Wins on Deity

[WarKiwi]

I have had a look in HOF and it seems all the wins on Deity are on tiny land masses - in other words the wins come by stifiling your opponent and killing them before they are out of the ancient age. Has anyone managed to win at Deity on at least a standard map, or where the year has made it into AD?

While a win is a win, surely the name of the game is about building a strong civilization, not killing your opponent inside one era. Ok, ok, I know what you will say, and no I haven't won on Deity or even Emperor, but that is because I like a game with sprawling empires encompassing continents with long, high-technological wars.

 

[RogueNine]

I agree the game is about winning, but I too am curious if anyone has won on Deity and a large or huge map.

I'm sure its possible, and no I haven't won on Deity yet either.

 

[Magnus]

Agreed.

Civ3 gives too many points for early conquest - the game should reward building more than destroying.

 

[Cerryl]

I've found that you get more points for territory, my longest games have given me much more points than the shorter.

Of course, I'm only playing on Regent and my high score is about 2200, lots of room for improvement.

 

[Hobbes]

I have won once (and lost more than once ) on deity, on a small map. With the initial advantages the AI has it is almost required to have a militaristic strategy early in the game, your are able to get enough land and extort tech's by this method. After carving out a chunk of territory, I found I was able to switch to a build/develop strategy and actually win by a space race.

 

[Shaitan]

My one diety victory was on a small map. It was a diplomatic victory. Many, many losses on diety on all sorts of sizes and shapes of worlds. My current game is a standard map and at 450 BC I'm in good shape and about to wrap up my continent.

 

[lwchen]

I've won a few times on small maps on Deity level. It basically boils down to a good starting position where you have time to plant 7 to 10 cities before the 40% AI production bonus essentially squeezes you out. Hopefully you'll have a nice defensible border with only 1 or 2 neighbors. It's possible to wage war early on, but keep in mind that the AI gets like 10 free starting units so a really early rush is out of the question. Wait for Horsemen or Swordsmen.

Pangaea maps are the most difficult since nearly every civ has a land bridge to you. War is something to avoid on Deity. Trade is good on a pangaea though.

Continents are OK but chances are you'll either get a large continent with many neighbors and access to lots of resources or a small continent with a few neighbors but access to less resources.

Archipelagos are probably the best bet since it offers the most chance for initial isolation so you can actually establish your empire. Also, the resources tend to be more spread out. Bear in mind that trade is critical on Deity so you'll have to find some method of establishing communications. Chances are you won't get the Great Lighthouse.

My personal record timewise for a Deity game is with the Greeks. It took 1 hour from planting Athens to launching my spaceship. I got a really lucky draw with the land - seven good cities all blocked off by a choke point. With both palaces in correct locations there was minimal corruption. I never had to declare war, but did have to defend myself a few times.

I've never won on a standard sized Deity map, but did come up short by about 10 turns as the crappy English. The Russians took over most of the world and achieved a cultural victory in the 1700's. It may be a good idea to disable this victory condition on standard sized deity maps.

I haven't even tried a Large or Huge Deity map. As fast as the AI sprawls I just can't see how a victory could be obtained with so much land available to the AI.