Overview
This guide will cover a very easy and quick way to win the game on Deity difficulty and get the achievement. I did it without restarts and in less than 1 hour.
Game Set-Up
-Go to create custom game
-Duel size
-Island Plates
-Deity Difficulty
-Make sure Religious Victory is active
-Choose any Civilization you want, except for Kongo (I did it with Arabia since I didn’t have that achievement)
-Play against only one opponent, and make sure to choose Mvemba a Nzinga (Kongo)
-I played with the Improved AI Mod because I do like a challenge, but this mod is not required (would be easier without it)
-No other setting matters
The Goal
The Goal is to win by achieving a Religious Victory as quickly as possible. Kongo cannot start a religion, so you will be the first unless you die. To win with a Religious Victory, you need all major civilizations to have at least half of their cities following your religion.
Your two major objectives are as follows:
1) Don’t Die (covered later on this guide)
2) Build Holy Site and temple (or stonehenge) as soon as possible
Early Game – Don’t Die
The most important thing is obviously to not die. In Deity difficulty the AI will out-produce you by a lot. Their research will also progress much faster than yours. It is very important to not waste time on building things not vital for our cause.
Don’t worry about expanding and building settlers. In my game, I did build one city but it was pointless. All it did was slow me down. You can win with just your capital city.
I started out by training a builder to get my food and production up.
Don’t worry about troop production first thing (not even a scout). You are probably in a tiny enclosed area. After exploring with your default warrior, park him in a spot where it eliminates the fog of war so barbarians don’t spawn in your little island.
Research the appropriate early techs for tile improvements then start aiming towards the technology that allows you to construct Holy Sites or Stonehenge (if next to stone).
As soon as you can, build 2 galleys. Remember to switch your policies to the one that gives you 100% production for naval units. You will need to eventually explore and find the Kongolese cities. You will also need to defend against embarked units if Kongo declares war.
Make sure to build Ancient Walls ASAP. Essential in early game survival.
On your downtime, build military units, preferable slingers or archers (remember the 50% off policy!).
After you build your Holy Site, build appropriate religious buildings so you can get as much Faith as possible. I also used most of the game the civic that gives 1 extra faith and gold in your capital. It’s weak, but good for our purpose.
Once you get your Prophet, Found your Religion then make missionaries. Take them to Kongo and spread the love. If Kongo has two cities, you only need to convert one of them. If they have 3 or 4 cities, you will need to convert 2 of their cities; therefore, a second missionary may be needed. If they have more than 4 cities you probably took too long, but rinse and repeat until you win or die.
What if the AI declares war?
It’s not really an IF question… It’s a WHEN. What do you do when Kongo wants your head on a spike?
Hopefully your Ancient Walls are built. If not, hopefully you at least have it researched. Stop all other production and build it. Or hopefully you have been saving your gold. Build it outright if needed. Or you can outright buy troops, preferable ranged. Hopefully you also listened to me and have a couple of galleys so you can attack embarked enemies. At this point try to kill as many of his units as you can. If you’ve done a good job defending, he will propose peace in 10 turns. Take it right away; don’t be greedy.
What happened in my game?
I played as Arabia because I didn’t have that achievement yet.
Early on I wasted production of a setler, and then a builder for that new city. It was a waste of production. I got nothing out of that city all game, so don’t follow my mistake.
Because I wasted production time, I didn’t have my Ancient Walls built when Kongo declared war. I instantly switched production to one (I didn’t have enough gold to instantly build it because I had just spent it on a builder… urg).
All I had at this point was the 2 galleys, and the starting warrior for troops. THAT’S IT!!! I damaged and killed as many of the embarked troops as I could. Several made landing and started hitting my capital. I then had enough gold for an archer (Ancient Walls were just a couple of turns away, so I didn’t want to waste the production). I then started hitting their troops with my archer, which caused the AI to retreat the wounded troops. My capital was down to a sliver of health when my walls were built and the wounded enemy started to retreat. Kongo then offered me peace and paid me 3 gold a turn for my troubles.
I then built my Holy Site, founded Islam, and trained a Missionary. One converted their capital. They had 3 cities total, so I then had to wait until I had enough faith for another missionary. Once that happened, I converted his second city and won the game with a whooping score of 94!!!
Playing time was less than an hour, but could have been less if I had read this guide before trying it… oh wait… never mind. Anyways, I did it on my first try without reloads. Good luck!
