[GS] When to move up in difficulty?

[InDubioProReo]

I am currently playing a Continents, Emperor game with China aiming for Diplomatic victory. I will most likely win it, and I'm thinking to go up to Immortal. So far, I have won the game on Rise and Fall on Emperor with all win conditions. Would this be a good time to move up to Immortal?

I would really appreciate if someone could answer my questions on this subject. What should I be careful when going up to Immortal? What are some good common strategies that I might not have known? Also, what win condition for first Immortal game would you recommend?

 

[pkaem]

It's always a good idea to mov up in difficulty imo. I played the franchise since Civ II and always on warlord - prince till I got bored. I just wanted a relaxed play. In Civ V I read some article or forum, maybe even here and decided to try it out. I upped the difficulty every time I won the old in any way. Immortal took some time and deity was murderous. Common strategies are rare atm since GS is yet very uncommon and changes quite some things. If you get lucky some of the god tier players here will drop some advice Just read the GS threats a bit. But I'd absolutly encourage you to move up, the game gets much more fun.

 

[Cakeathon]

Jump to diety right now ! It's seriously not a big deal. The only real difference between difficulties is how tight your game needs to be in early expansion/conquest. Once you overtake the AI, it's all over. They will never catch up.

You just need to have your early game in order. The best way is to just start a diety game and play 50-80 turns and see how things are going. it's a great way to know if your build order is good and it's not that hard to optimize ~50 turns.

The problem with slow progression and not jumping right to diety is that you are learning bad habits, doing short 50-80 turns games on diety repeatedly will beat all those bad habits out of you.

I usually try new ideas on king/emperor first to see if they could work "in theory" and then jump to diety to figure out how to actually make it happen with a resisting opponent.

I wouldn't recommend a particular victory condition but conquest is definitely recommended. Once you have conquered a deity AI the game is pretty much over and you can just stumble your way into any VC over the next 200 turns since you will dominate in all categories. The only victory condition that is trickier is religious victory since you need to actually get a religion, there are threads on the forum that discuss how to do it on diety.

 

[Morino1914]

I found it rewarding beating deity in all victory conditions, but later I’ve moved down to immortal for “easy” civs and emperor for the rest and for fun games. I feel I can’t deviate from the best strategy on immortal and deity if I want to win in a timely fashion.

 

[Victoria]

What should I be careful when going up to Immortal? What are some good common strategies that I might not have known? Also, what win condition for first Immortal game would you recommend?

It depends on what you like doing.
At immortal and deity the AI starts with 3 settlers and the barb camps spawn more... expect more aggression from both.
Emperor is about right for a relaxing game if not a wargamer. Higher levels require more aggression or more careful play. If you are winning your games by about T250 you should be fine moving up, if not try and get your victory times down before doing so.
I recommend domination first as that is easiest and other victories are easier starting with a domination style in ancient and classical.
Key point. Era times are shorter as you move up, the golden will be harder.

 

[Adjust]

I like your answer Vic. I can win at Emperor 50/50. Mostly I fail when I try to do too much early development. I'll watch the T250 marker. Very useful advice.

Can you offer further advice on managing "the era clock"? I usually go for the one stimulated by getting Eurekas. You?

 

[InDubioProReo]

It depends on what you like doing.
At immortal and deity the AI starts with 3 settlers and the barb camps spawn more... expect more aggression from both.
Emperor is about right for a relaxing game if not a wargamer. Higher levels require more aggression or more careful play. If you are winning your games by about T250 you should be fine moving up, if not try and get your victory times down before doing so.
I recommend domination first as that is easiest and other victories are easier starting with a domination style in ancient and classical.
Key point. Era times are shorter as you move up, the golden will be harder.

Thanks. I think I'll go Immortal Domination, CV and SV next. I enjoyed these the most. I did Religious and Diplomatic once just for bragging rights and to learn the game, but don't think I'll be attempting it again for quite a while.

 

[Victoria]

don't think I'll be attempting it again for quite a while

I know what you mean, I have not done a diplomatic and have no desire, I can see it in my head and that’s bad enough.
Trying to do an SV / CV as fast as possible regardless of difficulty is what works long term. You will find even deity is not hard once you have survived 30 turns. To get faster you have to think long term and plan and manage the timing. That is where the real challenge is.

 

[InDubioProReo]

I know what you mean, I have not done a diplomatic and have no desire, I can see it in my head and that’s bad enough.
Trying to do an SV / CV as fast as possible regardless of difficulty is what works long term. You will find even deity is not hard once you have survived 30 turns. To get faster you have to think long term and plan and manage the timing. That is where the real challenge is.

In Civ V, a culture or science runaway, or even Alexander going for diplomatic victory could win the game after a certain turn despite how well your start was. Is that the case here?

 

[Victoria]

In Civ V, a culture or science runaway, or even Alexander going for diplomatic victory could win the game after a certain turn despite how well your start was. Is that the case here?

We will have to see how the new version pans out. In R&F @Trav'ling Canuck did some rather extensive tests on deity just playing and not stopping a civ from winning. It appears nociv would win before T300. It has been noticed that they have odd habits like stopping building spaceship parts. However in GS liveplay it was notices the AI was going to win earlier. So we have hope there may be more of a challenge but from what I have played (3 deity games) it feels easier.
A culture runaway can be accidental but can be stopped with a combination of reducing their tourism while upping your culture. It is not that hard to get 250 culture per turn which means they need at least 500 tourism.
A science victory still requires them to build specific stuff so is not entirely reliant on science output.

 

[CornPlanter]

I recently moved from Emperor to Immortal and the increase in difficulty is very noticeable. I normally play without much calculations, only using impro and gut feeling and those simply don't cut it anymore. Warrior/Archer rushes used to be easy, now they hardly ever succeed. Early fast expansion used to be easy when I see lots of unclaimed land, but now it's gone very fast unless I pump out settlers and only settlers like crazy. I've even had a game were Maori arrived and took my only city before I could finish my second slinger. You'll certainly need to think more what you are doing, calculate things, have clearer short and long term plans, pay more attention to AI. But that said, I don't think there's such time as moving to immortal too early. Everybody can even start on immortal from their first game and learn there, as long as they are prepared to lose a lot. I even think this way people would learn to play on immortal much faster.

 

[Esperr]

I usually tell people to start on Deity and move down if you just keep getting crushed. Once you hit Emperor you should be able to win on Immortal and Deity, Deity is really just a more gamey version of Immortal which is just a more gamey version of Emperor. Emperor is probably the most "fair" where its pretty hard to get killed by RNG, whereas on the higher difficulty levels getting RNG'd becomes the only reason you lose.

 

[Adjust]

RNG?

 

[Browd]

RNG = Random Number Generator (often used when bemoaning a seemingly random or unexpected result - i.e., blaming "RNG")