OCC (One City Challenge) at Monarch and above

[solo]

It wasn't pretty near the end, but I finally managed to squeak out a win at Immortal without an Industrious leader. I played this one as Saladin, and he got me two religions.

This meant a win without getting the Pyramids, since there was no way I could have built it first and still build the Oracle, too.

Two wars in the 1900's with Montezuma almost did me in early, since I had no oil to build any good ships to counter his.

Twice my city was starved down in size until I could make peace and put out new work boats to get the food back in balance.

The second war was right near the very end, and had me down to size 5 after it was over, so my SS was delayed a bit, and I did not finish it until 2048, just two years under the time limit!

This game the Internet worked like a charm. I was also first to Fusion, which gave me enough breathing room to get my ship completed first.

I was very stingy with techs this game, only making trades when I thought my tradeable tech was about to be discovered anyways. Many techs can be skipped on the way to Computers, and after that I made a few trades to hasten the beeline to Rocketry, but for everything else I depended on the Internet.

I had Coal and Copper in my radius and was able to rent Aluminum from Montezuma in between our two wars. I couldn't get a hold of any Iron, but had just enough resources to win a close one.

Below is the usual zip file:

[Diadem]

Wow!

You have only 4 military units. You are at -4 with Monty, -11 with Isabella and -8 with Kublai Khan. Why the hell are you not dead?

I'm impressed.

[Brinoch]

On the last turn of the game, I managed to win a Space Race victory on Monarch, using the Chinese on an archipelago world. It was very close between myself and Saladin. Thankfully, he was dumb and gave me aluminim for 33gp per turn. I had fish, clams (2), pigs, dye (3), spices (3), sugar, oil, stone, and uranium within my legendary borders. The fat cross had clams (2), stone, dye, and spices (2).

Once I grabbed the tech lead, I never looked back. Beelining for Rocketry and building Apollo ASAP is critical.

Also, the power of your GL specialists is incredible. Well worth using them to augment your cities. I think I generated half a dozen GP's that went right into the city, plus the GS Academy, and assorted GA, GM's etc.

As for Wonders, I built the Pyramids, Oracle, Parthenon, Great Lighthouse, Great Library, Chichen Itza, The Hanging Gardens, and Angkor Wat. Plus the usual National Epic, Globe Theatre, Hermitage, and Oxford University. I didn't have the time to build Wall Street, and my health was very bad so I didn't build the Ironworks.

[solo]

Diadem,

I had more units before that last war!

Montezuma almost did wipe me out, and you're seeing what's left after 10 years of war with his modern weapons.

I don't pay much attention to the (+,-) stuff anymore, since I've often been attacked by AI who were liking me at over +4. It's no surprise to me then, that I can really annoy some of them and not provoke an attack.

Nice game, Brinoch! You might want to post a save of your start, so it can be added to our collection of good ones.

[Merzbow]

I did much better my last game (still Prince), but still lost in the 1990s due to Capac launching. I was 10 turns away from launching. I've found out that playing on huge vs. standard Pangaea makes a big difference on when the AI launches - this loss was on huge, but in all my previous standard games time always ran out before the AI launched, so I would have won.

I beelined to the Internet this time, and by crazy use of scientist specialists had my city at 700+ bpt at the end. Around 1985 I was on future tech.

Assuming the AI is going to launch anytime from 1950 onward though, I have to take my game even further up.

Mistakes this game: Picked Nationalism as my free Liberalism tech instead of Astronomy - didn't have the prereqs for Astronomy. A waste. Missed Great Library.

Probably the biggest mistake was not taking the 7 turns to build Scotland Yard and 4 spies. I had TONS of gold this game due to religion, 12000+ near the end. I could have easily sabatoged Capac in many ways.

Other than that I can't see much more that I did wrong.

[Merzbow]

Montezuma is easy to control. I've found out that an AI will NEVER attack you as long as he's at war with somebody else. So befriend the aggressive civs and bribe them to be at war with OTHER civs the entire game. War them against Mansu Musa especially.

[solo]

Montezuma is an infernal pest!

He's always interrupting my turns making unreasonable demands. Often twice a turn. Lately, I find myself yelling at the screen "Go away!" whenever his face appears again.

It's almost a relief when he attacks, since then I know he won't be bugging me for at least 10 turns!

[Diadem]

Indeed. It is really annoying when they start whining about stuff the moment you have it.

I hook up a second pig resource, and the very turn it's connected they AI demands to get it. The worst part is that that particular AI had 4 cow resources, for which I'd have been happy to trade. But no, he must demand it. Stupid.

The very turn I research Alphabet they are often demanding stuff already. Damn you! Cut me some slack! Give me at least a turn to do something with it before you start whining about getting those techs for free!

[khearn]

Yeah, there are times when I want an answering machine.

"Hi, I'm King Joe Isuzu, and this is my answering machine. I can't come to the phone right now, but leave a message telling your unreasonable demand or desperately needed gift, and I'll get right back to you. You have my word on it."

[inca911]

I played a Noble level OCC game last night. I completed the ship parts in 2066, one part ahead of Qui. Is it normal for time to run out at Noble? The rest of the game went well. This was not a true OCC selected game. Do culture flips happen if you pick OCC in setup? Does the AI city auto-raze instead of culture flip?

Thanks for the info!

[solo]

Culture flips cause the city to be razed in OCC if you set up the game as OCC using the Custom menu. Also, there is no limit on National Wonders with that option. It is not usual for time to run out in OCC games, though SS completions typically occur after 2000 AD.

[inca911]

So do you think Noble is especially slower than higher difficulty levels? This was my first cIV OCC game and I was suprised by the late finish.

[Brinoch]

Originally posted by inca911
So do you think Noble is especially slower than higher difficulty levels? This was my first cIV OCC game and I was suprised by the late finish.

Noble's going to be at least a little slower than Monarch, but probably not that much slower. There's any number of things that could slow down both your research, as well as your production. As with anything else, much is dependent on what is within your city's fat cross. Additionally, a lot of wars could easily slow things down, research-wise, as could widely separated civs with no contact until caravels.

[ToeTruck]

Finally got it done at Emperor

Well...it took a while, but I finally pulled off an OCC win at Emperor. It was on an Archipelago map with Bismarck as my leader. Nip and tuck at the end, but I completed the Stasis Chamber a couple of turns before the Inca.

My various experiments and near misses make me believe that the game is won or loss in the diplomacy screen and through aggressive management of great people.

Having key wonder building resources are also helpful like (copper and aluminum) but even they can be bought on the open market if you manage your relations well.

I've gone back and forth regarding which is more important health or happiness. I've found that the health penalty (-1 food) is not so bad compared to the "striking citizen" penalty of being unhappy. Lots of fun balancing those concerns.

Hammerwise, I ended up at about 250 with bonuses when fully working my hills, but I often switched back and forth between "research" mode and "build" mode.

I'll post a start position when I can find it.

Now, I think I'll try a non-industrious civ...

Good luck everyone!

- TT

[Diadem]

The speed of research is map dependant. Some maps are better suited for fast teching than others.

Also difficulty level has an effect. If the AI is weaker it researches slower, and you'll trade less techs with them, causing your own research to slow as well.

But speed doesn't matter, it's your speed relative to the AI that matters. Solo wins in 2004, being just 2 parts ahead of the AI. On another map I win in 1944 with only a 1 part lead. That's a huge difference, mainly due to the fact that he plays on archipello maps while I play on Great Plains maps.