My GOTM #9 - An OCC Game

[Kev]

Well, it’s pretty late in the game here, but I finally have my OCC timeline together.

It’s likely rather boring and long, but any thoughts people could give would be nice as I’m pretty much still a novice at OCC.

4000: Moved settler east toward river.
3950: hut = NON hoseman
3800: hut = NON archer
3550: Finally settle Washington. Site has silk, wine and buffalo with a possible fourth if mined. Plenty of river squares, but landlocked. Oh, well.
3350: Code of Laws -> Monarchy
3300: hut = Barbs – horsie kills evil horsie.
3250: Contact with Romans. Trade for Bronze Working and Currency. Should have waited as now time to Monarchy is longer. Hut = NON horse.
2750: Temple built --> Colossus
2700: hut = 100 gold
2550: Monarchy -> Writing
2500: hut = 50 gold. Monarchy established.
2400: hut = Nomads
2300: hut = barbs. My horsie dies.
2100: hut = 50 gold
2050: Obtain Trade from Romans. Will not make alliance.
1600: Writing -> Mysticism
1550: hut = Horseback Riding
1500: Egyptians destroyed by Carthaginians. Bogus.
1250: Contact with Vikings. Trade for map making. No alliance or maps.
1100: Colossus finally finished. Begin caravan production.
1050: Contact with Carthaginians. Refuse to declare war on Vikes and have to pay 50 gold for peace.
925: hut = NON legion. Mysticism -> Literacy.
900: Mining a grassland square on the river produces a forest with a PHEASANT. Nice river pheasant to now use.
850: Hides caravan.
725: Gems caravan.
625: Silk caravan. Hut = barbs. Archer buys it. Trade Vikes for Iron and literacy. Romans ask for alliance and granted.
600: Set to study Philosophy.
500: rush build library. Start marketplace.
475: hut = barbs. My horsie kills the single barb.
450: Philosophy -> polytheism (that or masonry which vikes have) -> Republic.
400: hut = medicine. Rush finish marketplace.
350: Get pottery from Romans. Gift all tech.
150: Trade vikes for masonry and republic
125: Republic established. Celebrate. Study astronomy. Hides to Utica = 144 gold.
25: Now size 8. Astronomy -> Construction.
1 AD: Gems to Trondheim = 330 gold. Rush Build Shakes Theatre.
60: Allied with Carthaginians but had to declare war on Vikes. Gift techs to Carth.
80: Construction -> Engineering
160: Build aqueduct Celebrate.
200: Silk to Malaca = 140 gold.
240: Vikes = peace. Engineering -> Sanitation. Now size 12.
260: Wine to Rome = 260 gold.
280: Producing 20 shields per turn.
380: Sanitation -> Banking
400: Begin Observatory with 5 food caravans to help.
480: Observatory completed. Building sewer system.
520: Banking -> University Bribe Roman settler for a NON settler.
620: University -> Invention
660: Sewer complete. Building University.
720: Invention -> Democracy
820: Romans trade tech – get seafaring. Democracy -> Chemistry
860: Democracy established. Celebrating.
940: Chemistry -> Bridge build.
1040: Bridge build -> Gunpowder.
1060: Now size 18. Have to irrigate more and get refrigeration.
1140: Bank built. Getting diplomats together for embassies. Gunpowder -> Theory of Gravity.
1200: Third and final embassy established with Vikes.
1240: Theory of Gravity -> Explosives. Navigation from Romans.
1320: Vikes just run up and demand 500 gold. Saying no they declare war. Explosives -> Metallurgy.
1420: Metallurgy -> Physics
1460: Built Newton’s College. Back to caravans.
1500: Physics -> Chivalry
1520: Gold to Carthage = 96 gold.
1530: Chivalry -> Steam Engine
1570: Steam Engine -> Railroad
1600: Railroad -> Industrialization. Vikes go Fundy.
1620: Building Darwin’s with stored caravans. Science to 0 for a turn or two.
1660: Darwin’s built. Indust -> Magnetism -> Leadership.
1690: Leadership -> Electricity. Economics from Romans.
1700: Steal conscription from Vikes. Rush build factory.
1720: Factory allows for 48 shields. Electricity -> Refrigeration.
1750: Refrig -> Tactics.
1756: Supermarket built. Tactics -> Corporation.
1762: Corporation -> Steel.
1770: Steel -> Electronics.
1774: Electronics -> Refining
1776: Vikes ask for peace. Granted.
1780: Refining -> Machine Tools. Hydroplant built. Now 68 shields.
1786: Machine Tools -> Combustion.
1792: Combustion -> Mini.
1798: Minit -> Automobile.
1804: Atomic Theory from Romans. Auto -> Mass Production.
1810: Superhighways built. Mass Prod -> Computers.
1814: Computers -> Flight
1818: Research Lab built. With all land close to being farmed begin celebrating.
1820: Flight -> radio.
1826: Radio -> Adv. Flight.
1832: Adv Flight -> Communism (only given lame ones, and Vikes have communism). Airport built.
1836: Communism -> Rocketry (Vikes would not trade for Communism as they were building the UN at the time.
1840: Rocketry -> Space Flight.
1844: Space Flight -> Plastics.
1848: Plastics -> Nuclear Fission.
1850: Apollo completed. Begin building structurals. Washington is size 27 and producing 80 shields.
1851: Fission -> Nuclear Power
1854: Nuclear Power -> Espionage (that or amphib warfare).
1855: Espionage -> Laser.
1857: Laser -> Superconductor.
1859: Romans cancel alliance and sneak attack my food freight.
1862: Peace with Romans. Give us Amphib warfare. Superconductor -> Fusion.
1864: Fusion -> Mobile war. Science drop to 0 and taxes at 100%.
1875: With 15 structurals, 3 of both components, and one of each module my ship launches.
1876: Romans and Vikes declare war. City walls built.
1877: Build SAM
1880: SDI built. Just in case. Will produce Alpine troops from here on out.
1890: LANDING.

Well, I made it. I had trouble because with only 4 civs I don’t think I had a “key” civ to help me by being the target of all my tech giveaways. The Romans I thought may be the key as they are the ones associated with “pathetic” level civs, but nothing happened there. All along my power was “moderate”, so I thought maybe the Vikes, but that didn’t help either. Oh well.

My score was a whopping 301. I was Abe Lincoln “The Mad”. Mwahahahaha.

 

[LeSphinx]

Congradulations !
I never play an OCC games and I very surprise to see that with only One City you can win.

You must be very peacefully ?

LeSphinx

 

[Smash]

nothing too bad with pre 1900 landing.

Your start was quite good considering there was just 1 settler to start.You got some NONs and started exploration for huts and contact.You got a good site.

then.... j/k
Since this is Emporer level you only need to build 1 warrior before commencing Collosus.That will keep you in control thru size 3.A hut unit can wander back for size 4 if needed.However,going with a temple is not horrible.You'll need one eventually anyway.Genrally,you go with 2 warriors then Colosus at deity..so 1 at emperor.A temple is used when you go for early or straight Republic.

I think you had a big mistake with Philosophy.You don't need Poly at all.Better to trade off before discovering it.That would have opened up Math>Astronomy.Then save Poly for when you are not offered a particular tech.Hindsight is 20/20 though and sometimes these things happen.The best laid plans of mice and men.....

My usual early goals
1.Bronze Working-asap-wonder and 20 sheild row.
2.Monarchy-almost always.Some occasions a republic is more desirable.
3.Trade-I want those routes before 1000bc if possible.A debatable point of whether to build a library or caravans first.
4.Writing-can be flipped with Trade...depends on huts and contact
5.Construction-aquaduct and colliseum to grow to size 12.I want construction of colliseum finished or underway before/during the switch to Republic.Ideally I rush finish the aquaduct during celebrations at size 8.
6.Republic-usually via Philosophy after delivering first 1 or 2 caravans

Then starting rushing caravans for Cope's while growing to size 12.(you are building wonders with rushed caravans yes?)
Medicine and Sanitation are next.Grow>size 21 after Shakes while pursuing Gravity.
The whole thing generally looks like this:
Bronze
Monarchy
Writing
Trade
Construction
Republic
Astronomy
Sanitation
Democracy
Gravity
Explosives
Refrigeration
Automobile
Computers
Space
There is room for tinkering and switching depending on how the game unfolds.

You did a straight shot at Shake's instead of a colliseum.This is doable,but in this game,a colliseum for size 12 would have saved some turns.You can usually sell the colliseum after reaching size 12 with 20% luxuries

Its goes against one's instincts,but you should be more generous with tech gifting.You can gift everything all the time or save them up so you can gift 3-4 a shot(better for mge).I see you did do it,but i don't see you receiving gifts of gold..unless you left that out.So,there is probably some room here.Gold is good.You usually can rake in the gifts....even with MGE..this allows to do a lot more rushing...which should be done whenever possible.

Its really a rush to the 2 turns per tech stage.After that,its just a matter of getting the right options.With less than 7 civs,you are suffering a research penalty..so that was agianst you from the start.
I'm surprised you didn't get a nomad.You solved that problem with a bribe,which I'm sure was fairly costly.Good investment though.


btw..looks like a comparison game is forming here

 

[Chofritz]

Hey Smash, I'll get my a$$ over to apolyton and play that game, I need to train my OCC skills,

It seems I can't post in the forums over there, tried to register but it didn't want to let me post...

Enough talk let's get to work,

 

[Kev]

Thanks for the feedback, Smash - and thanks for answering my PM regarding the lack of "key" civs that I sent while playing.

By way of explanation on a few points:
1. I actually DID get one nomad. In 2400 BC. That was the only one, but the Roman settler that I bribed was relatively cheap at about 190 gold.
2. I began a temple right away as I had no wonders to start. I didn't go for warriors right away as I had an archer ready to guard the city.
3. When I discovered Philosophy, believe me I had cruddy techs to choose from - not one of which was very useful. I guess I decided on Poly as later trade bait. Thankfully, I was never forced to take Mono for the whole rest of the game and it went undiscovered.
4. Trade routes were tough. Since I was landlocked, I had to send the caravans overland - and I'm not sure ships would have helped all that much anyway given the locations of the AI cities.
5. It was tough to grow past size 18 right away. I was busy mining some forests on river squares and irrigating some forests away on non-river squares. I also had a desert tile that I couldn't change until I had engineers.
6. I didn't document my tech gifting and money grubbing very well. I did a lot of both. While it did not seem that I had any key civ to work with, I did establish embassies pretty quickly and used my allies' research to help my own. I also received a great deal of monies from my "gracious allies", and toward the end I had so much cash that I was just buying modules and components after a few food caravans.
7.For the most part, I did build wonders with rush-built caravans. It was especially nice when I had 20-shield production. Turn one, 20 shields added, then switched to dip and bought a row for 25 gold, then switch back to caravan to be completed next turn.

Anyway, with a single settler, a landlocked city and only 3 AI civs (after Egyptians got killed off), it wasn't a bad game all in all.

Some questions:
1. Would it have been better if I just esablished 3 trade routes with the closest decent city (Rome) rather than take the large amount of time to deliver them to cities further away that demanded the items?
2. The colosseum thing is a good point, and I never seem to build one in any OCC game that I've tried. Do you build one in most games that you play?
3. Thought not in this game, I've had issues before with AI cities building very close and using a tile or two from my city for themselves. These are usually allied civs, which makes it very difficult to pillage the square to make it less attractive, and setting a military unit in the square does nothing. Any suggestions as to handling something like this in the future?

That's it. I'll try that comparison game if I don't get my Civ3 right away and find the time. Thanks again for your points.

BTW, I wonder if OCC will be a lost art with Civ3? Any word on how these games may be done with the new rules?

 

[Smash]

1-Generally speaking,yes.In OCC you are more concerned with the longterm benefits of routes,so the sooner the better,demended or not.Later,you can look and see if you can improve them.I look for the best ai city or one with the best potential for growth.Often I pick one from the top five list.

2.Yes i always build a colliseum.I've tryed the straight Shake's with mixed results.I use it to get to size 12 asap then sell it off.By the time I have Medicine and Shake's I hope to be size 12 with Cope's completed.

3.I don't like cities that close either.Some do.You can road and later rr to it and increase your trade routes but I always feel a little nervous with them that close.
What to do?..good question...you can use a dip to watch and keep them from building too close.You can stack units in a fort and just keep removing them when asked.Keep a caravan on the square though so they can't use a settler to change your silk to wheat for example.
Military options are not out of the question in OCC.I've razed a city or 2 in my day.Not a great option, but an option never the less.The tech gifting will repair your reputation.

All in all,it is a good effort.Remember,once upon a time,OCC was impossible

We'll have to have a looksy at civ3.OCC may be a very good plan for 3.Bigger ,quality cities seem to be favored so....have to look at what the wonders do...culture may be a bit of a problem with 1 city.
I have no idea