AU302: One City - Strategy, Spoilers and Comments

[Harovan]

I founded the city one tile to the south, at the hill. Best position, imho. Has fresh water and access to enough tiles with a river for extra gold, lots of coast tiles for later cash (in times where production doesn't matter), and it is coastal (Harbor, Colossus!).

I started with the Colossus and a beeline first for Literature, then for the Republic. Secured the ivory by blocking it with units. Later the Indians gained it by culture and succeeded to sneak a city in, so I had only one ivory left, which I traded away for a while for 2 luxuries.

I built full infrastructure and twelve wonders. Kept up in tech till the late industrial age, then quickly fell behind. Didn't matter at all. After 3 hours it was over. Won in the 1830AD-ish by culture, with slightly over 1000 points (1061, IIRC). I played the AU mod version with PtW 1.21f as Babylon at Monarch. Should have played it at Emperor, that would have been more of a challenge. Oh well.

[Dominae]

Thanks for trying this one out Sir Ralph! Cultural victories are kind of silly with OCC, do you agree?


Dominae

[Konquest02]

BigD, to get alternate graphics, you need to replace the terrain files located in the "Art" folder in your Civ3 directory by the ones you want. I'm currently using Warpstorm's Watercolor Tileset. It's included with your PtW CD and you can find it in the scenarios folder. Don't forget to backup before doing modifications though!

--Kon--

[CerberusIV]

Well, I decided to give it another try. The attempt I lost was my first go at OCC so I guess I was still learning.

This time I was set on controlling the ivory and furs so I had something to trade. I was also determined to be a bit more aggressive and to get a GA.

Armed with foreknowledge of the map I chose the Japanese. Compared to the Babylonians you still get some cheap improvements but miss out on the free scientific techs but I was able to build samurai.

I went south to the coastal hill. A good option as I got Colossus and then still managed the Great Library. My second suicide galley reached the other continent so I turned off research and eventually amassed just over 3000 gold before the AI's got to education. Interestingly I got engineering, chivalry and invention from the GL this time which I did not in my previous attempt.

The Indians put a city on the ivory so I waited for chivalry, built 5 samurai and razed their city. My cultural border should allow me to keep the area (helped by outposts). The Koreans came in so I also razed one of their cities (which I had previously refused on a culture flip). That netted me 2 indian and 4 korean workers which cuts my unit costs. They may be slow but they are cheap.

My GA allowed me to build Leo's. I really wanted Copernicus but I was a few turns away when an AI completed Sistine and in the reshuffle all the GW's were snatched up.

It is now 1000AD and the AI's are ahead by banking and gunpowder (who needs musketmen when you have samurai anyway ). I should be able to catch up by trading printing press and switching to democracy.

I think this is going better but time will tell.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Dominae
Thanks for trying this one out Sir Ralph! Cultural victories are kind of silly with OCC, do you agree?


Dominae

I knew it was wrong to post a spoiler or to participate at all. Thank you very much for your valuable comment.

[badams52]

There was some discussion in another thread talking about how the AI's aggressiveness in terms of war and super powers on the continents seems to mimic those of human's. For the most part, I think this idea is completely unfounded and it would seem that Kon's game goes against that grain. All that was left are 2 super AIs and an unlucky human.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I knew it was wrong to post a spoiler or to participate at all. Thank you very much for your valuable comment.

No need to get nasty Sir Ralph (am I misinterpreting you again?): I was just pointing out a feeling I have toward Culuture OCC victories, and was wondering if you felt the same way after your game. What I was not trying to do was put down your attempt or choice in any way.

I'm actually quite astonished that Culture victories are so "easy" with only one city. All you basically need to do is keep the AI off your back for an extended period of time, and build a bunch of Wonders and improvements. It only gets "interesting" when one of the AIs starts pulling ahead, in which case you have to maneuver to ensure it does not win by Spaceship or Domination (as happened in CerburusIV's game, doh!).


Dominae

[Harovan]

Well, thanks for clarifying this, I think this time I was misinterpreting you. It was indeed pretty easy to win by culture, although I had to shell out lots of cash to buy Fission in order to build the UN in time (to hinder the AIs to win diplomatically). I gave the UN a shot (without preparation like alliances or gifts) and was astounded that there actually were four candidates! Wasn't three the maximum? Of course, since everybody voted for himself, there was no result.

Overall I remained lucky. The Romans killed the English, later the Celts conquered a big part of Rome, but nobody was nearly able to get enough for domination. The Indians and Koreans ended up to settle my continent, but both of them remained peaceful the whole game.

All I had to do is to build improvements, wonders and sometimes just weath.

[De Gaulle]

Thanks for setting up the game Dominae.
I had a quick question for you:
I noticed that the 2 civs in our hemisphere (Indians and Koreans) had low agressions factors compared with the other ones. Did you set it up this way so that we would have a better chance of surviving (knowing that the AI is incompetent at launching overseas invasions)?

[Dominae]

Originally posted by De Gaulle
I noticed that the 2 civs in our hemisphere (Indians and Koreans) had low agressions factors compared with the other ones. Did you set it up this way so that we would have a better chance of surviving (knowing that the AI is incompetent at launching overseas invasions)?

On the whole I picked the civs so as to make for an easier OCC game.

You're correct in pointing out that the two closest civs (India and either Korea or Iroquois) have low aggression ratings. If one of them ends up controlling their own home continent, you're the next best target, which means you're toast if one of those civs was, say, the Japanese or the Germans. I wanted to avoid such unpleasantries (since most people are trying OCC for the first time). It's just a matter of time before the home continent gets settled, so the AI's incompetence at overseas invastion does not really come into play here. Still, an interesting and successful strategy that players are using that I had not thought of is to employ military force to keep the island free of foreigners as long as possible (or at least keep them off the Luxuries).

Other factors that came into the AI civ choices were:

1. Number of Scientific opponents (only one, Korea, and only if playing the Play the World version).

2. Aggressiveness of opponents on the big continent, and their relative power. I expected the Romans and the Celts (or Zulus) to fight it out for most of the game, with no side really gaining much ground (due to their UUs). England was placed in the best position on that island (Corruption-wise), so that it could pull ahead yet still not be much of a threat because, well, England sort of sucks. Put together, I was hoping to create a situation where no major threats would come out of the big continent (either one Killer AI or 3 peacefully tech-trading ones) until much later in the game.

I'm still amazed at how, despite all this planning, people's games are very different.


Dominae

[Nor Me]

I'm surprised many people seem to have passed over the Lighthouse in favour of an early GL.

I'm plying on Emperor with the AU MOD. Seeing that I had 4 Commercial opponents, I chose the Ottomans. I sent the worker SW seeing the lake and the cow so my city was founded on the popular southern hill.

I started researching Iron Working hoping to trade but Dominae has evilly deprived us of an early trading partner and it was 2450BC before I met the Koreans. I was lucky to get Pottery from a hut (along with several barbs lest anyone accuse my always favourable results of being dishonestly etc.) allowing my highly interesting build order to be:
warrior x2, granary, worker, warrior x2, Colossus (completed in 1870BC).

Got contact with the Indians (who had Iron Working ), researched Mathematics and fought some barbarians. built barracks, sword, spear, temple, worker x2, sword, started Pyramids. The barbarians were of course annoying, meaning that I had to upgrade my warriors and spend 7gpt on units. I researched Construction in 40 turns and bought Map-making off the Indians. I switched to the Great Lighthouse which was built in 825BC and got contact in 670BC.

It's 310BC and I've just built the Great Library. I've not yet got any techs from it because no-one is ahead in tech. I've got Monotheism and am researching Theology at 40 turns with 700 in the bank but nobody has Monarchy or Republic.

Provided you are prepared to research useless techs and get contact with everyone early enough, you should be able to keep up in tech even on Emperor in the ancient age. Of course if people start demanding contact things might have to get ugly to preserve my intercontinental tech brokering position.

[Master Zen]

Well, now I am in the modern age circa 1800, and it appears the space race will soon begin.

My industrial age was pretty succesful, I went towards Medicine and Sanitation and traded it for Industrialization and Communism I think... I built a Factory, Iron Works, and Hospital. I also got Theory of Evolution and beelined towards Electricity since the AI usually goes towards Mass Production. It was a wise choice. I researched Espionage so I had 3 techs they didn't have and eventually traded. By the end however, Korea caught up and overtook me, reaching the modern age about 5 turns before I did (and I only got there by stealing Flight )

Something worries me though, England is about to get wiped out by Rome which will leave only me, Korea and Rome. However, it seems that Rome has stopped doing research whereas Korea is getting those techs at an impressive speed which I cannot hope to match. they are probably about 2 techs ahead of me. I also don't think I will be able to get the necessary $$ to keep stealing techs from them.

So I think I'm going to try and get an alliance with Korea against Rome, if they start duking it out perhaps Korea will stop its research and I can catch up.

Anyway, I have some $$ right now so I will try and steal Space from them, build the Apollo and start the space race, and get them to declare war on Rome. Let's see how it works. If not, I'll have to restart and try for a cultural victory

wish me luck...

[Wizard55]

Humbling Experience

AU302-Mod-, Emperor Level , Persians

Since this was my first time at OCC I didn't keep a log. I just wanted to get into the game to see what was what!!

I started out by moving 1 tile to the West. I made another worker and 3 Spearman. I had one worker improving all the tiles around the city and the other worker built roads for the furs and Ivory.

I wanted to straight for the GL. On the way I got the Pyramids and Oracle. However I lost the GL to England
with only 2 turns to go. Since I knew I could not win the Space Race without the GL I went for IW. Once I got IW , I built 12 Immortals to secure the Ivory and Dyes in my little world.

India and Korea tried settling around me but I killed off all their attempts with my Immortals. I was able to get a bunch of Techs in our Peace treaties. This brought me to within one Tech of eveyone else. However because of my bad cash flow and not being able to trade with everyone I soon fell way behind in the Tech Race. It was only a matter of time until defeat.

However I kept playing to see how far I could go. I made it to 1560 AD when England,Korea,Indians and Celts declared war on me. GAME OVER!!!!

I think I will start again on Monarch and keep a log this time.
It was find of fun. I will attempt to put up an image of my last stand. I'm new to this also.

Thanks for listening

[Wizard55]

Here's my last Stand

[Dominae]

Re: Humbling Experience

Originally posted by Wizard55
I wanted to straight for the GL. On the way I got the Pyramids and Oracle. However I lost the GL to England

Try timing your Great Library more carefully using either the Pyramids or the Oracle (Pyramids is better) as a "Shield-holder". Once you get Literature, you all your accumulated Shields just transfer over to the Great Library (sorry if you about prebuilding already and just missed it this time around). If you plan well enough in advance, you should be able to get most Wonders you want before the AI (which does not do this sort of planning). The Great Library is important enough in OCC that you should be thinking about securing it almost from turn 1.

Good luck in your second attempt!


Dominae