Pangaea map with standard speed and size. I have played some 70 turns so I have a good understanding of what the game offers. We have ended up in a neighbourhood that is somewhat hostile, or what do you think of playing against Alexander, Augustus and Attila? The start is nice and there are enough luxuries to go for a more peaceful start if you like that better. Anyway the aim is clear: DomV. Enjoy!

T228 DomV

Spoiler :

Great start, horrible middle, ended surprisingly fast

Stole 4 workers and 1 settler from Alex. He seemed almost as if he'd been programmed to send them to me. Clearing barb camps for the Cultural CS gave me early Honor finish. I quickly realised that settling in the mountain pass would a) put me on Caesar's doorstep for easy XP farm, and b) also take Iron away from him. Made peace with Alex and then turned Caesar into the bad guy, gaining DoF with Haile and Trollface in the meantime. Attila suggested war, so I chose the 10 turns to prepare and moved archers and spearmen into position. He spammed ballistas which I mowed down like Star Wars battle droids.

While farming XP and gold from Caesar I made Attila into the next bad guy, and sent all my caravans and bribes to Alex to stop him should he recover, but honestly I feel like such a gluttony of worker steal glitches the AI completely and he did nothing more the whole game.

Attila fell easily to Impi and CBs, then I bribed Trollface to DoW everyone, including backstabbing Haile. He was surrounded by hostile CS, and Haile, and then I came in around T107ish with XBs and Impis and took 2 cities.

Those same units made short work of Alex once they'd travelled the great road back West (not enough gold for 2 armies), but then I realised I was seriously behind tech pace and had a gold problem. So I sold XBs and Knights and beelined Electronics.

In the end, Liz fell to Bombers, Battleships and GWI. Isabella and Haile had been so busy wonderspamming and depleted from the wars I initiated against them that they both rolled in less than 3 turns.

I should say that while beelining and at peace, I ran into serious happiness and gold problems until getting Commerce finisher and starting Order. I had to mortgage Ulundi to buy the money for my 3 factories. I even contemplated selling a captured capital and taking it back later, but luckily I avoided that.

- - -

I'll say one thing in comments: rolling vanilla maps is never gonna be as enjoyable for me, but at the same time I appreciate that if you use HB Pangaea, it dates the save to that version of the Mod. Newer versions won't load them, sadly.

If there is still interest for shared maps, perhaps a few of us can get together and make a new series for this 13 year old game with current HB maps

 

[penguin74]

Is there a master list of mods needed for the series, similar to the pinned thread giving the page location of each entry?
Im still doing my replays and am up to 18, but it needs the Hellblazers Map Script v.7
I dont see a search function in the get mods tab of the menu, and there are like 360+ pages, so Im not sure the easiest way to get it, or any others that would be needed.
any help is appreciated

 

[Nizef]

I'm very happy upon returning to the game to see that there is yet another shared game series to work my way through.

Still not sure about the criteria you're using to choose the maps though.

Could you expand a little? (if you're still about)

Hi there,
Sorry for the late reply. I have had some changes in my life recently and thus there is very little time for gaming these days. To give you a short recap: I started out with some really great maps (in terms of the land to settle) and moved on to use the map to give some advantages to the player. However, after a while I understood that unmodded games were preferred and roughly from game 40 onwards there are mostly unmodded maps. The later games might also be a bit more challenging, since my own skills, as well as those playing along on my journey to master the game, definitely improved. So I guess the answer is the type of unmodded maps that cought my attention, usually for the friendly starting area but every now and then there are maps that are really tough (in order to mix it up a little).

 

[RuntyBassoon143]

Glad to see others are still playing and posting here on occasion. I’ve tried Beyond Earth and Civ 6 but just can’t get into them and even after over a decade I continue coming back to Civ 5 as my go-to single player game.

I recently read through consentient’s alternative deity tier list and really enjoyed the thought process and methodology, as well as Pedro’s HCA strategy.

I am wondering if there are any other deity players still hanging around who would like to start a new lineup/challenge thread.

Special thanks to Nizef for keeping this thread going for so long. Just reading the reports and knowing that others are playing the same maps has definitely kept the game alive for me. Without that I feel I would have set this classic down long ago.

 

[Nizef]

Glad to see others are still playing and posting here on occasion. I’ve tried Beyond Earth and Civ 6 but just can’t get into them and even after over a decade I continue coming back to Civ 5 as my go-to single player game.

I recently read through consentient’s alternative deity tier list and really enjoyed the thought process and methodology, as well as Pedro’s HCA strategy.

I am wondering if there are any other deity players still hanging around who would like to start a new lineup/challenge thread.

Special thanks to Nizef for keeping this thread going for so long. Just reading the reports and knowing that others are playing the same maps has definitely kept the game alive for me. Without that I feel I would have set this classic down long ago.

Thank you for your kind words. My own situation is the following: less time for gaming AND I volunteered to keep the GotM running. Thus, my own contribution to such a new thread will only be occasional. But obviously the Civ5 community and myself would welcome such an initiative.

 

[basior]

Glad to see others are still playing and posting here on occasion. I’ve tried Beyond Earth and Civ 6 but just can’t get into them and even after over a decade I continue coming back to Civ 5 as my go-to single player game.

I recently read through consentient’s alternative deity tier list and really enjoyed the thought process and methodology, as well as Pedro’s HCA strategy.

I am wondering if there are any other deity players still hanging around who would like to start a new lineup/challenge thread.

Special thanks to Nizef for keeping this thread going for so long. Just reading the reports and knowing that others are playing the same maps has definitely kept the game alive for me. Without that I feel I would have set this classic down long ago.

Great idea with some fresh challange! Cant wait! Nice to see there’s still some life in diety community.

 

[Nizef]

Great idea with some fresh challange! Cant wait! Nice to see there’s still some life in diety community.

Oh yes there are some players around. And if you are interested I started a new thread, "Quest for Glory". Hopefully that is what you was hoping for?

 

[RuntyBassoon143]

Thank you for your kind words. My own situation is the following: less time for gaming AND I volunteered to keep the GotM running. Thus, my own contribution to such a new thread will only be occasional. But obviously the Civ5 community and myself would welcome such an initiative.

Glad to hear it! I’ve been checking those games once in awhile but the last few have been weird settings and low difficulty, which don’t particularly interest me.

 

[basior]

Oh yes there are some players around. And if you are interested I started a new thread, "Quest for Glory". Hopefully that is what you was hoping for?

Thats a excacly what i was looking for. Thank you so much! Let the games begin!

 

[Nizef]

Glad to hear it! I’ve been checking those games once in awhile but the last few have been weird settings and low difficulty, which don’t particularly interest me.

Well. You could try the brand new GotM220. It is on Deity after all...

 

[RuntyBassoon143]

Well. You could try the brand new GotM220. It is on Deity after all...

Oooh Austria Domination, that should be interesting. There was strong disagreement between consentient’s ranking and some community members regarding the UA.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

EDGE#107: The red P (Piety challenge)

This civ, however overpowered, is usually fun to play and I hope that you will have a nice journey as well. The task here is to play as Poland on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. All AIs were generated randomly, you have a nice starting area, enough luxuries for a liberty start and I would expect you to get a "routine" win here (is there anything like that on Deity?) Or go in any direction you want and conquer your neighbours. But remember that you have to fill out the Piety tree before the game ends. I also uploaded some pictures for you to compare. Enjoy!

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

Spoiler :

Settled t1 next to the Salt. I am not sure if this was the best move but I did it anyway. The BO was Scoutx2-Shrine-Granary-Settlerx3. I stole one worker from Persia and two from a CS. First expand riverside to the NW (I should have gone for the desert Gold to the SE, but Persia beat me to it), then NE on the other side of the mountains for Citrus and Cotton) and then two coastal cities. 5 city NC on t99 and I built Oracle before that and Hagia Sofia afterwards. Ramesses attacked me early on, but he didn´t get far and instead I countered and took Elephantine from him. He was spreading his filthy religion all over the place so I also recruited Genghis to attack him. Eventually Egypt survived with one city, but they were of course out of the race. Education on t110. Fourth religion with EM/Tithe/Mosques/RC/IP.

In the midgame, I settled one more city to the N for Gems and all cities were growing nicely. I had to manage my happiness carefully. Spain jumped on Rome and eventually the latter were out of the game! Polynesia grew a bit too strong after beating up Mongolia and they were desiring my lands as well. Persia stayed a loyal ally to the end of times, which made organizing the defense a little easier. I was first to Ideologies and went Order. Polynesia had other thoughts and chose Authocracy together with Spain. Persia and Arabia went Freedom. I managed to build Sistine, PT and Eiffel but missed out on Louvre.

In the endgame, Polynesia attacked me but their coastal attack was not dangerous. Instead it messed up my trade routes and we were at war for a long time (25-30 turns or so). Persia and Spain were the cultural forerunners and I had to settle for a SV. It is worth mentioning that I built both Neuschwanstein and SOH in Wroclaw. It was a city with good production. I tried to keep Polynesia busy and eventually Persia took a couple of cities from them, while Mongolia was eliminated. Aluminium was a problem and I had to buy it and I also built some Recycling centers. Eventually I launched on t292 without optimizing too much, but rather just enjoying the game. SP: full Liberty, full Piety, Tradition 4, Exploration opener, full Rationalism and Order 9.

Placemark.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

Glad to see others are still playing and posting here on occasion. I’ve tried Beyond Earth and Civ 6 but just can’t get into them and even after over a decade I continue coming back to Civ 5 as my go-to single player game.

I recently read through consentient’s alternative deity tier list and really enjoyed the thought process and methodology, as well as Pedro’s HCA strategy.

I am wondering if there are any other deity players still hanging around who would like to start a new lineup/challenge thread.

Special thanks to Nizef for keeping this thread going for so long. Just reading the reports and knowing that others are playing the same maps has definitely kept the game alive for me. Without that I feel I would have set this classic down long ago.

If it makes you feel better, I have some 16,000 hours played and still running multiple single player Deity games. Somehow i have never delved into these, but i'll be rectifying that soon.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

@Nizef I apologize if this has been covered, but does Enhanced User Interface work with most of these saves? Theoretically it should... i can play the base game ruleset, but the interface is terrible. I believe IGE should also work with these...

 

[Nizef]

Most games are unmodded and thus should work very well with EUI. I am not sure about the modded ones though.