SilentConfusion
Emperor
I had never really learned the culture victory when I started this one, so I had to learn as I went along, and supposedly on difficult settings for a culture victory.
The optional settings I used were: Temperate, Low Sea Levels, Normal Continents, No Vassals, No Tribal Huts, No Random Events.
I thought with Low Sea Levels I'd find it easier to get my six cities up without warfare, and I wanted to put most of my hammers toward culture and religious buildings rather than towards troops. I chose Normal Continents rather than Massive Continent just to limit the amount of opponent civs I'd have contact with early, so as to make diplomacy easier, and I don't really like Snaky Continents. I thought with no Vassals states civs might stretch out their battles against each other for longer giving me more time. I probably should have added another high peaceweight person to give them someone other than Lizzy to attack, but I didn't think of it.
I finished in 1824 this time. The first two times I played this I finished 1834 and 1820, but I didn't check AggAI on the first one and I forgot to make an initial save of the second one. With more religion spread (for some reason my neighbors founded 5 of the religions but only missionaried one of them to me) and better GP utilization I could have improved upon that time. If I played again I'd probably add another civ like SB.
I had virtually no military the whole game. Once I got Monarchy I built archers to raise my happy caps, and I built 5 swordsmen to take a barb city (after which I disbanded 3 of them). When I turned up my culture sliders I disbanded the extra archers to lower unit cost, allowing me to keep my culture slider at 100%. Diplomacy was the key here, as I was next to both Alex and Monte. When Monte declared on Justin and Alex declared on Pacal in the beginning because of religious differences I joined them both to get on good terms with the trouble makers in my area. In the war I stole 1 worker from Pacal with my initial warrior and that was the sum total of fighting I did the whole game. I made peace with Pacal right after that, and since Monte was completely blocking Justin from getting to me I kept "fighting" Justin to get my +mutual war diplo affects up with Monte. When I saw that Alex, Pacal, Lizzy, and Sury were all Jewish I decided to go Jewish. Monte (Hindu) and Justin (Buddhist) were worst enemies the whole time and I joined in against Justin from time to time to keep diplomatic relations up with Monte despite being a heathen. Turns out Shaka and Charlie were on a small continent by themselves and when I finally meet them (around 1700s) guess what... Shaka was beating up on poor Charlie. Late in the game every single civ had too much on their hands and there I was with my cities guarded by a swordsman or two archers. My capitol was protected by a single warrior the whole game. The Jewish bloc wouldn't attack me (Sury DoWed Lizzy and Alex DoWed Pacal), but I was Justin's worst enemy and at that time he had already cut his way through most of Monte and was now bordering me. Monte had only two cities left, and I was actually closer to Justin and my cities were basically ungaurded (1 swordsman vs. an army of catapults, longbows, and cataphracts). At this point I was glad I had turned off Vassals. If they'd be on Monte would have Vassaled to Justin long ago and he'd turn on me. At the end I gifted Economics and Democracy to Justin just to bring my diplo with him up just enough so that Monte was his worst enemy instead of me. When he declared on Monte I was very relieved. By the time he had finished with Monte I had won.
I made a big mistake early and it affected my GPs the whole game. Since there was so much space with Low Sea Levels I thought the barbs would be nasty so I built the GWall in my production capitol. The barbs didn't turn out to be that strong this game and I generated a total of 5 GSpies in the game, which could have been Artists. That would have moved my finish up a lot. I used the first GSpy for a GAge which was helpful. I also made a mistake later when I was trying to use two GSpies to start a GAge. I didn't realize that GAges require different types of people and wasn't thinking clearly and I spent one of my GArtists on a GAge. I ended up settling 3 GSpies for the science boost and the +2cpt from the Sistine Chapel. I also missed being first to music by a few turns. If I had managed my GP better I could have finished significantly sooner, although not soon enough to take the top spot.
I didn't found any religions and only had Jewishness for most of the game. When I flipped one of Pacal's cities it had Christianity and Islam in it so I quickly spread those and templed and monasteries my cities for Cathedrals and SChapel synergy. Very late, like 12 turns before victory the AP gifted me one of Justin's Aztec cities which had Hindu and Buddhism. I quickly rushed some hindu missionaries and rush bought two temples in my culture cities to shave 2 turns off my victory date. I find that a good production capitol for quickly building the Parthenon, ToZ, Sistine, and TajMahal plus two flood plains or grassland river cities is a good setup. On this map the production capitol is easy to come by, and if you got a good flood plain site you only have to cut one city out of the jungle, otherwise two. If the commerce cities are built on FPs or have extra food resources they'll even support a good number of artists after they work the available cottages. Sistine artists don't give as much culture as a town, but they give almost as much and they give 3GPP which is really good. And the Sistine Chapel also boosts religious buildings which would be built anyways for the Cathedrals they allow.
In this game I missed the Taj by 1 turn, but all the extra gold it gave me I traded with Liberalism to Lizzy for Constitution. I switched from HR (didn't need happy anymore) to Rep, and all my Sistine artists now boosted my tech rate even though my science slider was at zero the whole time after Liberalism. I teched halfway through PP before trading Constitution for it, and in the remaining time I teched Democracy with only my artists. I traded for Economics too. I switched to US/FM for boost in commerce and more hammers for building culture. In the end missing the Taj allowed me to keep teching after I turned the slider off, so it turned out ok.
In these games I learned a lot about culture victories. I learned that the Sistine Chapel is amazing for culture victories, that the GW is not worth it while pursuing culture because the GSpies are almost useless. I learned when focusing on city growth that health is not a limiting factor if you have food, only happiness is. A flood plain city will be unhealthy but the extra food it provides counteracts the unhealthiness penalty until you can build aquaducts and grocers. Unhealthiness only costs 1 food. I also have been learning the importance of diplomacy and once again it proved itself in this game.
The optional settings I used were: Temperate, Low Sea Levels, Normal Continents, No Vassals, No Tribal Huts, No Random Events.
I thought with Low Sea Levels I'd find it easier to get my six cities up without warfare, and I wanted to put most of my hammers toward culture and religious buildings rather than towards troops. I chose Normal Continents rather than Massive Continent just to limit the amount of opponent civs I'd have contact with early, so as to make diplomacy easier, and I don't really like Snaky Continents. I thought with no Vassals states civs might stretch out their battles against each other for longer giving me more time. I probably should have added another high peaceweight person to give them someone other than Lizzy to attack, but I didn't think of it.
I finished in 1824 this time. The first two times I played this I finished 1834 and 1820, but I didn't check AggAI on the first one and I forgot to make an initial save of the second one. With more religion spread (for some reason my neighbors founded 5 of the religions but only missionaried one of them to me) and better GP utilization I could have improved upon that time. If I played again I'd probably add another civ like SB.
I had virtually no military the whole game. Once I got Monarchy I built archers to raise my happy caps, and I built 5 swordsmen to take a barb city (after which I disbanded 3 of them). When I turned up my culture sliders I disbanded the extra archers to lower unit cost, allowing me to keep my culture slider at 100%. Diplomacy was the key here, as I was next to both Alex and Monte. When Monte declared on Justin and Alex declared on Pacal in the beginning because of religious differences I joined them both to get on good terms with the trouble makers in my area. In the war I stole 1 worker from Pacal with my initial warrior and that was the sum total of fighting I did the whole game. I made peace with Pacal right after that, and since Monte was completely blocking Justin from getting to me I kept "fighting" Justin to get my +mutual war diplo affects up with Monte. When I saw that Alex, Pacal, Lizzy, and Sury were all Jewish I decided to go Jewish. Monte (Hindu) and Justin (Buddhist) were worst enemies the whole time and I joined in against Justin from time to time to keep diplomatic relations up with Monte despite being a heathen. Turns out Shaka and Charlie were on a small continent by themselves and when I finally meet them (around 1700s) guess what... Shaka was beating up on poor Charlie. Late in the game every single civ had too much on their hands and there I was with my cities guarded by a swordsman or two archers. My capitol was protected by a single warrior the whole game. The Jewish bloc wouldn't attack me (Sury DoWed Lizzy and Alex DoWed Pacal), but I was Justin's worst enemy and at that time he had already cut his way through most of Monte and was now bordering me. Monte had only two cities left, and I was actually closer to Justin and my cities were basically ungaurded (1 swordsman vs. an army of catapults, longbows, and cataphracts). At this point I was glad I had turned off Vassals. If they'd be on Monte would have Vassaled to Justin long ago and he'd turn on me. At the end I gifted Economics and Democracy to Justin just to bring my diplo with him up just enough so that Monte was his worst enemy instead of me. When he declared on Monte I was very relieved. By the time he had finished with Monte I had won.
I made a big mistake early and it affected my GPs the whole game. Since there was so much space with Low Sea Levels I thought the barbs would be nasty so I built the GWall in my production capitol. The barbs didn't turn out to be that strong this game and I generated a total of 5 GSpies in the game, which could have been Artists. That would have moved my finish up a lot. I used the first GSpy for a GAge which was helpful. I also made a mistake later when I was trying to use two GSpies to start a GAge. I didn't realize that GAges require different types of people and wasn't thinking clearly and I spent one of my GArtists on a GAge. I ended up settling 3 GSpies for the science boost and the +2cpt from the Sistine Chapel. I also missed being first to music by a few turns. If I had managed my GP better I could have finished significantly sooner, although not soon enough to take the top spot.
I didn't found any religions and only had Jewishness for most of the game. When I flipped one of Pacal's cities it had Christianity and Islam in it so I quickly spread those and templed and monasteries my cities for Cathedrals and SChapel synergy. Very late, like 12 turns before victory the AP gifted me one of Justin's Aztec cities which had Hindu and Buddhism. I quickly rushed some hindu missionaries and rush bought two temples in my culture cities to shave 2 turns off my victory date. I find that a good production capitol for quickly building the Parthenon, ToZ, Sistine, and TajMahal plus two flood plains or grassland river cities is a good setup. On this map the production capitol is easy to come by, and if you got a good flood plain site you only have to cut one city out of the jungle, otherwise two. If the commerce cities are built on FPs or have extra food resources they'll even support a good number of artists after they work the available cottages. Sistine artists don't give as much culture as a town, but they give almost as much and they give 3GPP which is really good. And the Sistine Chapel also boosts religious buildings which would be built anyways for the Cathedrals they allow.
In this game I missed the Taj by 1 turn, but all the extra gold it gave me I traded with Liberalism to Lizzy for Constitution. I switched from HR (didn't need happy anymore) to Rep, and all my Sistine artists now boosted my tech rate even though my science slider was at zero the whole time after Liberalism. I teched halfway through PP before trading Constitution for it, and in the remaining time I teched Democracy with only my artists. I traded for Economics too. I switched to US/FM for boost in commerce and more hammers for building culture. In the end missing the Taj allowed me to keep teching after I turned the slider off, so it turned out ok.
In these games I learned a lot about culture victories. I learned that the Sistine Chapel is amazing for culture victories, that the GW is not worth it while pursuing culture because the GSpies are almost useless. I learned when focusing on city growth that health is not a limiting factor if you have food, only happiness is. A flood plain city will be unhealthy but the extra food it provides counteracts the unhealthiness penalty until you can build aquaducts and grocers. Unhealthiness only costs 1 food. I also have been learning the importance of diplomacy and once again it proved itself in this game.
I guess that was more down to my luck 
confused
