Optimizing Cultural Victories?

[GoStu]

yeah that one is kinda optional. If I have the votes I've found it to be worth it, though. I wouldn't say it makes the AI close borders on a consistent basis. And the effect is pretty big, especially if you are France.

Fair point, the flat multiplier to Holy City tourism would be really nice as France. Assuming you've been a fairly good boy too you can probably still maintain open borders, and you can still distribute Trade Routes as you need to.

Barring any Sacred Sites cheesiness, the fastest way is to race up the tech tree, grabbing every Culture wonder as you go. Use Aesthetics to go for the nice tourism bonuses, get your Ideology filled, and have fun.

I find it is still useful depending on map type to plunder a couple neighboring empires for Great Works though. When playing on Continents I'll go warmongering for as long as possible until we're about to meet the other continent: If I can pull off a couple Exterminations, that's fewer people I need to influence and it's more Great Works for me to start with.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Fair point, the flat multiplier to Holy City tourism would be really nice as France. Assuming you've been a fairly good boy too you can probably still maintain open borders, and you can still distribute Trade Routes as you need to.

Barring any Sacred Sites cheesiness, the fastest way is to race up the tech tree, grabbing every Culture wonder as you go. Use Aesthetics to go for the nice tourism bonuses, get your Ideology filled, and have fun.

I find it is still useful depending on map type to plunder a couple neighboring empires for Great Works though. When playing on Continents I'll go warmongering for as long as possible until we're about to meet the other continent: If I can pull off a couple Exterminations, that's fewer people I need to influence and it's more Great Works for me to start with.

How do you have enough time to build all the Cultural Wonders and a strong enough military to go on a warmongering rampage? I mean, what difficulty level is that?

 

[GoStu]

How do you have enough time to build all the Cultural Wonders and a strong enough military to go on a warmongering rampage? I mean, what difficulty level is that?

Who said I'm the one building the Culture Wonders?

Most of them work every bit as well whether you're the original builder, or just stole it off someone else. The only one early on that you really miss out on is the Oracle, and you can still go for a hardbuild on that.

As long as you can rally your empire together in time for the Renaissance, you're still in the running to grab either Pisa or the Sistine Chapel. I might not have been clear enough about this being mostly a pre-Renaissance move: do it to clean up your continent and then exploit the stockpile of Great Works when you meet the others.

 

[kb27787]

Unless you are on deity most CV are achievable between 200-250 turns, earlier if you had an amazing start and/or playing Brazil. I assume you are talking about standard speed of course. On deity anything below 300 is good, and the latest you can hold out is probably 320+ before another AI threatens to win.

The key, which most people tend to overlook, is faith income. With CV your cities are going to be super busy (you need factories, archaelogists, and to get the hermitage up... and then you need to worry about the WC projects, and then the wonders.... all the while growing enough not to lag behind in tech... whew! In all this time to produce trade routes/money buildings/ military units... and then to have enough food to feed your guilds... THEN to make sure you have enough diplomatic capital to choose Freedom, and to make sure to keep relationships decent so they give you open borders... unless you are Brazil in which case you can ignore diplomacy... all in all it makes for a very busy game!) A few bought GEs to help get crucial wonders over and done with is good, but more importantly, the ability to spawn GMs at the time of your choosing, say, if you won international games, is priceless... this usually means a faith income of around 50 per turn at least)