[Vanilla] Hard early game, easy late game

[VCrakeV]

So, just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, but I have been noticing a disparity in the difficulty early vs late game. On Prince, I find early game to be "normal", but late game to be too easy. I find King to be a bit too hard early game, and I've never gotten to late game on that difficulty. Now, I could seek tips on doing better, as there are many people doing well on much higher difficulties. However, I'm afraid King would just become the new Prince; fine at first, but too easy after.

Has anyone had a similar issue? How do you deal with this problem?

 

[Japper007]

This is true for every difficulty, late game is always too easy. AI has no way to drag you down once you are ahead, since it still can't war.

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

Yes, I've had the same issue (and also with Civ V Deity games). I've been doing some experimenting lately to play one level harder than normal (I usually play Immortal), but then give myself an early advantage (like a Scout, or a Builder, or 25 faith for an early Pantheon -- I even tried all 3 once, lol). If you create a graph with the game turn on the bottom and perceived difficulty on the side, ideally it would be close to a horizontal line. For me, anyway. But if you play on a higher level than normal the line will go from the upper left to lower right. It seems like the sweet spot in the middle goes by pretty fast. (Once you overcome the AIs early bonuses the game usually becomes really hard to lose if you play reasonably well.) I get past that spot and immediately begin to lose interest.

This is why I like giving myself an added boost - makes the slope of the line flatter on one end. I can't recall if there are mods that increase the AIs science rate, etc, as the game progresses. That could help with the other end.