Deity for beginners: a peaceful builder strat.

[punkbass2000]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but this is a thread about peaceful deity strats, so the fact that you're able to warmonger yourself into a position of superiority and the ToE is thus useless isn't really relevant.

It is also quite easy to lose at that stage in a peaceful deity game, and hard to win. The ToE is a real boon that makes both diplomatic and spaceship victories much more attainable, which are two of your main choices in a warless game.

[jshelr]

I can certainly attest to the fact that it's easy to lose a deity SS race even after you get ToE. Civ A attacks you while civ B putters by on the tech tree to the launch. Happens all too often.

[vmxa1]

Fair enough, I was only responding to the idea that ToE is an exploit.

[Cort Haus]

First, I'd like to add my congrats to Txurce for peacin' together this (and other) Deity wins. I'd been honing my Emperor peace strat prior to a walking break in the Cumbrian mountains (yum), intending to post details on my return - only to find I've been trumped in advance. Well played!

I've never even fired up a Deity game, so I can't add anything to that debate, but I treat the ToE as a key objective for peaceful power on monarch/emp, where war and extortion are not available tools for attaining tech. Is the ToE-Hoov two-step an exploit? Not in my view - certainly no more than prebuilding wonders, 'exploiting' the AI-shunned areas of the tech tree for clawback-tech-trading, or 'exploiting' the AI's strategic military limitations and propensity for self-destructive war. I see all these as at least valid and at most necessary methods of overcoming the AI's huge bonuses on the higher levels. For me an exploit is something cheap 'n cheesy like scout-resource-denial or ROP-rape.

Theseus - was your deity-OCC idea to allow flipping or not? I've never played OCC in any Civ game, and I'd like to try it sometime - but not on such a high level at first - maybe Regent. If flipping's allowed it might be fun to see how much turf Babylon can win on Deity by just sitting there building culture. Would war be a key component - to get the GL's for wonders? With Theseus, I expect it would!

[Txurce]

Cort Haus, I'm envious of your trip to Cumbria. Yesterday I almost felt guilty in selling genetics for 270gpt and more, one turn before I built both its wonders (partly due to a prebuild). One turn later, the AI would have considered it worthless.

[Brundlefly]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread because I am trying to win at Deity now. I'm not comfortable as Warmonger, so peaceful is the only way for me to try to win at Deity. Does anyone expect peaceful Deity strat to change for c3c?

[Txurce]

Feephi, I play Deity only every now and then these days, and almost never peacefully, but this is the gist of what I suggest you try in pursuit of a (for example) diplomatic win on deity:

1. Expand quickly, building a settler factory if possible. Build your cities tighter than the classic pattern, so you don't waste good tiles for eons.
2. Build lots of workers from the start. The AI is 40% more productive than you - this is how you start evening that out.
3. Send out explorers right away. Maximizing early contacts is key to holding your own in tech.
4. Maintain a decent number of offensive units, so you can fight off an invasion.
5. Research what the AI doesn't - as a rule, the lower branch of each tech tree, but also math in the ancient era, and the printing press in the medieval. (Check Alexman's thread for more). Then trade at the right time - ideally, when you have a monopoly and the tech you want isn't one anymore.
6. Build the Lighthouse, if other continents separated from you by oceans are likely. The resulting monopoly contacts can make a huge difference. (If you have particularly productive tiles, consider building the Library - knowing the AI will race you for it. Nothing beats the Library in a peaceful deity game.)
7. Be efficient with your infrastructure. Markets, libraries and some courthouses are key. Temples and cathedrals are to be avoided unless you're religious - you shouldn't need them to maintain happiness.
8. Unless you're religious, switch governments only once, to republic.
9. Build the FP or jump the palace as soon as you have a second city core available or in the works.
10. Your ultimate targets are the wonders gained by scientific method and fission, both of which can be prebuilt. Expect to fall behind in tech early in the Middle Ages, and to come back later that era. You can be way behind, nip the AI to the ToE wonder, and basically clinch a win right there.

Note that the first nine suggestions here increase productivity - and theoretically could be accomplished in the ancient era. And don't forget that just because you're not a warmonger doesn't mean you can't occasionally benefit from kicking a dog when it's down, or giving the finger to a civ halfway across the world.

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From what little I've read of C3C, there seem to be a few changes made expressly for the purpose of encouraging non-military strategies.

[Datajack Franit]

All the above plus get desperately one leader and rush either Sistine, JS Bach's, Sun Tzu's