Strategy changes based on difficulty

SoonerJBD

Warlord
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Messages
142
One of the things I've noticed is how wildly my strategy has to change on various difficulty settings, and I'm not just talking about obvious adjustments for the actual difficulty itself or the fact that the AI is faster and better at higher levels. In particular, when I step down to a lower difficulty to test some mechanics or strategies, I actually find that Deity is easier in some ways. Barbarians tend to be the most annoying at middle difficulties because at Deity, the AI is much better at dealing with them, where it falls on you at lower levels. Additionally, the difference in gold is really noticeable. I can't buy things or use my gold to get CS allies as early on lower difficulties because the AI simply doesn't have as much gold to give you for luxuries. This totally messes up my timing for building things like the NC because I can't buy a library at an expo most of the time if I'm having to buy an extra archer to deal with barbarians and I'm not getting the income I'm used to from luxuries.

Obviously, you can overcome mistakes in timing and micromanaging easier on lower difficulties, but it is such an annoyance. I can still test mid and late game mechanics at lower difficulties but how I get there tends to swing wildly.
 
I have not had more problems w/ barbs at lower difficulties, but I have noticed the gold delta. The difference in science is even more apparent. Trade routes leech less, fewer discounts on techs, and less productive spies all game long. It is a little ironic how lower difficulty levels means more turns to victory!
 
Barbarians seem so variable. On some maps, they are all over you from the start, and on others they seem to mostly leave you alone. It may just be perception on my part. I haven't played enough Diety games yet to be able to judge this with high confidence. My perception has been the AI cleans up barbarians better on Diety. It's not as noticeable as the gold and science differences. One of the things I like best about BNW is that they made it more possible to play peacefully and benefit more from trade and diplomacy. It doesn't always work out that way, of course. God help you if you end up sandwiched between two warmongers who want your blood right from the start.

Some of the science and gold differences are heavily mitigated by the ability to get more wonders and basically everything else more easily on lower difficulties. When you play with Poland on King or below, it seems like you can pick a new SP every four turns. It's ridiculous. The strategy tightens significantly on deity, but if you can execute a good strategy, timing your science and wonders feels more predictable. Maybe it's just that I get used to playing under those tighter mechanics. When you can build the Great Library and Oracle and everything else, things just seem to happen so much faster, but I can't keep my gold levels where I am used to them being.
 
I personally find Immortal games to be much faster then Deity. The AI are so pathetic compared to deity I can easily capture a capital when I'm in late classical and just rampage / snowball from there on.

Runaways seem a bit less common too.
 
I read a long time ago from one of the pros that deity is an entirely different game. At first I thought this to be a little elitist, but after a few hundred deity games it seems he/she was right. Technology, which pretty much single-handedly determines the game, has many, many bonuses on deity that aren't available at lower difficulties - the techs are cheaper because someone/multiple people have researched them, you can double up your early game BPT through trade routes (sometimes even more), you get gobs more out of research agreements, and you can steal techs. These four bonuses often constitute 50-75% of a deity player's research, and they are significantly reduced at the king-immortal level games, and basically absent in anything lower level. But these bonuses are not available because the AI is behind where they usually are at deity, so a deity player who plays at a lower level is essentially just changing the game pace from normal to epic.

I like the fact that barbs are solved on deity level by the AI not because it makes it easier but because we already learned how to do that when we played lower levels. It's kind of like fast-forwarding through the boring parts of a movie you've already seen. Plus, it gives your opponents more XP and is one less source of gold, which adds challenge which is what deity is supposed to do.

One thing I don't like about deity is that you can't effectively utilize a lot of the fun UU's in the game because the AI starts too far ahead to do much early game. Greece is a prime example, I used to love Greece when I played King and Emperor because you could kick butt early game and have the interesting CS bonus all game - I liked all of their bonuses. At deity, the stronger UU's are really only helpful in barb hunting (which the AI takes care of most of anyway), maybe bailing you out if an early aggressor DoWs you (but you can avoid that), or if you use a tribute strategy. Otherwise, Greece is just a bland civ with a pretty decent CS bonus, which isn't something that I'm salivating to take advantage of.
 
Top Bottom