Right basically my question is, other than flipping cities, what does culture do?

I know you have an overall culture rating (which drops by one when you launch a nuke), but what that does I don't know. The manual isn't very clear.

Help a confused man out :(

More Great People, city borders expanded, it is huge the cultural factor with some civilizations. Like Romans, they can easily win a cultural fight, Napoleon and Saladin too.

Ah ok I had not considered great people. The fact that they are so powerful makes the expenditure on culture to get them worthwhile.

What advantage does having a larger city borders give? You can work any tile anyway, so that's not it. Is the only advantage combat/blocking wise?

I just have the feeling I'm missing a huge trick with culture. I never build cultural buildings unless going for a culture win. :confused:

Culture can probably keep your own cities from flipping, as well. If your culture is weak, then other civs with stronger cultures have a clear advantage in that regard.

It'll also prevent friendly civs from crossing your territory.

Ah ok I had not considered great people. The fact that they are so powerful makes the expenditure on culture to get them worthwhile.

What advantage does having a larger city borders give? You can work any tile anyway, so that's not it. Is the only advantage combat/blocking wise?

I just have the feeling I'm missing a huge trick with culture. I never build cultural buildings unless going for a culture win. :confused:


Large borders can give more tiles to use Guerrilla and also if you have an enemy city close, you are going to start using his tiles and eventually, if he does not construct the wall, flip without any help of a Great Artist.

:blush: I just read the civilopedia entry and it tells me everything I wanted to know.

TIP for all - RTFM!

Ah ok I had not considered great people. The fact that they are so powerful makes the expenditure on culture to get them worthwhile.

What advantage does having a larger city borders give? You can work any tile anyway, so that's not it. Is the only advantage combat/blocking wise?

I just have the feeling I'm missing a huge trick with culture. I never build cultural buildings unless going for a culture win. :confused:


Besides great people, and the larger borders to know if someone is trying to invade or cross your territory, the other bonus is getting to culture flip cities.

Culture flipping does not usually incite war with the AI (even on deity). You usually get an archer (or whatever relevant unit) unit/army in the culture flipped city. So you already have defensive units you didn't have to build yourself, and now you have another city to produce whatever you want. Because it was culture flipped and you did not have to expend any production to militarily take the town over, you can spend your time focusing on the next town to overrun.

On a side note, if one of my towns seems close to culture flipping, I move all my units out of town so they do not get usurped by the other culture (which they would if they remained in the town).

I may have to try a variant game where I can only aquire new cities through culture, not by force/settler. I'd learn a thing or two then :lol:

On a side note, if one of my towns seems close to culture flipping, I move all my units out of town so they do not get usurped by the other culture (which they would if they remained in the town).Newbie question: how does one determine if one's city is "close" to flipping?

In your cities you can see a banner displaying you team's colour. if an enemy's culture is taking hold in a city of yours, you'll see a flashing banner of that team's colour.

IE: if you're greek and egypt is close to flipping a city of yours, you'll see the standard teal-colour banner for greece, and a large flashing yellow banner for egypt.

I'm five turns from winning a cultural victory as Lincoln/American on King. If I make it, it will be my first CivRev win.

Yippee for me!

The trick your probably missing about not building culture buildings is simply that you've been lucky and/or spent alot of hammers on city walls.

If the AI near you doesn't bother with alot of culture buildings, it doesn't really matter if you don't build many either (aside from the great people production and going for a cultural victory).

However, if the AI near you is focusing on culture, and you don't have any yourself (or city walls), your cities will start flipping pretty quick.

You can't work on a tile in someone elses culture.
If an enemys culture is soo great it can literally surround and swamp your city lol. Leaving it with no tiles at all. ( I did this to birmingham, it had a wall so i couldnt flip it until i built hollywood.)

I was able to obtain three cities by boosting my culture rate last night. It is satisfying to get a city this way. Also, you can focus on buildings and wonders instead of military units.

After winning the majority of my Civ4 games with domination victories, it's nice to go for victory with a new angle.

If an enemy's culture is soo great it can literally surround and swamp your city lol. Leaving it with no tiles at all. ( I did this to birmingham, it had a wall so i couldnt flip it until i built hollywood.)

You can also send in spies to destroy the city wall (as long as it's not a capital).

I did this in my last game as England, and destroyed a culture-pressed Mongol city's wall TWICE. Each time I could see the city was about to flip (I could see my flag in their city, flashing), and each time the rushed the wall the same turn. In frustration I built Hollywood but the city never flipped. Ended up with an Economic win, in the end.

Newbie question: how does one determine if one's city is "close" to flipping?

You will see two flags in the city, one yours, the other your opponent's. If your flag is much bigger, it's close to flipping :)

Sometimes your advisors will let you know when you are close to losing a city; even though they can be as annoying as hell : )

Ah ok I had not considered great people. The fact that they are so powerful makes the expenditure on culture to get them worthwhile.

What advantage does having a larger city borders give? You can work any tile anyway, so that's not it. Is the only advantage combat/blocking wise?

I just have the feeling I'm missing a huge trick with culture. I never build cultural buildings unless going for a culture win. :confused:

actually u can ONLY work the tiles within your borders, so expanding your borders is vital. Look under the section MANAGING WORKERS on page 18 in the manual and it explains this.