Culture victory T235 for GotM 235
A regular Freedom tourism game, I did not consider Futurism or sacred sites here. As I write this, I'm reminded of the third-tier freedom policy that increases tourism output with 34% for cities with a broadcast tower - but I forgot to get broadcast towers in all my expands. In any case, that probably did not make a huge difference. Loading the game again, I just bought a Broadcast tower in Brasilia, and my total tourism output went from 893 to 896.
Continuing from the Opening Actions thread, I went 5 city tradition, and got Tithe, production, and mosques from the gem faith pantheon. I should have made this report directly after the game, because now I started another one, and do not have the autosaves anymore to check whether I went Astronomy first, or printing press first. A major decision around that time was to generate any engineers try to hard build all the renaissance wonders. Since I did not have a crazy Petra cap or something like it, I decided to generate an engineer and use it for Leaning Tower, then take another engineer for Sistine, while hard building Globe theatre in between. I'm not sure it was the correct decision, or whether I should have generated only scientists, but there is so much stuff to build in Renaissance, that I often take the early benefit of the engineers. As it was, my cap was still so busy I ended up losing Uffizi to a Dutch expand anyway.
After tradition I went straight into aesthetics. In other games, I frequently choose Patronage since the city state influence is so comfortable, and Forbidden Palace is a nice extra happiness boost, and a good grip on the World Congress to boot; or I go commerce to be able to buy schools and labs. In this game, I did not need the happiness from Patronage, but I did really miss the purchasing power of commerce. I have spoiled myself by often playing quick speed, legendary start and/or Lekmod, which has given me a certain expectation of what reasonable build times should be. However, on standard speed and with 'normal' cities, build times can be a shock:
twelve turns for a factory? I usually bite the bullet and get all the production buildings as early as possible. Wind mills did not apply here because I settled all my cities on hills, but I did go industrialization first. Unfortunately, there was no coal to be had immediately. There was a node in Great General distance next to Kiev, but I had played peacefully, and Lhasa's coal already had a mine on it. As result, once I finally got coal, I had to build schools and factories at the same time. Oh, and World's Fair too. One good thing about this whole episode was that I noticed Maria enter Industrialization, and she had settled a city on a 3-coal node, so I could buy it off her straight away. I had a little gold saved, and I had some friendships with the AI, so I bought the factory, school, and later even hydro plant in the cap so it could continue to build infrastructure and attempt wonders, although Maria built the Louvre before I could consider opening exploration.
For my artists, I created great works from the first three, buy after that I bulbed them to keep the carnival going. I even ended up purchasing two with faith. I could really have used Chichen Itza here, but my going workshops first meant I did not have a chance for it: it was more or less built when I reached civil service. I would consider warring for it, only Morocco had built it and the other side of the map, along with some other wonders I might have liked such as Temple of Artemis. Perhaps another solution to the golden age problem might have been the Pracinha, but that unit just comes so late. I reached Plastics around turn 200 (10-turn research labs let's go!), and with the game ending 30 turns later, there is little scope to earn a whole golden age. America's minuteman comes at Gunpowder, that's much more reasonable timing.
One key decision in the middle game was for the second session of the World Congress to propose International Games. Sometimes I find it is beneficial to take breaks in between play sessions, and not finish a game in one sitting, so you have some time to reflect on how the game is going and how to proceed. The International Games idea came to me in such a break, and I realized it would require some preparation, as building Oxford was not simply a 1-turn build, but 4 turns after unworking some specialists. Bulbing a scientist and then finishing Oxford on the turn the Congress was in session, I was not sure whether I entered Radio early enough, but it turned out I could indeed propose it. When, some 30-odd turns later the vote was passed, I promptly forgot to work it! I only noticed when a building finished and I noticed it in the build options. I quickly switched all cities to IG, maxed out production, and for good measure instigated world wars by bribing all of the leaders to war each other. In the end I still got it comfortably: 1800 hammers vs 1000, but one turn more delay and I would have lost it.
The end of the game suggested I did not play Brazil optimally, and that it might be possible to push tourism quicker: I was influential with all just as I reached internet and completed national visitor center (meaning they were not really necessary), especially since my musicians were not maxed out. Finally, all civs were doing comparable in culture, so it was sufficient that I bulbed in Polynesia only. I therefore settled a 6th city, gifted it to Polynesia ("I must accept!"), and walked my musicians straight in there, since I still had open borders.
