Winning deity, no rush, no exploit ?

[anoxie]

Hi,

I'm back on civ 5, I played civ 3 few years ago.

I've been playing an emperor game, continent. Luckily I started on the largest continent but what if I started on the middle one ?

I've been reading strategies but they are basically based on rush. Can you aim a military win if you start alone on a small continent ?

 

[lissenber]

I think so. If you start on the middle continent like that then you don`t have to build early defending units and can better concentrate on micromanagement, buildings and cities. You don`t have to worry about a naval assault, the AI rarely pulls out a puny bombardment.

The whole rush strategy for deity is there because the AI can attack you pretty early. It`s also there to pull off cheap wins. You either destroy them quick or you`ll have to face a big army surprise attacking you.

 

[Roxlimn]

lissenber:

Guy has a point. The middle continent is rather small, it probably has a smaller share of the luxuries, you can't trade with the AI for bonus gold, and it doesn't have Maritime City States. In addition, there's a fair amount of desert and we don't know the river situation.

It may still be possible to win with ICS, but I'd say it'd be tougher without the usual techniques to help out.

 

[Slowpoke]

I don't play continents, but I've heard the A.I. won't even declare on you if it can't build/has no cities on your continent. So perhaps play normally for a while, mass build settlers, then build like a bajillion cities all at once?

 

[aguds]

Starting alone on a small continent would be ideal for a domination win in my opinion. I'm doing it right now with Greece, actually. Archipelago, but it's almost the same.

But it's sort of a cheap shot. The AI can not use navy efficiently(not even England), and their 'invasions' usually means sending one unit at a time across the ocean to get sunk by your two or three trimemes. In later era, you really only need a battleship and a destroyer with logistics to protect your entire kingdom.(I have 1 small island with 4 cities).

So you may sit there, invincible, and gather your army until it is time to unleash them.

Edit: I didn't see the 'no exploit' until now.. I feel this is sort of an exploit.

 

[stii]

It is certainly possible to win deity with no rush no exploit depending on what you consider rush/exploit but on your own island the AI is never gonig to attack you. Playing on a pangea you can certainly build up first but you will need to war at some point if just to clear space.

 

[bryanw1995]

diplomacy is the key here, though it also depends on how the big continent shakes out.

If one civ takes over the entire big continent then you're stuck going for cultural most likely. However, in most of my immoral/deity games the ai has a tough time taking over an entire large continent b/c both sides throw out tons of units every couple of turns. So you typically have 2-4 civs on a really big continent in the mid/late game. you need one or more of them to DOW each other to thin out their units, then rush the more powerful one while his army is occupied with the other(s). it's even better if you can then get another one to jump in on the bully, though that is typically very tough to do and won't be necessary if you a decent military and some good naval support. Beware, I've noticed that the ai is building a lot more military ships on the higher levels and they aren't afraid to walkover embarked units anymore, either.

 

[aguds]

It is certainly possible to win deity with no rush no exploit depending on what you consider rush/exploit but on your own island the AI is never gonig to attack you. Playing on a pangea you can certainly build up first but you will need to war at some point if just to clear space.

Yes they will. Just use the rudest option everytime you get a diplo-screen.
And tell everyone not to settle near you. And get secret-pacts with everyone, against everyone. Soon your approval is rock bottom, and they will come for you.

I also find the "Give me 10 turns" when asked to join a war, and later changing your mind also annoys them.

 

[stii]

Yes they will. Just use the rudest option everytime you get a diplo-screen.
And tell everyone not to settle near you. And get secret-pacts with everyone, against everyone. Soon your approval is rock bottom, and they will come for you.

I also find the "Give me 10 turns" when asked to join a war, and later changing your mind also annoys them.

It would be pretty funny to see every AI making terrible naval attacks all at once.

 

[LDiCesare]

I jsut won my first deity game as an isolated start. Alone on my continent, I saw ai's kill each other until there were 2 left on each of the other continent. I won by just buying the city states into a UN victory despite all the ai's having 10 or 20 times as much gold as I had.
No ai ever attacked me, and I never had more than 2 land units and 1 caravel at any time.
Using military tactics would have been possible once I reached future era as everyone else, using naval superiority, but it'd have been very long and boring. Considering the amount of units the typical deity ai will spam, not rushing means letting them build so many units it'll take days to finish the game so I wouldn't advise anyone to try.

 

[edcrane]

Domination will be a bit tricky unless you make use of the ICS strategy to out tech the AIs. The central problem is that you're very likely to be facing a runaway civ on the other side of the ocean. It will have roughly the same or slightly better military tech and two or three times as many units as you. Unless you nuke your landing area, an amphibious assault with new units is likely to fail.

 

[alpaca]

It would be pretty funny to see every AI making terrible naval attacks all at once.

You mean like this one where the Russians actually sent enough units to take four or five cities but failed to use them with any cohesion whatsoever so I could cherry-pick them with my cities and musketeers while in the water? Been there, done it

P.S: Persia's extra movement during golden ages is obnoxious for a deity AI who is practically always in GA

 

[anoxie]

Unless you nuke your landing area, an amphibious assault with new units is likely to fail.

That's the point, though I had the tech and economical leads, when I reached the coast of the middle continent I understood I had to land on the CS and not directly declare war to the AI, for the right one, I had to destroy the navy (5 subs, 10 destroyers) and nuke the land before the assault.
Then I wondered if I could have done that starting on the middle continent with no tech or economical lead.