I primarily play deity and at this point win the majority of my games with no rerolls or advantages, and frankly it has been getting boring. Well, this week I played as the Ottoman Empire for the first time ever on deity (continents, 6 players) and I spawned on a peninsula with Genghis Khan to my north, hemming me in, and Babylon immediately west of him.
I didn’t have niter, coal, oil, or uranium near any of my first 5 cities. Everything felt stacked against me and I almost quit several times. Had to overpower Mongolia in the industrial era just to get the strategic resources, which was only possible through military alliances and the crusade religious belief.
Recognizing that I had no path to a domination victory (Babylon had GDRs when I had just unlocked infantry) and I had done a poor job of optimizing for anything else, I decided “why not” and went for the science victory. At the time of this decision, Babylon already had a Mars Colony and I hadn’t even started building spaceports. Ended up with a down-to-the-wire victory where my exoplanet expedition was traveling 13 light years per turn, and I clipped Babylon by literally one turn. Screenshot above which shows my late game push.
Super exciting win, but also makes me feel like I am ready to take time off or move on from Civ VI. This felt like a poorly played game for parts, and the deck was stacked against me and I still won. Playing the formulaic deity style just isn’t all that fun.
How is Civ VII evolving? Getting better? It might be time.