Deity difficulty and TOT

[lord of the mark]

Is there anyone here who has played at deity level on both TOT and MPE or other earlier versions? Have you found it significantly harder on TOT?
(Im talking about the original game, not the additional TOT only games)

I play TOT and wonder if some of the comments here about SP deity being easy, though partly due to the skill of the players involved , and partly due to their use of superior strategies, is in part do to the "friendlier" AI on pre-TOT versions, as compared to what I have heard is the more aggressive AI in TOT.

I am referring in particular to strategies involving peaceful starts, not to ICS or other more aggressive strategies, where the AI personality should matter less. I am also not referring to OCC which I intend to address in a seperate thread (though it was a recent OCC game that got me thinking about this)

LOTM

[VetLegion]

I played original game (not extended original) in TOT and MGE. Yes, AI in TOT is harder then in civ2 regular version, but it is virtually the same as in MGE (too agressive).

[solo]

I learned on ToT, thus learned to deal with the nastier AI. As long as you defend yourself well, they are not really a threat. In non-conquest games, when they attack, bribing or taking one or two of their cities gets them to beg for peace, and then you have another peaceful stretch to trade and build your spaceship. AI interactions in MGE are about the same as in ToT. In OCC games, 2.42 works the best, because long lasting alliances are fairly easy and they are what you want most. Peace is easy to maintain, too. I've also had long-lasting and profitable alliances in MGE, but have always been able to manage better tribute and gifts using 2.42.