Glorious victory:
Note the army crammed around Ragusa. I was at war with culture-leader Hiawatha and used this corridor to funnel through Great Musicians. Sadly, I cost myself a turn of victory by liberating Ragusa shortly beforehand, as I couldve gotten my Musicians to Hiawatha faster if he had that city. It wouldve been cool to get under turn 240 one turn isnt much of a difference, but it feels bigger when its moving the tens digit.
The bulk of my base tourism is coming from wonder culture via the Cultural Heritage Sites proposal. I have 14 wonders in Cusco, so the three culture per wonder from that proposal is generating 84 tourism before modifiers all by itself. Multipliers from Internet, International Games, World Religion, and Freedom are all stacking up big time. I also have six artifacts in the capital and one landmark each in Machu and Tiwanuka.
Heres my complete list of world wonders (all in the capital, in order of when I built them): Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Machu Picchu, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Taj Mahal, Forbidden Palace, Porcelain Tower, Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Cristo Redentor, CN Tower, Neuchwanstein, Great Firewall
Notably absent from that list: Sistine Chapel, Uffizi, Louvre, Broadway
I got all but one wonder I tried for. The one I missed was Angkor Wat, which I definitely haven't ever built on Deity. My cities were growing so fast that the tile expansion seemed like it would've actually been really good. Oh well.
The World Congress was very valuable for me. I was able to propose Worlds Fair on the first Congress. I won the Fair and popped 4 Great Writers during those 20 turns for mega culture. Second Congress I proposed Cultural Heritage Sites. The AI proposed and passed Arts Funding I really couldn't decide whether this was a good thing or not, so I just put all my delegates into ensuring Cultural Heritage Sites went through. On the third Congress I proposed World Religion afterwards I realized that may have been a mistake and going straight for International Games wouldve been better. Then I checked, and it turned out the AI had proposed International Games for me. So I was able to actually have it all.
Here are my policies:
I thought it would be cool to avoid Aesthetics entirely, but I ended up with extra endgame culture and nothing better to do with it than speed up Musician generation marginally. I was also thinking that I might buy up Great Musicians in 40 turns or so if I somehow failed to win during International games. I actually wouldve completed Future Tech by then if it came to that.
Musicians Guild was not completed until the turn before I started working on the International Games. I generated two Musicians during the Games, and that was enough to win it. Hiawatha was the leader, with only like 22,000 culture. Amusingly, it seems that the lack of cultural city-states on the map may have been helpful for Culture Victory, as that slowed the AIs culture growth a lot.
My science was absolutely ridiculous this game. I was the tech leader by turn 130. I finished Plastics on turn 174. I completed the Internet by around turn 205. I think this was just an extremely favorable map for the Inca infinite food + infinite hammers + Observatories everywhere + defensible terrain is a good combination. I would've set a personal record no matter which (non-Domination) victory condition I went for.
I didnt start any wars myself, but I got DOWed a few times four times by Assyria, and once each by Mongolia, Russia, and the Iroquois. Assyria ended up paying me for peace every time. I felt safe enough that I didnt bother much with war bribes (although I did send Russia after Mongolia once, when half my troops were occupied with Assyria and the other half were surrounding Monaco to prevent my "friend" Genghis from conquering it). I had so many hills and chokepoints that nobody could really threaten me, and war bribes do run the risk of creating runaways (in addition to just costing money, which can be spent on other things). These days I bribe a lot less than I did when I first started playing on Deity.