One-City Challenge

[Leyrann]

Does Civ 6 have achievable One City Challenges? If so, what are the strategies? And can you play on the same difficulty you usually play?

I kind of want to do one, but I have no idea where to start or how to go about it.

 

[GrumboMumbo]

I've played around with One-City Challenge quite a bit. Science and Diplomacy VC's are certainly doable on Deity, Domination gets really weird because is it still OCC when you take other capitals, I'm not sure? Culture Victory is where I have struggled on this challenge, I have done it on lower difficulties but never Deity. I think on Deity, without attacking the AI enough to cripple their culture output I don't think it is possible to get enough Tourism in just one city. So it becomes more of a Domination/Culture Victory if you wanted to try that.

I think the simplest VC is Science, because with such a large city you have massive centralised production output and can finish space projects very quick. My rough advice is to really take time to get good district placement in order to snag key wonders. Probably Kilwa is best but Ruhr Valley and Oxford Uni can be excellent. It is probably obvious but fully promoted Pingala is the play, try to get ahead with Commercial Hub / Industrial Zone Great People, Scientists tends to get snapped up quickly by the AI, so I often ignore them and rush Commercial/Industrial, they have some helpful abilities and if you manage to grab the Oracle, Pingala's 100% GPPs is good for rushing these districts.

Other than that, just make sure to time your housing upgrades in the early game, you don't want housing to slow down your population growth. Also, although situational a good amenity boosting wonder can really help get you to that +5 happiness boost, which can be really helpful. So a well placed Temple of Artemis or Huey Teocalli is great. Also if on coast Mausoleum as always is awesome. Basically all the normally strong wonders, but the good news with OCC, is you stand a much better chance at grabbing them on Diety. Do be careful not to spam too many though, as you only have so much space to fit them in.

...also remember to leave room for the spaceport

 

[tedhebert]

can’t find the threads with the search engine, but I remember that @Victoria broached the subject a few times in some details

 

[Vargas1]

Depending on size and map type, I think the easiest is likely to be religion, since a handful of well-managed apostles can do a lot of work. The hardest part for OCC with religion is making sure you have enough faith - simplest way to ensure that is to do domination/religion and just pillage away, but if you don't want to do that, you can hope for (or make sure to include) key religious city-states like Chinguetti and Yerevan. Also some civs can give you a good source of faith on their own (Khmer, Ethiopia, maybe others). You can also take the belief that gives you bonus faith for cities following your religion, so once you start snowballing you can just keep it going. You will definitely want an early Golden age with Exodus to get a religious beachhead in, and get a fully-promoted Moshka in to get double promotions for Apostles. If you throw in a couple of debaters to take out enemy religious units, a single apostle with translator/proselytizer can pretty much one-shot convert most cities (even the large ones), and if you have extra spreads from a Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Exodus, you can spread easily from just one city.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Culture Victory is where I have struggled on this challenge, I have done it on lower difficulties but never Deity. I think on Deity, without attacking the AI enough to cripple their culture output I don't think it is possible to get enough Tourism in just one city. So it becomes more of a Domination/Culture

If you dont mind "cheating" with certain modes activated:

If you play with SS and apocalypse on, go for the old ethiopia+void singers+great bath abuse and spam flood your rivers for an easy OCC CV.
You will have the apocalypse wiping out cities rather fast, but as long as you have Liang slotted with the immunity to environmental effects, the comets cant wipe out your capital, making it only a question of time before enough AI cities have been decimated for you to become culturally dominant and win a CV.

 

[blackbutterfly]

Zombie Defense mode.

*mike drop*

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Zombie Defense mode.

*mike drop*

Not reliable.
Had games where they would just suicide against city walls for hardly any damage, not kill units and mostly be irrelevant for the entire game.
It can of course also swing the other way, but its not reliable.

 

[blackbutterfly]

Not reliable.
Had games where they would just suicide against city walls for hardly any damage, not kill units and mostly be irrelevant for the entire game.
It can of course also swing the other way, but its not reliable.

But you can exploit Zombies.

See: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664692990

I recommend the TSL Mediterranean map. Besides being the only Firaxis(?) World Builder map in which rivers flood and can be dammed, it is a great map for a OCC Zombie challenge. Super easy.

Play an arab or levant civ. (Arabia, Egypt or Phoenicia).

 

[Odofakyodo]

About a year or so ago spent a lot of time attempting OCCs and after a lot of effort I managed to achieve all victories on Deity (for Domination, I took all other capitals on the same turn). My settings were: Gathering Storm, Continents Map, Small Map Size (6 Civs), Standard Speed, NO Additional Modes (no Secret Societies, no Heroes, etc.). I realized afterwards that I should have been using Standard Map Size (8 Civs) for it to be a "true" OCC, so I'd like to try that in the future. My point is that I think it is totally doable even on Standard Map Size with the right strategy and a little luck from the RNG gods.

OCCs can be pretty fun to play because they go fast since you don't have to micromanage a large empire. You want to have very specific goals, use tacks and plan out your entire city and have a specific order you want to build things. Rerolling for a great start is fine - if you can't plan your city layout from the very beginning, you're probably not going to win.

For any OCC I would advise being friendly with everyone because building and maintaining a large army is going to be extremely difficult and you need to be as efficient as possible and you don't have access to a lot of gold. You want to be able to sell luxuries and diplo favor for gold. Plus, you can't capture any other cities anyway (as part of the challenge). I've not tried any pillaging strategies, though (are they very strong? can they be maintained throughout the game with only one city?).

I agree with Vargas1 in that Religious Victory is the easiest to accomplish. My first ever OCC win happened to be a RV - as Kupe - and I actually started out thinking I was going to do a culture victory. You obviously want as much faith as possible. Holy Orders belief is very good for cheaper apostles. Mosque is also very good for an extra spread. Hagia Sophia for another extra spread. Fully promote Moksha so each apostle gets 2 promotions.

What I did for my RV win was build a large standing army of apostles and then sent them all out to convert everyone once I was ready to go for the win. The reason I did that was because converting other civs causes grievances and I did not want to go to war with anyone. However, I think if you are allies with everyone already then you can keep friending them even if they have a lot of grievances against you.

I did not do this at the time because I did not know about it, but there is a way to exploit the apostle promotion system so that you can get dozens of apostles with some combination of Proselytizer, Translator, or Debater promotions. What you do is keep promoting apostles - never picking Proselytizer, Translator, or Debater - but always picking another promotion. At some point, every apostle you create will have those three options as promotions. These promotion options are locked in at the time of creation of the apostle. Do not promote these new apostles since that will bring other promotions back into the possible promotion pool. Instead, build up a large army of unpromoted apostles. Finally, when you are ready to send your apostles out, you can promote them all to Proselytizer-Translator (hopefully with 5 spreads each).

I agree with GrumboMumbo in that Culture Victory is by far the hardest victory condition to pull off in an OCC. I tried a few different approaches - great works, wonders, rock bands, and Court Festivals - but the one that ultimately worked was a national park strategy. I actually started a detailed write-up of this strategy but the key points are: Use Bull Moose Teddy, focus on faith and science (yes, science!), build Film Studio, Eiffel Tower, and Golden Gate Bridge, and try to snag golden ages from the modern era onward for the Wish You Were Here dedication. I had a city generating over 5500 tourism (with all the multipliers) against other civs in the Information Era.

The trickiest part of this strategy is the city location. You need to be able to build Golden Gate Bridge, but you also need a lot of land for the national parks, and you need a great campus and good holy site. It can be a nightmare - you need a lot of patience or a lot of luck, or both. I had to reroll the map for an hour before there was a suitable location to make an attempt.

 

[Leyrann]

I've not tried any pillaging strategies, though (are they very strong? can they be maintained throughout the game with only one city?).

Oh, this is actually a great idea. A Renaissance Era mine pillage with the card locked in can easily need you 300-400 gold. You'd be able to run an entire economy purely from pillaging, I think, admittedly depending on how well the AI repairs. All that'd remain behind is production, but there are quite a few faith pillages around so you Grand Master's Chapel plus gold purchasing should take care of the unit department, leaving you free to spend your production on buildings and districts.

However, I think if you are allies with everyone already then you can keep friending them even if they have a lot of grievances against you.

This is correct, I did that the last time I went for a religious victory.

Anyway, I'm thinking I might scale down a bit to Emperor when trying OCC for the first time. Maybe it'll be easier than expected, if so I'll scale up afterwards.

 

[Hull tyyp]

OCCs are nice for quick play, don't need to manage so much.

Here is another fun setup for you.
Portugal on archipelago, great if you want to try deity.
Reroll until you have a decent start with plenty on land for districts and wonders. Can even Reroll until you get a natural wonder start.
Can also influence some parameters to your advantage: prevent some city states from appearing, more chance to get useful ones like Auckland or Kumasi. Play with barbarian clans. Play with SS and go for owls of Minerva. Play with heroes and get Himiko, Maui or Sinbad.

 

[kaspergm]

I haven't succeeded with a OCC yet - mostly because once I get started, my compulsive need to settle juicy natural wonders takes control of me, causing me to abandon my plans. But would like to give it another try.

Any suggestions for good civs to go with for a science/GP based OCC? Scotland would seem like a good candidate to me, given their science and production bonus to yields and great people from happiness.

 

[Odofakyodo]

Any suggestions for good civs to go with for a science/GP based OCC? Scotland would seem like a good candidate to me, given their science and production bonus to yields and great people from happiness.

I haven't actually played as Scotland... ever! (note to self: put that on todo list). I've won Science OCC with both Korea and Babylon. Korea is really solid. The trick for Babylon is getting the Great Library. I found that fairly hard to do on a Small map, and I can imagine it taking quite a few tries on a Standard size map, so you'll want to beeline it ASAP and focus on culture and civic inspirations early. But if you can snag it, whoa baby Babylon is extremely powerful. IIRC I was actually leading all Civs in science since about the Renaissance. I also used Babylon to win the Domination OCC, which I think would be significantly harder on a Standard size map, but I think still doable.

 

[DrCron]

There are several ways to do the one city challenge, but I'm pretty sure diplomatic victory is the easiest one. I did a video-guide on how to achieve it with Norway on an archipelago map (deity difficulty):

 

[Leyrann]

Well, I did it.

I went for Emperor difficulty and picked Babylon with the goal of using the strategy mentioned in this thread to win a science victory. My first roll I immediately had a very good start, with river, flood plains, hills, coastal but not too many water tiles, no mountains, tundra or desert, so I spent ten minutes planning out my city with a +7 Industrial Zone, a good Campus next to a reef that could build Great Library, and so on.

Then I settled in place, started exploring... and ran into Yerevan on turn 4.

So anyway, I completely retooled all the pins, going for religion instead. That meant I could pretty much ignore science, and for culture I needed Theology and later Divine Right. And some Governor titles. I got a rather late pantheon, and went for River Goddess, as I'm using the Better Pantheons mod in which it gives +2 housing, +2 food and +2 amenities. For my religion I took Reliquaries because I'd found a relic on turn 40 or something, as well as Mosques to make sure no AI could snatch it away. They never go Holy Orders so I wasn't worried about that one.

I then rushed for the Mahabodi Temple to use the two free apostles to evangelise my religion with Holy Orders (cheaper apostles) and the belief that gives faith from every city following your religion. Building that also unlocked Buttress, so that let me immediately continue with Hagia Sophia. I used Pingala as early-game governor to get more culture (city was growing nicely), with a switch to Moksha once I was ready to start spreading.

That actually took until the early Renaissance Era, and I somehow managed to string three golden ages together with one city and no missionaries or apostles bought or used. I'm still not sure how, though I will say it included purchasing Great People of types I wasn't even earning points for as well as copious levying. I also got points for first to meet everyone and first to circumnavigate, which helped. And in the Ancient Era I somehow managed to be the first to discover a continent (on Pangaea!) and two natural wonders that were closer to an AI than to me.

Anyway, when everything was finally together - Yerevan, Hagia Sophia, Mosque, max promoted Moksha, Exodus of the Evangelists - I started purchasing apostles, a few with Debater but most with Proselytizer + Translator, and all with seven charges. My first grievance penalty for converting cities was turn 149, I won the game in turn 176.

Also, in the meanwhile in my capital I just built wonders because I had nothing else to do. Ended the game with Colossus, Kilwa Kisiwani, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and Mont St Michel. And I managed to boost Civil Engineering, lol. Here's what Babylon looked like on the turn of victory (behind the name are an Aquaduct and an Industrial Zone):

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I had to refuse a city that flipped to me. You can see it on the right. Made me think about OCC domination with Eleanor where you're not allowed to build Settlers or declare war, but are allowed to keep peacefully flipped cities. Then again, the regular peaceful domination was already enough of a chore for my liking lol.

 

[kaspergm]

I managed to do a OCC win also. It was immortal. I ended up playing as Germany, because I figured the extra district and policy slot would be helpful. My start was kind of weird because I ended up on my own small subcontinent, so no neighbors to push against or be threatened by. Of course both Babylon and Scotland was in the game, and Scotland quickly established himself as the run-away AI, had the AI been more competent at getting the space race missions done, he would have won the game, because he had all the technologies for many turns before he completed the last space project. In fact, I ended up stealing boosts for the entire future era tree from him and managed to get my spaceship off a turn before him, but I did not have the technology for building boosters yet, so he would have arrived before me. However, I managed to secure a Diplomatic Victory shortly after that.

I did make some serious rooky mistakes in that regard, one of them being settling completely land-locked, which meant no chance for building Statue Of Liberty. That could probably have saved me at least 30 turns. Also I moved off the rivers to have Sri Pada within range, which ended up being totally not worth it, as I never bothered to spread my religion to any other cities. But still, I'm glad I manage to pull it off after all.

Spoiler :

PS: I only now realized that Poundmaker was actually eliminated from the game, he lost his final couple of cities to loyalty pressure from Babylon and Khmer, as can be seen on the east part of the mini-map.

 

[Vandlys]

...

...

It's really lovely to see this, people! Thank you for sharing your experiences so elaborately, it was a fun read. Hope more people share their OCCs.

 

[Leyrann]

I managed to do a OCC win also. It was immortal. I ended up playing as Germany, because I figured the extra district and policy slot would be helpful. My start was kind of weird because I ended up on my own small subcontinent, so no neighbors to push against or be threatened by. Of course both Babylon and Scotland was in the game, and Scotland quickly established himself as the run-away AI, had the AI been more competent at getting the space race missions done, he would have won the game, because he had all the technologies for many turns before he completed the last space project. In fact, I ended up stealing boosts for the entire future era tree from him and managed to get my spaceship off a turn before him, but I did not have the technology for building boosters yet, so he would have arrived before me. However, I managed to secure a Diplomatic Victory shortly after that.

I did make some serious rooky mistakes in that regard, one of them being settling completely land-locked, which meant no chance for building Statue Of Liberty. That could probably have saved me at least 30 turns. Also I moved off the rivers to have Sri Pada within range, which ended up being totally not worth it, as I never bothered to spread my religion to any other cities. But still, I'm glad I manage to pull it off after all.

Spoiler :

View attachment 625113

PS: I only now realized that Poundmaker was actually eliminated from the game, he lost his final couple of cities to loyalty pressure from Babylon and Khmer, as can be seen on the east part of the mini-map.

That was certainly a fair bit closer than it was for me! All I had to worry about was a potential invasion from Zulu or Byzantium but as you can see in my screenshot I had recently built an Encampment and was planning on several Forts, plus I had great production, several hundred gold per turn (if you always sell all your diplo favor you can easily get a permanent 200-300 gpt stream, though it does tend to make the AIs go bankrupt so it's a bit exploity; I don't do it outside of challenges these days) and being Babylon I could probably get myself some decent technologies by hitting key eurekas.

Also, I gotta say I'm impressed at the science and culture you managed to produce.

One last question: What does that wonder do? It's from a mod that adds the Civ V wonders, I think?

 

[kaspergm]

Also, I gotta say I'm impressed at the science and culture you managed to produce.

One last question: What does that wonder do? It's from a mod that adds the Civ V wonders, I think?

Science and Culture heavily boosted by the two policies late-game that give you +5 % per city state you are suzerain of. I think that gave me +25 % on each.

As for the wonder, was that with regards to Statue Of Liberty? That is a wonder in the base game, but in one of the expansions it got changed to provide 4 Diplomatic Victory points, which obviously is a key priority if one plans going that way. Problem in this game was, I was so focused on trying the science win that I did not prioritize WC voting at all, otherwise I could probably have "cheated" and used the predictability of many AI votes to get more points much sooner.

 

[Leyrann]

Science and Culture heavily boosted by the two policies late-game that give you +5 % per city state you are suzerain of. I think that gave me +25 % on each.

As for the wonder, was that with regards to Statue Of Liberty? That is a wonder in the base game, but in one of the expansions it got changed to provide 4 Diplomatic Victory points, which obviously is a key priority if one plans going that way. Problem in this game was, I was so focused on trying the science win that I did not prioritize WC voting at all, otherwise I could probably have "cheated" and used the predictability of many AI votes to get more points much sooner.

Sorry, my bad for not being clear. I meant the natural wonder.