Sid Meier's Civilization VII

Sid Meier's Civilization VII

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<Playing God> Achievement Guide - RailRoad Tycoon
By Aquilius
Strategy to win the game in modern age on deity difficulty easily.
   
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Guide
Playing God
Win a game on Deity difficulty

Relax, roll a blunt and enjoy your effortless empire as the ultimate Railroad Tycoon
Recommended game setup
Leader and civilization
Augustus of Mughal
Augustus grants a crucial bonus towards purchasing buildings and Mughal will grant you tons of gold every turn

Mementos
Complaint to Ea-nâsir - +1 Economic Attribute Point
Antikythera Mechanism - +1 Scientific Attribute Point
This will help to get bonuses towards purchasing and constructing buildings at the advanced start

Opponent leader and civilization
Himiko High Shaman of Nepal
Crucial for a friendly encounter and allying. Avoid any war at all costs

Settings
Age
Modern

Difficulty
Deity

Game Speed
Online

Map Type
Terra Incognita

Map Size
Tiny

Starting Point
Standard

Age Length
Long

Disaster Intensity
Light

Opponents
1
Preparation
Start a new game with this setup and restart until you will have a starting point with enough of the map revealed to instantly place seven other settlements at the advanced start. For a perfect start there will be eight to ten industrial resources of which each settlement will incorporate one. Towns should instantly be converted from growing towns to industrial towns to save lots of gold when buying factories and also give some additional gold per turn. Hence, it would be ideal if every town can incorporate one industrial resource. But convert only if all industrial resources within the settlement radius are improved. If not let the town grow first until all industrial resources are improved.

At the advanced start spend your ten points for one city, six towns, Steam Engine and Military Science .

Spend your attribute points to reach +15% gold towards purchasing in all settlements on the economic tree and +20% gold and happiness towards maintaining buildings. This will further boost savings for purchases and gold per turn.

Buy two settlers close to spaces on the map where you can found two other cities ideally incorporating an industrial resource each. You will need at least ten settlements with a railroad station and factory to generate sufficient victory points on the Railroad Tycoon path

Also make sure that every settlement has a tile where a railroad station can be build. Factories can be built on the city center so you definitely need that minimum of that one tile.

Now that you have set the foundation for your railway empire it is time let it flow.
Strategy
Actually there is not much to do after the preparation. At turn two take a look at the emerging city states and befriend just the gold related ones to gain further gold per turn bonuses. All other are irrelevant. Also do some lovely diplomacy and just don't mess up with Himiko what actually would be harder as winning the game. You can basically do anything to piss her off but directly declaring a war. She will barely declare war on you, no matter what you do. If you actually succeed to provoke the unspeakable, it's game over and this lovely model of a reserved lady will turn into a fiery beast of nature and whoop your behind as you deserve. Don't even think about being able to survive that onslaught.

Hence, improve trade relations in the beginning and in the course of the game. Max out merchants at any time to guarantee a lovely relationship to Himiko. Play the good husband and support any proposal of her. As soon as possible ally yourself with her and keep supporting her proposals. This will make you safe for the whole game.

As you have set your research path, just click through until you have researched the techs for the railroad station and the factory. With the bespoke preparation you should have amassed enough gold to buy these buildings in the same turn you will have researched the tech. After building all factories and equipping them with ressources, it is just clicking through to turn 80-90 until the Great Banker will emerge.

Send this tiny greedy fella to Himiko's capital. This might take a few turns depending on the distance, but usually it's just two to four turns. Activate him et violà you are now the immortal deity called the greatest Railroad Tycoon of all time with Cecil Rhodes eyeing you with envy. ChooChoo!
Conclusion
This is a very easy and lazy approach which will grant you the achievement for an effort of like 50 minutes or less. I have played five test runs and none of them failed. In the end Himiko always had 12-14 artifacts collected which might sound close to her winning the game but it never has been critical. You might build and send out explorers if you feel nervous about that but that still means more interaction and less clicking through. That strategy does not depend on luck at all as it just uses solid game mechanics.

If you like a belligerant approach to win on deity, check out my Conquest guide.
Author's notes
If you succeed with that strategy and you like this guide, feel free to leave a comment , thumbs up or even a small award as a thank you.

Thanks for everyone succesfully applying this strategy and confirming their results.

3 Comments
Aquilius  [author] 22 Jul @ 10:34am 
Thanks for the flowers :budsmile: I'm very happy this guide helped you out :happystar2022:
I was also kinda dissapointed for the lack of attention as my first guide doing a conquest to win deity was well perceived. At the time when I created this guide, Civ 7 was already on huge downfall and everyday less people played it and were not even interested in the game. This guide barely gets any views due to this developement. It's ok, because I understand the reasons behind. Also myself, I'm still very disappointed with the game, so I understand.
LunaLapine 21 Jul @ 8:53pm 
Oh my god, how has this not gotten a ton of love? I'm a complete scrub at this game and was able to absolutely nail the victory in one try once I got a good starting seed from following this guide. You are my hero, I literally would not have been able to do it without you!
Aquilius  [author] 18 May @ 4:11pm 
:choo::chooo::chooo::choooo: