[GS] Struggling in deity Tomyris game

[eatsleepciv6]

Hey all, I'm new to this board. I hope this is the right sub-forum to ask this question.

I'm stuck and keep getting stuck in a deity game as Tomyris. The start location is pretty good - as you can see lots of luxury resources, with a Temple of Artemis begging to be built.

The AI near me (Cree) isn't a particularly good martial race but somehow I get either bad heroes or my troops arrive too late and he has walls/crossbows.

I've tried replaying four times from Turn 1 and give up by turns 40-70. The outcome is always the same. I get boxed in with hostile neighbors and 2-3 cities max. Sometimes Russia attacks me as well.

I settle around Turn 3 to get a good site. My build order is usually:
1. Slinger
2. Worker -> 3 improvements
3. Settler
4. Slinger x5, upgrade to archers
5. Temple of Artemis

In my other playthroughs I've tried ditching the settler, going for a monument + discover a hero and variations thereof. I always try to push north and attack Cree/Poundmaker first. If my troops are low in count or out of place, he will attack my capital.

Any advice would be appreciated Of course I am going for a domination victory.

 

[pkaem]

Hey! I'll try your save later tonight. There are 100 times better players than me around here, so thumbs down for one of them to reapond Forget about the Artemis. Beeline horseback. Open like Solinger 2-3x into settler, Monument. Buy or Pantheon a worker. Consider settling gems just to sell off. Improve horsies asap. Try to get a barb Camp for Inspiration on manoeuver. Start attack asap. You can see them building Walls, Explorer enemy territory and chose your target according to Walls. After horseback into masonary and get a ram anyway. You can try to get a City with ram/warrior flanked by your cav. Start assault with archers and more archers, fowed by horse. Don't bother with Infrastruktur. Happy horsie slappie. I'll give you an answer how it worked for me.

 

[eatsleepciv6]

Hey, thanks for trying to help

I restarted for a fifth time, and won

I just captured one Cree city north of my capital. Had the same build order in my first post, with 6 archers and Temple of Artemis.

The key was to:
1. Go for peace with Cree after capturing his city, then capture the other two city states west of the capital
2. Hold the line against Cree and Russia by building strategic encampments
3. Expand south-east, including conquering city states there
4. Beeline for advanced flight

I was only able to clear my continent with bombers. Otherwise Cree and Russia had too much of a tech advantage. Unfortunately in this game I wasn't able to get Ruhr Valley in my capital, but 29 pop, 291 hammers is alright at the ending (turn 303).

Russia was well ahead technologically by the time I got bombers - they already had spaceports and were leading the science victory.

I think it would have been possible to finish sooner if I was more aggressive and rushed for nukes.

 

[pkaem]

I tried it. It"s kinda tough since you only have the horse option. I didn't expand because there was no reason to, I beelined horsemen and started the assault with archers and an additional warrior. I just payed off russia 1 Dipl favour to join me. Also I armanied the militaristic City state next to the cree. With several level 2-3 archers I shot down their walls and killed the occaaional random catapults and scouts with my horsemen. I mowed slowly twoards their cap. It is absolutey winnable but kind of a pain with sythia and these lands. I stopped with their cap. I'd probbably cop an encampment or two and campuses and see if I'd get nitre, otherwise proceed twoards oil or aluminium. But really a thougher start. I also dislike the horse rush nowadays, because of the randomness of the AI having walls up anywhere between turn 35 and never. Would require some testing but I am unser the impression that sending an envoy and behaving passive reduces their willingness to build them. In this case there is not much you can do since russia is damn close and aggressive

 

[eatsleepciv6]

Thanks for trying pkaem

Agree it is a tough start strategically, but it was a good start in terms of resources.

Russia indeed was aggressive - I was struggling to hold my ground against Cossack armies with level 6-7 crossbowmen. Fortunately I had enough money saved so once I got advanced flight, I started rush buying bombers, and the tables turned immediately