Which Civs are easy mode?

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

This is my current game.
Spain came over and camped two warriors on my doorstep from the get-go.
So of course they DoWed me.
My Build Order was Slinger Slinger Warrior Warrior Archer Archer.
So I march over and take a city.
Now the Barbs are all over me with multiple camps.

Not like all that desert and tundra is so great to expand into lol.
View attachment 614620

Which difficulty is this on?

Some comments (which apply to higher levels):
Your opener (pure military spam, no settlers and only two warriors) is very risky if this is on Immortal-deity, as you're putting all of your eggs in one basket. With no settlers, you will soon be in the position where the amount of units spammed from 1 city is lower than what you could have spammed from 2 cities, plus you're losing out on extra loyalty from a forward settled city for when you do want to attack. It can work, butnif you fail it's essentially a restart as you're too far behind at that point. 3 total warriors is on the very low side, you might not be able to siege a city with many rivers, and if you lose one you're almost certainly boned on the ability to capture cities, making your opener a failure.

As for barbs, if you are unlucky and they do spot you and trigger an invasion, you can safely ignore them if they mass up on your capital. Your capital is the only city that cannot be razed by barbs, so it can sometimes be advantageous to just let them do their thing while you press the attack on your neighbour.
That being said, a common mistake is to use the starting warrior as a scout, and run around picking up tribal villages. It can work, but the chance is very high that you get overrun by barbs, and you cannot afford getting slowed down much on higher difficulties.


On deity especially, you gotta have a plan early from around turn 10, 20 at the latest. This means surveying the land (type, settling spots) and identifying your neighbour. If you do get tundra (which is in fact great to settle if you exploit it properly), you gotta make a decision quickly on whether you want to settle it, get dance of the aurora+work ethic (which requires 2 holy sites to guarantee on deity), or whether you want to instead settle towards your neighbour in order to attack him.
Decision making here is key, as you cannot really half-ass it. And with every bit of information you get from scouting around, try to use it to make an informed decision that optimizes what you det out to do (be it playing aggressive or peacefully).

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Which difficulty is this on?

Some comments (which apply to higher levels):
Your opener (pure military spam, no settlers and only two warriors) is very risky if this is on Immortal-deity, as you're putting all of your eggs in one basket. With no settlers, you will soon be in the position where the amount of units spammed from 1 city is lower than what you could have spammed from 2 cities, plus you're losing out on extra loyalty from a forward settled city for when you do want to attack. It can work, butnif you fail it's essentially a restart as you're too far behind at that point. 3 total warriors is on the very low side, you might not be able to siege a city with many rivers, and if you lose one you're almost certainly boned on the ability to capture cities, making your opener a failure.

All my games are usually Deity, All Standard Settings, Either Continents or Pangaea Maps, No Game Modes, Level 2 Disasters.

Your comments are interesting.
I'll try what you suggest in a few 100 turn games.
When you have two warriors camped on your front lawn around turn 15 I certainly do not understand how you can build anything but military.
How many hexes can you move in a circle with your starting warrior away from your capital?
I always thought the consensus was to move in a half circle 3 hexes from your capital and use your next unit to complete that starting circle?
Give me your standard early game build order when you play Deity Standard with No Game Modes.
Interesting note: I had a recent game where I was getting ready to chop a forest with Magnus in my Capital and a Fire Struck killing my builder lol. I get all kinds of goofy scenarios like this when I play but it appears nobody else does. Y'all just rollin'!

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I always play standard size, not small and never Pangea. Maybe that’s a difference, especially the small.
Seville is an excellent city to keep.
Playing on deity, the barb camps are a killer because they are spawning a unit a turn, and a lot of units. Once a barb camp is triggered it is an ugly business, two or three make it just wreck your game when you had a good chance of taking Spain. You are doing the right thing, at least it looks that way, perhaps it is the way you fight? For example the archers on the left should now take 1 step backwards each not firing and the next turn take out one barb, the other will damage an archer but not kill it and will be damaged in return enough so you can kill that, The city on the right looks just fine… but more barbs come and when barb archers come it is just yuck.
I rarely get this situation (the camping, sure) so maybe it is my settings, maybe it is because I am paranoid about barb scouts.
I often do not worry about faith, I feel it makes it too easy. Playing without religion is my preference initially, later I will pillage faith and get lots of builders that way but initially, nah.
Population early is useful and chopping food early can speed your game up but most chopping you do want to wait for although there are plenty of exceptions like chopping in an extra horseman, if you are going to play with an army deck, you really should go all-in.
If you cannot play with two armies, I am not sure what to say, is that a mental block or a money issue?

I dunno.
I get into these situations a lot because I play a lot of difficult starting land.
Perhaps I'm moving my early warrior too much.
I find it difficult when I have a close AI neighbor bring two warriors on turn 12 or so to my front lawn and camp.
You know you are going to get dowed.
IMO Pangaea Maps can be the easiest situations or the most difficult.
That's why I play them but I'll have many games where I play in Low Production and Desert Areas and it can be a very long slog.
Especially if the AI gets walls up everywhere.
I always tend to grind them down and finish the game from 225 to 315 but I certainly do many things wrong.
I'm currently interested enough again to try and practice some more.
Thanks for your input!

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

When you have two warriors camped on your front lawn around turn 15 I certainly do not understand how you can build anything but military.
How many hexes can you move in a circle with your starting warrior away from your capital?
I always thought the consensus was to move in a half circle 3 hexes from your capital and use your next unit to complete that starting circle?
Give me your standard early game build order when you play Deity Standard with No Game Modes.

With regards to the situation with double warrior at turn 12 - depending on circumstance, some of these games are just unwinnable, which is ok.
I've been invaded by turn 12 before, and it's not much to do in that case. You can spam military like in your case (the only real solution), but in some cases that isnt enough even if you only spam, as the AI just has too many units, and even with defensible terrain you can lose quickly to pure attrition.
Sometimes you just gotta restart such a game, nothing wrong with that.
In most cases though (barring a T12 invasion), you can get away with a settler and start pumping from there.

My opener is nearly always a military unit until pop 2, settler, and from there on it depends on what information I get and what my goals are:

The first unit I choose depends on how much food and production I have (at most I will want to finish that unit for at most 2 turns into pop 2), as well as the landscape. You obviously have to decide this early (turn 1-3), so landscape is the best determinant. If on open terrain with few/no hills or forests, no ocean, and "warm" climate (jungle or desert), there is a high chance you have at least one neighbour close by. Since the land is also flat and open, in that case you might want to go for a slinger to get that early eureka, as well as your archer (your slinger upgrades into it) being better in open terrain, and because a warrior wont defend well in open terrain against a deity AI anyway (note: this is probably the worst terrain start there is for defensive purposes).
If however the landscape is warm/no oceans, but has plenty of hills and forests, warriors become very good on the defence and are a good choice.
Scouts I mostly dont build these days. They are bad on defence, bad on offense, and you cant afford to waste turns like that unless you get something like a tundra start.
Tundra especially changes things, because tundra starts have relatively few neighbours and by definition you know where the potential neighbour is (he cant be at the poles, and is less likely to be in the west/east), meaning you can get away with a scout (or even a builder first!).
As for units after the first unit+settler - if I intend to attack, it depends on his terrain. If he has few hills/forests I go archer heavy as a nice death ball of archers can really concentrate fire on his city. If rough terrain, warrior heavy is the solution. But always at least 3 warriors, ideally 4-5 so that you can ensure sieging his city as well as having backup units.

Btw, if you know you will get DOWed, try settling on a luxury and sell it to the potential aggressor for raw gold. That gold not only drains his finances, but also allows you to buy a warrior that much sooner. And when the DOW happens, you get your luxury back and can sell it again to the next guy.

 

[Victoria]

IMO Pangaea Maps can be the easiest situations or the most difficult.

agree totally, which is why I play continents, for a start you have more chance of having a coast at your back and you only have 2-3 civs to deal with politically.
The camping is great, I love it, you know their intention and you did your plan fine, just the barbs let you down. One tip for it, rush early empire to get your border up, this allows a bit of room, otherwise shifting them off harder tiles has to be dealt with earlier by unfortunately sitting on that nasty wooded hill yourself. The only way to EE sensibly also means a settler, life is not easy. Another funny tip, settle a second city between your capital and their beeline, they go around this city at one tile per turn while you have a slinger inside with a +10 promotion very quickly. The AI only knows to attack your capital, that is the target. I did this a few GOTM’s ago when Vietnam early DOW’s
There is an art to barbs, it is hard to describe too much but it is all about the scout, I used to say circle around at 3 but. Go out to 5, let the scout past to find my city knowing it will come straight back to me, I then hit it and it runs away from me toward my city. I do not chase, the scout has run out of my vision so cannot see me (if I am not on a hill) and so next turn will come straight back to me again, and now it dies. Entire camp silence for about 15 turns. So hit the scout and heal for a turn. Also at about 5-6 tiles, when the scout finds your city you have some chance to intercept. Allowing a scout in and killing it seems safer than stopping it coming in because it works it’s way around.
To me, if I am in the middle of a continent, it is truly suicide to settle on a hill, settling between hills means scouts often miss you because they like moving 3 tiles a lot, they need to see your city, not your border. One less production for a longer more enjoyable life.

remember this well, on a hill you can still only see 2 tiles away but strangely others can see you from 3. This matter for more than just the city. A scout on a wooded hill will attract the enemy from 3 tiles for example, even though you cannot see them (I like this magnet trick) but if they are beelining your city, they will not swerve to attack you unless they can hit you.

 

[MrRadar]

Interesting note: I had a recent game where I was getting ready to chop a forest with Magnus in my Capital and a Fire Struck killing my builder lol. I get all kinds of goofy scenarios like this when I play but it appears nobody else does.

Oh, we do. Just not all fails get posted here
If you need more examples, in one of my deity games with zombie and apocalypse mode, my third city got eaten by a zombie and my fourth settler burned in a forest fire next turn, on the planned spot of settling, just upon the arrival.
In my recent GOTM game on Prince I got my second city eaten by zombies. But I carry on until I see the defeat or victory screen. Games with such events are at least somewhat more memorable

 

[Victoria]

In a GOTM I was attacking Berlin with 4 donkey carts, flood=0 donkey carts
Not the best start when your capital is on low food hills.

 

[Thormodr]

For a change, I decided to do a bloodless domination game with Eleanor of Aquitaine. It's sort of easy mode. I've been allied with everyone for over half the game and everybody loves me even though I am culturally steamrolling them. Lol. Tiny Pangea map script.

I have flipped all the Roman cities and eliminated them. I have flipped almost all of the Mapuche cities including their capital. Only a few small cities left.

There is just Victoria to go for the domination victory and she occupies the Western half of the continent. 100 turns to go. (Yes, I am slow.) Only Scientific, Domination and Score victories allowed.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

In a GOTM I was attacking Berlin with 4 donkey carts, flood=0 donkey carts
Not the best start when your capital is on low food hills.

Somehow I missed this post.
I feel better.
Thanks!

Oh, we do. Just not all fails get posted here
If you need more examples, in one of my deity games with zombie and apocalypse mode, my third city got eaten by a zombie and my fourth settler burned in a forest fire next turn, on the planned spot of settling, just upon the arrival.
In my recent GOTM game on Prince I got my second city eaten by zombies. But I carry on until I see the defeat or victory screen. Games with such events are at least somewhat more memorable

And this one too!

 

[Ordnael]

Gitarja makes it really easy to claim the Religious Settlements pantheon and get a free settler, which helps a lot on higher difficulty levels that grant the AI that extra unit by default.

 

[Zaarin]

Gitarja makes it really easy to claim the Religious Settlements pantheon and get a free settler, which helps a lot on higher difficulty levels that grant the AI that extra unit by default.

Gitarja's a powerhouse on Archipelago, but she struggles on Pangaea or even Continents if she can't get enough coastline.

 

[Leucarum]

And Mansa Musa/Peter can score a first pantheon probably more reliably than Gitarja too... Though she is a very good leader if you can stomach her music.