Is the jump from Emperor to Immortal big?

[Leathaface]

I'm at a stage now where I win almost every game at Emperor with top tier Civ's, and the vast majority of the time with other Civ's. Now i'm thinking of making the jump to Immortal difficulty.

I know the AI only starts with 2 settlers still, so that's good. Are barbs a lot rougher?

 

[Abraxis]

Early aggression is the major difference, both with barbs and with AI. Barbs on immortal will have early archers and they seem to spawn more units when their scouts return with your location. The archers particularly make them much more difficult to deal with compared to the slingers you're probably used to at emperor. You get less gold for clearing camps and it takes longer to do which can be a big deal if that's something you relied on heavily.
The AI also seems much more likely to rush you with warriors in the first 20 turns if they start out close by which really sucks if you get sandwiched between two who both do it at once. I've never seen this happen at emperor, but it does occasionally on immortal.

Other than that honestly, I don't notice much difference afterward.

I'd actually recommend making the switch with a coastal civ like Vicky or Harald. That way you can't get sieged with just land units if you are rushed early. You have options to expand on other continents if you have a rough early game, and the odds of spawning next to other civs and the direction from which you can be attacked are reduced roughly in half since they can't spawn in water.

 

[Leyrann]

Early aggression is the major difference, both with barbs and with AI. Barbs on immortal will have early archers and they seem to spawn more units when their scouts return with your location. The archers particularly make them much more difficult to deal with compared to the slingers you're probably used to at emperor. You get less gold for clearing camps and it takes longer to do which can be a big deal if that's something you relied on heavily.
The AI also seems much more likely to rush you with warriors in the first 20 turns if they start out close by which really sucks if you get sandwiched between two who both do it at once. I've never seen this happen at emperor, but it does occasionally on immortal.

Other than that honestly, I don't notice much difference afterward.

I'd actually recommend making the switch with a coastal civ like Vicky or Harald. That way you can't get sieged with just land units if you are rushed early. You have options to expand on other continents if you have a rough early game, and the odds of spawning next to other civs and the direction from which you can be attacked are reduced roughly in half since they can't spawn in water.

Or maybe they can spawn in water and that's why sometimes there are less civs on the map than there should be.

 

[Balkans]

Higher difficulty is all about dice roll concerning your location and neighbors and early game turns. Mid late game becomes settler level more or less. Not only you can make the jump to immortal, i promise you that you will win the game. Just listen to this advice. Don't play builder game early turns. Build warriors/slinger/archer so you don't get caught, expand as soon you see good opportunity, after you are secure go crazy on building game making sure that in every era you are at least capable of defending if you play peacefully, and if you are warmonger, well, you know what to do, whenever you like it.

 

[UWHabs]

Just started a game at immortal as Rome. I've been alternating depending on if I feel I want to challenge myself or not. Thought I was in good shape - friendly with England, and I had a perfect Petra city set for my 2nd city, with probably 15 desert hills in the area. England takes out a neighbouring city state. Okay, not a big deal, I can live with that. A few turns later, I notice a lot of archers and warriors nearby... Then I get the declaration of war.

Okay, I've fought off AI invasions before. They're also coming at multiple cities, so neither has enough to cause damage. And I actually had a handful of archers and warriors around as I was debating whether to go to legions to take her out. So I fight off the first wave of her troops with what I had, and switch my cities to build more warriors and archers just in case. Research quickly switches over to iron working to see how long before i can get my legions online.

And she keeps coming with troops. Like, quite a lot of them. But I just barely got a legion in time so that my cities defense rocket up, and I can hold her off. And then I have legions curb-stomping her cities when I bring along a battering ram. So I defended it, and ended up nearly wiping her out, and now I'm in a fairly solid space I think. Sadly, missed out on my chance to build Petra in that one city, so now it's stuck being a kind of crappy desert hill city. But I survived, albeit the only reason being that I was Rome and had a strong iron-free unit to use. I didn't have any Iron in my territory, so if I were any other civ I would have been easily beaten down.

So yeah, Immortal is tough. Would certainly recommend if you want to take the jump to take one of the better civs, and one of the ones with a strong early UU that you can use to defend and kickstart yourself. But yeah, when the AI comes, they come hard. Their tactics still need work, so you should still be able to defend in most instances, but be prepared to fight a long early battle.

 

[stormerne]

On Immortal, the difference the AI gets over Emperor levels are:

• 1 extra Tech
• 1 extra Civic
• 1 extra Warrior
• 1 extra Builder
• +1 combat bonus
• +8.3% combat XP
• +6.9% science
• +6.9% culture
• +6.9% faith
• +14.3% production
• +14.3% gold

We all play for different reasons. It will be harder to win at Immortal, and you may find it more challenging and some will find that challenge more satisfying. But you may or may not find it more enjoyable, and that to me is the important thing to find out.

But you'll only find out if you give it a try. Just remember that many Civ players don't play on the same difficulty level all the time. It may depend on what they feel in the mood for.

 

[Leathaface]

I have 6 barb horses attacking me at the same time, is this normal?

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

Welcome to Immortal! I wouldn't say that's typical but it definitely happens if you don't track down and kill those scouts early. As the other posters said the main difference is the early game where barbarians pose much more of a threat and you often get rushed by the AI before you are ready for it. I usually build 4 to 5 military units before anything else and then upgrade to archers ASAP. Using the terrain to your advantage can help with early barb attacks. Non-military builds can get you killed pretty fast as I have learned after enough trial and error. The AI will do better on science and culture with the bonuses but once you get enough cities down then it's pretty similar to lower difficulty levels.