How do you cope with the AI's massive science lead in domination deity games

[ShinigamiKenji]

Crusade looks good on paper, but I prefer to spend faith on military units. Flipping enemy cities, even while at peace, consumes a lot of resources for what usually amounts to a very short window of payout. Conversions usually take place on the front lines of a religious war, which means there are going to be more enemy religious units coming along soon to try to flip that city back. I could spend a lot of faith on Apostles and Inquisitors. Sure, I could do that. Or I could buy musketmen 1:1 instead. That's a no brainer if you're trying to for domination.

You can get a Proselytizer Apostle if you're suzerain of Yerevan. Sometimes wiping out nearby civs makes you the only player with envoys there (from stumbling on quests, for example). Also, while you're preparing a navy to help invade another landmass, it doesn't hurt to send some before the storm, if only for scouting.

Unreliable? Probably. But which other Enhancer are you taking instead?

 

[gimper42]

But which other Enhancer are you taking instead?

Whichever is the best one remaining. I can't remember if I've seen Crusade available to the final Prophet. I only play deity domination games and it is pretty rare to get a Prophet at all.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

It's surely a sad thing to discover there's only the Missionary Zeal (religious units ignore terrain) and Monastic Isolation (pressure never drops if you lose a unit in religious combat).

Though Missionary Zeal turns Missionaries into good scouts, at least

 

[Jarms48]

Early warfare is a must for diety, killing any and all neighbours will allow you to catch up to the cheating AI. Even kill city states that are useless to your goals. Capturing pre-built cities makes diety much easier.

 

[gimper42]

I think my biggest take away from this part of the conversation is that I should probably pay more attention to the religions in the cities that I conquer. I tend to ignore religion.

 

[Victoria]

Early warfare is a must for diety, killing any and all neighbours will allow you to catch up to the cheating AI. Even kill city states that are useless to your goals. Capturing pre-built cities makes diety much easier.

Its not a must, its probably best.

If you kill the non needed city states you end up pushing the AI into sending all their envoys to your CS.
Having more CS helps Pericles a lot and allows more envoys through tasks which is handy if you want the merchant confederation card for a few turns.
Of course on the down side a CS becoming an enemy within your borders is a pain.

Killing entire civs gves more weariness and less civs for a culture victory. You also do need to consider more amenities due to it. I have found this is particularly true in domination games. Once you have taken a couple of cities off a civ and raised their land and have a much larger military they just do not DOW, I suspect people get rid of them more to limit the political screen whining.

Many AI cities are useless poor producers that just take amenities more than they give science and also require manual maintenance because of no build queue. I rarely bother with a Civ once I have the caputal, I just swap a few cities si I have the good ones in hills.

 

[Bro]

Crusade looks good on paper, but I prefer to spend faith on military units. Flipping enemy cities, even while at peace, consumes a lot of resources for what usually amounts to a very short window of payout. Conversions usually take place on the front lines of a religious war, which means there are going to be more enemy religious units coming along soon to try to flip that city back. I could spend a lot of faith on Apostles and Inquisitors. Sure, I could do that. Or I could buy musketmen 1:1 instead. That's a no brainer if you're trying to for domination.

Faith purchasing comes a lot later than the ability to convert. And you move your religious units with your front line so that you can convert the city just before you attack it.

 

[Victoria]

It's a damn site easier and cheaper to convert after with an inquisitor

 

[gimper42]

Faith purchasing comes a lot later than the ability to convert.

True. But the ability to convert cities does not really do me any good towards a domination victory unless I can get Crusade. Racing for religion on deity is foolish, thus it is much more efficient to spend any accumulated faith on military units later than it is to throw extremely valuable early cogs at a religion attempt in the vain hope of getting Crusade and then also throwing more early valuable cogs at more Holy Sites for faith generation so I can buy the missionaries needed to start flipping cities. Early Holy Sites means fewer (or zero) early campuses which can often lead to a severe science deficiency.

Nah. Religion is a side game best played on lower difficulties.

 

[Victoria]

Or the real reason behind domination, just killin for me is a bit maniacal, I need a cause.

 

[gimper42]

Fair enough. It is well enough documented by now that early aggression opens many doors in this game.