Hardest Difficulty Level Possible on Large Map

[Doom Scythe]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to the forums, but not to the game. I have been playing BtS for more than a year already, on and off. I've read a lot from CivFanatics, and I think it is a really great site. Now, on to my question.

I'm asking this because I'm really curious about this. I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes so please don't take this post as an question of your ability / pride.

I've been playing a LOT on this setting: Large, Pangea at Standard speed. I like many opponents and would have ran Huge if my laptop allowed me to. I almost always play Brennus, for a few reasons. It is not one of the very powerful Leader and is quite decent for warmongering. It also doesn't have a uber UU and thus, gives a better gauge of my abilities.

Now, is it really possible to get a win on Monarch and beyond on the above settings? I've seen lots of wins from Deity and Immortal, posted by various people, but all of them on Small maps. I've read somewhere that the leap from Prince to Monarch is huge, and a different set of skill is required. But still, is it possible to win in my above setting?

p/s: I don't exactly micro-manage my cities, but I do have cities specialization. I manage production to a certain extent, but almost always leave the Citizen Automation on.

Thanks for your replies.

Best regards,
Doom Scythe

 

[TheMeInTeam]

G major 40 is a large/immortal game on epic. Lots of people win that easily, but I struggled (still won).

Your settings should be doable, at a minimum. Depending on where you spawn and who you're up against it might even be easy.

 

[Doom Scythe]

Does your game requires lots of micro-management? I've tried on Monarch, and it seems almost impossible. I'm currently on Prince, not that I win all the time, but I can say with confidence that given the right starting condition, I can win 80% of the time.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm probably one of the least micro-intensive players on the forum. This leaves me prone to mistakes, but I nonetheless get by (generally by abusing diplomacy and hanging around until opportune moments, or via war). If you want an idea on how I speed my game up, see my sig.

If, in asking that, you mean is it necessary to use spreadsheets or carefully plan turns to win at immortal...no, it isn't. However, I still struggle at immortal because there's facets of the game I'm still unsure of. I'd bet good/top players like Rusten/U Sun/ABCF/DaveMCW etc could do it easily though.

Regardless, the AI tech pace at monarch is still on the slow side. As long as you take care of yourself to avoid wars you can't defend, you should be fine.

 

[Dirk1302]

When i began playing civ4 i played huge map 18 civs epic on monarch, this is certainly easier than standard 7 civs. So the answer must be deity. You need to avoid an early declaration though.

 

[Doom Scythe]

If, in asking that, you mean is it necessary to use spreadsheets or carefully plan turns to win at immortal...no, it isn't. However, I still struggle at immortal because there's facets of the game I'm still unsure of. I'd bet good/top players like Rusten/U Sun/ABCF/DaveMCW etc could do it easily though.

Regardless, the AI tech pace at monarch is still on the slow side. As long as you take care of yourself to avoid wars you can't defend, you should be fine.

Yup, thanks for this. This is the exact answer that I'm looking for. I just don't wanna go through the hassle of spreadsheet and micro-managing to win a game. Just wanna know whether it's possible to win the game without having to worry about the minor details too much. Will try monarch soon, hopefully will be able to scrape through Middle Ages and not lag too much in science.

@Dirk1302
Will keep that in mind

 

[Dirk1302]

@Doom Scythe, it's necessary on high difficulty unless you're uncanny talented, and frankly, calculating out the start is one of the most enjoyable things to do for me.

 

[Iberian]

Huge maps on deity is not a problem with the difficulty but with the sheer amount of time it takes to complete. Personally I could never play a game with hour long turns.

 

[feralminded]

As someone who started out playing on the Giant Earth Mod (way bigger than Huge) ... I've now come to hate big maps ... at least for high difficulty play. I find that large maps require far more micromanagement than small ones and with far fewer rewards. On smaller maps (I'm talking small or standard) I actually get reward for my time invested.

Regardless Pangea simplifies a lot of things so that's probably not a big deal ... I was playing on continents style maps and whatnot. It gets pretty rough with those mega huge maps.

That said the AI is still vicious as ever. I would like to meet anyone who can easily annihilate Deity on a huge map ... hell I'd be surprised if there's 5 people on these forums who can put the words Deity and Easy in the same sentence without lying through their teeth.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

... hell I'd be surprised if there's 5 people on these forums who can put the words Deity and Easy in the same sentence without lying through their teeth.

Deity is not easy for me.

Now you need 4 more people

 

[DMOC]

The hardest difficulty level possible on a large map?

Well...

-Pick "low sea level"
-Enable "raging barbarians"
-Pick "Pangea"
-Choose "Charlemagne of the HRE" as your civ
-Select "deity" difficulty.
-Select "Always war."

And lastly...

Get 17 other AI's and put them all on one team.

Good luck. And no regenerating to get your dream start allowed.

 

[feralminded]

Deity is not easy for me.

Now you need 4 more people

lol ... I so deserved that!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The hardest difficulty level possible on a large map?

Well...

-Pick "low sea level"
-Enable "raging barbarians"
-Pick "Pangea"
-Choose "Charlemagne of the HRE" as your civ
-Select "deity" difficulty.
-Select "Always war."

And lastly...

Get 17 other AI's and put them all on one team.

Good luck. And no regenerating to get your dream start allowed.

You forgot the part about worldbuildering nuke and modern armor, and enough great merchants to keep them. That's pretty much the only way anybody would win on those settings.

I tried raging barbs on immortal once. I didn't realize that it made them enter borders instantly. I got double-archer'd and lost conquest to them 3100 BC.

 

[DMOC]

My bad! I forgot about adding a "Quick" speed option to my settings.

 

[vicawoo]

With raging barbs, marathon might be harder.

I think a harder setting would be continents deity OCC huge map. Or deity OCC always peace huge map cultural victory/space only.

 

[Gliese 581]

You forgot the part about worldbuildering nuke and modern armor, and enough great merchants to keep them. That's pretty much the only way anybody would win on those settings.

I tried raging barbs on immortal once. I didn't realize that it made them enter borders instantly. I got double-archer'd and lost conquest to them 3100 BC.

Play a civ that starts with Mining, go BW, start prechopping -> Masonry, get the wall. If you're industrial you could even get it before 3000 BC I bet, never tried that early. 2800-2700ish is easy.

 

[Dan Quale]

I play huge Immortal 18 civs usually and I severely doubt i could win without marathon. Its hard to keep that many civs down, but with enough world wars its possible. In my current game as boudica I won the liberalism race at 1225 AD on immortal. The reason this is possible is that there were no longer names for the great generals after AD 200.

 

[DMOC]

I play huge Immortal 18 civs usually and I severely doubt i could win without marathon. Its hard to keep that many civs down, but with enough world wars its possible. In my current game as boudica I won the liberalism race at 1225 AD on immortal. The reason this is possible is that there were no longer names for the great generals after AD 200.

Ha. I hate it when the game runs out of names.

 

[oyzar]

With raging barbs, marathon might be harder.

I think a harder setting would be continents deity OCC huge map. Or deity OCC always peace huge map cultural victory/space only.

OCC ditey is certainly beatable and the map type doesn't have a lot to do with it. Always peace certainly makes the game easier since you can ignore diplomacy....

 

[TheMeInTeam]

With raging barbs, marathon might be harder.

I think a harder setting would be continents deity OCC huge map. Or deity OCC always peace huge map cultural victory/space only.

Don't forget to make them all 1 team and remove space as an option . No PAs, either. I'm guessing that would be pretty impossible, but that would still be "hard" so to speak .