*New* One City Challenge - Emperor+ Freedom Strategy Guide

In this guide I will describe how to achieve any type of OCC victory (Cultural/Science/Diplomatic) by using a strategy centred around Great People (GP) and Great Tile Improvements (GTI). The core idea is to maximize your city’s population to take maximum advantage of Specialists and Great Tile Improvements and the 100% bonus provided by completing the Freedom Social Policy tree to turn your city into a science, culture and production powerhouse.

Setup: Emperor Level, Pangea Plus, Standard Size (8 Civs, 16 City-States), Standard Pace (500 Turns), Strategic Balance (ensures Iron and Horses near starting location), No Barbs/Ruins, OCC ticked

Works well at Emperor Level and below, but you might also have some success at higher levels although your chances will obviously be reduced.

Part I - Walkthrough

Phase 1: Setting the Stage

The opening strategy, whether Cultural or Diplomatic/Science, will be exaclty same up until you have researched Scientific Theory and bought the Public School for 920g. An example of a detailed opening build order is given below. The most important thing initially is to lay some important foundations: boost your Food supply and growth, while at the same time ensuring you get a religion fast, to increase your chances that your choices are available, and have some basic defences.

In this phase you should have achieve +12/14 Food from: Granary +2, Hanging Gardens +6, Feed the World +2, Landed Elite +2, Water Mill +2 (if next to a River). In addition you should get a persistent boost to Growth by +45%: +10% from Temple of Artemis and +10% from the Pantheon Belief Fertility Rites, +10% from Landed Elite and +15% from completing the Tradition social Policy Tree which also gives a free Aqueduct. To get your Science going you need to build the Library, National College and University (buy it for 660g). In addition you want at least three Chariot Archers, and you will always have horses if you choose Strategic Balance; you can upgrade them to Knights once you research Chivalry (I usually just keep one or two), and the advantage of using these is that you won’t need to change your path to get them while being more effective than Archers.

Phase 2: Consolidation

Once you have the University it’s either a matter of getting Astronomy (if you are next to a mountain; which you should be if you are going for a Science Victory) or going straight to Chivalry. Note that it is best to use Oxford University to get Scientific Theory in general, but if you’re next to a mountain it is best to use it to get Astronomy, because otherwise you will have zero chance at the Alhambra, which is an awesome World Wonder which the AI likes to build early. After Chivalry just research Metal Casting (->Workshop) and then Machinery (-> Ironworks, Crossbowmen). After Ironworks, I usually build the Heroic Epic and then 4 Crossbowmen with the Morale Promotion (+15% strength against all terrain types is significant).

Next target is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. By the time you start building it you should have your Crossbowmen stationed either on a hill or where they are easily seen by your neighbour. Placing these sentries early can in some cases help in change the AIs mind about going to war with you. Just make sure you upgrade the sentries as soon as the tech allows. After Pisa the Sistine Chapel is usually still available. Then just go for Architecture for the Porcelain Tower and Economics and rushing Scientific Theory with Oxford (if you haven’t used it for Astronomy).

To summarize, in Phase 2, you should get: +75% Culture (+95% if you manage to get the Alhambra +20% in addition to the Sistine Chapel +25% and the Hermitage +50%), +50% Great People Generation (+25% from National Epic and +25% from Leaning Tower of Pisa), another Great Engineer (from Pisa; in addition to the one you should have gotten naturally from having build the Temple of Artemis early), a Great Scientist and +50% Science from Research Agreements from the Porcelain Tower, and one or two more Great Scientists from dedicated specialists. In addition you should have built the National Treasury and have a small army of 4x Crossbowmen with the Moral Promotion (+15% strength) and a Knight or two. I tend not to build Pikemen as I like to take out units at range, while Knights are used to chase Archers and kill off wounded units.

Phase 3: Reaching Out

Once you bought the Public School for 920g, which gives you an additional Scientist slot, you should research Astronomy if you haven’t done so already and send out one or two Caravels (or Explorers if landlocked and get some Open Borders signed). Then you should research Industrialization so you can upgrade your sentries to Gatling Guns and uncover Coal and potentially build a Factory. After that it depends on whether you choose the easier Cultural Victory or the harder Diplomatic/Science Victory.

For a Cultural Victory you should go for Archaeology next (for the Museum which you should buy and start building the Louvre) and then go to Radio (for the Broadcast Tower). That is pretty much all you need for an OCC Cultural Victory. Cristo Redentor can speed things up a bit, but Sydney Opera House is too far down the tech tree to be of any real benefit by the time you get there. Your next tech focus should be Biology and then Flight. Build some Triplanes with Intercept Promotion; this should be top priority, because the AI will quickly wipe out all your units with War Bombers if you don’t have these. Just play defensive, ally Cultural City-Sates and crunch out Great Artists for adding more Landmarks. Once you have Broadcast Tower and just one or two Social Policies left to do, it is better to just burn them for a Golden Age and the 20% boost to Culture Output that it gives.

What is End-game for a Cultural Victory is only Mid-Game for a Science Victory. Your tech priority here is to research Plastics so you can buy the Research Lab at 1350g which gives a +50% boost to Science. After that you should research Biology (for the Hospital; also reveals Oil) and then Atomic Theory (which gives +2 Science from Academies; on the way you will also pick up Triplanes/Great War Bombers and Battleships; all of which require Oil). Next, go straight to Satellites and build the Hubble Telescope for two Great Scientists and a production boost to Spaceship parts. After that just research the remaining tech needed for the different spaceship parts. Keep friends with everyone and continue signing as many RAs as possible, and don’t forget to keep building parts as the techs come up. You will need Aluminium for the parts, but if you don’t have it just build a Recycling Centre (requires Ecology) which gives +2 Aluminium. Once you add a part to the Spaceship the Aluminium frees up again, so you really only need one available Aluminium in order to build it. Note that in order to stand a chance, having a city build next to mountain is pretty much a must so that you can build the Observatory for a 50% Science boost; but this often comes with certain terrain drawbacks.

Diplomatic Victory is very similar to Science Victory in the sense that it’s a tech race once you have enough City-Sate allies (see below for details on City-States). You need to reach Globalization as soon as possible to build the United Nations, since the AI will no longer build it unless it has enough votes to actually win. The Tech Path will therefore be pretty much the same as for Science Victory up to Atomic Theory. After that, instead of going for Satellites it is best to go straight for Globalization. The Social Policies will also be similar except that you should focus on getting Patronage policies one you have completed the Freedom tree. On the way to Globalization you will have picked up all the techs you need for effective defence such as Triplanes/Great War Bombers, Battleships and Submarines. While you build the United Nations, you should research Radar, and upgrade your Airforce to Fighters/Bombers. Fortunately it is no longer the case that the AI hoards incredible amounts of Gold at higher levels and then buys out all the City-States at the last minute. However, to play it safe, you should simply declare war to everyone one turn before you are to complete the United Nations. Peace with the City-Sates will be blocked for the duration of the war. Just be prepared to endure those 10 rounds. A coastal city will be your best choice since nothing beats the Caravel in terms of exploration and making contact with City-States (on Pangea/Continents Plus).

Part II – A few things in more detail

Opening Strategy

The first 100 turns will be very similar each time; it is here where you lay the foundations which will make a difference later in the game. Here is an example of a typical opening build order:
1. Monument while you research Pottery
2. Shrine (to ensure you get Fertility Rites; skip and build after Hagia Sophia if playing Ethiopia)
3. Granary
4. Temple of Artemis
5. Library
6. Hanging Gardens
7. Water Mill (if next to water; else build a Worker)
8. National College
9. Worker
10. 3x Chariot Archers (more effective then archers and no need to change path)
11. Hagia Sophia (get your Religion)
12. Petra (if near desert)
13. Grand Temple (you want to enhance your Religion ASAP to get your choice)
14. Market
15. University (make sure you have 660g or trade lux to get it so you can buy it)

Religion

Here are the best “Beliefs” for your religion:
1. Pantheon: Fertility Rites (+10% Growth)
2. Founder: Tithe (+1g /4 Followers)
3. Follower 1: Feed the World (+2 Food)
4. Follower 2: Religious Community (+15% Production)
5. Enhancer: Religious Texts (religion spreads faster -> more Gold income from Tithe)
6. Bonus (Byzantium): Itinerant Preachers (religion spreads further -> even more Gold)
Note: Swords into Plowshares (+15% growth during peacetime) seems appealing at first sight, but since being at war is out of your control it is suboptimal compared to the other two choices.
Important: buy an Inquisitor as soon as your religion is enhanced and place him next to the city.

Diplomacy and Research Agreements (RA)

1. Do not accept embassies from your immediate neighbours. This means you will not be able to sign RAs with them, but don’t be too greedy because at higher levels the AI will always have a stronger force then you and it’s better to keep them guessing then dealing with an attack a few turns later.
2. Do accept Declaration of Friendships from everyone
3. Your friends will come with requests for Gold or Lux; don’t hesitate turning them down and just be apologetic always
4. Your friends will approach you for a Research Agreement (once both of you have the required fund) so you don’t need to chase them for it; but once you built the Porcelain Tower and have the Social Policy: Scientific Revolution you should be very aggressive about it if you are after a Science Victory; make sure you have plenty of Gold income and buy some Lux from them if they don’t
5. Do not trade open borders unless they demand it as part of an RA in which case it’s fine (you don’t sign RAs with your neighbour anyway unless he is really weak or he’s Gandhi)

Specialists and Great Tile Improvements

1. One of the important questions is when to start using specialists. Using them early will hamper growth, and as a rule of thumb I start using Science specialists as soon as my city has at least 15 followers of my religion so that I get the full benefit of Religious Community (usually at Population 16 or 17).
2. In terms of what type of specialists to use, only Scientist should be used until you get to Scientific Theory, and then switch to Artist during the Industrial age if you are after a Cultural Victory, else just stick with Scientists throughout.
3. You want at least one or two Manufactories from Great Engineers. The first should come naturally without using any specialists simply from having built the Temple of Artemis, and for the second it is best to get a Great Engineer from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
4. Also remember to buy Great Artists and Great Scientists with Faith once you enter the industrial era. The first one of each costs 1,000 Faith, and the second one costs 1,500 Faith etc., and they do not have shared cost increments like GPs produced via Specialists.
 
Citizen Management, Workers and Tile Improvements

Micromanagement is the name of the game, particularly in the beginning when you have few Citizens and no improved tiles. Citizen Management will be essential in getting that first Wonder before anyone else does. Here are a few pointers:
1. Lock the first default tile and put your focus on production immediately
2. If growth stagnates at Population two switch back to default and lock all tiles then put the focus back to production again
3. Once your granary is built and you unlocked the Landed Elite Social Policy (+2 Food and +10% Growth) you can safely focus all your Citizens on production tiles
4. Buy tiles with Hills nearby as soon as possible if your production is low
5. Have your first worker build mines and lumber mills first after improving Lux
6. Build farms last and lock any tile that gives +4 food (farms near rivers, grain/bananas/deer or fish once you built the lighthouse) to keep the growth going
7. Plant Great People on Grassland first (+2Food; makes them self-sustained), then Plains and last on Hills if nothing else is left, and don’t hesitate to put them on strategic resources (Horse, Oil, etc.) as you will not lose these; but you will lose Lux so avoid these

Early Tech Progression

Tech tree progression is largely dictated by building priority. Here is a recommended path:

1. Pottery (-> Shrine, Granary)
2. Animal Husbandry (reveals Horses)
3. Archery (-> Temple of Artemis)
4. Writing (-> Library)
5. Mathematics (-> Hanging Gardens)
6. Mining + Lux improvement techs
7. Philosophy (-> National College)
8. Theology (-> Hagia Sophia)
9. Education (-> University) + Astronomy (if next to mountain; use Oxford and build Observatory)
10. Chivalry (-> Alhambra)
11. Iron Working (reveals Iron)
12. Metal Casting (-> Workshop)
13. Machinery (-> Ironworks)
14. Printing Press (-> Leaning Tower of Pisa)
15. Architecture (-> Hermitage; Porcelain Tower)
16. Scientific Theory (-> Public School; use Oxford unless you used it for Astronomy)

After that you should aim for Plastics (after Archaeology in case of a Cultural Victory), and then Atomic Theory. For a Science Victory you must then get Satellites as soon as possible and build the Hubble Space Telescope; if the AI beats you to it you have no chance of building the Spaceship first.
 
Social Policy Progression

The only Social Policies you absolutely must have are the ones needed to complete the Tradition and Freedom Social Policy trees. Here is a typical recommended order:
1. Tradition
i. Legalism
ii. Landed Elite
iii. Aristocracy
iv. Monarchy
v. Oligarchy

For a Cultural Victory (CV) you will choose Piety as a filler before continuing in the Freedom tree:
2. Piety
i. Organized Religion
ii. Reformation (this is the key one giving +33% )
iii. Mandate of Heaven
iv. Theocracy (this is key for CV since it reduces all future SP costs by 10%)

For a Diplomatic and Science Victory (SV) it is best to choose Rationalism with Commerce as filler:
2. a) Commerce
2. b) Rationalism
i. Secularism
ii. Free Thought
iii. Scientific Revolution
Once you have Scientific Revolution and the Porcelain Tower you should start signing RAs aggressively. Before that it is also a good idea but you must be careful. As Ramses I was good friends with Sejong (Korea), and he kept signing RAs from very early on. However, he got a much larger tech boost out of it than I did, and it was impossible to catch up with him later on even with the Porcelain Tower.

Next is your centrepiece Freedom Social Policy tree
3. Freedom
i. Constitution
ii. Civil Society
iii. Democracy
iv. Free Speech (get this before Democracy for Science Victory)
v. Universal Suffrage

For a Cultural Victory you should then finish Piety and then fill Patronage and Commerce, while for a Science Victory you should just finish Rationalism for the two free techs and then go for Patronage (LHS).
 
City-States

City-States can significantly enhance your strategy. They will provide food (Maritime City States) and Culture (Cultural City-States) as well as boost your Science directly if via the Patronage Social Policy Scholasticism. In addition City-States synergize will with religion and should be a central part of your strategy. By converting them they will provide you with 2-4 Gold per Turn each, in addition to reducing influence decay.
Proceed as follows:
1. Explore: on Pangaea/Continents Plus you will need a Caravel to reach all the CSs
2. Pledge to Protect: increases influence resting point by 10
3. Send Missionaries to convert them -> 25% reduction in influence decay + Gold income
4. Place your Spies in Maritime/Cultural CSs for election rigging -> influence gain + coup protection; this is actually the best use of spies after you have placed one in your city; stealing tech just annoys the AI and you want to keep them friends and sign more RAs

Military

Without Intel the AI is more hesitant to attack, and I found that not accepting embassies can significantly delay the initial assault in most cases but not always. However, you should build ranged units and defensive buildings sooner rather than later.

Here is what your army should look like and how it should evolve:
1. 3x Chariot Archers -> 1x Knight -> Cavalry -> Landship-> Tank
2. 4x Crossbowman with Morale Promotion -> Gatling Guns (your Sentries)
3. 2x Galleass -> Frigates -> Battleships (if coastal; otherwise add 2x Crossbowman)
4. 2x Triplanes -> Fighters (these are your earliest AA and crucial once the AI gets Flight)
5. 3-5x Great War Bombers -> Bombers
6. Replace Gatling Guns with Mobile SAMs as Sentries once you researched Rockets
7. Add 2x Submarines -> Nuclear Submarines (if coastal; otherwise 2x Helicopter Gunships)
8. Build/Buy more Bombers

About the Civ that likes to plant cities just one tile from your border: it’s not that they want to be cozy, sooner or later they will attack even if they’ve just made a Declaration of Friendship. Just be ready to repel their force and take out those cities once it happens.

List of Wonders you should try to get

1. Temple of Artemis (+10% Growth, Ranged Units produced +15% faster)
2. Hanging Gardens (+6 Food and a free Garden even if your City is not next to a River)
3. Hagia Sophia (Great Prophet and free Temple)
4. Alhambra* (+20% Culture and free Castle; difficult to get at higher levels, but worth aiming for)
5. Leaning Tower of Pisa (+25% GP generation, and a GP of choice)
6. Sistine Chapel (+25% Culture)
7. Porcelain Tower (Great Scientist and +50% Science from RAs)
8. Louvre (two Great Artist; for Cultural Victory only)
9. Statue of Liberty* (+1 Hammer/Specialist; quite difficult to get this one at higher levels)
10. Hubble Telescope (2x Great Scientists and Spaceship production boost; for Science Victory only)

I hope you enjoyed this guide. Please feel free to provide comments/feedback or ask any questions.
Thanks!

Good guide. You have convinced me to give it a serious go. I have tried OCC a few times but get discouraged as I lack knowledge of what to focus on.

Got it done on turn 322 as Ethiopia. Almost didn't. William only had 2 pieces to go for Science victory. I dominated with my religion and my city ended up with 49 pop.

One more achievement down - thanks again!

I'm playing with Siam at emperor level and following this guide. The modern era is starting and so far everything is going well. I'm first in science, first in population, repelling everyone with gatling guns with +1 range and a couple of artilleries.

That's only one thing in this guide that doesn't apply: gold is never enough to rush buy buildings. Until the renaissance I managed the negative treasury with lux selling. After getting a positive trasury, only a couple of times I could rush buy units to replace the ones I'd lost in battle and only 3 or 4 times I could gift gold to City States. I virtually spent all to upgrade units.

I remember in vanilla I played OCC and had 100 gpt, but I think this is impossible in G+K. Unlike the AI, that has tons of happiness and tons of gold, apparently spent on hundreds of units.

With half a dozen pictures and screenshots, this is War Academy Material, very well done.

I want to suggest top 5 civilizations for OCC:

1. Korea: every specialists and GP improvements produce +2 science, every science building and wonder in the capital gives you instant RA's. you have two UU's both geared towards defense so you don't feel like wasting UB's like Ethiopia or Maya if you do OCC.

2. Siam: Wat is a university with culture that you can get free instantly with legalism, combine this with jungle bias, you can also catapult you into +100 beaker capital before 1000BC if you do it right. (Great Library jump to Philosophy, National college boost into Education, and the moment you can unlock free culture building after you built monument, library, and amphitheatre in a capital surrounded by banana jungles). You also get 50 percent more benefits from religious, maritime, and cultural city-states. Maritime allies give you 4.5 food for the capital, having just two of them allied regularly gives you 9 food, so you can skip some food buildings and use the production somewhere else.

3. Byzantine (if they snag two powerful founder beliefs)

4. Sweden (stay small, friend with city states and other civs, pumping out GP's.)

5. Aztecs


Civs that are counterintuitively, not very suited for OCC: Maya, India, Ethiopia.






I'll elaborate on the later choices later.

My thoughts are:

Map setting: I personally prefer Legendary start; it does run the risk of no horses / iron, but it provides more bonus resources near the capital; (so many that there might not be room to also settle Great Engineers)

Religion: While Fertility Rites is often best (more often than any other); it's not always, there sometimes are maps where another pantheon is more useful.

Byzantine: I think the RT+IP passive combo is over-kill. I would instead pair one of them with the active Holy Order (if early to found & enhance)

City States & Polices: Scholasticism isn't the main point of them (your core cities are in most game); its instead increasing the resting point by 20 to become free friendship with every civ on the map (massive amount of culture & religion from that alone, which is enough to easily meet the quests to lead in culture & religion to become free allies.
And so going for science I would make those two policies the filler after Tradition instead of Commerce even without an OCC; in an OCC I would continue to Scholasticism as well.

Why Commerce as filler for culture? It does hardly anything for an OCC. You have no road maintenance, you don't care about naval movement, you don't need the happy policy. The buying discount is okay but it's not necessary.

I think Liberty is the right filler fifth tree after Tradition/Piety/Freedom/Patronage, silly as it may sound. Liberty gives two Golden Ages, one from Representation and one from the finisher artist. That's way more culture than anything in Commerce.

T-hawk said:

Why Commerce as filler for culture? It does hardly anything for an OCC. You have no road maintenance, you don't care about naval movement, you don't need the happy policy. The buying discount is okay but it's not necessary.

I think Liberty is the right filler fifth tree after Tradition/Piety/Freedom/Patronage, silly as it may sound. Liberty gives two Golden Ages, one from Representation and one from the finisher artist. That's way more culture than anything in Commerce.

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Please check my latest OCC guide at: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=488845.