The Beginner’s Guide to the One City Challenge (OCC)

[petey]

I kind of like having a coastal city in an OCC game. It has drawbacks in that some of your tiles are water ones, which sucks since you only have the one place to work with, but there are distinct advantages, too.

The first is ability to build the Great Lighthouse and Colossus. These two are great because they give you early Great Merchants. Those are probably the best things to get in an OCC game. Firstly, they give an extra food point, which allows you to run mines on your hills instead of windmills, to keep the production up or run extra specialists. Secondly, they give extra cash, which comes in useful during the end game, when you can mass upgrade your units to handle an assault or pay off someone to attack your space race opponent.

Another benefit is the increased trade - I'm not talking about trade routes, but actually being able to trade with all the other civs. If you're a landlocked city, then you have to sit around and wait for a civ on another continent to come by and see you before you can trade with them. If the extra health resources you need are across the ocean, you have to hope that someone over there sends a ship by where you can see them in order to be able to get access to those resources. Having ships yourself lets you get over there and trade with them as early as possible, which means you hit the health limits later in the game.

 

[trickydicky]

Yep. They are a good defense too.
My latest game I only have 8 non-sea tiles, and Im doing ok, its just now down to who can build a spaceship first (its pretty even). I am out on a peninsular, and other than coming in by boat there is only a narrow corridor to get at my city.

 

[feldmarshall]

OK I usually play on noble. If I want to play OCC do you suggest me stepping down a level or just play on noble?

 

[KMadCandy]

i was addicted to OCCs for a few weeks recently, mostly diplomatic victory OCC. one thing was crucial for me that i don't see here, as far as resource trading. obviously this only applies if the political situation makes trading a viable option for you (worst enemies and all that). since i was going for diplomatic victory, i had designated friends that i needed good trade relations with anyway.

there were cases where someone had a health resource i wanted, but neither of us knew currency yet. even though i wasn't at my health limit, i knew i would be someday, and if i didn't get the trade locked in now, they'd trade it to someone else and i would probably never get the chance. in cases like that, i'd sometimes trade my only source of a resource for their spare. this is a no-brainer for something like my cow for their granary-doubled rice, but i'd do "my corn for your rice" and sometimes "my corn for your cow" if there weren't many options out there and i was on a whipping frenzy anyway . then, when one of us got currency, i'd cancel that trade and renogiate it as X gpt from me. i think of it as making a "please hold this for me" order on that health resource in the future. if i wait until globe is done to trade happy resources away for health ones, there sometimes just aren't health trades available since the AIs have trade deals in place.

i check the resource trade screen as often as the tech trade screen during some stages of OCC games. after all, the worker and city micromanagement doesn't take long each turn .

@feldmarshall: i don't know what to recommend. i tried my first at a level lower than i usually play and it was way way way too easy. i played 4 over the last 6 weeks at Deity level, going for diplo. i never did win, altho i came very close (curse those DPs they sign at the end!!!). the thing is, i don't ever ever play at deity for normal games. so, i can play OCC much higher than i can a normal game, if i'm playing a victory condition that i'm good at. if i was playing an all-out warmongering OCC, i have serious doubts that i'd do so well even at my normal level, that's an area that i am just not so great at . OCC games go very quickly, so probably try one at noble and see how it goes. you'll likely find out whether it's too high a level for a first try before you've wasted a lot of time is my guess.

 

[ununcle]

I think Firaxis was right to leave out this combo because it's too powerful. One more example of the general tendency of mods to be grossely unbalanced, and a good reason not to download them.

I'm gonna download it and use the Aussies to fight against the Jews. I'll try to team up with Frederick. That's a good reason to download it.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

What are some good strategies for winning a Conquest and a Diplomatic victory with OCC? It's really hard...

What civilization? Also, what kind of economy should I run? (I'd like to know for Space Race Victory, Diplomatic Victory and Conquest Victory)

P.S. This is on a normal sized map playing at normal length,

 

[Appren]

I tried to play an OCC again, for the first time in almost two years, but apparently I could only have 5 national wonders

 

[cripp7]

Some good links that I have found that helped me out for my OCC games.

Many Leaders Game 5 - One City Challenge

Deity Always War OCC

the deity game is a LOT of fun and the many leaders challenge, you get to see everybody else's tactics.
Cripp