I've been playing nothing but one city challenges (OCC) since the Xpac came out. It's definitely possible, but painful. I've not been able to do it very quickly (about T 250 average for me),
so I'm not sure I'm the best one to give advice (but I'll offer some anyway, which better players can improve on
). I'm also only playing on Gemini so far.
It sure helps to use the "legendary start" option, which seems to have been beefed up since BE: Vanilla. I always choose +2 food, because, with most starts, food is the big limitation, and there's no way to use intra-faction trade routes to boost food. I also start with a worker because there's plenty to do with it right from the opening, and I rarely use a 2nd one. My personal choice is archipelago and coastal survey, so I get a good start on exploration, but who knows?
I've been using the following virtue path to avoid useless virtues: Frugality-Labor Logistics-Commoditization, then into Might to get the bonus to affinity points: Adaptive Tactics-MI Complex-Public Security-Adaptive Sciences (with the free tier 1 virtue). I try to time Martial Meditations for a very late affinity level gain. Not sure if left-side Knowledge or left-side Industry is best next--probably Industry (especially if you go Supremacy, because you'll need lots of cash to buy CNDR's to push through the gate).
As in a regular game, it's surely good to explore a lot early! This is hard to over-emphasize. I always turn in Old Earth artifacts for the the culture, production and science boosts (it's hard to advance culture fast enough in OCC without culture boosts). To avoid getting slowed down, I pass over progenitor ruins early on and hopefully come back for them later.
ARC seems like a good faction choice for OCC, because stealing lots of science is one good way to keep up. Al Falah seems good too, because you'll eventually run out of buildings and units to build, so it's good to get a nice bonus when you set production to food (I usually do this until size 10) and science. Trade convoys are obviously sent to stations.
There seem to be a lot of quests which OCC players can't do--oh well! Keeping respect with potentially hostile neighbors is also a big problem. They seem to want to sneer at both the size of your military (even if you're at the support limit) and the size of your civilization.
OCC is not for everyone--there's definitely tedium involved in the late game as you press "next" many, many times.
Good luck!