Replaying a map as an OCC, new tactics

[ICMB]

Hi all.

First of all, let me say that I generally play at the Regent/Monarch level, so for you Emperor-and-above people, this may not be so helpful.

I was midway through a Regent game when I installed the 1.16f patch, and noticed an immediate increase in the aggressiveness of the AI.

I decided to start a new game on Warlord to get a better idea of how the AI was responding, as the game seemed more difficult after the patch.

In this new game, I tried the Babylonians for the first time, and was lucky enough to have my start point within range of 3 food squares, and 8 flood plains (which had two of the 3 food bonuses).

This allowed me to make settlers very quickly, and I eventually blocked the Egyptians in the north part of my continent and got myself to #1 in land area. I used to maintain a minimal military until I decided to attack. However, I decided to try some of the strategies I've seen here, and had a few major-production cities for wonders. I also had a few cities tagged as troop-makers. I would make the best defensive units in one, and distribute them to the other cities, and made offensive units and artillery in other cities. Since the Egyptians were small, and I had no other land borders, I was just fortifying the offensive units so they could be dispatched where they are needed.

Long story short (too late!), a couple of civs did attack me over the years, although usually with a very small force. I would quickly deploy my military and kill them, and get the rest of the world (and particularly civs sharing a continent with the my attackers) to declare war on the aggressor.

I don't believe I ever lost any unit in the game, and had a easy cultural victory in the early 1900's.

Now, I normally play going balls-out for tech, and trading older techs to the AI.

Then, I decided to try a OCC game on the same map, since I had such excellent food production. In the process, I determined some alterations I want to make to my strategy.

First, I had no local resources. Late in the game I had no problem trading for what I needed, however.

My capital was size 12 in something like 520 BC, and I had a large production bonus (best city, anyway) than the AI, which helped with wonderproduction. I got the GL, and then quickly got contact with everyone else. When Education came around, I changed up and went to the most science research I could afford.

What I realized later in the game is that it was a foolish choice. I was able to do 100% taxes, and buy either new techs and trade them around, or to buy techs a few advances behind the AI. I had no problem getting the techs I needed, although I did miss out on a couple of wonders that would have hastened the eventual cultural victory.

However, by actively trading with everyone, and not getting involved in any conflicts, I had an entirely peaceful game.

The big things I noticed are:

. In my earlier game on this map, we were all about equal in tech until late in the game, but we were MUCH more advanced that in the OCC game. This leads me to think that I should be much more careful about trading techs, to keep an advantage over the AI.
. Going 0% research is definitely viable as a strategy. I was able to keep within a couple of techs of the leading AI the whole game. Plus, the trading kept me in good diplomatic standing.

My point is that by playing OCC, I learned a lot of alternate strategies that should make my normal REX-style games much more interesting. (Plus, it was nice to be completely unconcerned with corruption!)

I would expect that playing different Civs and different styles would give a lot of new tactics that could be used in a variety of situations. I need to play a Ancient-era military blitz to get an idea of the logistics involved there.

Oh, and finally, I did see the AI tech bug/cheat. I checked all the AI's, and found one with two advances I didn't have. None of the other AI had either of them.

I traded for them both, and when I went back to the other AIs to sell them, I found that EVERY one of the AI's had suddenly gotten one of the two techs that I had just purchased during my turn.

Despite the claim that the AI doesn't distinguish between the AI and humans, this mid-turn instant trading is pretty brutal on tech-traders. I'd rather they reduce the price you can get rather than do OBVIOUS cheats for the AI.

- ICMB