What if I told that the most efficient Social Policy course for culture victories is to completely ignore aesthetics and plow through rationalism until freedom and then pick up your last policy in Rationalism and Oxford to get your last few technologies. There is absolutely no room for aesthetics. Frankly Aesthetics should open in the ancient era just like piety.
World's Fair, CV, and Great Scientists
- Thread starter roymend
- Start date
What if I told that the most efficient Social Policy course for culture victories is to completely ignore aesthetics and plow through rationalism until freedom and then pick up your last policy in Rationalism and Oxford to get your last few technologies. There is absolutely no room for aesthetics. Frankly Aesthetics should open in the ancient era just like piety.
Cromagnus
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2012
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- 2,272
I disagree. I recognize the obvious value of getting to the last-tier techs faster when your goal is a cultural victory, but my argument is that if you're super-focused on tech, you're not generating decent tourism, or to put it another way, you could win an earlier victory by focusing on culture.
I'd say the reality is that oftentimes the fastest road to victory (of any kind) is early conquest, but I digress.
If you go into Aesthetics early, you're generating Great Works and buildings to house them much faster, hence influencing Civs earlier, and the value of doubling your Theming Bonus is huge. By the time you get that +100% from endgame tech, if you're playing at high difficulty or against a skilled opponent, you're at risk of losing to a Diplomatic victory. If you're playing against a human, you've already been nuked.
If you saved up Great Musicians, and have been saving up faith to buy more, you should be able to win via Concert Tour long before you have that tech.
Just my opinion though.
chazzycat
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 2,918
I like aesthetics for a cultural victory IF you are focused on wonders. As I see it, there are two strong paths towards cultural victory:
1) extreme tech-based path. Focus only on wonders that provide art/artifact slots, beeline archaeology, use artifacts as "base" tourism and science to hit multipliers extremely fast. No room for aesthetics using this path. More cities with this approach (6+) to store more artifacts so less policies.
2) more balanced tech/cultural path. Focus on some wonders that provide theming bonuses and stack them in your capital. Less cities with this approach...3 or 4. Plenty of room for aesthetics under this approach. Double theming bonuses will have big effect once multipliers are hit especially the visitor center. Other aesthetics policies will also help set up a culture blitz during the world fair, which helps power through rationalism and ideology tenets.
I've had success with both options at immortal and below depending on the situation/civ. From what I've heard from deity players, #1 is preferred since its hard to get wonders on deity.
1) extreme tech-based path. Focus only on wonders that provide art/artifact slots, beeline archaeology, use artifacts as "base" tourism and science to hit multipliers extremely fast. No room for aesthetics using this path. More cities with this approach (6+) to store more artifacts so less policies.
2) more balanced tech/cultural path. Focus on some wonders that provide theming bonuses and stack them in your capital. Less cities with this approach...3 or 4. Plenty of room for aesthetics under this approach. Double theming bonuses will have big effect once multipliers are hit especially the visitor center. Other aesthetics policies will also help set up a culture blitz during the world fair, which helps power through rationalism and ideology tenets.
I've had success with both options at immortal and below depending on the situation/civ. From what I've heard from deity players, #1 is preferred since its hard to get wonders on deity.
Just to add on - if you're going for a CV, you're likely exerting ideological pressure on others, maybe "Familiar", maybe "Popular". But chances are most other civs will be "Exotic" with you as well, limiting their ideo-pain to just dissidents or Civ-resistance. Your added culture should be more than enough to make them all "Unknown" to you, particularly if you manage to time the GW as well as others have said, putting the squeeze on them.
However, if you lose, you've scored an own goal big time. I don't normally take the WF while going for a CV personally.
However, if you lose, you've scored an own goal big time. I don't normally take the WF while going for a CV personally.
uncle bulgaria
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2013
- Messages
- 54
Pretty sure I picked it up from here but i plant GS until I have researced scientific theory then I bulb them and that seems to work well.
Late game you get loads of them if you're running all the specialists slots plus the two from getting Hubble. I don't agressively spread eligion so I use fiath for them too but I always buy a great engineer with faith to make sure I get hubble. I beeline satellites after plastics and dynamite to make sure I get there first.
Late game you get loads of them if you're running all the specialists slots plus the two from getting Hubble. I don't agressively spread eligion so I use fiath for them too but I always buy a great engineer with faith to make sure I get hubble. I beeline satellites after plastics and dynamite to make sure I get there first.
