Whats the best civilization for a one city challenge?

[GoodSarmatian]

The problem with Siam is that in OCC you usually don't have the money to be allied to many CS.
There's also the idiotic autoraze function. If you play OCC and take a CS that had been conquered by another civ the city is immediately razed without giving you the chance to liberate it.

 

[chazzycat]

You don't try to get multiple allies. Instead you get a (Very) small # of allies and get better benefits from them (particularly maritime)

Gotcha. That seems like a pretty small benefit compared to a civ like Arabia or Korea though.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Gotcha. That seems like a pretty small benefit compared to a civ like Arabia or Korea though.

Well Arabia's bonus depends on AI civs.. so its not as useful on lower levels (because the AIs have less gold to give to you)... Wheras Siam's is More useful on lower levels (because the AIs have less gold to give to CS)

 

[chazzycat]

Well Arabia's bonus depends on AI civs.. so its not as useful on lower levels (because the AIs have less gold to give to you)... Wheras Siam's is More useful on lower levels (because the AIs have less gold to give to CS)

True, good point. I usually play on immortal where that's not much of an issue.

 

[black213]

The problem with Siam is that in OCC you usually don't have the money to be allied to many CS.
There's also the idiotic autoraze function. If you play OCC and take a CS that had been conquered by another civ the city is immediately razed without giving you the chance to liberate it.

Are captured capitals autorazed too?

 

[qalsip1977]

@chazzycat

Building a strong economy in a peaceful OCC game is cake! You don't have any military eating up your gold, and with only 1 city your infrastructure maintenance is negligible, so your economy is looking pretty good. If playing any difficulty lower than Immortal you don't need to sign RAs at all to win a science victory. Use your gold to get all of the CSs (I rarely have less than all of them unless I'm on diety) so you get the most bang for your buck from scholasticism. Plus the extra culture you're getting from the UA and UB helps you fill out Rationalism faster than you could imagine doing it with Arabia. Money isn't everything!!

It's not as effective as certain DLC civs but I'd take Siam over Arabia for a cultural or science victory. I said Arabia for diplo because, at that point, it's simply a numbers game of having the cash to hoard the CS at the opportune moment. Diplo wins are pretty cheese anyway...there should be more to it than controlling all the CSs when the UN vote is held IMO...

 

[chazzycat]

@chazzycat

Building a strong economy in a peaceful OCC game is cake! You don't have any military eating up your gold, and with only 1 city your infrastructure maintenance is negligible, so your economy is looking pretty good. If playing any difficulty lower than Immortal you don't need to sign RAs at all to win a science victory. Use your gold to get all of the CSs (I rarely have less than all of them unless I'm on diety) so you get the most bang for your buck from scholasticism. Plus the extra culture you're getting from the UA and UB helps you fill out Rationalism faster than you could imagine doing it with Arabia. Money isn't everything!!

It's not as effective as certain DLC civs but I'd take Siam over Arabia for a cultural or science victory. I said Arabia for diplo because, at that point, it's simply a numbers game of having the cash to hoard the CS at the opportune moment. Diplo wins are pretty cheese anyway...there should be more to it than controlling all the CSs when the UN vote is held IMO...

I won't pass judgment until I've tried this approach, but honestly I'm skeptical. For one, how do you get away with zero military?

 

[qalsip1977]

Well most of the time I get out of DoWs by creative diplomacy e.g. bribing AI 1 to DoW AI 2. I generally have 1-2 siege units to defend with so I guess saying ZERO military would be dishonest...but darn near. In one (deity OCC) game as Korea I built 3 Hwach'as and defended my city from 2 civs at once just fine. I only lost 1 of my units and the other two I promoted and upgraded for the rest of the game until they were super-rocket artillary at the end.

That is in a deity game. On lower difficulties it's even easier because the AI is much less aggressive.

I'm not saying I win every time either! Sometimes I get DoW and it's a no-win situation so I reroll. The hazards of playing a peaceful OCC cultural game I suppose.

I've got a thread on here somewhere with the save from that game if you wanna take a peek? That's the game I beat Egypt to MoH (as I mentioned in the thread about >3 marble/stone and MoH), ToA, GL and HG (not to mention SEVERAL others)...

 

[binhthuy71]

I just won an OCC game with Polynesia on a Small map. Combine Polynesia's instant Embarkation with +1 LOS when Embarked and with three Scouts you can clean up every Ruin and every Natural Wonder on the map as well as finding the best place to settle new cities. Your Settlers can Embark right away so you can have your cities settled before the other civs can discover Optics..

 

[silverspirit]

I would say monty, for the simple reason that his starter units heal and have a jungle bonus (which feeds into getting good science - just make sure to start with a LOT of jungle), a free woodsmen bonus for movement, and keep these bonuses when upgraded.

I played this way once (single city challenge), and very quickly they became quite uber - in fact the basic unit with tactics is quite able to defeat swordsmen.

If you really want to play a fun game, declare war on you nearest neighbors to they send a constant stream of troops to their demise, and get a huge cultural pop for a fun (and rather cheesy) alternate cultural victory. And whats more fun, those civs will eventually give you big money for peace.

ps I was playing on deity!

 

[headcase]

If you really want to play a fun game, declare war on you nearest neighbors to they send a constant stream of troops to their demise, and get a huge cultural pop for a fun (and rather cheesy) alternate cultural victory. And whats more fun, those civs will eventually give you big money for peace.

ps I was playing on deity!

Wow, how'd you make so many troops? What would you say was the ratio between hammers used for troops and hammers used for buildings? Was it OCC?

 

[silverspirit]

I built/brought 4 initially, but after getting the national epic, I built/brought 4. I did start of with legendary start, and sold all my luxuries initially.

The big problem though was production anyway, since I was in a pure jungle setting with 3 gem resources and a spice. In the end, I brought most of my buildings anyway - completing the honor policy can earn you big gold.

Ps started with raging barbarians, and they seemed to spawn very regularly around me. In the jungle no less. And since any cities spawned by the AI next to my city were instantly destroyed, their was plenty of space for them to spawn.

 

[chazzycat]

Well most of the time I get out of DoWs by creative diplomacy e.g. bribing AI 1 to DoW AI 2. I generally have 1-2 siege units to defend with so I guess saying ZERO military would be dishonest...but darn near. In one (deity OCC) game as Korea I built 3 Hwach'as and defended my city from 2 civs at once just fine. I only lost 1 of my units and the other two I promoted and upgraded for the rest of the game until they were super-rocket artillary at the end.

That is in a deity game. On lower difficulties it's even easier because the AI is much less aggressive.

I'm not saying I win every time either! Sometimes I get DoW and it's a no-win situation so I reroll. The hazards of playing a peaceful OCC cultural game I suppose.

I've got a thread on here somewhere with the save from that game if you wanna take a peek? That's the game I beat Egypt to MoH (as I mentioned in the thread about >3 marble/stone and MoH), ToA, GL and HG (not to mention SEVERAL others)...

Cool, thanks for explaining. I think diplo may be my weakness. I usually end up with a larger military because I try to just fight everyone off. Thanks.

 

[qalsip1977]

No worries. I'm not the best CiV player, I'm generally quite content to throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble, so I am not in league with the likes of the pros on these forums. My strengths in this game are quite linear and I am admittedly not very good at domination focused games (not at higher difficulty anyway). I guess I'm just a lover...not a fighter!

 

[Kurtbob]

I had a great game as Egypt. Played four corners, Emperor, OCC. Started next to marble and two rivers with about six to eight flood plains along them and plenty of hills. I was able to build a majority of the world wonders in my city through massive population and production. Easy culture win.

For those you don't play OCC very often (I love OCC but generally don't play over Emperor) its quite easy to keep the peace. No expansion means you are not stepping on anyone else's toes and therefore you dodge a lot of the AI anger found in most games. I have played numerous games in which I NEVER went to war; though I believe this is mainly due to map selection. Archipelago, Small Continents, and Four Corners are maps that allow you to bottle up without much worry.

 

[RD-BH]

Persia.

 

[Mesix]

Are captured capitals autorazed too?

Yes they are. If you autoraze all the enemy capitals you can win a Domination VC on OCC.

 

[Mesix]

I just won an OCC game with Polynesia on a Small map. Combine Polynesia's instant Embarkation with +1 LOS when Embarked and with three Scouts you can clean up every Ruin and every Natural Wonder on the map as well as finding the best place to settle new cities. Your Settlers can Embark right away so you can have your cities settled before the other civs can discover Optics..

Why (and how) were you building settlers in a Once City Challenge game?

 

[binhthuy71]

Why (and how) were you building settlers in a Once City Challenge game?

Whoops! Meant Scouts, Maori Warriors, etc.

 

[gibson1314]

In Civ5 you can play OCC with every nation.

Arabia should be a better civ because of the bazaar. You can buy lots more things for your capital; you lose a part of the trait but just a little one and the bazaar is worth it.
Korea/Babylon are nice (when you´ve purchased them), they´re defensive and you don´t have to worry that much about research.
The only nations which are not good to be chosen in OCC are Spain (no nature wonder in your border and just one UU) and Rome (no trait, and two iron-based -more or less offensive - units). Well, and of course the warmongering civs like Japan, Germany and Mongolia.

I agree with you about Spain even though I won a OCC on emporer with them. There traits don't give you anything except a modest early gold boost. I didnt even build any of their units. The best thing in my game was being the furthest civ away from the pack on an archipelago map.