Oldman's OCC Lectures!!!

[Oldman]

This follows the occ6 thread where Tom and Scouse are giving me well needed advice!!! i didn't want to clutter up the occ6 thread, i think i was getting more on to occ8??
Anyway...

Cheers for the advice about not building marco's!! i abandonded it yesterday and managed to build the observatory in 200ad (i'm on occ8 by the way!!) Do you guys have any advice for the next 400/500 years of play? i'm almost done researching medicine, but have no caravans left to complete the theatre asap!! and shortly i'll have researched theory of gravity (newtons!), i need an aquaduct, and a settler to modify the land (i added the last one to my city!) and i need more money!!! how do you guys approach this epoch (???rennaisance???) ?
cheers
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Oldman (edited May 05, 2000).]</font>

[Tom DeMille]

First off, don't add the settler to your city until you've finished improving your land. Oops, too late Remember that tip for next game then. Actually, you might want to build a settler at this point to keep improving your land. Depends on how close you can get to size 21 with your curretn set of improvements.

If you haven't changed to Republic, do so now (or research towards that goal).

If you don't have three trade routes established, do so now.

Build a colosseum, and the aqueduct, and celebrate WLTCD up to size 12. If you don't have enough food squares available to do this, research seafaring and build a harbour.
When you are size 12, you will find you still need to keep luxuries at 10-20%.

Your next goal is to build Shakespeare's Theatre. This is the part of the game that often drags a bit, as you have just spent most of your money/food caravans to build Copernicus. So don't don't be discouraged by taking 15-20 turns to get Shakespeare's Theatre. Yuo should be researching sanitation at this time too.

When you have Shakespeare's Theatre, sell your colosseum and temple, and build the sewer system. Crank up the luxuries to 30-40%, and celebrate WLTCD up to size 21 (if possible).

At this point, you will be advancing every 3-4 turns, and are well on your way to a successful game. Be sure to give all your science to the AIs, or the research rate will begin to drag.

edit: Don't build Isaac Newton's College before Shakespeare's Theatre. Getting up to size 21 quickly is much more important (and you need shakespeare's to do that. You will find otherwise that WLTCDs only get you to size 13 with a temple and colosseum, no matter what you set luxuries to.
[This message has been edited by Tom DeMille (edited May 05, 2000).]

[Oldman]

It's all very well saying build a colleseum, settler and aquaduct. But you're looking at minimum 6 turns and a bucket load of cash, which i'll need for the theatre!! and with the other civs on my tail tech wise, how am i supposed to get all those and beat them to the theatre and college after that, 'cause the college will be available well before i can finish the theatre!! Head ****!!!!

I actually think it was a good move to add my settler at that point, cause it allowed me to make use of more of the special squares early on. If i hadn't i'd have had to have just the whale, but i had the whale and gold. Though i will bear it in mind for my next game - like you say it's too late now, Doh!!!

[Tom DeMille]

In truth, the colosseum and aqueduct should be built before Copernicus. Growing to size 12 will give you more production. This will enable you to get other goodies like Copernicus and Shakeapeare's Theatre that much more quickly.

This is the most frustrating time of the game, because you will have so many things you can build at once. Take a deep breath, reread Paul's strategy guide, and then follow his advice on the order of building:

library
marketplace
3 caravans
temple
colosseum
aqueduct
harbour
(get Republic and grow to size 12)
Copernicus
Shakespeare's Theatre
Sewer System (grow to size 21)
University
Bank
Isaac Newton
etc.

The above order might vary according to circumstance (and might not be exactly the order Paul suggests), but not by much.

And don't worry too much about the AI beating you to the Wonders. Only once in an OCC game has the AI beat me to a wonder - that was in fortnight 7, when the city was ... shall we say not ideal.

[Oldman]

Cheers tom, I can see this one slipping out of my grasp somehow!!!! I'm going to be a couple of hundred years behind you by the time i get to newtons!!!! i turned republic the same year as you actually, but i think i need to work on the mid-section of my game!! I'll give it a good bashing over the weekend anyway, maybe i'll be able to get a mid 1800's landing.

Have a good weekend fellas!! happy civ-ing!!