Weekend OCC posted by Sooooo
This is the story of my game of the Weekend OCC posted by Sooooo at Realms Beyond Civilization. The scenario setup is to win a One-City Challenge game, as Peter, by space race, with no Great Wonders.
The hut at the start popped a second scout, so they went exploring while the capital was free to just build. In the beginning, I started researching Agriculture while building a worker. Qin founded Buddhism in 3400 BC. Also popped Animal Husbandry from a hit in the north at the same date.
I built a second worker after the first warrior. There wasn't much else to build, and with all that food, Moscow would grow faster than a single worker could keep up on improvements.
Got the gold tile improved in 2880 BC and constantly worked it after that. Bronze revealed we had copper right here in the city radius too.
My opening build order was Worker - Warrior - Worker - Barracks - Library (chopped) - Axeman (for incoming barb warriors) - Granary - Theater
My opening research sequence was Agriculture - (Animal Husbandry popped) - Bronze - The Wheel - Pottery - Writing - Alphabet - Drama (bye bye happy cap!) Without a Civil Service slingshot available, I went straight for Alphabet in order to establish trade-bait superiority. Drama is only one cheap tech away from there, and instantly solves all your happiness problems, first via the culture slider and shortly later by the Globe Theatre.
The library was complete in 2040 BC and I immediately hired two scientists to pop the Academy which came in 1680 BC. Then it was back to max food. I didn't whip at all (didn't even adopt Slavery until much later). I let Moscow blow right past the happy cap while researching Drama, then compensated with the cultural slider.
Moscow was at size 9, fully happy, with a theater in 1240 BC. I traded Writing around for the religious section of the tech tree, and started Code of Laws into Civil Service now.
When Moscow hit size 10 at the health cap, I traded my Gold to Rome for Clams and kept the city right on growing.
Mansa Musa built the Oracle for a Metal Casting slingshot.
Code of Laws researched for Confucianism in 900 BC. Rome had no religion yet, so I sent the free missionary to that capital and he converted right away.
Globe Theatre complete in 650 BC, slamming from 70/30 research/culture to 100%. Now I rehired two scientists, almost solely in order to tip the odds for a Great Scientist next instead of a terrible Artist.
I made a near-Civ-3 brokerage sequence, flipping Alphabet to Qin for Mathematics (aqueduct sorely needed and started right away), and to Rome for Iron Working, and two of those techs to Mansa for Metal Casting, plus Polytheism in there somewhere too.
Rome demanded Drama which was still a monopoly for me. I gave it up, since it's hardly an important monopoly tech, and I was considering trading it for Monotheism which I now did.
In 450 BC, I made my first civics switch, to Bureaucracy + Org Rel. I also officially revolted to Confucianism now. I started right on Paper - Education.
Great Scientist #2 arrived in 275 BC and settled. Paper arrived in 225 BC, Education started.
Kublai Khan now showed up on the contacts screen - luckily, he'd gotten a unit eastwards past Japan before Tokugawa's borders completely closed. He'd researched Currency while not getting Metal Casting or Meditation, so we swapped.
In the religion department, Rome was already Confucian, Tokugawa had no chance of opening borders, and Qin had founded Buddhism, Judaism, and Taoism. Mansa had not founded any religions and had a mishmash, so a flood of missionaries did the job there. Well, not quite; Mansa had one offshore city that I couldn't reach with a missionary. He wouldn't quite convert to Confucianism on his own, but a little grease to the palm made him see the light.
Here's an overview shot in 200 AD:
Moscow had leveled off at the current health cap (with fish and clams imported). It was now running two Priests (Qin helpfully sent me a Buddhist Missionary and I built that temple) in a bid for a Great Prophet to establish the shrine. The game setup called for no world wonders in the capital, which should include the religious shrines... but I searched for "shrine" in the game thread and Sooooo said he built one, so I'd go for the same. The point of the shrine was only secondarily for the cash; it was to give the city some kind of Great Person source other than Artist points from the Globe Theater. Great Artists are garbage in an OCC, but too many of the national wonders (Globe Theatre, Heroic Epic, National Epic, Hermitage) produce them. Prophets aren't much better, but at least they provide two hammers if settled and more cash than an Artist.
That Prophet (Leader Three) did come in 400 AD, for the shrine. The university and then Oxford University finished in 540 AD.
After Education, my research path was Gunpowder, then Machinery - Printing Press, then Feudalism - Guilds - Banking - Economics. The Great Merchant settled. At this point, still nobody else had Paper. China traded me Rice for Marble, raising the health cap to 16.
Leader Four was a Great Artist in 1090 AD, who settled.
Next research path was Philosophy - Nationalism - Constitution. I debated on building the Hermitage (more useless Great Artist points), but went for it. There were four resources (horses, gems, dyes, incense) in Moscow's fifth ring that would be nice to get and keep, plus a Spices tile (+health with Grocer) under heavy dispute in fourth-ring that I wanted to lock down.
Constitution finished in 1170 AD, and I quadruple-revolted from Despotisn / Tribalism / Decentralization / Org Rel to Representation / Slavery / Free Market / Pacifism.
By the way, here's a little trick:
Even though Great Person Points don't accumulate during anarchy, the contribution of specialists towards Great Person _type_ does. And since there's no food production or loss during anarchy, you can hire all the specialists you want. Compare the above shot and the next one.
Even though no GPP have been added during the two turns of anarchy, the probability has been _heavily_ tilted away from a Great Artist towards every other type of Great Person.
And now I set Moscow to run 5 scientists, even at food shortage, to pop a couple more Great Scientists. I had run almost entirely a cottage economy to this point. And even now the economic production of the specialists was only equal to that of a town. But it was all about the Great People points now. Leader Five bucked the 30% odds and my little anarchy trick and came as a second Great Artist. :P Leaders Six and Seven and Eight all behaved properly and came as Scientists. Leader Nine was another Artist.
I traded for Compass, Optics, and Engineering to hit full tech parity (still ahead by monopoly on Nationalism, Education, PPress, Gunpowder, Economics, Constitution), and started research on Astronomy which finished in 1260 AD. Qin had now gotten Education, so I had to cash in the Liberalism slingshot now for Scientific Method, with Physics next for that Great Scientist who would settle.
Next research path was Chemistry - Biology - Medicine. Yes, Medicine isn't on the spaceship path, but my city needed the health pretty drastically, both from the hospital and Environmentalism (the late-game health penalties of a laboratory, factory, and Iron Works would be soon arriving.) And I expected Medicine to eventually serve as off-spaceship trade bait for a spaceship tech. Finally, I also wanted the Red Cross for the Great Scientist points.
I traded for Corporation, Rep Parts, Rifling, Steel, and Steam Power, while beelining up to Computers. Modern Age in 1670 AD with Radio. My lead held steady at six techs. I would ignore Democracy tech forever, since the Globe Theatre erases the Emancipation penalty.
Tokugawa declared war on me in 1635 AD. I bought in both Rome and Germany for the low price of Liberalism, and Mansa for 1400 gold. I also traded for Mil Trad to build cavalry COSSACKS! to fend off Tokugawa. With the Heroic Epic, Moscow could build a cossack every turn.
Japan got predictably shredded by the alliance, though I didn't really do much myself besides pillage for cash. I tried to raze Kyoto, but couldn't muster enough units to do the trick before Bismarck beat me to it.
A diplomatic recap at this point:
Rome was immovably Friendly, with shared religion and civics, common-enemy against Japan, plus the usual peaceful pluses.
Bismarck was now also Friendly thanks to civics and common-enemy against Japan.
Mansa had been friendly for a long time thanks to shared religion and civics; had now dropped to Pleased when we lost those (he went to Free Religion and me to Environmentalism.)
Kublai I hadn't attempted to please at all, but somehow he also got to +9 despite differing religions. That's thanks to two granted tribute demands, and +4 for "Our trade relations have been fair and forthright" -- I wish I knew better how that worked.
Tokugawa - who cares.
Qin was the lone leader who didn't consider me a friend. I was getting quite wary now, as he's the game leader...
But then Qin suddenly declared war on Mansa! Qin is my worst enemy, and Mansa the biggest financial threat -- let them busy each other! But, what a backstab that was while Mansa's army was away fighting Japan! Qin captured a core city of Mansa's only two turns after the war started!
And a few turns later, Caesar declared against Qin as well! Then Kublai Khan declared on Caesar!
Meanwhile, Leader Ten was my fourth Artist, which wasn't unexpected as he had been spawned while Moscow was growing to size 20 and not working specialists to tip the Great Artist odds away from those damn Artist-producing national wonders. Leader Eleven was my second Prophet and first one to settle.
After the Computers beeline, it was Artillery - Rocketry - Satellites, trading for Steam Power, Railroad, and Communism. Apollo Program complete in 1842 AD.
Well, Qin made peace with his other enemies, so this was inevitable:
Fortunately I'd just researched Assembly Line and had plenty of cash to upgrade 8 units to infantry. For alliances, I paid Bismarck 590 gold, Mansa 1060 gold, and Caesar Physics. I had no trouble holding off Qin, and even razed a couple cities with the stack shown here. The Medic promotions are from the Red Cross.
And by razing a couple cities, I mean Beijing.
With that mortal blow dealt, I signed peace.
BTW, here's a look at Moscow's late-game configuration.
I'd cottaged all available terrain (10 towns), except for two farms to keep working enough food to sustain the city at size 20. The uncottageable plains hills were all windmilled. I wasn't working specialists, since there was no food to do so and the GPP were just marginally useful now that the GP cost was up to 1400. My last leader did buck 25% odds to come as my sixth Scientist.
My space race sequence was this:
Electricity - Radio - Computers (laboratory)
Artillery - Rocketry (Apollo)
Satellites (Thrusters, although this was plenty able to have waited until after building the Casings)
Assembly Line - Industrialism (for Aluminum)
Plastics (hydro plant)
Fission - Ecology (Recycling Center; we were up to -5 health from buildings)
Fiber Optics - Fusion (Great Engineer)
Robotics (it has the expensive SS component)
Refrigeration - Genetics (the least important techs if you've gotten health taken care of)
A bunch more late-game wars happened with Bismarck declaring war on Khan (and capturing his capital), Caesar joining in (eventually eliminating Khan), and Qin declaring on Mansa for the third time. But none of that affected me. Moscow hit Legendary in 1970 AD.
The long pole turned out to be research rather than production; the penultimate SS component completed 8 turns before finishing Genetics research. Still, that's pretty well-managed, and it should be noted that that was after _massively_ pushing production (paying 30 gpt for Iron to power the Iron Works, for example.)
And in the very endgame after Genetics, I bulldozed a few towns in favor of watermills and workshops to get the last part done a turn sooner.
My final tech lead was five spaceship techs (Ecology, Genetics, Fiber Optics, Fusion, Robotics), although Bismarck had gotten Flight, Composites, and Mass Media. So the outcome was somewhat close, though not really in doubt.
Space Race Victory in 1979 AD. 6220 points.
The GNP graph is on the weird side:
Pretty much everybody except Mansa and myself had a wildly fluctuating GNP, but never took a serious lead. Even Mansa's dropped sharply at the end. The chaotic war situations certainly caused all that. I like how the Russian GNP is a rock-steady straight line all the way across. :) I kept my lead not through brute force of economy, but by shrewd trading, being careful never to share a monopoly tech, and to get multiple resales whenever I did decide to sell. I never hit the WFYABTA limit at all, partially because I didn't waste tech acquisitions on early cheap techs; stuff like Sailing and Archery that can wait a long time, I picked up late with a fractional turn of research rather than trading.