Cultural domination and corporations

[rev063]

So, inspired by the story of Passive-Aggressive Hatty, I decided to try my hand at a domination win in an Always Peace game. I played Hatty on a Small Pangea map at Prince level, with Sitting Bull, Toku, Charlemagne, and Ghengis Khan selected as opponents. Really fun game.

The Passive-Aggressive game I linked to above never made it to the Modern era, but mine did. It's amazing how powerful corporations can be when you're going for cultural dominance. I was getting +40 from Sid's Sushi alone. Sid's Sushi's food bonus also made for some huge cities, and running a SE with Sistine Chapel also made for a big culture bonus. Couple that with with the National Park and you've got a specialist powerhouse:

Spoiler:

I had Sid's Sushi and Creative Constructions headquartered in the same city as Wall Street and my major shrine. This city was pumping the cash big-time (over 500 gpt):

Spoiler:

Anyway, if you want to try this out, here's what I learned from the experience:

• Obviously, capturing territory in the early game is key. Try and block expansion by opponents where you can.
• Getting a couple of religions is essential, of course, but don't overdo it. I only founded Hinduism, Judaism and Islam myself (maybe Taoism as well, can't remember). You can count on acquiring cities with other religions later in the game, and a quick burst of Organized Religion (Spiritual trait helps) will allow you to spread them. I used early Great Prophets for shrines (and cash), not tech. Beelining for the techs I needed and trading kept me ahead enough.
• The Sistine Chapel is a key wonder to beeline for. The culture from specialists and religious buildings really helps. I kept my state religion throughout the game for this reason alone. It makes running Caste System in the late game a natural choice, too.
• Settle new cities on your borders 3 squares from rival cities and exert cultural pressure.
• When rival cities flip to you, raze them if by doing so you can settle a new city 3 squares from a rival. This works well in the early game, but in the late game when you're expanding into a developed area, there aren't so many opportunities to do this.
• This is why the Apostolic Palace is also a key wonder. The hammers from the religious buildings you're building anyway help, of course, but the real benefit is for assigning rival cities to your empire later in the game. Best of all, they come with all the cultural buildings intact.
• The "spead culture" espionage mission can really help to flip rival cities near your borders. I kept my espionage spending and building up to be able to run this mission repeatedly, often leading to an AP "assign city" resolution.
• Beeline for Democracy and adopt Free Speech as soon as you can to outpace your opponent's cultural output.
• Eiffel Tower is also a great wonder, mainly because it gives you Broadcast Towers without having to research Mass Media and obsolete the AP. I delayed Mass Media until the very end of the game, and only researched it for Creative Jewelers.
• Sid's Sushi, Creative Jewelers and Creative Constructions are instant and major cultureboosters. Add a cathedral or two and you've got a powerhouse.

A word to the wise -- if you're trying this, TURN OFF cultural victory. I was within 2 turns of a cultural win without even trying, and rarely had my culture slider above 20%. (The culture slider doesn't give much benefit compared to corporations, anyway, I really only used it for the happy benefit.) Check out this city pumping 700+ culture per turn:

Spoiler:

I got my domination win in 1920. Here's the state of the world at the end:

Spoiler:

[SHL]

I've been planning to try a cultural domination game, never got around to it so far, mainly because it looks rather difficult. Nice report of your game, I haven't really got into corporations, so maybe I should have a look at them before I attempt this. And that 500+ gold per turn city, crazy.

-SHL

[Thanny]

Sid's Sushi is a gigantic culture machine. Here's a city that hasn't stopped growing yet (at population 35):



Mining Inc. is also a powerhouse. I've only two opponents on a normal-sized map I've decided to clean all opposition from, and that corp is giving 44 production to every city (except the one where I built the national wonder that prevents coal access) right from the start.

What used to be cultural and production power houses in vanilla and Warlords are now just middling cities.

[18lama]

If you are really lucky at the beginnig of the game and especially when playing civs that start with Mysticism. You could end with a city which has not one but 2 holy shrines. If that happens naturally you are done for the rest of the game.

I always spread Sid sushi and Creative construction to newly captured cities. great way to expand borders of a city. Add free speech and Eiffel tower (which btw gives Broadcast towers and not Broadway ) you end up with a killer combo.


this is my version of a Super City.

Spoiler:

So much culture!


So much gold!


So many hammers! 700 hammers(Heroic epic+Iron works+Mining Inc) A new stealth bomber or Modern Armor every turn on Marathon speed!

[rev063]

Originally Posted by SHL

I've been planning to try a cultural domination game, never got around to it so far, mainly because it looks rather difficult.

Actually, I didn't find it that difficult at all (at least at Prince). I get the sense that the AI isn't really attuned to the right priorities in an Always Peace game -- they built more military units than they needed given you only have barbs to worry about. (I didn't see any SoD's though, which is good.)

I think I'm going to try again on Monarch.