Best strategy for policy making

[Civ4luvah2484]

I'm in the Industrial Era (playing as England) partially aiming for Cultural Victory. I completed Liberty and Tradition. I have three policy trees opened simultaneously (Commerce, Rationalism and just recently opened Freedom). What's the best strategy to finish all three just in time when the Future Era rolls in? My culture rate as of now is somewhere between 100 and 140 (probably 140) and my threshold is 2200.

[Syntax Error]

That's too low. How many cities do you have? Are you using Artist specialists and landmarks? How about cultural CS?

[Matthew.]

Keeping culture at about 10% of policy cost will finish the game at around turn 400-425 or so. Or around mid to late 1900's. e.g., a policy cost of ~2000, you should be close to 200 or more.

I don't know how this current game will play out, but in future games focus on Freedom. It boosts culture in three different ways: Bonus per build world wonder, easier time filling GP slots, and enhanced great tile improvements.

[GAGA Extrem]

(1) Less cities = more SPs. Play a tall empire.
(2) Build culture buildings everywhere ASAP.
(3) Always fill ALL artist slots in your cities.
(4) Settle Great Artists and work the landmarks. Later on, burn them in golden ages to get the +20% culture boost.
(5) Move through the upper part of the tech tree.
(6) Freedom is the way to go for culture: More great people, doubled effect of all GP improvements, more efficient specialists.

[Civ4luvah2484]

Thanks for the tips guys:

If you want to know, my current situation is this:

1. I have 8 cities and my empire looks vaguely like a spoon on the map.
2. My top three largest cities have wonders, culture or otherwise.
3. My two largest cities (London and York) have landmarks next to them.
4. I'm partially going for a cultural victory, and partially because I de-checked the time victory pre-game.

I'm going to try filling all artists slots and build cultural structures...

[GAGA Extrem]

Museums and Broadcast towers are quite important for late game culture.
The two artist slots from the museum make a huge difference, and the broadcast tower +33% culture boost is huge. Culture victory is not too difficult, but it will demand quite some investment.

[Tachii]

Policy wise for a culture victory it is often the strategy to rush into Industrial period to finish Freedom ASAP. It's the really only oriented culture tree that saves a lot of turns. Then head for Rationalism (head down to the +17% university policy), blend a bit of Commerce if you want to rush buy some buildings or units.

Techwise I'd rush for CN Tower. It's probably faster than making broadcast tower in all your cities at this point.

Since you've done Rationalism it's probably best to just do science victory or diplomacy at this point. Probably a lot quicker. Kind of odd to go culture with England, but it's doable for every civ, just some civs does it a lot better.

[Civ4luvah2484]

Originally Posted by Tachii

Policy wise for a culture victory it is often the strategy to rush into Industrial period to finish Freedom ASAP. It's the really only oriented culture tree that saves a lot of turns. Then head for Rationalism (head down to the +17% university policy), blend a bit of Commerce if you want to rush buy some buildings or units.

Techwise I'd rush for CN Tower. It's probably faster than making broadcast tower in all your cities at this point.

Since you've done Rationalism it's probably best to just do science victory or diplomacy at this point. Probably a lot quicker. Kind of odd to go culture with England, but it's doable for every civ, just some civs does it a lot better.

I haven't done Rationalism yet, but I've unlocked one Rationalism policy as of now.

I should have said this at first. In what order should I unlock my policies so I would reach the Utopia Project the fastest?

Tachii's recommendation is good. Any more suggestions?

[RaiddinnRZ]

If you want a culture victory, I would be using Piety instead of Rationalism, that is what I do when I want cultural victories anyway.

Instead of your current strategy, next time you try a cultural victory I would go really tall with 1 or 2 cities and puppet everything you conquer. Fill out Liberty first, then Piety, then work on the city state tree until Freedom opens, then fill out Freedom, then go back to whatever city state stuff is left, then do commerce or one of the other 2 starting ones last.

Do like others said, use the great people slots and try to pump out as many great artists as you can. Settle them on the ground and get +12 culture each with the policy in Freedom.

Make sure you get the + whatever % culture wonders. Sidney Opera House, Hermitage, and stuff like that. For that matter fight tooth and nail to get every wonder with +2 or more culture built into it.

My last culture game I had 1 city that was making 640 culture per turn and it won the game by itself in 1929. That was without any real optimizing.

Research is another big thing too, the faster you research the wonders the faster you can start making them and the more likely you are to complete them. Production is big too, so you can pop them out over and over.

Try perfecting the strategy on Archipelago maps before using it on other stuff like Continents and Pangaea. If you get the Himeji Castle and Kremlin built successfully (3 culture each too iirc) then its really hard for the AI to assault your island, especially with 2 culture policies that give +damage to cities.

On the Archipelago maps, you can go the whole game without building any combat units if you want.

Build order and research order isn't that important, its best to do that stuff reactionary to your situation anyway. If you start with lots of calendar requiring stuff around you then try to get that early. If you start out with lots of masonry stuff around you then get that early instead.

If you are going to restart over and over to go for a nice map setup, look for marble and lots of stuff that works with the monastery. Either of those helps a lot.

[petey]

Ya, Piety works much better than Rationalism for a Cultural Victory. There are two policies which make getting policies cheaper and turning half of excess happiness into culture which are a major boost. Grab those while you're waiting to get into the Industrial Age to unlock Freedom.

Also, instead of getting both Liberty and Tradition, just go with Tradition and build a tall empire while grabbing Patronage policies and allying yourself with cultural CS's. I generally go with Commerce as my fifth policy simply for the gold boost which you get as the opener which helps with that.

It's very hard to "partially" aim for a Cultural Victory and is something that you generally need to set as an early goal. There are a few early to mid game Wonders like Terracotta Army and The Louvre which are generally ignored in a regular game but are important to beeline for quickly when you want to go for culture.

[mintcandy]

Originally Posted by Civ4luvah2484

Thanks for the tips guys:

If you want to know, my current situation is this:

1. I have 8 cities and my empire looks vaguely like a spoon on the map.
2. My top three largest cities have wonders, culture or otherwise.
3. My two largest cities (London and York) have landmarks next to them.
4. I'm partially going for a cultural victory, and partially because I de-checked the time victory pre-game.

I'm going to try filling all artists slots and build cultural structures...

1. Which of those 8 cities did you build with your own settlers, and which of them were built by someone else's settlers? For the ones you didn't build, how many are puppet cities and how many are annexed?

Every city you build or annex increases the cost of social policies significantly. Puppet cities do not increase the cost of social policies...but puppet cities still contribute culture for new social policies.

If all 8 of those cities were built by you OR are annexed by you, it's way too many cities to realistically be trying for a Cultural Victory. Heck, I think even 6 is way too many.

I think the ideal number is around 2-3 native/annexed cities for a culture victory. Anything more just escalates the cost of social policies way too much.

[Agent Cooper]

Yes, 8 cities of your own are way too many. They'll slow you down bigtime, going for a culture win. Ususally, 3 was often mentioned as the optimal number of cities pre-G&K.

I'm trying out with 4 in my first dedicated culture win game with Siam on Imoortal. But I'm playing it as a test game, re-loading etc. to figure out the new wonders, how to implement Religion into a culture win game. Cathedrals, baby...

All other cities in my empire are puppets, conqured from the other civs, yielding gold, beakers and some culture and faith.

I'll also wholeheartly agree with the Piety > Rationalism choice. Freedom is absolutely key as mentioned. Tradition, Liberty, Piety & Freedom are pretty much no brainers. Depending on the game, the last would be Honor, Patronage or Commerce - whatever fits best. For Siam, Patronage seems the most natural choice, with the Aztecs for an agressive culture game fuelled by warfare and unit kills, Honor would be good etc...

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by Civ4luvah2484

I haven't done Rationalism yet, but I've unlocked one Rationalism policy as of now.

I should have said this at first. In what order should I unlock my policies so I would reach the Utopia Project the fastest?

Tachii's recommendation is good. Any more suggestions?

Actually, I'd just buy each culture building with cash as soon as they come available. That way you can both have the culture faster and build other things.

[Mesix]

One more thing is that you should place all of your Landmarks (from great Artists) around the same city (preferably one with a lot of (to run artist specialists) and the Hanging Gardens if you can manage to build it). This is the city where you will build Hermitage and a Broadcast Tower and receive the bonus on all your Landmarks and artists.

In fact, when going for a culture victory, I like to have three specialized cities build wonders. One specializes on (should be near a mountain to get an Observatory) and builds wonders with GS points (Great Library, Oracle, Porcelain Tower). Another (usually the capital) builds GE wonders (Stonehenge, Pyramids, Great Wall, etc.). A third concentrates on and builds all the GA wonders (Hanging Gardens early and a lot of wonder building in the Renaissance which is why I generally build Ironworks in this city). As you generate great people, use the GE to rush wonders, GS to settle as Academies outside your center, and GA should make Landmarks outside your city. Run artists in all the cities in addition to the scientists and engineers that you run in the specialized cities. Get Freedom as fast as possible. At some point, it becomes more useful to stop settling GS and GA and burn them to bulb late game techs and keep a perpetual golden age for extra and to speed up the build time of the Utopia Project.

[Civ4luvah2484]

Thanks everyone! Actually I've gotten a cultural victory as Elizabeth. Thanks again!

[ense7en]

Care to share some screenies?

I love seeing other people's games, especially less "normal ones" like yours where you had so many cities.

[Civ4luvah2484]

I don't remember taking any screenshots of the game, sorry.