Excelling in Diety

[Cerebra]

I just finished a game on diety at 296%. I see on the HOF that people are scoring 10X that. I'm wondering how this is accomplished, because I feel I streamline my empire pretty well.

I push for science (with reserach and finding huts) and expand shamelessly until about 1AD. At that point, I jack up taxes and pay for markets, banks, and stock exchanges so that I can roll in the dough under democracy. Once you have cash, you can do just about anything.

Any tips on mega-domination would be key. I must be missing some important aspects of gameplay, because I'm nowhere near these astronomical scores.

 

[funxus]

I'm not one of these good players myself, but two things:
Trade with caravans, each time a caravan is delivered you get the gold and also the same amount in sciencebeakers. By delivering caravans and freights you can easily get up to 1 tech a turn and sometimes more.
When reaching democracy or republic you should jack up luxury for some time and let your cities grow. They celebrate when your city have no unhappies and half or more happy people. In democcra and republic this makes your city grow one pop per turn, and in other govs you get one more trade resource in squares allready producing trade.
This means they can grow fast, research fast and have a lot of money

 

[sethos]

Never stop to expand. A main key are the happy wonders: HG, Mike's, Bach's and Cure for Cancer. When you get the Gardens, switch to republic for a while and let your cities celebrate. Do the same when you get Mike's.
A city must have at least soze 3 to celebrate. So let three settlers/engineers build that city: the 1st founds the city, the 2nd and the 3rd increase the population (go to the city, press "b").
Rush build a temple. So the city can grow by celebration (lux > 50%).
Don't forget to explore the world. I build triremes and put one or two diplos on it and let them explore foreign islands and continents. They will find NONE settlers, advanced tribes, gold, units, techs, AI civs (and barbs ) ).
When I get the Statue of Liberty, I switch to Fundy to make some cash. Celebrating Fundy will make you rich (50%science, 50%lux - no taxes - you will make 200, 300, 400 or more gold a turn. Personal record: 2600 gold a turn with 0 % taxes!).
And the main side effect of celebrating Fundy: A celebrating Fundy city will produce the same amount of trade arrows than a city under a representative government. That means, you will get the same amount of gold and science beakers for delivered caravans.
This is another period of expansion. When you're at war, build the most dangerous attack units - diplos and spies! Bribe enemy cities. If the AI has techs you need for a wonder -steal it!
I had had games where I conquered the world by bribing (I bribed more than 100 cities, spent more than 100.000 gold - only the capitals had to be conquered).
My personal record is about 8000 points with the described method.

 

[Cerebra]

Some questions.....

I had realized through experience that rapid expansion was crucial, and it helped to switch to Reublic ASAP. However, I have also experienced severe difficulties with happiness. After you make a certain number of cities, you get "very unhappy" citizens everywhere. I had tried to get around this with Temples+Oracle, but it's laborsome - you have to build a Temple before you build anything else, which is costly when you don't have any marketplaces, caravans, etc.

Should I deal with the happiness problem with Monrchy/Gardens/martial law instead? Won't that have a horrific effect on science? In other words, should I only use republic for celebrating, and then go back to monarchy?

Also, I have generally neglected caravans. Can you comment on their importance, for I am getting the impression that I have neglected a key element to success here.

Also, can you explain how you can earn 200-400 gold per turn when your science rate is 0%. I understand the point about celebrating fundy producing muchos arrows, but if your tax rate is 0%, won't those arrows promote science and happiness?

A minor point - wouldn't it be cheaper to allow two settlers make new cities? It doesn't take too many turns to go from size 1 to size 2. It would save you a settler, and the second settler could build some roads/irrigation during the wait.

Lastly, I always feel really clever by stockpiling tons of 10-shield-warriors in my young cities and then building Leo's workshop later on so that I wind up with tons of riflemen. It seems like this strategy could be useful in fighting unhappiness under monarchy. Any drawbacks?

 

[sethos]

When you've still settlers, each of them should build a new city.
The trick I mentionend is for late city founding when you want to grow that city quickly.
I don't like to stockpile warriors and phalanxes. They cost shield support. Try this way:
Put one or two diplos on a ship an let them discover the world.
You'll find barbs - bribe them! They're cheap NONE units.
Maybe you find a barb city - use it as your unit breeding farm!
And for happiness:
The first wonder you should build is the hanging gardens.
And later Mike's, Bachs's and CfC = No happiness problems.
Don't forgegt to build market places and banks. And build caravans for trade purposes. Have three trade routes per city.
This will help you to suppress happiness problems, too.
If possible deliver you caravans to the fattest AI cities.
Celebrate when you've got the Gardens for some turns (lux >=50%) and then go back to monarchy. Most of your cities should now have size 8 (or 12, if they've got an aqueduct).
Keep the HG-city celebrating in monarchy (more income & science).
Caravans are the key to win the game. They will increase your income and your science. Ask the science advisor before and after delivering a freight ...
Delivered caravans shorten the research time between two techs.
And later in the game, build superhighways and airports. Send your freights by air mail.
I 've got more than 2700 gold for onefreight.
You will make 10.000, 20.000, 30.000 gold a turn or even more.

Go back to rep when you've got Mike's Chapel. Celebrate again.

 

[funxus]

After you make a certain number of cities, you get "very unhappy" citizens everywhere.

The very unhappy citizens will turn happy with two luxuries, so they should be fought with luxuries and not martial law and improvements

 

[ElephantU]

Originally posted by funxus

The very unhappy citizens will turn happy with two luxuries, so they should be fought with luxuries and not martial law and improvements

I think you are presuming the Hanging Gardens effect here.

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is required on Deity and even Emperor. Come play the Civ2 Gotm.

Sorry about the multiple posts. I'm at the library, waiting for pix to develop, and this is a foolish browser with different options than most. Apparently, multiple post is a new feature.

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is req... Argggh

Edit: also the Civ2 Game of Democracy - which is Deity. We just got Republic, and are planning to Celebrate and grow.

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is req

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is req

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is req

 

[GaryNemo]

I assume the Hanging Gardens is req

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by ElephantU

I think you are presuming the Hanging Gardens effect here.

Well, that's a part of it

Gary, 5 mistake-posts , or maybe you just want to have a bigger postcount

 

[ElephantU]

You can delete your own posts... you have to go into "edit", then the top option is Delete...

 

[Cerebra]

Well, I'm having a lot more success now. I wasn't building a SSC, which was part of my problem. I also wasn't doing any trade whatsoever, which also was a problem. In my current game, I'm up over 400% at 1900, so I'm guessing I'll wind up doubling or tripling my previous personal record (somewhere around 300%).

Thanks for the advice. BTW, anyone else reading in this post for good tips should read the following discussion:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=854&highlight=democracy

 

[ElephantU]

Ah yes, Starlifters Ancient Scrolls of Wisdom! Whatever happened to him, anyway? Did he defect to Civ3?

 

[Jace]

Originally posted by ElephantU
Ah yes, Starlifters Ancient Scrolls of Wisdom! Whatever happened to him, anyway? Did he defect to Civ3?

I wondered about that too.

He is a USAF reservist IIRC. Maybe he is off somewhere dropping bombs on Osama (or camped down outside downtown Bagdad) :rocket:

Starlifters posts are really good. Look up his profile in "members" and click on "search all posts by this member" i the top right corner (all 3976 of them!)

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