one city challenge

[braclayrab]

I'm about to start a new game and am considering a one city challenge. I was just wondering what exactly the rules are, besides the obvious (one city). Also, I have been reading about adjusting the luxury rate...? I remember being able to do that in civ I... But I can't seem to do that in Civ III... Does that come with one of the expansions?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should set up the game for the OCC, specifically what difficulty. I'm comfortable playing normally at Monarch, but think I could handle Emperor, although I have yet to try.

TIA

 

[Tomoyo]

The lux rate is the luxuries (happiness) slider on the Domestic Advisor screen.

OCC is about 0.5 difficulties up from a regular game. IMHO, coastal city is a must. River is also important. Colossus and the Great Library are very important too.

 

[braclayrab]

Oh, one other thing, I don't know if this would be against the OCC 'rules' but would it be possibly to keep any workers, which presumable won't have much to do, building and chopping down forests just for the ten shields? this especially could be helpful if the city is producing, say 30 shields, and I wanted to build a 40 shield unit... This could even be done outside the city radius, but inside my cultural borders, since I'll likely have 100 culture long before engineering.

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't think any chops outside your 21 tiles does anything. If it does, it would still be within the rules.

 

[braclayrab]

Well, even so, there may be a square that this is worth using for, especially pre-sanitation era. I read an OCC SG from some experienced CFCers and was surprised this strategy wasn't mentioned. *shrug*.

Oh, one more question: What exactly does 'large cities' mean for commercial and industrial trait?

 

[bingen]

You'll mostly be building wonders so forest chopping is not very usable. Making forest squares for citizen use can be a good idea. OCC is not that hard. Key elements are trading and the Great Library.

Commercial and industrial bonuses kick in at size 7 if I remember correctly. Note that industrial will not get an extra shield if the base square(without city) does not already produce a shield. Neither skill is very great in OCC, commercial is especially bad.

 

[Tomoyo]

I suggest SEA (If C3C), SCI, EXP (for non-island maps), and maybe REL.

 

[braclayrab]

I think I'm ready to begin. Going to be Standard map, regent difficulty and I'll be playing as Babylon. I think I'll leave everything else at random.

 

[Zakharov]

Only forests within a city's 21 tile radius can be chopped for a 10 shield bonus.

Also, this can only be done once per tile. If you plant a new forest and then chop it you will get no shields. This is why those experienced players didn't use that strategy in the SG you mentioned.

However, you can plant a forest on a tile that starts without one and chop it for 10 shields. Again, this can only be done once.

This is all assuming your game is fully patched up.

 

[braclayrab]

@Zakharov: Interesting. Thanks for the info.

I started my game... decided on Monarch. I don't have C3C so Sea is not available. I tried with Babylon for one game, but had to give up, as the game was going horribly and I was actually producing wealth.... oops. I decided to start over and use Egypt, as this will allow me to pre-build the GL with Pyramids more easily. I was just wondering how much exploration should be done, pre-game. I've actually already begun, I don't have any good food bonuses though, but I am near fresh water. Turns out however, that if I had done about 5 turns of exploring, I might have found a square that had fresh water, on the coast, and a cattle.

 

[SJ Frank]

If this is your first OCC, I would suggest that you start with a smaller map. Smaller maps reduces the tech price, limits the number of cities that the AI's can get, and gives you a better ratio as far as your economy vs theirs is concerned.

Not being on the coast makes an OCC a lot harder. You really should consider rerolling starts until you do get a coastal start.

 

[braclayrab]

OMG! yeah... I'm getting my ass kicked... I can't keep up in techs. it's already 1350 and I don't think I'm going to make it. I'm only at maybe 6000 culture with about 50 or 60/turn. I haven't done the math, but my instinct tells me I'm way behind. I've also lost numerous wonder races at this point...

Edit: Yeah, I did end up restarting and getting a nice coastal city. Technically i've tried 4 times now, and at least I'm doing 'better' each time...

 

[SJ Frank]

Tell us more about your build order. What wonders did you tried for and failed?

It is, by the way, possible to out research the AI's with an OCC

 

[bingen]

Outresearching the AI, it depends. On C3C, standard, monarch I think it is possible for large periods of time. On vanilla/PTW it is harder with no philosophy to Republic slingshot and no tourism income.

 

[Frollo]

About the chopping thing...
You may or may not know that you can't speed up Wonders by chopping forests. If the city is currently producing a Wonder, the chop is wasted. Even worse is that if you're building a normal improvement (as a prebuild, for instance) and rush it with a chop, you'll find that you can't switch production to a Wonder unless the rushed improvement is finished.

 

[braclayrab]

Frollo, that little nugget of knowledge is what set civ fanatics apart from typical players.

BTW, I've given up on my OCC... I will give it another shot after my current game perhaps. Thank for all the help though, everyone.

 

[alamo]

Doing a 20k culture city is hard enough. With OCC it must be very difficult.

I always assumed that the OCC crowd worked on conquest. You make allies to squash civs without letting one get too strong, then finally squash the last one.