OCC questions

[McGoo]

I have been trying the OCC (Warlords, latest patch) for a bit of a challenge. It was my favorite way to play CivII

I managed to win one game on the very last turn (SpaceRace). Had a large lead in Tech that enabled me to go and punish anyone who showed signs of wanting to push me around.

I started another game this weekend and ended up with a starting location with very little production. It was great for and but no (River, lake, floodplains, and forests)

I farmed the corn and put cottages on the floodplains. I grew fast enough to whip ToA and the Oracle (although I didn't plan that one very well).

I had no Iron within 4 squares, so I had to go archery early. My Tech was rolling but it really took awhile before my city productivity went off. I kept the forests in the BFC because I knew I would need them for health. I beelined for Replaceable parts and then to Assembly Line.

My Neighbors were Shaka to the east, Brennus to the north, and Toku to the west. I was playing Hannibal (I went random).

I managed a pretty good tech lead (playing on Chieftain). Although I had to give up some techs to keep Toku and Shaka from declaring war.

All was well until I hit steam power and Sci method and found I had no coal or oil. I was counting on the railroads to bust the production of my lumbermills and for the oil so I could stay alive.

I managed to get Victoria to declare war on Shaka and she managed to knock him down to the point where I wasn't too worried about him. But I had to decide between Brennus and Toku. They didn't like each other but wouldn't declare war. I was relient on health resources from Brennus and I couldn't stop trading with him win Toku asked me to.

I had gotten a good start on my spaceship when Toku declared war and attacked in 1950. I had about 25 units. Mostly Infantry with some sam's and artilary and cav thrown in. Toku starts bombing my resources outside by BFC first, causing trade to cease with Brennus. Toku then rolled up his shiny new tanks and gunships. and starts pilliaging around the city. ugh. I still have quite the pile of units, hopefully I can hold out until I can sue for peace. I am only a few turns away from probably procuring both oil and coal due to cultural expansion. However, I don't think victory is going to be possible because at least 3 of the AI's now have built Apollo.

Sorry for the long post. I guess my question is what could I have done differently? Anyone else do OCC often and what strategies do you use. Next time I think I want some combination of cha/exp/phil. After I play this one out to it's bitter conclusion I might try this one again from the start...maybe take the initiative and attack Toku when I get Inf and he is defending with muskets?

 

[uberfish]

Try the Philosophical-Pyramids-Great Library combo instead.

 

[McGoo]

Well I played that one out...Toku destroyed me about 10 turns later...just too many tanks against my inf.

Thanks Uber for the tip. I played again and this time I played Peter (Phil/Exp) on Warlord. This time I had both Stone and Iron relatively early. My city also had more production capability. I built Pyramids, Oracle (and grabbed Philo as my free tech), ToA(pretty good wonder for OCC) and Great Wall early through lots of chopping outside the BFC. Finding a working at 3800BC in a hut really helped!

I built the Great Libary pretty early as was off to the races. I founded 4 religions and had another one spread to me from Happy. 5 cathedrals really helped culture which is all about grabbing resources in OCC. At the end I probably had about 20 GP settled in my city.

One side note...had to go for fascism to get that GG. Wihtout wars it was the only way to build HE.

But again, no coal or Oil. Thankfully China sold me coal at 9 GPT....let me build up my RR to boost production. Washington eventually sold me oil at 120GPT. He yanked it from me but not before I had a pretty sizable group of tanks, and airships with a couple of fighters and bombers thrown in. I could build any military unit in 1 turn. That and about 20inf/sammies/mg's seemed to be enough to keep Ragnar, Happy, and Washington off my butt.

Space race win in 2014. Took about 2 1/2 hours.

 

[Welnic]

OCC is the only game where I always choose a leader. There are too many traits that don't help you any in OCC. The only ones I think work are spiritual, industrious, expansive, and philosophical.

Founding a lot of religions means that there are less to go around for everyone else, which means they won't fight as much. You can found them and then try to spread different ones to different civs, but I find it easier to let them do that.

I like to play on a Pangea map with solid shorelines, that way I can get to everyone if I decide that conquest is the way to go. Small maps increase the tech rate, and if you cram a lot of civs onto the map then their empires are not that much bigger than yours. 9 other civs on a small map works pretty well.

If your workers are sitting around with nothing to do, building cottages outside the BFC so that they will distract invaders and make them move to open ground is an OCC special trick.

 

[ShredZ]

Im intrigued by OCC, havent tried it in years, one question:

If I play on Monarch and win consistantly, what level should I play on an OCC game???

 

[McGoo]

I'd drop down two levels (noble). and see how you do. So much seems to depend on what you get for resources and (I have started to realize) who your neighbors are.

I win consistantly on my 'normal' games on nobel and have now won a OCC on chieftain and warlord.

 

[ShredZ]

Well, I started my game b4 I got yer reply, tried a Monarch game (as usual) and lost by mogolia getting a cultural win... i was still at least 30 turns from launching, not sure what I did wrong, I think I didnt bee-line for the right techs at the right time, otherwise I was doing quite well. Had a huge tech lead in the mid-game, and a moderate one in the end-game. Built every wonder I wanted, globe and national park etc etc... kept a LOT of trees around till the end when i finally figured GPPs were useless. Had I think 9 free specialists, plus another 6 or so of my own.

If I were to play again Im not sure what I would do differently, maybe just lower the difficulty lol...