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Hi all,
After sucessfully completing my first OCC game with 1.29f, I figured I'd try to revitalize this great way to play Civ3 in the community. I know there's been some OCC discussion before, bit I've found that the OCC "literature" here on 'Poly to be lacking. I'm going to begin with some OCC basics and such, then give some strategies that helped me win. Feel free to join in!
1. What is OCC?
OCC stands for One City Challenge. It's simply a different way to play Civ3. As the name implies, you can only ever have one city in your glorious empire. The challenge is that you need to beat the AI with this severe handicap, preferably by launching a Spaceship.
2. Why should I play OCC?
First, OCC is great fun. Whether you actually win or not, knowing that you're remaining competitive with just one city is exhilarating. Second, you learn quite a bit about the Civ3 game mechanics. Among other things, you'll perfect your trading techniques and your city management. Ever wonder how the Luxury slider can be your friend? OCC is a great way to figure it out. Third, recognition. Being able to beat an OCC game is certainly a feat, and players (I think) respect that. Fourth, OCC games last about 3-4 hours, which means you can play a whole game in one sitting.
3. Why should I not play OCC?
If you don't like the idea "breaking" the game in any way, this is not the game type for you. I used to dislike OCC in Civ2 because I figured it meant that the normal game wouldn't never again pose any challenge. This was true in Civ2, but I don't think carries over to Civ3; OCC games are very specialized (small maps, great starts, see below), and I doubt anyone will ever routinely beat Civ3 with OCC on any given map. However, just as some people don't like close city-spacing (like me), some people don't like the feel of "weird" Civ3.
Also, if you don't like micromanagement, OCC is not for you. Just some (most) periods of the game, you need to check your city view every turn, and contact every rival civ every turn as well. If this repition gets you angry in the normal game, it sure will in OCC.
Finally, don't play OCC if Civ3 for you is all about warmongering. In the entire game, you'll never build an offensive unit and only handful of defensive units, so don't count on the thrill of conquest or generating GLs, it just won't happen.
4. Setup for OCC.
First, OCC games are best played on tiny or small maps. The larger the map size, the more cities the AI will have, meaning higher beaker output. Since OCC is all about research, this is bad for you. For this reason, the difficulty of any OCC game should primarily be measured (I believe) with respect to the map size. My hat is off to anyone who wins an OCC game on a Huge map (I would love to see your game log!).
Second, you need a great start. Map size being the main factor in OCC difficulty, starting location is certain a close second. Ideally, you're looking for these characteristics in your starting location:
a. Next to freshwater (rivers or lakes). This is simply so that you don't have to build Aqueducts, although the trade bonus of rivers is not to be discounted.
b. Coastal access. Although this one is optional, not being able to build the Colossus is a huge disadvantage.
c. Few "bad terrain" tiles. Any excess of Jungle, Tundra, Desert, etc. is simply bad. Remember, you only have one city, so all your tiles will need to be worked eventually. If you have too many Tundra tiles, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
d. A good mix of food and production tiles. This is obvious from the normal game.
e. Some bonus resources. Not necessary, but having a couple of Cows is certainly a good thing.
f. At least one Luxury resource. Again, not necessary, but early on Luxuries are simply amazing.
If you fire up your OCC game and don't get a starting position that has most of these characteristics, don't be afraid to restart. Multiple restarts are a part of OCC. Since you're stuck with the same city-site throughout the game, a bad start is a virtually guaranteed loss. Might as well give yourself a chance.
Third, I usually either turn off Barbarians or make then sedentary. You simply don't have the time to chase Barbs around the map.
Lastly, I usually turn off all win conditions other than Conquest and Spaceship. Playing with Domination can be exciting but also frustrating because you have very little power in preventing an AI civ from grabbing all the landmass (especially the Germans). Make sure to turn off Culture and Diplomatic, the former because it's actually really easy to win Culturally and the latter because it's just not in the spirit of OCC.
5. Picking the right OCC civ.
Apart from the Greeks, a civ's UU is largely irrelevent in OCC, so picking a civ is a matter of choosing a good combination of traits. I would say that Scientific is essential because of the free tech at every age; techs in a new age are usually very expensive, and you can get some pretty good gpt deals with your free tech. However, I've seen players win without the benefits of Scientific. Commercial is my second pick because Marketplaces work nicely with Luxuries. One could argue that Religious is very good, but I've found that happiness improvements aren't that useful (counter-intuitive, I know), and that Anarchy is never long when your civ consists of only one city. Industrious is also a ok option, although non-industrious Workers seem to keep up with city growth just fine. The other traits are basically useless.
Given this discussion, your best bets civ-wise are: Greeks, Babylonians, Persians. Other civs are definitely viable, but make the game more difficult.
Also not that Wonders and GAs should be taken into account when selecting a civ. For instance, the Greeks will trigger their Golden Age if they build both the Colossus and the Great Library.
6. Wonder choices.
Early on, the Colossus is a great Wonder that will server you well well into the Industrial age (my civ choice preference is the Greeks because they can build the Colossus immediately). However, the early-game should focus around building the Great Library. The GL is so essential to success in OCC that I usually quit if I can't get it. Given this, it is very important that you go out there and discover other civs. Sometimes this is easy and they will come to you, but in other games you might need to research Map Making yourself and go exploring. Once you build the GL, you shouldn't research at all anymore until it becomes obsolete (I'm sure this is conventional Civ-wisdom though). A trick I like to use is to pre-build the GL with the Colossus, and then go back and build the Colossus anyway. The AI often overlooks the Colossus, so don't worry about losing it. Other early wonders that are worth it if you can spare the time are the Hanging Gardens and The Great Lighthouse (if you're all alone).
After the Ancient times, you should focus on the Science Wonders: Copernicus' Observatory, Newton's University, Theory of Evolution and (optionally) The SETI Program. Constructing all of these will actually make you competitive in science, with just one city! The Sistine Chapel sounds great theoretically, but importing Luxuries is good enough to keep all your citizens happy, and grabbing the Sistine Chapel means that you could potentially lose Copernicus'. Shakespeare's Theater is great if you can get it, but the AI seems to prioritize it. The Theory of Evolution is a no-brainer: grab it at all costs. Do not neglect to build the Intelligence Agency, as espionage missions (tech-stealing primarily) are very good in OCC.
Once you reach the Modern age, there is no real Wonder that is worth your attention other than the Apollo Program and the SS components. Researching Computers and going for SETI sounds like a good idea, but you really want to be focusing on the SS components right away.
7. Tech-trading and diplomacy.
Basically your main goal until the Modern age is to keep up in tech at any cost. This means that you will need to sell of any and all techs you do have to every civ for (hopefully) some generous gpt deals. All civs should be Polite with you throughout the game so this shouldn't be a problem. Even if you do get a tech lead (most probably through the Theory of Evolution), sell off those techs. The more money you keep out of the AI civ's pockets, the more chances you have of keeping up.
No matter how good your one city is, the AI would always outresearch you, so you need to be prepared for this. Check every turn which civs have which techs, and act as the broker: you should always be the one selling techs to other civs, even if the price seems low. Sometimes you can't prevent them from sharing some techs during their turns, however. Eventually you should be able to set Science to 100% (or slightly lower if you're using the Luxury slider), and stockpile a bunch of gold for eventualy use in Espionage missions.
At all times you should work to make all the civs love you. This means giving in to outrageous demands, and frequently giving them gifts. At some point in the game, however, it will become necessary for you to set the world into war (in order to slow down the AI economically). Do this using MPPs, but make sure you don't take any reputation hits in the process.
Once you hit the Modern age, your strategy changes quite a bit. You need to focus on SS techs and keep these away from other civs. The AI isn't very good at focusing on a SS victory (they'll research Stealth and other "useless" techs), so all that stand between you and a SS victory is the drawback of having to build the components sequentially.
Unless you're extremely lucky, you'll need to trade for most strategic resources. Iron and Coal you only need to trade for once in order to get your rail network up in under 20 turns. Rubber you may need if you want to upgrade your defensive units. The one you really need to concentrate on is Aluminum; all SS components require it, so you'll need to have access to it throughout the Modern age. Make sure a friendly AI civ is able and willing to "hook you up".
8. Closing comments.
A lot more can be said about OCC, especially specific build queues for the early game. Check out "Quest for OCC victory on Deity" on this forum for some excellent OCC discussion and logs by solo and ToeTruck (sorry I can't provide the hyperlink right now). The thread deals primarily with version 1.17, but a lot of material is still relevant to 1.29. Oh, and I've attached the save for a great start with the Greeks: I manage to win an OCC win by launching in 1968. Try it out!
Dominae
After sucessfully completing my first OCC game with 1.29f, I figured I'd try to revitalize this great way to play Civ3 in the community. I know there's been some OCC discussion before, bit I've found that the OCC "literature" here on 'Poly to be lacking. I'm going to begin with some OCC basics and such, then give some strategies that helped me win. Feel free to join in!
1. What is OCC?
OCC stands for One City Challenge. It's simply a different way to play Civ3. As the name implies, you can only ever have one city in your glorious empire. The challenge is that you need to beat the AI with this severe handicap, preferably by launching a Spaceship.
2. Why should I play OCC?
First, OCC is great fun. Whether you actually win or not, knowing that you're remaining competitive with just one city is exhilarating. Second, you learn quite a bit about the Civ3 game mechanics. Among other things, you'll perfect your trading techniques and your city management. Ever wonder how the Luxury slider can be your friend? OCC is a great way to figure it out. Third, recognition. Being able to beat an OCC game is certainly a feat, and players (I think) respect that. Fourth, OCC games last about 3-4 hours, which means you can play a whole game in one sitting.
3. Why should I not play OCC?
If you don't like the idea "breaking" the game in any way, this is not the game type for you. I used to dislike OCC in Civ2 because I figured it meant that the normal game wouldn't never again pose any challenge. This was true in Civ2, but I don't think carries over to Civ3; OCC games are very specialized (small maps, great starts, see below), and I doubt anyone will ever routinely beat Civ3 with OCC on any given map. However, just as some people don't like close city-spacing (like me), some people don't like the feel of "weird" Civ3.
Also, if you don't like micromanagement, OCC is not for you. Just some (most) periods of the game, you need to check your city view every turn, and contact every rival civ every turn as well. If this repition gets you angry in the normal game, it sure will in OCC.
Finally, don't play OCC if Civ3 for you is all about warmongering. In the entire game, you'll never build an offensive unit and only handful of defensive units, so don't count on the thrill of conquest or generating GLs, it just won't happen.
4. Setup for OCC.
First, OCC games are best played on tiny or small maps. The larger the map size, the more cities the AI will have, meaning higher beaker output. Since OCC is all about research, this is bad for you. For this reason, the difficulty of any OCC game should primarily be measured (I believe) with respect to the map size. My hat is off to anyone who wins an OCC game on a Huge map (I would love to see your game log!).
Second, you need a great start. Map size being the main factor in OCC difficulty, starting location is certain a close second. Ideally, you're looking for these characteristics in your starting location:
a. Next to freshwater (rivers or lakes). This is simply so that you don't have to build Aqueducts, although the trade bonus of rivers is not to be discounted.
b. Coastal access. Although this one is optional, not being able to build the Colossus is a huge disadvantage.
c. Few "bad terrain" tiles. Any excess of Jungle, Tundra, Desert, etc. is simply bad. Remember, you only have one city, so all your tiles will need to be worked eventually. If you have too many Tundra tiles, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
d. A good mix of food and production tiles. This is obvious from the normal game.
e. Some bonus resources. Not necessary, but having a couple of Cows is certainly a good thing.
f. At least one Luxury resource. Again, not necessary, but early on Luxuries are simply amazing.
If you fire up your OCC game and don't get a starting position that has most of these characteristics, don't be afraid to restart. Multiple restarts are a part of OCC. Since you're stuck with the same city-site throughout the game, a bad start is a virtually guaranteed loss. Might as well give yourself a chance.
Third, I usually either turn off Barbarians or make then sedentary. You simply don't have the time to chase Barbs around the map.
Lastly, I usually turn off all win conditions other than Conquest and Spaceship. Playing with Domination can be exciting but also frustrating because you have very little power in preventing an AI civ from grabbing all the landmass (especially the Germans). Make sure to turn off Culture and Diplomatic, the former because it's actually really easy to win Culturally and the latter because it's just not in the spirit of OCC.
5. Picking the right OCC civ.
Apart from the Greeks, a civ's UU is largely irrelevent in OCC, so picking a civ is a matter of choosing a good combination of traits. I would say that Scientific is essential because of the free tech at every age; techs in a new age are usually very expensive, and you can get some pretty good gpt deals with your free tech. However, I've seen players win without the benefits of Scientific. Commercial is my second pick because Marketplaces work nicely with Luxuries. One could argue that Religious is very good, but I've found that happiness improvements aren't that useful (counter-intuitive, I know), and that Anarchy is never long when your civ consists of only one city. Industrious is also a ok option, although non-industrious Workers seem to keep up with city growth just fine. The other traits are basically useless.
Given this discussion, your best bets civ-wise are: Greeks, Babylonians, Persians. Other civs are definitely viable, but make the game more difficult.
Also not that Wonders and GAs should be taken into account when selecting a civ. For instance, the Greeks will trigger their Golden Age if they build both the Colossus and the Great Library.
6. Wonder choices.
Early on, the Colossus is a great Wonder that will server you well well into the Industrial age (my civ choice preference is the Greeks because they can build the Colossus immediately). However, the early-game should focus around building the Great Library. The GL is so essential to success in OCC that I usually quit if I can't get it. Given this, it is very important that you go out there and discover other civs. Sometimes this is easy and they will come to you, but in other games you might need to research Map Making yourself and go exploring. Once you build the GL, you shouldn't research at all anymore until it becomes obsolete (I'm sure this is conventional Civ-wisdom though). A trick I like to use is to pre-build the GL with the Colossus, and then go back and build the Colossus anyway. The AI often overlooks the Colossus, so don't worry about losing it. Other early wonders that are worth it if you can spare the time are the Hanging Gardens and The Great Lighthouse (if you're all alone).
After the Ancient times, you should focus on the Science Wonders: Copernicus' Observatory, Newton's University, Theory of Evolution and (optionally) The SETI Program. Constructing all of these will actually make you competitive in science, with just one city! The Sistine Chapel sounds great theoretically, but importing Luxuries is good enough to keep all your citizens happy, and grabbing the Sistine Chapel means that you could potentially lose Copernicus'. Shakespeare's Theater is great if you can get it, but the AI seems to prioritize it. The Theory of Evolution is a no-brainer: grab it at all costs. Do not neglect to build the Intelligence Agency, as espionage missions (tech-stealing primarily) are very good in OCC.
Once you reach the Modern age, there is no real Wonder that is worth your attention other than the Apollo Program and the SS components. Researching Computers and going for SETI sounds like a good idea, but you really want to be focusing on the SS components right away.
7. Tech-trading and diplomacy.
Basically your main goal until the Modern age is to keep up in tech at any cost. This means that you will need to sell of any and all techs you do have to every civ for (hopefully) some generous gpt deals. All civs should be Polite with you throughout the game so this shouldn't be a problem. Even if you do get a tech lead (most probably through the Theory of Evolution), sell off those techs. The more money you keep out of the AI civ's pockets, the more chances you have of keeping up.
No matter how good your one city is, the AI would always outresearch you, so you need to be prepared for this. Check every turn which civs have which techs, and act as the broker: you should always be the one selling techs to other civs, even if the price seems low. Sometimes you can't prevent them from sharing some techs during their turns, however. Eventually you should be able to set Science to 100% (or slightly lower if you're using the Luxury slider), and stockpile a bunch of gold for eventualy use in Espionage missions.
At all times you should work to make all the civs love you. This means giving in to outrageous demands, and frequently giving them gifts. At some point in the game, however, it will become necessary for you to set the world into war (in order to slow down the AI economically). Do this using MPPs, but make sure you don't take any reputation hits in the process.
Once you hit the Modern age, your strategy changes quite a bit. You need to focus on SS techs and keep these away from other civs. The AI isn't very good at focusing on a SS victory (they'll research Stealth and other "useless" techs), so all that stand between you and a SS victory is the drawback of having to build the components sequentially.
Unless you're extremely lucky, you'll need to trade for most strategic resources. Iron and Coal you only need to trade for once in order to get your rail network up in under 20 turns. Rubber you may need if you want to upgrade your defensive units. The one you really need to concentrate on is Aluminum; all SS components require it, so you'll need to have access to it throughout the Modern age. Make sure a friendly AI civ is able and willing to "hook you up".
8. Closing comments.
A lot more can be said about OCC, especially specific build queues for the early game. Check out "Quest for OCC victory on Deity" on this forum for some excellent OCC discussion and logs by solo and ToeTruck (sorry I can't provide the hyperlink right now). The thread deals primarily with version 1.17, but a lot of material is still relevant to 1.29. Oh, and I've attached the save for a great start with the Greeks: I manage to win an OCC win by launching in 1968. Try it out!
Dominae
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