I've just recently upgraded from G&K to BNW (behind the times, I know) and one thing I found most compelling was the new culture system. I tried 3 times with Brazil and failed, last attempt I was so close but the Shoshone gave a growth spurt and surprised me with a score victory in turn 500...
Anyway, this time I succeeded, and I'm here to share my strategy and hear your opinions. I've read some manuals and advice on CV here and elsewhere but eventually did not follow it exactly.
So I was Egypt. I wanted to do a tall empire, but I remembered it wasn't strictly necessary. I started mostly with Liberty to get my first cities up, rapid expansion with little regard to money or happiness. The only thing I stopped for was getting enough faith for my own religion (burial tombs helped), and a Messenger of the Gods pantheon to cover for my initial disregard of tech. I also used a Mongolian attack on Sydney to finish his army and take eventually his 2 cities, getting rid of a neighboring warmonger.
Next phase I mostly stuck to tall + 2 puppets, but eventually built 2 more cities to keep up with the score fight and have more growth kernels. Later, to get more boost in light of competition fromn the 2nd continent, I took Spain's 3 cities. This was the end of the expansion, at the late industrial era.
I used almost all of the great artists/musicians/writers for great works. I've read somewhere that musicians are better used for tours, but I did the following math: the real culture game begins in the modern era as works accumulate and hotels and airports begin to be built. Then your base tourism is boosted a lot, so you need every penny in the base. The high rate of tourism rise in the late game means that any great musician you expend on tours will be less significant than he is on accumulated and boosted great-work tourism. I only used 3 musicians for tours, one during the Olympic games boost for 3000 tourism, one for 4000, and a last one in the internet age for about 8000. Not playing with Brazil released a lot of great artists I would otherwise expand on golden ages.
On tech I did the usual beelining of cultural stuff as much as possible, except in the early game when I gave it less emphasis - as I said, the culture game really begins quite late, and you want to have a good base to play those eras.
I took the Freedom ideology, and had a penalty with all other civs. They alwasy look burdened enough to switch but never did (in my previous game I switched my worst enemy). Eventually it didn't matter. I didn't use spies to steal tech at all, always diplomats, and later spies I placed in city-states. Of course I tried to spread the trade routs to all civs, later only the minimum one as I could gain influence from sending them to city-states.
Still, I had a tough race. The game was won in turn 437 or so, narrowly close to losing on score, as I was a few dozen points behind the Shoshone, again my competitors. I found that measured expansion is essential.
So, what do you think? How do you play it? What could I improve?
Anyway, this time I succeeded, and I'm here to share my strategy and hear your opinions. I've read some manuals and advice on CV here and elsewhere but eventually did not follow it exactly.
So I was Egypt. I wanted to do a tall empire, but I remembered it wasn't strictly necessary. I started mostly with Liberty to get my first cities up, rapid expansion with little regard to money or happiness. The only thing I stopped for was getting enough faith for my own religion (burial tombs helped), and a Messenger of the Gods pantheon to cover for my initial disregard of tech. I also used a Mongolian attack on Sydney to finish his army and take eventually his 2 cities, getting rid of a neighboring warmonger.
Next phase I mostly stuck to tall + 2 puppets, but eventually built 2 more cities to keep up with the score fight and have more growth kernels. Later, to get more boost in light of competition fromn the 2nd continent, I took Spain's 3 cities. This was the end of the expansion, at the late industrial era.
I used almost all of the great artists/musicians/writers for great works. I've read somewhere that musicians are better used for tours, but I did the following math: the real culture game begins in the modern era as works accumulate and hotels and airports begin to be built. Then your base tourism is boosted a lot, so you need every penny in the base. The high rate of tourism rise in the late game means that any great musician you expend on tours will be less significant than he is on accumulated and boosted great-work tourism. I only used 3 musicians for tours, one during the Olympic games boost for 3000 tourism, one for 4000, and a last one in the internet age for about 8000. Not playing with Brazil released a lot of great artists I would otherwise expand on golden ages.
On tech I did the usual beelining of cultural stuff as much as possible, except in the early game when I gave it less emphasis - as I said, the culture game really begins quite late, and you want to have a good base to play those eras.
I took the Freedom ideology, and had a penalty with all other civs. They alwasy look burdened enough to switch but never did (in my previous game I switched my worst enemy). Eventually it didn't matter. I didn't use spies to steal tech at all, always diplomats, and later spies I placed in city-states. Of course I tried to spread the trade routs to all civs, later only the minimum one as I could gain influence from sending them to city-states.
Still, I had a tough race. The game was won in turn 437 or so, narrowly close to losing on score, as I was a few dozen points behind the Shoshone, again my competitors. I found that measured expansion is essential.
So, what do you think? How do you play it? What could I improve?
