Is there a Cultural VC guide somewhere?

I'm trying to win the GOTM on a replay (Deity, Cultural VC) and as I look at the tourism screen, I realize that I have no idea what all the information means. All I know is the competition is generating hundreds of little suitcases, while I'm generating about 20.

Has someone started a thread somewhere that explains how to win with this VC, and strategies for success? The help screens in game are a little non-obvious.

e.g. Why would I even want to trade great works with other civs?

This thread might help http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=510777

Thanks much. Wow, this is way more complicated than I thought.

dthompson32 said:

Thanks much. Wow, this is way more complicated than I thought.

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You are welcome.. Yeah took me a while to get it myself.

I'd just like to add that the key to a Culture Victory is Theming Bonuses and Multipliers.

Buildings which have slots for more than one work of art/writing/music/artefact all have a 'Theming Bonus'. In the 'Your Culture' tab of the Culture Panel, when you have built one of these buildings you will see a +0 to the right of the slots. Hover over the +0 with your mouse and you will get a pop up which tells you what conditions you need to meet to score a Theming Bonus for that building.

For example, if you build a Museum you need to fill the two slots with either Art or Artefacts but both have to be the same (either two pieces of Art or two Artefacts but not one of each). The two pieces should also be from the same Era (Ancient, Classical etc) and both should be from either your Civ or any Civs other than your own.

If you meet all the criteria you score the Theming Bonus and will get an extra point of Tourism for each slot that the building has (so a Museum will give +2 Tourism as a Theming Bonus). Some Wonders have 4 slots so you can score a +4 Theming Bonus on these. Each building will have different conditions to meet its Theming Bonus and some are easier to achieve than others.

It's because of the Theming Bonus mechanism that the ability to Swap Great Works is available (it's a bit like trading cards!).

Multipliers to your Tourism output are also very important and they come from a variety of different areas of the game. For example, you will get multipliers to your Tourism against a specific Civ when you meet the following Criteria:

• You have Open Borders (+25%)
• You share a Religion (+25%)
• You have a trade route with that Civ (+25%)
• You share an Ideology (+25%)
• You have differing Ideologies but you have a Diplomat spreading propaganda (varies?)

There are others and there are also penalties as well. Furthermore, the AI gets the same bonuses against you so if they have a trade route with you but you don't have one with them for example, they have an edge with their Tourism influence.

There are a lot of Policies, Beliefs, Tenets, Buildings and Wonders that can boost or multiply Tourism too (and later in the game there are mechanics which will convert some of your Culture into Tourism as well). France, Brazil and India are three Civs who have Unique Abilities or Buildings which directly contribute to Tourism too.

Hope this helps!

Instead of concerning yourself with numbers and stuff. Do as I do, as soon as I see that some civ has bigger tourism output than me, I use my GWAMs to create as many Great Works as I can until I surpass them. When I do that I start using them for some other stuff. If you are on good terms with a civ establish a trade route and open borders, and convert religion (if they don't have their own), if you are on bad terms use diplomats to spread propaganda or simply convert all their cities to your religion. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the explanations, folks. The theme bonuses was an important feature that I didn't know about at all.

Also, once you get to the final portion of the game, if you haven't already won by then, there are two key things to help you massively boost you tourism 'for the kill', as it were- the National Visitor Center wonder, and the 'Internet' tech. The first raises your tourism by 50% (need to have built a hotel in all cities first), the second doubles it. Coup de grace stuff if you're still up against a stubborn tourism opponent or two who just won't go down easy.

Smokeybear said:

Also, once you get to the final portion of the game, if you haven't already won by then, there are two key things to help you massively boost you tourism 'for the kill', as it were- the National Visitor Center wonder, and the 'Internet' tech. The first raises your tourism by 50% (need to have built a hotel in all cities first), the second doubles it. Coup de grace stuff if you're still up against a stubborn tourism opponent or two who just won't go down easy.

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National Visitors Center raises tourism by 100%, even better.

Really, the only way to win CV consistently on deity is to play as Brazil
Their 100% bonus during GA is additive with open borders, trade routes, etc., giving you much more leeway diplomatically (you no longer have to be nice to everyone and hence keeps friends more easily) the worst case is a civ completely shuts you out they still get a +66% modifier.

Also the strength of GMs born during GAs is doubled meaning that you do not need international games.

Seriously if you can overcome the jungle start to not fall behind in science, it matters not if you miss all the renaissance wonders; you can easily hit 800 tourism during a GA... as long as you make sure to keep the GA going (save great artists late game and during GA they spawn faster anyway) you usually win.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=508392

If you are looking for some variety of approaches or tips, the above link may be useful to actually play one game and compare with others.

kb27787 said:

Really, the only way to win CV consistently on deity is to play as Brazil
Their 100% bonus during GA is additive with open borders, trade routes, etc., giving you much more leeway diplomatically (you no longer have to be nice to everyone and hence keeps friends more easily) the worst case is a civ completely shuts you out they still get a +66% modifier.

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Brazil with Chit'Itza and Freedom (2nd tier) creates very long Golden Ages where your tourism is blasting