OCC Standard map, Noble, 2021 launch victory

[Krill]

Mao, In the words of Soren, "You can always do your own variant."

[Mao]

Oh...so in Civ4, OCC was actually incorporated as a game mode? Cool!

[Krill]

yeah, you go to custom game setup, click on OCC mode (there are Always war, always peace, Raging barbs, no tech trades, random AI Personalities...so many different modes to spice up the games. Personally, I would love to see a OCC always war game.)

[Blunderdog]

Seems that you can build several national wonders even though the game tips will still say "one left" after you've built two or more.

However, I haven't been able to build a cathedral -- the Hindu Mandir, for example -- because I can't build a second temple.

[solo]

After a few unsuccessful games, I have managed to eke out an OCC win on Prince level, completing the ship by 2001 AD.

The AI are more aggressive at this level and I doubt there is any way to stay peaceful with your neighbors throughout most games. With only one city it is impossible to make enough military units to dissuade potential attacks, which often come from leaders without the Aggressive trait. So I built a few forts around the edges of my borders and put a few defenders in each one. Rerserves and capital defenders were all the military I could afford to make since I needed to remain competitive in the tech race.

My neighbor, Victoria attacked me twice, even though our relations had been friendly throughout the game. I paid the Romans to join my side and attack her, and was able to defend my borders without suffering from too much pillaging before peace was made later when she was willing to talk.

Her second attack came very near the end as I was completing my second to last SS part. By this time I had a defensive pact with the Persians, but it did not stop Victoria's modern tanks from rolling in and pillaging all my improvements. My city was reduced in size from 22 to 16 by the time I was able to negotiate a second truce. I just managed to finish the last SS part before the Incas, who were also building their own.

At Prince level the AI are also very competitive in the tech race. I was only able to get a bit of a tech lead on them towards the end of the game, when my city was putting out over 700 beakers. I had to beeline first to Education and afterwards to Computers in order to get enough of an edge to start building a Spaceship earlier than the Incas. Even though their leader is Aggressive, and our relations were never as good as mine had been with Victoria, the Incas never attacked me in the game, even though we were competing for a spaceship win.

After this game, I'll consider it a challenge to win an OCC Space Race game at the next level up, but I will have some fun trying!

Attached is a save made the turn before the ship was completed. It's too bad that most of what had been in the city had been obliterated by the English.

[Risa]

It's sad that cutural victory is impossible in OCC. It still requires 3 cities of legendary culture. So not able to build cathedral isn't as that bad as it seems.

I've tried OCC in monarch level for a few time, and finally made one into space race. I think continents map is quite hard for OCC, as you have fewer contacts in early, and harder to spread hatred between each threating AI.

AI seems to give alphabet a low priority, which is a great time window for player monopolying tech trade. When later they learn alphabet, the international diplomatic relations are almost curved into stone, they are not likely to share their new techs with everyone before you have time to intervene.

Among early wonders, the Pyramids is a must, and the Great Library is a close second. Stonehenge is pretty much guaranteed, the Oracle and the Parthenon are good to have, too.

The ideal civic choice, in my opinion, is representation (for happyness and research, provided by pyramids), bureaucracy (+50% production and research, requires research civil service asap), free market (trade route income generally worths more than a free specialist), and orgnized religion or pacifism.

But first and foremost, keep a sizeful and high quality defensive force, and a reliable friend! Your neighbor will declare war on you sooner or later, simply because of your high cutural influence. You need a standing army to defend the first attack wave, and a friend to divert the agressor's following waves.

[solo]

Risa, I agree with your assessments, especially in regards for the need of a good defensive setup. I will be trying OCC on Monarch next and was wondering if you could provide a few more details and perhaps a save file of your successful Space Race game. Which civ did you play as? etc.

In my game, I had some stone nearby, so was able to beeline to Alphabet first and then trade for Masonry in time to link up the stone and build the Pyramids at a discount. For sure, I think the Pyramids are the best early wonder and should usually be obtainable with an Industrial civ, even when stone is not available. Nothings beats being able to switch to Representation so early in the game.

As for a Cultural victory being unavailable, this is probably just as well, since it is easy to obtain the 50,000 points needed in OCC. Perhaps a cultural win is availablein OCC, but at an undocumented higher level of 100,000 or perhaps even 150,000 points. I may try a quick game at the Settler level just to run up culture this high to see if it makes a difference.

[Tventano]

I just tried OCC once on noble with Elizabeth. The GP bonus is nice but I did not need the money.
I founded three religions and London consumed two neighbour cities (which were nicely auto destructed
Should have beelined for space victory, but started too late. With spies I could delay quite some production of some others, but two turns before the end I lost to a space victory.
The two other civs on my continent had my religion, and I kept friends with them, giving in everytime Catherine made a request, but that was after I built the Internet, so I had much more technologies than she.

Next time I will try with an industrious leader, should make a huge difference.

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by remconius
In OCC you can build more national wonders. Most things have been tuned to one city. Like theater requirements for wonder or university requirement for oxford.

What about the 3 temple requirement for a "Cathedral" type building?

And can you achieve "cultural victory"?

[solo]

One temple should be enough, but 50,000 cultural points does not get a Cultural Victory in OCC. Perhaps it's more or just not allowed for the human player in OCC.

[khumak]

Originally posted by solo
One temple should be enough, but 50,000 cultural points does not get a Cultural Victory in OCC. Perhaps it's more or just not allowed for the human player in OCC.

IIRC OCC still requires 3 cities with legendary culture for a cultural victory which obviously is impossible if you can only have 1 city. They should change it to 1 city with 150k culture or maybe 250k since you'll be pumping out so much more culture in an OCC game than normal.

[amicus curiae]

I think launch is only true OCC victory. I have been playing some on noble and winning pretty easily. It's all about getting some key early wonders for me. Especially great library, collossus, parthenon. This combined with a PHI civ can really produce great leaders quickly. I find that adding about 5 great leaders to your city early really pays off.

As far as other techs go, I try to beeline for civil service as soon as its practical. Beurocracy is the way to go for the entire game in a OCC. The other civic to go for early is pacifism. Those two can be used the entire game. I don't really go for founding religion, there is little benefit to it unless you can spread it early which I think is a waste in a OCC. Better off just using religion for diplomatic purposes. Once you build the Globe Theater you won't have any happiness problems anyways.