OOC on Regent: GAH!

Nax · November 22, 2002, 20:55

I figured OCC on a Tiny map'd make a fine little short game. I did manage to finish it in about 4-8 play hours, but only after a NUMBER of reloads, and with a mediocre cultural victory in 1966 AD with the enemy maybe 4 turns from domination.

How exactly do you do it? The other civs, in awe of your culture, seem rather keen on taking it. With no iron, coal, or saltpeter resources, you're pretty much stuck w/ spearmen until nationalism (thank goodness, as a scientific civ, I got it as my free tech, and not a turn too soon).

An enemy civ got wiped out pretty early, and it was pretty clear that the Persians would be the dominant world power, with the Americans being a pretty petty cultural and scientific rival.

I went with the 1 scientist 40 turn research gambit much of the early game, getting up to Lit asap and grabing the great library in a well timed prebuild, whilst mostly buying my way into the AI's techs before it went up. The library served me well, as I brought the gambit to republic

*To finish later*

Aeson · November 23, 2002, 01:19

Having Domination enabled in OCC games is really hit or miss. There isn't too much you can do with one city to keep an AI from winning that way. The earlier you can get your Cultural victory the better though. Solo's OCC thread seems to be lost (anyone have a link?) sadly, there were several very good logs of OCC games there.

On Regent I would think you could grab the Collosus, Great Library, and Hanging Gardens at least. The AI's tend to avoid Literacy, so you might even be able to fit in the Oracle or Pyramids if you have a good situation.

OCC games are really good to play. I never appreciated the luxury slider until I had failed miserably on a few attempts at Solo's Deity launch type games...

DaveMcW · November 23, 2002, 04:41

Here is what you should be trying for by era to achieve a dominant occ game. It's still possible to win if you fall behind, but it can be quite ugly.

Start Position:
1. River delta
2. A bonus food
3. Not many "bad" terrain squares (desert, tundra, sea)
Optional: Luxury, More bonus food, Less than 5 coast, Lots of grassland and hills

Ancient Age:
1. Granary
2. Colossus
3. Great Library
Optional: Great Lighthouse

Middle Ages:
1. Copernicus' Observatory
2. Newton's University

Industrial Age:
1. Theory of Evolution

Modern Age:
1. SETI Program

The goal is to get as many tech monopolies as possible, then sell them to all civs for cash. As long as you are rich you control the flow of the game. Since gold is part of the power calculation, you can actually become a "world power" with a 5-digit treasury!

Pay 5 gold per turn for all luxuries. This will make the deal last for the rest of the game unless you renegotiate it. Strategic resources are harder to trade for, sometimes it takes 20+ turns for one to open up. Just be patient and keep checking.

When you are not prebuilding for one of the key wonders feel free to get others. With luxuries and a marketplace you don't need happiness wonders, but they give good culture.

DaveMcW · November 23, 2002, 04:47

Quest for an OCC Launch on Diety

Dominae · November 23, 2002, 11:17

The thread by solo is excellent, but here's a thread that is more of a "beginner's guide" to OCC:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=64724

Have fun!

Dominae

Dominae · November 23, 2002, 11:22

DaveMcW, I usually pay around 20-25 gold as a lump sum for luxuries from civs who are either Polite or Gracious. I figure they calculate how much a luxury is worth from the number of cities in your empire. Do you give them the extra cash (5gpt = 100gold) to improve relations?

Dominae

DaveMcW · November 23, 2002, 17:02

When you have all 8 luxuries the last one does cost 80-100 gold. I am willing to pay extra before hospitals to be sure nothing can disturb my 100% science rate for the rest of the game. I also lock in luxuries that are in short supply instead of waiting for a world war to get them.

The improved relations doesn't hurt either.

Nax · November 23, 2002, 20:05

I achieved many of those goals. Played as babs.

Managed to get both cop's and newt's. Got great lib no prob. Got the bronze guy pretty early, and he served me well. Shakespere's was CRITIAL in my success, I think.

The tech race was still near the bottom of the industrial age when the game ended though. I had a few setbacks when threatened by wave after wave of frickin imortals, in addition to knights from the americans (the only two other civs on the planet signed an ALLIANCE against my lone city's ass, and here I'd been caving to their every demand). I'm desprately fortunate to have launched into the industrial age and gotten nationalism as my bonus, just in time. Pikemen in mountians weren't gonna cut it.

My city spot was alright, though with no access to fresh water. Wound up setting off my GA at pop 6. I suppose it's something of an accomplishment without fresh water. The spot wasn't bad though... mostly grasslands, a couple of them bonus, with two cattle, a wheat, a hill, and four mountains in range, in addition to being costal (if bronze guy didn't imply that).

I never got above 12 pop, oddly enough. Finished my hospital the turn I won cultural victory (would've finished sooner, but I was drafting riflemen to try to stem the flow of newly researched cavalry; I retreated every unit to the city square once they broke through my borders, and they proceeded to land a SoD of maybe 12 from galleons defended by ironclads, besides the ones railing in from land and taking my mountain forts; I had signed the Americans onto my side in MPP late into the game, and they apparently got MAURAUDERED the world over; watching the replay, I was shocked at how close persia came to domination. In any case, I managed to hold them off, after which they pilliaged every square in my territory and moved to regroup, or perhaps take washington, the last american city... I knew I should've given the US nationalism).

Really, the only way I can see of honestly winning an OCC would be to play little brother to a big military civ with other problems on his hands. If the world is reduced to three civs, there simply aren't enough players on the field for you to slingshot your way to the top.

Nax

EDIT: P.S. I had also set the map to small land mass pangea. I imagine that was a mistake.

Aeson · November 25, 2002, 21:40

Thanks for the link DaveMcW, for some reason I could never get it to show up in searches.