GOTW 90 - Help with my first OCC

[PiR]

Hey everyone it's my first time at a high difficulty and at OCC

I'm really behing on the points... scared of losing a DV now.
Ambition victory is tough, I refused the last proposal which was to bring Judaism to 8 cities (I didn't found it).

If I read correctly the forum, I can capture city sites and make points with them? I should be able to get 5, probably more with the unexplored east, if I don't lose before. But the geography really doesn't help, even with a builder leader. The city site above the lake here is making me nuts, very hard to encircle with urban tiles. Specially because the urban tiles not within my territory don't count as adjacent urban tiles to make a new one

Is there any good strategy here?
I'll continue to go after wonders to keep my score at an acceptable level before capturing all this.

 

[jguy100]

There's a good OCC guide here. It's from a few patches ago, but it's still pretty relevant:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/old-world-abbridged-guide-to-one-city-challenge-occ.666440/

I'm wondering if you don't have enough workers? I see plenty of unimproved tiles you could be pulling resources from.

Wonders are nice, but it's going to be difficult to achieve a score victory. I'd vote for focusing primarily on ambitions. Remember to rush things! Since you only have one city, you can repeatedly "Pacify City" with your advisor. So the unhappiness from rushing is pretty meaningless.

 

[PiR]

It's very hard to get to Pacify City on that difficulty level actually. The current GOTW gives me the same issues:

I'm going to fall for a DV long before I can do my ambitions!

I read the guide and my conclusion is I'm trying a too ambitious level compared to what I'm used to

 

[jguy100]

I was considering opening a thread about this GOTW. It’s kicking my butt too! I’ve played to turn 75 three times and never completed more than one ambition.

 

[jguy100]

My main issue with OCC is you don’t get a variety of ambitions. You generally get one…no choice to make! And I’ve gotten a lot of impossible ones. Like building three chariots, when I’m not the rider family, and there’s no horses nearby!

 

[jguy100]

I've tried a few different things, but going Landowners seems to get me furthest. It's a balance between improving your economy and keeping large enough military to fend off invasions. And a whole lot of luck on Gauls/Carthage not declaring war on you early, getting simple ambitions, etc. I had one game where the Gauls declared war on me on the second turn...that game didn't last long

I got a little further this time, until Carthage decided to salt my fields.

 

[PiR]

I saw some very narrow passages on the path to Carthage (1 tile wide). Maybe building forts there and having very good units could be a strategy for fighting them far from the city. Doing some "300" war.

 

[jguy100]

I think there’s at least two passages to guard. Plus you would still need troops to defend your city against Gauls and Barbarians. That’s a lot of troops for OCC. But maybe the focus is needed, with ambitions coming later.

If you fail an ambition, is it possible to get the same ambition later in the game? Or is it “discarded”?

 

[PiR]

In @nolegskitten 's guide the advice was clear: bow to everyone. At least to Gauls and Carthage. Marry with them. Then you can defend only against barbs.

I was able to do that, but I quickly get behind on the VP and I clearly see my game going to a DV for the AI... just like in the OP.

 

[jguy100]

Is DV enabled in this GOTW? Maybe the devs were nice and gave us a break

 

[jguy100]

I purposefully did zero exploration, so I did not meet Carthage until late in the game (T80?). Gauls were polite with me - I had one war with them and one tribal invasion in the first 100 turns. Overall a very lucky run.

Good news - DV is disabled!

Bad news - Carthage still got a standard score victory before I could complete ten achievements.

Good news - even though the week is over, it still appears to be the active game of the week. I'll try again!

 

[PiR]

Thanks for the news about DV!!! Maybe I should give it another try then, and also for the previous OCC (from the OP).

I purposefully did zero exploration

And then you got that ambition: "reveal 80% of the map"? That's bad luck lol

If you look at the OP, I put tons of urban tiles to deny the AI access to city sites. It costs a lot of stone but late-game it's ok. You need a builder leader though. Maybe I will also try that to stop them from surrounding me with cities like it happened to you apparently.