One City challenge

Here's a new challenge for "pro"s in this forum.
Your goal is to win (by UHV, score, conquest, etc) a game with only one city.

How to play an OCC game in RFC
1) Change "NoCustomScenario = 1" to "NoCustomScenario = 0" in "Rhye's and Fall of Civilization.ini"
2) Run Civ4 BtS and load RFC
3) Choose "Custom Scenario" and select "One-City Challenge"

Rules
1) The version of RFC must be 1.186
2) You can choose Monarch or Emperor, but not Viceroy
3) Enter WB and erase all the cities that flipped to you (e.g., remove Qufu and Xian if you play as China on 600AD start)
4) Don't get any city via the Congress, the UN, or the AP

How to report your achievements
1) Upload screenshots indicating which victory (or victories) you achieved
2) Describe some strategies, tricks, and/or lucky/unlucky events in your game that you think are worth mentioning

Other things to note
1) Records will be treated separately based on the civ, victory type, the starting date (3000BC or 600AD), and the difficulty level.
2) If two people achieved the same victory as the same civ from the same start on the same difficulty level, both people's names will be listed. So, there's no need to hurry up - relax and enjoy your game.
3) After you achieved a victory, feel free to go for another victory. Achieving a conquest victory usually means that you can also achieve a diplomatic victory.
4) Sometimes I might become busy and cannot update this page. Don't worry. I'll be back. Just post your achievements.

3000BC starts:
Egypt: Conquest (Monarch: blizzrd, JiimBV), UHV (Monarch: hix)
Babylon: Conquest (Monarch: JiimBV), UHV (Monarch: hix)
China:
India: UHV (Monarch: usi)
Greece: Conquest (Monarch: JiimBV, Emperor: JiimBV), UHV (Monarch: Zagoroth, TDK)
Carthage:
Rome: Conquest(Emperor: usi), Space Race (Emperor: usi), Time (Emperor: usi)
Persia:
Japan: Conquest (Monarch: usi), Diplomatic (Monarch: usi), Space Race (Monarch: usi, JujuLautre), Time (Monarch: usi), UHV (Monarch: usi)
Ethiopia: UHV (Monarch: usi)
Maya: UHV (Monarch: b-m, b-m [2; partial])
Korea:
Vikings:
Arabia:
Khmer:
Mali:
Spain:
France:
England:
Germany:
Dutch:
Portugal:
Aztecs:
Turkey:
Russia:
America:
Inca:

600AD starts:
Japan:
China:
Vikings: Space Race (Monarch: hix)
Byzantines:
Arabia:
Khmer:
Mali:
Spain:
France: Space Race (Monarch: usi), Time (Monarch: usi)
England: Space Race (Monarch: OzzyKP[Picture, Strategy])
Germany:
Dutch: Space Race (Monarch: brettj72[Picture, Strategy])
Portugal:
Aztecs: UHV (Monarch: usi)
Turkey:
Russia:
Inca:
America:

I have been playing this game from some days ago to show that a OCC game is winnable.
I just picked an easy civ (Japan, 3000BC start) and won five victories (conquest, UHV, diplo, space, and time) on Monarch.

Strategies:
1) Send one of the workboat you started with to the West (a) to establish trade routes and (b) to trade techs with Greece, Rome, Carthage, etc.
2) Build Kyouto as the capital. Actually, it's better than Toukyou.
3) Try to build Samurais early, and start razing other civs' cities immediately after you built essential buildings and wonders. With only one city, you can only build one unit per turn. So start building units early, or you can't win a war.

Other stuff:
The strongest enemy of mine was Russia. I had to raze uncountable number of cities, and the General Winter + Canons + Cuirassiers killed many of my Infantries. It is highly recommended to crash them early.

OCC has the advantage of having no problems with stability--you can't collapse despite a zillion of razed cities, no economic growth (although getting vassals will help), and terrible foreign relations.

The most important thing is being coastal, and I don't think some civs (like Russia) can do it easily, because none of their coastal locations can sustain the amount of growth it needs. Obviously you can have a vassal and build airports, but trickling units 1 at a time to America is kinda hard.

Also, nukes would be of benefit, so having a vassal with uranium will help.

Wait, wait, wait; you could say I'm nitpicking, but you did not win any of Diplo/Space/Time; you won only one game, by conquest.

The game doesn't display "Whoever won whatever victory" if another victory is already achieved.

So, let me explain each of the screenshots:
The first screenshot shows that I won by conquest.
The second one shows that I got 190 votes for the diplo victory, where 151 was sufficient. Thus, although the screen doesn't say that I won by diplo, actually I satisfied the condition for winning.
The third one shows that I satisfied all the UHV conditions. If you look at the scores, you'll find that I got 3/3 UHV conditions satisfied.
The fourth screenshot shows that it's the time for the time victory (2020AD) and I got the highest score in the world. So, I must have won the time victory.
The fifth one, which is somehow problematic, shows that I had built all the components for the spaceship. This, however, doesn't say that the spaceship reached Alpha Centauri, and I don't know any way to prove it. I can upload a save if someone is interested in.

It isn't a given that winning conquest will allow you to win the others (e.g. Babylon). So Usi is just showing us that with this one game he won all of them, starting with conquest.

The only other civ that can theoretically do it is probably Khmer (nearly all the other civs require more than 1 city, Maya, Ethiopia and Inca all need more cities for research).

Not so many civs can win by UHV, but many civs should be able to win by something like the time victory.
This time, however, I went for UHV as India. This actually happened to be rather easy.

Strategy:
1) The most important thing is to screw up China so that it won't found Confucianism or Taoism. The Warrior you start with must immediately go to China and harass them. Forget about huts - they usually don't give you anything great. On the way to China, try to attack some barbarian units to get 5xps and promote the Warrior to WoodsmanII. After the Warrior arrived to China, first destroy the farm on the Wheat tile, and wait at 2S1W of it. Go 1N1E every turn and check if a Worker is on the Wheat. If so take the worker. Else, go back. Sometimes there are Chinese military units near the worker, and sometimes they are in a fog of war. If this unlucky thing happens, the Warrior will probably be killed. The first pic shows how much a successful harassment can harm the development of China. At the end, I had 6 Workers from China.

2) I built Delhi (on the starting spot), simply because it has more foods than other possible locations. But maybe it didn't have to be Delhi, since I had way more than sufficient population to achieve the third UHV condition. (A lucky event of +2 health happened, but it does not mean anything more than 1 population.)

3) My early research path was Agriculture, Meditation, Priesthood, Writing, Mathematics (bulbed by a GS), Masonry, The Wheel (necessary to hook up Marble). Calender was oracled (don't forget to research Sailing by then), and Theology was partially researched & bulbed by a GProphet. I was able to research up to Currency, Guilds and Civil Service, so I got Grocer and an extra farm.

4) Try to meet both the West and the East. You'll need all the health resources they can trade with you. If you have Currency, you can always pay a small amount of cash for a reseurce you want. Also, there's no reason to be stingy. Sell/trade any techs as long as others' won't found certain religion before you do.

Oh yes, I forgot about India, if you grow your capital up it will surpass any other population with smaller cities (since the pop number is not proportional to the number shown on screen). Good job. You've become quite the expert at destroying China...

What if they chopped the forest W of the wheat?

Very nice Usi! Interesting stuff this OCC.

I like that you link the victory board to the actual posting.

TDK

usi said:

The game doesn't display "Whoever won whatever victory" if another victory is already achieved.

Click to expand...

My nitpick is that I never saw anyone before you now on these boards saying that he has achieved a victory while in fact he has achieved another. Everyone always tries his best to get a conquest victory without getting domination, and one of the most difficult aspect of the time victory is to not win by any other winning condition.

That said, if everyone else is ok with that I will just pass away. That's quite a game you have here.

AnotherPacifist said:

What if they chopped the forest W of the wheat?

Click to expand...

So far, I have never seen that, since they are usually busy improving other tiles.
But if the forest is removed, I'll probably continue stealing Workers by placing the Warrior in 2S1W of Wheat.

I usually send my Warrior W of the Wheat after I got enough Workers.
Putting a Warrior in this tile makes China very hard to build a farm on Wheat or a pasture on Pig.
As a result it'll take forever for them to build a Settler.
An advantage of doing this over stealing Workers is that the Warrior is very unlikely to die (unless China hires a good mercenary).

TDK said:

I like that you link the victory board to the actual posting.
TDK

Click to expand...

Thanks.
I hope the links can help people looking for strategies.

JujuLautre said:

My nitpick is that I never saw anyone before you now on these boards saying that he has achieved a victory while in fact he has achieved another. [...] That said, if everyone else is ok with that I will just pass away. That's quite a game you have here.

Click to expand...

I see.
I'm lazy to raze 130+ cities every time, so I guess I can do something like this: The one who purposefully achieved a victory by avoiding other victories would get this --> next to their name in the first post.

EDIT: By the way, if someone has won a game with only one city, and reported the achievement in another thread, just tell me the link. As long as all the rules in the first post is followed, the achievement is good enough to be listed in this thread.

Looks like nobody else is trying, but OCC should not be so tough as long as you play on Monarch and choose a strong civ.

Strategies:
1) Build Rouen. There are better cities in terms of production and commerce, but your capital must be a coastal city - otherwise you can't attack the British and Americans until very late game. So, build Rouen, which IMO is the best coastal city you can build without losing initial Workers.

2) If you use an Euro civ, it is important to crash the British early. You can at most build a unit per turn, and you should not waste hammers on ships. So chop & whip Galleys and attack the British ASAP. If you place your units + mercenaries on Dye, they tend to send a Settler W of it with a Longbow or two. Use this chance to kill their longbows. Keep sending military units to wipe them out early.

3) Build a lot of workshops and switch to Caste + Bureaucracy after you whipped Barracks and research & production related buildings. This should give you enough production to pump out a lot of Catapults. Use production overflow wisely so that you can sometimes build Macemen, Pikemen, or War Elephants (contact Mali early). Like in an unmodded game, siege units are never enough and AI's Knights are scary.

4) Opera House and Channel Tunnel are the keys wonders. The earlier you build them, the better off you will be. You'll also appreciate National Park after you select State Property.

Build your capital on the Horse. Research Animal Husbandry, then Mining and Bronze Working. Build Barracks then lots of War Chariots. This is a whole lot more difficult to achieve when you can't heal inside newly captured cities, as it takes twice as long to heal in open terrain.

First Chariot takes out Babylon, then has to push straight towards China (taking out defenceless Samarkand en route) or else you won't make it in time before the Persians spawn (China grows too fast). Second Chariot heads straight for India, bypassing Shush and other cities along the way.

Third Chariot needs some experiece from Tyre and Hattusas before heading for Greece. Be sure to pick up Shock promotion. Just pray that Greece doesn't found Knossos, because you'll never get a boat and thus won't be able to get a conquest victory if they found this city.

In my game, Greece founded a city in Italy with the 2nd settler, so my first approaching unit had to head all the way around the Adriatic to reach this city and I had to send my fourth Chariot towards Athens.

A worker that I stole from India eventually made it all the way back to Egypt to improve the Copper and my initial warrior gained enough experience moving around Africa to collect goody huts that I could upgrade to City Raider II Axeman. This Axeman then took out Jerusalem in concert with another newly built War Chariot.

EDIT: This was a Monarch difficulty game.

First, how to prevent Spain from settling in Caribbean. It's actually very simple: Just place your military units in whatever islands and declear war on Spain when you met them. For France, you don't have to do that much. Just prepare about eight units in Galleys in your city.

Second, how to get to the Industrial era on time. Partially luck, I have to say. But I only got maps and a Warrior from huts. So, no "huge" luck is necessary. Tech trading is important, and thus what techs other civs got matters. After you got Sailing (to send units to Caribbean Islands) and Civil Service (Bureaucracy), look for techs that (1) are necessary for Physics and (2) some other civs don't have. In my case it didn't work, but Paper and Printing Press might be good ones. Also, be sure to generate as many GSs as you can.

The third UHV condition is easy. Just keep trading techs. Pay some GPT to get Iron and build enough Canons to raze some Euro cities. Get Rifling and stop research there, use cash to upgrade units, and look for Euro civs which don't have Infantries.

Strategies:
1) You need to found one religion - usually Christianity or Islam. But Christianity is certainly better for both diplomatic and financial reasons. And I don't even know if it's at all possible to found Islam only with one city. So, go for Christianity. The way is obviously research + bulbing by GProphet. So, whenever you got a religion in your city, build its temple and then hire a priest.
Before founding Christianity,
a) DO NOT switch civics,
b) DO NOT build Graneries etc until you have built Temple and then Library,
c) hire scientists after Library is built,
d) meet Greece, Rome, Carthage etc and check what techs they got, and
e) ask them to fight with one another if possible.
I founded Christianity in 200AD. It could have been faster if I had hired more scientists, but I was afraid of getting a GS instead of GProphet.
Founding Christianity in 200AD is clearly very late, but it's very hard to improve, since there's only one city. So, although I was lucky enough to do this by one shot, if you are to try the same victory, be prepared to try many times before you finally found Christianity.

2) After founding Christianity, improve your economy. You'll need to generate two more GPs: one GProphet for shrine and one GS for Academy. Without them, you can't keep up with others in research. With them, as long as you trade techs effectively, you'll have tech advantage over Euros until somewhere like Chemistry. After getting Rifling, you'll stop researching and start building a lot of units.

3) little by little, cover up African coastal lines by your units. If some Euro civs build cities in your UHV area, declear war on them and raze their cities. After a while, you'll be fighting against all the Euro civs. At least by 19th C, try to completely cover up all the important coastal lines (see Atlas), so that when they want to build a city in your UHV area, they'll have to first fight with your units with -50 amphibious landing handicap, while your units are fortified in forts. In my case, nodody dared to do so, and I won.

The great glowing wall of Oromo Warriors!
You can probably do the same for Incans, only that it'll drain your economy dry.

I guess the Incan UHV would be much tougher due to late start, poor techs, and an unproductive capital.

But the Ethiopian game was so funny.
I saw many Euro civs' galleons just came near the coast and left without being able to drop any unit.
They also tried to make peace with me via the AP, but I always defied the resolution.
If they had been brave enough to attack the Oromo Walls, it could have been even funnier though - like a tower defense game.

BTW, why don't you try some? Challenge threads without AnotherPacifist is like 3000BC start without Rome.

I've tried OCCs in regular civ, doesn't appeal to me (I'm more of a builder and keeper and can't help myself with settlers). But keep up the good work.

I'm surprised with your response AP. The OCC game that I am currently playing is right down your alley as a "pacifist" style of game.

I'm currently playing Spain as a OCC towards a conquest victory (having run a Custom Scenario with OCC selected). I founded my capital one north of Lisbon to get maximum production and also maximum seafood in the city's BFC. Let me just say that a citadel is so awesome for producing triple-promoted siege units.

So far (late 1700s) I have taken out France (destroying Marseilles and Bordeaux before they flipped), Aztec (got conquerors), Inca (got conquerors), Portugal (who spawned and were booted to found Seville, then eliminated), Dutch, England, Germany and just recently America. Vikings collapsed (of their own accord) and I razed the various independent cities also. I'm in the process of invading Turkey and my Rifles and Cavalry are kicking some Janissary butt just at the moment. I have razed the Native cities in both western and eastern Africa and also in America (which is now completely empty, unless Japan colonises the west coast I suppose).

China is a problem, as the current tech leader they also have Rifles. Russia could be a problem but I currently have a Defensive Pact and they are pleased. Russia had captured Athens before Turkey spawned and still owns it. My plan is to collapse Russia with a quick invasion to raze Moscow, wait for them to split to independents before razing all of their (many) cities and suffering from General Winter too much.

Interestingly, my expansion stability is currently +112, even though I haven't ever expanded from my capital (as autoraze is selected in CustomScenario for OCC). Also, selecting OCC seems to mean that you never get any foreign trade routes in your capital (and only city) regardless of economic civic (i.e. without actually selecting Mercantilism). Has anyone else seen this?

Expansion stability in each of my games was almost always high too.
But the trade route thing seems very strange because I do get foreign trade routes.