Winning Civ V on Deity

[Lady_Error]

The hardest difficult level (Deity) is not even close to being fair, since the civ players receive huge advantages over you. Still, with the right game setup it is possible.

- Since a Science, Cultural or even Diplomatic victories are pretty much unwinable, turn them off.

- Choose just one opponent on a small map, preferably someone who will not spam cities everywhere, eg. Denmark.

- I like the Highlands map with ridgelines, because you can easily close off entry points.

- Take up as much of the map as possible, without getting too close to the opponent. In my case, Denmark didn't attack me despite having a 10:1 military advantage for much of the game.

- I guess it helps if the opponent or any of the city states don't have access to uranium or much aluminum (stealth bombers).

Simply said, build up a strong military after you researched all of the technologies. Build atomic bombs and a few Giant Death Robots, as well as other units you can send to the front to be sacrificed to the enemy Stealth Bombers.

Use your own Stealth Bombers to finish off the wounded units and the cities after nuclear attacks and go for the capital as fast as possible.

 

[octavius]

In Civ 1 the key was blitzkrieg using Chariots.
I guess that's not an option in Civ 5?

 

[Lady_Error]

Seems unlikely to work, since on Deity the opponents will have huge advantages over you and you can catch up only at the end of the game. I have to say, after Civ 1, Civ 5 (with all the extensions) is my favorite.

 

[Mr. Pink]

I find it a lot easier to end Deity games quickly, before modern era by wiping out one civ at a time each era. I won my first deity game as the germans, using captured barbarian units to capture workers and harass the enemy until I got artillery in place.

 

[Mustawd]

Still playing Civ 2 and 3 I'll get back to you in 20 years or so.

 

[Noodles]

If you survive until late game you'll still be bored.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Best way to win Civ is to install Alpha Centauri.

 

[Jimmious]

All good lines, but Corporate_Jew_Master wins this round

 

[Metro]

Problem with Civ AI is that at the higher levels it's necessary to 'exploit' their obvious shortcomings in order to succeed making the game ultimately less enjoyable.

 

[Lady_Error]

Well, the biggest shortcoming is probably their combat behaviour.

 

[Norfleet]

Difficulties where the AI cheats outlandishly pretty much invalidate any point of an honest game. At that point it's all about how you can exploit loopholes to win anyway. This, of course, assumes you know said loopholes.

 

[Eyestabber]

Instead of trying to "git gud" at the Oblivion of strategy games, you should try:

- Uninstalling this turd and whipping yourself for caring about Civ V to the point of trying to beat it on max difficulty
- Reinstall Civ 2, 3 or 4 (since you played Civ 1 to death). I recommend Civ IV
- Try one of the many MANY cool mods that game has and are still getting updated ten years after the game was released
- I recommend Fall From Heaven 2 if you want some high magic medieval fantasy. I don't recommend the modmods. Less is more and all that
- Final frontier plus for some space "PEW PEW laz00rs!!" adventure that doesn't run like shit
- Realism Invictus for a "2hardcore4vanilla" experience
- And ofc, one can't reallly forget to mention "The Next War" that comes with BtS. "Vanilla with a cherry on top" mustplay experience.

And these are only the mods I actually played for a hundred hours or so. Civ Fanatics forum has a ton more.

EDIT:

OH, and there goes another 200 hours of my life. Thanks a lot, OP!

 

[sser]

Play with lots of civs so you can barter and trade your way into staying technologically up to date. Don't go for early-game slingshot strategies. Don't war anyone for a while if possible. Prioritize vertical growth. If by mid/late-game you haven't caught up with AI, quit and restart.

 

[Saark]

Try babylon, one city, go for science victory. Did it once and it worked like a charm. It's only there for a challenge though, for everything else I'd suggest uninstalling the game like someone else already mentioned. Korea and maybe Siam might work too. Korea plays rather similar to Babylon, for Siam you will need a couple of good city-states close to you with barbarian camps next to them that you can farm repeatedly for influence and an early growth boost.

 

[Raghar]

You weakling try this. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=404448920 It's now about what difficulty you are playing, it's about what game you are playing.

 

[Lady_Error]

Reinstall Civ 2, 3 or 4 (since you played Civ 1 to death). I recommend Civ IV

I liked Civ III, but could never get into Civ 2 or 4. One of my main gripes is the isometric perspective that I dislike. I want my Civ games to look like Civ 1 with top-down perspective and the strategic view in Civ 5 is exactly like that. I don't even know how people play the game in regular view.

 

[Metro]

While I think Civ 4 and 5 each added a few solid concepts, 3 is probably my favorite. I usually challenge myself with one-city culture/space victories.

 

[an Administrator]

Play Civ 4 BTS for awesome mods. Even there is a rpg/strategy mod for this. (Age of Ice)
My favorite mod is Rhye's and Fall of Civilization. It too lovely if you want a historically accurate experience.
But if you can't get into stacks of doom you better play Civ5 .

 

[kris]

I never really play on the highest difficult because of reasons Norfleet posted, but I can't see how Civ5 would be that difficult on that account. Now I even feel like doing it... biggest exploit is the AIs ability to wage war, but I can imagine it being a chore when they can cough up 10 times as many units as you. Easiest maps should be island maps as the AI fail even more in naval invasions. Playing Polynesians on an archipelago map sounds like an task that is not to difficult, on a smaller one you could possibly expand before the AI have the technology to leave their starting island.

 

[Malakal]

I didnt have many problems with Immortal is Deity even that much harder?

 

[Average Manatee]

I didnt have many problems with Immortal is Deity even that much harder?

On Civ 1-4? Yes. IIRC original Civ 4 deity was considered pretty much unbeatable until they toned down the bonuses in the expansions.

On Civ 5? Not really, that AI is just that bad at waging war. On release it was possible to conquer the world with four horsemen (the so-called four horsemen of the apocalypse build). And the biggest way they've changed it since then is by nerfing horsemen, not making the AI better at fighting battles.

 

[Lady_Error]

Yeah, on Deity the AI has the numbers advatage until the late game, but it is pretty bad at waging war. Their other advantages make it almost impossible to win in any other way than conquest. Maybe the Time victory is possible too, since you usually catch up to them in the late game.

 

[Malakal]

In civ 4 playing on Pangaea was considered at least one level more difficult since AI was crap at naval game. Perhaps such standards should also be implemented in Civ 5, like only open plain maps are true Deity?

 

[Eirikur]

Decent video. Only one negative issue.

 

[Eyestabber]

I didnt have many problems with Immortal is Deity even that much harder?

On Civ 1-4? Yes. IIRC original Civ 4 deity was considered pretty much unbeatable until they toned down the bonuses in the expansions.

On Civ 5? Not really, that AI is just that bad at waging war. On release it was possible to conquer the world with four horsemen (the so-called four horsemen of the apocalypse build). And the biggest way they've changed it since then is by nerfing horsemen, not making the AI better at fighting battles.

AI in Civ V let's you kill its archers and siege weapons while at the same time makes no effort to kill yours. Higher difficulties only make the AI cheat harder, it's still just as idiotic as before. AI was never Civ's strong suit, but at least in Civ 4 with more straightforward mechanics the AI managed to suck less.

Also, someone mentioned ITT the "stacks of doom". Check Realism Invictus. That mod takes the thinking man out to the problem and adds a logistics and supply system to the game.