Help with first deity game as Scotland

[Cptobvious]

I have been struggling to get a game going on deity past the ancient era to this point, usually losing to barbs or early war. I have beaten every other I finally managed to get my civ off the ground this game but now I face a new challenge; I'm surrounded by aggressively expanding civs who have boxed me in with loyalty penalties leaving little room to expand past 3 cities and taken over all nearby city states. Do I have any chance of winning this game if I keep going, or will I have to restart again? I'm currently building a 4th settler but have no idea where I would put it and Australia's army is 3x the size of mine.


Please see attached save and screenshot.

https://imgur.com/a/ZTHuRyz

 

[liv]

To me this looks very hard. I play deity usually always for conquest and it would be an uphill battle but I would keep going just to see how it plays out. AI will win on turn 300 on standard speed so there is time for you. It may be possible to get two cities in there if you just build without water. You will need to rush for more science it looks like.

It looks to me like you did not place the cities there well. You could have gotten era score by building closer to that wonder
You missed out on some luxuries. You could have built roxburgh on the coast and then pushed another city in on that river

You should maybe focus your science choices better. Go for the ones you need. There was very little need to do sailing there. Bronze working is one of the most important early sciences.

Make sure you buy a builder and chop out those settlers using Magnus.

I am not sure what pantheons were available but more food is usually down on the list.

I would have tried to scout more early on to find things. Now most city states will be gone likely

Also sell luxuries to AI. When you cities are small you do not need a lot of luxuries to stay happy so just get what you can from AI -

Starts are hard on deity. Barbarian camps are problematic. I always try to take them out as soon as I see them and build early military for that purpose

 

[Casualty of war]

It doesn't matter if Australia's army is 3x yours if they are out of position. Wait for him to pick a fight with a City-State or Scythia and then strike.

You had a decent shot at just rocketing to Horseback Riding and riding that to victory. Might still be able to. I'm going to give your save a try.

 

[Casualty of war]

It doesn't matter if Australia's army is 3x yours if they are out of position. Wait for him to pick a fight with a City-State or Scythia and then strike.

You had a decent shot at just rocketing to Horseback Riding and riding that to victory. Might still be able to. I'm going to give your save a try.

Played to the end of the Era, and if I had finessed just a few more Era Score to get a Heroic Age I think this game could turn around. The points were right there but I should have moved Amani to a newly-found City-State and chopped a +3 Commercial Hub, maybe bought my first Horseman for 2 more points. Sigh, Epic threw all my timing off.

I made Friends with Australia immediately so even though I was forward settling on him it wouldn't prompt an attack. I settled two towards him, horrible cities with no purpose other than to host the Colosseum, secure Horses and to be a Walls & Encampment Maginot Line. I put one on the northeast coast, for population Loyalty pushback against Scythia; eventually it would be a decent Harbor city but that was a long ways off. I pushed Shipbuilding hoping I could send a Settler off this inhospitable rock to nicer climes and new resources, really just hoping for an Iron island. Denied.

Did you have the option of joining in on the Buenos Aires Emergency? Even if you never send a unit that's Era Score and a huge pile of Gold just waiting for you.

This is a tough spot but I think selling Wine and Incense to Australia and Aztecs would pay for enough Horsemen to eventually carve out a sizable chunk of Scythia's territory. Their initial offers are lowball; if you counteroffer with bulk Gold they will pay double.