Math01 - My first SG: OCC Space Race

[Mathias]

I've been enjoying this variant quite a bit lately, and would like to share a game with this community. The goal is simple: launch our spaceship as early as possible. Attaining this goal will require a direct, full-throttled approach. We will be pushing the tech pace all the way, and hopefully the AIs will be more inclined to keep up than to wage wars among themselves.

The Details
Version: C3C 1.22
Difficulty: Monarch
Civilization: England
Opponents: All Random
Map Size: Standard
Barbarians: Roaming
Land Mass: Continents
Water Coverage: 70% Water
Climate: Normal
Temperature: Temperate
Age: 4 billion

Anyone interested, I'd like to start this over the weekend.

The Roster
Mathias
Mach
dl123654
Renata
ChuckDizzle
Khan_Asparuh

 

[soul_warrior]

lurker's comment: sounds nice., though i've had my share of england wins lately.
if you need a fill in, PM me, i could do that, and will lurk.

 

[ChuckDizzle]

I'm interested in joining. It sounds like fun. If it matters, I've never done a OCC before.

 

[Mathias]

I've never done a OCC before.

Welcome! This won't be your last OCC.


I'm pretty much set on playing as England. I rolled few starts with default map settings. I like #1 the most, the additional food we can get from the wines is a big plus over the others.

 

[Renata]

OCC space race sounds like great fun. Sign me up, please!

Renata

 

[Mathias]

Great!

I've added a roster to the original post. I'll be starting this off, playing to 3000 BC. From there, we'll set the order of play on the fly. How many players do we want?

 

[dl123654]

I'm already in a monarch OCC space race game, but a second would be fun, sign me up.

 

[Renata]

Take your pick on the number: five or six is the usual.

I also like start #1, by the way.

Renata

 

[Mathias]

Alright, we have four. Five sounds good. We'll take up to six.

I'm heading out to see Hitchhiker's Guide now. If there are no objections before I return, I will play start #1 tonight. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing... start #5 gave CB from a hut when I settled.

 

[Mach]

I'll sign up. Haven't played ol' England in awhile. #1 looks fine with me.

 

[ChuckDizzle]

Start one looks good. That's my vote. I'll play whenever in the order.

@Mathias -- How's the movie. I enjoyed it, though it was way off from the book.

 

[Pentium]

lurker's comment: I was in a game with such settings and we lost . We'll see if you can do better.
About the starts: #1 look best, with lux and a bit more food.

How did you hide the cities?

 

[T_McC]

lurker's comment: Not a sign up, but you might want to think about the starts a bit more. If you are trying for Space, production could be more important than food. Since you aren't going to be building any settlers, and are trying for a late-game win, slightly slower growth isn't much of a killer. And SS parts (and Wonders) will be much easier to build if you choose a start with, say 4 hills and a mountain vs. 2 hills alone.

 

[Renata]

All right, let's look at that.

#1 has four water tiles, six bg, 8 normal grass and two hills, plus the center tile. At size 16 and up, with rails, that's 43 base shields. For commerce, ten river tiles and four water, plus a lux.

#2 has only three water tiles, 8 visible bonus grasses (and two forests), seven normal grass and no hills, plus the center tile. At size 17 and up, with rails, that's 43-45 base shields, depending what's under the forests. For commerce, ten river tiles and three water, plus two tobacco.

#3 has four water tiles, the center tile, four hills, one mountain, three forests, six visible bonus grasses, one plains tile and one normal grass. To use all 16 land tiles (after rails), it'll require two grassland and the plains tiles to be irrigated. That's 44-47 base shields depending on what's under the forest, with one excess food. For commerce, nine or ten river tiles (delta-bordering tiles always confuse me) and four water.

#4 has six water tiles, and you'd need to settle on a bonus grass to avoid having even more. 37-42 base shields after rails, depending on what's under the forests. For commerce, nine river tiles and six water.

#5 has five water tiles, 2 hills. 39-43 base shields after rails at size 15+ depending what's under all the forests. For commerce, eight river tiles and five water.

Now someone with more experience than me at OCCs can figure out what all that means.

Renata

 

[MeteorPunch]

lurker's comment: do the COM and SEA traits' extra commerce build on each other for a super-commercial city?

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Mach being the fifth to join, can I be the sixth? My OCC always end with conquest (I die or I kill, depends on the difficulty.) I think that our main problem will be not to win culturaly.

 

[Renata]

Nevermind.

 

[Mathias]

OK, we have six. I'll be starting shortly.

@T_McC: Production is not as crucial as you think. Anything over 40 base shields will be sufficient. Fast early growth will get us to Republic sooner (more citizens = more science) with the snowball effect of getting every later tech, as well as critical wonders, that much earlier. The sooner we get to size 12, the better.

@Renata: The center tile will produce an additional shield. I think this comes with size 13. One excess food can be eliminated by planting a forest in place of a mine on a non-bonus grass. Here's my count for each start, commerce counted with active Colossus:

#1, size 21, 44 shields, 85 commerce
#2, size 21, 44-46 shields, 83 commerce
#3, size 20, 45-48 shields, 85 commerce
#4, size 21, 38-43 shields, 87 commerce
#5, size 21, 40-42 shields, 83 commerce

What this all means is that these five spots are roughly equal. If you want to make a detailed comparison, you'll need to also consider production and commerce at size 12, as a little more than half the game will be at that size.

@MeteorPunch: I believe they do, but it is only one extra base commerce each, so it isn't going to have a tremendous effect.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Well this means that the wines qualify start 1, don't they?

 

[Renata]

I was thinking the extra shield was only for industrious civs, but at any rate it doesn't much matter. Like Khan, I continue to prefer start #1 for the more powerful early game. That position will also allow us the most specialist use, incidentally, if we're ever in a position to take advantage of them.

Renata