Level 4 Difficulty es too difficult

[Dralonini Cappoccini]

I'm not sure how the game is supposed to be playable to anyone below asian-level at Prince difficulty and above.

Every single player game I start at this difficulty I always end up getting raped by the nearest civilization. I've tried building new cities practically inside my current ones. AI didn't care about whether I was building near their border or not and decided to just declare on me (when they had multiple other civilizations near them) directly. Even when I do that along with making nice by giving everyone a good amount of gold, I still got declared on after giving about 70 gold and an embassy to a civilization and being on friendly terms with them.

It punishes me for actually deciding to develop my infrastructure and not rushing units every turn (which seems like a pretty terrible way to play an RTS but I guess that's how you play Civ 5), but even then, if I did pursue building military and military only, when I get declared on I still get the freaking second coming of a Mongol invasion with 6-8 units including ranged, melee, and siege on me.

It's impossible to play at this difficulty and enjoy it when you know you're just going to lose your civilization at turn 60, and the first difficulty is boring as hell because you still get people achieving the medieval era when you've been at information for the past 50 turns.

Not sure how I'm supposed to play this game without being a professional RTS player. Pretty messed up system.

[Hempest]

You have to change your game style depending on how the game starts out, often on the higher levels of difficulty if you leave your defense and army underdeveloped the comptuers will take advantage of this and attack you. The saving grace is that is much MUCH easier to defend than to attack, just make sure you get things like walls and castles fairly early and keep a few ranged units near your cities that border other civs. I have defended against early game rushes where the computer had an army several times larger than mine and I easily defended my cities with just a few ranged units.

[11 Armenian Genocide]

I'm not asian and I play diety all the time...

[Dralonini Cappoccini]

Originally posted by Hempest:

You have to change your game style depending on how the game starts out, often on the higher levels of difficulty if you leave your defense and army underdeveloped the comptuers will take advantage of this and attack you. The saving grace is that is much MUCH easier to defend than to attack, just make sure you get things like walls and castles fairly early and keep a few ranged units near your cities that border other civs. I have defended against early game rushes where the computer had an army several times larger than mine and I easily defended my cities with just a few ranged units.

I'll look into trying this for my next playthrough. Thanks for the advice.

[jamesyly0530-noobie as Soviet]

In addtion, please pay attention to the city management screen. Do not leave AI to manage the few citizens working on tiles of the cities in the early stage.

There is also a summary table in the top right side which you can compare the bench mark KPI like army, crops, people etc among all the players (including AI). So suggest you always ensure all the KPI are among the middle of the AIs particularlly in "Soldiers".

If you play as German, you can have the benenfit to reduce the costs to maintain the army units.

[Burbot]

It's really the opposite of spamming units like an RTS. As you move up in difficulty you try to do more with less. Lots of times you'll skip making iron based melee units, because you know how to defend with a few pikemen and some bows, since you'd rather sell the iron.

If you get frustrated as you move up in difficulty, don't be shy about dropping back down with your new skills. It will be clear to you how much you are progressing when you beat your old difficulty level with ease.

Might consider doing a 'diety civ5 lets play' search on youtube. If you start to apply some of the concepts diety players use, you'll soon be trouncing the mid difficulties with no trouble. No need to watch 12 hours of play unless you want to. The first hour or two of a few lets plays learned me plenty and made my brain bigger.

[stealthyshiroean]

Just takes playing it and learning the system really. I can play Prince....or used to, but I seem to be having some difficulty with Brave New World (haven't went back to Warlord yet though), but it took me a while to get to that point. I am by no means a professional RTS player and actually, I suck in comparison to other players who know the proper build orders and strategy for this game.

[Isaac Koop]

It is difficult and I couldn't beat it on Prince until the fourth try. It is important to have some kind of an army on Prince because when someone declares war on you they will hit hard and you will need to defend yourself.

[manannin]

Science is key. Get the national college up and running, while keeping a few archers to defend your cities. Also, fill out tradition if possible, it is great for getting a powerful city for both science and production, which can help you build both infrastructure and units. It is kind of intimidating moving up levels, I agree, but it's not insurmountable. Play as Babylon if you are lost, getting that free great scientist is massively helpful.

[Conan The Librarian]

What sort of settings are you playing on? If you're playing with settings where civs are placed really close to each other, then yeah, you're going to be clashing with other civs a lot. If you want to try some practice games where you play on a larger map with a fewer civs to give you elbow room, you can try that. Map type makes a difference too. If you're doing Pangaea, it's really easy for the AI to get you. If you're playing on contients/islands/any sort of seafaring map, then it's much more difficult for the AI to invade you, as they will have to significantly tech up to cross oceans, giving you plenty of time to develop your civ to be ready for their aggression.

I'm also curious: which ex pack are you using? If you're still using vanilla or G&K, then the AI is crazy war-happy; so, good luck appeasing them with gifts to not attack. In vanilla and G&K, the AI doesn't care so much about what you give them, instead, if they see you as "weak", or going against their interests (like actually expanding your empire, god forbid), they'll Declare War. I've found ever since switching to BNW that you can actually do some REAL diplomacy; where you can actually cultivate good relationships. Yes, it of course still takes work to maintain good relations, but it CAN happen. I've also had games where my friends/rivals have flip-flop'd, so I'm MUCH happier with the AI attitude (as it is more dynamic, instead of being "It's only a matter of time...") with the new ex pack (yes, of course it isn't perfect, but it's still VASTLY superior to G&K).

Also, I just want to reiterate what some of the others have said: play defensively (walls and bowman can do a lot), and science is key. If you're able to, doing a Great Library--->National College rush (you can look online for strategies to achieve that) can be very beneficial for skyrocketing your early-game science. Depending on things, you may have to sacrifice other early game wonders (AI can have stonehenge for all I care), but it's usually worth it.

Hope you found this to be good hints.

[CRISPY CANTEEN CAPTAIN]

i play prince all the time, thats my easy difficulty

[Itharius]

Originally posted by Dralone:

I'm not sure how the game is supposed to be playable to anyone below asian-level at Prince difficulty and above.

Actually, the game is incredibly hard to lose at anything below emperor difficulty. Read some guides and learn how to play.

[mss73055]

You need *some* army, although not the best one. Check your military advisor every so often. "they are stonger" is alright, you can defend yourself against such a civ. When you see "they can wipe us off the planet" you have to build units until you're back on the scale.

Then infrastructure comes in play. Once your cities are connected by roads you can move around your smaller army of bowmen. This allows you to fend off raging barbarians with more easy, too.

One of the Aristocracy policies makes garrisoned units free of maintenance. Have a try with it.
There also is a trait in the honor tree where garrisoned units give happiness and culture.

[Overlord Ducky]

I know how you feel.

This game isn't beginner friendly when it comes to AI difficulty. I play vanilla warlord/prince and now I just quit whenever I meet someone like Napoleon.

Here's the classic scenario: I have a ~ three times larger army. 10 turns later after helping him in all manners possible, he attacks me with 10 Musketeers which for some reason can take out my fully healed knights when the Musketeers are injured. He then proceeds to throw 20 cannons at me and completly mow through my country.

[FREE_PIZZA]

I'm no expert myself, but I highly recommend that you be science: the person. Getting techs faster means a more advanced military available, it means you're first to unlock building wonders, it means you win. Once you're comfortably ahead of everyone else, you can play however you want and win at your leisure.

I also recommend prince difficulty. Anything below, and the AI is made stupid on purpose. Any higher, and the AI cheats on purpose. Prince is the most level difficulty you can have, and in my opinion is thus the best way to improve.

[FREE_PIZZA]

Brocisely, my good man.