Need advice from a civ3 pro.

[Spidoinkel]

Ive mastered several monarch games and decided to make the leap to deity. Im playing the imperialism map in PTW and im celts on the bottom island. My neighbours are the indians and they are particularly aggressive. Ive set up 6 cities and was hoping to hold the southern part of the island however i found an indian city in my territory and decided to eliminate it. 10 turns later all my cities are in disorder, my troops cant claim the city, my science ratio has dropped to accomodate luxuries and im now so far behind in tech when i met the greeks they had about 15 techs i needed. Im completely scuppered and would appreciated tactics for deity.

 

[Yndy]

If you got 6 cities on deity you're pretty good at langrabbing.
I can advise you about war.
1. You need larger armies. You need 20 units to start a war in the ancient to middle ages. It's hard to wait until you build that but you have to. You have to focus your assaults. You need to attack with those 20 units inthe same turn.
2. Try to set your objectives than make peace asap. You will have a 20 turns period to regroup and start your next assault.

About tech. You'll be behind almost all the time. You have to buy tech from the AI and exchange if you get the chance. It would be ideal to be the last in research if the AIs would be close to each other. Unfortunately some will fall behind. You will have to position yourself in the bottom of the top plutoon and take advantage of two for one deals (you buy one tech and then exchange it for another thus getting 2 techs by paying one).

This are just a few things. You'll have to look for the others or ask specific questions

 

[Physicist]

Spidoinkel,

I have not yet beaten Deity, but am quite familiar with Emperor (and will try Deity soon...)

Two suggestions:

* If you decide to attack, choose a goal, then strike fast and strike hard (as Yndy said). On Emperor/Deity, only one citicen is born content, and you can usually grab less land and thus less luxuries than on Regent/Monarch, so war weariness is a greater problem. However, short wars are possible in are presentative governments (which you seem to be in). Keep in mind that an unsuccessful war (i.e. your civ loosing units etc.) results in a faster growth of WW.

* You might want to give Emperor difficulty a try. It is a smaller step from Monarch, but you will probably seea difference. My skill has improved significantly on Emperor. It might also be helpful to have a look at the succession games forum; I have learned *a lot* there. Check Sirian's RBE-series (RBE1 was a Deity training game), or the web pages of people like Sirian or Sullla. I had lot of fun reading them.

Physicist

 

[Sullla]

Epic17 just finished yesterday and there are a number of excellent reports detailing how players defeated a number of Deity AIs in a less-than perfect starting position.

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/189557

 

[Physicist]

Hey, exactly the guy I was referring to, with the link to the web page I was referring to .

Sullla: Slightly off topic, but: Thank you for the effort you put into your web page. You are not only a highly skilled Civ player, but also a great writer and teacher. As a said in my last post, I did not only learn a lot, but did also enjoy reading your reports (it never was like that in school ). And I have read all of your reports ...

If I should ever qualify for a DSG, it is due to the effort of guys like you, Sirian, Zachriel etc (just to name a few).

Physicist

 

[Spidoinkel]

well i get all my units just outside the border of the enemy city i want, then i move in with archers (this is only 3000bc and start to attack, their spearmen kill almost all my units despite the city has no wall, by the time i get more units there they have swordsmen and start to mow me down leaving me to beg for mercy before they take my border cities.... sigh

 

[Physicist]

On Deity, the AIs start with a large amount of free units: two settlers, three workers, four offensive units and eight (!) defenders civ per. Thus, every AI city is well protected from the beginning and a early war is hard to win. I did not calculate it, but for an attack with archers you will probably need something like eight of them (just a guess) to take one city. And prepare to loose a large amount of them in the battle. Archer vs fortified spear in town is hard. Perhaps you should consider a more peaceful approach?

If you want to go to war early on the high difficulty levels, I would suggest to grap as much land as possible with your own settlers (probably supported by a granary in your capitol). Set research to zero after you have made contact with the AIs and trade for techs. Connect the resources and attack with veteran Horses or Swords. You might even want to wait for knights. For me personally, "early war" (on Emperor !) means Swords or Horses (or *many* archers). When my land grapping phase is over, archers are usually outdated. But again, I am no Deity expert, others will know better strategies.

One more idea: I don't want to get on your nerves with succession games, but you could have a look at REB5. They have just started with the Vikings on a tiny island, so an early war is inevitable. Watch those Deity experts and you will learn a lot.

Hope that helps.

Physicist