Separate "culture capital" for domination victory ?

After a few late game failed attempts (both with tradition and liberty) at world domination on deity I've reached the conclusion all the culture @#$% needs to go out of the (science/NC) capital and set up shop into a dedicated culture city ... Maritime city states don't grow on trees .. Trade routes are essential for science leech early and then bring in massive amounts of cash from external routes . Cannot afford to waste too many on food buffs (unless totally isolated/ Venice) ..

There is simply too much #$% to build and even a tradition powered trade route food boosted super tall capital cannot build it all (deity) ...

Unlike science {Library//Public School} (I might be unaware) there is no culture trait that scales with the number of population in the city (tradition/monarchy)..

Freeing the capital of guild building and running the culture specialists (6+ ?) and culture landmarks should free up enough hammers in the (science/NC/) capital for fun stuff like the heroic epic and military units ...

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Will not need to grow overly big but will need to have above average production to kick out the culture buildings in time ... Source of fresh water (garden) very valuable .. Coastal access for inbound cargo ship food buffs also nice to have ..

Location of National Epic will vary according to current in-game needs/opportunity (scientists/artists) ..


Will give it a go see how/if it works ..

I think you might need 2 rather than 1 cultural, or maybe even 3 cultural cities. Having them focus on a guild each to conserve food so they can grow themselves, while adding more possibility for landmarks in each of them [After all, its not like every landmark is going to spawn in that 1 city's borders]

The 3 separate cultural city strat has been working well for me and I end up with 40-60 tourism in the early game partially because of it. With 3 separate cultural cities you can also have them focus on great scientists too, so it doesn't cut down on culture/yet keeps them growing fast enough

Gucumatz said:

I think you might need 2 rather than 1 cultural, or maybe even 3 cultural cities. Having them focus on a guild each to conserve food so they can grow themselves, while adding more possibility for landmarks in each of them [After all, its not like every landmark is going to spawn in that 1 city's borders]

The 3 separate cultural city strat has been working well for me and I end up with 40-60 tourism in the early game partially because of it. With 3 separate cultural cities you can also have them focus on great scientists too, so it doesn't cut down on culture/yet keeps them growing fast enough

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Culture is not like faith - there are some % modifiers (Hermitage//..) that only apply to 1 city .. Stuffing all the culture stuff into one city maximizes the % bonuses

peddroelm said:

Culture is not like faith - there are some % modifiers (Hermitage//..) that only apply to 1 city .. Stuffing all the culture stuff into one city maximizes the % bonuses

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I agree with this, if you're going Tradition. Tall as tall can be and get everything into your capital. The tenet for +1 local happiness/national wonder also scales well there, since you have Monarchy to convert 1 national wonder into 2 pop worth of happiness.


When going non-tradition, wide (Liberty or other) then spreading out the guilds is also a good idea. Yes you miss the Hermitage collecting all 3 guilds, but you'll need far less population to run them.

I've come to the same conclusion, my liberty capital cannot keep 6 tourism/culture specialists and 3 science specialists even with several food caravans sending food there. Or it can, but then it will have absolutely no hammers to do anything else. Especially if you are planning to plant some academies, taking even more food and hammers away from the city.

Probably more than one cultural like Gucumatz said, without going tall it's very hard to staff the guilds in one city.

I just finished a cultural victory as Indonesia. I found it much easier to build the Writer's Guild in the capital early, the Artist's Guild in my second city, and the Musician's Guild in my third city, as opposed to building all of the guilds in my capital, as I had done in my first cultural game as new France

Did a deity tradition 4 city science victory with Russia test game.. It worked great .

Had most of the culture moved to the second city that ended up running 10 specialist in the end game (6 culture guilds + 4 science) and also was even able to hard build Broadway with the help from a hammer buff trade route ... Also a few national wonders - hermitage, national epic, heroic epic (misplaced the Oxford into a third city) .. Archaeological landmark within borders of the culture/tourism capital would have been icing on top but no such luck ..


And it was a great relief for the science/economic monarchy capital that only had to run at most 4 science specialists and was able to grow and build other stuff such as Big Ben & Eiffel Tower ..

4-th city got the Neuschwanstein ..

Siam got mega culture and bugged me with over 30 ideology unhappiness at some points but was able to stay on top of it ..

Policy wise - tradition - commerce till the discount buy policy, aesthetics opener great culture persons generation , order ideology for happiness, production GP bonus generation and another purchase discount and finally full rationalism...

So I was able to buy most late game buildings for greatly reduced prices ...
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Had no religion - pitiful faith generation all game -barely got the 1k for the Hubble GE ..


Gazillion Research agreements. Capital reached 30 pop by end game , rest 3 cities went over 20 .. No CS allies form most of the game (Mongols killed 5 in the early game - brought a mercantile one for the end game as Siam's ideology/tourism pressure was starting to hurt)

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Overall seems science victory got much easier (safe bet) than in G&K .. (had a bit of space in between Genghis, Hiawatha & Gustav ... No way I was going to get away with 270 turns of peace from all of them in G&K ... )

Hopefully will be able to use some of the stuff learned in this one for a domination win - much much trickier than in G&K IMO ...

One thing to bear in mind - since production of GAWPs a cultural victory), and (obviously) GAWPs do not need to create the GWs in the city in which they are born, I think there is a very strong argument for building your guilds in other city or cities than your actual cultural city/capital.

On the other hand, there is a strong incentive to stuffing all your GWs into a single city - the one that will end up building the National Visitors Centre and the Hermitage (for France, this city is, obviously, Paris).

I never build more than one guild in my capital/cultural city - it's just not worth it, even if you consider the National Epic bonus.

Edit: Someone mentioned you'd want the Hermitage in the same city where all the guilds are located? Why? I mean I know the artist specialists generate some culture, but this is pittance compared to everything else.

For going wide, I stick each Guild in a different city, making sure they all have a river or lake. Writer's Guild usually goes in the capital, simply because that's ready to build one first. As for +% culture bonuses, I would beeline for the Sistine Chapel, as it gives a bonus to ALL cities, and not just the one it's built in. Plus two GWA slots.

I have not yet tried going tall in BNW, though I most likely will when I finally get to Venice.

It does certainly seem that, now more than ever, specializing your cities is a must, even if you only have a few. There's simply far too many buildings you have to build, and doing it all in each of your cities is downright impossible to maintain.

In a general sense, early-game you want a trade-oriented city closer to others, a military-oriented one around there and blockading your capital, a high-food place to build guilds and other specialist buildings, and as always a high-production capital for your wonders and whatnot.

I've found that now more than ever, specialty cities are a thing. I've found 5 tall cities is the sweet spot, whether you plan to add wide satellites or not.

#1 - a culture capital, always on a river for garden, ideally 2+ food resources. Runs 2, ideally 3 guilds and gets hermitage.
#2 - a large trade city. centrally located, river & coastal ideal, at the most luxury and strategic rich place possible. Gets a guild for luxury snagging border growth if the culture capital is less than ideal.
#3 - a science city. This is also my great person spam city, 3 or 4 scientist academies and spare great prophets, gets NC and focuses on growth and science. This is usually my capital.
#4 - a barracks type heroic epic military spammer for self-defense and taking all the things. Preferably coastal for +15% boatery.
#5 - a large production city for versatile fast production. Wonder sniping, when appropriate, archeologists, happiness, anything time sensitive.

This is my current strategy, I'm an immortal+ level BNW, was deity level in G&K.