Help in Emperor-Deity...

I played al the versions of civ for 5 years but i had one serious problem.

I played in Chieftain - Prince levels only to build ENORMOUS empires and to beat personal record.
If I wanted to play a chalenging game i played at King level and I usualy won by landing on AC or when the game ended in 2020 when I was an average size civilization.

When I tried to play emperor the game ended with two civilizations. One, the one i played with, a small technologically unadvanced civ. And the second, a huge civilization that conqured all the others except me.
Oh, if the game ended with landing on AC, my civ wasnt the one who sent the space ship.

When i played deity, I usualy survived till 1800, and then the other civs went mad on me and destroyed me.

So, please, all the experts here, can you post your strategies to begining a good game at Emperor-Deity level.

[Ken Hinds]

1. Someone is probably going to say it anyway so I'll do it first. Change your thread selection on this forum (strategy) from the default of 10 days to the longest possible. Look down through the older treads on the forum. You will be sure to find the topic discussed several times, probably within the last 6 months to a year.

2. I won't claim to be a constant winner against the AI on Diety, because I'm not. I settle for the 3rd winning option listed in the mannuals and guides, survival.

3. In most of my games against the AI, 75x133 game produced standard map, 7 civs, hoards, resetting civs, no one ever conquers the world or builds Apollo. Most of the time there is no nuke pollution either.

4. I tend to play as a perfectionist micromanaging, semi-aggressive tyrant. I don't form Alliances very often and very seldom accept offers of peace from people wandering around on my turf. I will accept offers of peace from civs that I discover on other continents, if they have not attacked me first and if I'm in the mood. If they start a war it will be forever or until one of us is history. If they capture one of my cities then I will get it back even if I have to nuke it till it's glowing rubble.

5. I try not to have my initial two settlers wander around for more than 4 turns. Hopefully there will be a special nearby that I can include in the first city. With the city founded I want as much trade as possible, but no less than 2 shields building power. If I have to give up trade then I will. As soon as the city is founded I change my allocation to whatever it takes to get at least 1 gold every turn. Normally at 40% taxes and 60% science I can have my first advance at the 6th turn after the first city is built. If I can get the second city built at the same time and also with a trade special then sometimes the first advance can be on the 3rd turn.

6. Once I'm getting a positive gold and science flow I start building warriors. Barracks come later since you seldom see other civs immediately on a huge world and the barbs can't kill your last defender in your capital city.

7. If I didn't get it as a free advance, my first tech is pottery for the HG. This usually takes 6 turns. Next I want Bronze Working for COL. While I'm researching these I'm churning out warriors until I reach size 2 on my capital. As soon as I have Pottery and the capital is size two I finish any warrior in progress and then change to HG. Maximize shields in the capital and send any excess warriors in the other city(ies) over to be disbanded and help build HG. Disband any warriors in the capital not needed for riot control. Send any single movement hut troops back to the capital for defense and disband the reserved warriors. If I find any two movement units in a hut then the exploring warrior returns to help build the wonder otherwise he keeps exploring.

8. While all this is going on keep pumping out warriors from any other cities that exist. If you get the message that another civ is about finished with the HG then disband everything possible and then buy the rest. When finished with HG start over again with COL.

9. From this point it all varies depending upon what other techs I have and my existing cities. As soon as practical I want a temple and 3 garrison troops other than warriors in the capital. Now is also the time I try to get barracks built in every city. I find that barracks make a good cash reserve. 1) They are cheap and quick to build, about 10 turns at most, 2) If you sell them off to rush build something important you get a double infusion of cash. Once from the sale and once from your increase cash flow. 3) the more that you have built when you discover gunpowder the bigger your cash back bonus.

10. I usually try to get Philosophy, Mono, and Invention as soon as I can. I work towords AC but usually get bogged down long before 1750A.D. so that my tech progress equals reality about then and as you have noticed, I'm sure, we don't have any colonies on AC in the real world yet.

Ken

[SandMonkey]

Ken had some good thoughts. One thing I might change is to make your first priority Monarchy. Get out of Despotism ASAP. Go for some happiness wonders, too, since happiness is my biggest problem on Emperor (I've won by conquest, on there a few times, and I am going for an AC landing). Try and build a Super Science City. This includes Colossus, Copernicus' Observitory, Isaac Newton's College, and the library/university/Research Center trio. Another good idea is to build Shakespeares Theater in your SSC, so you can grow it very large without worrying about happiness. That's a start, and soon the big guns will come in and tell you the nitty-gritty stuff about trade.

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

[jpk]

I agree with SandMonkey. Get out of Despotism as soon as possible. Memorize Alphabet, Code Of Laws, and Ceremonial Burial. They are the prerequsites for Monarchy. Whenever you are able to do so, choose one of them. When you are choosing new technologies you may not be offered one of those options. Then, if you do not already have it, you will almost always be offered the option of Bronze Working. That is a good choice because it allows you to build decent defensive units and you can start working on a wonder. While I always try to build the Hanging Gardens first, I usually start on the Colossus and then switch once I get Pottery.

One of the real problems prior to getting Monarchy is turning over lots of huts and getting technologies like Horseback Riding and Iron Working. The effect of all those worthless techologies is that it takes fifty turns to get Monarchy. I am reluctant to tip huts prior to getting Monarchy.

I prefer a five wonder super science city. The Wonders are the Hanging Gardens, the Colossus, Shakespeare, Copernicus, and Newton. You will not always be successful in getting all these wonders in the same city. The biggest problem is getting the Hanging Gardens and the Colossus. To do that you either need to get tribute, get lucky in finding lots of money under huts, or get trade real early so that caravans from other cities can help. Depending upon your situation the first and the last options are the most reliable.

This message would not be complete without a mention about building caravans. The earliest caravans you build are best used completing early wonders you deem essential. As soon as you feel you are in control of wonder building then start but never stop building caravans for trade. Preferably you will be able to deliver your caravans to a civilization on a different continent from the source. On small maps this is not always possible.

I am not a warmonger during the early stages of the game. If you are, feel free to ignore this advice. Basically I fee that you should only build caravans, diplomats, settlers, and defensive units unless you absolutely have to build something else. If your city needs to have an entertainer, consider building a settler to decrease the population. Have the settler spend a few turns improving the area around its home city and then have it go off and found a new city. Eventually you will have to build things like temples to maintain happiness but try to avoid it because it takes too much time from building caravans. Once you get Monotheism build Michelangelo and switch to Republic. Set your luxuries suffienctly high, say 20% to 30% so that many of your cities can experience We Love The Consul Days. You will soon have to build aqueducts. Becuase your cities are large your caravans will bring in a great deal of money and science.

One important exception to keeping cities relatively small at the beginning is your science city. Spare no expense in building improvements. You will want this city to grow as big as possible sa fast as possible. That's why I like to build Shakespeare in this city. It controls all unhappiness. The combination of the Hanging Gardens and the Colossus really helps with happiness. Even during Republic you should have no problem getting this city to grow as large as food allows. Consider using settlers from other cities help in irrigation and forest cutting.

You may notice elements of Infinite City Sleaze in this strategy. I try not to build things that do not contribute directly to safety, Wonder Building, or caravan building. The main difference is that I try not to overlap my cities so that at the end of the game all of my main cities have 20 squares for production.

Hopefully this message is worth $.02.

[NokturnuS]

Deity is piece of cake!

Monarchy(change government) -> Literacy(Great Library) -> Invention (Leonardo´s) -> Democracy (Statue Of Liberty). Change to Fundamentalism ASAP. Build LOTS of Cities and lots of units, preferably warriors and horsemen. Weak you say? Warriors turn into Riflemen and horsemen into Cavalry due to the Leonardo´s Workshop. With fundamentalism all unhappiness troubles gone. Reputation worth nothing! Build lots of diplomats, steal technologies and buy cities. Next Goal is Electronics (Hoover) and then Robotics to go for MASS howitzer. To 1900 you have at least 50 + cities and get rid of 1 or 2 civs.
It´s kind pf unbalanced issue but fundamentalism is TOO powerful.

[SandMonkey]

Xin, can I ask why a port facility is used for a production city? Do you get some bonus like how the airport gives you a trade bonus?

------------------
SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Check out my 1602 A.D. site

[Xin Yu]

A civ game has two stages. At one point your civ will get to a 'stable' stage, and you want to keep your settings except for some emergency situations. Before that is called 'growing' stage, when you try to get to the stable stage as soon as you can, provided it is safe to do so.

Let's discuss the stable stage first. You build up your civ by wisely distribute your food, money, science, luxury and shield. You can build every city improvement in your cities, but that is too costly. Hence you should concentrate on one of the three elements (money, science, shield) and maximize it.
Money approach: build marketplace, bank, stock exchange, superhighways, airport. Trade a lot.
Science approach: build library, university, SETI, superhighways, airport. Also build a couple of science wonders. Trade a lot.
Shield: build factory, Hoover's dam, port facility, manufacturing plant.
Out of the three the money approach is the best. You can build the first three improvements pretty early, your luxury is increased at the same time (help to solve happiness problem), and you get your investment back pretty quickly. You will have enough money to buy everything (including rival civs' cities).
Now back to the growing stage. Go for Monarchy, then trade. Mapmaking is not a must but very helpful. Afterwards set tax 70%, science 0%, luxury 30% (hire one scientist in one of your cities so the research won't halt). Build marketplace and caravans. Go out for trading to get banking and economics. Build banks and stock exchanges. More caravans, and more caravans.

[Ming]

I think Xin meant off shore platforms...

But then again, he does love to have those veteran ships

[Xin Yu]

Ooops, it should be offshore platforms. Thanks Ming.

[Scouse Gits]

Instead of building the GL (it gives you loads of tech you don't need and slows your progress to the advances you really want) - try the HG - with the Colossus in your capital. This produces one trade rich city in the BC years. Those early caravans to and from your capital provide worthwhile returns.
______
SG (2)

[kcbob]

I use a strategy that combines a little bit of everything said here. Now I've only beaten Deity level a few times and usually it's by conquering, not AC.

And it depends on whether you're playing OCC or not.

In non-OCC, I don't do HG. I go for Colussus and a SSC instead. I manage unhappiness with temples, colluseums, and luxuries. Oh, yeah, and MC. I also like to build the GL if possible. Leonardo's is a must. As is SoL. Adam Smith's is great, too. Actually, the bottom line to getting these is caravans, caravans, caravans.

As for expanding on a city by city basis, I found a city, develop around it with your other settler, and build a warrior. As soon as the warrior is built, I build another settler and send the warrior out about three squares to explore. Bring him back quickly to avoid unhappiness. When the next settler is built, send either him or the first one out to build your next city. And think ICS!!! You can't sprawl all over the map. You have to build fast because you're going to run into the AI soon. (Did I mention I play on a small map?)

Down the road, build railroads as soon as you can between your cities. Movement without them is a bummer. (Pretty basic idea, huh?) And I am a HUGE believer in espionage and spies. NOT wimpy diplomats.

And in the late stages of the game, Hoover Dam and Robotics are must haves. I forget who turned me on to this, but an army of howitzers is absolutely UNSTOPPABLE!! If you get to robotics first, the world is yours.

As for OCC, I've only won one game so I'll leave that advice to others for now.

------------------
Frodo lives!

Better dead than "Red"... or green... or blue... or yellow... or orange... or purple... or white.

[This message has been edited by kcbob (edited July 08, 2000).]