Just be smart about it. So bulb GAs right after a natural one (so as not to increase the cost of the natural one prematurely). Bulb GW just as a Golden Age is ending. Those bulbs can really help defend against tourism pressure.I never thought of bulging GAs early in the game, but it would give a boost to culture.
I am familiar with the difficulty settings tables. But something just does not add up! Most Deity games there is one or two AIs who have tourism pressure that is off the hook. Where is that coming from? The culture output already seems inexplicable, like there must be some other undocumented bonus, but I can attribute that well enough to the cheaper earlier buildings, and all the synergy as you say. Fine.As you can see from this guide, the only bonus that really helps with culture directly is the reduced policy cost for the AI, which is set at 75% for all difficulty levels.
But the thing about Civ 5 is that all variables are interconnected, so the reduced unit cost, and the science buffs, etc, etc, means that they can progress faster, build culture buildings faster, and therefore improve their culture more.
But if the player is not going for a CV, why does the AI producing lots of culture even matter?
Where is the Ideology pressure coming from so early? Sure, the AIs build their guilds early and liberally create GW. When I play that way, I get maybe 50 tourism (prior to NVC and Internet and filling out Aesthetics). I don’t ignore my cultural game, especially since unlocking SP is fun! So how is the AI tourism overcoming my culture so dramatically in most games? The math simply does not seem like it adds up!