staying on top in Deity large map

[the argus]

I'm trying to win a large map (long game) game against AI on Deity. Basically my problem is that while I reign Supreme early on, things start to disintegrate as I pass 1850. This is usually because the whole world turns against me and I have to shift from growth/peace to war. I can usually hold my own well into the 20th century but its a terrible struggle and I usually give up out of frustration. I probably could win in the long run or build the spaceship but I should be able to win as easily as I do on a regular size map.

Inevitably one AI civ at peace with everyone except me outgrows and overtakes me while I'm fighting to defend my borders or make conquests.

My strategy on large map Diety vs. AI is below. One of the best tips in this forum I've picked up so far is to build many more spies and if I can't use them to buy cities (if AI is in Democracy) then destroy th AI cities' happiness infrastructure so that AI shifts to another form of governement. Then buy the cities. This of course assumes I'm rich. And I'm not always.

Any other tips?

My strategy on large map Diety vs. AI:
I usually push hard for growth at the beginning, passing from Monarchy, briefly through Republic, to Democracy.
Pyramids and an early happiness wonder are a must (Gardens or Oracle). Afterwards, Mike's is the top priority because on Deity Rep/Dem govt's are impossible to manage otherwise. Leo's/Sun Tzu's are pretty easy to build if I plan ahead. And I try to pick up others like Great Library/Marco along the way. Later on I usually build Darwin's (not sure where I stand on if its worth it) and consider it depressing if I can't get Women's Suffrage. SoL is helpful if I need to go to Fundy during wars (so my senate will keep its nose out of things) but I hate going to Fundy because the science loss is so huge.

I really try to micromanage city development, building roads, irrigating only where necessary but I'm never at a loss for settlers and push hard for Engineers. Railroads connecting all cities are an absolute must. I don't build much military unless there's a war. One defending unit and one catapult/cannon in each city is the norm. I try to make sure I have enough strong coastal cities and build as many ironclads as I can right away. They get upgraded with Leo's and you can never have too many.

One of my biggest problems is finding time to explore and build more new cities on new continents once ive established myself and started fighting wars. Butit seems continuing to grow is crucial in a large map game. But often the empty continents are far away or hard to find. Moderatley strong AI civs seem to be right on my borders very quickly. So I always turn to conquest and never look back.

I try to form alliances but they never never never hold. They never come in handy later. One thing I need to do more is trade with allies/neighbors. I never seem to make time to build caravan/freight for anything other than building wonders.

Priorities. So hard to manage.
Please help me win this game once at for all (and with ease) so I can get on with my life.

 

[ElephantU]

I gather you are using MGE rather than Classic. So better diplomacy is out the window.

The second factor would be Trade. If you cannot get ship chains through AI areas, put in Airports and airlift to nearby cities. Keep transports ready for the last leg. Read up on Twin Cities and "critical road paths" and see if you can get some decent trade routes going. Routes between your own cities are half those with AI cities, but critical RR path and SuperHighways can do pretty well.

You already know about Spies and sabotaging happiness improvements. The "hammer" side of your offensive forces needs to be vet Stealth Fighters, Howitzers and MechInf. Accompany them with precharged Engineers for instant RR and forts, and Spies to investigate cities, sabotage, help bypass ZOC and bribe. Your goal is to take down an entire "continent" in a single turn. All it takes is planning, but getting it right is like playing a symphony.

Another trick worth exploiting is the combination of a Battleship and a couple AEGIS Cruisers. The BB acts as cruise missile bait while the AEGIS swats them down like flies. Helps to clear out the missile piles the AI builds so your attack transports can hit the beach.

On the assault, first thing to drop is an Engineer, have him build a city, then move the transport in and wake up a couple more precharged Eng to connect your beachhead city to the continental RR system. Then wake the spies to investigate and finally the attack forces to kill. Bring in a Carrier with Fighters and they fly out of the city like they started there.

 

[geofelt]

I assume you want to win by conquest, not spaceship. It helps to be able to grow early on, instead of fighting defensive wars. The ai in MGE is more agressive than the 2.42 ai. In both cases, 1750 is the date when they really turn against you. Since you can't grow and build every wonder, you need to be selective.
I would pick hanging gardens, great wall, andmarco polo as my early choices. Great wall gives you all the defense you need with only one phalanx. The AI and barbarians will leave you alone . Hanging gardens lets you start more cities early, gives you more science where it's built, and lets you celebrate without a courthouse later. On a large map, you need marco polo to know what the ai is doing, and to be able to contact distant civs to trade techs.
In the middle game, I like SOL. I switch to democracy to celebrate and grow, negating the need for pyramids. I then switch to fundy to build infrastructure and accumulate cash. If I need to build and discover techs, then it's communism.
Late in the game, I will switch to communism for several turns and build as many vet spies as possible. They can bribe cities for less, and they usually survive.
It pays to try to nibble away at near by civs by bribing them early. Have a dip in range, and wait until a city is in unrest, then it becomes cheap to buy the city even at twice the cost.
Learn to demand tribute. If you are supreme, you can demand tribute of civs on the same continent, raising a surprising amount of gold. Use this gold to bribe a city if they declare war. The civ can be anything but hostile to succeed.
Don't build women's suffrage; If you are at war, you should be in communism or fundy. If in democracy, your luxuries will be very high to insure growth.

 

[A+ombomb]

The best way to put yourself ahead of the game in diety is to abuse trading as early as possible. The more you abuse trading to hyper-tech, the further ahead you will be in techs when you hit the space race time. Trading several highly demanded commodities can easily allow you to gain a tech every turn, with only 10% or 20% science! Once you hit advances like mobile warfare, the ai will have no chance to compete with their primitive technologies, so you can easily war it out with all nations (1 armor > 3249023484390 elephants, if you play it right tactically).

 

[Old n Slow]

The Argus -- (first of all, welcome to Cfc!)

A few questions to think about:

1) Defensible borders -- if you’re playing deity, this should be no question. I prefer not having anybody on my rock, but may have to settle for pushing them back to an isthmus or other chock point. (The ai doesn’t invade well -- maybe a boat at a time and maybe then only half full.)

2) Number of cities. You claim that you’re feeling pressure in the mid to late game eras -- sounds like you’ve slowed/stopped your extensive growth, possibly in favor of intensive growth -- a cause for concern. Once you have five - six cities, I can’t think of a reason not to stay at supreme level of power. Stopping at 15 or 20 is fine, but you might feel pressure -- why not stop at 50-60?

3) Technology -- I like having the tech edge -- so much so that I tend not to gift too much o the ai. I prefer my wars to be conducted not only with numerical superiority, but also a level or two of quality -- thus trade (the gains include beakers of research in addition to coins of the realm.)

Tech path -- see other threads -- more there than here.

Wonders -- Of the ancients, I prefer HG and Colossus; the rest of the ancients are nice, but of lower priority. Marco’s comes early enough to be considered on of the ancients and should be built as soon as practicable. Reasonable play should get all of the rest, some are more valuable than others (Mikes) but some are more urgent than others -- so much so that some might be delayed. In fact even with reasonable play there may be a choice or two and a wonder may have to be sacrificed to the ai.

White goods -- most players build too many of these, too soon, and probably use too many shields instead of rush buying these with all the coins from the delivered camels and trucks. Once you have trade generating coins and beakers for a tech per turn (yup have half of your empire making goods for trade/wonders, a quarter making settlers for growth and the rest units/white goods as appropriate), you’ll start to see the changed priority mix. Trade is good for science and the money and science makes for very efficient wars -- great lessons learned by winners.

 

[Stegyre]

Originally posted by Old n Slow
White goods

Okay, that's a new term for me. White goods?

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by Stegyre

Okay, that's a new term for me. White goods?

New to me too, but from reading OnS's post, I suspect he means improvements?

 

[la fayette]

Originally posted by funxus

New to me too, but from reading OnS's post, I suspect he means improvements?

You guessed right, funxus: white goods = improvements.

(IIRC the name was given by SG(2), my highly regretted friend, who was one of the very best civ2 players until last summer when he left us suddenly, may he rest in peace)

 

[ElephantU]

When you look at your F1 screen, building units appear in yellow, Wonders in blue, and city improvements in white.

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by la fayette
(IIRC the name was given by SG(2), my highly regretted friend, who was one of the very best civ2 players until last summer when he left us suddenly, may he rest in peace)

I remember him (and his family) from my brief period at Apolyton, and he was good.

Originally posted by ElephantU
When you look at your F1 screen, building units appear in yellow, Wonders in blue, and city improvements in white.

Thanks for the explanation. Do people talk about Yellow and Blue goods as well, or is it limited to white?