Is it possible to beat "Into the Renaissance" on Diety w/out lump sum deal breaking?

[frumpylumps]

This scenario seems really hard for me on deity. To compete for the favor of city states for the Roman Emperor victory points I felt like I was forced to make gps+lux trades and deal break constantly to keep opponents income in check and maintain ally status with city statues. I was also forced to stay at war with the top gold earning civs the whole game to prevent them from out-buying alliances with their 1000+ gold incomes.

I have two questions in regard to this. Does anyone have strategies to win this without deal breaking constantly? From what I understand, this community considers a pattern of war dec deal breaking as an exploit. Is that correct?

 

[JFM2796]

Check out Madjinn's playthrough as Russia.

 

[Maxym]

Don't compete for CSs. HRE points are not worth it. I have played Emperor Russia game and had almost all CS allied w/o gpt exploit. But then again I took Austria and Dutch out early so the competition was less intense. Took patronage opener.

On immortal as Liz I found I could not compete at all against AI, and have zero CS allies. Focused on trying to tie HRE votes early, managed two. All civs still in the game with 22 turns to go, and Celtic and Turkish caps down. Working on Cairo and hoping to get Marrakech and Amsterdam as well. No patronage.

I am sure deity will be even harder, thinking of playing as Sully. I think you can easily amass necessary VPs by conquest. Also Caravel bonuses are available as AI don't seem to go for it. What civs are you playing as?

 

[Halcyan2]

Play Austria and diplomatically marry the Vatican City as soon as you can. Once you have the Vatican allied or annexed, you benefit from the Founder belief, which increases the resting point of all Catholic city states, and you also get the "shared religion" modifier with the other Western European civs. Combine with Pledging to protect and you have automatic friendship with LOTS of city states.

I tried this in a game (though it was pre-patch) and I eventually quit because the game was getting too easy.

 

[Maxym]

What level were you playing at Halcyan. I found both the russia emperor and England immortal games quite challenging early and then tedious to finish as I am a runway leader. Thinking of trying Deity next and hoping AI wil, stay competitive.

 

[Halcyan2]

What level were you playing at Halcyan. I found both the russia emperor and England immortal games quite challenging early and then tedious to finish as I am a runway leader. Thinking of trying Deity next and hoping AI wil, stay competitive.

I'm not sure. Probably Emperor. It was pre-patch though.

I also found Russia to be challenging, mainly because of the insane spawning rate of the Mongolian hordes. Fortunately their AI was a bit lacking. They easily had enough to take my city but the units were used very ineffectively.

I find just about *every* Into the Renaissance game tedious near the end. The last 50 or so turns mainly consist of clicking "Next Turn" when I've already won, but the turn times get really long. (Maybe it's better now post-patch?).

 

[Maxym]

Same thing happened to in in emperor Russia, Genghis had plenty of keshiks and swords to really hurt me but moved them around and hardly attacked. I think it was bc I left him a path towards Moscow, at least two tiles wide. He managed to sneak 4 keshiks there but I slaughtered tons on the way in and then killed those four and he was done for. I have not lost a single unit.

 

[Genghis.Khan]

Play Austria and diplomatically marry the Vatican City as soon as you can. Once you have the Vatican allied or annexed, you benefit from the Founder belief, which increases the resting point of all Catholic city states, and you also get the "shared religion" modifier with the other Western European civs. Combine with Pledging to protect and you have automatic friendship with LOTS of city states.

I tried this in a game (though it was pre-patch) and I eventually quit because the game was getting too easy.

Same here.

HRE = 250 VPs
Capture a 7 Pop City With Different Religion = About 150 VPs

I played with Austria DOWed the Byzantines left them with Constantinople Only and by T70 I already won the game

 

[Maxym]

I played with Austria DOWed the Byzantines left them with Constantinople Only and by T70 I already won the game

On deity? Good job, I keep thinking Russia, Austria and Ottomans are good candidates for Domination victory in that scenario all have UU horse units and other abilities that will help steamroll the opposition.

 

[Halcyan2]

On deity? Good job, I keep thinking Russia, Austria and Ottomans are good candidates for Domination victory in that scenario all have UU horse units and other abilities that will help steamroll the opposition.

I've mentioned it before, but in this scenario, the points for conquering cities of other religions far outstrips the other point mechanisms (Holy City or Holy Roman Emperor or sending Caravals).

A big part of this is dependent on the geography. You have a lot more paths to win if you are relatively close to civs of another religion. Austria has close proximity to Byzantium, and possibly Russia and the Middle East. Compare to say, England or the Celts who are stuck in a corner of the map.

 

[Maxym]

I did manage a deity Domination win in ItR, as Austria, somewhat accidentally as I did not set out for it. I will try to post it with screens soon...

 

[Genghis.Khan]

it wasn't deity, sorry. Emperor I think. Didn't read.