Looking for Diety Tips

[BobiB420]

So I can manage diety on duel/tiny maps, marathon, but that's it. I can only win those by early DoW and rush for capitals. I try to emulate what I read in various guides for Diety, but I can't really get it to work out. I'm asking for hints, tips, and tricks, etc., for winning Diety games, of various speeds and sizes.

I'm trying for some Quick Diety games, but that's just total fail, but at least I know it's fail 30-40 turns in Can never seem to tech fast enough...

 

[Moriarte]

Try first with strong civs, standard speed. Arabia, Babylon, Maya, Spain and such. There can be no ultimate strategy for deity, it's all experience - based, imo. The way i do this: i concentrate on science until artillery is in play and then i try to annex as many enemy puppets as possible. I like domination. It is equally nice to start near some other civ, who will provide you with early workers and cities (captured by CB). So both ways work.

Bombers/fighters/AA become critical at some point and if you have oil the game is so much easier. So, it's either education --> dynamite --> scientific theory --> biology --> flight, or, education --> ST --> dynamite, ...

Ideal game (for me) will look like this. Start with 2-3 cities near (say) Moscow. Destroy Russia before turns 70-80. (and annex) Tech to artillery and spam 5-6 knights too. Pop flight and get some air support. Keep warring and annexing. Now from here it depends heavily on your tech position. If they're weak, get land ship upgrades on your cavalrymen and stomp on the enemy completely. If they're strong, go for bombers/machine guns and other late game stuff, like stealth.

It is critical to constantly raise science per turn. You need a lot of cash to annex, buy courthouses, happiness buildings and universities, run specialists. Think of creative ways of fundraising, use every penny, use your workers well, take generous peace deals from time to time, as long as there is option to keep fighting. Plan your happiness to be always up. I had game with 700-800+ bpt reached before turn 200 (standard speed) that way, which usually puts AI a bit behind.

So that's about all i can advise you. Good luck.

 

[BobiB420]

I can't really survive past an AI invasion, usually t60-80 i guess. I spam units, but then fall on science. build infrastructure and lose units, try to balance it and aim for petra, miss every time. I must suck something fierce, yet I can handle the game just fine Emp/Immo, it's baffling how crazy beefy the AI becomes in Diety, like a redneck with a cannon, once he finds that button your toast!

 

[Maxym]

Don't try for any early wonders, especially petra or GL. Figure out a way to take down a closest AI cap with CB, that's key in deity. Usually just 2 scouts on pangea, then monument, granny and archer, archer......... Until you have enough to win one war. Dow earlier if you can to steal worker or two, then again to get cities and cap. After that beeline education and other science techs.

 

[slowcar]

Can you win immortal on a big pangäa with standard speed? If not, try that first.

Lately i also always suggest to watch Light Clerics Lets Play with China, it is awesome, and he gets 3 DoWs before others usually start to think about war.

 

[BobiB420]

In tiny/duel I can manage to take some caps with CB's, but I can't do a thing on quick.

Yes I've done some pangaea immo, i hate pangaea lol. Idk why but quick speed seems impossible, standard/epic/marathon are doable for me.

 

[kirbdog]

Build scout/scout first, if pangaea, find nearest neighbor with warrior and scout, steal the worker at the capital with warrior and steal the worker at the second city with a scout. At some point before founding cities you can accept peace for all your gold.

This will give you 2 workers and cripple this neighbor, so they can end up your first target. You can get a ton of cash from improving luxuries early with 2 workers.

If you see a large army approaching you and aren't ready, either pay them to DOW someone else or pay someone else to DOW them. Often this will buy you time.

You have to be really aware of the runaway situation. You will need to pay for wars between #1 and #2 or #1 and #3 and, even if you are going for a non-conquest victory, you may have to fight #1 / #2 / #3 at some point in order to win before the AI.

You can't expect to out-tech the AI, so you have to be comfortable with same-tech wars or even behind-tech wars. Bee-lining Machinery before Education and/or Dynamite before Public Schools may slow down your research overall but increase the time during which you have a military advantage. Going Biology/Flight before Plastics is almost necessary given how fast the AI gets planes.

The larger the map size, the more wonderful Aesthetics becomes. Hastening culture production can let you take it before Rationalism, and it will give you culture itself as well as faith, food, military, and happiness.

Deity quick is the hardest possible setting. The reason is that your military kills just as fast, but most of the AI cities can plop out one unit per turn. Even the players who beat standard may shudder at quick.

 

[glory7]

Deity quick is the hardest possible setting. The reason is that your military kills just as fast, but most of the AI cities can plop out one unit per turn. Even the players who beat standard may shudder at quick.

This is true if you use the same strategy as you play in standard speed. Yet, for quick speed, you can abuse 1 turn road miracle from pyramid + citizenship. Pyramid is easy to get (more than 80%, I'd say) if you go for it first and finish it by t30-33. With 1 turn road building, domination is actually rather easier.

 

[kirbdog]

This is true if you use the same strategy as you play in standard speed. Yet, for quick speed, you can abuse 1 turn road miracle from pyramid + citizenship. Pyramid is easy to get (more than 80%, I'd say) if you go for it first and finish it by t30-33. With 1 turn road building, domination is actually rather easier.

I hadn't thought about that.

 

[BobiB420]

in my current diety quick attempt I quit bothering to "practice" on duel/tiny maps, and started a small continents standard size. got lucky with my own private continent. Im surprised ive lived so long in the game (100 turns) without having been DoW'd, actually made some AI friends through a massive supply of whales. Got 3 cites with large production/food, lib/universities built, NC in cap, pathetic military, but i guess enough to dissuade DoW's for this long. Playing as Korea, and actually catching up in techs now. Hopefully I can squeeze out a science victory, but idk. guess it depends on when my AI "friends" finish beating on their neighbors. Pushing out 150+ beakers with about 20 pop, idk if I can manage the SV but I sure am trying!

Just cant seem to pull off domination, much less take a city. Quick is the hardest speed lol, never thought it would make it too much harder.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Why do you insist on playing quick domination on deity? Play peaceful on quick or domination on standard and your life will be so much easier. Of course, if you want extra challenge that's fine, but at first you should master less brutal settings.

 

[Traejun]

For Diety, it's best to go with Epic pace. If you can survive long enough, you can actually catch up on the tech race by the end of the Medieval era.

Otherwise, if you've got a nearby neighbor, almost doesn't matter who, you're going to get DoW'd within the first 50 turns. So, here are some tips.

1. Sell out on archers, and upgrade them to CB's as quickly as possible.
2. Don't even think about ancient/classical wonders. Even if you get them, the lost units will spell your doom.
3. Don't wait for invading forces to get right up to your city - engage them further out, if possible.
4. Don't bother with grainaries unless you working food resources - without the bonus food from wheat, deer, etc... it not worth the hammers.
5. If you're opening Tradition, get Oligarchy pretty early. The additional ranged strength of your cities can/will save you vs. early invasions.

...and, for an odd tip I sometimes use:

6. Building a worker early can cripple your military (16-26 turns), steal one from a nearby CS then sue for peace ASAP. The diplomatic hit can cause an early war, but rarely triggers one immediately.

Good luck. And keep this in mind, RNG is a major factor in Diety games. Who you're up against, where they are and what you luck into (huts) can make or break you.

 

[Light Cleric]

Faster speeds favor the AI and slower speeds favor the player, so yes, Quick is making it hard on yourself

The main thing for surviving the early DoWs is to have a bunch of archers and don't overexpand/settle in indefensible locations. Hills are your best friend; in early game on Deity a flatland non-capital city has a very high chance of getting captured even with Walls.

 

[Kazdum]

What about the army formation? I am having trouble in deity standard speed myself, but my problem is not actually surviving the first DoW, I usually have enough units, I can build 6-7 CBs and even invade the first target.

The problem is, I can't really catch on their game later on, when I do prepare and feel comfortable with my units formation and techs to invade a 2nd enemy, they just roll over with thousands of units, so my question is:

In Renaissance/modern era, what is usually the army size I should aim for? Should I really look forward to spam 20+ units? Because I can't see how can I approach their cities with less units than that, my units get 1 shoted as they approach the targeted city and even if I manage to conquer that city, then comes the AI with loads of units and retake it.

 

[Fragamemnon]

If you are going to rollout a land war in the industrial era onward, you will need artillery or bombers on Deity. You can't let that city and its defenders just pummel you, and you want to set up a death trap where the enemy units will just die to your units over and over with almost no casualties.

 

[Light Cleric]

What about the army formation? I am having trouble in deity standard speed myself, but my problem is not actually surviving the first DoW, I usually have enough units, I can build 6-7 CBs and even invade the first target.

The problem is, I can't really catch on their game later on, when I do prepare and feel comfortable with my units formation and techs to invade a 2nd enemy, they just roll over with thousands of units, so my question is:

In Renaissance/modern era, what is usually the army size I should aim for? Should I really look forward to spam 20+ units? Because I can't see how can I approach their cities with less units than that, my units get 1 shoted as they approach the targeted city and even if I manage to conquer that city, then comes the AI with loads of units and retake it.

The main thing to pay attention to when taking a city is whether or not there is a melee unit that can take it the next turn. They can(and will) unload 5000 Cannon shots onto a city but if they can't take it with a melee unit then it's meaningless. The best advice I can give is try to set up a flank where you can kill off the units from one side while you take the city out.

Also when you take a city that you think may be re-taken, try to do it with a mounted unit because it can take the city and escape without getting killed on the re-capture. Failing that, an "expendable" unit works. Also, Cover I/Cover II are very useful for letting your units survive the city assaults.

This is an old screenshot but it's pretty reflective of my usual mid-game army composition/size

Spoiler :

 

[BobiB420]

Some great advice here! Pilgrim, I don't insist on domination, I try to go as peaceful as possible for as long as I can, just kinda hard to avoid war when the AI spams so many cities and units

 

[Maxym]

Lol that is a beauty LC, nice empire, big army and yet Cathy still well ahead of you. Did you manage to pull it off?

Do you upgrade ur XB as soon as you can, I tend to put it off until I see planes except for few XB I groom for that early with double cover, I find that Gatlings don't have the staying power after the nerf.

 

[rrhal]

So at what point do you build libraries / National College? I think I build these things too early on Deity and get squeezed for units as a consequence.

 

[Traejun]

So at what point do you build libraries / National College? I think I build these things too early on Deity and get squeezed for units as a consequence.

Like all things, it depends on the situation in any particular game. If I'm in a secure possition (i.e. solo on a land mass, no nearby threats, etc...) then I usually sprint to writing. In those cases, I may even try to get GL regardless of difficulty level. I've surprisingly beating the AI to GL on numerous Diety games. This is especially the case if I've already improved stone/marble (with a stolen CS worker) or I goody hut into pottery or writing.