What Difficulty Are You Stuck On?

[fed1943]

"My" level is Immortal.
But "my" level is not the one I always win; instead about 50%/50%. My first goal is to have fun.
I can choose leader or map, but never both. So, settings like Rome/Cyrus-pangeia or Dutch/
Portuguese-islands are out.
Best regards,

 

[Kierkegaard]

I win Prince like 90% of the times, but I didn't won enough Monarch games. I did win them a couple of times like with Willem on a water map, but I think that's a bit dishonest.

 

[Iranon]

I think the top players can win Deity quite consistently; I'm nowhere near that.

I seem to have hit my personal ceiling at a ~50% win rate with a glacial pace of playing (on my usual highly random settings; it gets better if I stack the deck). Even though my understanding of the game gets better, it doesn't help my win percentage noticably... I just get more and more blowout victories on lower levels.

 

[Peteyboy]

I selected Emperor level.

I find I can get 80%+ against Monarch and would need events to go against me normally involving someone dominating out of my control, for me not to win.

Emperor I can't regularly beat unless I play with certain teams, thus can not really claim to have sorted this level out - I find I have to be a leader with Imperialistic trait to allow progression of cities - however when either by choice or from random I get this trait I normally can win. With Cathy or Joao I would expect to cruise through.

Ironically I've only played Immortal twice & beaten it both times with Cathy (definitely my strongest team - it allows me to REX good cities quickly - I also like the scout at the start ) - but Deity was just too tough - even with a good REX I couldn't hold the early barbs, and never really got going.

 

[ChiefTonfa]

i dont know if im stuck on immortal, because i can beat it some of the time, but ive only beaten deity once and that was on earth18 with a great start. so i think im stuck on deity it seems impossible. especially since i always play 18 players. i even started playing 8 player games but its still really hard. to the meinteam, i for one have always played marathon, no tech trading, but because i thought it made it harder if anything. maybe not marathon, but i like my games to last along time so i have to play it, i hate fast games where you go from medievel to rennassance really fast. but no tech trading i thought was harder, because u cant always trade to keep up with the AIs, so u cant go for wonder techs and then trade for military so u can keep up defense while getting a wonder, or something like that. plus the main reason i do no tech trading is it makes the game last longer if u have to research everything by yourself and i like my games to be as long as possible. so i guess i feel like marathon and no tech trading makes the game more fun, and it doesn't feel like cheating to me, cause thats how i play and its still really hard. really, i did three of the things on your list, marathon, no tech trading, quecha rush, and i was still nowhere close to winning on deity, on an 18 player huge fractal map.

 

[Edzako]

4. Removing tech brokering, turning tech trades off, etc

Does turning tech trades off actually makes game easier ? Most of human players manipulate with tech trading much better than AI, allowing them to keep up even with lower beaker count (bulbing expensive technologies/picking tech paths AI rarely choose, etc.)

 

[muxec]

Why should I be honest?

 

[Onionsoilder]

Emperor. I 'win' about 70% of the games(can't actually win a game I don't finish, end up quitting after I dominate everyone in terms of tech/land), yet I can't make the jump to Immortal.

 

[6K Man]

I can play Monarch and have won on Monarch. But it always feels like I'm winning by the skin of my teeth. And I have a phobia of watching AI Archers wander around the cultural border of my undefended capital, as I busily go Worker-Workboat-Warrior-Settler. So I'm more comfortable on Prince, because while there is less challenge in the later part of Prince games, I don't feel like I'm flirting with disaster in the early game the way I do on Monarch.

(I know, I know, I need to get the duck over this and just play. )

 

[Evya]

Not stuck. Just playing a few games at Noble... Should I move to Prince perhaps?

Edit: Just for the record, I voted Settler.
How come nobody is stuck in it? I were for like 5 games.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Does turning tech trades off actually makes game easier ? Most of human players manipulate with tech trading much better than AI, allowing them to keep up even with lower beaker count (bulbing expensive technologies/picking tech paths AI rarely choose, etc.)

It depends how you rig the map and how you play based on your settings.

If your intention is to use a military tech window as much as possible on the AI before it gets the techs to counter it, then absolutely removing its ability to trade makes the game easier...especially if you already set it so that there are a ton of peaceful AIs in the game already.

It's true that if you don't know what you're doing it can be a hindrance.

 

[Berba]

I haved always played at monarch, but since I have some problems finishing a game, I decided to start on settler and win to the limit-when-one-can-not-win
But I voted for my own option: Princarch

 

[DigitalBoy]

I don't usually play difficulty settings that challenge me. I play on Monarch currently and can win consistently, so I guess that means I vote Emperor?

 

[CivIVMonger]

Who voted the last option!?

 

[sydhe]

Noble. I've won spaceship, domination, and diplomatic victories, the last a surprise because I wasn't really trying for it. I won my first cultural victory pretty easily the other night. It really helps if you have six religions in your three cultural leaders and build the cathedral equivalents for all of them. I may not do that again because it really isn't as interesting as the other kinds of victories. I was declaring war on people just because I was bored.

 

[sydhe]

I win Prince like 90% of the times, but I didn't won enough Monarch games. I did win them a couple of times like with Willem on a water map, but I think that's a bit dishonest.

Darius of the Dutch is even sicker. Rich as Croesus and then you get dikes?

Boudicca of the Ottomans was the cultural victory. I have a policy not to play a leader/nation combination after I win with them. Having Janissaries with Aggressive/Charismatic is just evil. Who needs riflemen?

 

[Jonezy]

I'm a complete newbie. Literally only finished four games so far, two on settler and two on chieftain and started my latest attempt to grasp the concepts of this great game on warlord.

 

[CivIVMonger]

You have four posts at the time! <Ironic>.

 

[Crusher1]

@ TMIT

General cross-training or familiarization is one thing but from my personal real life and game life experiences, those who devote the majority of their time to specialization will generally be better at what they do.

 

[Yngvi]

Monarch. Started at Noble, won a couple games quickly, went through Prince easily in a couple months, then went to Monarch and stalled. Been there for the better part of a year, and am only now starting to feel truly comfortable with it. I could go to Emperor and suffer again, but I decided to stay on Monarch for a while and enjoy the fruits of my labors. When I start getting bored, I guess I'll hazard Emperor.