Trying to step it up to Deity

[McGriff]

So I can win on Immortal without too much trouble, although I have a some what pacifist approach that I've only deviated from when I had a huge advantage in the map (i.e. Netherlands/England on archipelago maps). I generally start with a tradition build and am much less comfortable with Liberty starts. My big question is what are the best settings and best civilization (I have Vanilla, Isabella and G&K) to win a Deity match.

-Further info: My computer can't really handle more than Standard size and im used to playing Epic timing.

 

[Itrade]

My first Diety win was a marathon game with Siam on an archipelago map with only two cities. Try to start next to a river and a mountain if possible. Beeline Iron Working for the Colossus for the extra gold from the nearby sea tiles, maybe pick up Statue of Zeus along the way, but don't worry if you fail to nab it, it'll just mean more money to feed to your maritime city-states. Don't worry about religion.

Explore the map and pledge protection to every CS you find. Once you get Aestheticism you'll be friends with all of them. Complete the patronage tree, stepping out only occasionally for the Tradition finisher, commerce opener, and bits of rationalism as necessary.

As you near the end of the game, get a bunch of submarines ready (four or five will be enough for anything), then start trading away all your gpt for gold with the civs that you have bad relations with, then declare war on them. If that feels a bit cheesy for you, just build battleships and use your subs and a single privateer (you're focusing on the top of the tech tree, so you won't be anywhere near combustion for the destroyer) to conquer the capital with the most wonders. Use that as a launching point to conquer the rest of the world for a domination victory.

If it doesn't feel too cheesy, use all your extra money to buy influence with the city-states (prioritize those with public works projects over the rest, and from that it goes maritime > cultural > faith > merchantile > military). Send your subs out to hunt ships and gain xp from the nations you're warring with. Once the United Nations is built, bring all your subs home and use the GPT trick to get money from and declare war on everyone. You should have bought all the city states by then, so just hold off for ten turns and enjoy your first Diety victory.

Your general tech path will be beelining Iron Working, then Astronomy, then Radio, then refrigeration, then globalization.

 

[Slvynn]

trading gpt for gold then dow is exploit.... there better cheesy as you said ways to win the deity
,
Very important : be in-line with tech and having enough defence to repel early invasions

 

[ezysquire]

For a pacifist approach take Babylon or Korea and just go hell for leather on bulb earning. Don't build too many cities, just a few well developed ones and a decent army to defend. I would consider a large islands map so that you don't need such a big army, just some good coastal defence (turtle ships/rocket thingos). Just focus down hard on bulb earning; micro everything you can to maximise bulbs.

Oh, and by 'micro', as well as doing basic tile/specialist management, you also have to do stuff like sell luxuries so you have the gold to buy (for example) a library in a new city on the turn before the city grows to two pop. This sort of thing is what i mean by maximising bulbs

 

[Choles]

I just beat my first "proper" diety game, I played Inca, played Small, Inland Sea.

I didn't get attacked until ~1500 AD and I had a decent army by then, the thing that broke the game, was that the AI offered 40k gold for peace, I accepted, and ye, everything just went to , teched up to nukes, bought 10 and just went crazy, and bought 10 more.. = win.

anyways Incas are nice imo, with the great person generator every now and then, you can pick great prophet as the first if you want a religion.

in the start I teched up towards theology (great prophet) and then the lower tier, had smiley problems for way too long tho.

spying is almost cheating imo, since it'll let you catch up to the AI pretty fast.

 

[Harv72b]

If memory serves, Babylon & Korea aren't options with your DLC library (I don't remember which civs came with which DLC ), but it's tough to go wrong with Carthage on a large islands map.

 

[Putmalk]

I just beat my first "proper" diety game, I played Inca, played Small, Inland Sea.

I didn't get attacked until ~1500 AD and I had a decent army by then, the thing that broke the game, was that the AI offered 40k gold for peace, I accepted, and ye, everything just went to , teched up to nukes, bought 10 and just went crazy, and bought 10 more.. = win.

anyways Incas are nice imo, with the great person generator every now and then, you can pick great prophet as the first if you want a religion.

in the start I teched up towards theology (great prophet) and then the lower tier, had smiley problems for way too long tho.

spying is almost cheating imo, since it'll let you catch up to the AI pretty fast.

You mean the Maya?

 

[Glassmage]

beating the game on Diety with island maps is hardly worthy.

 

[Dtekkar]

If you want cliff's notes, here is what has worked for me (strategy spoilers):

#1 key is keeping tech parity. Science and infrastructure. Early NC, skip wonders, skip religion. Good land? tradition. Lots of land? Liberty. Neither? Honor and clear out neighbors. Then left side of rationalism. Sell all luxuries until you found all cities, then keep enough to keep happy. Spare gold allies CSes. Do CS quests. Sign RA's. Get production buildings early but prioritize science buildings, grow all cities - 10 pop by education. Warmongering (some deity-viable pushes, ordered best to worst): beeline to airplanes, frigate->battleship timing push, honor archer rush, UU timing push (most), artillery beeline, ironworking suicide rush, large medieval unit mix. If no war, archers for self defense & settle defensibly.

Warmongering is strong on epic. Good luck.

Edit: And yeah, water map is basically 2 difficulties lower than pangea since the AI can't use their bonus population on good tiles and navy AI isn't great. Take an island map if you just want the achievement and go frigate rush, or any peaceful VC (yawn).

 

[Furycrab]

Playing on slower speeds will usually make things easier on you, other than that, you just need to have a clear grasp on what you need to do to win. By turn 300 standard any of the AI will be in a win position unless you can slow them down or stop them, meaning peaceful victories should be done before that mark.

Other than that. Little luck, or Island maps.

 

[lithium97]

On my first deity try, I won with China on a continents map, standard size and speed. The Cho Ku No (or whatever their crossbow units are called) are really strong. I took out the two AI's I shared the map with, then played defense and focused on science for a science victory.

My next deity tries I got wiped out very quickly by the AI's. I find that level too stressful now so I just play on immortal.

 

[Genghis_Sean]

If you have the time, SBFMadDjinn does deity walkthroughs on YouTube. I don't know where he gets the time to so thoroughly understand the game so well, to play the game with such discipline to attain his stated goals, but it's truly impressive. I don't have the kind of time necessary to watch him play a complete game because they run for hours and hours, but I watched an episode or two and came away humbled. Great place to brush up on strategy.

 

[Choles]

You mean the Maya?

yea sorry.....