Tips for moving up to deity?

[Sinderella]

Turn 118 and I got ND and PT and I popped astronomy before next policy. Now my natural instinct is to get rifles and cannons ASAP and go kill everyone. Or at least everyone close to me.
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You need 1 cultural ally on around 60th turn. ND and PT on 118 turn is very late, it's very risky. Build them before 95 turn, later is risky.

I always do that having two, preferably three, core cities and then just a massive puppet spree.

No puppet for my mind. If you need city - annex when city start working, if don't need - raze.
Best for me for science victory - 3 my own cities and 2-3 good annexed cities but it's not always happens. If I haven't annexed cities i build another one or two.

But I really feel like trying something more peaceful for a change.

Play peaceful, what a problem? But don't forget upgrade the army.

But then how many cities? And should I go for Scientific Theory first or get rifles and cannons so I can go beat down someone, Monty the Mad in my case, and get his land? Or just get another city or two?

For no domination game - beat Monty earlier . For domination game - beat Monty earlier
Yes, go straight to Scientific Theory, for me this is - Chemystry, Navigation, Economics, Scientific Theory.
Then you need ElectroCity. After you have Electrocity - first RA for Rifling, Fertilizer and part of Dynamite, second for Standartization and remaining part of Dynamite and part of Railroads. If you playing right you will go from Scientific Theory to Railroads in 10 turns or less

 

[MadDjinn]

I agree, turn 118 is a bit late.

You can usually have both before turn 100 without issues. (this does depend on your tech speed and if you used RAs to get there or beelined it) As England, and a GL start, I was able to bulb Navigation ~turn 108. That's a special case, but it was fun

I usually watch for the Angkor Wat being built. If it's built I know that the AI will try for the HS, PT and ND within 10 turns or so. Preferably the HS and Liberty are finishing before that point.

If you're on 2 cities, then you can just build a temple or two instead of a cultural CS ally. It could be cheaper, and it's safer if there's AIs sniffing around the CSs already. It might also prevent you from getting that 6th social policy before you finish Compass (right after Education) and bulb Astronomy.

Keep in mind, if you finish Compass and get another SP on the same turn, bulb Astronomy before selecting the SP. As well, you can always decide on selling the temples/monuments to delay the SP if you can slow your culture rate down enough to allow your tech pace to finish Compass first. It's not a great plan, but in a pinch I'd rather rebuild a temple than wait for my 7th SP to take Rationalism.

 

[Martin Alvito]

As well, you can always decide on selling the temples/monuments to delay the SP if you can slow your culture rate down enough to allow your tech pace to finish Compass first. It's not a great plan, but in a pinch I'd rather rebuild a temple than wait for my 7th SP to take Rationalism.

That's why I recommend pre-building late Culture buildings but not completing them until you know the math is going to work out. Doing that avoids maintenance and lands the SP at exactly the right time, every time.

 

[MadDjinn]

That's why I recommend pre-building late Culture buildings but not completing them until you know the math is going to work out. Doing that avoids maintenance and lands the SP at exactly the right time, every time.

Also a great plan. Though I tend to forget I've prebuilt some of them

You do need a slight culture boost either way. Finishing Liberty (assuming Representation/Citizenship are your 3rd/4th policies, in either order) still requires more culture than 2 monuments and the palace/Liberty provides.

 

[Martin Alvito]

I usually take Republic fourth and Representation fifth, as the GA lands when I want it (on the University builds) that way. The precise approach varies by civ and win condition, which affects what I build during the window between when the Libraries finish and the Universities go up. Askia and Napoleon don't need Cultural allies to time things out right and get Notre Dame via Liberty GE; other civs do. Also, if I'm playing Diplomatic then I don't want to finish Liberty until the last possible moment for the UN.

 

[MadDjinn]

I usually take Republic fourth and Representation fifth, as the GA lands when I want it (on the University builds) that way. The precise approach varies by civ and win condition, which affects what I build during the window between when the Libraries finish and the Universities go up. Askia and Napoleon don't need Cultural allies to time things out right and get Notre Dame via Liberty GE; other civs do. Also, if I'm playing Diplomatic then I don't want to finish Liberty until the last possible moment for the UN.

true true.

I prefer vexing's approach to use the GA for building the NC. (either 4th if I had the 400g for the 2nd city library or 3rd if I miracled the GL)

I also like to consider adding another city or two in before Education, so that means keeping the culture costs down, so I need Representation. (without it, SP times get a bit zany)

and yeah, saving the GE for the UN is a nice plan, but I'd rather leave Republic open than Meritocracy or Representation. Gotta expand to get more gold, but need to keep SP costs low to finish Patronage. Even still, you might be able to luck a single GE from an ally along the way (odds are not bad for that) so finishing Liberty might not hurt.

 

[Martin Alvito]

Meritocracy is garbage for a vertical civ. Just saying.

The building buff coupled with the classic +1 bonus doesn't suck.

I double GE the UN, holding the GE from HS. I don't get far enough into Patronage to trigger Educated Elite in a Diplomatic game.

If you go more horizontal than I typically do, earlier Representation starts to make sense.

 

[Sinderella]

And i usually take Republic right after settler, before free worker

 

[MadDjinn]

Meritocracy is garbage for a vertical civ. Just saying.

The building buff coupled with the classic +1 bonus doesn't suck.

I double GE the UN, holding the GE from HS. I don't get far enough into Patronage to trigger Educated Elite in a Diplomatic game.

If you go more horizontal than I typically do, earlier Representation starts to make sense.

true true. I can rarely force myself to go vertical.

So finish liberty really helps.

 

[Tabarnak]

I double GE the UN, holding the GE from HS.

What if 2 cities build factories-workshops and maybe a windmill and rush 2 GE back-to-back at the end? Must start gpp early though. For the last birth, you can make a gs and a ge together. That's what i made in my last game.

The problem is you may ''lack'' of time if your goal is to finish the earliest possible. It costs you another gs, but an extra RA can do the job....i guess. But an early ND can let you make a lot of things(if you use the 2nd ge instead of hard building it).

Thoughts?

 

[Martin Alvito]

What if 2 cities build factories-workshops and maybe a windmill and rush 2 GE back-to-back at the end? Must start gpp early though. For the last birth, you can make a gs and a ge together. That's what i made in my last game.

The timings tend to be a mess if you're trying to produce one late GE, much less two. If you're on a higher difficulty level then IMO you're forced to build Hagia quickly and burn the resulting GE on the Porcelain Tower. That compels generating a GE somewhere, and you're absolutely right that double-popping it with the last GS is the way to go if you can swing it.

Early ND is fantastic, but it's very difficult to get enough from it to justify the expenditure of a GE prior to the endgame. If you aggressively hoard from luxury resales in a Diplomatic game, you can afford the RAs you need to exit the game irrespective of whether or not you build ND.

 

[Rittmeyer]

Early ND is fantastic, but it's very difficult to get enough from it to justify the expenditure of a GE prior to the endgame. If you aggressively hoard from luxury resales in a Diplomatic game, you can afford the RAs you need to exit the game irrespective of whether or not you build ND.

In which conditions would you go for a Diplomatic game over Space victory? Would it be only because you want to win that way, for fun or because it's a challenge, or you really believe it's the best way to win in some cases?

 

[Martin Alvito]

The only compelling reason to go for Diplomatic right now (unless a competition forces you to) is if you're in a -limited position. If that's the case, you can probably get out faster via the UN than by building parts.

 

[chazzycat]

Well after a couple tries I have came *very* close to my first deity victory. Lost the spaceship race by 7 turns around turn 260. Only had 3 wine, 1 marble, 1 fur for luxes. I think with one or 2 more it would have been in the bag. As it was I was struggling with gold for RAs almost all game. Also had to give up 500 gold (2 RAs) in a peace treaty when I underestimated one of the AIs and put off upgrading my military too long. Lessons learned I suppose...will give it another go soon.

One thing that put me off. When Russia reached future age, 5 turns later they had built the last spaceship part. I thought it would take much longer for them to research that super expensive tech and build 2 parts. Guessing that's just the power of the deity level AI bonuses?

Then again they had +270 happiness with a massive puppet empire. does deity AI just play by its own rules?

 

[RedRover57]

Chazzy, you should try the Deity Challenge 3 map for a science victory attempt. There are some challenging things about the map, but it is definitely winnable (since I was able to win on it). It's a great way to practice defensive strategies as well as tall civ development. And you can compare your game to others. Just search for it a few pages down on this forum.

 

[Buccaneer]

Just popping in here to say what a great thread this is. What a contrast to the initial release when one could win on Deity without trying very hard.

 

[KevinMiles90000]

The less empathy you play civ with the better you will become at it. The Civ series has always rewarded playing like a complete sociopath.

 

[chazzycat]

Chazzy, you should try the Deity Challenge 3 map for a science victory attempt. There are some challenging things about the map, but it is definitely winnable (since I was able to win on it). It's a great way to practice defensive strategies as well as tall civ development. And you can compare your game to others. Just search for it a few pages down on this forum.

Thanks, I will give it a try.

 

[chazzycat]

Well I finally got my first standard/standard/pangea deity win over the weekend, thanks to the good advice here. Played the peaceful Babylon space game with 4 cities and was able to blast off around turn 240.

Anyways, thanks again guys.

 

[qalsip1977]

GJ man. Babylon is probably the best Civ for a peaceful game on deity IMO, because of the UU/UB combo to defend your capital in those first 50 turns or so. Korea would be another one that I'd throw in the hat. Hwach'a(s) come a bit later but they are super effective at holding off waves of pikemen/swordsmen/longswordsmen.

I've been fine-tuning my start with Babylon, trying different build orders and such, and I've managed to get PT built just after the AI are getting into the medieval period...so I know I have a pretty commanding science lead. I'm probably going to stop resetting now that I feel I have an optimum build order and see how early I can win a science victory.

It seems like that first deity win is the hardest one...after that they seems to come easier...