Settling on a river is so overrated. It's settling NEAR a river that makes it worthwhile. The only bonuses you get from settling on a river is building a watermill which is too expensive to maintain, therefore I scarcely build it in games. And the hydro dam which comes late and again isn't that important. Obviously there is the defensive bonus however I would argue being 1 tile away from a river can be better because it means any attacking melee units must cross the river (halted in their tracks) and wait for the next turn in order to attack your city. This is way more important that having them suffer a 20% attack penalty on the turn of actually attacking your city. Furthermore placing your city one tile away allows you to place blocker units in front of the river meaning your enemy needs to attack your blockers with a 20%attack penalty. The main bonus of rivers is +1 food from civil service which is still available when settling 1 tile away from a river.
City on a river or lake gives you garden building which is +25% great people spawning rate. Thats huge for capitol city where are usually guilds and specialists. Other option for garden without river or lakes is Hanging Gardens wonder, where gardens is free. So, for specialists city, garden is a must, hence a river or lake
My favorite Deity victory was with Venice. I paid my neighbors to fight each other through a lot of the game while gobbling up as many city state allies as I could. Towards the end of the game everyone was hostile towards me and I constantly had enemies march forces near by borders. Ended up winning by buying up all of the city-states allegiance a few turns before the vote for world leader, then declaring war on everyone so they couldn't buy any out from under me. Tense game! Great tips here though, definitely going to apply some to my next play through.
Nice job, indeed sounds tense! Definitely a great tip to buy up all the city states and then declare war so they can't be stolen back! Hope the tips help!
it's a modern cornered facecam, nothing like the days of old. Also, it's well structured and the audio quality is decent, so nothing like the post aughts sphere of gaming vids :p
0: Balance empire strength with getting there fast enough. 0.5: Aim for four cities. 1: Settling in place is underrated. Move for a mountain, a luxury, a river system, or a hill. 2: Two-scout opener, then shrine, monument, worker. Granary is overrated. 3: Tradition over liberty in most cases. 4: Pop 3 over Pop 4 for building settlers. 5: Production focus at Pop 3. 6: Early internal trade routes for food. 7: National college by turn 100 on Standard speed. 8: Late cities are OK, but need help. 9: Don't think wide vs. tall. Think "tall enough, soon enough." 20 or 18 pop for the early cities, 15 or more for the late cities. 10: Only build wonders for which nobody else has the tech yet.
Hi - thanks for listing those out! In case you're interested, here are the full notes I used to create the video: drive.google.com/file/d/19Io5y4IJsnqWodnALOSySBVc4fb8X0q5/view?usp=sharing
@@humptizy50 Good question! It's about building a Granary when it makes sense You're building Settlers by T20 quick speed, and a Granary only helps speed up settler production in certain scenarios A Granary AFTER building settlers is something I very often do. Similarly, Granary first in most expansions is my rule of thumb But building a granary alongside 2 scouts and a shrine is usually too much and risks losing out on good expansion spots, as well as getting your expansions down a bit late
Brilliantly overexplained Deity Strategy! Thank you so much. I had been stuck on finding Emperor too easy but failing at Immortal and Deity. Using these tips I have finally won Deity science victory as Korea. Shuffle map: Archipelago. Turn 319 Standard speed. Using internal food trade routes to grow my cities fast in the mid game was a revelation! Despite having 5 luxuries and 5 cities and building every happiness building I could. I really struggled with happiness until taking the order Ideology. Looking forward to more tips in the future.
Thank you for the kind feedback and glad you found the video useful! Nice job on your first Deity victory! A decent timing and highly respectable because Shuffle map archipelagos are quite difficult to play well! It's natural to struggle a bit with 5 cities on 5 luxes but it sounds like you handled it well!
Early Granary is acceptable only if you have at least 3 Deer, Wheat or Banana within a radius of 2 tiles of your city. As you rightly say, getting to 4 pop is quite hard. Getting an additional 3 food gets you to pop four ~5 turns earlier which offsets the Granary build, this is beneficial for some but not all Civs.
Ah - thank you very much for letting me know the math! This will be really good to know for the future, so I know when I can build a granary in addition to whatever else I would do and not lose out!
Hey I know this was posted over a year ago, but seeing someone with more current CIV V content is refreshing and great. So I have a ton of experience on immortal difficulty, and I've found consistent success following a somewhat similar approach. Usually I open in the same build order, but sometimes I drop a scout to get a granary in, or get my worker more quickly. The other thing is I always build 2 expands, because essentially what I do is fill the Tradition tree, then you get to the juncture of Education vs Machinery. What I usually do is if I am on Pangea or any land mass that I can reach another civ close by, I always push for a crossbowman push, I go take that capital and knock them out of the game. I also gain my 4th city this way. If you don't have a viable civ close by, or you're on a small land mass, islands etc, then you can delay any kind of military push, (or skip it all together potentially) and just go straight for Education. The other option is also grabbing Chivalry for a Knight or two, as Knights are just flat busted with crossbow push, you can pillage, move away, and capture the city with so little risk it's insane. So I bring all this up because sometimes you just finish Tradition way too early, and before you hit Renaissance era. So this is an interesting juncture, and this is what Filthy Robot refers to as, "filler policies" when you're in this juncture of the game, and you have enough to get a social policy, but you can't get Rationalism quite yet. What would your advice be here as a general practice to grab as a filler policy? So my go to like 99% of the time is to go Honor, because I am defaulting to a crossbow push, and honor is just helpful during this period. But I suppose for sake of argument let's say I skip and go for Education skipping Machinery, Chivalry, Metal Casting etc. I suppose if you can probably hit Renaissance in time just rushing Education, but it can be problematic if you have an aggressive neighbor or you need crossbows just to simply defend yourself. Even if you want to invest in getting say 5-10 just to be safe, you're still going to have to somewhat detract from hitting Renaissance in time. The other strat is I'm more invested in skipping building a monument, thus speeding up my completion of the Tradition tree far earlier, so again this adds to the, "filler policy" problem more so as well, lol. It's a good/bad problem to have I suppose, haha. I like the idea of a passive grab for the Liberty opener giving you one culture per city, and with your ideal set up of settling 3-4 cities, this seems like it could possibly make up for the loss of taking a less than ideal, "filler policy" during this juncture. In an ideal world nobody goes to war with us, which isn't always viable. But if you do go passive you might still possibly miss the cut off and have to take a filler policy as well. I'm also working on changing my approach due your micro management and your other video giving a break down of your turn by turn build orders. I've had some success on diety, but have had issues with losing to early war, or if they are passive they just usually run away with the game on tourism and win through culture because I'm just too slow to go kill them or stop it. Usually on immortal you just have way more leeway, you can go to war, take on a neighbor, get a 4th city, then go back to Education, develop and then go for Dynamite for Artillery push again for the civ that might be threatening a tourism victory or diplomatic victory at this point, so I would go kill them and if it's feasible kill everyone else, if not I just take out whoever can win then default to science victory to close the game out. This usually works like 99.9% of the time on immortal. As a note I'm not saying you can't just opt for Machinery and go past it for a tech in Renaissance to hit it on time if you push the bottom tree, but this also slows getting University, and slowing science just seems like a bad time. But maybe the play is grab Renaissance, and circle back for Education, not sure. This way you start grabbing Rationalism on time, and delay Universities a bit. But maybe it's ok to take 1 or 2 max filler policies in Honor and/or something like Liberty opener. At this point Deity is just the level I want to take on, and get consistently good at. Also one tip I can say, is I micro manage my citizens a lot, I shift them constantly depending on what I need. It's easy in early game and hitting the settler phase to shift them to production focus only. But I usually stay on top of them depending on what I have going on. But I think at some point past like 10 citizens, it's just super tedious to shift them around, and you're probably working your best tiles at that point anyways. Thanks for the tips/videos, they are refreshing and also helping me learn a higher approach to transition from an immortal level player to hopefully a consistent Deity level player, cheers!
Tip 0: Civ is not just about building the best empire. It's about balancing empire strength with getting there fast enough. You can build a strong empire that loses because you were too slow. Tip 0.5: Aim for 4 or more cities, one city per luxury. Don't be afraid to settle more cities. Tip 1: Settling in place is underrated. Too many players focus on finding the perfect place to settle and forget the benefits of settling quickly. Tip 2: Early build order: Always start with two scouts, then build a shrine, monument, or worker next. Tip 3: Prefer Tradition over Liberty. Tradition is better for growth, gold, and happiness in the early game. Tip 4: Build settlers before a national college if you're going Tradition. Getting cities out early is more important than getting a national college quickly. Tip 5: Production focus in early Tradition games. Don't focus on growing your cities to population 4 before building things. Tip 6: Early internal food trade routes. Build trade routes to get your capital growing faster. Tip 7: Wide vs Tall: Don't think about wide vs tall empires. Focus on getting as many cities as you can while making sure they are big enough to contribute to your empire. Tip 8: Building early wonders is an exception to the rule. Building wonders can be very powerful, but only build them if they won't slow you down too much. Tip 9: Your capital needs to get to population 25 or greater. Your other core cities need to be population 18 or greater. Your other cities need to be at least population 15.
I'm so glad I finally found a guide that is quick and to the point. I feel like most other YT channels would have made this a 2 hour video with so much filler for no reason. Great video!
After playing Deity games, I realized that having an enemy warmonger civ is much better than having "peaceful" civs. Seriously I'd rather have Shaka next to me because he'll wage war with another civ for pennies. In my experience, England and Poland are the worst neighbors. They don't take bribes and if they do the price is too high. They also love to expand and backstab you when there is opportunity.
That is a very good comment - thanks! You're right about the civs. As long as there are other neighbours, it's MUCH better to have a total warmonger over a backstabber civ that doesn't take bribes, particularly the loyal warmongers like Shaka Peaceful Deity strategy makes great use out of bribes, so warmonger AIs who don't take bribes are the biggest problem with the strategy!
Great video ! I'm a beginner and I'm binging on tutorials to beat my friends. This one is probably the most useful I could find for my objectve, so thank you :)
This really shows the truth about civ, if you want to go beyond prince difficulty you have to set role-playing and memes aside and min-max. Good tutorial though, great for those achievement farmers out there.
Thank you! My aim was to show people strategies/tips to help improve their games, that they could trust to work at the highest difficulty. I agree that the truth of playing any game at it's higher difficulties are that you have to min-max or "tryhard", and that the set of possible strategies does narrow as you optimise, such that you are reducing your chances of winning by trying something different. I would say that you can "tryhard" without explicitly min-maxing to beat Deity (so as not to offput someone who doesn't want to hardcore min-max), but it does definitely increase your win rate as it allows you to handle a wider range of positions!
What does this mean? I'm not a min-max player, I get into the narrative of a game, and I can't play below Emperor because it's too easy. Usually I play on Immortal now for the challenge. Then again I still haven't been able to master Diety, so I guess you're partly right there! But I don't think you need to focus on min-maxing for anything above Prince...Prince is kind of a cake walk, no?
@@bncrain It's funny because for Deity I play as the Huns and roleplay being an ancient deity of war who conquers the world with immortal horse archers who can shoot arrows over a day's march worth of hills. Either that or making sure you don't play against Huns on Deity.
Thank you for the kind comment! Glad to know it's been useful to you, I've been contemplating doing another related guide of Deity level strategy so good to know people enjoyed this one!
I went, through all the comments and I def appreciate the dedication to respond to all of them, I personally haven't won yet even against immortal but I will use these tips to try and get my first Immortal win
He's a complete fraud mate...how can you even dream of wasting trade routes on sharing food with cities, when you need absolutely every penny to fund an army which is necessary at the harder levels because the other civilizations keep going to war with you. Also, his discounting of early wonder wonders is ridiculous... because money is always a problem at the harder levels... I find that mausoleum is an absolute must... that way you a desperately need 100 currency every time you use a great person...
I'm glad you appreciate the comments! I feel like, as a small TH-camr, you have to take these opportunities while you can since I won't be able to answer all the comments forever if the channel grows! Good luck on trying to win! PS, I have to disagree with Haden's comment, they are sharing suboptimal advice. I'm not sure what Haden's deal is or if they even play Deity, but if you have any doubts about my play or tips you only have to check out my Twitch or the gameplay uploads if you want to see how to execute them properly
Please see my previous reply to Haden. It's my belief that building a large standing army on Deity makes you much less likely to win than if you don't, because it wrecks your late game chances Instead, I advise paying the AI to war each other using the GPT you gain by selling your strategic resources for 2 GPT for each one, because the 1 for 2 GPT cheese works well on Deity. There is also some advice to avoid wars, which is to not forward settle AIs. Land coveting is a huge factor on Deity, and if you get warred every game I would be willing to bet you always forward settle the AI It's crazy how much a difference your settling strategy can make to AI propensity to war. It's one of the key reasons why Liberty/Wide is hard to play on Deity. The more cities you settle the more you forward settle.
@@PCJLaw this cannot work surely- I've had so many games where you are just placed so close to other civilizations...in those situations from the start you're creating border tension and are likely to be invaded, which then creates the need for a standing army.
Fair enough, I can't really argue with you, except with my experience livestreaming Deity games for the last 8 months I really don't do anything more, and I barely get attacked, let alone killed on Deity, so I hope we can find something that reconciles the difference in our experiences. ----- I'll copy a comment I just wrote to someone else, in case it's useful: 1. Paying AIs to war each other AIs "telegraph" their intent to war you by moving army to your borders. I keep a watch out for military units in places they shouldn't be, as they're usually moving into position for war. The Deity AI always moves to your borders before declaring war. This enables you to spot that early, and pay them to war their other neighbour with GPT. While an AI is "distracted" with a war, they won't declare a new one. Most AIs won't war more than 1 civ at once, but the odd AI will war multiple. Keep an eye out and pay when you need to. Selling your strategic resources 1 for 2 GPT is quite critical for this strategy. I call it the "Deity tax". You get more money from that cheese, but you have to spend it on wars 2. Not forward settling AI too much One of the biggest factors in Deity war is coveting land. Their huge military emboldens them to action on it. You'll notice I settle far less ambitiously than most people I've seen, and there's a reason for that. Forward settling the AI makes them "covet your land", which causes war declarations. Be prepared to pay AIs to war if they covet your lands, and avoid settling too close to them if you can avoid it My rule of thumb is 8 tiles or less from the capital, and always closer to my capital than theirs. This way, you'll keep coveting to a minimum, while maintaining the room to settle enough cities
Anyone here like me playing Civ again in 2022 cause of all the geopolitics? And wanting to feel what it's like to manage a nation. Seriously though my friend and I have thought that some politicians could be better by learning Civ or speaking to Civ pros 😆
America is still #1 on the scoreboard, and China is #2 with the most population and production. Japan is #3 and almost won with the sneak cultural victory, but now they're still trying with anime culture bombs. China would be #1 if they had better diplomacy and could somehow take Taiwan so that their navy doesn't remain as a glorified coast guard. They don't need a tech lead while they can still steal technology and they still have new stuff to build.
All of these tips were new to me as someone that usually plays around Chieftain and struggles with any amount of aggression. Although as a poor boy that can't afford BNW or G&K, about half of the tips/suggestions went over my head. Still, I learned to look for a spot with both hills and grassland, build Scouts first, that Tradition is best (at least for my luck, I've played on larger-than-standard maps and still end up stuck with a peninsula spawn surrounded by seven city-states and a neighboring Civ), Granary can wait for Settlers, and National College is the first Wonder you should go for.
Hi! It's a shame the BNW/G&K specific tips weren't useful to you That's a decent summary of the early game, however it's been so long since I played Vanilla! Definitely recommend going for scouts first, getting your cities out, tradition and aiming for that T100 NC (Standard Speed) or T67 Quick! It's surprising how few cities you can found sometimes on normal maps!
Troyes is pronounced the same way as trois. Thanks for all these strategy videos, they help a great deal. I do hope that, when you have time, you do more.
On my very first game on immortal, William beat me to the space ship with 2 turns left on my stasis chamber. If i'd have done these tips i probably wouldn't have lost. Thanks bro.
Nice video. I have many deity wins, but your tip about leaving early cities at 3 pop due to the tradition finisher bonus was something new to me. Also like your perspective on "as many as possible tall enough"
Hi - glad you found it useful! Yeah 3 pop is a nice guideline, although if you do have the spare happiness you should grow them anyway! 3 pop is such a nice balance between getting your Granary and Library built fast, but also actually growing a bit! It also helps to make sure you don't accidentally grow one expand too big and run out of happiness for your other expands! And yes, Tradition finisher is so strong it really helps you catch up! Better to get those buildings done than to waste time waiting more than 8-10 turns to grow on quick speed! Yes "as many as possible tall enough" is something I learned watching a lot of top MP players. 8 cities tends to be optimal for super fast science victories, and cities over 10 population always pay themselves back as long as you get the science buildings built! Plus, you get extra empire-wide production! A city that builds a bomber in 5 turns is better than not having a bomber at all! The only city that needs to be really big is your capital, 25+ population by T130 quick speed is what I aim for. That's because of it's impact on GPT, competing for wonders, building Guilds/National Wonders and the NC science bonus
@@PCJLaw Thanks! Agree with all of that. Effect of capital size on GPT is a huge mechanic that you forget about until the day you try liberty. An underrated factor in how many cities to settle pre-NC is just how long the walk is - sometimes it's only like 7 tiles but every tile is rough, and then when you get there, you find a camp on a hill with an archer and a spearman. 7 more turns until your own archer can get there. Nice way to gimp yourself for like two eras!
@@lujoconnor Oh yes city distance and travel time is a huge factor - good call out! I am a big fan of not travelling too far to settle for that reason, but also shows the value of an early archer purchase if you can't afford a worker and don't need tiles! Definitely an easy way to screw yourself by founding a city too late before NC. One way around it is to tech optics when coastal and float your settler around rough terrain & camps, which is something I don't do enough of!
Glad to know they helped you! Yes - they're not meant to be the hyper advanced tips - more a consilidated set of the things that, if you do them well, are more than enough to consistently compete and win on Deity
I'd add 1 crucial one: city states are your friends (even if you steal their worker early). It's like Tradition, I always end up going that tree because their bonuses can help you absolutely everywhere. They can have bigger armies than you and serve as natural obstacles. That's why Venice is my go to civ for winning in Deity :c
As a complete scrub, I insist that I spawn on a river with at least 2 hills and no desert or tundra in sight, and that the AI lets me complete -> Great Library -> Free Philosophy -> Oracle -> Hanging Gardens -> National College -> Settler -> Settler -> Notre Dame - Or I'm restarting :D
Haha! Everyone likes to play differently, although this is a little extreme :P Btw Temple of Artemis is the best growth wonder in the game. Your game would probably go better if you exchanged Great Library AND Hanging Gardens for Temple of Artemis, in case you're looking for a new wonder ;)
Thank you - very nice series of vids!) Interesting!!! (i might be only 1 - but the music on background was a little bit too loud and sometimes i got to re-concentrate on content)
Hey bro really appreciate the video. I'm pretty good at civ in that I have won immortal with every civ, but I was struggling in finding room for improvement in my game. I think tip 5 is where I usually go wrong and I'll watch some more of your stuff before attempting deity with an average civ (have played deity once before and won with Babylon). Usually I will always just go for max food output , but with the national college timing it makes sense that I shouldn't focus on it before completing tradiition.
Yeah, old and done before many a time... Thanks for the feedback - one of my first videos and I learned a lot from all the comments that have been posted in response Hopefully I can improve to have better production and delivery on my videos in the future!
Ive been trying to do the jump to Immortal difficulty for quite some time. I win confortably with almost every civ in lvl 6 but in lvl 7 i only win using Shoshone, and with lots of struggling. Im gonna use this advices to improve my game, so thank you beforehand!!
Good luck on making the jump! I hope these tips help, and do ask if you have any questions! Let me know how it goes! Also, consider Poland or Babylon if you're looking for a powerful civ. They're much easier to use and do well with!
@@somekindoflatindude9497 Nice! Yeah those Winged Hussars are cool units! More things to make Poland even better than the free social policies and the Ducal Stable!
Yes it does, you are correct! The free amphitheatre can be quite useful, as it's a meaningful culture boost that early! The thing I struggle with is finding a time when a Monument so early on is a better choice than a shrine/worker/settler
@@peacefuldawn6823 Scouts are very important! I usually build 2 and buy a 3rd. Ruins are a massive boost to your game, and well worth the delay to build 2 scouts for. Also, the extra vision on the map and blocking capability on the scouts makes them super versitile I highly recommend building 2 every game
There's some good information here but also some clear errors. 1. in single player I never build workers early. Its a complete waste of production when you can steal one from a city state and another from your nearest AI neighbor. Additionally very early workers are more of a liability than an asset as you have you defend them against barbarians and they can't improve much until you get some key technologies. There's almost no penalty from very early war with AI and you only get dinged by one city state stealing a worker as long as you don't ever create a 2nd war against a city state. You can even steal multiple workers from the same city state if you leave the initial war open. 2. Building a monument is typically a waste if you are going tradition. If you open a double scout build you'll almost certainly get at least one culture ruin. 3. Libraries are pretty much useless before pop4. You'll get only 1 science per turn or less before that, not enough to overcome the maintenance cost. Until you are almost ready for national college don't build libraries in low pop cities. 4. Moving your initial settler is almost always better than settling in place. Any better location 1-2 turns away is worth it. For example, lets say your initial spawn is on flat land, but there's a hill within one turns movement away. From what you can see you don't lose any critical tiles by moving. I would always move to the hill (after scouting with warrior to make sure I don't want to go somewhere else) by losing one turn to settle you lose about 5 production that you would have gotten turn zero, but by settling on the hill you get +1 production per turn for the entire game vs flat settle. Thats easily 300 hammers during the entire game.
I did a run with Poland going Liberty Commerce Order (check the channel), I took like 20 workers of city states around to build fast roads (extra happy with Liberty) and get Machu Pichu, I even got the best religion with the desert. Happiness comes from the last bonus of Commerce, then with other I boost it with monuments that is always the first building I make in new cities. All mony is used to build banks and during every turn I pay AI to fight eachothers, even when it's super expensive ^^ I can do it with Pocatelo too on imortal but I don't have enough happiness without the policy bonus of Poland for diety. It was on a large earth-map. I also suggest to be friend with Shaka and Moctezuma, when you are friendly or have more points they won't fight you and accept to fight the others, it's just important to ask them to stop war when they are going to take big cities with many wonders or they win... For the moment I only won with Poland on diety. Also you can cut trees to get extra production for wonders, and keep the extra bonus engineer to make Machu or Petra ^^
Thank you for this guide, it's awesome. Been playing on Prince/Warlord but want to make things more interesting. As others have said the music is distracting, I'd prefer it without. But otherwise like I said, great video. Cheers.
I'm glad you enjoyed the guide - thanks for the feedback! Thanks for the comment on the music, you're definitely right, I was a TH-cam noob back then! I will probably make a re-do of this guide without it in the future as it's popular and could be improved
It's actually a good idea to build a granary If you have 2 or more granary tiles. This usually allows you to grow to pop 5 or even more before you start building a settler and each settler is going to be built faster than without a granary.. Which pays off the time building a granary and growing to pop 5+.So when you stop building settlers you have a cap with more cities and a granary. Usually. It depends on a situation but saying no one ever needs to build a granary before getting settlers is just wrong.
Thanks for the tip, it's something I've been wanting to figure out actually, but on vanilla maps I've struggled to find the situations to try it so I'm glad to know for sure! (Where I have 2+ granary resources and I don't need to rush a city location) My aim for the granary in capital tip was to try to help get people out of the mindset where they build a granary far too often, which I feel happens more often than someone who doesn't build enough Granary pre settler! Although it does risk mis-represent the nuance of the Granary
If you’re rapidly settling cities, chances are you’ll be struggling with happiness before you get most of your luxs online. Wouldn’t it be more optimal to leave building granary after you’re done with settlers? If you’re close to pop 4, worker seems like a better choice, or even an additional blocker/escort unit. Plus, deity ai generally expands quite aggressively. The earlier you pop out that first settler, the higher the chance you get to secure contested spots.
@@fishheadgorilla Hi! You're right talking about happiness, too much growth definitely puts a strain on that! The early game is definitely a balance between growing your capital and getting expands to a reasonable size You're right about the pop 4 stuff too, there's a time and a place for early granary, and 3 pop settlers make sure you grab those super contested spots! That's why I often won't build a granary in situations where it would be good, to make sure I get that spot! I would more likely try a granary on multiplayer with the right situation, because it puts you in a better position to grab a wonder after settlers But you summed up my thoughts perfectly! The other user is also right too though, early granary with granary resources is a nice accelerator too
Hi! That certainly helps! I favour keeping peaceful for the first 100 turns (and bribing wars) as I find it usually guarantees me the win, but there are definitely other viable strategies! One strategy related to yours that I've never been able to master yet is the "true domination" game, where you win the game by Industrial era. One day, perhaps I'll manage one for the channel!
I know you won't see this, but I want you to know I really enjoy your content and I think it's a real shame that you posting videos on Civ V. Personally, I think it's the best iteration of the game. Civ IV is great, but I think 5 is more tactical in the way stacking works and with the hex grid replacing the squared grid. Civ VI, on the other hand, is inferior to both 4 and 5. It was good to begin with, but it made the classic mistake of most modern strategy games: it became bloated. I saw an interview with Sid Meier that summed up Civ VI's issue (for me, at least; I understand that many people prefer it). Sid said that they always walked a fine line between adding too little to the game and adding too much; Civ VI added way too much. Anyway, thanks for all the hours of content, PC J Law, I've enjoyed learning from you and hope to see you in the future.
Good stuff man, the 3 pop to get 4 cities is a great tip, can't wait to use it on my friends lol. About policies, what do you think of opening tradition then going for the free settler in liberty and then finishing tradition? Maybe I'm just bad but it always seems like the best option to me because it also sets me up to get the roads policy around the time I'm finishing connecting my cities
Glad you found the tip(s) useful! My personal opinion is that, while the policies in Liberty have value, you're better off not taking them. The reasoning is: Rationalism and Ideology policies are so powerful that you're going to want to acquire a set number of them by the end of the game. You'll want all Rationalism policies for sure, with Secularism and Free Thought taken by T140 quick speed. You'll also want a minimum of 3 Ideology policies, but in Freedom and Autocracy there are some other great ones to take. For science victory, you'll need 6 Ideology policies. Now, that all takes a set amount of culture, but the more other policies you take, the more you're going to need to generate to get those crucially powerful ones. Simply put, taking the extra 3 policies in Liberty means you'll never get those policies by T180 quick speed, if you also want to finish one of Tradition or Liberty. You will also delay Rationalism an unacceptably long time, because the bonuses from the Opener, Secularism and Free Thought are way too good to be delayed by taking too many pre-Rationalism policies Best to think of it like you have a set number of policies to take by the end of the game. That's probably around 18-20 for a Deity or higher level MP game. You'll want 6 for Rationalism and 3-6 for Ideology. If you assume 6 for Tradition too, then taking 3 Liberty policies takes you to 21, or one too many. Also notably, the benefits of Tradition are only good when taken early. You delay those crucial Tradition growth/happiness/culture policies by dipping into Liberty, reducing their effectiveness. Tradition opener and then full Liberty could be viable if you're going for a wide empire of 6+ cities, but it's generally accepted that if you intend to finish Tradition, Tradition should be the first 6 policies you pick. If you're only going 3-4 expands, you can hard build those settlers fine from your 3 pop capital anyway
I know this is kinda old, but how does he get his UI to look like that? Especially the righthand tokens with all the civ and diplomacy info, and the unit tracker in the bottom left
Thanks so much for this, it would be nice if you could change the thumbnail for your more lesson and tips and tricks videos as compared to your streaming videos, but the fact you're making these at all is awesome thanks for doing so
Thank you for the kind comment and glad you're enjoying the videos! Nice tip on changing up the thumbnail, I'll consider it. The background does make it seem more like gameplay so perhaps it can be improved... I originally wanted it to show how my demonstration game pans out as "proof the tips work", but perhaps it doesn't need to New guide video coming tonight/tomorrow hopefully!
Emporer is quite a good level though! There's also an element of fun and flexibility that you don't get on Deity in particular, such as early war I'd say the main thing to focus on is getting settlers out and growing your cities tall through the Medieval and Rennaisance eras. Once I learned how to do that, finding the science to compete on Immortal and Deity becomes a lot easier!
@@paulchen4447 Oh dear... sparse settings sounds dreadful! I play a lot of shuffle so I get dealt sparse settings from time to time, it's pretty rough having to build those colloseums and zoos early!
Lemme make you feel better I've played the game for over 5-6 years now Few days back I lost on turn 3 in prince difficulty because I used my settler as a scout cause I wasn't happy with my starting location.
I realize this is probably too late to get an answer, but what do you mean in tip 10 by "checking tech costs" to make sure no one else can build the wonder?
Excellent video, we share a very similar style of play, except i play on epic speed, and for fun i like prince to see if i can build all the wonders. One thing we differ from is the granary, i like building it asap especially if wheat or deer heavy but i do agree if long time to pop 4 then a settler is better
Thank you - I commend your patience with playing Epic! It can certainly be fun to play Pokemon with all the wonders, I miss those days! You're right that granary first can be better for your capital with a wheat or deer heavy start! However, even when you get that situation, sometimes I find you need to prioritise a Settler in order to claim the land around you, especially on Deity or in Multiplayer. It gives you a better chance at securing lands for yourself. With growth being so much less efficient before aqueducts, I think it tends to be better to make sure you don't lose a spot, than to strengthen growth in the capital so early All that said, each to their own opinions and if it works in your games and lobbies then do whatever is most fun!
i like winning before late game, sure u can fight deity with nukes but if theres still a few left youll be getting nuked by everyone else for being the first, and if not nukes, theres no difference for late game. edit: only thing id say is hanging gardens is the best wonder and i get it first before all else followed by aqueducts since i can make up lost time with a massive mid game population
The thing is that if you don't start with a civ that builds wonders, start on a hill, next to a river, with multiple gems, and on the coast with crabs or pearls, you will be behind, because, this is what is what is required to not be behind, instantly and for the rest of any one play through. I have experienced this having owned this game and played it a lot for like 10 years... You can be the first civ to build the great library but you will still lose the game, because even though you're doing everything right, the enemy civ has 3 times your military, seemingly, without the need for money or maintenance costs, and barbs spawn in any dark spot on the map at any turn of the game... and yet, even when the scoreboard says you're behind, the enemy still wants scholars in residence, even when their ahead of your tech, somehow, when you got the great library first... so, what is objectively true about Civ V, the fact that it actively attempts to ruin your experience with tricks. You will start a game on even the Prince/Normal level and you will instantly get Barb-Ganked, repeatedly, without even having RagingBarbs ticked on... it's really frustrating. Yeah, you can buy or train units, but then you have 0 gold to maintenance, all the while, you'll wonder how the enemy didn't get Barb smacked, the same why you did.... it's almost like... the game lies... alot.
I don't understand how anyone plays with barbs...they *completely* ruin the game for me. I turned that noise off about a month after I got the game and 1000+ hours of gameplay later I've never looked back. 😅
if you play on deity you will be behind the ai most of the game. that is part of the challenge (unless you play babylon its easy to catch up) however the game is beatable with any civ if you play well enough
Deity is extremely difficult, but using a tiny map and quick speed are handicaps that ruin the game, imo. I wouldn't play that way even on chieftain difficulty, it's just not the spirit of the game, and it cultivates poor strategies and habits in endgame players. Love the way you lay out the vid, just wish you didn't play only this very handicapped way
Hi - and good luck! I have often found the key is that first 100 turns, if you can found 3-5 cities and grow them strongly before then it really helps! (Guide to growing cities coming very soon)
Yup, I agree this is the best setup, thanks for letting me know! I have heard of these and watched some games, but I wanted to make these accessible to whatever the map generation has given to you, and is easy to play Often I don't even have more than 3 unique luxuries available (and 5 total) to settle, and Liberty is harder to play well in my experience
Sadly not sorry - I recorded it live in one take using shuffle on Pretzel Rocks music software I can tell you it's a TH-cam safe song from their Chill EDM playlist, but not more than that
Interesting comment - you could definitely do that, but you get a free Amphitheatre if you already have a monument! That free Amphitheatre is a lot of production (and extra culture) so I take it when I can get it! The challenge is usually just trying to fit an early monument into your build queue if you need it
@@nerdlingeeksly5192 Ah yes! As Songhai I believe you get a Free Mud Pyramid Mosque, and as Siam you can get a free Wat if you also have an amphitheatre!
I am absolutely flabbergasted that you are pumping that much science out on that turn near the end of the vid. Its well over double mine at turn 300, but im also very rusty getting back into the game. Playing on normal difficulty till i can stomp the AI out and only barely ahead of them in skill. My current playthrough ive been hamstringed due to lack of happiness and only made progress when i made the number 2 civ give me a very favorable peace deal, (lots of resources to keep my empire happy). I noticed there wasn't much much advice on the conquering side of things. Did you have any tips on that as well? Its hard to win military victory when my empire is constantly unhappy
What do you mean by "if" you can grab a good faith, culture, or food pantheon? I'm probably just not as familiar with the mechanics, but aren't all the pantheons available to everyone? If I can make a recommendation, the music is so busy, and even has lyrics, which makes it hard to hear you properly. If you're going to include music at all, background music shouldn't be distracting. Thanks for the tips! I feel much better prepared for trying my first real deity run.
Yes you're exactly right! Context does matter, although these tips are surprisingly universal (e.g. I think you would not want to deviate as often as you might think) Maya is a great example. You've got a special building that elevates it's importance, and thus you would prioritize it more than usual. A Shrine (Pyramid) is a must-build 2nd or 3rd for the Maya, whereas a regular civ would build a Shrine 3rd or not at all, depending on what Pantheons are viable given the land!
Heya. Im from age of empires 2 pro scene, but Civ is wonderful. I have a question. I manage to loose a game on King to a culture victory (pangea normal map maxed with players) so I did intentionally unbalance the map. But if I go for science win - and someone gets a cultural victory notification - how should I react? Instant attack culture threat half across the map - OR is there another way? When great artists are not enough due to so many players. I wonder what I couldve done different?
Hi! Interesting to hear you come from AOE2 pro scene! AOE3 was the first PC game I ever got addicted to! There's actually a way to tell how soon your opponent will win a culture victory by clicking on the "suitcase" tourism icon. Then, you go to the "influence by player" tab and select the opponent in the drop down menu. If you hover over where it says "rising", it will tell you how long it will take them to win How you should react depends on how close you are to your victory condition. If you think you can do it sooner, then do nothing and perhaps pay some AIs to war them. If they will be faster, pay some AIs to war them and do your best to intervene if you can, although unless you're able to capture their capital by boat there's often not much you can do Generally on King difficulty, building and working your guilds, building opera houses and the Hermitage, and a city state ally should be more than enough to block a culture victory from the AI (on Brave New World) Hope this helps!
@@PCJLaw Yea surely the advanced UI settings I should take a deeper research trip into and see how they really work. I believe I'm playing it too passive in mid to late-game, after the initial borders are established, but the balance is very hard to find. Thanks for the answer, I do appreciate it.
@@yohanbeck8172 No worries! I love answering all the comments! There's definitely a lot of stuff hidden in the UI that can really help, and the Enhanced User Interface mod I use is also a big step up There is certainly a balance between passiveness and aggressiveness. Taking more land in the medieval era on Immortal difficulty and below can be super strong. Researching Metal Casting -> Civil Service -> Machinery (-> Education) after your national college is a super good way to use crossbowmen to take down an AI or two while they're not prepared. What I've learned recently is that your aggressiveness in the Industrial Era and later needs to balance with "how many players are left relevant to the game, who could potentially overtake you if you go all in war to kill everyone now" The fewer players are "relevant", the more aggressive you need to be and the earlier you should strike. Checking demographics and population per city is a good indicator for how relevant an AI/player is
Hi! Thanks for the advice, I've heard it from others too so definitely looking to make improvements in future guide videos and perhaps a re-do of this one!
I am confused. When I play Diety my first builds pretty much always have to be: Scout -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Warrior. No way you can build Shrines and Monuments when you need defence for the cheating AIs nearby who will arrive with 4+ Warrior army well before turn 50 (I play standard speed).
Hi - good question! It depends a little on the way you choose to win your game! A "true domination" where you go to war early and never stop requires different play. Aside from that, all victory conditions benefit equally from the tips in this guide These tips set your empire up to snowball during the Medieval, Rennaisance and Industrial eras. Late-game Domination, Tourism, Diplomatic and Science victories all benefit highly from this snowball. That's because before this point, you benefit the most from improving your empire as a whole and setting it's foundations, and then you specialise during Industrial and Modern eras So TL;DR I would say yes, they still apply for all victory conditions, with the exception of "domination through the ages". In fact, this is how I generally play my games, unless a scenario comes up where I have to take special action Hope this answers your question!
Usually, yes! At 3 population you get a good balance between "getting your first expands out early", "having decent settler production" and "not screwing your capital too much" Building your first settler at population 2 can be fine, but it will delay your next settlers and leaves your capital a bit worse off Building your first settler at population 4 is a perfectly okay thing to do, but the problem is how long it takes to grow to population 4. Unless you have a bunch of 3 food cattle/banana, or 2+ wheat/deer that becomes 3 food 1 production with a Granary, it's quite a long delay to grow to population 4 first. That delay increases your risk of losing a city spot. For that reason I prefer population 3, but as with other tips in civ, it's a "very good rule of thumb", but not a "hard rule"
Thanks for your helpful comment! I am annoyed at myself for not fixing it originally but I hope to replace the video with something less loud in the future!
One thing I wonder is, by following these rules, I will never find time to build something like the Great Library or Temple of Artemis. Are they just not wonders to try and rush on high difficulties?
Is it really possible to win a domination victory in 8 civ map deity difficulty? Even if I get a very good start as Spain with 1500 gold from natural wonders, the AI still manages to overtake what ever lead I made in the early-mid game.
Hi - yes it is! I rate domination victory as the 2nd easiest victory condition on Deity, behind Science and ahead of Diplomatic and Tourism Ancient-Rennaisance Era war is generally very hard on Deity, because of all the crazy AI bonuses. The game is rigged so you don't have a fair fight in the early stages. However, on Deity you can often pass the AI by the Modern/Atomic Era. The trick is to acknowledge how OP Stealth Bombers and XCOM Squads are. Stealth Bombers cannot be intercepted, and XCOM Squads have 100 combat strength and 40 paradrop range. You can use a combination of those two to "snipe" all AI capitals and win the game, since the Domination victory condition requires you to only control all original capitals. The usual path is to spam GWBs, upgrade them to Bombers, and spam Bombers/Paratroopers for upgrading to Stealth/XCOM. You would take 1-2 capitals with Bombers, and use Stealth/XCOM to clean up the rest The only reason Science is better is because it's 100% peaceful and often just as fast if you have more than 900 science per turn Hope this helps?
@@PCJLaw Thanks for the reply. I won a Spain deity game with 8 civs but I think it was more due to luck because I got Great Barrier reef connected to my 2nd city and found another natural wonder within 10 turns. Also I was pretty much at the edge of map even though it was a Pangaea map so I didn't really had any invaders. I was already ahead since Classical age because I was able to get a lot of wonders thanks to the food, science, production and faith(pantheon) from the GBF. I'm currently trying to win a game with a mediocre civ but I find it really hard to balance between growth, expansion and preventing an invasion.
@@Nemesis_T_Type Wow - I always love a good Spain Natural Wonders game! Indeed getting that balance right is pretty challenging! Growth and expansion should go hand-in-hand. Grow your cap to pop 3, and spam the settlers you need. Then get your granaries up in expands as 1st building and get a few workers and a granary in the cap followed by caravans to send back to the cap. 3-4 cities out and National College by around T70 quick speed is a good place to aim for! As for not getting invaded, nothing will screw you over more than building an army you won't use offensively! I prefer to use my GPT, strategic resources and spare duplicate luxuries to bribe any neighbouring AI who covets my land to war their other neighbour. Much cheaper than building units at such a crucial time for non-unit infrastructure!
Do any of your tips change if you only play on the huge map type with 12 civs on continents plus? I ask because in this situation it’s much much harder to reliably find a city state to steal workers from because most of them are across water on that map type
What is your build queue pre national college? And is there some buildings that you never build, just because they are considered somewhat useless? Im think of buildings like caravansaries, constabulatories and operahouses? And what about the guilds and the GWAM's? Do you pop them for culture and golden ages or do you fill Great Work slots?
Great questions! Pre National College I have two separate strategies (for sim city play), one for my Capital and one for my Expands Expands: (We'll do these first because they're simpler) 1. Monument (if not Tradition, otherwise skip) 2. Granary 3. Library (if needed to hit NC timing)/Worker/Trade Route/Lighthouse 4. Library if it didn't get built at (3). Otherwise one or two of the others in (3) that weren't a Library, unless I need a Circus/Colloseum For the expands, our priority is to grow to pop 3 and get our Granary + Library up by T60 ish to start on NC in the capital. Granary is needed to accelerate growth immediately after finishing Library and for internal trade routes. The other buildings are for accelerating growth. We sometimes build a worker in the expand to get to 2 workers per city, which is considered optimal. Your cap simply can't build all those workers alone Capital: (More complicated, but here's my basic order) 1. Scout 2. Scout (unless archipelago) 3. Shrine 4. Worker (if I can chop forest or find it difficult to steal one early) 5. Settler 6. Settler 7. Settler (if going 4 cities) 8. Settler (if going 5 cities) 9. Worker (while production focusing) 10. Granary (while production focusing) 11. Trade Route/Worker (while food focusing) 12. Worker/Trade Route (while food focusing) A military unit (or two), such as an archer or chariot archer will often have to be fit in between (6) and (11). I slot it into the queue whenever I find I need one. Similarly, you may need to move the worker up to position 6 or 7 if you're going for 4 or more cities. I'm generally looking to get 2 Trade Routes, and 1.5 workers per city out before National College. If you've got more cities, some of those workers will need to be built in your expands since your capital can't spare the time to build them all
I rarely ever build anything from the constabulary line, but otherwise most industrial (or before) buildings are worthwhile to build at some point (in priority order), with perhaps the exception of the Hospital, Museum and Military Academy. Those buildings and anything after (with the exception of Labs!) are more suited to specific situations, and not needed every game. Even in games where they'd be good, it's often better to just build a military unit or two. Opera Houses are actually decent buildings, but only because of Hermitage! Hermitage is powerful for your culture. Unless you've got 2+ cultural city state allies, you'll need it (and therefore Opera Houses) on Deity difficulty to get Rationalism and Ideology 6 done in time for a Science Victory As for the Guilds, I try to get Writer's and Artist's up around T100 Quick Speed, and immediately work both slots. This is to accumulate Culture, and Great Writers/Artists. They are both saved for bulbing at opportune moments. Artists are bulbed for Golden Ages, timed for when I need to build Factories, Public Schools or Research Labs. The rest are bulbed after Labs, whenever they arrive, or for Spaceship Parts if I'm going Science Victory. Writers are bulbed at the end of a golden age, once I've got my culture up significantly. That's because we need flat culture to get all the social policies we want. Saving them for when we have higher culture gives more culture. Typically this times well with when Free Thought is your next Rationalism policy. On Deity, they do not pay themselves back when burnt for Great Works, except when going Culture Victory. (Don't forget that Artist bulbing gives culture via golden ages) The Musician's Guild is not built unless I am desperate for culture or I am Sweden
We could start on Guilds a little earlier, but you don't want to take "2+ filler policies" between finishing your opening tree and starting Rationalism if at all possible. If you want or need 2 or even 3 (!), better to use Oracle to get the free one. This is because it delays Rationalism by increasing the social policy costs, as well as because it becomes your 9th/10th policy as opposed to your 7th/8th Any other questions, or if you need me to clarify anything, do let me know! There was a lot to cover so I tried to keep my replies to the point!
Whats your thought on saving the optics and compass research to have faster spy steals? I think it can be really strong in landlocked games, atleast for a while.
Hi! It's a very good point actually, saving optics and compass can be super helpful to get good spy steals off the AI, so I won't ever disagree with doing that as part of a stealing strategy - it's a smart play! Personally, I don't actually spy steal vs Deity AI, so I prefer to research Compass for the trade route as soon as I know where I stand with my Rennaisance entry and Rationalism. Internal food trade routes are the cornerstone of a fast and early growth snowball strategy, so I prefer to research Compass before T100 quick speed unless I'm entering the Rennaisance era via Banking (since Banking has a trade route on it too) The reason I personally don't spy steal vs Deity AI is to use the spy to rig a cultural city state. They are a huge boost to culture and placing the Rennaisance spy in a city state usually guarantees it as a game-long ally after 2-3 election rigs. Without it I really struggle to get an ally, and then I back my population and science beeline to carry me to tech lead
@@PCJLaw That is indeed a good alternative to spy stealing. This is what is so great about Civ 5. The game allows for so many different approaches. Still hasn't gotten stale after 2k hours!
@@Vuosta 100% agree! Even on Deity there's flexibility on approaches as long as you grow hard in the early game! You can also see why some people play so much multiplayer because it opens up even more strategies, but you still get to play people with Immortal/Deity competency!
I usually rush for the great library wonder before I build my first settler, is that a bad strategy? If I cant build it in time, then I can purchase the settler from the gold as plan B. I really find the benefits so worth it in early game that I rarely choose not to go for it. What are your opinion?
Of course! The only mod I am using is the following: Enhanced User Interface v1.28: forums.civfanatics.com/resources/24303/download?version=22637 There is a later version of this mod, v1.29. However, v1.29 tends to be banned/frowned upon in the Multiplayer community as it gives away important war information that's unavailable to an unmodded player v1.29 here: forums.civfanatics.com/threads/enhanced-user-interface.512263/
It’s a free culture building, not a free monument. If you build a monument before getting the free culture buildings, then you get a free amphitheater instead.
Accidentally replied to the wrong comment - apologies! I'll paste my response here for consistency: You know, I never noticed! You're right to know you can't settle on plains to get a stoneworks! However, I can't say whether or not it's a good idea. Moving for it "starts you one turn late", so I can't say moving for a one tile stoneworks (that you'll also need to build) is the better play My approach to moving is to only move for immediate short term benefits, big overall benefits or an observatory, since they can be so powerful. Not sure if one hammer one happiness eventually pays off enough!
@@beepbop6542 I could have done, you're right! It gives up both of: starting on a hill and working a 2/1 tile right away though On reflection, whilst the stoneworks city might end up better in the end, the value of that extra 2 production per turn right away might be too much to be worth it God King is a super strong pantheon when taken early, in part because of it's extra 1 production! It's super hard to give that up for a stoneworks
Settling on a river is so overrated. It's settling NEAR a river that makes it worthwhile. The only bonuses you get from settling on a river is building a watermill which is too expensive to maintain, therefore I scarcely build it in games. And the hydro dam which comes late and again isn't that important. Obviously there is the defensive bonus however I would argue being 1 tile away from a river can be better because it means any attacking melee units must cross the river (halted in their tracks) and wait for the next turn in order to attack your city. This is way more important that having them suffer a 20% attack penalty on the turn of actually attacking your city. Furthermore placing your city one tile away allows you to place blocker units in front of the river meaning your enemy needs to attack your blockers with a 20%attack penalty. The main bonus of rivers is +1 food from civil service which is still available when settling 1 tile away from a river.
Amazing points
City on a river or lake gives you garden building which is +25% great people spawning rate. Thats huge for capitol city where are usually guilds and specialists. Other option for garden without river or lakes is Hanging Gardens wonder, where gardens is free. So, for specialists city, garden is a must, hence a river or lake
My favorite Deity victory was with Venice. I paid my neighbors to fight each other through a lot of the game while gobbling up as many city state allies as I could. Towards the end of the game everyone was hostile towards me and I constantly had enemies march forces near by borders. Ended up winning by buying up all of the city-states allegiance a few turns before the vote for world leader, then declaring war on everyone so they couldn't buy any out from under me. Tense game! Great tips here though, definitely going to apply some to my next play through.
Nice job, indeed sounds tense! Definitely a great tip to buy up all the city states and then declare war so they can't be stolen back!
Hope the tips help!
civ 5 in 2021, hell yeah!
Yes!!! Glad people still love the game as much as I do!
Same. Started getting into civ with 6, but vastly prefer 5
2024 now
very informative video! Also with the music, facecam and Civ V this feels really nostalgic, 2011-12 era internet. I love it!
Haha! Thanks! I'm not old but I'm certainly not up with the latest memes and internet trends - I guess it shows!
Thanks for the kind feedback!
it's a modern cornered facecam, nothing like the days of old. Also, it's well structured and the audio quality is decent, so nothing like the post aughts sphere of gaming vids :p
0: Balance empire strength with getting there fast enough.
0.5: Aim for four cities.
1: Settling in place is underrated. Move for a mountain, a luxury, a river system, or a hill.
2: Two-scout opener, then shrine, monument, worker. Granary is overrated.
3: Tradition over liberty in most cases.
4: Pop 3 over Pop 4 for building settlers.
5: Production focus at Pop 3.
6: Early internal trade routes for food.
7: National college by turn 100 on Standard speed.
8: Late cities are OK, but need help.
9: Don't think wide vs. tall. Think "tall enough, soon enough." 20 or 18 pop for the early cities, 15 or more for the late cities.
10: Only build wonders for which nobody else has the tech yet.
Hi - thanks for listing those out!
In case you're interested, here are the full notes I used to create the video: drive.google.com/file/d/19Io5y4IJsnqWodnALOSySBVc4fb8X0q5/view?usp=sharing
@@PCJLaw isn't it a contradiction to suggest passing on Granaries but also using internal trade routes for food?
@@humptizy50 Good question!
It's about building a Granary when it makes sense
You're building Settlers by T20 quick speed, and a Granary only helps speed up settler production in certain scenarios
A Granary AFTER building settlers is something I very often do. Similarly, Granary first in most expansions is my rule of thumb
But building a granary alongside 2 scouts and a shrine is usually too much and risks losing out on good expansion spots, as well as getting your expansions down a bit late
@@PCJLaw Makes sense! Thanks for the reply.
@@humptizy50 No worries - you brought up a very good point!
Brilliantly overexplained Deity Strategy! Thank you so much. I had been stuck on finding Emperor too easy but failing at Immortal and Deity. Using these tips I have finally won Deity science victory as Korea. Shuffle map: Archipelago. Turn 319 Standard speed. Using internal food trade routes to grow my cities fast in the mid game was a revelation!
Despite having 5 luxuries and 5 cities and building every happiness building I could. I really struggled with happiness until taking the order Ideology. Looking forward to more tips in the future.
Thank you for the kind feedback and glad you found the video useful!
Nice job on your first Deity victory! A decent timing and highly respectable because Shuffle map archipelagos are quite difficult to play well!
It's natural to struggle a bit with 5 cities on 5 luxes but it sounds like you handled it well!
Early Granary is acceptable only if you have at least 3 Deer, Wheat or Banana within a radius of 2 tiles of your city. As you rightly say, getting to 4 pop is quite hard. Getting an additional 3 food gets you to pop four ~5 turns earlier which offsets the Granary build, this is beneficial for some but not all Civs.
Ah - thank you very much for letting me know the math!
This will be really good to know for the future, so I know when I can build a granary in addition to whatever else I would do and not lose out!
Hey I know this was posted over a year ago, but seeing someone with more current CIV V content is refreshing and great. So I have a ton of experience on immortal difficulty, and I've found consistent success following a somewhat similar approach. Usually I open in the same build order, but sometimes I drop a scout to get a granary in, or get my worker more quickly. The other thing is I always build 2 expands, because essentially what I do is fill the Tradition tree, then you get to the juncture of Education vs Machinery.
What I usually do is if I am on Pangea or any land mass that I can reach another civ close by, I always push for a crossbowman push, I go take that capital and knock them out of the game. I also gain my 4th city this way. If you don't have a viable civ close by, or you're on a small land mass, islands etc, then you can delay any kind of military push, (or skip it all together potentially) and just go straight for Education. The other option is also grabbing Chivalry for a Knight or two, as Knights are just flat busted with crossbow push, you can pillage, move away, and capture the city with so little risk it's insane.
So I bring all this up because sometimes you just finish Tradition way too early, and before you hit Renaissance era. So this is an interesting juncture, and this is what Filthy Robot refers to as, "filler policies" when you're in this juncture of the game, and you have enough to get a social policy, but you can't get Rationalism quite yet. What would your advice be here as a general practice to grab as a filler policy? So my go to like 99% of the time is to go Honor, because I am defaulting to a crossbow push, and honor is just helpful during this period. But I suppose for sake of argument let's say I skip and go for Education skipping Machinery, Chivalry, Metal Casting etc. I suppose if you can probably hit Renaissance in time just rushing Education, but it can be problematic if you have an aggressive neighbor or you need crossbows just to simply defend yourself. Even if you want to invest in getting say 5-10 just to be safe, you're still going to have to somewhat detract from hitting Renaissance in time.
The other strat is I'm more invested in skipping building a monument, thus speeding up my completion of the Tradition tree far earlier, so again this adds to the, "filler policy" problem more so as well, lol. It's a good/bad problem to have I suppose, haha.
I like the idea of a passive grab for the Liberty opener giving you one culture per city, and with your ideal set up of settling 3-4 cities, this seems like it could possibly make up for the loss of taking a less than ideal, "filler policy" during this juncture. In an ideal world nobody goes to war with us, which isn't always viable. But if you do go passive you might still possibly miss the cut off and have to take a filler policy as well.
I'm also working on changing my approach due your micro management and your other video giving a break down of your turn by turn build orders. I've had some success on diety, but have had issues with losing to early war, or if they are passive they just usually run away with the game on tourism and win through culture because I'm just too slow to go kill them or stop it.
Usually on immortal you just have way more leeway, you can go to war, take on a neighbor, get a 4th city, then go back to Education, develop and then go for Dynamite for Artillery push again for the civ that might be threatening a tourism victory or diplomatic victory at this point, so I would go kill them and if it's feasible kill everyone else, if not I just take out whoever can win then default to science victory to close the game out. This usually works like 99.9% of the time on immortal.
As a note I'm not saying you can't just opt for Machinery and go past it for a tech in Renaissance to hit it on time if you push the bottom tree, but this also slows getting University, and slowing science just seems like a bad time. But maybe the play is grab Renaissance, and circle back for Education, not sure. This way you start grabbing Rationalism on time, and delay Universities a bit. But maybe it's ok to take 1 or 2 max filler policies in Honor and/or something like Liberty opener.
At this point Deity is just the level I want to take on, and get consistently good at. Also one tip I can say, is I micro manage my citizens a lot, I shift them constantly depending on what I need. It's easy in early game and hitting the settler phase to shift them to production focus only. But I usually stay on top of them depending on what I have going on. But I think at some point past like 10 citizens, it's just super tedious to shift them around, and you're probably working your best tiles at that point anyways.
Thanks for the tips/videos, they are refreshing and also helping me learn a higher approach to transition from an immortal level player to hopefully a consistent Deity level player, cheers!
Tip 0: Civ is not just about building the best empire. It's about balancing empire strength with getting there fast enough. You can build a strong empire that loses because you were too slow.
Tip 0.5: Aim for 4 or more cities, one city per luxury. Don't be afraid to settle more cities.
Tip 1: Settling in place is underrated. Too many players focus on finding the perfect place to settle and forget the benefits of settling quickly.
Tip 2: Early build order: Always start with two scouts, then build a shrine, monument, or worker next.
Tip 3: Prefer Tradition over Liberty. Tradition is better for growth, gold, and happiness in the early game.
Tip 4: Build settlers before a national college if you're going Tradition. Getting cities out early is more important than getting a national college quickly.
Tip 5: Production focus in early Tradition games. Don't focus on growing your cities to population 4 before building things.
Tip 6: Early internal food trade routes. Build trade routes to get your capital growing faster.
Tip 7: Wide vs Tall: Don't think about wide vs tall empires. Focus on getting as many cities as you can while making sure they are big enough to contribute to your empire.
Tip 8: Building early wonders is an exception to the rule. Building wonders can be very powerful, but only build them if they won't slow you down too much.
Tip 9: Your capital needs to get to population 25 or greater. Your other core cities need to be population 18 or greater. Your other cities need to be at least population 15.
I'm so glad I finally found a guide that is quick and to the point. I feel like most other YT channels would have made this a 2 hour video with so much filler for no reason. Great video!
After playing Deity games, I realized that having an enemy warmonger civ is much better than having "peaceful" civs. Seriously I'd rather have Shaka next to me because he'll wage war with another civ for pennies. In my experience, England and Poland are the worst neighbors. They don't take bribes and if they do the price is too high. They also love to expand and backstab you when there is opportunity.
That is a very good comment - thanks!
You're right about the civs. As long as there are other neighbours, it's MUCH better to have a total warmonger over a backstabber civ that doesn't take bribes, particularly the loyal warmongers like Shaka
Peaceful Deity strategy makes great use out of bribes, so warmonger AIs who don't take bribes are the biggest problem with the strategy!
Great video !
I'm a beginner and I'm binging on tutorials to beat my friends. This one is probably the most useful I could find for my objectve, so thank you :)
No worries - I'm glad you found the video useful!
Hopefully you can use it to beat your friends!
This was the most clear and concise explanation I've ever heard. Wonderful job
This really shows the truth about civ, if you want to go beyond prince difficulty you have to set role-playing and memes aside and min-max. Good tutorial though, great for those achievement farmers out there.
Thank you! My aim was to show people strategies/tips to help improve their games, that they could trust to work at the highest difficulty.
I agree that the truth of playing any game at it's higher difficulties are that you have to min-max or "tryhard", and that the set of possible strategies does narrow as you optimise, such that you are reducing your chances of winning by trying something different.
I would say that you can "tryhard" without explicitly min-maxing to beat Deity (so as not to offput someone who doesn't want to hardcore min-max), but it does definitely increase your win rate as it allows you to handle a wider range of positions!
What does this mean? I'm not a min-max player, I get into the narrative of a game, and I can't play below Emperor because it's too easy. Usually I play on Immortal now for the challenge. Then again I still haven't been able to master Diety, so I guess you're partly right there! But I don't think you need to focus on min-maxing for anything above Prince...Prince is kind of a cake walk, no?
@@bncrain It's funny because for Deity I play as the Huns and roleplay being an ancient deity of war who conquers the world with immortal horse archers who can shoot arrows over a day's march worth of hills.
Either that or making sure you don't play against Huns on Deity.
Amazing tutorial my dude!
Thank you for the kind comment!
Glad to know it's been useful to you, I've been contemplating doing another related guide of Deity level strategy so good to know people enjoyed this one!
I went, through all the comments and I def appreciate the dedication to respond to all of them, I personally haven't won yet even against immortal but I will use these tips to try and get my first Immortal win
He's a complete fraud mate...how can you even dream of wasting trade routes on sharing food with cities, when you need absolutely every penny to fund an army which is necessary at the harder levels because the other civilizations keep going to war with you. Also, his discounting of early wonder wonders is ridiculous... because money is always a problem at the harder levels... I find that mausoleum is an absolute must... that way you a desperately need 100 currency every time you use a great person...
I'm glad you appreciate the comments! I feel like, as a small TH-camr, you have to take these opportunities while you can since I won't be able to answer all the comments forever if the channel grows!
Good luck on trying to win!
PS, I have to disagree with Haden's comment, they are sharing suboptimal advice. I'm not sure what Haden's deal is or if they even play Deity, but if you have any doubts about my play or tips you only have to check out my Twitch or the gameplay uploads if you want to see how to execute them properly
Please see my previous reply to Haden.
It's my belief that building a large standing army on Deity makes you much less likely to win than if you don't, because it wrecks your late game chances
Instead, I advise paying the AI to war each other using the GPT you gain by selling your strategic resources for 2 GPT for each one, because the 1 for 2 GPT cheese works well on Deity.
There is also some advice to avoid wars, which is to not forward settle AIs. Land coveting is a huge factor on Deity, and if you get warred every game I would be willing to bet you always forward settle the AI
It's crazy how much a difference your settling strategy can make to AI propensity to war. It's one of the key reasons why Liberty/Wide is hard to play on Deity. The more cities you settle the more you forward settle.
@@PCJLaw this cannot work surely- I've had so many games where you are just placed so close to other civilizations...in those situations from the start you're creating border tension and are likely to be invaded, which then creates the need for a standing army.
Fair enough, I can't really argue with you, except with my experience livestreaming Deity games for the last 8 months
I really don't do anything more, and I barely get attacked, let alone killed on Deity, so I hope we can find something that reconciles the difference in our experiences.
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I'll copy a comment I just wrote to someone else, in case it's useful:
1. Paying AIs to war each other
AIs "telegraph" their intent to war you by moving army to your borders. I keep a watch out for military units in places they shouldn't be, as they're usually moving into position for war. The Deity AI always moves to your borders before declaring war.
This enables you to spot that early, and pay them to war their other neighbour with GPT. While an AI is "distracted" with a war, they won't declare a new one. Most AIs won't war more than 1 civ at once, but the odd AI will war multiple. Keep an eye out and pay when you need to. Selling your strategic resources 1 for 2 GPT is quite critical for this strategy. I call it the "Deity tax". You get more money from that cheese, but you have to spend it on wars
2. Not forward settling AI too much
One of the biggest factors in Deity war is coveting land. Their huge military emboldens them to action on it. You'll notice I settle far less ambitiously than most people I've seen, and there's a reason for that. Forward settling the AI makes them "covet your land", which causes war declarations. Be prepared to pay AIs to war if they covet your lands, and avoid settling too close to them if you can avoid it
My rule of thumb is 8 tiles or less from the capital, and always closer to my capital than theirs. This way, you'll keep coveting to a minimum, while maintaining the room to settle enough cities
Anyone here like me playing Civ again in 2022 cause of all the geopolitics? And wanting to feel what it's like to manage a nation. Seriously though my friend and I have thought that some politicians could be better by learning Civ or speaking to Civ pros 😆
America is still #1 on the scoreboard, and China is #2 with the most population and production. Japan is #3 and almost won with the sneak cultural victory, but now they're still trying with anime culture bombs.
China would be #1 if they had better diplomacy and could somehow take Taiwan so that their navy doesn't remain as a glorified coast guard. They don't need a tech lead while they can still steal technology and they still have new stuff to build.
All of these tips were new to me as someone that usually plays around Chieftain and struggles with any amount of aggression. Although as a poor boy that can't afford BNW or G&K, about half of the tips/suggestions went over my head. Still, I learned to look for a spot with both hills and grassland, build Scouts first, that Tradition is best (at least for my luck, I've played on larger-than-standard maps and still end up stuck with a peninsula spawn surrounded by seven city-states and a neighboring Civ), Granary can wait for Settlers, and National College is the first Wonder you should go for.
Hi! It's a shame the BNW/G&K specific tips weren't useful to you
That's a decent summary of the early game, however it's been so long since I played Vanilla!
Definitely recommend going for scouts first, getting your cities out, tradition and aiming for that T100 NC (Standard Speed) or T67 Quick!
It's surprising how few cities you can found sometimes on normal maps!
Troyes is pronounced the same way as trois. Thanks for all these strategy videos, they help a great deal. I do hope that, when you have time, you do more.
On my very first game on immortal, William beat me to the space ship with 2 turns left on my stasis chamber. If i'd have done these tips i probably wouldn't have lost. Thanks bro.
Great video, still learning about this game and playing it after 1100 hours lol
Great video! Just beat an emperor game by a huge margin using your vids and I feel like I can get deity soon.
Nice video. I have many deity wins, but your tip about leaving early cities at 3 pop due to the tradition finisher bonus was something new to me. Also like your perspective on "as many as possible tall enough"
Hi - glad you found it useful!
Yeah 3 pop is a nice guideline, although if you do have the spare happiness you should grow them anyway! 3 pop is such a nice balance between getting your Granary and Library built fast, but also actually growing a bit! It also helps to make sure you don't accidentally grow one expand too big and run out of happiness for your other expands!
And yes, Tradition finisher is so strong it really helps you catch up! Better to get those buildings done than to waste time waiting more than 8-10 turns to grow on quick speed!
Yes "as many as possible tall enough" is something I learned watching a lot of top MP players. 8 cities tends to be optimal for super fast science victories, and cities over 10 population always pay themselves back as long as you get the science buildings built! Plus, you get extra empire-wide production! A city that builds a bomber in 5 turns is better than not having a bomber at all!
The only city that needs to be really big is your capital, 25+ population by T130 quick speed is what I aim for. That's because of it's impact on GPT, competing for wonders, building Guilds/National Wonders and the NC science bonus
@@PCJLaw Thanks! Agree with all of that. Effect of capital size on GPT is a huge mechanic that you forget about until the day you try liberty.
An underrated factor in how many cities to settle pre-NC is just how long the walk is - sometimes it's only like 7 tiles but every tile is rough, and then when you get there, you find a camp on a hill with an archer and a spearman. 7 more turns until your own archer can get there. Nice way to gimp yourself for like two eras!
@@lujoconnor Oh yes city distance and travel time is a huge factor - good call out! I am a big fan of not travelling too far to settle for that reason, but also shows the value of an early archer purchase if you can't afford a worker and don't need tiles!
Definitely an easy way to screw yourself by founding a city too late before NC. One way around it is to tech optics when coastal and float your settler around rough terrain & camps, which is something I don't do enough of!
nice I kind of managed to figure most of these out on my own, but it really helped actually hearing them articulated.
Glad to know they helped you!
Yes - they're not meant to be the hyper advanced tips - more a consilidated set of the things that, if you do them well, are more than enough to consistently compete and win on Deity
I'd add 1 crucial one: city states are your friends (even if you steal their worker early). It's like Tradition, I always end up going that tree because their bonuses can help you absolutely everywhere. They can have bigger armies than you and serve as natural obstacles.
That's why Venice is my go to civ for winning in Deity :c
As a complete scrub, I insist that I spawn on a river with at least 2 hills and no desert or tundra in sight, and that the AI lets me complete -> Great Library -> Free Philosophy -> Oracle -> Hanging Gardens -> National College -> Settler -> Settler -> Notre Dame - Or I'm restarting :D
Haha! Everyone likes to play differently, although this is a little extreme :P
Btw Temple of Artemis is the best growth wonder in the game. Your game would probably go better if you exchanged Great Library AND Hanging Gardens for Temple of Artemis, in case you're looking for a new wonder ;)
Thank you - very nice series of vids!) Interesting!!!
(i might be only 1 - but the music on background was a little bit too loud and sometimes i got to re-concentrate on content)
Thank you for the kind feedback!
You're not the only one mentioning the audio - it's something I'm aware of and really should find a way to fix!
Hey bro really appreciate the video. I'm pretty good at civ in that I have won immortal with every civ, but I was struggling in finding room for improvement in my game. I think tip 5 is where I usually go wrong and I'll watch some more of your stuff before attempting deity with an average civ (have played deity once before and won with Babylon). Usually I will always just go for max food output , but with the national college timing it makes sense that I shouldn't focus on it before completing tradiition.
appreciate the vid my guy! i'm still just learning on chieftain difficulty but can't wait to get some crazy high level games
Nice! Thanks for the kind feedback and hope it helps you progress in civ 5!
You reading that script with the webcam and the music was refreshing as fuck.
Yeah, old and done before many a time...
Thanks for the feedback - one of my first videos and I learned a lot from all the comments that have been posted in response
Hopefully I can improve to have better production and delivery on my videos in the future!
Ive been trying to do the jump to Immortal difficulty for quite some time. I win confortably with almost every civ in lvl 6 but in lvl 7 i only win using Shoshone, and with lots of struggling. Im gonna use this advices to improve my game, so thank you beforehand!!
Good luck on making the jump! I hope these tips help, and do ask if you have any questions!
Let me know how it goes!
Also, consider Poland or Babylon if you're looking for a powerful civ. They're much easier to use and do well with!
@@PCJLaw Gonna keep you updated, count with that. And yeah, probably im gonna go with Poland, i have a hard bias towards those Winged Hussars lol
@@somekindoflatindude9497 Nice! Yeah those Winged Hussars are cool units!
More things to make Poland even better than the free social policies and the Ducal Stable!
Amazing sum up, thanks!
Thanks - I'm glad you found it helpful!
Extra point on monument clashing with Tradition is that you will instead get a free ampitheatre when you unlock it if you already have a monument.
Yes it does, you are correct!
The free amphitheatre can be quite useful, as it's a meaningful culture boost that early! The thing I struggle with is finding a time when a Monument so early on is a better choice than a shrine/worker/settler
@@PCJLaw I typically do monument into either shrine, warriors or settler; I don't bother with scouts
@@peacefuldawn6823 Scouts are very important! I usually build 2 and buy a 3rd.
Ruins are a massive boost to your game, and well worth the delay to build 2 scouts for. Also, the extra vision on the map and blocking capability on the scouts makes them super versitile
I highly recommend building 2 every game
@@PCJLaw I guess I'm just unlucky when I build scouts, as they hardly ever get me ruins, and when they do it's just the crude map 😂
There's some good information here but also some clear errors. 1. in single player I never build workers early. Its a complete waste of production when you can steal one from a city state and another from your nearest AI neighbor. Additionally very early workers are more of a liability than an asset as you have you defend them against barbarians and they can't improve much until you get some key technologies. There's almost no penalty from very early war with AI and you only get dinged by one city state stealing a worker as long as you don't ever create a 2nd war against a city state. You can even steal multiple workers from the same city state if you leave the initial war open. 2. Building a monument is typically a waste if you are going tradition. If you open a double scout build you'll almost certainly get at least one culture ruin.
3. Libraries are pretty much useless before pop4. You'll get only 1 science per turn or less before that, not enough to overcome the maintenance cost. Until you are almost ready for national college don't build libraries in low pop cities. 4. Moving your initial settler is almost always better than settling in place. Any better location 1-2 turns away is worth it. For example, lets say your initial spawn is on flat land, but there's a hill within one turns movement away. From what you can see you don't lose any critical tiles by moving. I would always move to the hill (after scouting with warrior to make sure I don't want to go somewhere else) by losing one turn to settle you lose about 5 production that you would have gotten turn zero, but by settling on the hill you get +1 production per turn for the entire game vs flat settle. Thats easily 300 hammers during the entire game.
I did a run with Poland going Liberty Commerce Order (check the channel), I took like 20 workers of city states around to build fast roads (extra happy with Liberty) and get Machu Pichu, I even got the best religion with the desert. Happiness comes from the last bonus of Commerce, then with other I boost it with monuments that is always the first building I make in new cities. All mony is used to build banks and during every turn I pay AI to fight eachothers, even when it's super expensive ^^ I can do it with Pocatelo too on imortal but I don't have enough happiness without the policy bonus of Poland for diety. It was on a large earth-map. I also suggest to be friend with Shaka and Moctezuma, when you are friendly or have more points they won't fight you and accept to fight the others, it's just important to ask them to stop war when they are going to take big cities with many wonders or they win... For the moment I only won with Poland on diety. Also you can cut trees to get extra production for wonders, and keep the extra bonus engineer to make Machu or Petra ^^
Thank you for this guide, it's awesome. Been playing on Prince/Warlord but want to make things more interesting.
As others have said the music is distracting, I'd prefer it without. But otherwise like I said, great video. Cheers.
I'm glad you enjoyed the guide - thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the comment on the music, you're definitely right, I was a TH-cam noob back then! I will probably make a re-do of this guide without it in the future as it's popular and could be improved
@@PCJLaw sweet, I know videos are a lot of work so thanks for putting it out there. I'll check out your newer stuff as well :)
@@jzoobs No worries - hope you enjoy those too!
It's actually a good idea to build a granary If you have 2 or more granary tiles. This usually allows you to grow to pop 5 or even more before you start building a settler and each settler is going to be built faster than without a granary.. Which pays off the time building a granary and growing to pop 5+.So when you stop building settlers you have a cap with more cities and a granary. Usually. It depends on a situation but saying no one ever needs to build a granary before getting settlers is just wrong.
Thanks for the tip, it's something I've been wanting to figure out actually, but on vanilla maps I've struggled to find the situations to try it so I'm glad to know for sure! (Where I have 2+ granary resources and I don't need to rush a city location)
My aim for the granary in capital tip was to try to help get people out of the mindset where they build a granary far too often, which I feel happens more often than someone who doesn't build enough Granary pre settler! Although it does risk mis-represent the nuance of the Granary
If you’re rapidly settling cities, chances are you’ll be struggling with happiness before you get most of your luxs online. Wouldn’t it be more optimal to leave building granary after you’re done with settlers? If you’re close to pop 4, worker seems like a better choice, or even an additional blocker/escort unit. Plus, deity ai generally expands quite aggressively. The earlier you pop out that first settler, the higher the chance you get to secure contested spots.
@@fishheadgorilla Hi!
You're right talking about happiness, too much growth definitely puts a strain on that! The early game is definitely a balance between growing your capital and getting expands to a reasonable size
You're right about the pop 4 stuff too, there's a time and a place for early granary, and 3 pop settlers make sure you grab those super contested spots! That's why I often won't build a granary in situations where it would be good, to make sure I get that spot!
I would more likely try a granary on multiplayer with the right situation, because it puts you in a better position to grab a wonder after settlers
But you summed up my thoughts perfectly! The other user is also right too though, early granary with granary resources is a nice accelerator too
I have played diety for years. The only consistent way is to have an army with veteran upgrades.
Hi! That certainly helps! I favour keeping peaceful for the first 100 turns (and bribing wars) as I find it usually guarantees me the win, but there are definitely other viable strategies!
One strategy related to yours that I've never been able to master yet is the "true domination" game, where you win the game by Industrial era. One day, perhaps I'll manage one for the channel!
I'll never understand the lot of you playing on quick, MARATHON FTW!!! cheers 😉
Informative video but the music is totally unnecessary. Hard watch
💃 🕺🏿
I know you won't see this, but I want you to know I really enjoy your content and I think it's a real shame that you posting videos on Civ V. Personally, I think it's the best iteration of the game. Civ IV is great, but I think 5 is more tactical in the way stacking works and with the hex grid replacing the squared grid. Civ VI, on the other hand, is inferior to both 4 and 5. It was good to begin with, but it made the classic mistake of most modern strategy games: it became bloated. I saw an interview with Sid Meier that summed up Civ VI's issue (for me, at least; I understand that many people prefer it). Sid said that they always walked a fine line between adding too little to the game and adding too much; Civ VI added way too much. Anyway, thanks for all the hours of content, PC J Law, I've enjoyed learning from you and hope to see you in the future.
Good stuff man, the 3 pop to get 4 cities is a great tip, can't wait to use it on my friends lol. About policies, what do you think of opening tradition then going for the free settler in liberty and then finishing tradition? Maybe I'm just bad but it always seems like the best option to me because it also sets me up to get the roads policy around the time I'm finishing connecting my cities
Glad you found the tip(s) useful!
My personal opinion is that, while the policies in Liberty have value, you're better off not taking them. The reasoning is:
Rationalism and Ideology policies are so powerful that you're going to want to acquire a set number of them by the end of the game. You'll want all Rationalism policies for sure, with Secularism and Free Thought taken by T140 quick speed. You'll also want a minimum of 3 Ideology policies, but in Freedom and Autocracy there are some other great ones to take. For science victory, you'll need 6 Ideology policies.
Now, that all takes a set amount of culture, but the more other policies you take, the more you're going to need to generate to get those crucially powerful ones. Simply put, taking the extra 3 policies in Liberty means you'll never get those policies by T180 quick speed, if you also want to finish one of Tradition or Liberty. You will also delay Rationalism an unacceptably long time, because the bonuses from the Opener, Secularism and Free Thought are way too good to be delayed by taking too many pre-Rationalism policies
Best to think of it like you have a set number of policies to take by the end of the game. That's probably around 18-20 for a Deity or higher level MP game. You'll want 6 for Rationalism and 3-6 for Ideology. If you assume 6 for Tradition too, then taking 3 Liberty policies takes you to 21, or one too many. Also notably, the benefits of Tradition are only good when taken early. You delay those crucial Tradition growth/happiness/culture policies by dipping into Liberty, reducing their effectiveness.
Tradition opener and then full Liberty could be viable if you're going for a wide empire of 6+ cities, but it's generally accepted that if you intend to finish Tradition, Tradition should be the first 6 policies you pick. If you're only going 3-4 expands, you can hard build those settlers fine from your 3 pop capital anyway
I know this is kinda old, but how does he get his UI to look like that? Especially the righthand tokens with all the civ and diplomacy info, and the unit tracker in the bottom left
It’s called EUI. It’s a must have. It’s on the civ fanatics page somewhere
Thanks so much for this, it would be nice if you could change the thumbnail for your more lesson and tips and tricks videos as compared to your streaming videos, but the fact you're making these at all is awesome thanks for doing so
Thank you for the kind comment and glad you're enjoying the videos!
Nice tip on changing up the thumbnail, I'll consider it. The background does make it seem more like gameplay so perhaps it can be improved... I originally wanted it to show how my demonstration game pans out as "proof the tips work", but perhaps it doesn't need to
New guide video coming tonight/tomorrow hopefully!
And here I am just barely beating Emperor AI after about 3k hours in the game lol. I hope I can play this good one day too.
Emporer is quite a good level though! There's also an element of fun and flexibility that you don't get on Deity in particular, such as early war
I'd say the main thing to focus on is getting settlers out and growing your cities tall through the Medieval and Rennaisance eras. Once I learned how to do that, finding the science to compete on Immortal and Deity becomes a lot easier!
@@PCJLaw True but I always get crippled by happiness especially because I like trolling around the settings and making resources available to sparse
@@paulchen4447 Oh dear... sparse settings sounds dreadful!
I play a lot of shuffle so I get dealt sparse settings from time to time, it's pretty rough having to build those colloseums and zoos early!
Lemme make you feel better
I've played the game for over 5-6 years now
Few days back I lost on turn 3 in prince difficulty because I used my settler as a scout cause I wasn't happy with my starting location.
@@lotharlaishram765 That’s one of the biggest oofs I’ll never want to experience
nice content, but music is a little bit disturbing
Thank you, yeah I didn't realise the levels were bad until too late, I'll re-record again at some point with better sound quality!
Agreed.
I watch this video after struggling in King difficulty.
All tips were useful :)
Glad you found them useful and thanks for the kind feedback!
I realize this is probably too late to get an answer, but what do you mean in tip 10 by "checking tech costs" to make sure no one else can build the wonder?
Excellent video, we share a very similar style of play, except i play on epic speed, and for fun i like prince to see if i can build all the wonders. One thing we differ from is the granary, i like building it asap especially if wheat or deer heavy but i do agree if long time to pop 4 then a settler is better
Thank you - I commend your patience with playing Epic! It can certainly be fun to play Pokemon with all the wonders, I miss those days!
You're right that granary first can be better for your capital with a wheat or deer heavy start!
However, even when you get that situation, sometimes I find you need to prioritise a Settler in order to claim the land around you, especially on Deity or in Multiplayer. It gives you a better chance at securing lands for yourself. With growth being so much less efficient before aqueducts, I think it tends to be better to make sure you don't lose a spot, than to strengthen growth in the capital so early
All that said, each to their own opinions and if it works in your games and lobbies then do whatever is most fun!
i like winning before late game, sure u can fight deity with nukes but if theres still a few left youll be getting nuked by everyone else for being the first, and if not nukes, theres no difference for late game. edit: only thing id say is hanging gardens is the best wonder and i get it first before all else followed by aqueducts since i can make up lost time with a massive mid game population
The thing is that if you don't start with a civ that builds wonders, start on a hill, next to a river, with multiple gems, and on the coast with crabs or pearls, you will be behind, because, this is what is what is required to not be behind, instantly and for the rest of any one play through. I have experienced this having owned this game and played it a lot for like 10 years... You can be the first civ to build the great library but you will still lose the game, because even though you're doing everything right, the enemy civ has 3 times your military, seemingly, without the need for money or maintenance costs, and barbs spawn in any dark spot on the map at any turn of the game... and yet, even when the scoreboard says you're behind, the enemy still wants scholars in residence, even when their ahead of your tech, somehow, when you got the great library first... so, what is objectively true about Civ V, the fact that it actively attempts to ruin your experience with tricks. You will start a game on even the Prince/Normal level and you will instantly get Barb-Ganked, repeatedly, without even having RagingBarbs ticked on... it's really frustrating. Yeah, you can buy or train units, but then you have 0 gold to maintenance, all the while, you'll wonder how the enemy didn't get Barb smacked, the same why you did.... it's almost like... the game lies... alot.
I don't understand how anyone plays with barbs...they *completely* ruin the game for me. I turned that noise off about a month after I got the game and 1000+ hours of gameplay later I've never looked back. 😅
if you play on deity you will be behind the ai most of the game. that is part of the challenge (unless you play babylon its easy to catch up) however the game is beatable with any civ if you play well enough
Great Tips! Thanks a lot!
This is a perfect video.
Deity is extremely difficult, but using a tiny map and quick speed are handicaps that ruin the game, imo. I wouldn't play that way even on chieftain difficulty, it's just not the spirit of the game, and it cultivates poor strategies and habits in endgame players. Love the way you lay out the vid, just wish you didn't play only this very handicapped way
I literally played every turn as a maniac to win in immortal, was never able to beat a single game in deity, let's see if I can now.
Hi - and good luck! I have often found the key is that first 100 turns, if you can found 3-5 cities and grow them strongly before then it really helps! (Guide to growing cities coming very soon)
Best guide on civ v ever made!! I am wondering tho... Is it worth to rush great library?
this guy looks like the young guy from Kingsman
Good stuff my dude
Thank you!
In China ,the first tip is building 8 or more cities;second is using liberty policy.
Yup, I agree this is the best setup, thanks for letting me know!
I have heard of these and watched some games, but I wanted to make these accessible to whatever the map generation has given to you, and is easy to play
Often I don't even have more than 3 unique luxuries available (and 5 total) to settle, and Liberty is harder to play well in my experience
Any chance you can tell me what the song is that starts playing @ 6:27? :D
Sadly not sorry - I recorded it live in one take using shuffle on Pretzel Rocks music software
I can tell you it's a TH-cam safe song from their Chill EDM playlist, but not more than that
just sell the monument once you get to the part of the tree that gives you 4 monuments, but before you actually take the policy
Interesting comment - you could definitely do that, but you get a free Amphitheatre if you already have a monument!
That free Amphitheatre is a lot of production (and extra culture) so I take it when I can get it!
The challenge is usually just trying to fit an early monument into your build queue if you need it
@@PCJLaw I didn't know it would give Amphitheatres if you already had monuments, this has never been told to me in the game; useful to know
@@nerdlingeeksly5192 Ah yes!
As Songhai I believe you get a Free Mud Pyramid Mosque, and as Siam you can get a free Wat if you also have an amphitheatre!
Great vid! Really helped me
Thank you for the kind feedback! I'm glad it helped!
What if some barbarians or enemy civ attack you? You cant build granaries/libraries due to training military units
I am absolutely flabbergasted that you are pumping that much science out on that turn near the end of the vid. Its well over double mine at turn 300, but im also very rusty getting back into the game. Playing on normal difficulty till i can stomp the AI out and only barely ahead of them in skill. My current playthrough ive been hamstringed due to lack of happiness and only made progress when i made the number 2 civ give me a very favorable peace deal, (lots of resources to keep my empire happy). I noticed there wasn't much much advice on the conquering side of things. Did you have any tips on that as well? Its hard to win military victory when my empire is constantly unhappy
What do you mean by "if" you can grab a good faith, culture, or food pantheon? I'm probably just not as familiar with the mechanics, but aren't all the pantheons available to everyone?
If I can make a recommendation, the music is so busy, and even has lyrics, which makes it hard to hear you properly. If you're going to include music at all, background music shouldn't be distracting.
Thanks for the tips! I feel much better prepared for trying my first real deity run.
glad ppl still pla the game
Yes! Personally I never got round to playing Civ 6, still enjoy Civ 5 way too much!
I can assume context is important for these tips, no? Say, the maya would be far more inclined to get their unique shrine sooner than a monument?
Yes you're exactly right! Context does matter, although these tips are surprisingly universal
(e.g. I think you would not want to deviate as often as you might think)
Maya is a great example. You've got a special building that elevates it's importance, and thus you would prioritize it more than usual. A Shrine (Pyramid) is a must-build 2nd or 3rd for the Maya, whereas a regular civ would build a Shrine 3rd or not at all, depending on what Pantheons are viable given the land!
@@PCJLaw good to know! Thanks for the reply 😊😄
Heya. Im from age of empires 2 pro scene, but Civ is wonderful. I have a question. I manage to loose a game on King to a culture victory (pangea normal map maxed with players) so I did intentionally unbalance the map. But if I go for science win - and someone gets a cultural victory notification - how should I react? Instant attack culture threat half across the map - OR is there another way? When great artists are not enough due to so many players. I wonder what I couldve done different?
Hi! Interesting to hear you come from AOE2 pro scene! AOE3 was the first PC game I ever got addicted to!
There's actually a way to tell how soon your opponent will win a culture victory by clicking on the "suitcase" tourism icon. Then, you go to the "influence by player" tab and select the opponent in the drop down menu. If you hover over where it says "rising", it will tell you how long it will take them to win
How you should react depends on how close you are to your victory condition. If you think you can do it sooner, then do nothing and perhaps pay some AIs to war them. If they will be faster, pay some AIs to war them and do your best to intervene if you can, although unless you're able to capture their capital by boat there's often not much you can do
Generally on King difficulty, building and working your guilds, building opera houses and the Hermitage, and a city state ally should be more than enough to block a culture victory from the AI (on Brave New World)
Hope this helps!
@@PCJLaw Yea surely the advanced UI settings I should take a deeper research trip into and see how they really work.
I believe I'm playing it too passive in mid to late-game, after the initial borders are established, but the balance is very hard to find. Thanks for the answer, I do appreciate it.
@@yohanbeck8172 No worries! I love answering all the comments!
There's definitely a lot of stuff hidden in the UI that can really help, and the Enhanced User Interface mod I use is also a big step up
There is certainly a balance between passiveness and aggressiveness. Taking more land in the medieval era on Immortal difficulty and below can be super strong. Researching Metal Casting -> Civil Service -> Machinery (-> Education) after your national college is a super good way to use crossbowmen to take down an AI or two while they're not prepared.
What I've learned recently is that your aggressiveness in the Industrial Era and later needs to balance with "how many players are left relevant to the game, who could potentially overtake you if you go all in war to kill everyone now"
The fewer players are "relevant", the more aggressive you need to be and the earlier you should strike. Checking demographics and population per city is a good indicator for how relevant an AI/player is
Great video, but I would strongly suggest not putting music in the background, your voice is enough :) it does make it a bit hard to hear
Hi! Thanks for the advice, I've heard it from others too so definitely looking to make improvements in future guide videos and perhaps a re-do of this one!
Do you have a version of this video without the background music?
I am confused. When I play Diety my first builds pretty much always have to be: Scout -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Warrior. No way you can build Shrines and Monuments when you need defence for the cheating AIs nearby who will arrive with 4+ Warrior army well before turn 50 (I play standard speed).
Quick speed makes a massive difference. Unit movement is just as fast on all gamespeeds, but unit build times are shorter on quick speed.
This is great, would this advice still apply if you aim for a diplomatic, cultural or military victory?
Hi - good question!
It depends a little on the way you choose to win your game!
A "true domination" where you go to war early and never stop requires different play. Aside from that, all victory conditions benefit equally from the tips in this guide
These tips set your empire up to snowball during the Medieval, Rennaisance and Industrial eras. Late-game Domination, Tourism, Diplomatic and Science victories all benefit highly from this snowball. That's because before this point, you benefit the most from improving your empire as a whole and setting it's foundations, and then you specialise during Industrial and Modern eras
So TL;DR I would say yes, they still apply for all victory conditions, with the exception of "domination through the ages". In fact, this is how I generally play my games, unless a scenario comes up where I have to take special action
Hope this answers your question!
@@PCJLaw thanks for your answer this is pretty useful. I tried your tips on deity and won so thanks for the advice.
@@BaronZemoXIV Glad to hear they helped you to win! Also open to feedback so if there way anything that didn't feel useful just let me know!
Should i make a settler on a 3rd person in a city if i play on standard speed?
Usually, yes!
At 3 population you get a good balance between "getting your first expands out early", "having decent settler production" and "not screwing your capital too much"
Building your first settler at population 2 can be fine, but it will delay your next settlers and leaves your capital a bit worse off
Building your first settler at population 4 is a perfectly okay thing to do, but the problem is how long it takes to grow to population 4. Unless you have a bunch of 3 food cattle/banana, or 2+ wheat/deer that becomes 3 food 1 production with a Granary, it's quite a long delay to grow to population 4 first. That delay increases your risk of losing a city spot. For that reason I prefer population 3, but as with other tips in civ, it's a "very good rule of thumb", but not a "hard rule"
@@PCJLaw thanks
Music in background is a little loud and makes it hard to focus on content, but good content
Thanks for your helpful comment! I am annoyed at myself for not fixing it originally but I hope to replace the video with something less loud in the future!
Damn, the tips seem good, but I couldn't managed to understand them through the background music!
Flawless vid
Or what comes first worker or settler?
Thanks for the tips and the good video. What Mod are you using?
It’s called EUI. Enhance user interface. It’s on the civ fanatics page
One thing I wonder is, by following these rules, I will never find time to build something like the Great Library or Temple of Artemis. Are they just not wonders to try and rush on high difficulties?
see a wonder tier list
Is it really possible to win a domination victory in 8 civ map deity difficulty? Even if I get a very good start as Spain with 1500 gold from natural wonders, the AI still manages to overtake what ever lead I made in the early-mid game.
Hi - yes it is!
I rate domination victory as the 2nd easiest victory condition on Deity, behind Science and ahead of Diplomatic and Tourism
Ancient-Rennaisance Era war is generally very hard on Deity, because of all the crazy AI bonuses. The game is rigged so you don't have a fair fight in the early stages.
However, on Deity you can often pass the AI by the Modern/Atomic Era.
The trick is to acknowledge how OP Stealth Bombers and XCOM Squads are. Stealth Bombers cannot be intercepted, and XCOM Squads have 100 combat strength and 40 paradrop range.
You can use a combination of those two to "snipe" all AI capitals and win the game, since the Domination victory condition requires you to only control all original capitals.
The usual path is to spam GWBs, upgrade them to Bombers, and spam Bombers/Paratroopers for upgrading to Stealth/XCOM. You would take 1-2 capitals with Bombers, and use Stealth/XCOM to clean up the rest
The only reason Science is better is because it's 100% peaceful and often just as fast if you have more than 900 science per turn
Hope this helps?
@@PCJLaw Thanks for the reply. I won a Spain deity game with 8 civs but I think it was more due to luck because I got Great Barrier reef connected to my 2nd city and found another natural wonder within 10 turns. Also I was pretty much at the edge of map even though it was a Pangaea map so I didn't really had any invaders. I was already ahead since Classical age because I was able to get a lot of wonders thanks to the food, science, production and faith(pantheon) from the GBF. I'm currently trying to win a game with a mediocre civ but I find it really hard to balance between growth, expansion and preventing an invasion.
@@Nemesis_T_Type Wow - I always love a good Spain Natural Wonders game!
Indeed getting that balance right is pretty challenging!
Growth and expansion should go hand-in-hand. Grow your cap to pop 3, and spam the settlers you need. Then get your granaries up in expands as 1st building and get a few workers and a granary in the cap followed by caravans to send back to the cap. 3-4 cities out and National College by around T70 quick speed is a good place to aim for!
As for not getting invaded, nothing will screw you over more than building an army you won't use offensively!
I prefer to use my GPT, strategic resources and spare duplicate luxuries to bribe any neighbouring AI who covets my land to war their other neighbour. Much cheaper than building units at such a crucial time for non-unit infrastructure!
@@PCJLaw you can gift aggressive neighbour , but how bribe them to attack other ai?
So does building the settler at 3 take priority over building the shrine?
Do any of your tips change if you only play on the huge map type with 12 civs on continents plus? I ask because in this situation it’s much much harder to reliably find a city state to steal workers from because most of them are across water on that map type
What is your build queue pre national college? And is there some buildings that you never build, just because they are considered somewhat useless? Im think of buildings like caravansaries, constabulatories and operahouses? And what about the guilds and the GWAM's? Do you pop them for culture and golden ages or do you fill Great Work slots?
Great questions!
Pre National College I have two separate strategies (for sim city play), one for my Capital and one for my Expands
Expands: (We'll do these first because they're simpler)
1. Monument (if not Tradition, otherwise skip)
2. Granary
3. Library (if needed to hit NC timing)/Worker/Trade Route/Lighthouse
4. Library if it didn't get built at (3). Otherwise one or two of the others in (3) that weren't a Library, unless I need a Circus/Colloseum
For the expands, our priority is to grow to pop 3 and get our Granary + Library up by T60 ish to start on NC in the capital.
Granary is needed to accelerate growth immediately after finishing Library and for internal trade routes. The other buildings are for accelerating growth. We sometimes build a worker in the expand to get to 2 workers per city, which is considered optimal. Your cap simply can't build all those workers alone
Capital: (More complicated, but here's my basic order)
1. Scout
2. Scout (unless archipelago)
3. Shrine
4. Worker (if I can chop forest or find it difficult to steal one early)
5. Settler
6. Settler
7. Settler (if going 4 cities)
8. Settler (if going 5 cities)
9. Worker (while production focusing)
10. Granary (while production focusing)
11. Trade Route/Worker (while food focusing)
12. Worker/Trade Route (while food focusing)
A military unit (or two), such as an archer or chariot archer will often have to be fit in between (6) and (11). I slot it into the queue whenever I find I need one. Similarly, you may need to move the worker up to position 6 or 7 if you're going for 4 or more cities.
I'm generally looking to get 2 Trade Routes, and 1.5 workers per city out before National College. If you've got more cities, some of those workers will need to be built in your expands since your capital can't spare the time to build them all
I rarely ever build anything from the constabulary line, but otherwise most industrial (or before) buildings are worthwhile to build at some point (in priority order), with perhaps the exception of the Hospital, Museum and Military Academy. Those buildings and anything after (with the exception of Labs!) are more suited to specific situations, and not needed every game. Even in games where they'd be good, it's often better to just build a military unit or two.
Opera Houses are actually decent buildings, but only because of Hermitage! Hermitage is powerful for your culture. Unless you've got 2+ cultural city state allies, you'll need it (and therefore Opera Houses) on Deity difficulty to get Rationalism and Ideology 6 done in time for a Science Victory
As for the Guilds, I try to get Writer's and Artist's up around T100 Quick Speed, and immediately work both slots. This is to accumulate Culture, and Great Writers/Artists. They are both saved for bulbing at opportune moments. Artists are bulbed for Golden Ages, timed for when I need to build Factories, Public Schools or Research Labs. The rest are bulbed after Labs, whenever they arrive, or for Spaceship Parts if I'm going Science Victory. Writers are bulbed at the end of a golden age, once I've got my culture up significantly. That's because we need flat culture to get all the social policies we want. Saving them for when we have higher culture gives more culture. Typically this times well with when Free Thought is your next Rationalism policy. On Deity, they do not pay themselves back when burnt for Great Works, except when going Culture Victory. (Don't forget that Artist bulbing gives culture via golden ages)
The Musician's Guild is not built unless I am desperate for culture or I am Sweden
We could start on Guilds a little earlier, but you don't want to take "2+ filler policies" between finishing your opening tree and starting Rationalism if at all possible. If you want or need 2 or even 3 (!), better to use Oracle to get the free one. This is because it delays Rationalism by increasing the social policy costs, as well as because it becomes your 9th/10th policy as opposed to your 7th/8th
Any other questions, or if you need me to clarify anything, do let me know! There was a lot to cover so I tried to keep my replies to the point!
Whats your thought on saving the optics and compass research to have faster spy steals? I think it can be really strong in landlocked games, atleast for a while.
Hi! It's a very good point actually, saving optics and compass can be super helpful to get good spy steals off the AI, so I won't ever disagree with doing that as part of a stealing strategy - it's a smart play!
Personally, I don't actually spy steal vs Deity AI, so I prefer to research Compass for the trade route as soon as I know where I stand with my Rennaisance entry and Rationalism.
Internal food trade routes are the cornerstone of a fast and early growth snowball strategy, so I prefer to research Compass before T100 quick speed unless I'm entering the Rennaisance era via Banking (since Banking has a trade route on it too)
The reason I personally don't spy steal vs Deity AI is to use the spy to rig a cultural city state. They are a huge boost to culture and placing the Rennaisance spy in a city state usually guarantees it as a game-long ally after 2-3 election rigs. Without it I really struggle to get an ally, and then I back my population and science beeline to carry me to tech lead
@@PCJLaw That is indeed a good alternative to spy stealing. This is what is so great about Civ 5. The game allows for so many different approaches. Still hasn't gotten stale after 2k hours!
@@Vuosta 100% agree!
Even on Deity there's flexibility on approaches as long as you grow hard in the early game!
You can also see why some people play so much multiplayer because it opens up even more strategies, but you still get to play people with Immortal/Deity competency!
thank you so much
I usually rush for the great library wonder before I build my first settler, is that a bad strategy? If I cant build it in time, then I can purchase the settler from the gold as plan B. I really find the benefits so worth it in early game that I rarely choose not to go for it. What are your opinion?
Liberty is also much stronger for early wars or going for a DV.
Might be only me but I have trouble to focus on what you say because of the music played at the same time :/
Hey, I'm impressed with your UI. Can you give me a list of the mods you're using?
Of course! The only mod I am using is the following:
Enhanced User Interface v1.28: forums.civfanatics.com/resources/24303/download?version=22637
There is a later version of this mod, v1.29. However, v1.29 tends to be banned/frowned upon in the Multiplayer community as it gives away important war information that's unavailable to an unmodded player
v1.29 here: forums.civfanatics.com/threads/enhanced-user-interface.512263/
"Troy" or "Troyès" is pronounced "troa". Welcome in the wonderful world of French language.
What mod is that to make all the city states show their quests?
It’s a free culture building, not a free monument. If you build a monument before getting the free culture buildings, then you get a free amphitheater instead.
this guy doesn't blink
I would have moved the settler one tile on to the grass land at the start to get the stone works, would that be worth it?
Accidentally replied to the wrong comment - apologies! I'll paste my response here for consistency:
You know, I never noticed! You're right to know you can't settle on plains to get a stoneworks!
However, I can't say whether or not it's a good idea. Moving for it "starts you one turn late", so I can't say moving for a one tile stoneworks (that you'll also need to build) is the better play
My approach to moving is to only move for immediate short term benefits, big overall benefits or an observatory, since they can be so powerful. Not sure if one hammer one happiness eventually pays off enough!
@@PCJLaw Couldn't you move the settler 1 tile to the grasslands and then settle? That means you settle just as fast.
@@beepbop6542 I could have done, you're right! It gives up both of: starting on a hill and working a 2/1 tile right away though
On reflection, whilst the stoneworks city might end up better in the end, the value of that extra 2 production per turn right away might be too much to be worth it
God King is a super strong pantheon when taken early, in part because of it's extra 1 production! It's super hard to give that up for a stoneworks
I aim for 10 cities before 0 A.d with 50+ science and a large enough army
I play exclusively on marathon. These numbers mean nothing. XD
I wish I could get out my national college by turn 100
How applicable is this to Standard Game Speed?
Why music in the background...
Great advices, but it's hard to hear you over the loud music.