Culture T2 D1: 130K Strategy

How should we go about getting 130K culture?

The Culture Consulate recommends that we hold off on early culture. We will need at least 130 cities with at least a temple and library. This means that we need to be able to support the maintenence of these. Any early culture we build will hurt our ability to effectively research and will hurt our ability to field an Army.

This doesn't mean we should avoid these buildings like the plague. We should build these buildings when we have a decent reason. For example, I expect the R&T Consul to recommend that we build Libraries in our core cites to boost our ability for self-research.

Considering that war is looming, one possibility that we should consider is should we :whip: Dutch and Indian citizens to produce Temples or Libraries in captured cities?

I've got 2.5 100K culture wins under my personal belt (one GOTM fastest win, one HOF entry, and I'm playing in SGOTM6) but I've never played C3C.

Please discuss.

Then we'll need some intense warfare first... and atleast 50-100 cities by the industrial era. This might mean conquering atleast 50% of the pangaea, which it's appearing to be.

Well, remember, the earlier we build the culture buildings, the more culture we'll accumilate. Having 130 cities with five culture points per turn is only 650 culture per turn. At that rate, we'll need 200 turns. If we're going about victory your way, then we better get planning.

From SGOTM6, culture games I've played and other games I've studied it appears to me that the Consuls plan is right. The priority is to get to the domination limit as quickly as possible. During this time build only the culture you need for other reasons. Then ICS from the edge back to the core. All corrupt cities produce nothing but wealth and (settlers in high growth corrupt towns), join in native workers to corrupt cities to hurry more settlers. Rail and irrigate everything. No buildings in corrupt towns at all except for temples and libraries. Peel settlers off to reduce the need for specialists.

Remember that we can use engineers to hurry non-unit builds.

I agree, get to that domination limit ASAP then ICS build to maximise the number of cities building culture.

mad-bax said:

The priority is to get to the domination limit as quickly as possible. During this time build only the culture you need for other reasons.

Click to expand...

Agree with M-B, Moth, & Furiey. Winning through culture means first that you don't allow another civ to win through other means. There's no better way to do this than by beating up most of the rest of the world. Plus we'll need to take their cities; easier to let them build them than for us to have to produce a tsunami of settlers.

Once we have sufficient cities we can switch to builder mode.

I've done it both ways, and a mixture is appealing. Say for example build temples and libraries at an average of 10-15% of cities working on improvements, targeted in the places they do the most good. That way we're not starting from zero when the big push comes. Also look to ramp up infrastructure well before we hit the domination limit, maybe 40% or a little more depending on how big the top competition is. Balance will keep more people involved in the game. Micromanagement will get really fun when Engineers are available. Too bad they come so late in the game -- something I would have modded if the people were in favor of it.

For very accurate play the trick is to stop building units once you have enough to get to the domination limit, and start the culture push then. If you get to the domination limit with just one unit standing, then you have played well. We will build libraries for research, we will build temples to relieve cultural pressure and reduce flip risks. We may even build the odd university and cathederal here and there. But in the conquest phase we should build units, markets, courthouses and some harbours... but mostly units.