@Araf, took a look at the screenie and here are a few thoughts for your next run-through:
6 founded cities is on the high side for a classic culture game, and Douglas looks like it was founded late and made little contribution. Although each city will add to your total culture production, each additional city raises policy costs by 10% (with Representation; 15% otherwise). So, to keep pace you really have to be cranking the culture in each city (including getting a World Wonder in each for Reformation's 33% culture boost).
I could only count 3 landmarks in your capital (presumably that's where you built Hermitage and, if you were lucky, Alhambra); the city banner obscures some tiles and you might have mined over a few when you were building Utopia, but 3 landmarks is not nearly enough. Also, I saw one landmark outside Dublin and another outside Truro--you want all of your landmarks in your Hermitage city (the culture equivalent of putting all of your academies in your National College city).
I can't quite tell, but it also looks like you planted a bunch of GEs to form manufactories (Dublin looks like it has two and Nantes one). Nothing wrong with manufactories (hammers are always good), but it means you either generated a bunch of GEs naturally (instead of Great Artists) or, since you took Order, bought them with faith.
One of the common themes you will see in other write-ups is getting to the Industrial Era as soon as possible and opening and completing Freedom (rather than Order) as quickly as possible, even if that means you are leaving other policy trees unfinished for the time being. Yes, the additional science, happiness, production, gold, etc. provided by Order are generically useful, but not as useful for a culture game as Freedom (most notably the opener and closer, the two specialist policies and the ability to buy Great Artists with faith). Longer and more frequent golden ages!
Also, Commerce doesn't provide much for a culture victory -- more happiness (1/2 turned into culture by Mandate of Heaven) and gold is nice, but the naval and coastal city items were worthless on this map. Patronage is often more useful, particularly if there are a bunch of cultural CSs on the map (here there were only a few). Getting and keeping allied status with cultural CSs is a critical piece of the equation.
Good luck with your next game!
6 founded cities is on the high side for a classic culture game, and Douglas looks like it was founded late and made little contribution. Although each city will add to your total culture production, each additional city raises policy costs by 10% (with Representation; 15% otherwise). So, to keep pace you really have to be cranking the culture in each city (including getting a World Wonder in each for Reformation's 33% culture boost).
I could only count 3 landmarks in your capital (presumably that's where you built Hermitage and, if you were lucky, Alhambra); the city banner obscures some tiles and you might have mined over a few when you were building Utopia, but 3 landmarks is not nearly enough. Also, I saw one landmark outside Dublin and another outside Truro--you want all of your landmarks in your Hermitage city (the culture equivalent of putting all of your academies in your National College city).
I can't quite tell, but it also looks like you planted a bunch of GEs to form manufactories (Dublin looks like it has two and Nantes one). Nothing wrong with manufactories (hammers are always good), but it means you either generated a bunch of GEs naturally (instead of Great Artists) or, since you took Order, bought them with faith.
One of the common themes you will see in other write-ups is getting to the Industrial Era as soon as possible and opening and completing Freedom (rather than Order) as quickly as possible, even if that means you are leaving other policy trees unfinished for the time being. Yes, the additional science, happiness, production, gold, etc. provided by Order are generically useful, but not as useful for a culture game as Freedom (most notably the opener and closer, the two specialist policies and the ability to buy Great Artists with faith). Longer and more frequent golden ages!
Also, Commerce doesn't provide much for a culture victory -- more happiness (1/2 turned into culture by Mandate of Heaven) and gold is nice, but the naval and coastal city items were worthless on this map. Patronage is often more useful, particularly if there are a bunch of cultural CSs on the map (here there were only a few). Getting and keeping allied status with cultural CSs is a critical piece of the equation.
Good luck with your next game!
