To occ or not to occ: That is the question

I won my last few single player games, so I decided to go up one difficulty step, and inevitably, got crushed in the first attempt. So far, nothing new. But here comes the story:

For fun, I decided to give a OCC at the new level a try. Standard settings, but small world (since small is somewhat easier).



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You may want to try this start, I think you won't get it much easier on this level.

I have to confess, i got this start position after ~10 regenerations. Somehow the map generators gave me only pretty worse start positions, not the good ones a OCC normally get.
I blamed the higher difficulty, since with inceasing difficulty, the start positions seem to get worse.

Ok, but this one is great, once it is settled: There is gold in the fat cross (which you can't see unsettled), and later I will find copper and gems. Additionally it is on a plains hill for a +1 production bonus.

So I started with fishing and building a worker, only to switch to a workboat as soon as the new high tech was available
I got some issues with barbs, but instead of activly engaging I decided to let them improve my hill-fortified axemen.
I remember, in between I wondered why I couldn't build the Global Theatre, but since happiness wasn't an issue, I forgot about that.

I snatched quite a few wonders:

Stonehenge
Pyramids
Great Library (the "basic" three)

And later:

Angkor Wat
Hagia Sophia
Spiral Minaret
Taj Mahal
Statue of Liberty
Pentagon
Eiffel Tower



A nearby barbarian city had some major unrest and was about to flip/raze.
In between, Mansa came and settled my island, I let him, knowing that at least 2 of his cities will flip and get autorazed.

But imagine my astonishment when I was asked if I want to keep the barb city, which just decided to follow my mighty nation. I simply forgot to check the One City Challenge option in the custom game screen. So this was the reason, the first 10 start positions were so bad and I couldn't build the Global Theatre

Now I realized that this was my first chance to win a game at immortal level and I decided that Mansa needs to return home. I researched Cavalry (nobody else has it) and attacked as soon as possible, took 4 of his cities very fast but decided to let his last city untouched, since rifle men were showing up (about 1400-1500 AD I think) and I would have to raze this city anyway, since it was to near to his capital.



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And of course, I will loose this game :-(
Somehow I lost the grip later and the others start to outtech me. Isabella finished Apollo in the early 1830s, and I needed to go to war with her, in the mean time Lizzy will finish her space ship, no doubt.

But I really think this is winable from both saves on, probably I need to go to war more and harder.

Any advice appreciated


An other point is: I wonder if there is a "semiocc" strategy, given a decent start position. This is, play the start of the game OCC like, lets say until the Great Library or somewhat later (~500 AD, or somewhere from 0-1000 AD).
Then start conquering, never build a settler.
You will definatly get 1-3 cities from autoflipping and you will have a city which can produce one military unit per turn, for a very fast military buildup.
You will save huge amounts of maintenace costs, even 3 small cities at immortal will bring you down to 30%, until you get some cottages going (which needs some time) or you find some gold.

Great start location for an occ strategy!

Chinese are a bad choice though for occ/immortal. Financial is very weak, and industrius is only average. Philosophical is the strongest (gpp points), followed by spiritual (fast civic changes = better diplomacy) followed by expanionist (+2 health) for that strategy

small/continents/4 opponents is also very hard at immortal. If a financial civ has its own island you'll never catch up to them in tech. You need partners to trade techs with as soon as possible. A small/standard pangea with 12-18 opponents is a lot easier, as no civ will have room for more than 2-3 cities so everyone will be fairly equal until 1ad or so

the semi-occ strategy you mention is very solid though for *crowded* maps at immortal & diety

That hill doesn't look like plains to me, its decidely green. Maybe a resource appeared on that hill to explain the 2 hammers you are getting...?

I have the Blue Marble Mod installed, plains are slightly more green there. You can see the color of grassland green south of the settler under the trees.

@Phyacis: Do you really think financial is a weak trait generally or for a OCC only?

And I am aware of the benefits of overcrowded maps. But in this case I wanted to play with standard settings, only changing the size of the world. I think normal with 8 civs is somewhat harder than small with 5.