A few cabbagehead questions about BnW.

Ok, I just finished my homework (retired military, going back to college) so before I try once again to succeed at the newly installed BNW I have a few questions.

If I want a culture victory, is France a good choice? They have a bonus on culture, but I have little to no idea what else the chatuea does. I've played GaK with them, but I always get an SS victory.

I know theres a hit for this in diplomacy, but I always say no, go %$#@! yourself when the AI asked me to not settle near them. That's because I refuse to not expand in places with resources just because it upsets them. They'd do it in a minute to me. HOw big a hit is it? On the rare occasion when I may agree it seems that promise takes a very long to wear off.

Do the AIs go straight for writing now? I've noticed in BNW that they ALL seem to want embassies very early on now. I know its so they can locate my capital, but they all seem to be blowing through the tech tree pretty quick.

Of course any suggestions on how to deal with the magical multiplying barbarians would be helpful.

How important are caravans? I don't think it would be possible to make any gold without them from what I've seen so far.

France is ok at CV. I personally don't really care what civ I choose, they all seem to be able to get the job done. If they have any perks for a particular victory condition, all the merrier. France should be perfectly fine. Better than average, I'm sure.

If you have any plan to expand further, you should never tell them you won't expand further. Breaking that promise is FAR worse than telling them off from the get go.

What difficulty are you playing at? At high difficulties, the AI gets free techs to start with, but even on Immortal, I do get writing before the AI often, depending on the civ. You will be behind for a while on tech. On Immortal, I don't expect to have a lead until the Renaissance.

Caravans are huge. Get your granary first, then send caravans/cargo ships to your cities so they grow fast. It close to your #1 priority.

As far as barbarians go, I'm not sure what the best strategy is, but I tend to leave them alone, and place blockers between my civ and where they are to prevent them from messing with my workers and tiles. I try to wait to take out their camps until after city states put a quest out for killing them. This leads to CS allies.