One to Rule Them All (One City Challenge)

[kushet]

I've tried earning this achievement several times with no luck on normal difficulty. I just can't seem to keep up gold/tech wise with only one city after the medieval era. And since I have so little income, I can only ever afford to have 2, maybe 3 military units and a worker, so inevitably some bloated AI comes and trashes me.

So far I've tried with Catherine and Ramses. I always try and rush the wonders that produce free GS/free tech/free social policy too.

Any suggestions?

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Ghandi is probably better... he can maintain the tech level.
Siam/Greece might be good too.

 

[King Jason]

~Build a library and run science specialists, plan your free techs appropriately.

~Stockpile policy purchases until later eras, one exception being the wonder bonus in the Tradition tree. Beelining to the Renaissance proves effective if you start with freedom to reduce your policy costs and double your culture output. Doubling the rate of specialist production is great too.

~Befriend Military city-states so you won't have to waste production time building units, you can always construct buildings and wonders. The most I ever built myself were siege units, which can kill so many units in 1 hit, or render them useless.

~Keep a surplus gold, but run a decifit GPT, golden ages should pull you back out of funk, Get the 50% longer golden age wonder, and build Taj Mahal, also, piety is a good branch too.

~If science is an issue you can have many trading posts and instead go with rationalism.

~Great merchants can run trade missions netting you gold and influence with city-states.

~Play some kind of offense, liberate city-states that your neighbors have conquered if they decide to declare war on you. Make that your objective before you end the war.

~Siege are you friends. I defended an entire game with only 3 siege units and it's respective support. If you're surrounded by patches of rough land, enemy movement drops to one. Alternatively, it's wise to get the Great Wall. Also, Tradition and Order both have combat bonuses based on being within your territory, these, as well as the wonder that provides the same thing, all stack.

I've done two OCC's on king so far, and the last recommendation I'd make is to try and ensure that there are as many river tiles in your inevitable city radius as possible. River tiles are glorious.

 

[jaldaen]

I think map type and resources can have a huge impact on this. The one time I won this type of game was with Ramses on a duel map with continents. I got lucky enough to start next to mable (which quickens Wonder building) and went straight to Tradition and was building wonders faster than the base buildings (which was very cool!). By the end of the game I was making 300+ Culture a turn and was having great people spawn every few turns (from either my city or from my allied city states... which btw... you want to have Patronage, too it's awesome if you end up with a couple Cultural CS!)

 

[am138]

Is it possible to win a cultural victory with just one city? Also, I have attempted the 1CC a few times but I found it very easy to defend myself. Focus any and all military units on defense - always have one garrisoned unit to the best technology available in your city, plus walls, castles, etc. as soon as you can get them. Then using the ranged attack of both the city and your garrissoned unit, especially later units like crossbow, makes mowing down offensive units a breeze. I'd sometimes, in the case of Montuzuema (the largest power in my match who also happened to declare war on me) supplement with maybe a horseman, but generally to keep unit maintenance down I had as few units as I could afford to have. Also, forming defensive pacts with other civs is a breeze considering you aren't being aggressive or expansionist with just one city - I had China, England and Egypt on my side when Monty declared war :L

 

[kushet]

What's the best way to befriend city-states? Paying out gold to them seems to only worsen my position on the whole money front (I generally can only generate 5-8 GPT max with one city). Their quests seem to die off other than killing one another after the classical era.

 

[ddrueding]

Working on going the one city-challenge with a science victory. Seems completely impossible at this point, not even finishing the science part before 2050.

 

[evanbgood]

I hate to admit it, but I kinda did this one the cheap way while trying to quickly get the settler level and tiny map achievements. I did it on pangea, went for military production right away, and won the game with two scouts, a warrior, and a spearman. I think Ceasar might have cried...

 

[Miranda Panda]

I tried this with Gandhi. It was going great and I was fairly close to a cultural victory. But then I noticed that it was almost 2050. I think next time I'll befriend more city states. At one point my borders were larger than Napoleon's whole empire, which consisted of three or four cities at the time.

 

[Emplate]

I did it as India, but it was tough and I finished the Utopia project with 15 turns remaining in the game. Due to great scientists, lucky huts and stupid decisions by me I was able to hit the Renaissance early (before AD) and was clearly ahead of everyone in points. Sadly my science was poor and I ended up getting left behind, badly, to the point that I was afraid the Christo Redemptor would be built before me. It was not and I scratched by for the win.

- Prince difficulty
- I never had a war with anyone
- The Greeks took over all of my continent except me and the other continent had 2 other players who had scores way above both of ours. He never attacked me though, some luck there.
- I allied with 2 cultural city states who were the only ones left on the continent, sometimes the AI will stop attacking them if you just ask and give them nothing in return which was helpful
- I only built one defensive unit after my initial scout and warrior, a trebuchet, which I kept around early in case any of the players on my continent besides Greece attacked me.
- I only built 1 worker the whole game and disbanded him after my tiles were the way I wanted and my city could no longer grow inland.
- Judge which AI are a threat and give into their demands if they make them.

 

[Zhahz]

I've done it with Siam on a fractal pangea, Prince, with some luck, good and bad.

The bad was only having about half the city states on the mainland and only 1 of those being cultural. The AI took out most of the city states early.

The AIs were warring up a storm and things got very drastic when Persia started rolling my way from the other end of the continent, gobbling up the other civs with ease and growing into a monster.

By 1900 or so Persia was getting 300+ gpt, had 15k gold in reserves, and was way ahead for tech - and I was the only thing left.

But he never attacked. This is the good luck - I was a nice guy for once and it paid off.

Very early on, I'd been aggressive with barbs and had returned 3-4 workers to Persia since I didn't need them and it was way far from my city. Usually I keep the workers. I'm guessing that generated some fabulous good relations, because Persia was my buddy right up til I finished utopia project.

Finished around year 2000.

EDIT: Looks like someone else had good fortune with an AI not attacking them. The AI must not view ultra low score empires of 1 city as a threat. But you see the AI completely remove other AIs all the time. I was almost disappointed that I didn't get attacked since the AIs are supposed to be playing to win (and to not lose).

 

[spoooq]

Tiny Archipelago. Go straight for all marine techs and grab all goody huts before anyone else can even sail. Build anything that gives extra sea movement, explore the whole world for gold from city-states. Spam science buildings, build just enough troops to control your island, upgrade them without fail. A ranged unit is very useful for fending off marauding barb boats. Be friendly with all other civs, especially research agreements and defensive pacts. By the time anyone bothers to invade you will be far ahead in military tech, even if you are behind in everything else. Wait till you have 1 or 2 destroyers and 2-3 mech inf, then walk into their capitals one by one while you build/buy more mech inf for the next one. Just ignore all their other cities. I did this on King, I have no doubt it would have worked on the next level as well. Gold is probably the biggest issue with this, you will be paying a lot of maintenance on buildings and won't have many luxuries to trade to offset. Make sure you get the strategic resources you need, you will have massive cultural boundaries over the ocean so oil should not be a problem, but iron/aluminium/uranium might be.

 

[cato12]

prob a silly question but what exactly are the rules for this achievement? i assume your not allowed to ever have more than one city for the entire game so no annexing or settling?

no puppets either?

 

[phidelta42]

prob a silly question but what exactly are the rules for this achievement? i assume your not allowed to ever have more than one city for the entire game so no annexing or settling?

no puppets either?

If you take a city it auto-razes straightaway so no puppets, this also happens with city states there is no option to liberate, so if you want to rely on them as allies you have to be prepared to defend them when necessary. The option to build settlers is not there

Its kind of a fun challenge and I had to attempt it multiple times. Getting the required culture to win isn't too difficult but pre-patch I found it difficult to survive. A few times I got absolutely swamped by other Civs when they attacked. Its hard to justify a big standing army but a decent siege unit garrisoned and maybe 2 or 3 decent units will be more than enough to discourage and defeat aggressors now, with the improved city defence/healing, at least on prince I won this with India, but there are a few other Civs that it should be fairly straightforward with.

 

[Monthar]

prob a silly question but what exactly are the rules for this achievement? i assume your not allowed to ever have more than one city for the entire game so no annexing or settling?

no puppets either?

You have to go to "Advanced Options" and select One City Challenge (OCC) when setting up the game.

 

[hellboy909]

You have to go to "Advanced Options" and select One City Challenge (OCC) when setting up the game.

While you're there be sure to pump up the number of AI players and city states. OCC is considerably easier on a Duel map with 5 AIs and 6 CSs

 

[Bibor]

Just lost an OCC culture try on King (Small, Pangaea, random civs), because Greece was sitting on 35k and has built the UN.

Anyway here are some tips.

- don't be a hero, tick "legendary start" in resource distribution
- Wonders do not need ukpeep money; play as Rammeses for starters
- select your opponents by aggression level (no Greece, for example)
- if start not on 2-3 rivers, start over
- Military and war isn't your biggest enemy until Artillery and Flight; you can easily outsmart the enemy with an inferior force.
- Happiness is never a problem if you take Tradition. No matter how large you grow, you'll always be happiness positive with 2 happiness resources. You won't even need colliseums.
- Suggested policies are: Tradition, Freedom and Rationalism. The other two at your leisure, but either Patronage, Honor or Order.
- Build All the National wonders ASAP. You'll need all these bonuses. The Heroic Epic can wait, but you should build it too.
- Prioritize Wonders.
- If you are planning to buy off city-states, do so early before AIs get interest in them; you can't defend them so pissing of an AI is not an option.
- You need at least one aluminum for the Hydro Plant and one coal for the Factory. Both can be gained by a single happiness resource trade.

Tech advancement tips:
- Beeline to Writing, then finish Trapping before completing the Great Library; finish TGL and slinghost to Medieval with Civil Service.
- Slingshot to Acoustics via Education and Chivalry.
- Slingshot to Industrial via either Archeology (preferred) or Scientific Theory.

Essential wonders:
- National College
- National Epic
- Iron Works
- National Treasury
- Hermitage
- Stonehenge
- Oracle
- The Great Library
- Sistine Chapel
- The Louvre (22 per turn with Hermitage and 2 landmarks built).
- Syndey Opera house (if needed)

 

[Wulf38]

I've won a one-city culture victory as India. My strategy:

If you get a coastal start, move the settler inland so the capitol has more land tiles available. Start with Scout, Worker, Library, National College.

Worker farms all flat tiles to maximize growth rate, builds mines and lumber mills wherever possible for production. I didn't use any trading posts and was making 20-30 gpt most of the game. It's not a lot of gold, but it's enough.

For defense, build walls/castle/military base and keep one siege unit set up inside the city. If you lack iron, use an archer/crossbow until chemistry. If anyone invades you, you'll be able to focus one of their units to death almost every turn. They won't be able to take the city.

Fill in the entire Tradition tree. Everything in there is useful for a OCC. I then went freedom, piety, order, commerce. Save Free Religion until near the end to unlock your last two policies.

Build almost all buildings and national wonders. By the end of the game the only things my city lacked were barracks and stable. Also build useful wonders whenever possible. Stonehenge, Oracle, Sistine Chapel, Cristo Redentor, Louvre, are good for culture. Military wonders can help too if you get invaded. Settle great artists as landmarks for more culture.

 

[Smoo]

Save Free Religion until near the end to unlock your last two policies.

I've won this way as well, and agree with everything you posted except for this. You want those two free policies early so you can get the bonuses. The free policies don't affect your policy costs, so better to get them early.

 

[Teepanen]

I got the achievement by rushing a capital with some warriors and archers on a duel map. Take honor policy and bring a great general too.