Self Inflicted Pain (deity level)

[Pinchak]

My new hobby has been trying to win the game on deity level without new random seed, with locked accets, and a full boat of AI (17) on standard size map. Also, without using the Inca warrior rush loophole method.

Very painful indeed.

Best I ever did was lived to about 500 AD using the Spanish. Founded an early religion (yes, i stacked the cards by picking AI civs that didn't start with myst), chopped out stonehenge for the GP, then hurried a settler to a off shore island. My culture at my capital eventually took over an english city, leaving me with a grand total of 3 citys.

Things were not going that bad until Japan decided it didn't like my religion. Long story short, i got stomped.

That was on a terra map. My goal was to get early astronomy (tech trade was off) then grab a good bit of the new world before the AI did. After seeing the sheer tech advantage the AI gets however, i don't know if this is really a viable strat anymore.

A new idea is to use either egypt or persia, pray for horses in capital (or move cap to them) then rush nearest neighboor with either war chariots or immortals respectively. This would bring me needed early workers and some breathing room for expansion. So far I have a 4000BC save as egypt with capital horses. Going to try it.

Any other ideas on how to beat deity level without using Inca? Has anyone here done it? Tell your story!

[Solver]

Try doing it the "proper" way first - don't add more AIs to the map. It hurts you a lot at Deity, but it actually hurts the AIs as well. You'd probably get a more fair game with 6 AIs on a Standard map, or whatever the default number was.

I can't share any strategy advice, though - I'm probably years away from a Deity victory

[Pinchak]

Three things I noticed that help on Deity are...

Tech Trade On... otherwise, you really get left in the dust rather quickly.

No Epic or Marathon Speed... The free workers the AI gets are even a bigger pain in the a$$ due to the fact that now it takes you longer to get your FIRST worker. This may be a moot point if using the early war strat.

Lots of AI probably a Good Thing... The AI tends to pump out settlers until there is no more avaliable land. Considering the major early disadvantage you are placed in, keeping everyone elbow to elbow seems to minimize the AI's rabid expansion. The example I wrote where I had 3 citys was actually quite an achivement under standard/terra/deity.

I am thinking another stratagy might be to do full boat AI, then reroll till you get a map that has a fair amount of offshore islands that can be reached by galley. If you could get up to 3-5 citys while the AI is struggleing with 2-3 this could tip the scales.