In my quest to find [ever](https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1pqxu2g/who_needs_books_with_walls_like_these_i_beat/) [more ](https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1r6t311/i_finally_did_it_i_beat_deity_with_no_conquests/)[silly](https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1rl77rr/i_won_a_military_victory_on_deity_without_using/) ways to play this game, I decided to try beating Deity using as few units as possible. My rule was that I needed to delete (if possible) every unit I got after using the founder to create my first settlement. I played this game on a huge Shattered Seas map with 12 leaders; Deity difficulty, and Regroup transition. I made things a bit easier on myself by setting all Independent Peoples to start out friendly, and I disabled the Invasion Antiquity crisis. All the other settings were standard.

In my first few attempts at this challenge, I used Ibn Battua since I thought his Share Maps ability would help me explore. But it turns out this wasn't that useful since the ability just reveals territory claimed by other players. What I really needed was help discovering Independent Peoples so I could befriend and integrate them.

After some experimenting, it seemed like the only way to quickly find a IP was to have my founder walk around till it bumped into one. Then I'd move far enough away so I wouldn't make them hostile by settling. This became a bit less painful when I switched to Harriet Tubman since her units ignore movement penalties for vegetated terrain. Her bonus to war weariness also seemed like a good insurance policy.

Now just because I can find an IP settle by turn 20 doesn't mean I'm in the clear. I lost several games when neighboring Civs attacked despite my best efforts to play nice. I'm also toast if I can't befriend the IP I found for some reason. And when I do become suzerain, I'm always hoping that their scouts have revealed another IP I can befriend. My early games were on a Continents & Islands map, but I switched to Shattered Seas in the hopes I'd have less aggressive neighbors & seafaring IPs that find more friends.

But I eventually got a game that really seemed to be working out. I even had enough influence to start conducting espionage missions, and I picked up migrants with Harriet's lantern...

Oh yeah. Migrants are units :)

So I swapped the lantern for the Garuda Statue & started again. My next game felt like it was starting out even better. I was on an island with two other IPs, and befriending them revealed even more. The first leader to come knocking on my door was Gilgamesh. I gave him open borders, and he was kind enough to grab the goodie-hut right by my capital. These things are really annoying in no-units game since your founder can't grab them, and you can't build on or improve those tiles!

Just when I thought this game would be smooth sailing, Gilgamesh denounced me! In retrospect, I think this was because I was off to such a late start and other leaders he'd met had been sending out endeavors. I desperately built walls, but it was my city states that really saved me. When the invasion came, their ships killed off most units Gilgamesh sent. A few of them limped to my capital, but they weren't enough to break through. Lakshmibai was allied to Gilgamesh and also declared war, but she was too far away to bother sending troops. I peaced out with Gilgamesh ASAP, but I let the war with Lakshmibai go till she offered me a settlement in a peace deal.

In the middle of all this, I was able to build the Coliseum and Weiyang Palace. I got only got on LP for science & one for economics. But I had four whole settlements and that already put me in a better position than I'd ever been for a no-unit game. I already had plenty of Han walls around my capital, and I knew I could build a super-city with Ming walls & the right wonders.

In exploration, Gilgamesh seemed busy fighting other leaders, and I was quickly able to pick up a bunch of new city states. But Ibn Battua declared war (upset at me switching to Harriet?) and Sayyida joined him. They only conquered a couple of my more-distant city-states, and I counted myself lucky for that. I incorporated four more city-states and built as many walls as I could. I finished the age with one future tech and a scientific golden age.

I modern, I went with Qajar since I was still way under the settlement limit. Gilgamesh dropped a few settlements on my island and seemed close to declaring war on me. But I desperately sent endeavors his way and held off on picking an ideology till I could match his choice (Democracy, the weakest option for me). But despite my worries, nobody declared war on me.

Now there is one asterix on the whole "no units" thing. I went for a science victory, and when you build an aerodrome, you get a commander you can't delete. I didn't use this unit for anything, but you could still argue this makes it a "two unit" game. Its theoretically possible to get a military, culture, or score victory without using anything but the founder, but trying to pull this off on Deity seems too crazy even for me :)

Putting those quibbles aside, I was still really happy when turn 72 rolled around and I shot into space. This challenge took a fair amount of patience, but I'm proud of figuring out a strat to make it work. I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

After a Dozen Attempts, I Beat Deity Without Using Any Units (except for the founder)