Hardest difficulty you have beaten the game on!

[jimbob27]

Been playing exclusively on Emperor (mostly small to large maps, standard settings, random CIV, shuffle maps) since January and manage to dominate in about 2/3 of my games. I don't actually play the game to finish much anymore though, as I find the endgame a bit tedious. Will be moving on to Immortal as my new default level soon.

I must admit I am surprised by how many people reload or set up the game to their advantage just so they can say they beat the higher levels and boast of high scores. I mean, if this is your idea of fun, fine, but it doesn't say much about your skill as a player. In fact, I would argue that using reload makes you a worse player, as it makes you take risks that in a fair game would be imprudent - and you never learn to plan for and deal with what happens when things don't go as planned.

I think a lot of people set up their games so they can win, just for the bragging rights. At the moment, I usually play on monarch, but make everything as hard as I possibly can. 18 civs, No-tech trading, agressive AI's, permanent alliances and raging barbarians. These are the settings I get the most challenging games from. I can win at emporer if I play with the Romans, but I always loose with anybody else... so I don't consider myself an emporer level player yet. The Roman civ is so broken it basically counts as cheating to use them... so with a regular civ.. the hardest possible monarch games are as far as I can get.

 

[Older than Dirt]

I am playing a surprisingly difficult Prince level Terra Map Warlords game as Julius. It is almost 1100 A.D. and I am tremendously dominant but the capturing of cities has been difficult, even with 2 super praetorian units (with GGs attached), because the clever AI has built almost every city on a hill. There have been only about 3 which were not and they were very easy to capture even without trebuchets. Even with trebuchets capturing a city on a hill with a promoted longbow is not bloodless. Is the AI now building on hills much more often?

 

[puglover]

I beat Prince twice. That's the highest I've gone.

 

[Rule Brittania]

has anyone beat deity????

 

[bitplayer]

has anyone beat deity????

Not me thats for sure. Highest level victorys I have under my belt are prince ones. And they dont come too often for me as I typically pack as many civs into a map as I can then duke it out as a training session for the guys I mp against.

'O aggresive ai, no tech trading, and no victory conditions but conquest and domination.

To be honest Id have to guess I win about 5 to 10 percent of the time. Which isnt much but its fun and Im getting better.

 

[jimbob27]

has anyone beat deity????

In a duel map... yeah. In a proper game.... no chance.

 

[Murky]

Deity with a duel map using Quechas.

Standard map the highest I've done is Emperor.

 

[Rule Brittania]

Surely creating the game helps you be the be the best so does sid play on deity, the reason i ask is that someone told me it doesn't always help to have created a game becuase the designers of the PS2 are really bad at playing the playstation and PS2

 

[Silvermink]

I win on Prince pretty regularly. I was a better player before the first patches changed something. Probably would play monarch with 1.0. Just wish the AIs would declare war on each other a little more. Alot of my games go to 1500 or later without them declaring war on anyone but me.

 

[sirford]

Emporer, Huge, pangea, rome, normal time.

 

[yavoon]

immortal/fractal/epic, warring on immortal is almost intolerable for me past maces, or over water. u just get fantastical war weariness so quickly, I remember with grenadier/cannon the second city I took wasn't out of revolution and i was at +8 war weariness, its just not right.

I still like monarch's human handicaps the best, but the AI just isnt good enough at monarch.

 

[Elhoim]

Monarch Level.

 

[StarWorms]

Can't remember, I think it was Monarch/Emperor. Either way I find duel maps far easier to win on the higher levels.

 

[Arlborn]

I did only play twice till the end..If I see I got no chance or just will go too long I stop lol >.<
First time I lost to space race in Noble and now just won by time score in noble(Im always turning off space race now, it doesent seem a victory for me at all..)lol

 

[ktsk]

Noble. W/ a random leader, too, if I remember correctly.

Actually, one of the reasons I'm on this forum is that I can't make it on prince level. So I'm looking for tips...

 

[Giaur]

... and so I am ... as promised
I do not play deity anymore. It's harmful for psycho and not very pleasant. It's the matter of luck.

Till my golden age ended, started playing for pleasure on lower difficulties and had several good games, especially in Civ4 warlords. I liked the idea of Great Generals. I liked new promotion I do not know the name. It gives 30 percent chance of withrowal and 25% bonus to attacking hills.

Still upgrading units is to expensive however ...

... and good luck to newbies, you will need that on higher difficulties

 

[GenMarshall]

I only gotten to the third difficulty level .

 

[3 EMS]

I beat Prince once but it was too much work. Now I just stick to Noble.

 

[Viperace]

Just claimed my first Monarch win. Will stick a couple more game with Monarch before I move up again.

 

[Clovis]

Warlord on CivII, but I should be getting Civ4 soon.