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I have been playing a lot of OCC (OCC for those who do not know, stands for One City Challenge, a style of playing Civ games where the human player is only allowed to have one city) games and am trying to develop a good strategy for obtaining Space Race wins at the higher difficulty levels.
Obtaining a win on Noble was fairly easy, on Prince it was a decent challenge, but when I moved up to the Monarch level things became really tough, and it took 8 attempts (using various starts and strategies) until I was just able to manage my first Monarch level win.
If other players are spending time on OCC games at the higher difficulty levels and would like to share their ideas and suggestions here, it would be appreciated.
Perhaps we could even play a few comparison games, each of us using the same start, and then share results and insights after our games are completed.
First, I’ll list a few ground rules I have adopted for my own games so far when making selections from the Custom Game Setup screen:
1) The Civ and leader chosen are optional.
2) The default number of random AI opponents is used.
3) The type of map used is optional. I have tried several different types in my games so far, seeing advantages and disadvantages with each kind used.
4) I have been using the Standard game speed.
5) The only option I have been selecting in the next section is OCC (One City Challenge).
6) Although I have been playing for a Space Race win myself, all other victory options have been left open as options for the AI opponents. (However, with the changes to latter tech costs and space ship parts in the first patch, I might turn off the time limit in future games).
By listing these, I am not saying they are necessary, but am just letting other players know under what options and conditions I have been playing my own OCC games.
OCC at the higher levels has presented a number of interesting challenges, and I’ll list some of them along with my best solutions found so far:
1) Choosing the best Civ and leader for the task.
I have had my best results so far using Qin Shi Huang (Industrious & Financial) of the Chinese. Industrious has consistently allowed me to finish the Pyramids first and in my last few games it has also allowed me to beat the AI to the Great Lighthouse. The Financial trait adds many extra commerce, which I feel is required in order to research quickly enough.
I have also tried Bismarck (Industrious & Expansive) of the Germans, because without Expansive I was having health problems and thought the extra +2 health would come in handy. However, when playing as Bismarck, my commerce suffered and I fell behind the AI in research.
2) Avoiding conflict with the AI and minimizing damage when they do attack.
At higher levels I think going on the offensive to subdue the AI is not an option. With their higher production and with more cities to pump out military units, the AI have a significant advantage.
Also, the Civ IV AI will not hesitate to attack a poorly defended city. In every game where I have skimped on city defense, I have been attacked and eliminated, even by AI normally considered to be peaceful. Their attitude (+ or -) doesn’t seem to make much difference when they attack for this reason.
However, during the first phase of the game, when the AI are building settlers and establishing their first few cities, I’ve found AI attacks are rare, so there is a window of opportunity to develop my own city quite a bit before pumping out a lot of good defenders. Times when I have been attacked early have been by close neighbors such as Napolean, Tokugawa and the Mongolians, AI leaders with a reputation for attacking early.
On continent maps, I’ve had success by becoming friendly with my closest neighbor and then joining him or her when they go to war or are attacked. Their borders act as a good buffer and afterwards they seem to remain a loyal friend.
I’ve also had success in deterring attacks by fortifying military units in each vulnerable tile (sea and land), and by building and manning forts along my borders.
Careful diplomacy makes a difference, too, but appeasement doesn’t seem to work (in this way Civ IV is much different than Civ II). I’ve found it best to refuse tribute when it is demanded. Then, instead of exiting the diplomacy screen, I’ll sell them an old tech if one is available, set up a commodity trade if one can be made, or as a last resort, make a gift of 10 gold. So far, refusing a demand has not immediately led to a declaration of war (again, much unlike Civ II, where war then became inevitable).
So far I’ve found that if I have a strong defense, I can pretty much ignore the diplomacy plusses and minuses, as long as each diplomacy sessions ends with the AI coming away with something, even if it’s only a small gift of gold.
In my successful Monarch game, Catherine of Russia became the dominant AI player and soon my minuses with her were ahead of the plusses (I think this becomes inevitable with Catheine!), but I kept trading with her enemies anyways and treated her demands as described above. She was in a few other wars, but never attacked me.
I’ve found that I want aggressive types such as Catherine in my OCC games, because if things remain too peaceful, one of the AI is most likely to outresearch me and build a spaceship before I even have a chance to compete. I want them to fight a lot, but only with each other.
3) Finding the best way to maximize research
I like coastal sites best for many reasons. One is that coastal specials, such as fish, offer more food as well as the extra commerce that land based food specials lack. A coastal site with 2 or more special resources makes it a prime candidate for an OCC game. With the addition of a Lighthouse, and then the Great Lighthouse wonder, commerce will take a jump because of those extra early trade routes. Then, researching quickly to Compass provides a Harbor, which boosts commerce again as well as adding extra health from the coastal resources. It is mainly for these reasons that I now prefer Archipelago maps, when trying to beat the AI at higher levels.
The other factor in maximizing research is to grow as quickly as possible and to make Drama (reached through Writing & Alphabet) an early priority so the Globe Theater can be built. Building the Pyramids as the first wonder allows rapid growth to size 8, and if a Great Engineer is produced as the first Great Person(very likely), he might be used later to rush buy the Great Library. In my successful game on Monarch, I was able to build the Pyramids and Great Lighthouse, but the first Great Person was a Merchant, so I missed out on the Great Library. However, I think the Great Lighthouse helps early research more with those extra early trade routes and I prefer it to the Great Library if I have to choose between the two.
Later in the game, it’s just a beeline to Education and the following techs that boost research such as Astronomy and Computers. I got a good tech lead in my game and used it to trade for older techs, getting them at bargain rates, when they were finally needed to continue to Rocketry. It was during the middle part of the game that I was able to build a very solid defense, which was successful in dissuading AI attacks throughout the rest of the game.
4) The problem of health in OCC
Although the Globe Theater takes care of happiness in OCC games, health is another matter. In games with more than one city, many health enhancing resources can be found or traded for, and the health benefits are shared by all cities, but in OCC one has fewer resources and this means lower health production. It takes a long time to research to the best health enhancing techs and city improvements, such as hospitals. In addition, if techs such as Genetics are researched early for their extra health, then time will be wasted that could have been used rushing to Rocketry and getting a quick start on the Space Race. I had a serious health deficit during most of my game, and when hammers became a priority later to build SS parts quickly, health took another hit from the hammer enhancing city improvements.
I think the best way to deal with the health deficit is to choose a city site that can produce a lot of extra food. I would say that at least 3 food resources are needed to produce enough food to grow quickly enough to full size while feeding the extra mouths requiring more health.
5) Finally, the Space Ship must be built quickly
If the human player does not get a jump on the AI in spaceship construction, the race will be lost because with only one city, only one SS part can be built at a time. So Rocketry must be researched as soon as possible, even though it might be tempting to go to Industrialism first to look for Aluminum or to Genetics for some relief in health.
However, the Space Elevator Wonder provides such a good boost to SS part construction, making Robotics a priority may pay off. Beware though, because this depends on your city’s location on the map. Although poorly documented, one requirement for a city to build the Space Elevator is that it be located close enough to the Equator (30 degrees north or south). I did not know this when playing my game and had saved up two Great Engineers to rush the wonder only to arrive at Robotics and find that the Elevator could not be built. I managed without it, but had my city been closer to the Equator, I would have been able to finish my space ship sooner than I actually did.
This post is rather too long already, so I will conclude by noting that the attached zip file contains the start I used for this game as well as my final turn. It’s a good start for a Monarch OCC game, so other players may want to try it and see how they can do with it. My game was completed before the first patch was distributed, so my SS win will be delayed a few turns if you load the final save and run under version 1.09, where SS parts cost more hammers.
Obtaining a win on Noble was fairly easy, on Prince it was a decent challenge, but when I moved up to the Monarch level things became really tough, and it took 8 attempts (using various starts and strategies) until I was just able to manage my first Monarch level win.
If other players are spending time on OCC games at the higher difficulty levels and would like to share their ideas and suggestions here, it would be appreciated.
Perhaps we could even play a few comparison games, each of us using the same start, and then share results and insights after our games are completed.
First, I’ll list a few ground rules I have adopted for my own games so far when making selections from the Custom Game Setup screen:
1) The Civ and leader chosen are optional.
2) The default number of random AI opponents is used.
3) The type of map used is optional. I have tried several different types in my games so far, seeing advantages and disadvantages with each kind used.
4) I have been using the Standard game speed.
5) The only option I have been selecting in the next section is OCC (One City Challenge).
6) Although I have been playing for a Space Race win myself, all other victory options have been left open as options for the AI opponents. (However, with the changes to latter tech costs and space ship parts in the first patch, I might turn off the time limit in future games).
By listing these, I am not saying they are necessary, but am just letting other players know under what options and conditions I have been playing my own OCC games.
OCC at the higher levels has presented a number of interesting challenges, and I’ll list some of them along with my best solutions found so far:
1) Choosing the best Civ and leader for the task.
I have had my best results so far using Qin Shi Huang (Industrious & Financial) of the Chinese. Industrious has consistently allowed me to finish the Pyramids first and in my last few games it has also allowed me to beat the AI to the Great Lighthouse. The Financial trait adds many extra commerce, which I feel is required in order to research quickly enough.
I have also tried Bismarck (Industrious & Expansive) of the Germans, because without Expansive I was having health problems and thought the extra +2 health would come in handy. However, when playing as Bismarck, my commerce suffered and I fell behind the AI in research.
2) Avoiding conflict with the AI and minimizing damage when they do attack.
At higher levels I think going on the offensive to subdue the AI is not an option. With their higher production and with more cities to pump out military units, the AI have a significant advantage.
Also, the Civ IV AI will not hesitate to attack a poorly defended city. In every game where I have skimped on city defense, I have been attacked and eliminated, even by AI normally considered to be peaceful. Their attitude (+ or -) doesn’t seem to make much difference when they attack for this reason.
However, during the first phase of the game, when the AI are building settlers and establishing their first few cities, I’ve found AI attacks are rare, so there is a window of opportunity to develop my own city quite a bit before pumping out a lot of good defenders. Times when I have been attacked early have been by close neighbors such as Napolean, Tokugawa and the Mongolians, AI leaders with a reputation for attacking early.
On continent maps, I’ve had success by becoming friendly with my closest neighbor and then joining him or her when they go to war or are attacked. Their borders act as a good buffer and afterwards they seem to remain a loyal friend.
I’ve also had success in deterring attacks by fortifying military units in each vulnerable tile (sea and land), and by building and manning forts along my borders.
Careful diplomacy makes a difference, too, but appeasement doesn’t seem to work (in this way Civ IV is much different than Civ II). I’ve found it best to refuse tribute when it is demanded. Then, instead of exiting the diplomacy screen, I’ll sell them an old tech if one is available, set up a commodity trade if one can be made, or as a last resort, make a gift of 10 gold. So far, refusing a demand has not immediately led to a declaration of war (again, much unlike Civ II, where war then became inevitable).
So far I’ve found that if I have a strong defense, I can pretty much ignore the diplomacy plusses and minuses, as long as each diplomacy sessions ends with the AI coming away with something, even if it’s only a small gift of gold.
In my successful Monarch game, Catherine of Russia became the dominant AI player and soon my minuses with her were ahead of the plusses (I think this becomes inevitable with Catheine!), but I kept trading with her enemies anyways and treated her demands as described above. She was in a few other wars, but never attacked me.
I’ve found that I want aggressive types such as Catherine in my OCC games, because if things remain too peaceful, one of the AI is most likely to outresearch me and build a spaceship before I even have a chance to compete. I want them to fight a lot, but only with each other.
3) Finding the best way to maximize research
I like coastal sites best for many reasons. One is that coastal specials, such as fish, offer more food as well as the extra commerce that land based food specials lack. A coastal site with 2 or more special resources makes it a prime candidate for an OCC game. With the addition of a Lighthouse, and then the Great Lighthouse wonder, commerce will take a jump because of those extra early trade routes. Then, researching quickly to Compass provides a Harbor, which boosts commerce again as well as adding extra health from the coastal resources. It is mainly for these reasons that I now prefer Archipelago maps, when trying to beat the AI at higher levels.
The other factor in maximizing research is to grow as quickly as possible and to make Drama (reached through Writing & Alphabet) an early priority so the Globe Theater can be built. Building the Pyramids as the first wonder allows rapid growth to size 8, and if a Great Engineer is produced as the first Great Person(very likely), he might be used later to rush buy the Great Library. In my successful game on Monarch, I was able to build the Pyramids and Great Lighthouse, but the first Great Person was a Merchant, so I missed out on the Great Library. However, I think the Great Lighthouse helps early research more with those extra early trade routes and I prefer it to the Great Library if I have to choose between the two.
Later in the game, it’s just a beeline to Education and the following techs that boost research such as Astronomy and Computers. I got a good tech lead in my game and used it to trade for older techs, getting them at bargain rates, when they were finally needed to continue to Rocketry. It was during the middle part of the game that I was able to build a very solid defense, which was successful in dissuading AI attacks throughout the rest of the game.
4) The problem of health in OCC
Although the Globe Theater takes care of happiness in OCC games, health is another matter. In games with more than one city, many health enhancing resources can be found or traded for, and the health benefits are shared by all cities, but in OCC one has fewer resources and this means lower health production. It takes a long time to research to the best health enhancing techs and city improvements, such as hospitals. In addition, if techs such as Genetics are researched early for their extra health, then time will be wasted that could have been used rushing to Rocketry and getting a quick start on the Space Race. I had a serious health deficit during most of my game, and when hammers became a priority later to build SS parts quickly, health took another hit from the hammer enhancing city improvements.
I think the best way to deal with the health deficit is to choose a city site that can produce a lot of extra food. I would say that at least 3 food resources are needed to produce enough food to grow quickly enough to full size while feeding the extra mouths requiring more health.
5) Finally, the Space Ship must be built quickly
If the human player does not get a jump on the AI in spaceship construction, the race will be lost because with only one city, only one SS part can be built at a time. So Rocketry must be researched as soon as possible, even though it might be tempting to go to Industrialism first to look for Aluminum or to Genetics for some relief in health.
However, the Space Elevator Wonder provides such a good boost to SS part construction, making Robotics a priority may pay off. Beware though, because this depends on your city’s location on the map. Although poorly documented, one requirement for a city to build the Space Elevator is that it be located close enough to the Equator (30 degrees north or south). I did not know this when playing my game and had saved up two Great Engineers to rush the wonder only to arrive at Robotics and find that the Elevator could not be built. I managed without it, but had my city been closer to the Equator, I would have been able to finish my space ship sooner than I actually did.
This post is rather too long already, so I will conclude by noting that the attached zip file contains the start I used for this game as well as my final turn. It’s a good start for a Monarch OCC game, so other players may want to try it and see how they can do with it. My game was completed before the first patch was distributed, so my SS win will be delayed a few turns if you load the final save and run under version 1.09, where SS parts cost more hammers.
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