QUESTIONS
- What did you do differently because of the Deity difficulty?
I would have settled my second city on mount sinai, but because of deity i was too paranoid on getting out there and getting my "lands coveted".
Brazil built a lot of wonders, i would have taken his capital very early but because of deity his capital strength skyrocketed way high and way fast so i gave up on attacking.
Did not accept any friendships so i would not get diplo malus in case friends went to war. Less gold for rushing stuff.
Did not use the special unit, AI city strength went high too fast so they were useless by the time i researched them. (My target was brazil who was building all the wonders, but he also built all the defensive structures and wonders!)
- Did any of the Iroquois civilization bonuses help you? How did you take advantage of them?
Food was sparce. I had 3 different internal trade routes sending food to my capital, saving money on roads by connecting jungles helped. And yes moving freely in jungles early is very convinient, but not something that helps you win unless you'r in a defensive war.That's about it.
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
Lack of food, so I focused on food even more than usual. Focus on fast expand on river spots. Skipped stonehenge since terrain didn't have enough production for that. In fact didn't bother with religion past the first pantheon.
- What were your initial priorities?
Food for capital, growth, grabbing the rare spots that could grow semi-decently, minimizing shared borders.
Religion was not a priority past grabbing the first pantheon for goddess of the hunt (which i did get), i just wanted faith to be able to buy musiciens at the end. The plan is to musician bomb the top cultured civ and military conquer a second one if needed. For this i needed to stay more or less competitive on science, thus the focus on food.
- What tech path did you follow and why?
What was needed for camps, research, and longhouses. I got the oracle without rushing it too much.
- What Social Policies did you choose and why?
Maxed tradition first mostly for the aqueducts and growth. I put 2 points into patronage (later 3 for research) then aesthetics. I plan to max aesthetics then max exploration for the hidden sites, maybe after dropping 2 points into rationalism if i can afford the detour.
- Any early wars, who started them and what was the result?
I sacrificed a lot to stay out of wars (gave up on mt sinai, only got 4 cities, etc) so i didn't get in any wars. I also paid the russians to war brazil a couple of times when brazil was moving troops to my borders.
EARLY GAME
First I have to mention, i am an emperor player, and this is my first deity. Doubtful that i can win but i hope to learn a couple of things from comparing my play to others. I don't feel completely useless however since i did watch a couple of deity games videos (i know to expect brutal military, religion grabbing, wonder grabbing, and so on), lets see if i have been paying attention.
- Warrior saw river on first move, moving settler to create city on top of the deer, next to mountain + sea mainly to have a few river tiles for farms. I consider moving inland to the river, but i prefer to keep a costal city after all to get food boosted with sea trade routes later.
- Monument first followed by two scouts
- For research AH -> trapping for the camps early, then pottery -> writing. Then bronze working to reveal iron before i settle my first city. From there calendar -> philosophy. Even if i don't get a religion i can use the faith to buy GPs later.
Priority for me is to try to get an early pantheon, and get a couple of early workers (prob buy one) to clear the river tiles for farms, boosting my settlers at the same time to reduce impact on my growth. I'll settle coastal cities only assuming the terrain permits it, again for the food to capital, and maybe saving some gold by not having to build roads (harbor), since i will be using routes for food every gold i can save matters. Also because of the map type a navy will probably be necessary, so coastal cities will be better.
Early RNG : Got archery from ruin + my warrior became a spear. Barb stole my worker, my spear had to chase it all the way down to its camps so i had to buy a scout (only thing i could afford) to escort my first settler.
First expanded leftside (around turn 50-60), on the spot between the two river, exactly 7 tiles from pedro. Mt sinai looks tempting, but i prefer the two rivers + coast + stopping pedro from grabbing it and expanding in my direction, i want this corner of the world to be mine. + mt sinai might get me in trouble, it's way out there in what seems to be the center of the world, but i might change my mind after i explore the surroundings more.
Third city south (turn 80), near the marble and river. I mostly placed it to maximise number of river tiles, while getting 2 truffles and one marble. It will be my production city.
At this point thinking about doing only 4 cities. 4th might be near mount sinai if the water i see down there is a sea, if it's a lake not sure it would be worth the risk of overexpanding. Otherwise i will expand north, in that corner near zurich. (bought a tile between my two cities to close that corner with my borders, so brazil can't expand there.)
I got the oracle on turn 85, seen it available so went for it, chopped 3 forests near river, had to do that at some point. That let me finish tradition for the early free aqueducts.
I got goddess of the hunt too, but religions were out too soon. I built shrines but it was not enough, taking sinai (or a faith generating pantheon) is a must if you want an early religion on deity it seems.
First writer born turn 118. One religion left, in retrospect i should have put my third city on mt sinai... i was expecting the AI to expand more agressively, but it didn't at first, so i didn't have to lock the land around me this soon. With mt sinai i had a shot at my own religion, i gave up on religion too soon.
At this point the shoshone are ahead on tourism, and brazil is grabbing all the wonders. The obvious plan would be to take brazil and all his artefacts later, so i'll have to focus even more on science to get some advanced units (canons?) to deal with his cities.
Right now : Turn 135 : Capital is at pop13, other cities are 9 and 5, settler is on spot to found 4th city. Tradition finished and patronage + aesthetics opened. I have education, researching guilds, and acoustics will be next (should be able to steal chivalry in a few turns from pedro). I have two CT allies (religious and mercantile for happiness, it lets me sell my luxuries) and two maritime friends.
Screenshot :
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=256671895
