1 city space race possible?

[ßiwilaisäischn]

Hello,
waiting for civ4, i rediscovered my civ2 an now i'm trying a one-city-space-race-victory. 2 attempts have failed (one on king one on prince). I'm starting quite promising taking a huge tech lead an building all scientific wonders, an building the biggest possible city in republic via Golden age. But its the end where i loose. From industrialisation the other civs are treading everything with each other, my tech lead declines and the big civs are overtaking me in the building process. Because you need so much time building all the SS-Structures in only one city.
So are there any experiences with such a game?

 

[EmperorGandalf]

recently i tried 1 city, and it was either king or prince. i got far enough ahead that i could build modules (superconductor) and other civs couldnt, but even with my head start, other civs got sc and built the modules quickly. they had already built lots of structure and component, so their spaceship made it in a few years.

 

[ElephantU]

Search the threads for references to "One City Challenge" or OCC. It is one of my favorite forms of play. It may be a little easier to play on Deity because you always get two Settlers at the start, but then the AI gets some advantages too. A good city location, one with three or four high-trade specials in the city radius, is the first thing to get right.

The key to not being overtaken by the AI in the latter stages is pacifist diplomacy and blazing fast tech progress, combined with either "Just In Time" conversion of your city into a production powerhouse or stockpiling of enough gold and caravans/freights to rush-buy each spaceship part in one turn. You want to get Copernicus as early as possible, but often before that you should have Marco Polo and set up alliances with all the civs you can. Get three good trade routes to sizeable foreign cities and work your land to produce as many trade arrows as possible. Some players keep their city small all the way through Newtons, others try to use Republic celebrations to get their city big as early as possible. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

If you want help on a particular starting situation post the SAVe and I'll comment on it.

 

[#1 Person]

I love playing OCC. So far everytime I have failed to attain a Space victory.

I have never thought of buying the space ship components though. I must try again!

 

[Sprites]

i've crashed , but was stuck on my little island , aztecs had completed manatthan ...
should also not allow barbs to be raging +1 , they were a pain ....


edit : i've tried again (prince level)
beaten by sioux , simply can't rushbuild as fast as them ...
they landed in 1904 , mine was expected for 1915 ...
all techs , discovered 1st future

 

[Sprites]

finally beat it (okay i drop to chieftain level)
the ship (15 structurals, 4 prop , 3 gaz , 1 of each modules) isn't worth many points :/

 

[ElephantU]

Congratulations! Have you read Paul's OCC Guide?

 

[Sprites]

no , just some posts on the forum ...
i'll search and read it , chieftain isn't that good ...

had only 55 shields , and a 3 squares of rivers , so place wasn't ideal ...

 

[bruderpetrus]

done my first. was stuck on an iland and unable to find other civ. got to build marco polo to contact and change maps. i had to give up copernikus for it.

managed to bribe lots of barbs (but all supported from my city). disbanded them to a good fleet and was able to deliver my caravans.

was most advanced as i was able to build darwin so i did. this second part of the game was real great cause of all these little but really wealthy villages gifting on the huge continent (no one settled there).

decided to build seti because i was able to build all spaceship parts in only one turn (lots of caravans). don´t wanted to pay 3 gold every turn for research lab.

managed to launch spaceship as second civ. sioux won the race (3 turns).

had to send spys to their capital (twice) and poisen water supplies. this capital was size 20 before. don´t wanted to do that but sioux nation disagreed gifting their ship in my hands. razed that "village" at size one.

and three turns later my first OCC was won.

 

[ElephantU]

Congrats to you too, bruder! I see you were playing something besides Classic version. I like Classic because the AI are more reasonable. With MGE or ToT they seem more aggressive, less likely to preserve long-term alliances. Still, an OCC landing without Copernicus is pretty good. I only bribe Barbs when they directly threaten the city (usually bribe one, use it to kill one or two more, then disband for shields ASAP) or they are far enough away that they are unsupported. I also look for a couple Engineers far from their capitals to bribe into NONEs to transform terrain and deal with pollution without taking up home city food. Sounds like a good game.