Need Demigod Strategy

[Brundlefly]

Moved up to Demigod from Emperor. Playing as Koreans on Large Map.

It doesn't appear to be going well. It is 1000 BC and most of the AI are getting done with late Ancient Age techs. They have completely shut me out of all early wonders. I am lagging far behind the rest of the pack in power.


My approach has been to rapidly expand and build military units instead of building culture and wonders. In the early turns of the game I built warriors and curraghs to explore and contact as many AI civs as possible. My rapid expansion does not prevent the AI from growing faster than me. Every AI has a military that outnumbers my force.

My income and science output is not sufficient to compete with the AI, so I am planning to start a war with a distant AI civ and drag other civs into an alliance. Hopefully, by the time the alliance expires, I can generate income through alliance renewals.

Is this the proper strategy for Demigod? It appears that I have lost the game already. I cannot imagine being able to overtake the other civs now. Should I stop trying to expand? Should I go to war earlier? Is there a better chance for me to win a Demigod game on a smaller map so the AI cannot expand so rapidly?

Probably a civ like Maya gives me more of an advantage. Korean seems like more difficult choice. I dont want to make it too easy though.

[vmxa1]

Getting the feel for the pace of the level is useful. Once you have done a few games, you know what to expect and when, in terms of pace.

I would agree that Korea is a hard choice. Science trait is useful at Demi.

To get an ancient wonder you have to determine the one you want and pick a civ that will help you get there first.
IOW if you want GL you need to start with Alphabet and beeline for Lit or Phil. Using Phil to get Lit for free. Time a prebuild to get in the best position to switch to the GL.

The one thing about a large or a huge map is that you have more civs. This means more starting tech types for the AI to swap around. The more likely that one will have Alpha. The more likely that you will face Seafaring civs that have it and can get out to scout islands.

You can expect to be behind longer than at emperor, all things being equal. It will take longer to catchup.

Huts are less kind and barbs are more dangerous. Land and pop are still king.

[Aqualung71]

I'm going through the same thing. You need a decent sized empire, and that may mean earlier wars. You will probably need to do this in the Ancient age, because you will fall behind in tech in the Middle ages and the AI defenders will be stronger than your attackers. By the way - this is what I've learned I should have done, not what I did do It's even harder to do this if you're playing archipelago.

The one strategy I've been able to manage ok so far is picking the right tech to research, and Literature has worked for me because the AI doesn't seem to research it until late and so it has good trade value. The early techs are useless in trade value unless you can contact other civs very very early, and I haven't been able to research Writing by myself before anyone else gets it, which makes the Philosophy gambit hard to pull off.

You need to keep a decent defensive military at all times....partly to ward off the AI (you can't afford to lose land) and partly to stave off flips, since you'll probably be miles behind in culture.

Bottom line is keep your head above water as long as you can and check diplomatic screens almost every turn because smart trading is the only way you're going to keep in touch with the tech leaders.

All in all, a lot harder than Emperor.

[Brundlefly]

I've started a new Demigod game on a standard map as the Mayans. It is completely different. For one thing, I have seen a lot of huts and I actually got a settler out of one of them. Unusual since I am not expansionist civ. My ability to rapidly expand along a nice river has enabled me to research at a rate close to that of the AI. My power is almost equal to the AI civs I've met. I guess Maya is the ideal civ for these higher levels because of rapid expand, rapid build, early UU.

On a side note, I always play barbs = raging. I thought this provides best challenge for me, but it is more of an exploit against the AI civs because they spend some much time and energy going after barbs that they leave their cities undermanned and ripe for attack. In my current pangea game, a civ at the southern tip is sending a stream of warriors across the continent to attack barbs in the north. Stupid.