Merenptah
Warlord
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Messages
- 132
This guide describes specifically how to be the tech leader consistently playing Babylon with a city next to a mountain at emperor level. The core idea is to take advantage of Babylon’s Great Scientist bias together with the benefits of a completed Freedom Social Policy tree which gives an immense boost to all those Academies that you have and will be planting. For a more generic OCC strategy guide please see http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12105068#post12105068.
Setup: Babylon, Emperor Level, Pangea Plus, Standard Size (8 Civs, 16 City-States), Standard Pace (500 Turns), Strategic Balance (ensures Iron and Horses nearby), No Barbs/Ruins, OCC ticked
Part I - Walkthrough
Starting Location
By far the most important criteria is having your city placed next to a mountain so you can build the Observatory which gives +50% Science output. Generally I also make sure that the city is coastal. These two features together will give you a great tactical advantage: you will be protected from one side by the mountain, while at the same time being able to use Frigates/Battleships to snipe land units approaching your city.
In terms of other features, I found desert to be very helpful, in fact more so than having your city next to a river. The important assumption is that you will be able to build Petra: this will result in each Desert tile yielding +1 Food/Gold/Hammer, in addition to giving free a Amphitheatre. If you time it right, i.e. you finish Petra before Drama and Poetry, will then result in a free Opera House from the Legalism Social Policy. Another important implication of having a city near or next to a desert is the ability during the late game to build the Solar Plant which does not require any resources to build (unlike the Nuclear Plant which it replaces).
Phase 1: Pre-industrial Era
In the pre-industrial era your aim is to build the basic infrastructure quickly and efficiently to boost your Food supply and Growth, Science output, Production and Culture, 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. It is paramount that you focus on food intake and growth first, because population translates directly into more science output in addition to giving other important benefits such as higher productivity and the ability to field more units. For this the Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens are important World Wonders to aim for, the latter being essential in my opinion.
Also, you will need to found a religion for some additional unique Growth and Productivity benefits. Since your choices will be reduced once other Civs have founded their pantheons/religions, it is paramount that you build the Shrine as soon as possible and then research Theology before Civil Service so you can build the Hagia Sofia and be one of the first Civs to found a religion. After that you shold build the Grand Temple to enhance your religion quickly and get additional unique benefits.
In addition you need to make sure you will enough Gold so that you can buy the University @660g as well as the Observatory @780g as soon as they become available; to achieve this you should work your Lux as soon as possible and sell these.
Phase 2: Industrial Era
Once you enter the industrial era your top priorities should be filling up the Freedom Social Policy tree and sign as many Research Agreements as possible (see below for a detailed discussion on why Freedom is superior to Order when it comes to Science output). It is therefore advisable to take a detour to Archaeology and then Radio, so you can build the Museum and Broadcast tower (+33% Culture) as soon as possible, before heading to Replaceable Parts and Plastics (buy the Research Lab @1350g). Also, try to build the Cristo Redentor to speed up your Social Policy progression even more.
You should have at least four active Research Agreements in place at all times. An important aspect here is Gold redistribution, which you can achieve to a large extent by trading Luxuries, i.e. by buying Lux from Civs that do not have sufficient funds while at the same time selling your Lux so you have plenty of Gold income.
Phase 3: Endgame
Once you have built the Research Lab you should still be the tech leader. However, in terms of science per turn, one or more Civs will start to get ahead. This is simply because one or two dominating Civs will emerge experiencing massive growth mostly through conquest. Now is the time to focus on looking very seriously at your defences. In particular you should get Anti-Aircraft defences up as a top priority.
Another thing you must start focusing on more is City States. This is not only for the added Science you get from them once you have the Secularism Social Policy, but also to deny other Civs a Diplomatic victory. It is true that once the AI realizes it cannot win a domination Victory that it will in most cases switch to pursuing a Science Victory. However, in some cases, particularly if you have Greece or Siam as an opponent, there is the risk that the United Nations is up before you are even close to finishing the Spaceship. And if the AI builds the United Nations, it will most likely have enough votes to win and there is nothing you will be able to do at that stage to change that.
The best counter therefore is to continue working on your Social Policies. You should first fill your Rationalism tree, and if your culture output is good it should allow you to get the two free techs on your way to Satellites. After that you must focus on Patronage, and I highly recommend building the Sydney Opera House, after you have built the Hubble Telescope, in order to boost your culture output in addition to the free Social Policy.
As a last note, remember to build your spaceship parts early. After Hubble and Sydney, you should build the Apollo Program, if you haven’t done so already, and then the SS Cockpit as well as three SS Boosters. This alone will take around 20 turns. And with the research agreements you will have in place, the last two techs that you need, Nanotechnology and Particle Physics, will become available much sooner than you might expect.
 
Part II – A few things in more detail
Freedom vs. Order (theory)
Here is a brief explanation of why Freedom is superior to Order (Planned Economy: +25% Science from Factories) when it comes to maximizing Science output in an OCC setup. Planned Economy simply increases the Science Output of a City by 25%, whilst a completed Freedom Social Policy tree increases the Science output of each Academy by 8. So to see which is better we just need to see if the increase is larger or smaller than 25%.
The base science output of your city at the outset of the industrial (just after you build the Public School) age will be +12 Science from Buildings and 2x Population (P) and 3x5= 15 from your Science Specialists + 10x Academies (N). So your total Science output will be: 27+2P+10N. Therefor your percentage increase can be calculated as 8N/(27+2P+10N). Setting this equal to 25% gives a breakeven value of
N=(27+2P)/22. Since N and P can only be integers, we can see that if you have at least 4 Academies, and your population is between 20 and 30, then Freedom will result in a Science output increase of more than 25%. At population 31, you will need at least 5 Academies in order for it to be better, etc.
Generally you should have more than 6 Academies when playing OCC. And when playing Babylon you should have at least 12: 9 + 3 from the Hubble Telescope and the Porcelain Tower. Therefore, the Freedom approach will be clearly superior in this case, and the Science output boost it provides will be close to 50%.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that Planned Economy just requires two Social Policies, while Freedom will require a total of six. Therefore, Order will provide a Science boost much sooner, while it will take much more time to fill the Freedom tree. That is why culture is so important during the Industrial age.
 
Opening Strategy
Here is a recommended opening build order:
Here are the best “Beliefs” for your religion:
Diplomacy and Research Agreements (RA)
Specialists and Great Tile Improvements
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:
Tech Progression
Social Policy Progression
Playing Babylon you can generally avoid taking a filler SP before Rationalism opens, but if you need to nonetheless just take Commerce.
Rationalism 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:
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:
4x Bowman -> Composite Bowman -> Crossbowman -> Gatling Guns (your Sentries)
1x Knight -> Cavalry -> Landship-> Tank
2x Galleass -> Frigates -> Battleships
2x Triplanes -> Fighters (these are your earliest AA and crucial once the AI gets Flight)
3-5x Great War Bombers -> Bombers
Replace Gatling Guns with Mobile SAMs as Sentries once you researched Rockets
Add 2x Submarines -> Nuclear Submarines
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
Thanks!
Setup: Babylon, Emperor Level, Pangea Plus, Standard Size (8 Civs, 16 City-States), Standard Pace (500 Turns), Strategic Balance (ensures Iron and Horses nearby), No Barbs/Ruins, OCC ticked
Part I - Walkthrough
Starting Location
By far the most important criteria is having your city placed next to a mountain so you can build the Observatory which gives +50% Science output. Generally I also make sure that the city is coastal. These two features together will give you a great tactical advantage: you will be protected from one side by the mountain, while at the same time being able to use Frigates/Battleships to snipe land units approaching your city.
In terms of other features, I found desert to be very helpful, in fact more so than having your city next to a river. The important assumption is that you will be able to build Petra: this will result in each Desert tile yielding +1 Food/Gold/Hammer, in addition to giving free a Amphitheatre. If you time it right, i.e. you finish Petra before Drama and Poetry, will then result in a free Opera House from the Legalism Social Policy. Another important implication of having a city near or next to a desert is the ability during the late game to build the Solar Plant which does not require any resources to build (unlike the Nuclear Plant which it replaces).
Phase 1: Pre-industrial Era
In the pre-industrial era your aim is to build the basic infrastructure quickly and efficiently to boost your Food supply and Growth, Science output, Production and Culture, 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. It is paramount that you focus on food intake and growth first, because population translates directly into more science output in addition to giving other important benefits such as higher productivity and the ability to field more units. For this the Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens are important World Wonders to aim for, the latter being essential in my opinion.
Also, you will need to found a religion for some additional unique Growth and Productivity benefits. Since your choices will be reduced once other Civs have founded their pantheons/religions, it is paramount that you build the Shrine as soon as possible and then research Theology before Civil Service so you can build the Hagia Sofia and be one of the first Civs to found a religion. After that you shold build the Grand Temple to enhance your religion quickly and get additional unique benefits.
In addition you need to make sure you will enough Gold so that you can buy the University @660g as well as the Observatory @780g as soon as they become available; to achieve this you should work your Lux as soon as possible and sell these.
Phase 2: Industrial Era
Once you enter the industrial era your top priorities should be filling up the Freedom Social Policy tree and sign as many Research Agreements as possible (see below for a detailed discussion on why Freedom is superior to Order when it comes to Science output). It is therefore advisable to take a detour to Archaeology and then Radio, so you can build the Museum and Broadcast tower (+33% Culture) as soon as possible, before heading to Replaceable Parts and Plastics (buy the Research Lab @1350g). Also, try to build the Cristo Redentor to speed up your Social Policy progression even more.
You should have at least four active Research Agreements in place at all times. An important aspect here is Gold redistribution, which you can achieve to a large extent by trading Luxuries, i.e. by buying Lux from Civs that do not have sufficient funds while at the same time selling your Lux so you have plenty of Gold income.
Phase 3: Endgame
Once you have built the Research Lab you should still be the tech leader. However, in terms of science per turn, one or more Civs will start to get ahead. This is simply because one or two dominating Civs will emerge experiencing massive growth mostly through conquest. Now is the time to focus on looking very seriously at your defences. In particular you should get Anti-Aircraft defences up as a top priority.
Another thing you must start focusing on more is City States. This is not only for the added Science you get from them once you have the Secularism Social Policy, but also to deny other Civs a Diplomatic victory. It is true that once the AI realizes it cannot win a domination Victory that it will in most cases switch to pursuing a Science Victory. However, in some cases, particularly if you have Greece or Siam as an opponent, there is the risk that the United Nations is up before you are even close to finishing the Spaceship. And if the AI builds the United Nations, it will most likely have enough votes to win and there is nothing you will be able to do at that stage to change that.
The best counter therefore is to continue working on your Social Policies. You should first fill your Rationalism tree, and if your culture output is good it should allow you to get the two free techs on your way to Satellites. After that you must focus on Patronage, and I highly recommend building the Sydney Opera House, after you have built the Hubble Telescope, in order to boost your culture output in addition to the free Social Policy.
As a last note, remember to build your spaceship parts early. After Hubble and Sydney, you should build the Apollo Program, if you haven’t done so already, and then the SS Cockpit as well as three SS Boosters. This alone will take around 20 turns. And with the research agreements you will have in place, the last two techs that you need, Nanotechnology and Particle Physics, will become available much sooner than you might expect.
 
Part II – A few things in more detail
Freedom vs. Order (theory)
Here is a brief explanation of why Freedom is superior to Order (Planned Economy: +25% Science from Factories) when it comes to maximizing Science output in an OCC setup. Planned Economy simply increases the Science Output of a City by 25%, whilst a completed Freedom Social Policy tree increases the Science output of each Academy by 8. So to see which is better we just need to see if the increase is larger or smaller than 25%.
The base science output of your city at the outset of the industrial (just after you build the Public School) age will be +12 Science from Buildings and 2x Population (P) and 3x5= 15 from your Science Specialists + 10x Academies (N). So your total Science output will be: 27+2P+10N. Therefor your percentage increase can be calculated as 8N/(27+2P+10N). Setting this equal to 25% gives a breakeven value of
N=(27+2P)/22. Since N and P can only be integers, we can see that if you have at least 4 Academies, and your population is between 20 and 30, then Freedom will result in a Science output increase of more than 25%. At population 31, you will need at least 5 Academies in order for it to be better, etc.
Generally you should have more than 6 Academies when playing OCC. And when playing Babylon you should have at least 12: 9 + 3 from the Hubble Telescope and the Porcelain Tower. Therefore, the Freedom approach will be clearly superior in this case, and the Science output boost it provides will be close to 50%.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that Planned Economy just requires two Social Policies, while Freedom will require a total of six. Therefore, Order will provide a Science boost much sooner, while it will take much more time to fill the Freedom tree. That is why culture is so important during the Industrial age.
 
Opening Strategy
Here is a recommended opening build order:
- Monument while you research Pottery
- Shrine (to ensure you get Fertility Rites) while you research Writing for the free GS
- Granary
- Temple of Artemis
- Hanging Gardens
- Petra (if near desert)
- Worker
- Library
- National College
- Bowmen + Walls (Babylon’s Unique Unit and Building)
- Hagia Sophia (get your Religion)
- Grand Temple (you want to enhance your Religion ASAP to get your choice)
- University (make sure you have 660g or trade lux to get it so you can buy it)
- Oxford University (add some Specialists so it finishes with Compass)
- Observatory (buy it for 780g)
Here are the best “Beliefs” for your religion:
- Pantheon: Fertility Rites (+10% Growth)
- Founder: Tithe (+1g /4 Followers)
- Follower 1: Feed the World (+2 Food)
- Follower 2: Religious Community (+15% Production)
- Enhancer: Religious Texts (religion spreads faster -> more Gold income from Tithe)
Diplomacy and Research Agreements (RA)
- 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.
- Do accept Declaration of Friendships from everyone
- Your friends will come with requests for Gold or Lux; don’t hesitate turning them down and just be apologetic always
- 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
- 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
- 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).
- In terms of what type of specialists to use, you should Science specialists only and add Engineers and Artists only when it does not slow your growth (usually after Civil Society).
- 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.
- Also remember to buy 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.
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:
- Lock the first default tile and put your focus on production immediately
- If growth stagnates at Population two switch back to default and lock all tiles then put the focus back to production again
- 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
- Buy tiles with Hills nearby as soon as possible if your production is low
- Have your first worker build mines and lumber mills first after improving Lux
- 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
- 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
Tech Progression
- Pottery (-> Shrine, Granary)
- Writing (so your first Academy which will instantly boost your Science)
- Archery (-> Temple of Artemis)
- Animal Husbandry (reveals Horses)
- Mathematics (-> Hanging Gardens)
- Writing (-> Library)
- Mining + Lux improvement techs (including Sailing for Sea based Lux)
- Philosophy (-> National College)
- Theology (-> Hagia Sophia)
- Education (-> buy University for 660g)
- Astronomy (use Oxford University to get this and buy the Observatory for 780g)
- Chivalry (-> Alhambra)
- Iron Working (reveals Iron)
- Metal Casting (-> Workshop)
- Machinery (-> Ironworks)
- Printing Press (-> Leaning Tower of Pisa)
- Architecture (-> Hermitage; Porcelain Tower)
- Scientific Theory (-> buy Public School)
- Archaeology (-> Museum)
- Radio (-> Broadcast Tower)
- Industrialization (-> Factory; Gatling Gun)
- Plastics (-> Research Lab)
- Satellites (-> Hubble Telescope)
- Ecology (-> Sydney Opera House)
- Advanced Ballistics (-> SS Booster)
Social Policy Progression
Playing Babylon you can generally avoid taking a filler SP before Rationalism opens, but if you need to nonetheless just take Commerce.
- Tradition
- Legalism
- Landed Elite
- Aristocracy
- Monarchy
- Oligarchy
Rationalism LHS
- Rationalism
- Secularism
- Free Thought
- Scientific Revolution
- Freedom
- Constitution
- Civil Society
- Free Speech
- Democracy
- Universal Suffrage
- Humanism
- Sovereignty (with enough Culture you should be able to use this to get Satellites)
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:
- Explore: on Pangaea/Continents Plus you will need a Caravel to reach all the CSs
- Pledge to Protect: increases influence resting point by 10
- Send Missionaries to convert them -> 25% reduction in influence decay + Gold income
- 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:
4x Bowman -> Composite Bowman -> Crossbowman -> Gatling Guns (your Sentries)
1x Knight -> Cavalry -> Landship-> Tank
2x Galleass -> Frigates -> Battleships
2x Triplanes -> Fighters (these are your earliest AA and crucial once the AI gets Flight)
3-5x Great War Bombers -> Bombers
Replace Gatling Guns with Mobile SAMs as Sentries once you researched Rockets
Add 2x Submarines -> Nuclear Submarines
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
- Temple of Artemis (+10% Growth, Ranged Units produced +15% faster)
- Hanging Gardens (+6 Food and a free Garden even if your City is not next to a River)
- Hagia Sophia (Great Prophet and free Temple)
- Alhambra* (+20% Culture and free Castle; difficult to get at higher levels, but worth aiming for)
- Leaning Tower of Pisa (+25% GP generation, and a GP of choice)
- Sistine Chapel (+25% Culture)
- Porcelain Tower (Great Scientist and +50% Science from RAs)
- Statue of Liberty* (+1 Hammer/Specialist; quite difficult to get this one at higher levels)
- Hubble Telescope (2x Great Scientists and Spaceship production boost)
- Sydney Opera House (get it to boost your endgame culture and get some Patronage policies)
Thanks!
