Please post any nominations for the Consul of Culture Policy, or any debate questions you may have. The Consul of Culture Policy has the following duties:

Monitors culture. Pushes for culture improvements. Fits science and religious improvements into the big picture. Plans wonder strategy.

I nominate nobody and greekguy

I'm going to have to respectfully decline the nominaton due to my self-nomination for domestic consul.

i would like to self-nominate myself and accept.

I'd like to nominate Xerol and second vikingruler.

I third vikingruler.

Nah, culture stinks, so i DECLINE

I've decided I'm not happy with the cultural situation of this game, so I'm self-noming and accepting.

I'm saying this in advance, though: May 18-23. I will be in Florida on a band trip.

Details of campaign to come in election thread.

SaaM
Dean of Oxford
Culture Consul

This is my election policy:

Most cities will have these three key improvements for culture expansion:
Temple
Library
Cathedral


Wonders are also a neccesity to achieve a culture victory. Wonders that I will push for construction include:
Sistine's Chapel
Sun Tzu's Art of War
Leonardo's Workshop


I will also push for the usage of the luxury slider over entertainers. If elected no city will revolt under my rule.

Questions for the candidates:
1. What percentage of our economy should be used for building cultural improvements while we are still expanding militarily?
2. How will you shape your policies if the people still wish for minimal cultural improvements until we near the domination limit?

1) The country is still expanding thanks to our military. That is a given. Soon we will control the entire subcontinent, but we will still have gaps. And the civs from which we took the cities from will still exist. We need to devote at a minimum 20% of our economy to the building and upkeep of cultural improvements. If elected, I pledge to have (at minimum) a temple in every city. In addition to that, I will push for a library in most. Hopefully, by the middle of the term, our conquering days will end and we will decide to settle down and devote our time to building. It is a shame that it is nearing the ADs and only now are we nearing the completion of our first temple (in Oxford, my city). We need for the governors to interject infrastructure other than barracks into the cities. We have the ability to create marketplaces. A few of those in some key cities and they will pay for the temples. 20 percent is not much to ask for.

2) If we continue down this path, I will first object to it as it is a foolish choice. We cannot sit by and wait with our hands in our laps until we reach a point near the domination limit. Culture doesn’t work that way. (AN: I know it can, but just lemme keep talking) We can't have a minimum and then suddenly decide to go for a max. I would shudder to think of what the great culture guru Cyc would do if he were here. Or Shaitan. They'd head straight back to whatever it is they're doing in RL, that’s what they'd do. Now, if my verbose filibusters (AN: No, no... you can't take that away from meeeee. Seriously. Hands off the filibuster.) fall on deaf ears and people decide to keep to the status quo, I will still keep pushing for culture. I will inundate mayoral threads and gubernatorial threads with requests for culture. Once again, using Oxford as an example: after constant requests in multiple threads, the Temple is nearly done. Complaining works. Trust me on this one :).

My Plan:
By the end of the Third Term, all cities should have

A Temple


Cities that are above size 6 should all have

A Library


Aqueducts arent my department, but I'll push for them too. Same with marketplaces (to pay for the culture).

As we have already set a precident for building barracks, we need to build Sun Tzu. Fortunately, we have Sir Issac to do this for us. We haven't chosen a deffinate place to put him. That's to be decided. Subliminal Message: Oxford... Oxford... Oxford

As for the other two major early MA wonders, it would be nice to get them. But I really don't see any governor planing on devoting any time for a prebuild. I just don't. To the Governors: Prove me wrong.

A healthy supply of luxes and the slider will keep our citizens happy, not entertainers. Get those people back to work, I say. Don't make'em earn a living by keeping other people happy. (oo.. how very Republican of me)

Finally: Three points.

I have never been in the Culture Department, so I'll need your help
I go away to Florida between May 18th and May 23rd. Band Trip (woo!)
I have the AP US test on May 6th. Don't piss me off before that


I do hope I've made my adgenda clear. Thanks for listening.

SaaM
Dean of Oxford

1) Since we are still expanding militarily, we can't divert too much percent of our economy to culture. However, as soon as we make peace, the majority of our economy should be redirected to culture. Right now we do need a certain amount of money going towards culture. 20-30% should do. This will allow temples in many more cities, as well as libraries when we get Literature.

2) Waiting till we near the domination limit to build cultural improvements is a mistake. We need to start now. This includes building a temple in every city and libraries in our core cities, eventually in every city. Also, cathedrals in most cities when we can. Starting at the domination limit will be starting extremly late. It will be like starting from stratch. Starting now will also allow us to build other cultural improvements later in the game instead of catching up by building temples and libraries. Meaning, by the time we reach the near-domination limit, we will probably be in the industrial age which means we have a wide variety of improvements to build.

1 question for the candidates:

Temples are the worst "improvement" in C3C. Actually; I'd rather call it a "worsening". It is way too expensive (both in shields and in upkeep cost) and easy to bypass through slider manipulation, military police, The Republic combined with luxury imports and marketplaces.

I'll never vote for a candidate who wants to build these wasteful things. So: What contestant will not build temples ? - and that goes even more for cathedrals and collossea.

My response to Rik: Both candidates have pledged to build temples, myself included. I agree with you that they do tend to suck, but we lack any other cultrual buildings at this time. When libraries come, I am going to pursue them over temples. The sole reason that I stated my initial pledge (which I am sticking by and not flip-flopping on) of a temple in every city was that to keep/create our culture up, these cheap, 60 shield improvements can be built in a pinch. Libraries unfortunately take more time (despite their greater benifits.) Fortunately, I look forewards to building more of them than I do temples.

If this is not the answer you're looking for, I encourage you not to vote for me. I'm not about to remove a key aspect of my campaign to apease one person.

And may I be struck by lightning if I ever build a colloseum in a non 20kOCC game.

Hope this helps.

SaaM

Temples may "suck" but they are vital in achieving a culture win. they also prevent culture flip. Libraries are better but you have to build temples. You can bypass them with the slider, military police, marketplaces, etc... but you can't bypass there cultural importance. If it is a cities's first cultural improvement, it will expand in 5 turns. You have to build temples in order to win 130K.

Question for the candidates: Ignoring the fact that we haven't got all the required techs yet, what would be your preferred order of building cultural improvements and why?

Thread closed, discuss further in the election thread.