Single City Challenge Guide

Zardnaar

Deity
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
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Location
Dunedin, New Zealand
Heres my first attempt at a strategy guide here at Civ Fanatics for Civ Revolution. My current addiction for Civ Rev is a bit more recent than most of you having been playing for around a month. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants and more than a few of you are better at this game than me. I’ve been playing Civ since 95 and have beaten Civ 1,2,3 and never managed to get into Civ4 that much. A few of my older articles are still floating around in the Civ3 strategy guide forums.

Enough blather about me. This guide such as it is about my favorite way of playing CivRev ATM. The single city challenge on deity. Basically try and win the game with a single city. In addition I play with the following house rule.

Your single city is it. No using great people to culture flip other cities, no capturing cities off the AI. This means you cannot win by domination. The only exception I allow is any city that culture flips to you by itself. That more or less means the AI settled to close to your capital and in most cases it can be difficult holding onto such a city anyway. I’ll make an exception for flipped cities if you’re trying for a culture win, but I’ll save the great Artist/Thinker until the final turns of the game as opposed to getting the early benefits of a flipped city.

The disadvantages of playing with a single city is kinda obvious. You will be outnumbered, outgunned, and the city may not have an ideal location. There are some advantages as well. Theres a lot less to keep track of, a lot less micromanagement, and the game tends to move along at a reasonably good clip. Most games of SCC take around 2-3 hours to play and a lot of turns involve hitting the B/circle button. Anyway onto the guide.

Turn 1. In most games of CivRev your starting location is usually good enough as at worst you will always have at least 2 grassland, 2 forest, and 2 ocean tiles to expand your empire. If you’re not fussy you can build straight away. However you may want to consider moving your initial settler. I wouldn’t spend more than 3-5turns looking for a better location but generally I like having at least 3 ocean tiles available pre courthouse building, preferably on top of a hill or built beside a hill with 2 grassland and 2-3 forest available. Your initial start location rarely has any resources available ion the ocean as fish, whales or die are a great advantage. Also consider what type of terrain you want after you build a courthouse. I would like to have some plains available as they generate 3 food with a granary and some hills/mountain/forests are always nice. Always build on the coast as you’re screwed if you don’t.

Also consider what civilization you are. The Spanish, English and Romans have access to early resources, while the Japanese can skimp on the 2 grassland requirements as they get extra food from the ocean. The Russians also have an advantage of an early map and get +1 food from plains which lets them settle in less than ideal locations than other civs as plains are a lot better than grasslands for them and they can see if there are additional resources lurking off the coast. The American great person can be used as an early scout, while the Greeks start with a courthouse. Egypt can get food and research off deserts and can get by with a single grassland if there are some desert tiles nearby and some plains within courthouse range.

The first 10 Turns

Unlike a normal game of civ you don’t need to expand early. I customize my production by putting both my workers on forest and build 3-4 warriors. You want to explore as much of the map and grab as many goody huts and barbarian huts as quickly as possible. After that I normally grow my city to size 3 (unless you’re the Chinese). Save up and try to hit 100 gold, and once you are at size 3 I normally research alphabet 1st. Once you hit 100 gold have your settler join the city, and rush build a library in your capital. Research pottery next followed by masonry. Beeline for masonry as you want free city walls. Odds are you’re going to need them. After that irrigation is nice but isn’t required and I often buy Bronze Working off an AI . Try and get as much gold as you can in the ancient age and spend it. If need be you can disband any spy units for 25 gold and I usually rush build a granary.

Growth is very important as ideally you want to be working as many squares as you can ASAP. Buy or build or find a galley at some point to look for relics and barbarians or friendly huts on nearby islands. The Galley usually pays for itself. Have the Galley explore the map and put a warrior/legion/archer on the galley as well or even a warrior army. Try and grow your city to 4 ASAP and almost always work on 2 squares that produce 2+ food. You can sacrifice around 10 turns of growth to produce a galley and/or an archer unit. Do some tech trading with the AI for money and you will usually get enough to vault you out of the ancient age. In some games I have managed to rush a temple as well in the ancient age or acquire one through the Ark of the Covenant relic. If you’ve tech traded with the AI before you skip your turn remember to rush any final buildings before the game hits the next age. Usually by this point I have something like.

Library
Granary
City Walls
1 Warrior
1 Warrior Army
1 Archer
1 Galley

And if you get lucky and have a lot of gold throw in a barracks and/or temple as well.
For an important techs I will put 1 worker on grasslands/plains and 3 on ocean squares. I often aim for Literacy as if I get there 1st (not to hard with a library) you get +1 science, and the ability to build a courthouse. Build a courthouse ASAP rushing it if you have money. Beeline towards Democracy and/or navigation. You can more or less skip democracy if you can enter the government via the pyramids (usually built via Angkor Wat/being Egyptian) or if you have the expansion packs there are other relics that let you change governments. Odds are you will spend the rest of the game as a Democracy. Navigation is good as you can build a harbor at some point which is great for growth while you research, and if there is no Spanish in the game a free galleon is good. The free Galleon is a scout to explore islands your galleys can’t get to and to go look for the Lost City of Atlantis. Research or trade off the cheap techs on the tech tree and use the Lost City of Atlantis to get 3 free techs.


Once you hit 5-6 people you can often work 2 food squares and either research or build. Don’t forget to neglect your defense and I will sometimes take some time out of growth to work 2 forest squares. Almost always continue researching.Generally avoid war if you can until you have at least.

2 Archer armies
2-3+legion armies

Great People
I generally use them or lose them instead of settling them in a city as the AI will later try and extort them out of you and declare war if you don’t hand them over. Since you can’t use the Great Artist/Thinker to flip a city in SCC you may as well settle it in your capital. You can always hand him over to the AI if need be. I will usually settle a builder if I get one early as even if you give into an AI extortion and hand them over you can often build the granary/library/barracks/temple/courthouse for half price if you’re a lucky Frenchman or American. I will often settle a Great Scientist or Humanitarian as well. If you settle Great People remember you're going to have to defend them as well. Great explorers I usually use them for gold, while a 2nd great scientist is used for key techs.

Early War

The AI will extort you a lot as the game goes on. I usually sell most of my techs to the AI anyway as they will extort them off you. Eventually the AI will attack me as they make some stupid demand that I’m not willing to give away. Usually a key great person or tech I have just researched and don’t want the AI to have yet such as navigation while I’m looking for Atlantis or a military tech. Also you are usually reasonably safe in your fortified capital. Ideally I will use an archer army or 2 on a nearby hill with 2-3 legion armies helping out. The AI doesn’t usually bother attack an entrenched archer army unless they have better units than legions. I use Legions to break up archer/pike men armies in the open while my archer/pike men armies pick off weaker attack units like legion armies or single units.

In effect I harvest AI units to get upgrades. It is very difficult for the AI to hurt a defensive unit with the right upgrades, in your capital preferably on a hill and with a great general as well. I’ve had Greek Hoplites in that exact situation with all the upgrades and a great general attached still serve reliably in the modern age fighting off tank armies and with a defense score in the 80’s. I’m more inclined to sue for peace if I reduced to cowering behind my city walls as AI units of the coast and parked on forest tiles which disrupts your production and research. Sometimes you end up in a dog pile with all the AI teams gunning for you but depending on the map terrain you can reliably milk them and the fields surrounding your capital may be a blood drenched slaughterhouse for your AI foes. Even in games you lose you should still be able to hold the capital regardless as the AI tends to win via a space race eventually.


The Medieval Era

I treat the mid game from around the time you are established and you researching Democracy era. Some key techs you will want from around this time are Engineering, Monarchy and Invention as I like the free great leaders and the extra production can be great depending your cities location. I usually “find” the Lost City of Atlantis around this time as well even if I found its location a lot earlier. The key tech/ building to get ASAP is the University. I like having the following buildings in my city.

Library
Granary
City Walls
Barracks
Temple
Courthouse

Build/buy a university. Ideally with a Great builder residing in your capital. You don’t need any of the early game wonders that much and I love half priced buildings in SCC. A university+ courthouse+ great scientist lets you research most techs you want 1st.

I don’t tend to build to many units, just enough to keep the AI at bay. My typical army at this point probably looks something like this.

1-2 archer armies
2-3 legion armies
1 Warrior army

I might have a horsemen army if I’ve popped 2-3 of them from barbarian huts, and maybe some single units such as a free catapult off mathematics, or any units out on my galley. Legion armies are my preferred defensive unit as they are reasonably cheap to build, and don’t really become obsolete until the AI can deploy riflemen armies and by then I’ll probably have some Knight or Tank armies anyway. By working 2 forest tiles, lots of water tiles and some food you can continue to grow your city, maintain a steady pace of research and build 2 legions every 5 turns, or 2 legion armies every 15 turns which is fine for throwing back AI assaults. Once I have enough units I normally just grow the city and research anyway. Growth is everything as the extra population can be put to work on hammer tiles anyway. You can be the tech leader with 1 city and sell the non essential techs to the AI for gold. I normally don’t have a lot of gold and the little gold I do have is usually spent on key buildings.

The Industrial Era.

By this point I tend to beeline towards Industrialization both for the +5 gold per city but also I want a factory ASAP. My capital has usually grown to something decent sized by now and I can produce, research and grow all at the same time. Other techs I beeline towards are Steam Power, Railroad and Steel as I want the +2 production, and a free cruiser and battleship. If need be I will take workers off food to speed up the production of the factory and if I don’t have enough money to buy a factory communism looks attractive at this point as well and probably only take 3-4 turns to research it. The reason I want these techs is the AI will attack you regardless and you don’t want to lose naval supremacy. Nothing worse than getting dog piled by the AI and having multiple naval units choking your water tiles which is unpleasant for research. The cruiser and battleships will be fleets in a short amount of time. I usually acquire gunpowder and knights with battleship and cruiser fleet support are still good enough to repulse AI armies.

Depending on your cities location you should have something that is somewhat productive. Even with a “bad” start I can still get 40-50 hammers or so off 3 trees. Add in the +1 production off engineering, +2 off railroad, and extra hammers from workers not working tiles it shouldn’t be to hard. Usually you have more production as I aim to have at least 3-4 trees and 2+ mountains/hills nearby as I often move the settler for 2-4 turns at the start of the game. Eventually acquire combustion as the AI tends to be very aggressive in this era. My units often look something like this.

1-2 riflemen armies
1-2 tank armies
1 Cruiser Fleet
2 Battleship fleets

And various assorted obsolete armies of knights/legions/pike men/archers.

I use my fleets aggressively to break up AI naval units preferably before they can mass into fleets of their own as the AI tends to deploy them 1 or 2 at a time. The fleets also support my land armies where they can. My prize tank armies usually defend by breaking up AI riflemen armies while elite obsolete units are still good enough to mop up anything up to an AI tank army.

The Modern Era and Endgame

Generally there are not a lot of required techs and the like in this era. Basically you just need to figure out how to win. The cop out way as such is an economic victory as the space race and cultural victory paths require a bit more work and unless you have been aiming for it a cultural win probably isn’t an option anyway. Modern infantry and artillery and bombers are nice but not required straight away. For an economic win build a marketplace and bank if you haven’t already and switch over all research to gold. If you know you are going to go for this it helps if you have settled a Great Explorer/Industrialist and have the Trade fair of Troyes wonder. Another option is to beeline towards networking and build the internet wonder. Save up 20000 gold, defend yourself against AI attacks and build the world bank. If you have some elite tank armies and riflemen and a fleet you should be OK and while you are saving for 20000 gold continue to crank out military units, probably tank armies.

For a space victory I would recommend this if you have a reasonably productive city or enough gold to rush the expensive parts of the space ship. Beeline towards spaceflight and if possible save a Great Scientist to grab spaceflight ASAP. If you’re in a hurry build the bare minimum of the spaceship and launch it although I tend to build the bare minimum+ lots of propulsion. That is of course assuming everything has gone well.

I still lose games of SCC usually due to a poor start, or not being able to get on top of the tech heap and being left behind or one of the AI civs gets a great start or has a very productive city somewhere. Its not pleasant seeing a AI city with some good resources/hills/mountains crank out a wonder every 3-6 turns. A runaway AI civ can be a problem and they will often win by space race themselves. I’ve never seen an AI win via an economic victory or cultural victory although some AI civs have the 20 wonders/great leader required. Some AI civs tend to be more annoying than others and a late game Roman, Greek or Japanese can be a pain to deal with if they have managed to expand earlier in the game.

Brief recap.

Feel free to spend several turns looking for a better location to settle.

Build 3-4 warriors as scouts.

Important buildings
Library
Granary
Courthouse
University
Factory

City walls via masonry help a lot and temples are nice.

That’s my game guide. I hope you have enjoyed reading.
 
That's a pretty good guide. I have also written a guide on One City Challenge. Whereas mine is more about big picture strategy and yours is more era by era. One thing you overlook though is that each civ has their strengths and weaknesses, so a turn by turn guide won't work for every civ. A heavily military civ like Germany will have little chance to win OCC via economic or tech victory. Thus I made a rule that allows civs to win OCC by domination.
Domination is won by taking over all the capitals. So to win an OCC domination, you can capture only the capitals and defend them with units built from your own capital. These cities cannot produce anything.

You overemphasize armies when you should focus more on buildings and wonders (unless you are aiming for domination victory). Enemy armies are not a threat until they actually declare war, and it is so easy to keep peace with other civs. If war is imminent and you cannot defend yourself, then give them what they want and you get peace for several more turns. In short, you don't need more than two defensive land armies at a time until right before you are about to win. The reason is because you have a short supply of turns and hammers. So you should spend the majority of that on buildings and wonders. Diplomacy is free can take care of the AI even with a small army.
 
I wanted to keep it somewhat short and I don't want to do a civ by civ guide when alot of the stuff to be said is going to be identical to the last lot.
 
I haven't played in months, but since OCC is my favorite way to play and with your new guide up at CFC, I was motivated to play some more OCC games. This time I'm using civs I haven't tried before, such as Spain and Japan. I also replayed with the Greeks, which I wasn't satisfied with last time because they barely won with a tech victory. So with this lesson in mind, I will only strive for economic victory from now on.

It took me two tries with Greece. I know they are pretty good at discovering new techs, so I went straight for the key techs but neglecting culture. This turned out to be not a good idea. The second time I built a temple ASAP and it turned out much better.

Spain and Japan are similar, but Japan is so much easier. I would rank Japan up there with Aztec and Roman as my favorite civs for OCC. Free Ceremonial Burial fits right into my plan of getting a Temple as early as possible, and the free 'harbor' is the nuts since OCC is so dependent on sea tiles. I even had 3 dyes and 1 fish on a remote peninsula, allowing me to lead far ahead in techs and to build only six or seven units the entire game. If the AI come knocking at your door, just give them the tech and they'll back off for a while. It doesn't matter since they can't catch up in research anyway. One Rifleman army seems invincible and can protect your city with ease.

FYI, I updated my OCC guide based on these discoveries.
 
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