stormtrooper412
Peacemongering Turtlesaur
For any of you guys who still find Deity a struggle, I've done some modifications of the infamous Small Piety guide to make it fun. I won't go into much detail if you tried the Small Piety guide, because you know the basics. But, from the top:
1. Pick a civ, any civ will do really, but the ones who favor wide play are preferable: Rome, Celts, Mayans, Netherlands, Persia, pretty much anything you can think of that has some or any sort of per-city bonus.
2. The land is not really all that important, you can have all the Salts you want, but you can also be in the middle of the tundra and it will still feel kind of the same. A couple of things to keep an eye out:
a. If you don't have room for a wide settlement, then you obviously need to make some. Liberty opening will help out there. If you have a peaceful weakling close by, definitely go romp and stomp on them. If not, alright, not a deal-breaker.
b. If you have access to the coast, it should work much better since the key to this strat is $$$ and cargo ships can really bring it. If not, again, not a deal breaker, you will simply have to kick out Caravansaries early and scout the inland map better to see for potential trade partners.
3. The way Liberty works is you're either gearing up for a really quick conquest of your own neighborhood or setting up for a massive snowballing session late in the game. With this in mind, you can settle as much cities as you reasonably can as long as they can reach the luxuries and your happiness can support it, and this won't be an issue once it gets off the ground.
BUILD ORDER AND EARLY GAME
1. Go scout, scout, monument, shrine. In no particular order however, you can hit a pair of religious CSs and have a very good pantheon early on, you can hit culture ruins, you can hit barbs. Either way, don't bother with settlers until the free one is ready. Then get out of your back yard. I suggest settling the outer rim first and then work your way back inside. Be careful not to step on any toes. Early wars are a killer, however:
2. Since neither science nor growth is top priority in the early phase, you should have some archers and spears up and running, to protect your cities, to protect your workers, to skewer the pesky barbs and just generally make yourself feel better.
3. Use the Liberty finisher either way you want:
- Scientist to catch up on science (not really needed, you won't be far behind unless you really want to)
- Engineer to catch an important wonder (Petra, Oracle, maaaaaaaaaaaybe MP). If neither is available (possible, likely, but never definite), use it for your NC. No love lost.
- Admiral to sail yonder and meetsuckers with deep pockets trading partners, as well as plenty of CS drones allies.
MIDGAME
If you're not in a rush to finish Liberty or you have already, this is the part where you break off. Depending on your culture output, you should go full Patronage and full Commerce, all the way, in no particular order as it's quite situational. Rationalism is completely optional, if you can spare some culture for it, do it, but nothing will happen if you don't.
At this point there are basically two things you will want to have: cash money and CS influence. Pick the CS in order of importance: happiness, culture, religion/food/army. Your CSs will make science for you, which might not seem much but it will add up. Your CSs will burn the grinding SPs and set you up nicely. Be on the constant lookout for the CS needs that you can take care off, like adding resources, stocking up science, giving them gold when they need it more.
Build order in all cities: Markets and Banks, trade ships, Universities, Workshops. The obvious focus is gold. Be constantly in debt but always keep a steady income to keep afloat: never drop below 5gpt.
Research stuff that will get more trade routes. Sailing before Civil Service, Engineering before Education, Banking before Acoustics.
IDEOLOGY AND LATE GAME
At this point you will already have around half the CSs under your belt and other half will be friendly at least, a sizable income, and no happiness issues (double digit +). Ideology is not part of this strategy i.e. it doesn't matter which one you pick, so roll a dice or pick whichever will be the dominating one. Pay attention to diplomatic consequences if you choose poorly, ideological pressure, which you shouldn't be worried about if you're in the net + but even if you do get hit, growth is still not the top priority.
ENDGAME
This is where the things get a bit complicated. If your science hasn't been top, you'll have to rely on the AI tech rate. The United Nations will become a thing after half the Civs have reached Atomic era or at least one has reached the Info era.
Like I said, if your science hasn't been that good for whatever reason, you might not reach the Info era quickly enough and you will have to wait for AIs to go Atomic. However you can play a part in that game by timing your own Atomic era to get near the end of the current congress session. Ideally you'll want it to be a turn before the vote. That way, there will be a special session to vote for the next host (you!) and then the next congress won't take place before the UN leader has been chosen. This is the small window of opportunity.
If everything fell into place (spoiler: it always does), your spies turned into diplomats will have little issues convincing your many friends to vote for you. Sometimes they will do it basically for free anyway, sometimes they will ask for an arm and a leg. That's not too bad, you should be swimming in gold anyway. Use all of your excess gold to lock down the CS allies, in a recent game, everyone was over 150 with me, some even went over 200.
Being host = 6 votes
2-4 friends voting for you = 8-16 votes
[optional] World religion = 2 votes
[optional] World ideology = 2 votes
[optional] Globalization = 5 votes
13-15 CS allies = 26-30 votes
Add them all up, and it's a big pool of votes out of which you need to scramble 40, maybe less if someone got taken out.
Some additional comments:
I find this strategy much safer than the Small Piety guide because:
1. A wide empire with a non-negligible army will make even the craziest of AIs think twice before invading.
2. You don't need a religion if there's no good pantheon to be taken, ergo no need to roll the dice on available reformations.
3. You end up with much more gold than going Small Piety
4. You end up with more science keeping you in the game in crunch time.
Right, fire away the comments
Moderator Action: Two posts by same user in rapid succession merged.
1. Pick a civ, any civ will do really, but the ones who favor wide play are preferable: Rome, Celts, Mayans, Netherlands, Persia, pretty much anything you can think of that has some or any sort of per-city bonus.
2. The land is not really all that important, you can have all the Salts you want, but you can also be in the middle of the tundra and it will still feel kind of the same. A couple of things to keep an eye out:
a. If you don't have room for a wide settlement, then you obviously need to make some. Liberty opening will help out there. If you have a peaceful weakling close by, definitely go romp and stomp on them. If not, alright, not a deal-breaker.
b. If you have access to the coast, it should work much better since the key to this strat is $$$ and cargo ships can really bring it. If not, again, not a deal breaker, you will simply have to kick out Caravansaries early and scout the inland map better to see for potential trade partners.
3. The way Liberty works is you're either gearing up for a really quick conquest of your own neighborhood or setting up for a massive snowballing session late in the game. With this in mind, you can settle as much cities as you reasonably can as long as they can reach the luxuries and your happiness can support it, and this won't be an issue once it gets off the ground.
BUILD ORDER AND EARLY GAME
1. Go scout, scout, monument, shrine. In no particular order however, you can hit a pair of religious CSs and have a very good pantheon early on, you can hit culture ruins, you can hit barbs. Either way, don't bother with settlers until the free one is ready. Then get out of your back yard. I suggest settling the outer rim first and then work your way back inside. Be careful not to step on any toes. Early wars are a killer, however:
2. Since neither science nor growth is top priority in the early phase, you should have some archers and spears up and running, to protect your cities, to protect your workers, to skewer the pesky barbs and just generally make yourself feel better.
3. Use the Liberty finisher either way you want:
- Scientist to catch up on science (not really needed, you won't be far behind unless you really want to)
- Engineer to catch an important wonder (Petra, Oracle, maaaaaaaaaaaybe MP). If neither is available (possible, likely, but never definite), use it for your NC. No love lost.
- Admiral to sail yonder and meet
MIDGAME
If you're not in a rush to finish Liberty or you have already, this is the part where you break off. Depending on your culture output, you should go full Patronage and full Commerce, all the way, in no particular order as it's quite situational. Rationalism is completely optional, if you can spare some culture for it, do it, but nothing will happen if you don't.
At this point there are basically two things you will want to have: cash money and CS influence. Pick the CS in order of importance: happiness, culture, religion/food/army. Your CSs will make science for you, which might not seem much but it will add up. Your CSs will burn the grinding SPs and set you up nicely. Be on the constant lookout for the CS needs that you can take care off, like adding resources, stocking up science, giving them gold when they need it more.
Build order in all cities: Markets and Banks, trade ships, Universities, Workshops. The obvious focus is gold. Be constantly in debt but always keep a steady income to keep afloat: never drop below 5gpt.
Research stuff that will get more trade routes. Sailing before Civil Service, Engineering before Education, Banking before Acoustics.
IDEOLOGY AND LATE GAME
At this point you will already have around half the CSs under your belt and other half will be friendly at least, a sizable income, and no happiness issues (double digit +). Ideology is not part of this strategy i.e. it doesn't matter which one you pick, so roll a dice or pick whichever will be the dominating one. Pay attention to diplomatic consequences if you choose poorly, ideological pressure, which you shouldn't be worried about if you're in the net + but even if you do get hit, growth is still not the top priority.
ENDGAME
This is where the things get a bit complicated. If your science hasn't been top, you'll have to rely on the AI tech rate. The United Nations will become a thing after half the Civs have reached Atomic era or at least one has reached the Info era.
Like I said, if your science hasn't been that good for whatever reason, you might not reach the Info era quickly enough and you will have to wait for AIs to go Atomic. However you can play a part in that game by timing your own Atomic era to get near the end of the current congress session. Ideally you'll want it to be a turn before the vote. That way, there will be a special session to vote for the next host (you!) and then the next congress won't take place before the UN leader has been chosen. This is the small window of opportunity.
If everything fell into place (spoiler: it always does), your spies turned into diplomats will have little issues convincing your many friends to vote for you. Sometimes they will do it basically for free anyway, sometimes they will ask for an arm and a leg. That's not too bad, you should be swimming in gold anyway. Use all of your excess gold to lock down the CS allies, in a recent game, everyone was over 150 with me, some even went over 200.
Being host = 6 votes
2-4 friends voting for you = 8-16 votes
[optional] World religion = 2 votes
[optional] World ideology = 2 votes
[optional] Globalization = 5 votes
13-15 CS allies = 26-30 votes
Add them all up, and it's a big pool of votes out of which you need to scramble 40, maybe less if someone got taken out.
Some additional comments:
I find this strategy much safer than the Small Piety guide because:
1. A wide empire with a non-negligible army will make even the craziest of AIs think twice before invading.
2. You don't need a religion if there's no good pantheon to be taken, ergo no need to roll the dice on available reformations.
3. You end up with much more gold than going Small Piety
4. You end up with more science keeping you in the game in crunch time.
Right, fire away the comments
Moderator Action: Two posts by same user in rapid succession merged.
