Cultural victory, Vanilla/ Warlords differences

[mice]

I wonder if the culture heads out there have some tips for Vanilla culture victories.

I didn't play culture games until warlords, and then only a couple of times. Now I'm interested in Vanilla culture games.

Any tips on what can be leveraged better in vanilla than in warlords would be appreciated.

[Cam_H]

Hi Mice!

My gut feeling is that generally the swing has been against the Culture wins in Warlords - your rival leaders are more inclined to go to war, while the Barbarians are often better organised. The nerfing of the Civil Service slingshot makes the whole game a bit tougher; Cultural or not.

However it's not all bad news! For several tribes in Warlords there are unique buildings that extend a really nice bonus, while the early-ish additional WoWs open new opportunities such as The Great Wall > The Pyramids tactic.

My initial verdict is that overall; vanilla is a smidge less arduous to pull off - especially due to the increased inclination of rival AIs to backstab in my Warlords experience, although you have some leaders in Warlords who have a nice mix of traits and UBs (e.g. Ramesses II, Louis XIV, both Chinese leaders, Alex, and Huayna Capac) that present well for Cultural wins.

[mice]

Thanks Cam. I just started a Vanilla game as Liz, Monarch level.

With 2 gold in the capitals cross I thought CS slingshot! But guess what I popped from a hut? Masonry. It was nostalgic, but no CS sling .

[Cam_H]

You don't happen to have Stone or Marble nearby per chance?