chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
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Peaceful Culture Victory Guide - Immortal and Below
Being a builder at heart, I have been addicted to the culture game since BNW was released. Science was always my go-to VC in G&K and vanilla...it was reliable, repeatable in most circumstances, and set you up for an overall strong position. But now I feel like cultural VC has taken that spot. It's much better to be pressuring the other civilizations with your ideology and causing unhappiness, than to be on the receiving end.
I read a lot on here about culture being for warmongers and how it's very difficult to win peacefully, which I strongly disagree with, with the possible exception of deity. So this guide is my attempt to show people how to win culturally in a peaceful manner. Again this is meant to be repeatable with pretty much any civ...you just need 4 decent cities. The last game I played was as Assyria...no culture advantages whatsoever.
Note: I advocate signing zero RAs. I never seem to have a problem staying first in tech with only 4 cities, with no RAs. But the main reason I don't use them, is because it makes the AI advance in eras faster. I don't want to risk losing diplo, so my goal is to win culture before the first leader vote. Not signing RAs seems to help in pushing that back.
Settings:
Immortal or lower. Pangea is best. Requires 4 decent cities. Any civilization will work, but civs with cultural advantages will of course win faster.
Main Concept:
1. Pretty standard 4 cities tradition opener, fast NC, etc.
2. Early consulates w/ Oracle
3. Focus on growth until Renaissance
4. Build all key culture/tourism wonders starting in Renaissance
5. Pass WC resolutions in correct order to get best timing
6. Hit peak science around 1,000 bpt - chain bulb to internet
7. Hit peak tourism output around 1,000 per turn
8. Win the game around turn ~300
PHASE 1 - OPENER (Ancient/Classical)
So this part is really nothing too special. Early consulates is part of the strategy, so scouting is important. Otherwise the focus is generally on getting 4 cities up, then food and science.
Capital build order:
1. scout
2. scout
3. shrine, granary, or worker (shrine if good pantheon land, granary if 2+ wheat/deer, worker if salt, etc.)
4. archers, settlers till 4 cities, with a pause at some point to get 1st caravan out
5. library
6. NC soon as possible
7. Oracle
8. caravans 2-3 as soon as possible
in city 2:
archer granary library
in city 3:
archer library granary
in city 4:
library granary
Don't let your scouts die. Try to find all the CS and civs, immediately pledge to protect all CS you encounter. Hopefully find at least 1 culture ruin since you'll notice I skip the monument until legalism.
Regarding workers, you'll want 4-5 somehow. You can steal one but it's not necessary, there is room to hard build them if needed. Definitely buy at least 1 with your first 310 gold, and probably a second later.
The basic idea here is to get an early NC, enough archers to defend yourself and bust some barb camps, and set up for growth. My order above is not set in stone by any means, more of a general guideline. 3 cities NC with later expansion works too, or whatever variations you prefer as long as you end up with 4 decent cities.
Religion has a significant role to play in this strategy, so try to get one. It's not necessary to take over the whole world with your religion or anything, but you want to be generating faith mainly to buy great people later in the game. 50-100 faith per turn is a good eventual target, depending on how many CS there are, what pantheon you get, etc.
Regarding caravans, go for them early on immortal+ to get some nice science. Otherwise the best way to use them is for food, especially after tradition has completed. I like to have at least 1 route going to the capital right after the settlers are completed to help make up for that lost growth time, and will leave that route in place for a long time. So that granary in the 2nd city is pretty important. With monarchy + NC, there's just no reason not to get a huge capital. Then I'll also use food trade routes for any low food cities of the other 3. Typically at least one of the cities will need some help. Only after being satisfied with your growth should you start sending external routes for gold, with early science on high levels being the exception.
Try to get some CS allies through quests if possible, goes without saying.
Policy order: tradition opener, legalism (take monument), landed elite, monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, patronage, consulates
Tech order: Luxury techs, philosophy, trade route techs, civil service, education, printing press
PHASE 2 - MIDGAME (Medieval/Renaissance)
During the medieval age, continue to focus on growing your cities and improving the tiles. The important thing in this period is really just getting your cities to the point where they can work all your specialist slots while still growing quickly. In this time you'll research the guild techs as well as education, all of which are important for a culture win. You really need to work all university AND artist/musician/writer guild slots, AND keep your cities growing at a good pace. Farming, food trade routes, and maritime city states all help.
You'll want to open Renaissance via Printing Press. Globe Theater is the first crucial wonder for this strategy. Leaning Tower is also a very important one. I would recommend hard building both of them, with Globe in your capital and LT in your 2nd best city. Anything that provides tourism should be built in your capital, because of the national visitor center.
The other crucial wonder in this stage of the game is Sistine Chapel. Luckily, most AI don't seem to prioritize it very highly. So you can take acoustics 2nd and still get the wonder. Sistine is a very good candidate for using the free GE from LT...I'd go so far as to recommend it. It should be in the capital, but the capital is busy with Globe Theatre, so it works out nicely to rush it instead.
It shouldn't prove too difficult to get the max theming bonuses for these wonders. For globe theatre you get a free one so you only need to plan for getting 1 ren-era writer, not very difficult. For Sistine you need 2 from the same era, either medieval or ren can work. Again it's not too hard, it'll probably happen without trying. Assuming you work the slots as soon as they are available, the first few generate rather quickly so it's hard to really mess this up.
During this time ideally you'll get a wonder in each city, for the culture bonus with Aesthetics. With 2 being in the capital, plus LT, that leaves 2 more cities that need to build wonders. Forbidden Palace is a solid choice. So is Machu Piccu if still possible, and later Taj Mahal.
I don't like Uffizi. Honestly, it doesn't seem to really help much for the peaceful approach. It seems impossible to fill all the Sistine+Hermitage+Uffizi slots in a timely manner. I've tried it a few times and it just didn't work out. So I'm not including it in this guide. It's really not necessary.
Tech order: printing press, acoustics, architecture, industrialization, radio. Mix in chemistry, fertilizer, astronomy depending on geography.
Policy order: aesthetics opener, fine arts/culture centers, flourishing arts, ethics, free artist. Rationalism opener, secularism.
World Congress order:
1. arts funding
2. world fair
3. world religion OR historical landmarks
4. international games
The order is important. Arts funding first is to get all those GP out, and you want to complete aesthetics before the world fair. World fair is very powerful...you can get through a ton of policies in that 20 turn reward. Consider bulbing a great writer for culture during the 2nd half of the fair as well, they can generate quite a bit.
Number three should ideally be world religion, for max tourism. But that's not necessary nor is it always possible, and can have serious repercussions diplomatically. Historical landmarks is a pretty decent 2nd choice since landmark culture does get converted to tourism. But it also provides more defensive culture for your opponents.
Fourth seems to be the right timing for international games, in my experience. More about that below. The important thing is that you'll be able to hit your tourism peak during the 20 turns.
Luckily, with the exception of world religion, these are all popular with the AI so you don't need a lot of votes to get them through.
In general, you don't have to focus a lot on city states. Just the effects of consulates are enough to help you out a lot. And you'll usually end up being allies with a few of them from quests. But my point is, don't spend your bank on CS, it's not necessary for this strategy.
At some point in this stage, when you can afford it, start buying open borders with the AI who have good culture. Pay 2 or 3 GPT, don't give yours in exchange. Also make sure you are trading with them if possible. Build caravansaries/harbors to increase your trade route distances to reach the distant AI.
PHASE 3 - END GAME (Industrial-Information)
The industrial age should almost always be opened via Industrialization. Get some coal and get factories ASAP for your ideology. Freedom is really good for this tall/specialist approach. Always take Avant Garde & Civil Society as the two free ones. You'll want to reach tier 3 for the extra tourism from radio towers. New deal and Universal Suffrage are the best tier 2 tenets. If you are scared of others militaries, go for the 6 free units.
After industrialization, the best path seems to be a beeline for radio, then another one to refrigeration. Archaeology is not a huge focus of this strategy. Louvre is not happening, and I've found you can delay archaeology a little bit and still get enough artifacts to fill museums. The AI is competitive on Broadway & Eiffel Tower, and they are both too important to miss.
The only acceptable deviation from radio & refrigeration is for fertilizer. Keeping your cities growing is always good, and fertilizer can have a big impact. Depending on your land you'll want to grab this after industrialization or between radio & refrigeration.
I usually will rush buy either Broadway or Eiffel Tower with a GE and hard build the other, since they both belong in the capital. With regards to Broadway, a little planning is needed to get 3 musicians from the same era. Modern era is definitely the easiest, since you beeline radio you'll be in the modern era for a long time. Plus the free one from the wonder will be modern. So if you birth one near the end of the industrial, consider setting him aside till the modern before creating the great work.
For a time it should play out kind of like a science game. The cutoff for academies/bulbing seems about the same. Create academies with any GS before scientific theory, keep any past that point for late game bulbs.
I like to use Oxford on Plastics. Remember Oxford has slots and a theming bonus now, so IMO it's not ideal to save till the very end anymore. Plus, the key tech (internet) is easily reachable with regular scientists, since you need way less techs than a space game.
8 turns after labs are done, start the bulbing just like a science game. Your goal here is to get through radar (airports) and then all the way to internet. In my experience this is doable if your BPT hits a peak of about 1,000 with about 5 or 6 scientists. Buying some with faith is totally an option here.
Now if everything worked out, this bulbing will take place while your cities are building the international games, or shortly thereafter. Then all you have to do is reach internet, build airports in your cities, and the visitor center, all in that 20 turn window. Buy an airport in your capital because it has to hard build the visitor center.
If you've done everything I've laid out, when you complete the visitor center + internet, you should be near 1,000 tourism per turn. Now spend your faith on musicians, and concert tour your way to victory. It should only take one or two, if any at all.
Tech order: refrigeration, plastics, railroad, radar, internet
The final wonders and theming bonuses in your capital should be:
- Oxford +4
- Hermitage +6
- Sistine +4
- Globe +4
- Broadway +6
- museum +4
That's it! It's really the timing of techs, policies, and world fair resolutions, not brute force wonder-whoring, that wins it.
recap the final policy order: tradition-->consulates-->aesthetics (finish)-->secularism-->freedom to media culture-->complete rationalism
faith buys:
1-2 GE (Eiffel, SoL are favorites)
1-3 GS for internet push
0-1 GWriter for extra policy or 2 during world fair if needed
1-2 GMusician for end game
feel free to ask any questions.
Being a builder at heart, I have been addicted to the culture game since BNW was released. Science was always my go-to VC in G&K and vanilla...it was reliable, repeatable in most circumstances, and set you up for an overall strong position. But now I feel like cultural VC has taken that spot. It's much better to be pressuring the other civilizations with your ideology and causing unhappiness, than to be on the receiving end.
I read a lot on here about culture being for warmongers and how it's very difficult to win peacefully, which I strongly disagree with, with the possible exception of deity. So this guide is my attempt to show people how to win culturally in a peaceful manner. Again this is meant to be repeatable with pretty much any civ...you just need 4 decent cities. The last game I played was as Assyria...no culture advantages whatsoever.
Note: I advocate signing zero RAs. I never seem to have a problem staying first in tech with only 4 cities, with no RAs. But the main reason I don't use them, is because it makes the AI advance in eras faster. I don't want to risk losing diplo, so my goal is to win culture before the first leader vote. Not signing RAs seems to help in pushing that back.
Settings:
Immortal or lower. Pangea is best. Requires 4 decent cities. Any civilization will work, but civs with cultural advantages will of course win faster.
Main Concept:
1. Pretty standard 4 cities tradition opener, fast NC, etc.
2. Early consulates w/ Oracle
3. Focus on growth until Renaissance
4. Build all key culture/tourism wonders starting in Renaissance
5. Pass WC resolutions in correct order to get best timing
6. Hit peak science around 1,000 bpt - chain bulb to internet
7. Hit peak tourism output around 1,000 per turn
8. Win the game around turn ~300
PHASE 1 - OPENER (Ancient/Classical)
So this part is really nothing too special. Early consulates is part of the strategy, so scouting is important. Otherwise the focus is generally on getting 4 cities up, then food and science.
Capital build order:
1. scout
2. scout
3. shrine, granary, or worker (shrine if good pantheon land, granary if 2+ wheat/deer, worker if salt, etc.)
4. archers, settlers till 4 cities, with a pause at some point to get 1st caravan out
5. library
6. NC soon as possible
7. Oracle
8. caravans 2-3 as soon as possible
in city 2:
archer granary library
in city 3:
archer library granary
in city 4:
library granary
Don't let your scouts die. Try to find all the CS and civs, immediately pledge to protect all CS you encounter. Hopefully find at least 1 culture ruin since you'll notice I skip the monument until legalism.
Regarding workers, you'll want 4-5 somehow. You can steal one but it's not necessary, there is room to hard build them if needed. Definitely buy at least 1 with your first 310 gold, and probably a second later.
The basic idea here is to get an early NC, enough archers to defend yourself and bust some barb camps, and set up for growth. My order above is not set in stone by any means, more of a general guideline. 3 cities NC with later expansion works too, or whatever variations you prefer as long as you end up with 4 decent cities.
Religion has a significant role to play in this strategy, so try to get one. It's not necessary to take over the whole world with your religion or anything, but you want to be generating faith mainly to buy great people later in the game. 50-100 faith per turn is a good eventual target, depending on how many CS there are, what pantheon you get, etc.
Regarding caravans, go for them early on immortal+ to get some nice science. Otherwise the best way to use them is for food, especially after tradition has completed. I like to have at least 1 route going to the capital right after the settlers are completed to help make up for that lost growth time, and will leave that route in place for a long time. So that granary in the 2nd city is pretty important. With monarchy + NC, there's just no reason not to get a huge capital. Then I'll also use food trade routes for any low food cities of the other 3. Typically at least one of the cities will need some help. Only after being satisfied with your growth should you start sending external routes for gold, with early science on high levels being the exception.
Try to get some CS allies through quests if possible, goes without saying.
Policy order: tradition opener, legalism (take monument), landed elite, monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, patronage, consulates
Tech order: Luxury techs, philosophy, trade route techs, civil service, education, printing press
PHASE 2 - MIDGAME (Medieval/Renaissance)
During the medieval age, continue to focus on growing your cities and improving the tiles. The important thing in this period is really just getting your cities to the point where they can work all your specialist slots while still growing quickly. In this time you'll research the guild techs as well as education, all of which are important for a culture win. You really need to work all university AND artist/musician/writer guild slots, AND keep your cities growing at a good pace. Farming, food trade routes, and maritime city states all help.
You'll want to open Renaissance via Printing Press. Globe Theater is the first crucial wonder for this strategy. Leaning Tower is also a very important one. I would recommend hard building both of them, with Globe in your capital and LT in your 2nd best city. Anything that provides tourism should be built in your capital, because of the national visitor center.
The other crucial wonder in this stage of the game is Sistine Chapel. Luckily, most AI don't seem to prioritize it very highly. So you can take acoustics 2nd and still get the wonder. Sistine is a very good candidate for using the free GE from LT...I'd go so far as to recommend it. It should be in the capital, but the capital is busy with Globe Theatre, so it works out nicely to rush it instead.
It shouldn't prove too difficult to get the max theming bonuses for these wonders. For globe theatre you get a free one so you only need to plan for getting 1 ren-era writer, not very difficult. For Sistine you need 2 from the same era, either medieval or ren can work. Again it's not too hard, it'll probably happen without trying. Assuming you work the slots as soon as they are available, the first few generate rather quickly so it's hard to really mess this up.
During this time ideally you'll get a wonder in each city, for the culture bonus with Aesthetics. With 2 being in the capital, plus LT, that leaves 2 more cities that need to build wonders. Forbidden Palace is a solid choice. So is Machu Piccu if still possible, and later Taj Mahal.
I don't like Uffizi. Honestly, it doesn't seem to really help much for the peaceful approach. It seems impossible to fill all the Sistine+Hermitage+Uffizi slots in a timely manner. I've tried it a few times and it just didn't work out. So I'm not including it in this guide. It's really not necessary.
Tech order: printing press, acoustics, architecture, industrialization, radio. Mix in chemistry, fertilizer, astronomy depending on geography.
Policy order: aesthetics opener, fine arts/culture centers, flourishing arts, ethics, free artist. Rationalism opener, secularism.
World Congress order:
1. arts funding
2. world fair
3. world religion OR historical landmarks
4. international games
The order is important. Arts funding first is to get all those GP out, and you want to complete aesthetics before the world fair. World fair is very powerful...you can get through a ton of policies in that 20 turn reward. Consider bulbing a great writer for culture during the 2nd half of the fair as well, they can generate quite a bit.
Number three should ideally be world religion, for max tourism. But that's not necessary nor is it always possible, and can have serious repercussions diplomatically. Historical landmarks is a pretty decent 2nd choice since landmark culture does get converted to tourism. But it also provides more defensive culture for your opponents.
Fourth seems to be the right timing for international games, in my experience. More about that below. The important thing is that you'll be able to hit your tourism peak during the 20 turns.
Luckily, with the exception of world religion, these are all popular with the AI so you don't need a lot of votes to get them through.
In general, you don't have to focus a lot on city states. Just the effects of consulates are enough to help you out a lot. And you'll usually end up being allies with a few of them from quests. But my point is, don't spend your bank on CS, it's not necessary for this strategy.
At some point in this stage, when you can afford it, start buying open borders with the AI who have good culture. Pay 2 or 3 GPT, don't give yours in exchange. Also make sure you are trading with them if possible. Build caravansaries/harbors to increase your trade route distances to reach the distant AI.
PHASE 3 - END GAME (Industrial-Information)
The industrial age should almost always be opened via Industrialization. Get some coal and get factories ASAP for your ideology. Freedom is really good for this tall/specialist approach. Always take Avant Garde & Civil Society as the two free ones. You'll want to reach tier 3 for the extra tourism from radio towers. New deal and Universal Suffrage are the best tier 2 tenets. If you are scared of others militaries, go for the 6 free units.
After industrialization, the best path seems to be a beeline for radio, then another one to refrigeration. Archaeology is not a huge focus of this strategy. Louvre is not happening, and I've found you can delay archaeology a little bit and still get enough artifacts to fill museums. The AI is competitive on Broadway & Eiffel Tower, and they are both too important to miss.
The only acceptable deviation from radio & refrigeration is for fertilizer. Keeping your cities growing is always good, and fertilizer can have a big impact. Depending on your land you'll want to grab this after industrialization or between radio & refrigeration.
I usually will rush buy either Broadway or Eiffel Tower with a GE and hard build the other, since they both belong in the capital. With regards to Broadway, a little planning is needed to get 3 musicians from the same era. Modern era is definitely the easiest, since you beeline radio you'll be in the modern era for a long time. Plus the free one from the wonder will be modern. So if you birth one near the end of the industrial, consider setting him aside till the modern before creating the great work.
For a time it should play out kind of like a science game. The cutoff for academies/bulbing seems about the same. Create academies with any GS before scientific theory, keep any past that point for late game bulbs.
I like to use Oxford on Plastics. Remember Oxford has slots and a theming bonus now, so IMO it's not ideal to save till the very end anymore. Plus, the key tech (internet) is easily reachable with regular scientists, since you need way less techs than a space game.
8 turns after labs are done, start the bulbing just like a science game. Your goal here is to get through radar (airports) and then all the way to internet. In my experience this is doable if your BPT hits a peak of about 1,000 with about 5 or 6 scientists. Buying some with faith is totally an option here.
Now if everything worked out, this bulbing will take place while your cities are building the international games, or shortly thereafter. Then all you have to do is reach internet, build airports in your cities, and the visitor center, all in that 20 turn window. Buy an airport in your capital because it has to hard build the visitor center.
If you've done everything I've laid out, when you complete the visitor center + internet, you should be near 1,000 tourism per turn. Now spend your faith on musicians, and concert tour your way to victory. It should only take one or two, if any at all.
Tech order: refrigeration, plastics, railroad, radar, internet
The final wonders and theming bonuses in your capital should be:
- Oxford +4
- Hermitage +6
- Sistine +4
- Globe +4
- Broadway +6
- museum +4
That's it! It's really the timing of techs, policies, and world fair resolutions, not brute force wonder-whoring, that wins it.
recap the final policy order: tradition-->consulates-->aesthetics (finish)-->secularism-->freedom to media culture-->complete rationalism
faith buys:
1-2 GE (Eiffel, SoL are favorites)
1-3 GS for internet push
0-1 GWriter for extra policy or 2 during world fair if needed
1-2 GMusician for end game
feel free to ask any questions.
