OCC strategy suggestions?

[Drago Sinio]

I have some questions regarding One City Challenge (OCC) type games that I was
hoping to get some help with. Last night , I was FINALLY able to win a game at Deity
level, after about 16 tries from the same start.

There were two things that gave me really big headaches,

#1 was the other civs attacking me just before I launched the space ship, causing major
delays and headaches, and I even had to restart from earlier saves a few times when they
overran my meager defenses. The other civs would keep demanding large amounts of
cash . Naturally, I refused. (Should I have given it to them?) My loyal allies declared war
on the Civ that attacked me, but that didnt actually do me any good.

My solution was to alternate building space ship parts with defensive units. I built a
barracks, then two mechanised infantry, then SAM missile defense. That put a stop to
the attacks, or at least rendered them insignificant. This worked fine, but delayed the
launch of the ship until 1908. Is there a better answer?

Problem #2 relates to production, I tried to get the level of shield production up to the
level of 80 shields, but I found that when I did that, it generated so much pollution that it
caused a food shortage. My two engineers and one settler just couldnt keep up with the
problem. I had built a Hydro Plant, which helped, but not enough. I could have built the
Solar plant, but I would have to delay space ship part production to do that. Is that a good
idea? Is there some particular amount of farmland squares needed to avoid the food
problems?


Any help or even random ramblings on the above topics much appreciated!!

[crowatbitemedotcom]

Let me answer #2 first. The most common solution to this problem is to delay building the factory until your settlers/engineers have done all the irrigation/mining/terraforming necessary. Then once the factory is built all their time is spent on pollution patrol. A hydro plant is good (much better than power plant) but I don't think anyone in the OCC competition has built a solar plant.

For your first question, make sure you have good defenses before starting the spaceship. Fortify riflemen or alpine troops on hills or mountains within the city radius; the AI will waste a lot of units attacking them (stack to prevent bribery). I almost always refuse demands for cash unless they have battleships in my harbor.

Paul has a good site with strategy and the tech path to follow. http://home.planet.nl/~belt0018/occ.htm

Hope this helps.

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Will everyone stop bloody quoting everyone else in their signature damnit. - Graag

[Sten Sture]

with the pollution clean-up... two engineers can completely clean a pollution square in one turn; don't put one on it and save the second for later. Having your squares railroaded allows you to get to any pollution square without using movement.

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Hit the bid!

[vik]

drago -- welcome to the world of occ. 1908 is a quite decent launch date. To help, let me point you here:
http://home.planet.nl/~belt0018/occ.htm

This is Paul's strategy guide. It is generally agreed by the OCC guys that Paul has the best understanding of how to win.

question 1: other civs attacking after SS launch? truthfully, i usually have an archer or something defending my city by the time i launch a spaceship. No one ever attacks me. Why? I think it is because I spend the whole game building relations with the AI. I ALWAYS give EVERY tech they ask for, and if they don't ask, I give it to them as gifts.

Make sure you contact and ally with your neighbors early. Keep these alliances -- don't break them for anything. If you got your allies surrounding you, it makes it hard for enemies to get to you.

But if there is one rogue AI nation still bugging you after SS launch, set your science to low, taxes to high, and bring out the diplomat. I build a diplo fairly early, actually. It's hard to beat a 50-gold non-rifleman, or a 250-gold non-engineer.

Now for number 2, if you got 2 engineers, then you got no pollution problems. Your city will produce between zero and one polluted squares each turn. Put both engineers on the polluted square to clean it, and it is gone that very turn. Of course the engineers will be doing little else than running around cleaning it, but two (2) is all it takes.

hope it helps.

[Sten Sture]

pipped you with a short answer!

An additional comment - playing the game in the MGE version requires you to be a little bit more careful with your start. Having too many military units can make you list as supreme in the diplomacy window and the AI will be very aggressive; also breaking an early peace treaty is very costly!

Sten, no need to railroad all your squares. Besides looking plain ugly just roads will be enough for engineers.

[Sten Sture]

I leave just roads in some of the squares, but railroad forest rivers and hills for the shield bonus. But they do look kinda ugly - and I feel like the dumb AI when I railroad everything!

[Drago Sinio]

crow..: Thanks to you and vik for the link to Pauls excellent OCC strategy guide , that is
what allowed me to even have a chance! I printed it out and referred to the tech path
throughout the games. Good point about the factory timing, I think I built mine as soon as
I got the tech for it. As far as defenders, I had just one vet archer at the time I was
building the spaceship. Where do you find time to build defenders? I didn’t think I
needed any, since I always gifted the AI civs with techs every ten turns or so to keep on
their good side. The only thing I refused were request for cash over $50 or to declare war
on another civ.


Sten: I didn’t realize or had forgotten about stacking the engineers. I hadn’t built rr either,
and that’s a good idea since it builds production too. My engineers were so busy runnin
around cleaning the place up they hadn’t the time! Maybe I need a third engineer?

I have the earlier (242 ?) version, I didn’t like the MGE version, it doesn’t run well on my
system for some reason. And anyway I usually don’t end up with much of a military, the
barbs kill them!

Vik: The weird thing is that the AI got REALLY nasty while I was building the ship,
when I really need the money for rush builds. Otherwise I would have given it to them
under the circumstances. ( Just one archer trying to defend against bombers!) Ouch. And
after giving them tech all through the game too. I felt so ....USED !!

Thanks, all, for the suggestions. I will try to put them to good use!

[Scouse Gits]

Now you've done it once it will be MUCH easier next time round - well done! And a 1908 launch is pretty good anyway!
Hope to see you trying OCC4 - vik has done a GREAT scenario
Incidently - I find that keeping a log actually helps keep me on the straight and narrow and trims about 20 years off my OCC times

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[Drago Sinio]

Just wanted to say that everyones suggestions were VERY helpful and much appreciated. I played another game from the same starting position and this time I landed in 1862. I think I will try the game you mentioned,SG, and see how I do with that. Thanks again.