Budweiser Challenge- Aztec OCC

[budweiser]

Budweiser Challenge- Aztec OCC

Greetings!

It’s time for the First Annual Budweiser CiV challenge. As we wind out the clock on CiV vanilla, here is a game to challenge your war mongering/diplomacy/city management skills.

The settings:
Civilization: Aztecs
Standard Size & Standard Speed & Standard Resources
Pangaea or Continents
Difficulty: Whatever level you feel comfortable at. Definitely doable on Emperor by me, that means others can do it on Immortal. Deity is probably suicide, but theoretically possible.

Special Rules:

- Player may not build ANY military units all game long. Exception: since the AI will not gift aircraft (that I know of), you may purchase air units. Naval units are not allowed.
- You may capture any number of cities all game long. You must liberate the city, raise the city or sell the city. Once you start to raise the city, you may not cancel it. The spirit is you may not permanently keep any cities.

Victory Condition – Cultural or the condition where every cap except yours is captured.

So have at it!

 

[Light Cleric]

Two questions:

1)When you said we can't build any military units, I'm guessing you mean we can't buy any either? I'm not trying to be anal, it's just a big distinction because no OCC with Archers makes this kind of crazy.

2)Any particular reason you chose the Aztecs?

 

[budweiser]

Two questions:

1)When you said we can't build any military units, I'm guessing you mean we can't buy any either? I'm not trying to be anal, it's just a big distinction because no OCC with Archers makes this kind of crazy.

2)Any particular reason you chose the Aztecs?

Hi. Yes, you cant buy any units, other than air units. I should have specified.

I chose Aztecs because I am playing through all the leaders and they were next on my list.

 

[Light Cleric]

Oof, that's going to be rough, then. I can't imagine Deity on Pangea with no units...

 

[budweiser]

Oof, that's going to be rough, then. I can't imagine Deity on Pangea with no units...

I'm doing fine into the 1500s. However, I may not win because I have had too many units killed and its getting hard to take ground, but I am 6 turns away from Artillery. The other thing is my social policies are less than optimal, but cultural is still open.

Spoiler :

I suggest Honor, then Patronage to start.

 

[Buccaneer]

Ok, I'll ask the dumb question: how do you go about capturing other cities with just your one warrior and whatever you get sporadically from militaristic city-states?

 

[budweiser]

Ok, I'll ask the dumb question: how do you go about capturing other cities with just your one warrior and whatever you get sporadically from militaristic city-states?

Thats the challenge.

It can be done though, you just have to be very careful about how and where you commit to battle.

 

[binhthuy71]

budweiser, I would add "Standard Resources" to the rules. Legendary start + OCC is a recipe for a runaway Cultural victory.

EDIT: I'll await your response before starting my challenge game.

 

[budweiser]

budweiser, I would add "Standard Resources" to the rules. Legendary start + OCC is a recipe for a runaway Cultural victory.

EDIT: I'll await your response before starting my challenge game.

In that case, yes, Standard Resources. A Legendary start would be too easy.

 

[binhthuy71]

In that case, yes, Standard Resources. A Legendary start would be too easy.

Excellent! Let the games begin!

 

[godevils]

Is a scout considered a military unit?

 

[budweiser]

Is a scout considered a military unit?

Yes it is.

 

[binhthuy71]

I have just lost two challenge games in a row. The first on Emperor when Nappy settled down on my border and then DoW'd shortly thereafter. Held him off for quite a while, but when he showed up with four Trebs and three Long Swords it was Game Over. I dropped down to King for the second game and lost when Hiawatha pulled off a Science victory. This time Pachuti DoWd me early and often until the Modern era. I had given away the farm to nearby Hiawatha and he, along with a couple of Cultural allies, took care of slapping Pachuti down to one city. At the time of my loss I had four SP trees filled, my city was at pop 44 with 34 happiness.

It's been a long time since I had so much fun losing. It's been an even longer time since I've learned as much in two games. These were my first OCC games and my hat is off to you, budweiser, for coming up with the challenge.

I know I can win next time.

 

[gozpel]

OCC means One City Challenge and if we click that in the menu, we can't build any settlers. But that would also auto-raze cities if you capture them, so I guess you mean we start a normal game but build no more settlers (of course), but still have the chance to sell cities if we take them? Or liberate or raze?

No military units at all is tough, all we can do basically is to try to befriend som Mil CS's, since Flight is so far away. Wish you could've let us build that one scout at least, one warrior can be dead early on with a little bit of bad luck. But workers can scout too.

So falling in the trap, I start a game now on King and see how I go, I love OCC!

 

[budweiser]

Here is an update. My game is approaching turn 300. Korea, Siam, and Mongolia are decimated each have lost their caps, but I sold Siam's cap to Mongolia and then Siam took it back.

My army consists of 5 Artillery, 2 Infantry and 2 Anti-tank. I have 2 Khans and 1 GG. It feels like I have lost 25 or 30 units and its the one thing I wish I could have kept from happening. One of the Khans is scouting the other continent and its pretty bad. There is a giant Persia over there complete with a navy including carriers.

I have completed Tradition, Patronage, Honor and just started Piety. It looks like Persia may win before I can. It would take a perfect campaign to defeat him militarily. I really would like to finish the game with Autocracy, but Freedom might be the best choice for a faster win.

 

[gozpel]

Well, I tried 3 times on King and everytime I was declared on by around turn 50-60.

Without scouting you won't meet CS and then you can just turtle.
My third attempt was the best, 3 Mil CS and I got 2 chariots. Cool I thought, I can scout now, until Greece declared the same turn and killed them both.

I'm still alive, but why even bother when you can't even cross your border, before they hate you?

In last game I'm stronger than Greece and Siam, but fair peace? No!

I would play this a fourth time if I could build a scout, and if that scout is upgraded to scarcher, then delete or gift the unit away. And build another scout.

As in your game Budweiser, you got a lucky start and on Emperor even more lucky noone declared on you early. Get 2 declarations by turn 60 and you can say: Oops!

Interesting idea and could be fun, if we just had the chance to explore.

 

[budweiser]

Well, I tried 3 times on King and everytime I was declared on by around turn 50-60.

Without scouting you won't meet CS and then you can just turtle.
My third attempt was the best, 3 Mil CS and I got 2 chariots. Cool I thought, I can scout now, until Greece declared the same turn and killed them both.

I'm still alive, but why even bother when you can't even cross your border, before they hate you?

In last game I'm stronger than Greece and Siam, but fair peace? No!

I would play this a fourth time if I could build a scout, and if that scout is upgraded to scarcher, then delete or gift the unit away. And build another scout.

As in your game Budweiser, you got a lucky start and on Emperor even more lucky noone declared on you early. Get 2 declarations by turn 60 and you can say: Oops!

Interesting idea and could be fun, if we just had the chance to explore.

Well, build a scout then if you want to keep trying. I'm think a better rule might be that as the Aztec you can build any number of Jags, but just Jags, no scouts. This would make it easier.

I realize that not every map is suited for such an endevour. I was lucky in my map.

 

[binhthuy71]

Three things very much helped my second game:
1) I scouted, very carefully, with my Jag to the extent possible.
2) I finished my scouting, including the other continent, with work boats. That's a bit of a pain because work boats don't have auto-explore. Well worth the extra effort. Work boats can cross deep water tiles once you get Astronomy. Scouting this way, I managed to find all but one Natural Wonder.
3) I settled beside the ocean next to a river mouth. The bonuses, particularly Food, from the marine techs are substantial. I was running a full slate of specialists and between farms and worked ocean tiles I still had more than 40 surplus Food. Another good thing about ocean tiles is that a worked ocean tile without fish or pearls can't be pillaged.

 

[budweiser]

2) I finished my scouting, including the other continent, with work boats. That's a bit of a pain because work boats don't have auto-explore. Well worth the extra effort. Work boats can cross deep water tiles once you get Astronomy. Scouting this way, I managed to find all but one Natural Wonder.

That made me laugh because I did not think about work boats. My cap was land locked. My Khan actually scouted the sea for me a little bit.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Pretty much auto-clicked first immortal attempt to t324. Not very impressive date but considered it's my... err.... second cultural game since Civ5 was released and first OCC ever, it could have been worse, I guess.

Pangaea. Not coastal start, no SOH - big yuck. No lakes, HG gone early. But overall start location was okayish. I moved a settler to the mountain and discovered third lux in city radius (one marble). I also managed to spam all important wonders (SH, Oracle, HS+PT, Sistine, Louvre and Christo). Finished Piety at turn 85, however then Genghis started to swallow my cultural allies, and by that time all money was spent on RA's, so I couldn't get new ones, besides scouting with worker wasn't the biggest hit either. The choices were limited and on top of everything had to ally military CS instead of one more cultural. Lost most of the turns during mid-game. Didn't clear Freedom fast enough. Partially due to lack of cultural games experience (like forgetting I need a temple, for example or that national wonders increase culture as well ).
Never was involved in serious battles. Got early DoW, before turn 50 or even 40, can't remember, but only warriors, rushed walls plus jag took care of them. Then 'sell your momma, spend the gold and make peace for OB' worked like a charm. After third or forth DoW I declined peace until my attacker offered me cash+gpt without sending a single unit in my direction. Unfortunately, couldn't get the best of it, since he died shortly after in hands of someone else. Haven't attacked anyone myself, although I ended up with 5 mechs, 2 tanks, artillery and the Khan.

The main problem as I see it is scouting. Pangaea is a no-brainer here. You can't take the jag far away, since DoW's will come. Meeting friendly military CS early is a big help. Otherwise you can come short on RA partners. I had only 4 for almost entire time, since one was constantly attacking, one was about to attack (I played too safe, he never did - which I totally deserved, being a coward never pays off ) and the last one I hasn't meet till he found me late into the Renaissance. Therefore teching pace wasn't as high as it should have been and Radio/Telegraph kicked in rather late.

Was not the most exciting but definitely unusual game for me. So thanks for the idea, budweiser. Gave me an opportunity to get a little more familiar with culture VC before G&K arrives. Maybe it'll get some interesting twists in the expansion and will leave my blacklist.

I might give it another try on deity 'for serious', given it's kind of short game and there are many things I can improve. Some rerolling will probably be required though.