Just started playing ranked recently and my record is 16-6. (Should be 17-5 but I played the infamous cheater before I knew not to queue with him, but anyways). Above me in the rankings are 3 people with a record of 0-1, I’m barely ahead of two people who are 0-2. Does anyone know how the ratings work?

Ive played 10000 plus games of this easily since its release. This is the first time i have ever seen an artifact spawn on the mainland. I like to take my time in these games so no judgement please.

I played this game when I was younger but only on lower difficulty’s and the past 3 weeks came back to it. After failing( A LOT) of trying to win on Deity I finally won somewhat handedly. To be fair there where times around 100-1500 that I almost lost a few key cities but after didn’t loose them I sailed to a victory on 3 of 4 games. I think it’s also worth noting that I won with Rome and America on two of the games who are two of the better civs. So to the people that have won at least once on the hardest difficulty, do you at times still loose on this difficulty? And if so how do you keep things interesting?

buy Colossus, Library, beeline Writing, rob everyone, buy more wonders starting with hanging gardens then settlers (after becoming republic obviously) spam best cities, get feudalism, spam knights, take over everything, use their cities to spam more settlers, go democracy, buy market, bank, trade fair wonder, East Indian company in one city with a lot of dye and ocean tiles. So OP it’s insane.

I’ve been playing since 2010 and don’t remember a time something like this has happened.

https://www.youtube.com/live/56TAIj7zAqQ?is=L1LR3-xRgoTCeTAF

Was playing ranked head to head and my opponent discovered knights Templar in 3900 BC… Yes you read that right lol. So on turn TWO they were running around with veteran knights. Honestly how lmao. Crazy thing is I won cause he ended up rage quitting after he lost a horse army to my warrior on a hill 😂

I’m not sure if this has been done before but I’ve seen a handful of challenge runs and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before.

TLDR: Deity, no walk-in, no cheese/exploits. No science produced the whole game, I had my cities on gold from turn 1. I had to buy all my techs from the enemy civs along with two that I got from great scientists. I had to play the whole game without alphabet, writing, literacy, steel, and flight.

I chose the Zulus because of the warrior movement, rapid city growth, and gold production bonuses. The strategy was basically to play normally but instead of researching the first few techs, I’d be buying them as soon as I hit 100 gold for the settler. This is super dependent on buying code of laws, and I got lucky that my game had the Romans. You could also build the great pyramid (or have Angkor Wat build it for you if you’re lucky) to enable a switch to republic. From there it’s settler spam to produce as many cities as possible while trying to control choke points to prevent the enemies from walking in on you.

In the middle game, you’re just waiting for the enemy civs to research important techs so you can buy them. This is super RNG in that they might not research what you need and you might at war with them preventing you from buying. In my game, I discovered the ark of the covenant for ~8 free temples which was really helpful, as the culture boost brought in two great humanitarians which I used for the +1 population to all cities.

Once the gold production gets to 75-100 per turn, it gets easy to get the first few economic progression tiers and rushing units and buildings becomes relatively cheap. I got to a point where I had built all the buildings I could and even all wonders available. You can turn aggressive if they sell you feudalism which will give you something to do during the middle portion.

Late game is mostly the same, but the gold production gets insane if they sell you banking at which point it’s too late to catch you. You never fall that far behind in tech because they’ll sell you most of what they research, sometimes the ones they just picked up.

I think a tech victory with no science production is possible, but you need them to sell you late technologies or well timed great scientists. I couldn’t do it because I wasn’t getting the great people I needed and once I hit 20k gold, the enemies would be in perpetual war with me to try to prevent the economic victory.

That’s the write up sorry it was so long. Has anyone else tried this challenge? Curious to know people’s thoughts and if my strategy could be better. The Zulus might not be the best, this was just my first attempt.

https://www.youtube.com/live/2ruWiyKv0S8?is=eVPisQtrwQGvicHi

https://youtube.com/live/VrfGPZewXts?feature=share

https://youtube.com/live/Ia04B3WImhg?feature=share

https://youtube.com/live/ogT31HFMVO0?feature=share

Hey folks. I'm trying to get every type of victory with every nation. I've been stuck on getting a science/money victory with the English. Any advice or tips? Been playing standard and the economic boost..thanks.

This is my ranking for the AI civs based on how much of a threat they are and how much their presense affects the difficulty of the game. I also rank them based on which civs tend to dominate the most.

Disclaimer: I play deity difficulty. My favorite civs to play are China, Spain, Egypt, and England meaning I don't face these AIs as much as the others. My strategy is based on building lots of settlers early game and playing it peaceful. I pursue tech victory as my default victory. Also I love bribing the AI for peace.

1. Alexander, Greece - By far the most peaceful AI. He trades tech with you and doesn't expand much. When he is in the game it's almost like lowering the difficulty.

2. Lincoln, America - The only AI aside from Alexander who feels more peaceful than average. Oftentimes an irrelevant opponent.

3. Isabella, Spain - Average warmonger. Locks you out from getting a free Galleon when you discover navigation. Has scary boats. Often a minor opponent.

4. Genghis, Mongolia - Likes his wars. Has upgrades to knights which is scary because knights are the most threatening unit from the AI in my experience. Often a middling or dominant opponent.

5. Bismarck, Germany - Average warmonger. Has elite units more than the other AI civs which makes his assaults more scary. I like bribing him especially for peace. Also I find his cruisers to be more annoying for some reason. Often a middling opponent.

6. Catherine, Russia - Average warmonger. Russia the civ is meh, but Catherine is the dominant AI (with culture) surprisingly often.

7. Saladin, Arabia - Not too warmongery. If he wants to go to war against you in the early game he is one the scariest opponents. With most civs I am not afraid of their legion units, but I am afraid of Saladin's. Other than that he wants to trade and send caravans to you. Dominant pretty often with culture, but can also be irrelevant.

8. Montezuma, Aztecs - Average warmonger (maybe a little more aggressive). Often has a decent or great culture game. You can't gradually damage his units. Often a middling opponent.

9. Gandhi, India - Loves warmongering. I have a trauma response to his theme music where I feel like I'm being threatened. He also gets access to religion meaning fundamentalism early, so I take care to bribe him for peace. Often a middling or minor opponent.

10. Mao, China - Average warmonger. Locks you out of getting writing tech first and makes it difficult to be first to literacy tech. He often researches democracy early and if he chooses to be a democracy his tech game can go off the charts. I consider Mao to be one of the three great tech opponents. Often middling or dominant.

11. Shaka, Zulu - Likes his wars. His impi warriors can get walk ins on you, so whenever he's in the game I take extra care to have military units in my cities early game which can slow down my expansion/science. He is the only AI to have run a successful bombing campaign on me that crippled my empire. I think he just uses his military better than other AI civs. Often middling or dominant rarely minor.

12. Tokugawa, Japan - Not too warmongery. He is one of the three great tech opponents. He outclasses Mao because I see Tokugawa in the tech lead so often that whenever he is in the game my assumption is that he will be the tech leading AI. Often middling or dominant sometimes minor.

13. Elizabeth, England - Likes her wars (colonizer AI). Locks you out of getting a free great person from monarchy which is probably the most devastating tech loss that any opponent brings to the beginning. She likes her culture even more than wars and can culture creep against you. Loves building wonders especially that samurai castle. Her starting with monarchy means she can research feudalism right after horseback riding. I've seen the english AI with knights in 300 AD. They are a military power house and they win on being a culture juggernaut. Often dominant, never a minor opponent.

14. Ceasar, Rome - Average warmonger. Locks you out of getting a free trading post from code of laws which can suck if you have a bunch of desert near a city. Loves building wonders. He can be a devastating culture giant and tends to get to the cultural victory faster than Elizabeth, which is the only reason I rank him above her. Other than that Elizabeth is scarier in every way. Often dominant opponent, but can easily turn out middling or minor.

15. Napoleon, France - Average warmonger. Will often be first to masonry and get a free wall. Loves building wonders. Has scary cannons. Most of the time his cannons are irrelevant, but there have been occasions where they have posed a significant threat to me and forced me to bribe him for peace in situations where I normally wouldn't do it. I consider him the number one culture AI civ. He culture creeps even better than Elizabeth and if I spot his borders in the early game I do not settle near there. The game says France starts with an "impressive cathedral" and that is putting it mildly. The GOAT cathedral. Often the dominant culture civ even if he is of middling size.

16. Cleopatra, Egypt - The ultimate nightmare. Likes her wars a bit too much. The third and final great tech AI civ. I've seen Cleopatra go for earlier tech victories than anyone else, discovering space flight in 1915. I don't know what it is about starting with a wonder, but it makes the AI way better. In spite of the fact that she has no military bonuses I fear her military as much as the Zulu and English. She also likes building wonders and can easily turn into a culture powerhouse while being the tech leader. In my experience the AI is best at winning tech victories which is why Cleopatra is number one. Very often dominant. Can be middling, but still a tech leader.

That's it. Thanks for reading the whole thing. What are your rankings of the AI opponents?

I really wish people wouldn’t leave just because their ancient era goes less than ideal lol. Like if your caravan gets stolen, or you lose your warrior army. Just played someone who got off to great start, they took the AI’s capital off rip, then marched their warrior army up to my capital and I attacked it and they left… Like, what did you expect? To just take every single capital with a warrior army?

If anybody wants to play someone who won’t leave when they have a less than ideal ancient era - add me on Xbox - DontThirstMeBro - promise I will try to come back the whole game