One City Challenge

BadHorsie

Prince
Joined
Mar 6, 2006
Messages
458
I tried a OCC last night, as a bit of a change, and found it to be quite fun doing something different. I did a Great Plains tiny map on Noble with 6 players including me. I chose Frederick - Phi/Cre. I thought every civ would have 1 city only but I was wrong... my game only lasted 2 hours to 1750AD, culminating in my defeat at the hands of Montezuma.

What I'm wondering is who else has tried this, and what strategies do people use?

I found I could build a great 'black-hole' kind of city, which would eat up smaller surrounding cities with its culture, but I kept getting attacked from all sides. Protecting my city wasn't so much a problem as protecting the many resources I had which were essential to supporting my city.

For example, I'd be fending off attacks from one or two sides, but stray AI units would go around pillaging resources, and then my whole city would go into melt-down... unhappy, seriously unhealthy, starvation, loss of production, etc.

In all fairness, I wasn't taking the game seriously, as it was more of a first-time experiment and it was very late - I was just trying to finish the game before bed (one... more... turn), so I will prepare my military better next time.

What would you suggest I go for as a win condition? I'm curious to know if you are allowed a culture win with just your one city as legendary? I would like to go for that if it's possible. I never bothered attacking any AI cities - what happens when you capture them? Does it get razed automatically?

Oh, some details on what I did:

I didn't bother with cottages. I was making so much money at 100% :science: because obviously there's no maintenance costs, etc. Also I think they would've kept getting pillaged.

Resources within the fat cross: 3 cows, horse, copper, gems - most I've ever had :eek: 2 of the cows were on desert/hill and 1 on plains/hill. Copper was on grassland. So I mined everywhere I could and put farms everywhere else.

I went for CS Slingshot, and then something crucial happened - someone beat me to the Pyramids, which meant I'd wasted so many turns, and didn't even need the money. Also, that meant I didn't have Universal Sufferage, which I desparately needed later on when it came to a medieval war, to buy loads of units real quick with my spare 3000g.

I was running Pacifism, and had Parthenon, plus my Philisophical trait, so by 1700AD I had produced about 11 Great Prophets, 3 Great Artists, not including any freebies I got from techs.

I founded every religion except Buddhism, and built every shrine. I spread Confucianism to everyone except Isabelle, who was pissed off because nobody liked her crappy Buddhism.

Monty attacked me even though I had about +10 with him, and the same religion. No surprise there then.

I found I had serious problems with health (-5 :health: or so), even though I made many trades to eventually have wheat, corn, cow and sheep.
 
migthegreek said:
What I'm wondering is who else has tried this, and what strategies do people use?

There is a guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144787
What would you suggest I go for as a win condition? I'm curious to know if you are allowed a culture win with just your one city as legendary?

No, but you are allowed a culture win with three legendary cities - I believe the trick there is to set up a permanent alliance (you would have to enable that option) with a civ that provides the other two cities.
 
I played an OCC game once. I'm not quite sure how you are supposed to win an OCC game. Unless you get a perm alliance, the only way I can fathom is through diplomacy

Conquest can't be done as new cities will be built. Not enough time to raze them all.

Domination/Cultural impossible by definition.

Time - perhaps on lowere levels but how are you going to accumulate a large score?

Space Race - lower levels perhaps but I don't see how one city could have enough production power to build all the parts.
 
Just finished up a OCC (Warlords) on Warlord difficulty, 6 Civs, Small, Continents. Went for a space victory and pulled it off in 1999. Spent most of the game battling unhealthiness wasn't until the 1980's till I got out of that due to future techs. I played as Peter the Great (Philosophical / Expansive) and ran Moscow as a specialist science center. Ended up with 10 Great Scientist and 7 Great Engineers throughout the game and a small amount of the others.

Building the pyramids early helped immensely due to representation :) . The Globe Theater eliminated happiness concerns and let my city grow to 30 by the end. Production of the parts wasn't too bad took about 17 turns for The Apollo Program, 10 for Space Elevator and the parts averaged 5 turns and I didn't even have Aluminum. Also the UB for Russia is a laboratory with 2 free scientist.

I was able to found Confucianism and Taoism and spread Confucianism to both my neighbors, Roosevelt and Mansa. Mansa founded Christianity and kept on switching back to it every ten turns or so but I bribed him back to the flock. The other continent was Hindu or Buddist. Alexander ended up attacking me near the end but was throughly squashed due to being very far behind technological and my defense pacts with my two neighbors :) .

Scorewise I did well for the first half and slowly was overtaken by the end I was second to last with only Alexander being lower. The U.N wasn't built before I won so I don't know how viable a diplomatic victory would have been . Conquest may have been impossible because I didn't build on the coast so I wouldn't have a way to attack the other continent.
 
OCC on Great Plains Noble Level? Cottage everything you can, go for CS Slingshot, forget about Stonehenge and even the Pyramids (although you still have a good chance).

Switch to Bureaucracy, and never ever switch to anything else. With enough cottages and Bureaucracy + GL + Gardens + NE + HE + Globe + Oxford + West Point + Red Cross + whatever...

To prevent AI attacks, build a few units (like Axes with Woodsman), and fortify them somewhere at AI borders. Then focus on science, having a moderate stack in the capital.

Once you get Infantry and Artillery (AIs will hardly get Musketmen by that time, you should expect Longbows), build a large stack and kill them all. Don't worry about them rebuilding the cities, that'll be only civs you're not at war with.

So, just kill them one by one, or go for Space Race. You don't need Aluminium or whatever, unless you want to beat the HOF records (somewhere around 1550 AD.)
 
I have become quite enamored with the OCC aspect. My preferred leader is Qin (though keep in mind I do not have Warlords yet). I typically play Noble, larger maps and 8 civs. I have by no means perfected winning yet, but I have managed to pull a couple off. Nearly every loss has been oh-so-close to victory.

Space Race seems the best way in my opinion, though on smaller maps (or pangea) you can do for elimination of your rivals. You need to decide your research track early on, then leverage the other civs to back-fill other techs. It s not uncommon for my city to have 700-800 beakers. Definitely make sure you keep ahead in the techs that provide military superiority. To keep the AI off your back, build up that military. Unless there are other critical things to build, keep producing military units. Typically what I do is surround my border with troops so there is no easy way in. Early on before you have enough troops, make sure to have a unit or two parked on your critical resources.

I rarely if ever open my borders to anyone if I can help it. Keep them guessing about your situation I say. :goodjob: But at higher difficulty levels I am sure you are forced to pick alllies. In a lot of my OCC games I never ally with anyone and never go to war. But having a big military helps that.

Representation and Bureaucracy are essential to winning OCC. As mentioned earlier, the Globe Theater is a must have too. You will probably need Environmentalism in the late game to offset the unhealthiness.

Just a few comments for what they are worth.
 
Tips for OCC games:

1. Found some religions. Spread your state religion to the AIs that you want to make friend with, and spread other religion(s) to the country you hate. What you need is to divide the AIs into 2-3 groups, and you make friend with the stronger goup.

2. Build military units as soon as possible. Make sure that you is not the weakest nation.

3. When AIs ask for tribute, give them. Tribute usually turns a pleased AI into friendly. Trade will help too.

4. Pay money and/or resource and/or technology to initiate wars betweem AIs. You can't win if the world remains peaceful.

I play a lot of OCC game. Usually Spain and Japan will be enemy in an OCC game. (Spain will found a different religion early and therefore hates you; Japan will not open border so that you cannot make friend with him.)
 
Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I played another game last night. Lost again - came second after time. I played the same sort of situation:

Tiny map, Great Plains, Frederick, Noble, 3 AI players - I got Saladin, Elizabeth and Caesar.

  • Didn't bother with Stonehenge.
  • Got Pyramids.
  • CS Slingshot.
  • Founded every religion.
  • Missed out on Sistine Chapel (again).
  • Was on a par in technology, until Industrial era, when I just fell behind.
  • Saladin almost completed spaceship but time ran out. I was second by about 2000 points.
  • Our starting locations meant that I blocked off Caesar and Saladin blocked off Elizabeth, so he had half the map to himself. I think that was a deciding factor. Had my city been central to the map, it would've balanced out everyone's power. He was far, far ahead in power, score, research.

Although I lost, I am having real fun with OCC. I'm determined to win on this Noble game, although I will try a Warlord or Chieftain first and work up maybe, to experiment with some techniques.

Next game I will probably try Gandhi or Saladin, as Industrial seems like a good tech to have for OCC.

Last game I got so many Great People it was unbelievable... I was up to the 5700 mark by the end. Anyone know how many that is? I can't remember the amount it increments. I was literally getting a GP every few turns, it was brilliant. I got something like 6 Great Artists, 15 Great Prophets, maybe more I don't even know. They were just coming all the time. 2 Great Scientists, 1 Great Engineer... I lost count.

I wish I'd had Sistine Chapel. I was making +1600 :culture: a turn. Had almost 300,000 in total.

It was also quite fun being able to build almost anything and everything in 1 turn. I ran out of buildings and wonders very quickly, so I just had units on constant production, 1 a turn. I also had about 30,000 :gold: and could upgrade dozens of units at a time when I got new techs. I never went to war because Saladin and Caesar were both pleased/friendly with me the whole game, and Elizabeth, although pissed off that I was of a different religion, wasn't as powerful.
 
Did you forget about cottges? Philosophical or not, you need them because of Bureaucracy. Work cottages first, specialists if you have more pop than you need for cottages. Also, GL. You don't really need Sistine Chapel or other stuff like that. You don't need many religions, either.

Favorite world wonders: Oracle, Pyramids, Great Library, Hanging Gardens. The rest should be National Wonders. Oxford, for instance, is a priority. Ideally, you should get it around 1AD. Some people would get Education or Astronomy with Oracle, then Physics, Electricity, Radio or even Computers - with Liberalism.
 
I've played OCC a couple of times in the past. One question, it seems inevitable with that much culture in one city that you're going to get culture flip in your favor. Is the goal to simply maintain the one city, or is it OK to add cities to your civ via culture flip?
 
You won't get any cities besides your capital in an OCC game. The ones that culture flip just get destroyed automatically. Same if you capture a city.
 
Exactly. If you don't, you won't get the OCC benefits, like unlimited number of National Wonders, only 1 Theatre is needed for Globe, only 1 University for Oxford, etc.
 
TyranusBonehead said:
Oh, I realize what I did wrong...you have to specify OCC in the game option before you start.....duh :king:
lol, you bonehead, Tyranus... :crazyeye:

Yeah it's great, when you're producing that much culture, you just expand your borders crushing anything in it's path. I must've destroyed about 8 cities - lots of them major ones (that's gotta be annoying for the AI).
 
The trick with Space Race victory is to play on costum continents so that each continent is quite small so that the enemy doesn't get ALL that many cities. And of course you need some luck with the location of your city.
 
I've been trying a lot to do a space race victory on Immortal today, and I've found out a few interesting things.

I'm playing vanilla CIV atm (will get Warlords tomorrow!) and this is what I've found out so far today.

I play on costum continents with one island per civ and 3-5 oponents. I need a tile with lots of food (fish, rice, wheat, corn) or I wont stand a chance. I would also prefer to have stones. Therefore I usually regenerate the map a few times untill I get a decent start. It's unfair, but to do a Space Race Victory on immortal I think I have to be a bit unfair.

Philosophical is my favorite civic for OCC.
Expansionism trait is quite good in OCC (in contrast to regular games imo). You'll most likely be able to boost your happiness somehow, and extra health is therefore very important. This is therefore my second choice. This means that Peter is my first choice for OCC games.

Financial is useless, I build very few cottages on OCC. Spiritual might be good, and the same goes for industrial, but I prefer the two above.

Go straight for the pyramides. I don't stand a chance at even monarch without the pyramides. After you get the pyramides, I have found a new interesting method. Getting the oracle is too hard on imortal and wont happen. The regular tactic, and what I used to do earlier was to go for Beuracracy. This is imo a big mistake. What you need for a OCC Space Race Victory is Writing, Literature, Drama and Philosophy. To get any use of Philosophy you will need a religion, and since I'm playing on continents that is a huge problem. You wont be fast enough to catch confusianism, so don't even try. Research the techs I have listed above in that order. When you get writing, put on 2 scientists. When you get Literature, use a great engineer from the pyramides to rush it. Then build National Epic, Theatre and then Globe Theater. Feel free to adjust the culture slider after getting the theatre to get some people ready for the Globe Theatre. You'll have 2 scientists working on the Library and 2 on the Great library. These 4 scientists will be enough to get philosophy early enough to grab a religion and get pacifism.

After this, head for Beuraucracy and then Education. This should give you very nice science output. But from here I seem to start loosing.

From here I'm a bit lost what to do, I went for liberlism to rush Nationalhood and then go for emancipation to slow down the AI. Does this work? Will the AI get the same problems I usually get with enemies using Emancipation? Anyway, I were doing quite nice, but ended up with problems when they came with hordes of riflemen/chavalry. I was ahead in tech, but they had more military techs than I, and it was therefore not very pleasent. I don't think I was far enough ahead to finish the space race even if I remained at peace either. Any tips on how to do the middle/late game? Or even tips at improving my start would be nice.
 
I've been using Gandhi - for Spiritual so that I can switch for wars, and Industrial to get all those wonders.

Has been fun playing OCC, but I will probably go back to normal games now. I miss Settlers :(

Finished a game yesterday with 500,000 :culture: in my city. It's quite fun getting dozens of GP's and having 50,000 :commerce: too. I also enjoyed being able to build farms everywhere and then loads of mines, as opposed to having to cottage spam to keep up with my maintenance.

I played against 7 AI on a Tiny map... converted everyone to Hinduism. Won the game, then decided to declare war on everyone at the same time :crazyeye:
 
At Prince it's imho not harder than a normal game.

You do not need lots of mines/workshops. Later with IW+HE you are able to build Infantry on Epic speed in 1-2 turns anyway.
Just build as much cottages as you can and you can easy get a research of 700+ and just outtech the AIs. Even with multiple citys they won't be able to keep up. Then kill their Longbowmen with you Riflemen/Infantry.
 
Top Bottom