OCC strategy guide

[Paul]

People often ask about OCC strategy so I thought it might be a good idea to write a strategy guide. It includes the rules, strategy advice and you can download the three comparison games we had. BTW, Sten and Bird, I hope you don't mind that I put your games on my site? And there were only three comp games, right? If I forgot one please let me know.
http://home.planet.nl/~belt0018/occ.htm Please post comments and suggestions here.
[This message has been edited by Paul (edited October 12, 1999).]

[DaveV]

Paul,

A very well-written guide to the OCC. Thanks for sharing your techniques. One minor editing note - the first paragraph in section 2.4 contains the same sentence twice: "There is not much else to build at this time so you can build some food caravans for later disbanding purposes". I am assuming this wasn't done for emphasis.

[Bird]

Complete and to the point. Fine job, Paul.

Two comments. First, with respect to mining city squares, I think they fixed that in a patch for MGE, so it doesn't work in all versions (I found out the hard way in a MP game). I don't think it should be allowed. Was it voted upon?

Second, IMO, you should not blindly sell your granary b/c of the possibility that you will be left with an empty food box if the city grows naturally at some point. That's when pollution or AI units can cause pop losses. If the circumstances are right, you can certainly sell the granary, but I tend to wait until after the final growth spurt, while in democracy.

Also, I certainly have no objection to your use of my comp game.

[Paul]

Thank you Dave, I have edited it.

[Paul]

Bird, that was decided in the vote. However, the lack of trade resulting from building on a hill will not lead to a great result anyway so I never build on hills.

I don't consider the near empty food box to be such a big problem that it would be worth to keep paying maintenance for the granary.

[Smash]

This is very good!Is it copywritten?May I have the rights?

[War4ever]

this explains why my trade went down after i mined my city... ie my routes... i lost trade from the grassland sqaure when i transformed into a hill...... had me puzzled for a sec. BTW I finished my second 4whale game.... and landed in 1936 not great but not bad for a newbie.

I have a hard time keeping the ai happy... they are always hostile even in the beginning... any strategy on how to make them like me more??

Is it a good idea to send off a caravan even if no city wants it? I did anyways ;0

And regarding WLTKD and such.... i alway raise my lux as high as possible.... should i keep science @10% or should i put it to zero and my taxes just high enough to make money or should i lose some coins ?

[Bird]

War4: you should not be raising luxuries "as high as possible", but only as high as necessary to cause the celebration. All that extra happiness does you absolutely no good and could be used for science or gold. I tend to keep science as high as possible without breaking the bank, but that's subject to micromanaging the necessary beakers for the next discovery.

[valmont]

Paul, it's a great document. The outlines of research path and city improvement are excellent! I second Sieve Too's questions and add:

6) Do you ask tribute/gifts from every other tribe, and if so do you do it on the same turn?
7) At what levels do you set the tax rate? Do you always have the science rate maxed (except during WLTLD)?
8) Are there technologies you won't trade to the AI?
9) Do you establish embassies?
10) When the city reaches size 7 my settler has usually finished building roads and irrigation, so I have it join the city. Is this a good idea?

[War4ever]

So i played again and landed in 1926 so i shaved 10 yrs off my time. Paul how did you land so quickly... and how did you keep your alliance with the Chinese for so long????? Every time i ask for a gift i have to give something up or they cancell the alliance. I am having a difficult time with caravans as well.... they keep getting attacked by the greeks and indians..... i lost 8 caravans this game... i wonder how much time i would have saved had i managed to get them all to their destinations.

Does the rushby of units apply to improvements ie if i rush by a barracks then switch to marketplace is that cheaper than just rushbying the marketplace to begin with... and thanks for the rushby tip.... i am so embarrassed.... i had no idea that a warrior to phalanx to legion etc was cheaper...boy i feel dumb.

[Bird]

Rushbuying improvements does not work like units.

[Paul]

1. ST always, I try to also get the Bank because it allows a lower luxury rate to get WLTCD.

2. I sometimes build more if I have terrain that requires a lot of time improving, but I also try to delay Factory/Power Plant to allow the engineers to finish improving before they have to spend all their time cleaning.

3. Alpine Troops when I have nothing else to build.

4. No City Walls for me. I try to ally with all AI civs and set up defense on chokepoints in case they start making trouble.

5. I prefer ro make forests. They give one less shield but it takes a lot less time to build them and you don't have to mine them.

6. I ask from all tribes with attitudes uncooperative and better; usually all on the same turn. If they are icy or hostile they never seem to pay so no need to ask.

7. Any excess science from the city making the discovery is wasted, so in OCC that is all excess science. For that reason you should see if a lower science rate still gives the same number of turns and if changing a scientist to tax man will keep the same number of turns.

8. I won't trade Flight and the techs after that; other than that I don't have techs that I don't trade.

9. I never have time to build diplomats or Marco Polo so no embassies for me.

10. My settler is never finished when I get to size 7. Either you grow slower or you improve the land faster.

War4ever, I have heard some people saying that in the MP edition the AI civs are more hostile than in version 2.42; maybe that's causing your problems?

Smash, you may not have the rights. However, if you want to put it on your own website you may do so if you don't charge money for it, don't pretend that you wrote it and let me know about it.

[Smash]

Well ok dam

[Sieve Too]

Excellent strategy guide Paul!

A few questions:
1) Do you always have a Bank and Shakespeare's Theater before growing to size 21? How about trade routes?
2) Do you ever build more than 2 Engineers? I find that you need 2 just to keep up with pollution.
3) Which defensive units do you build and when?
4) Do you build City Walls? I always regret it if I don't because of potential population loss when attacked.
5) I find that I almost always need to transform some grass into hills in order to get to 80 shields. Do you generally do this too?

[Sieve Too]

Paul, you don't build any Diplomats either? I find that I always need one to act as the ultimate defense against attackers, bribery. Good for when the barbs land right next to your city.