One City Challenge Club (OCCC): Pericles

[madscientist]

and the start



Can you say CORNHUSKER!

Please remember to put your reports in Spoilers, and enjoy.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Pickles !!!

Not at all clear what to do with that third corn, though....

 

[semirami]

Stone or third corn? 1N will give us both, but for 2 useless water tiles in exchange. Or 2N and pray for some seafood?

 

[madscientist]

Around 200 AD

Spoiler :

Yeha!!!!!!!!!!!

Dogpiled by both Shaka and Monty.

Very interested to see how everyone else does.

 

[madscientist]

Post duplication.

 

[Arizona_Steve]

Spoiler :

Seriously, how am I supposed to win this game?

Creative is of limited use. Philosophical is difficult to utilize via wonders, since neither stone or marble is available. Furthermore, there are no economic traits to help with research, only three resources all of which are the same (corn) and nothing to help happiness until Monarchy or Drama and the Globe Theater.

Of course not to mention the fact that we're stuck on a continent with Shaka, Monty, Cathy and Burger King.

There are people who are far better at this game than myself. I can't wait to see what they do.

 

[Halt]

Charlie killed me before I could cry Uncle

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Noble/Epic, lost in 1917 (sigh)

Spoiler :

Classic setup for careful diplomacy, which is one part of the game I've never been sufficiently interested in to learn.

Settle in place; worker first; Argi->Mining. Pop archery on turn 8, and later a warrior, so I train four archers as a fog busting web (might be an error - barbs may give the AI more trouble than me). Intended game plan is to save the trees, play for a space run.

Milestones

1) Writing (2525) - a creative library to run scientists? sign me up.
2) Priesthood -> Code of Laws + Oracle -> Civil Service (950). I'm still working on this riddle; bulb math with the first scientist? Academy, but try to run a second scientist in time - make Oracle much riskier. I erred badly in this game - attaching the second scientist when I probably should have constructed the Academy (I was on auto pilot).
3) Alphabet - for tech back fill.
4) Pyramids (380)
4) Aesthetics, Literature, Drama. Great Library (160AD)
5) Philo (400)
6) Education (1030 - ouch)
7) Sci Method + Liberalism (1525) -> Biology
8) Astronomy? (1645)

Wars (I'm not tracking the four? fake wars with Louis)
AD 685 Monty
AD 760 Catherine
AD 910 Shaka
AD 1060 Monty
AD 1340 Catherine and Monty

Shaka was just being Shaka - he was friendly most of the game, as he, Chuck, and I formed a Buddhist block. Justinian, Cathering, and Monty were running Judaism for the most part. Louis kept trying to make a go with Hindu; ultimately, the gods Louis was praying to weren't listening.

Key to the defense was attaching a great general to an experienced Phalanx. Forgot that I wanted him to be amphibious. The forested hills were good places to stick disposable archers. I'd have done better to chop the third and fourth rings earlier than I did.

While I was off collecting techs, Burger King was collecting vassals.
AD 1470 Louis
AD 1595 Monty
AD 1762 Catherine

At this point, I didn't like the way things were running, so I tried to create a dispute between Shaka and Chucklamagne. Instigated a trade embargo, Chuck took offense, and BOOM the world (but for Justinian) was at war. I managed to duck out early.

AD 1841 Shaka (uh-oh)
AD 1913 Justinian (drat)

AD 1917 Chuckles wins by domination.

 

[jwez11007]

Doing well so far...

Spoiler :

I guess I picked the right religion early as Charlie, Shaka, Catherine, and I are united under the buddhist AP in a nearly continual war against Louie and Monty. Justinian, I guess, has been doing his own thing, cut off from everyone by Cathy's borders and under a different religion.

The safety of having three war buddies allowed me to wonder whore a bit in the beginning, I grabbed pyramids, great wall, hanging gardens, and great library with straight chopping and slow builds. I grabbed the AP with a great engineer, and slow built globe, nat epic, and oxford. With lots of farming and a golden age I've been pumping great people into my city



I was hoping for an early AP win since all my allies love me, but Charlie keeps voting himself into office with his massive 40+% pop...oh well, I guess I'll be looking at a space race.

Although I've been at war with Louie for most of the game thus far, Monty finally decided to invade my lands and sit a small stack with one treb outside my city to bombard 100% defense bonus with walls and castle. He's been there for at least ten turns not even pillaging my defenseless tiles...Gotta love the brilliant AI.



I won music and liberalism, and am hoping to win a few more great people techs. I finally traded for marble with cathy(after I built all those wonders) so I'll be going for Taj next. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to build an army to help take out Monty and Louie, but in all likelihood I'll be building minimal military for the rest of the game.
(I hope there's coal in my borders for when I get ironworks)

 

[Jastrow]

Not sure if I got some lucky RNG roles, but at 500AD, this is looking very good so far (I have no experiences with OCC, so maybe I am overestimating my position.)

Spoiler :

I settled in place, and built worker first for the corn.
Build order: Worker/Warrior/Granary/Warrior/Warrior/Library
Research: Agri/Wheel/Mine/Pott/Writting/BW.

My early scout got me a worthless map and about half of mining (I popped it midway through researching it) before it became bear food. I later poped a warrior from a final hut. No random events of note to date. A few minor negative events, loosing a few food and the like, but nothing game altering.

I decided to try and leverage the philosophical trait with an ultra early library to get the scientist going, thus the above tech and build order. I settled my first great scientist in 1925BC, and used the second GS to build the academy.

I decided to keep all forest in the BFC for the national park later, but that those in the next two rings could be chopped. After BW, I began pre-chopping them, but did not let them complete. During this time, I researched Masonry (and immeditly started building the pyramids), and then math (to improove the chops). As soon as math came in, I dumped about 8 forrests into the pyramids, and managed to get them built in 1000BC.

At this point, I realized that I was surrounded by warriors, not builders, and that wonders where not falling quickly, so I decided to make a rune at the Oracle, and in 575BC, CS slingshot!

The first potential problem came in about 0AD, when Charly decided to declare war on me... By then, I had a few archers for defence, and had just hooked up the iron to begin pumping out the UU. He sent a small stack of about 6 units, which I was able to repeal fairly easily. This war actually is probably a good thing, since I managed to get Monty, Shaka and Cathy to join in on my side of the war (I gave them each Asthetics for their troubles.), which means that now that the war is over, I am pretty friendly with many of the wackos.

So, as of 500AD, Athens is size 14 and contains Pyramids, Oracles, Hanging Garden, Globe theater and Academy, and it still has 8 forrests for the NP. I am 3 turns from Education, and putting out 160 bulbs/turn, and have a significant tech lead on everyone.

Diplomatically, I am friendly with Cathy, and Louis and Shaka are please. Only Charly really hates me.

The bassica plan after education is to beeline to Biology (Via a liberalism sling of course) and get the national park up asap. That should give me enough research to get to space, and by converting the preserves to lumbermills once most of the tech is in, hopefully I can build the ship in time.

 

[naterator]

Monarch/epic:

Spoiler :

My scout died very early, so i lived and died and still am not sure what the map really looks like outside of a bit of charlie's empire i managed to scout later. Kinda wish i kept that chariot at home though. I met monty pretty late and assumed he was far away, at least until he took the barbarian city on my borders and continued towards athens. I had one warrior, and enough time to revolt to slavery and whip an axe and a spear, but his 6 unit stack won the day. Dan Quayle i am. I actually read the other spoilers just now hoping to get some cheat-intel about the landscape via screenshots but it seems others are having trouble as well. Tough crowd to be near in an OCC, with chuck, monty, shaka, cathy, and justin all out there. I'm gonna try again, see what happens, but it looks like a rough map.

 

[cas]

Was in a losing position first time on prince/epic in the AD 1300's...will try a different approach second time.

Spoiler :

this map is going to highlight the absurdity of the RNG. OCC is bad at that anyway, but this one is all about religion spreads mixed with RNG war mechanics. A couple of people are going to have a much easier game with kind RNG and everyone else will probably get rushed by one or more of the 3 nuts early (Monty, Shaka, Charlie)...and maybe Catherine later.

In my game, I was able to stave off the initial Charly rush, but it cost me time. RNG war mechanic stupidity...his 'worst enemy' was Louis right next door but he marches 15 turns to attack me. Catherine was neutral to everyone and grabbed some decent land...so she was teching and building wonders so fast I lost liberalism in 1335AD by about 15 turns...which incidentally was the time I wasted on defense to Charlie. Also had bad luck with the Great People as usual. Three prophets after the initial two scientists...just with Oracle GPP polution of maybe 15-20% chance. More RNG silliness on display.

Time to try the warlike approach. Not sure that will work either. Too much land...WAY too much. AI will spread like weeds through any cleared territory.

Bad map for a OCC all the way around. I had fun with it anyway, but prince/epic loss is kind of embarrassing.

cas

 

[White Dragon]

Spoiler :

Prince/Epic

I finished this one before looking at the spoilers. I agree with everyone else that the tiles & AI leaders made this map really difficult.

I started on a different path because I found Monty early on. I decided for a chariot rush since he was pretty close, tends to beeline IW so he may not have archers yet, and Charly can be a religious ally. Two chariots against 2 warriors results in the following.


Then chopping the outer rings I get this.


Oracle was built shortly after so I figured the game was going downhill fast.

In 230BC I got a second surprise. I know what I am using them for.


By 95BC I had Aes & 123 so I traded them around to get into this position, which isn't the greatest.

After Lit completed I used my two saved GE's. Don't know if it was a good idea or not but figured it would help get me back into a decent position.



Same turn as NE got a Shaka DOW. Was able to hold him off. Then got dogpiled by Cathy & Louis. I went Budda with Charlie and Justinian and they were Hindu. After I researched Currency I was able to bribe peace with all of them.

385AD got another present. I thought it would put me in a good position a couple of turns down the road.



This should be good trade bait plus would open up a big civic. Made the switch a few turns later along with Bureaucracy & Caste.


Researched Music, Paper, then Education before using the previous gift. Still much too late for an OCC.


A couple of years later shows the end.



Liberalism was researched to within 1 turn so as soon as I finished Scientific Method I would have gotten Biology.

Hope others later on have better luck but when the host looses it ain't looking so hot.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

@WhiteDragon

Spoiler a simple question :

Very Shiny! But how is that going to help you to win?

 

[Stochastic]

It seems like most people settled in place, is there a good reason for that? I figure that in the OCC if you aren't settling on the coast you want to be as far inland as possible to grab land and the possible resources.

Also I've never gone for the Oracle in these OCC. I know it is good, but is it really good enough to put your own beakers into the middle of the tree instead of the top third and then CS? Also, I seem to prefer grabbing the 'mids asap to get the extra happy and beakers from rep and by the time I've done that (with chops and whips of what ever I can to speed up) the Oracle is usually gone anyways.

 

[Nares]

Stone or third corn? 1N will give us both, but for 2 useless water tiles in exchange. Or 2N and pray for some seafood?

I don't see stone.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

It seems like most people settled in place, is there a good reason for that? I figure that in the OCC if you aren't settling on the coast you want to be as far inland as possible to grab land and the possible resources.

Want to be, yes. But how much are you willing to give up for it?

a) Corn! Especially if your plans include an early run to Civil Service and irrigation

b) Time. How many turns are you willing to give up for more land tiles in the 3rd or 4th ring, and a gamble that you can find a better spot?

c) Comparison. Hard to find similarities between your game, and that of other players sharing the save, when everybody wanders off to a different moon.

Also I've never gone for the Oracle in these OCC. I know it is good, but is it really good enough to put your own beakers into the middle of the tree instead of the top third and then CS? Also, I seem to prefer grabbing the 'mids asap to get the extra happy and beakers from rep and by the time I've done that (with chops and whips of what ever I can to speed up) the Oracle is usually gone anyways.

I don't know. I'm trying it based on some reading of an OCC gauntlet. Some points I'm considering:

Oracle to Civil Service gives you a pair of tempting civics (Caste+Bureaucracy), plus the religion.And also a missionary, which can be handy if the diplo picture is still unclear. All of that is immediately useful, and irrigation pays off in just a few worker turns.

As against that, the top of the tree (Literature/Drama) gives you the culture slider immediately, and everything else requires a pounds of hammers.

I usually find that the research is the scary part of the Oracle slingshot, and the fact that it leaves little time for optional techs (Bronze Working! Archery), makes it a bit scary. I always end up feeling that my defense is thin thin thin.

 

[semirami]

I don't see stone.

What looks like a stone 3W1N is just a forest.

 

[cas]

It seems like most people settled in place, is there a good reason for that? I figure that in the OCC if you aren't settling on the coast you want to be as far inland as possible to grab land and the possible resources.

Want to be, yes. But how much are you willing to give up for it?
a) Corn! Especially if your plans include an early run to Civil Service and irrigation
b) Time. How many turns are you willing to give up for more land tiles in the 3rd or 4th ring, and a gamble that you can find a better spot?

Assuming the scout doesn't find seafood, 1W seems better than settling in place in most ways.

In place gives 2 corn. So does 1W. The corn can be irrigated through the northern plains tile 1W of the scout after CS.

In place gives less river tiles than 1W. You can see the bend in the river 2W of the settler current position.

In place will probably give less forest. Fog gazing looks to be more forest west than east. Also, the 3rd ring happens pretty quick with a creative leader, so you don't have to wait that long for more land tiles / possible forest to chop while leaving forest in the BFC.

The only advantages to settling in place versus 1W are (a) the hill for defense and (b) save 1 turn. As a general rule , if you spend a lot of time defending in a OCC, the game is lost anyway. And losing 1 turn to get more land and possibly forest to chop is ok...especially on epic.

I've played this game already, but before I played...I made the decision to move the scout to look for seafood and the settler to the coast if he found it, and 1W if he didn't...so I'm comparing the tiles based on knowledge from the start screenshot.

cas

 

[semirami]

1847AD loss

Spoiler :

The scout revealed no seafood, so I settled 1N. It claims third corn and has good production potential. Sure there is a prize 2 crappy water tiles, but I think the corn is worth it. Went Pyramids, Oracle-Aesthetics, was lucky enough to pop copper early. Charlie founded Buddhism, while everyone else is Judaist, so I was safe. Eventually Shaka declared war, but we soon made peace. As always my gambit:



Everyone is at war with poor Chuck(me either) and Cathy is becoming a monster. It's a matter of time Charlie to be vassaled.

My biggest mistake:



And of course they like her more.



Difficult start