Originally posted by jaap_jan
I have played game on monarch level from the beginning of the game, but I'm looking for a new challenge. So I tried to play on deity level, and I noticed that I just not seem to be able to:
The first thing I'd say would be to go from Monarch to Emperor rather than straight to Deity. But I assume this is just a typo on your part, and you really can beat Emperor without difficulty.
a) Kill another civ early in the game, because they produce units twice as fast and also have twice as much cities as I have.
I can win on Deity, but I still can't do this. On Emperor I can knock someone out with Swordsmen (frequently upgraded from Warriors) after I get 4-6 cities, but not Deity.
b) Have a good early game, my cities are corrupt as hell, and (I hope i'm wrong) the pop-rushing mode only gives 10 shield (at least not 20).
This must be a miscalculation. Count more carefully. Remember that if you've put 0 shields into a building, rushing costs double so (for example) you'd have to kill 2 people to rush a Barracks as a Militaristic civ from scratch.
As for the corruption thing... I'm not so sure. How far away are you settling cities? You only really need 12 workable tiles per city, not 21, for most of the game. If you're really desparate, try looking up some info on ring city placement ("RCP") on the strategy boards.
Because of this I'm not able to build temples in my boarder cities because I have one shield and it takes about 35 turns to grow my city and than pop-rush a temple (by that time my city has culture flipped).
Temples are a luxury if you're not Religious, and even then you should have a compellingly good reason to be building them. Barracks and Granary are your basic Ancient Age infrastructure on Deity. Also be careful that you're not performing "aggressive settling." Building cities that share any workable tiles with an AI will sour relations and increase the chance of war. I know the land grab is really tough on Deity, but you have to show restraint or your cities will be conquered, with or without blood.
Is there anyone who could give me some early empire managing tips? The military academy has inproved my monarch game, butfor deity the given tips seem a bit worthess to me)
I've come to the conclusion that there's just no such thing. I've read the War Academy too, but the only thing that really gave me a clue was to read several Deity SGs. I think success on Deity is an aggregate of many subtle tricks and tactics more than any particular grand strategy. You need to know how to respond to a rapidly changing situation, and the only way to do that correctly is practice. Try busting out a new Emperor game with barbarian activity set to max to stress your early game skills.
If you look at the "Training Day Deity SGs" on here, you'll see that the Americans seem to be the most heavily favored civ. It's because being Expansionist will give you a boost during the most frustrating part of the game and being Industrious is the strongest trait you can have for the long haul (figuring out how to trigger a Golden Age is apparently
your problem). That's probably a worthwhile piece of advice in and of itself. The Egyptians suit my play style better, though, and that's what took me to my first Deity win -- so it's still probably better to go with a civ you're comfortable with rather than blindly trusting the Gringos (never a wise proposition
).
Here's an excellent TDSG that was actually played to its conclusion:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49270
And I'll finally wish you "Good luck."
Disclaimer: You may find your first Deity game easier if you make your own good luck, and just reset the game till you start with a food bonus of some sort. 
