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Chieftain
Local Time: 10:16
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 59
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One city challenge, emperor - done!
Mercani's post about it sounded amusing, so I tried it for myself.
I took the Egyptians; I now don't think they're the best for this anymore, but I wanted to get Industrious. Those fast workers speed up the early game more than you'd think, giving you quite a leg up. I'm thinking either the Americans or the Babylonians would be the ideal pick, as early Bronze Working and Pottery are an absolute requirement. Ceremonial Burial is nice, but not important enough early on to get it before the Great Library.
I used the 8th random type of map, small, 6 civs. I was hoping that the increased number of civs over a tiny map would make the Great Library more effective; on tiny, it's kind of a crapshoot whether you'll get most of the pre-Education feudal era techs, as there's normally a laggard of the 3 enemy civs. If I had to do it over again, I'd go ahead and use tiny; the research and enemy civ size benefits for tiny outweigh the tech difference that you won't end up getting from the Great Library.
I restarted about a dozen times until I was able to get a city site with both river and ocean access; the one I ended up with had 1 mountain, 1 hill, 2 shield grassland, 1 wheat, 3 ocean, and the rest plains. 10 of the land squares had the river bonus. This was about as good a starting spot as you can get, as trade is the biggest thing you're going to need all game for the pacifist approach. Oh yes, I changed barbarians to sedate, as they were putting quite the crimp in my super-isolationist play style.
The early game was pretty boring; lots of terraforming. Researched bronze working, alphabet, writing, and literature. Early build items were warrior, granary, warrior, temple, Colossus. The Colossus is an *absolute* must for single-city; the 3 culture isn't anything special, but the trade bonus will be between 25% and 50% extra for 1/3rd of the game or more. I started the Pyramids and switched over to the Great Library. I researched and switched to Republic; I probably got a dozen techs or so out of the Great Library, as I went towards Gunpowder, letting the AI go towards Bach's like it always does, and letting them shovel those techs to me from the Great Library.
I grabbed the Hanging Gardens and Sistine Chapel, but missed out on Bachs; I followed this with a University, Copernicus's Observatory, and Newton's. I was kicking myself all game for missing out on Shakespeare's Theatre; that 8 culture is an absolute must-have, and I barely lost it to England. That silly thing, once aged enough, produces 16 culture a turn.
Things started to run off the rails in the industrial era. Maybe, maybe not coincidentally, this is when I started tech brokering; before that, I never sold a single tech, only buying. Got Industrialization, Sanitation, and then headed for Electronics. I managed to get both the Hoover Damn and Theory of Evolution (buying up any cheap techs you missed before you get this is nice; I got Steel and Refining for free out of it). Got Espionage, built the Intelligence Agency (it's worthless, as it never got the double culture bonus for age, for some reason; neither did the palace).
From here forward, I was worried I was going to lose. Germany got a couple techs ahead of me, and the Romans managed to built the SETI project before me. My time to research in the industrial era was about 10 turns a tech, at 100% research. In the modern era is dropped to 30 or so; research becomes worthless with a single city unless you have all three % bonus to research buildings.
I built the manhattan project and apollo program; I also noticed you can't build the UN if diplomatic victory is disabled. Anyway, these last two didn't matter for culture squat. I managed to get a culture victory before the Germans finished their spaceship; I think I had about 40-odd turns to spare.
Conclusions: early culture from normal buildings doesn't matter as much maxing out your production, though you do need to get them up when you have a chance. 50 turns of a colloseum is only about 200 culture, or about 3 turns worth in the endgame. However, every single wonder you can get in the ancient era is crucial, as the culture really for those really up. If you check the F5 tab on the savegame, virtually all of my culture came from Feudal & Ancient era wonders. The Hoover Dam, for one, was completely pointless. If you can get all three of the Colossus, Great Library, and Pyramids then you're pretty much set; I only managed to get 2 of 3. Using the F5 tab is illuminating; about 3,500 of my winning 20,000 came from the Great Library by itself.
A pacifist single-city win on Diety should be virtually impossible; you'll need to be quite the warmonger to pull it off. Maybe keeping all of the enemy civs hemmed in to smaller areas, with your troops nearby to harass them, paid for by tribute from the civs they're harassing.
Does anyone know what governs the age-doubling effect for wonders? Does it just automatically happen after 200 turns? I had Newton's for 170, and it never doubled, but Copernicus's did, so I suspect it happens after 199 turns.
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