[BTS] My Very First Deity Shadow Game Ever! It's finally time...(Re-Roll Edition)

[CGQ]

The time has come. Years of training have all but led up to this moment. Many games have been won, many games lost, and many games I just quit halfway through cuz I don't got no damn time. But now...at long last, I will finally take on the hardest difficulty CIV IV has to offer! Deity!!

Oh how the time flies. It felt like yesterday I was just a noble gamer who would use workers as scouts, try to conquer cities with scouts, suicide warriors into hill city archers, and try to found Hindu and Poly at the same time while feeding tasty settlers to bears. Many harsh lessons were learned.

I am finally ready. With a lifetime of training behind me, I take this forum and walk into the unknown to become one among the ranks of the legends, the elites, and eventually, the true masters!

But first I'll need your help.

So without further ado, the next shadow game!
(The boy you don't know what you're getting yourself into Edition)

Spoiler The Start :

Rolled a random start with a random leader as usual...

Frederick! Not a bad leader! I LOVE Philosophical though I'm not a huge fan of Organized.

Settings (Climate and Sea Level chosen at random)

Here's the start!

Wow game great start for a first-time Deity guy...look at all those food resources!! Guess we'll be eating grass the rest of this game...

Or are we?

Surely those floodplains might give us something.. This could be a cottage capital if we SIP. Could perhaps that PH 2N of settler be a good spot?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'm not a huge fan of Organized

It's a great trait, especially on the higher levels! -50% civic upkeep and cheap courthouses what's not to love!

Horrible start for a Deity game though!!

 

[soundjata]

There are "probably" 3 resource tiles in the BFC of settling in place.
One of them is Spices --- irrelevant
One of them must be food : either West or East.
The 3rd one has a good chance of not being food. (because 3 floodplains + a food resource is considered good enough food for the resource normaliser)

Move scout West. If food is there, settle 2N for a better short term capitol, otherwise SIP I think.

Agreed with @Noble Zarkon , you are challenging yourself quite à lot with this (poor) start

 

[sampsa]

I would check the coast, but I think you kinda need to SIP unless that'd kill seafood. 2N is a huge risk, losing two of the eastern potential -tiles.

Without any in the east it's a tough start and ORG doesn't make it any easier.

 

[CGQ]

There are "probably" 3 resource tiles in the BFC of settling in place.
One of them is Spices --- irrelevant
One of them must be food : either West or East.
The 3rd one has a good chance of not being food. (because 3 floodplains + a food resource is considered good enough food for the resource normaliser)

Move scout West. If food is there, settle 2N for a better short term capitol, otherwise SIP I think.

Agreed with @Noble Zarkon , you are challenging yourself quite à lot with this (poor) start

Spoiler Moved Scout :

Well this makes for an even more interesting start...

 

[Fippy]

That works fine for a city on rice later, but a blue circle capital isn't really tempting (no fishing, only 2 forests).
Looks like SIP and fingers crossed it's not plains cow or dry rice..

 

[sampsa]

Yeh I'd SIP.

 

[CGQ]

Yeh I'd SIP.

Spoiler Played to Turn :

SIP it is then:

We got cows!! Well that's something I guess.
Going to tech AH.

Found Rice! Damn that PH probably could've been a better place.

Met Incas here:

Just got AH. Not sure what to tech next.

 

[CGQ]

I'm not sure if farming or BW.

Spoiler What do I do? :

Also forgot to mention...there are horses nearby. Maybe HA rush in this map? Not sure if HA rush works on Deity though.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Farming is very good for a next tech.
The flood plains have the food and you will need after Cows get pastured.

With high sea levels, the race for land will be stronger and barbs tend to be less of a problem.

I see Hyuana Capac is probably somewhere nearby?
He has a religion (+5 per turn) in his 2nd city.

 

[Nick723]

Tricky start!

I think next tech depends on view for the 2nd city. There are many techs to get and agriculture has minor benefit right now (in fact I think I’d favour mining over farming at the moment…those flood plains will be cottages soon anyway).

There’s not a lot of stellar 2nd city spots. Is there any seafood to the north? Else as much as ocean fish 2nd city is diabolical, it looks like on the rice may be the best bet. In which case you need mysticism, fishing and bronze working to get that city up and running. I don’t see you having time to squeeze in agriculture, particularly as there may also be a need for archery.

Bronze working next seems a more safe bet to me, but interested to hear others views as this is a tough start.

 

[soundjata]

Tricky start indeed. We definitely want pottery soon to start cottaging (very poor commerce start)

It's a toss between 2 approaches I think.

1. Beeline Pottery (through Agriculture). Farm floodplains and grow to 3~4 before settler (horse city on river)
2. Bronze working (mines and chop). Horse settler at size 2? > Myst > Fishing > Pottery (fish city on rice)

The latter looks better production wise but research will be crawling.
Maybe we could afford a few turns of failgold on Stonehenge (after 1 warrior + 1 settler)?

 

[Qactus]

I'd go Agri-Wheel-(Fishing)-Pottery next, because I don't think BW after AH is a detour you can afford commercewise.
City 1W of horse (autoconnects with capital) to quickly get chariots online with the Wheel: You don't know yet how much of a barb threat the southern jungle might pose (despite high sealevel) and fogbusting warriors won't be produced quickly enough if you focus on working the FPs.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I'm not sure if farming or BW.

Spoiler What do I do? :

Also forgot to mention...there are horses nearby. Maybe HA rush in this map? Not sure if HA rush works on Deity though.

Spoiler :

The HA rush itself works on deity. Dealing with a crashed economy and a bunch of useless techs afterwards is what makes it... never my first choice. Road carefully. Crossing a river removes all movement points.

Agriculture, the wheel, pottery, bronze working, HBR, hunting, archery. Pre-build stables. I would not pre-build chariots because the unit maintenance from chariots will stop you from reaching HBR.

 

[sampsa]

Crossing a river removes all movement points.

No it doesn't! Crossing a river costs 1 movement point, roaded or not, pre-construction.

 

[Fippy]

I would prolly reroll cos i don't think playing a way below average map / start does you any good for a first deity game.

 

[CGQ]

I would prolly reroll cos i don't think playing a way below average map / start does you any good for a first deity game.

I decided to reroll, but I will definitely get back to this first map later on since it's my first game.

Spoiler New Game New Start 4000 B.C. :

This time I got Gigi:

Creative is one of my favorite traits! Pity that we get protective though, not gonna help us much here.

Settings:

The start:

Wow great start!! With fishing and financial we'll definitely rule the WORLD!
Except...we don't.

This start is the equivalent of being given a 2022 Convertible V8 Corvette without the gas pedal, wheels, or the engine.


There 2 ways I'm thinking of approaching this one:

1. Move my warrior 1W and depending on what's found maybe Settle 2W of warrior on PH? I can tech AH>Mining>BW, chop out 1st settler, tech Pottery>Fishing then Writing while whipping more. We can cottage those FP's in the meantime and chop/whip WB's. Those fish will give us enough food for 3 cities (1N of Settler, 1E Warrior, 2W warrior).

2. OR I could settle 1N of warrior to grab the fish in the cap, then build worker (for sheep) while teching AH>Fishing then build WB's while teching Mining>BW. Problem is that will leave the poor worker nothing to do so maybe AH>Pottery, then fishing so worker can at least cottage FP's in the time being? Another issue is this might leave me defenseless against Deity barbs so I might have to tech Archery somewhere along the way, maybe after Pottery?

SIP would kill the fish (unless there's an island east of fish) and that's a very valuable food source here so unless someone here can convince me, afaik, it is not an option.

Keep in mind we have creative so we can take advantage of these fish much sooner than later.

I'm leaning more on option 1, since all that fish won't matter early on anyways since we do have both a happy and health cap from the FP's.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

I opened the save to check for fresh water and...
... there is fresh water 1W of the sheep.

I agree with your assessment in 2). Killing the fish is a big deal. Improving the fish runs the risk to leave you cold to barbarians.
I noticed your settings were cold climate and low sea. Cold climate will reduce the overall amount of food on the map. Low sea will make it harder to resist the initial barb pressure.

SE nets you 3 unhealth from floodplains. I would consider the plains hills but it is likely a poorer spot.
In the case of SE, you don't have to research AH into Fishing. Fishing could be posponed until after Bronze Working is researched. Only 4 forests to chop, though, which bring 2 health by themselves.
Tricky.
1W of the sheep goes along the same tech path ? AH -> BW ? Maybe this is the tie-breaker and the plains hills should be favoured ?

AH>Pottery, then fishing

Anytime you think about skipping a discount tech... It's really important to ask whether you're going to need it in the near future. Heck, maybe it's AH that should be skipped (I don't think so - I'd rather skip Fishing). In any case, Fishing before Pottery seems reasonable.

How do you get your production is an important question at this stage. How much can your capital conceivably produce ?
SE gives you Fish + Sheep + city tile (3+3+3) + 1/extra pop point. Conceivably 10H/t towards settlers workers. 4 forests.
1W of the sheep gives you Sheep + city tile (3+4) +1/extra pop point. That is minus 1H/t towards settlers workers. 5 forests in sight ? Easier to set up the worker and hammers for early defence (no boat).
Tricky. Preserving at least 2 forests could be a stake and whipping be preferred :/ (whipping vs chopping also helps with warrior production.)
This area screams shared tiles, by the way, to ensure cottages are grown efficiently.

I think SE is tempting but, if we skip Fishing, that's yet another minus 1H/t towards settlers/workers. If we commit to Fishing, then survivability becomes a real question.
(I do love those low sea settings, but there's a reason I pick strong hammer starts.)
So, yeah... I wouldn't be thrilled about it but I'd give some serious thought to settling 1W of the sheep.

Fippy will know what to do.

 

[Fippy]

Yup i actually do..creating a new map (exit this one and go settings).
Low sea level can be really difficult even for very experienced deity players.
Then you also have arid which creates those messy desert areas.

Sorry but i just see no point in starting with "deity plus".
You have to respect settings on this level.
If your first map was low sea too you can bin it as well without worries.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Yup i actually do

I had a feeling you would.
First map was random climate & sea level as well. Ended up tropical low sea.

This is what deity low sea low prod feels like :

Spoiler :

Actually the best settings for speedrunning.