Strategy on immortal level

[MrX040519]

I play Civ V now for four years, however I always played on levels warlord, prince, and king. Now I decided to start a new game on emperor level with Hiawatha on huge, fractal map, 19 civs and 28 city-states.
What are your advices, what should I do?

 

[mbbcam]

There are various guides on these forums that you can consult. It might be a good idea to play the same game several times using different approaches to find out what suits your playstyle. You could try these strategies:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/liberty-wide-game-guide-ackens-version.559009/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tradition-three-cities-approaches-bnw.25617/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/liberty-domination-walkthrough.503931/
Domination on Immortal/Deity - a noob's guide
The "Getting Tributes from Deity AI" Strategy PART 1

 

[zxcvbob]

My advice is try it at Emperor first. Also, play at epic or marathon pace. Quick pace favors the AIs. And on a huge map, even standard pace can be too fast.

You know Hiawatha is kind of weak for a human player, right? He usually does very well as an AI, benefiting from their bonuses more than most.

 

[Tiberiu]

Hello. I recommend you a few things except what the previous fellows said. If you are used to building wonders, be 10 times more careful now. Wonders go very fast, but I don't want to scare you. You can always build Temple of Artemis and Oracle if you beeline, for example. Just don't go for Great library or do it before t28.

If u want to abuse the AI very hard, build lots of army (melee counts more towards soldiers value) and when you are First in soldiers, declare war on everybody and they will give you one or more cities or all their resources . I believe in you, you will surely win, don't worry. In a few games you will go for Deity, i'm sure. Immortal is not really that harder than Emperor, the only major thing is on Emperor you should still be able to buildGreat library. Other than that, I urge you! Don't fear the AI. AI sucks at combat. Good luck!

 

[ForkOfSpite]

In transitioning to higher difficulty levels, a big adjustment might be to use the AIs more and more to steal workers, sell resources, and trade routes. At lower levels, the AIs are unable to get their economies going early, but at higher levels, it's pretty easy to use the AIs for your gold, happiness, and science.

 

[raider980]

Immortal is what I normally play. In addition to what others have said, I think one of the main differences is that you need to be more active and pay more attention. For example, manually assigning citizens in a city sometimes (not as much as deity but its good to look occasionally, especially when the city increases a pop). Often, the AI will put them in places that's not ideal, like merchant specialists. Also, go full Tradition until you get used to the higher level, I find it superior in just about every situation. Then branch out to Liberty and other starts.

declare war on everybody

I definitely need more military on Immortal than at lower levels but I don't know about DoWing everybody lol. I might try that for fun!

 

[beetle]

Good for you @MrX040519 bumping up the difficulty level! I find that the game is most enjoyable when there is an even chance that I might not win!

Now I decided to start a new game on immortal level with Hiawatha on huge, fractal map, 19 civs and 28 city-states.
What are your advices, what should I do?

Well, I think you should play more games on normal size map than huge overloaded maps. You will experience more of the game mechanics that way, but also because there are a few significant aspects that do not scale well. Religion is probably the biggest thing, but Trade Routes and Spies are all tuned to the default settings.

 

[MrX040519]

Thanks for the advices, yesterday I started a game on Emperor with Hiawatha on huge, fractal map, 19 civs, 28 city-states, quick speed. Yes, I know that it's much easier to play on smaller maps, and on marathon speed, however I can't stand it, it's too slow for me. I know that Hiawatha is not the best choice, however on King level, there were three civs, what were always strong and dangerous for me: The Iroquois, Siam and Russia. I already tried the two others, so I thought it's time for the third.
So, I was very lucky on the map, I started on the southeastest part of the map on the tundra. Maybe it's not the best for economy, however it's better, because of defence. However my neighbours are not the best, I border Alexander and Augustus on the west, and Napoleon on the north. Alexander and Augustus have already attacked me, but I managed to beat them, I even managed to pillage and raze Knossos at the end, and I puppeted their ally Florence. Now I'm in war with Napoleon, with the alliance on China. I'm second in literacy, science victory is my goal. Now I'm around 130 turns. What do you suggest?

 

[mbbcam]

For a Science victory? Grow your cities as large as you can, and take Rationalism as soon as you can. Population = Science.

On the subject of which Civ to take, those that are strong under the AI are not necessarily the best for the human player. There are various Tier Lists on the forum which will tell you the strengths and weaknesses of them. Among God Tier civs you will usually find Persia and Poland rated very high.

 

[Nizef]

For a SV, the usual suspects like Babylon and Korea are probably the strongest. Besides Poland and Persia, which also are fantastic, I would like to add the Shoshone. Their early game is so strong that it sets you up for a nice ride.