Cultural Victory Guide

[tonedog]

when you add the numbers up, the extra 30% SP cost per city for five cities must run into the thousands.

each city would probably have to produce 1000 culture per turn to pay for all the five SP's.

im strugglin to get my city to produce 200 culture by 400 turns. ive been creating puppets as these dont cost extra for SP but even that doesnt work for me.

 

[budweiser]

when you add the numbers up, the extra 30% SP cost per city for five cities must run into the thousands.

each city would probably have to produce 1000 culture per turn to pay for all the five SP's.

im strugglin to get my city to produce 200 culture by 400 turns. ive been creating puppets as these dont cost extra for SP but even that doesnt work for me.

No, I think I was getting between 500-600 total. Getting a SP every 10-15 turns.

 

[Dunkah]

I to am heading for a culture victory in a Prince game as France I have lots of cities. 10 - 15 plus puppets... At this point I could probably Dominate the last two Civs and take a Domination or even a Political victory because I own almost every CS or even a science victory because am way ahead in that to.

But it is possible to have a very large Civ and win a Cultural Victory. I guess the real trick is to do it in the fewest turns possible?

 

[Mukum]

Well I took the long road to Cultural Victory as my first intention was to just win one way or another...so it took me until 2190 as Caesar at King level. As my aim was only to win I started taking out Civs - Napoleon altogether, Mongols reduced to no Capital and three cities and my main rival Persia reduced to their capital only. I ended up with 39 cities and 9 City states (still independent) and I only realised later in the game how the increased number of cities also increases the need for increased Culture targets - the last two Policies were the longest as I was concentrating on keeping Persia from completing Alpha Centuari and ensuring neither the Mongols nor Persia grabbed a Diplomatic Victory (as Persia had already built the UN) by buying the City states. A big learning curve as well as very boring/repetitive towards the end. But my biggest disappointment was that there was no fanfare, exploding fireworks or graphics to show me what on earth the Utopia Project did or looked like. Come on Civ developers, we all like a bit of colour and movement for our efforts! (Same goes for building Alpha Centuari - however I must admit the Nuclear Missiles are quite impressive)

 

[UrbanX]

i wouldn't rely so heavily on all those wonders. especially considering your only going to have 1 or 2 cities with the rest being puppets. skipping stonehenge, great library and ankor wat. I think the necessary wonders for cultural victory are oracle, sistine chapel, cristo redenetor, and sydney opera house.

When conquering cities to puppet always favor the ones with wonders so their culture can be matched with the freedom speech policy. the one policy the oracle and sydney opera house provides may not seem like much but will prove invaluable later in the game win you're trying to beat another civ to victory and just need 1 or more polices to complete your utopia project.

 

[TM Moot]

I've managed 2 Cultural Victories, once with France (King) and once with Babylon (Emperor).

Both times I only had 2 core cities, and conquered my nearest 2 neighbours, giving me between 6-8 puppeted cities.

The first time I did it, I completed a SP branch before moving on to the next, the second time I beelined certain individual SP's (especially Freedom's left branch) and won a lot quicker.

Don't bother saving a Great Engineer to rush buy the Utopia Project, it doesn't work (as I found out)!! Using him for a golden age would of been a good idea though.

Also, make sure you get the 33% defence bonus SP and poss the Kremlin, post-patch you will get invaded by the AI at some stage, just beat them off with a few choice units.

 

[TM Moot]

i wouldn't rely so heavily on all those wonders. especially considering your only going to have 1 or 2 cities with the rest being puppets. skipping stonehenge, great library and ankor wat. I think the necessary wonders for cultural victory are oracle, sistine chapel, cristo redenetor, and sydney opera house.

in my 2 games i always missed out on the Oracle as i was beelining iron for a puppeting invasion force

i quite like stonehenge though, and definitley the Sistine Chapel and Cristo R.

not forgetting, of course, to build at least one wonder in each city

 

[Camikaze]

i wouldn't rely so heavily on all those wonders. especially considering your only going to have 1 or 2 cities with the rest being puppets. skipping stonehenge, great library and ankor wat. I think the necessary wonders for cultural victory are oracle, sistine chapel, cristo redenetor, and sydney opera house.

Stonehenge to me seems more necessary than the Oracle. +8 culture per turn (ignoring future modifiers) is going to be a bigger gain over time than one free policy, and it gives you GE points, which will ensure you get Sistine Chapel, which is a must. The Oracle is still great, sure, and definitely something to go for, but getting Stonehenge is more important.

Angkor Wat is more important when you are playing a peaceful cultural game, but then it can be quite important, to ensure you maximise your cities' output.

 

[Civsassin]

Siam is probablly the best because of the double culture from each CS.

You forgot Songhai as another civ that is very good for a culture victory. Their UB is excellent, and You can make a lot of gold by razing the cities of any civ that gets near you.

GAs are helpful in a cultural situation for their improvements or, even better, to expand your borders. If you expand your borders AND get the Great Wall, it will take your enemies a long time to get to your cities during which you can pick them apart with your 33% more effective units.

 

[comablack]

every cultural win i've gotten so far the 33% was the very last policy i pickedup, last game my whole army the whole game was my starting war, immortal difficulty

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Personally I always pick up Free Religion (2 free policies) last. Exempts me from the two most expensive policies. The 33% one is really nice to get tho!

 

[Camikaze]

Well you want to get that third last, not last.

Actually, you want to get it ASAP, because whenever you choose it, you exempt yourself from the two most expensive ones at the end; you just get the benefits earlier.

 

[DaveMcW]

Actually, you want to get it ASAP, because whenever you choose it, you exempt yourself from the two most expensive ones at the end; you just get the benefits earlier.

The problem is you're taking 3 mostly useless policies (Organized Religion, Reformation, Free Religion) in order to get 2 new policies.

So take it after you actually want Organized Religion, but don't beeline it.

 

[Camikaze]

Reformation is very useful. Mandate of Heaven is as well for a cultural game. Organised Religion isn't that bad, either. I guess the stage that you'll be at you'll be weighing up between these or going down Patronage, but you'll give yourself a big boost if you get Free Religion earlier to help you open up Freedom and take Constitution as well.

 

[Calouste]

The problem is you're taking 3 mostly useless policies (Organized Religion, Reformation, Free Religion) in order to get 2 new policies.

So take it after you actually want Organized Religion, but don't beeline it.

If you use Free Religion to slingshot Freedom and Constitution, and then go on to Free Speech, you get close to 3 new policies because you get the effects of Constitution and Free Speech for longer than you would if you don't use the Free Religion slingshot. It of course depends on the timing so you can reach Free Religion not too long after you enter the Renaissance.

It also comes down to what the situation is after you got Mandate of Heaven (which I consider a given for any cultural victory strategy). If you play Greece or Siam you'd probably want to go for Patronage. Persia would be tempted by the additional golden ages in the Piety tree and having a Monastery in a city with a wonder would also lean towards getting Constitution over the Patronage tree.

 

[vexing]

for a cultural game, i like to RA slingshot into renaissance early to open up freedom and go directly for free speech.
that said, it doesn't really matter a huge amount when you get free speech as long as it's somewhat early. the earlier the better obviously, but because of the increasing costs the first half of policies you take only account for about 1/6th of the total culture you need for win. magically getting free speech as your first policy vs halfway only cuts total culture needed by about 4%