I appreciate all the interesting discussion and opinion!
Only 30%, the other 70% are the usual landmarks/artifacts.
I disagree with this, because it's late game, you should bulbing the Great Writers. Before even opening Exploration, your first two GW should be in amphitheaters or the NW you mention. Then they get traded and moved to Oxford as soon as you have that for theming bonus. Unless you have other wonders for theming bonuses, I think it is a pretty easy case to make for bulbing GW after the first two.
Ahhh correct (it's been some time since I did a full Exploration game). Yes you can get the choice of the great work of writing OR a cultural renaissance (obviously the culture is the better option). If you're that short of tourism that you need the GWW then you're probably not going to be able to win a culture game anyways.
I just tried a heavy exploration game: Carthage, Immortal, small continents plus, large map for an expansive culture victory.
I got the Great Library early (lucky Writing discovery from a ruin) and used that to tech IronWorking and build Colossus. Then I teched Optics and got the Great Lighthouse. Unconventional I know & messy since both those wonders are opposite ends of the tech tree but I wanted to play a good water game and I like those 2 Wonders.
Practically thought it didn't really pay off, neglecting the National College never works out too well.
I put a policy to open Tradition then I filled out the Liberty tree, from there straight into Exploration until half way (then detoured to Rationalism) & back to Exploration,
Thoughts: Well I discovered every civ first (kudos to Exploration opener & Great Lighthouse...) You know caravals can gain +4 sight (G Lighthouse, Exploration, caravel bonus, level 2 promotion...)so I could propose the World Fair.
At that point I had expanded to about 8 cities (I was hoping to play wider earlier but there weren't as many good city spots available as I hoped so I needed navigation).
Anyway Exploration & Liberty really does make expansion easy (throw in Colossus for the extra trade route). Every city you plant gets an immediate free Harbor as Carthage so thats 2 happiness off the beat.
The bonuses get even better once you get to Order and unlock 5 year plan and Party Leadership. All in all Liberty, Exploration & Order can give your base city + 7 hammers. Once you combine these policies which give +1 gold from maritime & science buildings city income really pays off. Late atomic era I was surplusing about 900 gold per turn.
In the end its a strategy that makes a mega superpower civ but the catch is.
1) Even with Great Library science in the mid game slowed so I was beaten to Radio and missed both Broadway and Eiffel Tower (This is where a Tradition start would excel). I don't really care about Broadway but Eiffel Tower I really like to get. So tourism was lower that it should have been. Culture ruins I had Great Library, Sistine Chapel, Louvre, Sydney Opera House. I had that many artifacts that about 11 cities had museums.
2) It's tricky getting the National Wonders. Hermitage is really important and you want it ideally no later than when the World Fair pops. Fortunately the Aesthetics policy helps with this. If you have a religion maybe start it in a non-capital city so you don't have to build the Grand Temple in the capital (free-ing it for National College)
3) Overextension - Civs don't like you plopping cities everywhere and if your hammers are going into Wonders then watch your back. Fortunately a maritime empire is reasonably easy to defend so long as you have some decent navy. If you have to lose a city then let it go (you can always reclaim it later - better to consolidate your existing assets)
4) Tradition Opener is really important. I do think if you can get that early culture ruin, your first policy in Tradition will make things much easier down the track - for instance if you plop down a mid game city once it is working its landmark the culture bonus is so good that borders expand really quickly. It sucks having to spend 300 gold to buy a tile if you see an AI settler moving 4 spaces away from your new city.
5) Expand fast- have extra settlers on standby even on the edge of an ocean (until you get Navigation) - AI Civs will colonise quickly so you need to be first in to get the best city sites. Try and get to Archaeology asap so you know where the landmarks are for culture/tourism. That should be first or second tech into the Industrial era.
6)Diety - not recommended!
Also Small continents plus seems to generate some nice mountain ranges & I'm surprised how useful mountains are to Carthage. Elephants and Knights can sneak around quite easily and avoid getting into trouble.