Just completed and dominated a really fun Brazil culture game

[Astennu]

Hey guys,

Only recently started BNW and have been testing the waters on Emperor. I was recently playing only Immortal in G & K.

I never seriously pursued Cultural Victories in G & K as I found that having to stick to a small empire without much in way of warfare not very enjoyable.

I love the new CV in BNW and regard it as possibly the greatest improvement with the expansion. Generating your own great works and artifacts and generating tourism is alot of fun.

Generally I think Brazil has a weak start bias as many have said given that jungle is not that good to start on. I got lucky in that my capital was placed on a grassland river with a fair few grassland spots to place farms on and 8 hills from which to mine from.

I remarkably found 2 +90 faith huts and 1 +30 faith hut. I also built Stonehenge early by chopping forests and taking tradition. I was hence the first to found a religion and enhance it. I took Religious Community and Tithe (I almost always take them.) RC + 8 mines ensured I had no production problems in my capital which can be an issue with jungle starts.

In the end I settled 6 cities. The cities aside from my capital were not very production heavy and had alot more jungle tiles, however I found that this worked quite well for my victory goals. I built roughly 11 wonders in my capital, including the Louvre, Sistine Chapel and Broadway. Meanwhile I built Brazilwood Camps heavily next to my other cities which generated heaps of culture.

Through use of Tithe and extra luxuries from settling extra territories, I had enough cash to buy up city states and get through my proposals at WC. I actually hosted World Fair, which gives %100 Culture for 20 Turns. Even better was having a Golden Age coincide with this, so it was WF 100% extra culture and GA 20%. It was ridiculous as I was generating 1300 culture during the Atomic Era! I was literally picking a new policy every 4 turns I also hosted World Games. The 100% Tourism from that during a Brazil Golden Age brings MASSIVE tourism.

Great Person generation for me was also very strong. I built Leaning Tower, took the Order tent which gives a 25% boost, helped pass Art Funding in WC (33%) and maintained enough happiness to get several Golden Ages for a further 50% boost.

I only went to war once, against my annoying neighbour Polynesia who tried to embargo me earlier because he coveted my lands. His troops ran off to the other side of the continent to wage war on Songhai, making it easy for my artillery to steamroll his 3 city tall empire. Despite aiming for a CV I still took Rationalism as science cannot be ignored. I somehow maintained #1 in Science even though Babylon was my neighbour. Having the edge in science made subjugating Polynesia very easy.

Perhaps the only thing that didn't go my way was missing out on Chichen Itza by 6 turns (I was researching CS and had a Great Engineer ready to pop for it)

In the end I won turn 500 on Epic Speed. I'm not sure how this ranks in terms of efficiency as I generally play to enjoy myself and build and empire rather than win as quickly as possible.

Overally I can summarize that having a very production and food strong capital (hills and grassland) with very few jungle tiles, but having enough jungle in the rest of your empire to build alot of Brazilwood camps seems possibly the most optimal start for Brazil!

Cheers!

 

[Taberizzo]

I enjoyed reading your post bro. I've been thinking about trying out Pedro since I haven't had a culture victory on BNW yet. Sounds like I have to be really lucky to get some to the breaks you did but I plan on trying it out.

Cheers.

 

[Astennu]

I enjoyed reading your post bro. I've been thinking about trying out Pedro since I haven't had a culture victory on BNW yet. Sounds like I have to be really lucky to get some to the breaks you did but I plan on trying it out.

Cheers.

Thanks

Perhaps my luckiest break was getting 210 faith from ruins early on. Ridiculously easy to get a religion.

The game has made me consider how powerful Brazil can be with the right timing. Golden Age + World Games Tourism was insane.

On the downside I realised how badly the Pracinha fits the Civ. You want good relations, trade and open borders for CV. I had practically no reason to use the unique unit. I could have waged war on Polynesia at very little gain. Maintaining good relations with other civs was much more important than gaining some points towards a new Golden Age.

How do you think France compares to Brazil? I can't imagine the double theming bonus in Capital coming close to the power of increasing Tourism by 100% during Golden Ages.

The unique buildings seem fairly equal, and I'd say the Musketeer is more useful than the Pracinha, at least for defense, as it has an extremely high combat rating for its time. That being said, using the Pracinha in a defensive war could pay off very well. Faster golden ages and no warmonger penalties.

Overall though I'd consider Brazil to be better than France at CV in almost any situation. Anyone agree?

 

[Jon the Bastard]

Interesting. It sounds like most players have been having a hard time dealing with Brazil's start bias. Lots of discussions on the forums here about it. People don't seem to be digging it that much. You should try doing a CV as Aztecs after the fall patch. Surprisingly efficient at it.

 

[Redaxe]

Interesting. I think for Brazil freedom works best as there is a policy that increases the duration of golden ages by 50%. Combining that with Chichen Itza is incredible.
Getting the Chichen Itza is difficult though. But if you can get the Great Library and use the technology boost to beeline Civil Service, you have a chance.

 

[Astennu]

Interesting. I think for Brazil freedom works best as there is a policy that increases the duration of golden ages by 50%. Combining that with Chichen Itza is incredible.
Getting the Chichen Itza is difficult though. But if you can get the Great Library and use the technology boost to beeline Civil Service, you have a chance.

I went Freedom initially. I always use to go Order in G & K as I always went DV or SV so I've been eager to try a Specialist based economy with lots of Great People.

Unfortunately despite having the highest Tourism all but 3 other Civs adopted Order and I was soon facing -11 happiness due to Ideological Pressure. I could've stuck with Freedom and opted for the longer Golden Ages however the happiness penalty seemed to keep increasing. It might've gotten so bad that Golden Ages were a distant possiblity, hence I switched to order.

Order worked out great with the extra Tourism to civilization with less happiness, as I maintained good relations with nearly all Civs and traded heaps of Luxs, ending up with about 70 happiness, more than any other Civ. I doubt that would've worked on my usual Immortal games as the AI gets far too big a happiness boost.

 

[Astennu]

Interesting. It sounds like most players have been having a hard time dealing with Brazil's start bias. Lots of discussions on the forums here about it. People don't seem to be digging it that much. You should try doing a CV as Aztecs after the fall patch. Surprisingly efficient at it.

I concur that jungle starts are quite weak. My capital was luckily found next to alot of grassland with 8 hills and 2 Forests with Deer and only about 3 jungle tiles. Not your typical weak jungle start and probably the prime reason the game went so well.

Had I started surrounded by majority jungle with very few hills the game would've gone much less smoothly.

 

[Holyhesk]

Interesting read not tried Brazil yet but want to.

How much standing army did you have throughout your Culture win? where were you ranked in the Demographics Page for Military Power? never really tried a peacfull sort of approach in my games, always like to have a strong Military and go conquering

Try out Poland if you havn't already they are a fun CV to play. Free SP every time you reach a new era. Advanced stables, and thier Winged Hussars are amazing. Some are saying Poland are too OP though, which may put you off.

 

[Astennu]

Interesting read not tried Brazil yet but want to.

How much standing army did you have throughout your Culture win? where were you ranked in the Demographics Page for Military Power? never really tried a peacfull sort of approach in my games, always like to have a strong Military and go conquering

Try out Poland if you havn't already they are a fun CV to play. Free SP every time you reach a new era. Advanced stables, and thier Winged Hussars are amazing. Some are saying Poland are too OP though, which may put you off.

I didn't have the largest army in terms of numbers, however my army was more advanced than anyone.

I was also situated very nicely geographically for defense. City states and coast to my east, weak and small Polynesia to my south, mountain passes between myself and the Iroquis to the north.

My western border was most open to attack, however the 2 cities I had there were next to rivers and one next to a mountain and lake. If anyone attacked I could've easily created a chokepoint with more technically advanced troops and made the attackers pay a very high price in blood

I'd like to try Poland one day however the UA seems to bland despite being very powerful. Might try them when I eventually move to Deity.

 

[EriktheRead]

I'm currently in a great game with Brazil. I'll post the save later so people can experiment with a good Brazil start.

What kind of build order did you go with? Did you even try for Chicken itzka? EDIT: you did mention that you missed it. I find that I have trouble getting a good solid start while grabbing at least a token religion to keep sacred paths, ci, Pisa, and still having a deterrent force.

I previously had a culture game as poly, and boy, on an archipelago map they beat everyone handily at culture. Those little 5-8 tile desert islands that no one wants are suddenly transformed into late game culture mines.

 

[Holyhesk]

I didn't have the largest army in terms of numbers, however my army was more advanced than anyone.

I was also situated very nicely geographically for defense. City states and coast to my east, weak and small Polynesia to my south, mountain passes between myself and the Iroquis to the north.

My western border was most open to attack, however the 2 cities I had there were next to rivers and one next to a mountain and lake. If anyone attacked I could've easily created a chokepoint with more technically advanced troops and made the attackers pay a very high price in blood

I'd like to try Poland one day however the UA seems to bland despite being very powerful. Might try them when I eventually move to Deity.

I love how the Terrain can help us defend our Cities

I wasn't so lucky in a recent game with Holland. I was smack bang in the middle of a huge map. When my borders came close to others i was attacked from the west, east and north. There were Hills and Forests but nothing much else to create any decent Choke points. I held off the attacks for about 2 eras but eventually, the attackers from the west (The Ottamans i think it was) took a nearby allied CS and my 2nd best City. I saved it after that and may try defending my Capital at some point in the near future

 

[Astennu]

I'm currently in a great game with Brazil. I'll post the save later so people can experiment with a good Brazil start.

What kind of build order did you go with? Did you even try for Chicken itzka? EDIT: you did mention that you missed it. I find that I have trouble getting a good solid start while grabbing at least a token religion to keep sacred paths, ci, Pisa, and still having a deterrent force.

I previously had a culture game as poly, and boy, on an archipelago map they beat everyone handily at culture. Those little 5-8 tile desert islands that no one wants are suddenly transformed into late game culture mines.

My build order is pretty weird at times.

Scout > Monument (if I don't find a culture ruin quick) > worker.

I always research Pottery then Calendar as I always try to get Stonehenge. I pick mining after Calendar to start chopping forests to rush Stonehenge with the worker I built.

I often go straight for Temple of Artemis after building Stonehenge. It sounds odd but I pulled it off easily in this game. I love the extra production of ranged units for defense and combining the growth bonus with Fertility Rites or Swords into Plowshares (or both) is great. The Great Engineer points from both wonders resulted in an early Great Engineer without needing to take Liberty and I used it to rush build Sistine Chapel. a very important Cultural Wonder.

On my usual Immortal games however I'd never try to 2 early wonders.