[Vanilla] How to win wars against civs 1+ eras ahead in deity?

[SDOAJ]

I'm a relatively new player (40 hours so far) and I'm trying to get better at combat (not just in Deity, but that's what this question is about). In my current game, I just entered the Renaissance era, while my neighbor Japan is already in the Modern era. They basically one-shot any of my units with city defenses. My question is, is it even possible to wage war against them? Or should I have played better so it never even got to that point?

Some details about the game:

• I'm playing as Sumeria (really helped me get through the early game, I conquered all of Spain for 3-4 cities)
• The situation I outlined above (me getting into Renaissance era and Japan being Modern era) was around turn 150, I think
• I did manage to take one Japanese city around turn 100 or so, but I ended the war right there because they were getting closer to taking one of mine
• I had no shortage of units, but they were all archers/catapults/other low-level units, while Japan had samurai and strong city defenses
• I played super aggressive even through the first war with Japan, focusing almost entirely on military

Anyone have any suggestions?

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the "give AI unfair boosts" that Deity mode does, but I figure if I can manage to beat that then I'll be at least somewhat good at the game.

Also also, should I even be trying for Deity mode at this point? I can beat Prince super easily (in my opinion) but I haven't tried anything between Prince and Deity.

 

[Bangau]

Also also, should I even be trying for Deity mode at this point? I can beat Prince super easily (in my opinion) but I haven't tried anything between Prince and Deity.

If you're a civ veteran and was good at earlier versions of civ, go ahead and try. From prince to deity is a huge step, most players take the steps in between to learn and get better.

Winning wars against civs with (way) better units is quite hard in civ VI. The way combat works the difference between e.g. a 70 strength unit and a 77 strength is bigger than 10%. If your units are being 'one shot' as you mention, you probably need to retreat and upgrade your units as soon as you get the right tech to do so. That said: the AI is not very good at combat and proper use of terrain and (especially ranged and siege) units gives the human player a huge advantage over the AI.

 

[Victoria]

Anyone have any suggestions?

Use artillery and balloons with generals and promotions.
Use battleships
Both of these stay out of the city defence range. Use them as corps or armies as well.
Also you can often bait out any defender if you attack the city then back off.

sieging the city helps also, see links below for city combat.
you seemed to be asking specifically about cities

deity... if you survive the first 30 or so turns you have won if you are relatively efficient and do not do something too rash.... or you just get a lucky map.
Of course playing Kupe deity on a Terra map guarantees you a win

because you are talking a tech level difference, I recommend you concentrate on campus and adjacency and get the double adjacency card. But all in good time, don’t build. Your districts early, get moar settlers out and wait for feudalism to chop.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

From my experience, you don't. If the AI is technologically ahead, what I usually do is a defensive war. Place all your troops in defensible locations, declare on the AI, have them walk their troops over to you and pick them off one by one. Attacking is always difficult, it's night impossible when the AI is ahead. City defenses in GS (Civ VI in general) are way too strong imo, so there is little point in trying to take cities while the AI still has units around. I usually try to wipe everything and even get their last ranged unit out of the city (you can bait it) before I actually attempt to take a city. Either that or you rush, which can also sometimes work, but was nerfed hugely. Knight rushes with Rams/Siege Towers were so much fun

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I think once you get more experienced you won't have this problem of being behind a whole Era.
If something like this happens I would rush up to Bombers and over to Jet Bombers.
Hopefully, you have or can get aluminum.
Once you get 3 to 5 Bombers you should be on easy street.
If Bombers don't work I would think that all hope is lost and you just need to practice more.