The value of India in a OCC

so I decided to try my first ciV OCC... and I thought it might be cool to use India (super big happy city)...

but I ran three starts and since they have a bias for plains...

Got big empty spaces to start in all three times...

Now it seems to me that to do a decent OCC, I'll need some production... hills and trees...

So here's my question...

Is it worth it to try an India OCC...

Or should I just wander my settler to find a better spot even though I'll take a multi-turn handicap?

 

India doesn't actually provide that much help to an OCC. Vertical growth is generally constrained by food, not happiness. A Civ that provides a food bonus (Aztec, Siam, etc) will yield better results.

 

Actually:

An as the previous poster said, food is the issue.

So either a gold specific civ for maritime food, or one with bonuses for CS's would be better.

For OCC you can better take the best spot, as it will be the most important factor in OCC, as you have no cities to take other spots.

 

India has a starting bias towards Grassland so it's strange that you landed in Plains.

 

For an OCC, Gandhi is middle of the pack. Monty, Siam, and Alex are the best for food/growth issues, and Cathy and Iroquois will save you as far as production. And yet again, Wu is potent especially on higher diffs at fending off large invasion forces.

Remember, Patronage will be your bff in OCC for the extra research and substantial gold savings.

 

Harun is awesome on higher levels if your'e lucky with the starting luxuries. Had a start with four luxuries (3 different) within the 3 tile radius. Selling those to the AI gave me enough cash to buy four cultural CS and one maritime (deity level). In the end, I had more research from my CS than from my city

 

Thanks for the replies... some good choices there.... decided to give the Iriquois a shot, and found a nice spot with lots of forests, marble, 2 dyes, and as it turns out a 4 horse and a 2 horse tile

Doing pretty well so far... have a decent military (allied with a military CS who had lotsa iron, wanted to get those MWs built so I could upgrade them to woodsman rifles

Some good wonders built including the Henge, Hagia Sophia, and Angkor Wat... Got a GE which helped

Just agreed to war with the Ottomans, since they are spreading out too much for my liking... was shocked at the insta-raze

Just waiting for the inevitable plea for peace from Sulieman

 

Siam is your OCC civ. Their Wat also provides culture, and the passive benefit will get you double culture from cultural city states - you'll rip through policies - and double food from maritime city states - you'll grow like a weed. Grab a military city state or two also to get units. You won't have any happiness issues, so you'll get golden ages early and often. Micromanage the city for production when you're building something critical and great people generation. Once you get through the patronage branch, you'll be getting great people from your city state allies also. Use great artists to blow out your borders. You'll give yourself plenty of room to protect yourself. If you get extra great generals, build a couple of citadels strategically around your city for additional protection. If you can get the great wall and other protective buildings and policy branches, you'll make it very difficult for another civ to win a battle with you.

 

I usually play with no start bias checked now, i generally get much better starts with any civ.

 

Depends on your victory condition. I've cleared OCC via culture, diplo and domination. I think you can win via Scientific victory but you'll be running close to the number of turns before the game ends. I've played India, Egypt, Babylon, Genghis and Greece in OCC. India is middle of the road as said above for every victory condition compared to a number of other Civs.

As is Greece was by far the best because you are able to have more City States as allies than another CIV. While I haven't done the number I think Greece will still be better than the other guy that gets bonuses from City States.

With Greece I was able to finish OCC via cultural on T250 and the other Civs were around T300 and Babylon was just under T300. I think Babylon can be a bit better but he is a complicated Civ. I should try Aztec and the other CS civ though.

 

Well, let's do the numbers.

The Greek UA reduces your maintenance costs by ~4 gpt for Neutral/Friendly CS allies and ~6 gpt for Hostile CS allies.

Assuming you ally 4 Cultural CSs and 2 Maritime CSs on a standard map, this yields about 30 gpt, at the high end.

If you are going for a Culture win with a small number of cities, +30gpt is helpful, but not particularly great. It doesn't actually translate very well into extra culture. Several of the other Civ UAs or UBs will bring a much greater benefit.

 

India probably Would be the best for a Science win.. unless you rely on Trade posts... and even then.

However OCC Science would probably be best going for City States. (There Greece might be the one.)

 

I find Aztec the most useful for OCC Spaceship. Happiness is generally not a problem unless you get really bad luck with the CS luxury diversity. The extra 15% growth rate helps significantly, as does the extra culture and the promoted Jaguars, which are possibly the best defensive units in the game. In an ideal world, one of your Jags gets a ruin upgrade...a Vampire Pike can stop a legion of mounted troops.