Peaceful Culture Victories

pvtjava · Sep 1, 2013

I was wondering about how quickly it might be possible to achieve a cultural victory through peaceful means. This doesn't necessarily mean no war; just not targeting high culture civs and just defending yourself for the most part.

Please state difficulty and map conditions.

I usually play as France for theme bonuses; chateaus are nice too.
Prince difficulty for Wonder spam.
Standard size Pangaea (don't like managing navies).
I tend to reduce civs from 8 to 6; increase city-states from 16 to 20.

So far my best is turn 341. Germany was the last holdout but I was dominant on 3 of the 5. Germany always seems to get huge in my games.

I only build a capitol, but 1-2 cities usually flip to me late game. this seems to make it harder. Once I was nearing 200 in happiness and 2 of Alexander's cities flipped and and dragged me below 150 and game went well into 400s(turns). He also kept stealing my CS allies which didn't help. Nearly bankrupted me keeping up.

eewallace · Sep 1, 2013

I have played quite a few games on prince and king (standard map) and had culture victories with Shoshone, Brazil, France and Poland. France was actually the most difficult--possibly because Alexander was in the game (he usually is a difficult opponent). I think my best win was at about turn 260. I usually have 4-6 cities, so I have places to put great works. Also, I make sure I have cities placed so my cargo ships can get to all other civs for the trade route bonus. And I buy "open borders" with all of them toward the end of the game. I have found that it is almost impossible to keep the "shared religion" bonus in the late game, so I seldom even try.

CountAccountant · Sep 1, 2013

pvtjava said:
I was wondering about how quickly it might be possible to achieve a cultural victory through peaceful means. This doesn't necessarily mean no war; just not targeting high culture civs and just defending yourself for the most part.

Please state difficulty and map conditions.

I usually play as France for theme bonuses; chateaus are nice too.
Prince difficulty for Wonder spam.
Standard size Pangaea (don't like managing navies).
I tend to reduce civs from 8 to 6; increase city-states from 16 to 20.

So far my best is turn 341. Germany was the last holdout but I was dominant on 3 of the 5. Germany always seems to get huge in my games.

I only build a capitol, but 1-2 cities usually flip to me late game. this seems to make it harder. Once I was nearing 200 in happiness and 2 of Alexander's cities flipped and and dragged me below 150 and game went well into 400s(turns). He also kept stealing my CS allies which didn't help. Nearly bankrupted me keeping up.

The earliest I've seen was before 80 turns on settler. A lot of people have gotten victories around turn 100 at higher victories.

The key is the reformation policy that gives tourism for faith puchased buildings + spamming cities. All were on pangea maps.

pvtjava · Sep 1, 2013

eewallace said:
I usually have 4-6 cities, so I have places to put great works.

Usually have plenty of room for GW. All Wonders plus National Wonders plus other buildings in cap. With only one city I guess I take a hit on overall CPT by worrying about getting policies faster. I am probably waiting to long to build GP guilds prioritizing Wonders first.

eewallace said:
Also, I make sure I have cities placed so my cargo ships can get to all other civs for the trade route bonus.

I am definitely missing out here. No coastal city usually.

eewallace said:
And I buy "open borders" with all of them toward the end of the game.

I do this too.

eewallace said:
I have found that it is almost impossible to keep the "shared religion" bonus in the late game, so I seldom even try.

Haven't really worried about this. Could come into play if religious power were a cultural power too?

Yzman · Sep 1, 2013

Not counting the faith buildings strat, I usually get a cultural victory at around 280-320. I typically play on king and continents.

Also wonder spam is not the most important thing, nor is prioritizing getting MANY policies. You want large cities so you can use lots of specialists and get those guilds up and running as soon as possible. Focus on theming bonuses. Wonders with theming bonuses are the most important. Peaceful is easy since you can get the trade route and open border bonuses easily, and maybe get the religion one if you are lucky.

I've gotten cultural victories with Venice ( Autocracy, not a peaceful game, wiped out Gandhi near end)
Shoshone ( Order, totally peaceful entire game)
France ( Freedom, totally peaceful)

pvtjava · Sep 1, 2013

CountAccountant said:
The earliest I've seen was before 80 turns on settler. A lot of people have gotten victories around turn 100 at higher victories.

Wow. Is that standard speed? I forgot to put mine in OP.

CountAccountant said:
The key is the reformation policy that gives tourism for faith puchased buildings + spamming cities. All were on pangea maps.

This is bad for me on both counts, I think. No Piety(I think that's where Reformation is) and only one city.

Arachnofiend · Sep 1, 2013

The Sacred Sites strategy is incredibly luck dependent and is one of those things that people do to get a really low turn time and just reroll until they get a start that allows it. The more reliable strategy is to play science until you get to Internet and musician bomb the culture leader. You can probably expect to win around 280-320 if you play well.

pvtjava · Sep 1, 2013

Yzman said:
Also wonder spam is not the most important thing...

...Focus on theming bonuses. Wonders with theming bonuses are the most important.

I know. But its always... Hey, I can get that one too! But I'm gonna try.

Yzman said:
nor is prioritizing getting MANY policies.

I will also try not to worry about this so much.

Yzman said:
You want large cities so you can use lots of specialists and get those guilds up and running as soon as possible.

Will 3-4 cities be enough? Should I get National Wonders first(no theming)? Nat. Coll. and Epic seem like must haves.

Yzman said:
I've gotten cultural victories with Venice (Autocracy, not a peaceful game, wiped out Gandhi near end)

With Venice did you purchase CS, take other civ-cities, or both?

eewallace · Sep 1, 2013

Regarding religion/culture, it is a good combination. I almost always try to get a religion (although I don't necessarily take alot of piety policies) simply because gold and happiness are so important in the early part of the game, regardless of the type of victory you are going for, and religion can help alot with both gold and happiness. Tithe is good. And so are cathedrals for culture victory. And the hermitage enhancement.

pvtjava · Sep 1, 2013

eewallace said:
Regarding religion/culture, it is a good combination. I almost always try to get a religion (although I don't necessarily take alot of piety policies) simply because gold and happiness are so important in the early part of the game, regardless of the type of victory you are going for, and religion can help alot with both gold and happiness. Tithe is good. And so are cathedrals for culture victory. And the hermitage enhancement.

I am usually either first or second to found a religion, although I go for the production bonuses(Pantheon usually +15% to A/C Wonder production; first two religion beliefs are usually +15 to CS and +% to production from followers(max 15). I pick up Hermitage bonus on second round of beliefs.)

footslogger · Sep 1, 2013

eewallace said:
And I buy "open borders" with all of them toward the end of the game.

For how much gold? I found it impossible to get open borders from some civs late game.

eewallace · Sep 1, 2013

footslogger said:
For how much gold? I found it impossible to get open borders from some civs late game.

On king, with lots of ongoing diplomacy (including occasional gifts) I can usually get open borders either as an even exchange for open borders, or for 1 or 2 gold per turn.

Tachii · Sep 1, 2013

I'd go read this guide here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=501996

Sometime if you're bent on fast CVs it might just be worthwhile to wipe the cultural giants with their cultural wonders. But peaceful gets the job done usually as long as you aren't playing Immortal+.

I think T270 is pretty fast (avoiding the Sacred Site strategy).

I myself plan on Fractal/Standard/Immortal, but I use only CV minded civs to do it (I like Mayans the best). Consistently get wins around T280-310.

Walter E Kurtz · Sep 2, 2013

Venice on Immortal. Standard size, speed and archipelago type map. I managed to grab most wonders and cruised to cultural victory without a single fight - but can't remember the number of turns needed. Definately not too long. I'd say somewhere around the year 1900.

Stacking sea based food and production trade routes is pretty ridiculous.

pvtjava · Sep 2, 2013

Tachii said:
I'd go read this guide here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=501996

Sometime if you're bent on fast CVs it might just be worthwhile to wipe the cultural giants with their cultural wonders. But peaceful gets the job done usually as long as you aren't playing Immortal+.

I think T270 is pretty fast (avoiding the Sacred Site strategy).

I myself plan on Fractal/Standard/Immortal, but I use only CV minded civs to do it (I like Mayans the best). Consistently get wins around T280-310.

Thank you. This thread is very helpful. I think anything under T300 is a good benchmark for my playstyle. It may even be doable with one city if I avoid unnecessary wonders and policies; gonna hate missing out on all those GE pts. wonders though. Not to mention Terra Army.

Tachii · Sep 2, 2013

Terracotta in BNW is pretty useless now considering it doesn't give culture now.

I recommend Mayans since you can get a GE from their UA to secure Pisa to get another GE for Uffizi or Globe Theater.

I'd say one city challenge for CV is more difficult than before considering it's not dependent directly on culture anymore. You get more tourism with more cities because you can have more museums and more cities to build archeologists.

pvtjava · Sep 2, 2013

Tachii said:
Terracotta in BNW is pretty useless now considering it doesn't give culture now.

It can double the size of your army now. I usually have 1 warrior, 1 archer(hopefully, but not always from scout), 1 spearman and 1 catapult. Double that, keep upgrading, maintain a Military CS friend. By the end, I've usually asked them to stop spawning. No need to build units anymore.

Tachii said:
I recommend Mayans since you can get a GE from their UA to secure Pisa to get another GE for Uffizi or Globe Theater.

I haven't played as Mayans yet, but I have been looking at them as a possibility.

Tachii said:
I'd say one city challenge for CV is more difficult than before considering it's not dependent directly on culture anymore. You get more tourism with cities because you can have more museums and more cities to build archeologists.

It's not that I can't win. As I said in OP, my best is T341. I'm really just looking to see what others can do and maybe for ways to shave a few turns off without altering playstyle too much.

I think the main drawback on the one city style is I don't get that late game science push that others talk about. I maintain a nice lead throughout game but I don't really ever pull far away from top AIs; therefore its later when I get hotels and other late game buildings

Peaceful Culture Victories

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

eewallace

King

CountAccountant

Warlord

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

Yzman

Deity

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

Arachnofiend

Perturbed Pugilist

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

eewallace

King

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

footslogger

Warlord

eewallace

King

Tachii

Procrastinator

Walter E Kurtz

Warlord

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

Tachii

Procrastinator

pvtjava

The Grey Cat

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