Civilization VI: Winning at Deity Level

The following is a high level overview on how I was finally able to win at Deity level.  There are a lot of guides online but most of them call for a "death match" on a small map against one opponent.

I used the advanced set up features to restrict the victory conditions to a Domination victory only (must capture all the original capital cities of all civilizations) as the AI's advantages make winning a Science, Culture and Points victory in time almost impossible.  There may be hope to win a Religious victory, as CIV VI has set it up to be won by theological "combat" but I was not interested in pursing this option as the AI advantages at Deity level usually mean that all major religions have been founded by the time a human player has accumulated enough faith.

My first go around I made the mistake of only setting the game for Domination victory, neglecting to scroll further down the Advanced Set Up Menu and un-click the No Term Limit box.

I selected a huge island plates map just for a Steam achievement but I attribute my victory to playing on this map (that and lots of luck). Initially, I thought my starting location was detrimental (see end of post at link above) but it turns out I had an almost island like refuge in an out of the way region.  My closest neighbor was a city state, which was the victim of my first imperialist aggression. 

The screen shot below of the Greek homeland  is from the last turn of the game. Please excuse the radiation and the fact that my capital, Pella does not have a higher population. It seems that the other civilizations will not go down without a fight and Pella and Dion were targeted for multiple nuclear strikes:

More on the next page.



Once I had developed some good naval artillery (battle ships) I moved against Carthage, which had grown into a well developed prize. They were an Arabian ally and foolishly decided to join their ally in a foolish war against me. The Arabians arrived upon my shores without naval support and were soon destroyed. Carthage would be a prize.

The maps forced me to build a large fleet which kept in in good stead with Harald Hardrada and I religiously renewed my alliances with Norway the moment they expired.

Figuring that to win a Domination victory one should not care about other civilization's denunciations, I took the opportunity of taking another Arabian allied city state and securing a strategic location in the middle of what would eventually be my Mare Nostrum.  Battleships are still my main offensive force,  their advantage is that they can sit outside the range of the shore defenses but they reduce city fortifications at a slow rate. Once I get bombers, things will go quicker.

Bringing the war to Arabia, the first major civilization to lose their capital to my forces.  It will be a "Peninsula Campaign" towards Cairo.

After the capture of Cairo and the end of the Arabian War I decided to move to the continent on the opposite side of the Southern Sea (won't be Mare Nostrum until I take this continent).  At this time I also had strategic bombers.

 The German and Chinese civilizations here were exhausted by continuous warfare but China was not going to go down without a fight.  After taking Shanghai they launched the first nuclear strike I would suffer, pretty much taking out my highly experienced expeditionary force. They got everything, battleships in port and in the surrounding waters and a couple of armies of armor and mechanized infantry.

I believe the Civ VI designers did this on purpose but when an AI opponents decides to launch a nuclear war they will hit the same city over and over.  During the course of this game I was hit at least 20 times and not sure if I could have won if they hit different cities. If the AI is ever upgraded to fight a nuclear war differently the best way is to target civilizations with lower tech levels first and keep all the cities captured.  Eventually, your empire will be large enough to withstand a region or two being demolished by nuclear strikes.

Australia didn't take too kindly for me moving on Canberra and hit my capital.  No need to comment on if I kept Rockhampton or not.

Year 2107 AD, Turn 615 and the end to the endless wars is in sight. Two capitals remain. St. Petersburg on the top right and the heavily nuked Norwegian capital (not by me) of Nidaros on the bottom left.

St. Petersburg fell when my destroyer rushed in after the bombers had turned all city defense into rubble.  Nidaros would survive another turn as my depleted mech infantry was not up to the task. Nevertheless, the next turn the bombers finished the job and the mech infantry went in to win the game. They are not visible in the screen shot below while the computer processes the end of game sequences:

With this, I'm pretty much done with the Civilization series. I've enjoyed the game through all its iterations but no need to try and gain a Julius Caesar level victory.