Not only was this my first Deity difficulty game (and first Game of the Month), it was my first game ever played above King difficulty. So I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially in the later game. Usually I'm in the lead in most demographics categories by the later game; not this time!
Many people wrote what turn they reached certain milestones, but I really don't remember. I settled directly west of the mountain on turn 1. The replay says I built the Temple of Artemis at turn 35 and the Hanging Gardens at turn 75, Porcelain Tower at turn 148.
My plan was to grow as big as I could in order to get the most science, hence why I chose those early wonders. I also picked up the Fertility Rites pantheon, although I thought I would be too late to get this (finally got it at turn 60). There was one religion available for a long time, but it was finally snapped up at turn 138. I thought at least I could use my faith to purchase a great person at the end of the game, but I learned that the city must be religious to do so. Initially I avoided trade routes to bring outside religion (to maintain my pantheon), but later I sought to exclusively use such trade routes. However, my city just grew faster than the religious citizens, so I never was able to use my faith points in the game.
I had maybe two war elephants in the game. I used them mainly to defend from barbarians, and later I had them run around to clear the fog to prevent more barbarians from spawning.
When I was behind in tech, I used my spies to steal tech, but as I gained a lead I kept one on defense and moved the rest to City-States to gain influence. I never attempted a coup, however, as I never had a great chance of success.
I was selected to make a proposal at the first congress (but never again). I chose the one to get a science boost to already researched techs since I was near last at the time, but by the time of the vote I was first in literacy, so I voted against it! However, it passed. Later, Arts Funding passed, as well as Embargo City-States. Nothing much else of consequence.
I rushed my tech to get an ideology, and got there first by a turn (followed by America). I chose Freedom. However, I was the only one to pick Freedom. I was super worried about having a revolution, but I managed to keep happy throughout the game, even as three other civs gained influential tourist status (Persia, Morocco, Ethiopia). Morocco and Persia both had high tourism, but they both had high culture as well, so I wasn't worried about either of them influencing the other for a victory.
I didn't attempt to gain cultural influence with anyone since I figured their culture would be really high compared to the tourism I could generate with just one city. So I used all my Great Writers and Artists for culture boosts and Golden Ages.
No wars until turn 215, when Ethiopia, and soon after, Portugal, declared war. Ethiopia never sent a single unit and eventually requested peace, offering me 17 gold per turn. Portugal had a city west of mine and sent units mostly one at a time, so this was never a big problem. Only a few other wars, again with Portugal and also Persia, who settled north of my city. Fortunately I could hold them off with some well placed units and a few bombers.
I felt so concerned about growing and defending my own city that I never made much of an effort to court City-States. I never intentionally allied with any of them until the last few turns in order to secure Aluminum. Morocco had the most allies and came close to a Diplomatic victory. They could have easily conquered my city had they wanted to. I tried to avoid this by sending all my trade routes to them and voting for all their proposals. I'm not sure if this counts, but I also voted for them for world leader when our combined votes would not have been enough. I also paid Morocco to declare war on other civs just so they would avoid me.
Near the end of the game I had an extra social policy to use. I had finished Rationalism and got my Level 3 tenet for purchasing spaceship parts, so I figured I'd open commerce to get a bit extra gold. What I didn't consider is that this opened Big Ben. I also managed a Great Engineer (not intentionally) near the end. I wasn't sure if Big Ben reduced the cost of space ship parts, but I tried it anyway. It turns out, it did reduce the cost, down from 3500 to 2590. (This is down 26% instead of 15%; am I missing something?) Anyhow, This let me purchase three parts instead of the two I had planned, which may have saved me the game since a few other civs had four parts when I finished up.
Many have said that this is their first Deity level game. For those of you who have played Deity before, would you consider this challenge easy or hard compared to a typical Deity game, or about what you would expect? I really wasn't expecting to get far, and it sounds like I may have just been lucky to get both the early growth wonders since some have said that it was built much earlier by other civs.
This game was really fun, and I love reading about how other people played in the same situation!
Game: Civ5 GOTM 105
Date submitted: 2015-03-14 08:58:41
Reference number: 32427
Your name: PhloxCapacitor
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1905AD
Turns played: 325
Base score: 731
Final score: 1124
Time played: 6:39:00
Submitted save: Gandhi_0326 AD-1906.Civ5Save
Renamed file: PhloxCapacitor_C510501.Civ5Save
(however keep in mind this science doesn't count towards GS bulbs)
but after that I was laser focused on beelining the science techs.
