Hardest difficulty you have beaten the game on!

[Donothan]

I have only had time to finish one game so far (I'm a slow player and tend to spend a lot of time optimizing) - monarch, large inland sea map - which I won on space race in 1948. The score was about 11500. I felt really challenged by this level and had a great time playing the game. I felt that the A.I played very well and I had to use all the tricks learnt in earlier civ-games to beat it - the challenge was almost as great as on multiplayer. I never managed to catch up to the two best computer players with regard to science, production output, military or economy and I only won because I really, really, really optimized my spaceship project (I built the whole thing in less than 20 turns - at the same time inventing 6 new sciences) In the end I managed to beat Roosevelt by just 3 turns.

I'm looking forward to my next game but will stay at monarch for at least one more - I think I'll try to get a diplo or culture victory this time.....

 

[Roadrunna]

I beat warlord pretty soundly, but I've tried to go aggressive on Noble and am falling way behind. In the Industrial age and I'm still yet to take out my continent (there's 4 and I'm terrible at offshore battle). I'm 3rd out of 10 but the leader is miles out in front in tech so I'll probably lose by space.

 

[KriFos]

The two top scores is the same game, won diplomatic victory first, then loaded and continued on to Domination Victory.

 

[R3dKnight]

 

[vyapti]

I've won twice on noble (space race and cultural) with limited difficulty. I notice that I'm making huge mistakes on tech path and build orders. I'll do one more on noble (Inca - the maruading bankers), and then move up.

 

[vyapti]

I've won twice on noble (space race and cultural) with limited difficulty. I notice that I'm making huge mistakes on tech path and build orders. I'll do one more on noble (Inca - the maruading bankers), and then move up.

--Sorry, double post

 

[Gerikes]

Just finished a Prince level domination victory. Built four cities and then took all the rest with the Mongol horde, razing to start because it seems taking those first few cities too fast will put you far behind in tech due to maintenance costs.

Normally I like to boom, so I thought a combative approach would be interesting. Not really even planned, though, I came up with this formula: Vassalage (+2 experience for each unit) + Theocracy (+2 exp) + Barracks (+4 exp) + Pentagon (+2 exp) = +10 exp, which is three upgrades, and with the Agressive trait, you already have Combat I to work off of for Gunpowder units.

That setup singlehandedly won me a ton of battles, even before Pentagon. seeing on you start with Combat I for gunpowder units (Aggresive Leader trait), then you can get Combat II and Pinch (+25 vs Gunpowder) to take out those nasty rifleman-infantry protected cities (total of +45%). After I got the Pentagon, I would have my Infantry start off with Combat 1-3 and Pinch, for +55% vs. Gunpowder total. Not too bad for new recruits.

I would have tanks start off with Comb I and City Raider 1 + 2, for a total of +65% vs. cities to start, or Comb I and Flanking 1 + 2, one for taking some of the hits and the other for finishing them off. Afterwards, the retreated tanks would be chased down by my "Medic and Engineer" crews, which were basically explorers I trained with Comb I and Medic I, II.

Hoping to try it again on the next level up sometime over break.

 

[Terrorfrodo]

I played twice on the difficulty below Noble, won easily by culture. Next I tried Noble and lost. Next try was better, I won without problems by conquest, nuking my backwardly foes back to the stone age *evil* Then I moved up to Prince, had a pretty good lead in score and science but made the mistake to neglect my army which resulted in being destroyed by the Japanese early in the game.
The game after that, on Prince again, I did better and was close to a Space Race victory when Bismarck overtook me and I lost by a 12-turn margin. Even tried to nuke him to slow him down, but that resulted in being invaded by two other rivals, and didn't even actually slow down that old cheater

In my just completed game I finally achieved a victory on Prince, by winning the Space Race

I think that the type of map has a huge impact on difficulty. I found it much easier to win on a continents map, where you can destroy your 1-2 neighbors without interference of others and then concentrate on optimizing the economy. The other rivals are far away and usually don't attack early. So it's quite easy to take them out one after the other, or win peacefully without the need for a large army.
On a "Lakes" map however, you are surrounded by 4+ opponents who can and will invade you at the first opportunity. You can only survive with a large army that scares off your rivals, but slows down economy and research. Even then, it is risky and difficult to fight the neccessary wars to expand, because when large parts of your army are in enemy territory, and you have suffered some casualties, the other AI players will often exploit this temporary weakness and invade you, especially if they are friends of the Civ you are at war with.

So in my opinion, a "Noble" game on a lakes map is harder than a "Prince" game on continents.

 

[paceybaby]

whoopsy whoops

 

[paceybaby]

Monarch with Gandhi by space race, continents, large map, 9 opponents- completely disagree with that method of victory but had to do it cos everyone else was doing their SS thrusters etc. am playing again with gandhi on Emperor and should win that too

 

[Skanderbeg]

Finished 3 games until now, all with the following settings:
Playing random civ on standard map size, rolled dice to select map type,
opponent civs and climate settings etc random.

1st game on settler level, desert map, easy domination win with the Arabs

2nd game on chieftain level, continents map, easy dominationwin with the Aztecs

3rd game on warlord level, finished yesterday evening, with England on continents map. Close win by space ship victory in 2040 with Cyrus, Hatsheput and Togukawa in my neck Phew!
Made some stupid mistakes in the beginning I should have known better.
(Confession: I send a settler without escort And, yes, there was a barb )

Will start on noble this evening, but I think I will get a hard time

 

[Shigga]

I haven't had a single victory or defeat yet. Somehow I'm not able to finish a game. I started like 10 games and never finished them. Sad to say that, but it was just borong after a while.

 

[Terrorfrodo]

I had that problem in CivIII, where the endgame just sucked. Never completed a game. CivIV is much better however, though I do think the end game from ~1900 A.D. onwards is still the least fun part of the game.

 

[Maxa]

Prince.

And yes, the Persia one was an Immortal-rush. Had to try it out before the patch came.

 

[TylerDurdon]

Perhaps this should be opened as a poll. To answer your question though, I've been pretty pitiful, mostly just dominating Warlord level. I've played Noble but seem to go from ruling the world to getting beaten down making that transition (I know, its pitiful, but true).

Exact same thing here... I've beat warlord level with all different types of wins.... well except cultural... for some reason... i really suck at it!!!!

At noble I had a couple of nice try!!! but no victory yet!!! Last game I started was with freddy the german annilihator, i was well started having eat up my closest neibor(Ive a hard time with that word)... but I d/l the patch and wanted to see if I could play on larger maps without HUGE lag toward mid game!!! so restarted as Catherine!! and Im way too early too know if I doing good or not!!!

 

[Draetor24]

I have no problems winning on Noble difficulty, but Prince is another thing. I get crushed on Prince. What ends up happening is that the AI creates double the amount of military units and at double the speed. This is during games when all I create are military units, and I can't compete. Then the issue of my cities going into unhealthiness and unhappiness modes kicks in because I need to make buildings...but making buildings just slows down the military units and I get crushed.

Just last game, Napolean attacks me with stack of elephants, swords, and catapults, while all I could defend with was archers and catapults due to no iron.

Any strategies on how to get things moving?

 

[Panda]

Pre-patch - prince, on space race as Hatshepsut.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

Prince with George Washington.
I only had domination and diplomatic winning methods on. Duel map wth 18 countries.
Finally won the game by domination in the year 2317. The trick was that my neigbour (the Egyptians) were the only race to have Aluminium, so once I took them over I was the only one who had it, therefore I was the only one who had modern Armour and I used this to dominate.
But for the majority of the game I was waaay behind in all areas, and I was only just managing to keep enemies at bay with my army (the opposition used to destroy all my improvements before they tried to invade the city, I of course couldn't fight them in the fields so I had to defend my city).
In a Duel map you must remember that each race only gets 1 city, only 1 race (the English) managed to get a second city started with a settler.
James

My final score was 8217 but was adjusted down to 438

 

[Henrychauze]

Once with the space race which is more of a challenge and one time victory
I lost a space race by 2 turns DOH!

 

[bazzotter]

Just wondering what the hardest difficulty as been when somebody has beaten the game. A screenshot for proof would be nice, especially to see scores and the like

Noble was my highest win so far ....diplomatic victory