I just finished my first One City Challenge: Monarch Archipelago. I won the Space Race Victory with 12 turns to spare!
The victory required a mix of luck and strategy:
(1) I chose Peter for his Phi/Exp trait combination-- health and great people.
(2) I restarted a few times to ensure city is next to river and I had two health resources (pig & corn) in city radius.
(3) I opted for no religion, this allows me to get pleased status with most leaders via tech/resource trading and yielding to threats/help requests.
(4) Diplomacy is critical, not just for tech trading. I had Mansu Mansu and Ghandi as opponents. I wanted to use them as tech partners but also had to ****** their science. I was lucky enough to have Isabella and Montezuma, and I bribed them repeated to attack Mansu and Ghandi.
(5) Get Caravels early. Not opting for a religion helps achieve this, which is critical for obtaining the maximum number of trading partners early.
(6) I didn't have aluminium/iron and but found I did have coal/copper. I was sometimes able to trade for iron/aluminium.
(7) I had gems just outside workable square radius to trade.
(8) One early war/invasion from Tokugawa. Repelled with archers.
(9) Wonders: targeted and obtained Artemis and Great Library. Used Colossus gold (I had already built Globe Theater) to grab Liberalism. Later, I built Broadway and found the Hit Singles very useful for trading. Built space elevator between spaceships parts (researching prereqs for Fission).
(10) Tech: some beelining to Liberalism and later, beeling Computers. I had Computers before Chemistry (Artemis expires). The Russian special building was great: free scientists and spaceship build bonus!
To the experienced OCC players-- how many of these factors do you think are critical and how many could be varied/omitted? My guess is that the first two are critical. I also think Isabella was a very lucky draw. I don't think all leaders are as willing to be an attack dog as she is.
The victory required a mix of luck and strategy:
(1) I chose Peter for his Phi/Exp trait combination-- health and great people.
(2) I restarted a few times to ensure city is next to river and I had two health resources (pig & corn) in city radius.
(3) I opted for no religion, this allows me to get pleased status with most leaders via tech/resource trading and yielding to threats/help requests.
(4) Diplomacy is critical, not just for tech trading. I had Mansu Mansu and Ghandi as opponents. I wanted to use them as tech partners but also had to ****** their science. I was lucky enough to have Isabella and Montezuma, and I bribed them repeated to attack Mansu and Ghandi.
(5) Get Caravels early. Not opting for a religion helps achieve this, which is critical for obtaining the maximum number of trading partners early.
(6) I didn't have aluminium/iron and but found I did have coal/copper. I was sometimes able to trade for iron/aluminium.
(7) I had gems just outside workable square radius to trade.
(8) One early war/invasion from Tokugawa. Repelled with archers.
(9) Wonders: targeted and obtained Artemis and Great Library. Used Colossus gold (I had already built Globe Theater) to grab Liberalism. Later, I built Broadway and found the Hit Singles very useful for trading. Built space elevator between spaceships parts (researching prereqs for Fission).
(10) Tech: some beelining to Liberalism and later, beeling Computers. I had Computers before Chemistry (Artemis expires). The Russian special building was great: free scientists and spaceship build bonus!
To the experienced OCC players-- how many of these factors do you think are critical and how many could be varied/omitted? My guess is that the first two are critical. I also think Isabella was a very lucky draw. I don't think all leaders are as willing to be an attack dog as she is.
I started with 4 flood plains (only -1 health, counteracted by 6 forests), 2 crabs, copper, silk, and an oasis in the fat cross, plus gold/wheat/deer within the culture borders -- I'm trading extra crab to Asoka for clam, and buying ivory from Mansa for a mere 4gpt. Without a doubt, health is a BIG issue in OCC, much more so than happiness.
