Coach A Wide Player to Win an OCC: Medieval Era
I've currently reached the Medieval Era, and I'm quickly falling behind in most measures of effectiveness. The AI completed The Hanging Gardens prior to my researching of mathematics, so I continued on without it. I was able to complete The Great Wall a few turns after Arabia declared war on me, but I was able to fight them off with a few ranged units and the capital's attack.
Medieval Era Start - Turn 109 Album
I'm really feeling under powered in all regards. Primarily production, but I now have lumber mills that may help me. Otherwise, culture is way behind, military is way behind, I never got a single point of Faith yet, and have below average populations.
From here I think I'll research metal casting and machinery in order to get a quick Ironworks and Cho-Ko-Nu's and start farming myself up some great generals from Arabia, maybe take out cities if I can, but that northern Mountain range is pretty problematic. Maybe friend people who are crabby with Arabia, for some favorable mods with the other civs. I'm really concerned about stopping Arabia's growth into my territory, as i don't really have a lot of other directions to expand into.
Otherwise I'm completely out of ideas.
Edit 1: Fixed imgur link.
Posted May 13, 2013, 11:20 PM UTC
I'm going to be a tad blunt here, so my apologies if you find any of this rude. But I hope it will really help you out in the future.
As historically ironic as this may sound; you are playing as China, the one Civ that needs the Great Wall the least. Take a breath, build some archers, you'll be perfectly fine. Cho's are going to absolutely wreck anything that comes your way, especially with a GG.
What Victory are you going for? Playing OCC, you need a clearer idea in your head about what you want to go for. China is a pretty shitty Civ for OCC because they excel in domination.
You have 11 pop and only a handful of improved tiles. Get your workers working! You need more than just one playing OCC. You should have stolen one or two from neighboring CS. Your high population is going to be what gives you an edge in OCC, don't let your precious citizens work shitty tiles.
Why is your Warrior in the back hiding on some hill? You are being invaded, make him defend his homeland!
Your literacy is great, maybe you need to focus on a Scientific Victory. That said, your tech picks need to be improved. Bee-lining to Education is ALWAYS a good idea. It can be nice having Composite Bowmen before doing so, but you don't really need Iron-Working, Engineering, or even Bronze-Working. You need to get to those Universities and build one ASAP. Then employ two Scientists in your Specialist slots you'll get from the University.
In a better world, since you are going Science Victory, you should have held back on your Culture in the early game and tried to get into the Renaissance as fast as possible. This allows you to unlock Rationalism right about after you finish up Traditionalism, allowing you to go down Rationalism very fast giving you that extra Science ASAP. Since your timing probably won't work that way, going one into Commerce isn't a bad idea for a free Bank.
Growth, growth, growth. Build those farms. Make your citizens work more food tiles under your Citizen Management in your view city screen. Growth is super important for both OCC and Science Victory games.
Getting your Garden or National Epic up soon is not a bad idea, these will help your Great Scientist production. Of which you'll want a LOT of to plant down multiple Academies. A Great Engineer is normally not needed, but in this case it wouldn't be a terrible idea since you are low on production in this area. That is up to you, though.