The ultimate OCC

[CultureManiac]

Last night I won a diplomatic victory as Alexander on Emperor level with only two cities, which got me to thinking that between puppets and city states, it should be more than possible to pull off a real one-city challenge and win without ever building a second city!

At first glance it seems nigh impossible, but if you keep buttering up your allies - and Alex is in the best position for this - then they send you culture, resources, food, arms, science and even great people. Between that and turning your neighbors into puppets, it should be more than possible.

I've got a new game on the go right now, playing Alex again, and France is beside me. But there are three city states around him - all military. One is already my ally, and the other two soon will be. Even if I have a relatively small force, once I declare, it will be five on one ... this time you're mine, Napoleon! With the puppet state of France sending me its gold, and allies around the world, pulling this off is in the realm of possibility.

Once again I'm playing emperor on a small map, continents and fast speed (hey, playing time is limited)

So ..........has anyone else given this kind of victory a shot? Thoughts?

(EDIT: Sorry for not being clear. I'm talking regular settings here, not toggling OCC, so your opponents can expand to their hearts content)

 

[mzprox]

I don't think you can have puppets in ooc.
I have won an emperor ooc in standard map with cultural victory, I was in peace during the whole game (I don1t know if there is an option for this, but it was not set. The AIs killed each other)

 

[Cincinnatus C.]

I can confirm that there are no puppets in an OCC, which makes sense. You even raze capitals and city-states (automatic razing, not turn-based I believe); I don't know whether you can liberate captured capitals or CSs though.

 

[Jharii]

I won an OCC cultural victory as well. Never did attack any neighbors, so never did have a puppet. Sat back and defended the entire game. I believe that I was Napolean.

 

[alpaca]

Well for a totally broken OCC use Alex and do a horse rush

This has officially inspired me to try how far you can massage a culture victory by keeping a proper puppet around (a civ that you will be at perpetual war with and won't let expand). Fun idea for a game I'll wager.

 

[Zhahz]

I would agree that having puppets is not OCC.

I've done OCC cultural with Siam. I did a little bit of warring to protect CS. I got lucky and/or the AI just isn't as win-oriented as it should be. In my game persia rolled everyone else and conquered the fractal pangea in an alarming hurry, leaving my one city and it's huge empire. But it never attacked, even when I started Utopia project. I was ~30 techs behind by the time I started utopia project and persia had swarms of troops, tons of gold, etc. I was disappointed that I wasn't crushed like a bug - the AI should've wiped me out and won via conquest/domination instead of sitting around for 100 turns waiting for me to SP my way to victory.

True OCC diplomatic would be tougher, especially if you have one or two runaway civs. It would take you so long to get to and build the UN they'd be way into future tech and might even accidentally build a spaceship or something.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I did an OOC last night and things got a little hairy when I started to research Rifling, but I was able to get it and upgrade just in time (Monty was starting to become hostile).

 

[alpaca]

I would agree that having puppets is not OCC.

I've done OCC cultural with Siam. I did a little bit of warring to protect CS. I got lucky and/or the AI just isn't as win-oriented as it should be. In my game persia rolled everyone else and conquered the fractal pangea in an alarming hurry, leaving my one city and it's huge empire. But it never attacked, even when I started Utopia project. I was ~30 techs behind by the time I started utopia project and persia had swarms of troops, tons of gold, etc. I was disappointed that I wasn't crushed like a bug - the AI should've wiped me out and won via conquest/domination instead of sitting around for 100 turns waiting for me to SP my way to victory.

True OCC diplomatic would be tougher, especially if you have one or two runaway civs. It would take you so long to get to and build the UN they'd be way into future tech and might even accidentally build a spaceship or something.

I actually think this AI behaviour is intended. If the AI really tried to stop you, most people would never be able to pull off a cultural victory with only a very few cities. I had significant problems in my Bollywood game to defend against a huge Augustus even though he lost four or five units per turn on average to my logisticically enhanced artilleries.

Boy, that game probably had my highest military spending compared to buildings ever

 

[CultureManiac]

Sorry guys, should have been more clear.

I'm not talking about using the OCC option. This is a regular game with the standard settings where my opponent civs can build as many cities as they like. One city versus the world. France built 6 cities, Aztecs 5, Songhai at least 8. Darius has half a dozen. Me? Just one!

So since its standard rules I'm able to make puppets, allies, etc. No special OCC rules, just not building a settler - nothing disabled.

All I can say is so far its working. I've turned four French cities into puppets, along with two of Monty's and one Songhai. Darius is next ...

 

[dubrown]

In an OCC the AI can still build as many citys as it likes (sure, I've yet to do a OCC in CiV but why would the change this aspect from CivIV...)

The difference is that with the OCC option you wouldn't have any puppets taking up space, thus allowing the AI to grow even bigger and probably making things a bit more difficult.

 

[Pata]

Pulled off a OCC victory as my third game (Egypt - emperor). Easy as pie. Just war alot when you feel the germans elbowing for "lebensraum".

Your city will have so much culture that lux doesn't become a problem (just keep a friend in case and buy the rest from CS).

 

[mdw]

I've been playing OCC since the original civ (mostly because it is faster.) I really don't think you're playing OCC if you have puppet cities. I played that every city you capture must be immediately raized or liberated (so no capturing capitals which still belong to their owner.)
My second CivV game was OCC (Prince, Siam, small map, std speed) and was a walk-over win. I got an early tech lead, and whenever one of the AIs got stroppy (usually by attacking a CS) I'd go and whack them with my superior troops until they only had their capital left. I had been playing for a culture win, but it turned out I reached the diplomatic win first. By the end, my mech inf. were rolling over enemy pikemen like speed bumps. I don't think I ever had more than 4 military units.
Whereas in earlier Civs, OCC was a huge disadvantage equivalent to about 3 difficulty levels, in CivV it seems almost a legitimate strategy (combined with a heavy concentration on CS allying as Siam or Greece.)

 

[dannythefool]

I've been playing OCC since the original civ (mostly because it is faster.) I really don't think you're playing OCC if you have puppet cities.

This. One city of your own and 20 puppets can be an incredibly strong empire. The only difference to more cities that aren't puppets is that puppets cost slightly more gold.

And yes, in OCC, captured cities are auto-insta-razed the moment you capture them.

 

[CultureManiac]

It is significantly different than the original OCC, and that's what makes it cool and different. You actually are running an empire of cities and states all from your own capital. It's not the same experience at all, since you can't control what the other cities and CS do, managing them can be even trickier than when you can open up the city screen and tell them what to produce.