Best Culture victory leader?
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BalbanesBeoulve
Emperor
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Any civ that's philosophical or industrious. Since you can't be both, pick whatever secondary trait you like.
Huayana Capac is very, very good. He's one of the best civs in the game. The quechas let you take out an opponent or two with minimal trouble. His UB gives you an extra bump in culture, especially since you can build them early enough to easily double their culture before 1ad. Financial is a great secondary trait.
Check out Madscientist's 3 city cultural challenge with HC. It was played at monarch difficulty.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273030
He wins an easy culture victory with only 3 cities. I shadowed it and also did well. By the time I won, only Wang Kon was ahead of me in techs.
Huayana Capac is very, very good. He's one of the best civs in the game. The quechas let you take out an opponent or two with minimal trouble. His UB gives you an extra bump in culture, especially since you can build them early enough to easily double their culture before 1ad. Financial is a great secondary trait.
Check out Madscientist's 3 city cultural challenge with HC. It was played at monarch difficulty.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273030
He wins an easy culture victory with only 3 cities. I shadowed it and also did well. By the time I won, only Wang Kon was ahead of me in techs.
Gandi is very good, spiritual and philosophical is awesome. He is probably the best.
The Chinese leaders are also very good with the Pavilion, and Qin Shi Huang has good characteristics for it (industrious, protective). Ramses is also very good.
Saladin may not be the best at it, but his traits make a culture victory a solid option and he may less suitable for other forms of victory, so when I get him on the start, I usually think about a culture vistory.
Good characteristics are --
Spiritual. May help you found a religion, cheaper temples is really important, and switching civics when you get attacked is great.
Philisophical -- Great artists, great artists!
Industrious -- You want the culture wonders, both for the direct culture and especially since they produce great artists.
Many people feel that Protective is a weak trait, which is probably correct. It is probably more useful for a cultural victory than other forms.
Bad traits are probably Aggressive, Expansive, and Financial, which are all better for other game forms.
Oddly, creative isn't a great feature, the 2 points/turn doesn't add up to a lot of culture, it is really mroe useful for fast expansion. Charismatic is just a good trait, its good for culture but it may be better for traditional games. Not sure about organized and imperialistic also seems better suited for other games.
There are a lot of threads out there on this topic, you may want to search.
Best wishes,
Breunor
The Chinese leaders are also very good with the Pavilion, and Qin Shi Huang has good characteristics for it (industrious, protective). Ramses is also very good.
Saladin may not be the best at it, but his traits make a culture victory a solid option and he may less suitable for other forms of victory, so when I get him on the start, I usually think about a culture vistory.
Good characteristics are --
Spiritual. May help you found a religion, cheaper temples is really important, and switching civics when you get attacked is great.
Philisophical -- Great artists, great artists!
Industrious -- You want the culture wonders, both for the direct culture and especially since they produce great artists.
Many people feel that Protective is a weak trait, which is probably correct. It is probably more useful for a cultural victory than other forms.
Bad traits are probably Aggressive, Expansive, and Financial, which are all better for other game forms.
Oddly, creative isn't a great feature, the 2 points/turn doesn't add up to a lot of culture, it is really mroe useful for fast expansion. Charismatic is just a good trait, its good for culture but it may be better for traditional games. Not sure about organized and imperialistic also seems better suited for other games.
There are a lot of threads out there on this topic, you may want to search.
Best wishes,
Breunor
madscientist
RPC Supergenius
As BB said the Incan leader is one of the best, as he also allows you get and early religions(s) as the UU can offer adequate defense early.
Pericles is a monster also, as he can get cheap early libraries and theaters which double in culture in 1000 years. He is philosphiccal which is great for Great Artists, and the Odeon provides alot of happiness to allow you to run Casta system for an extended period of time after everyone has democracy! The Phalynx are great for early defenses.
Pericles is a monster also, as he can get cheap early libraries and theaters which double in culture in 1000 years. He is philosphiccal which is great for Great Artists, and the Odeon provides alot of happiness to allow you to run Casta system for an extended period of time after everyone has democracy! The Phalynx are great for early defenses.
Clam Spammer
Prince
Financial is great for Culture games. The extra 1
per citizen is a big deal when you turn up the culture slider with multipliers from Free Speech and cathedrals. Plus it gets you through the tech tree quicker. You can reach the point where you want to stop researching (usually around Liberalism) sooner, allowing you to start on the culture slider earlier.
I'd say Spiritual is better than Fin as a secondary trait to Phi or Ind. Elizabeth has to be up there with the best Cultural leaders though.
per citizen is a big deal when you turn up the culture slider with multipliers from Free Speech and cathedrals. Plus it gets you through the tech tree quicker. You can reach the point where you want to stop researching (usually around Liberalism) sooner, allowing you to start on the culture slider earlier.I'd say Spiritual is better than Fin as a secondary trait to Phi or Ind. Elizabeth has to be up there with the best Cultural leaders though.
SnowlyWhite
Emperor
the leader that is put inbetween religious fanatics, so you get 4-5 different religions 
Bianezzi
Warlord
I did well with Frederick, don't know about the others....
Just to be clear, when I look at the question, 'Who is a good leader for a cultural victory', I am looking at the questions of, 'If I play a random leader and start with this person, am I likely to go for a cultural victory rather than other form.' This is different from, 'I want to try out a cultural vicotry, who is a good leader for it?'
If we start with the second question, then the Incas may be real good. If we look at the first question, and I get the Incas, I'm looking for a traditional form of victory.
Also, my style for a cultural victory is NOT to cottage up and mvoe the cultural slider high; I really have not had success with it as it kills research. I tied this a few times and have abandoned the strategy. The biggesst issue with a cultural victory is being conquered.
I far prefer the strategy of getting a bunch of artist sepcialists for culture, which generates culture directly and produces great artists. Then I can still keep a decent amount going to research.
That is the reason I like Philosophical leaders for culture victories and avoid financial ones.
Best wishes,
Breunor
If we start with the second question, then the Incas may be real good. If we look at the first question, and I get the Incas, I'm looking for a traditional form of victory.
Also, my style for a cultural victory is NOT to cottage up and mvoe the cultural slider high; I really have not had success with it as it kills research. I tied this a few times and have abandoned the strategy. The biggesst issue with a cultural victory is being conquered.
I far prefer the strategy of getting a bunch of artist sepcialists for culture, which generates culture directly and produces great artists. Then I can still keep a decent amount going to research.
That is the reason I like Philosophical leaders for culture victories and avoid financial ones.
Best wishes,
Breunor
slobberinbear
Ursine Skald
Allow me to cast my vote for Zara Yaqob. Creative with the Stele, the earliest cultural multiplier building in the game. Lots of cheap buildings, and a Unique Unit that is perfectly situated in the game to defend Ethiopia while Zara pursues a cultural victory (i.e., Liberalism/Gunpowder is a great time to turn off the science slider). Organized also allows Zara to pursue expansion/military options and run the high-end civics.
The Jamaica game in my signature below featured a cultural win using Zara.
The Jamaica game in my signature below featured a cultural win using Zara.
budweiser
King of the Beers
I'm a normal speed standard monarch player. Most of my victories are cultural. I have cultural victories with Louis, Lizzy, Charles, Qin and Willem. I also am not a fan of the cottage approach.
I'd say any industriuos leader is strong on monarch because you can run much of the table using a wonder economy. Keep in mind that building stonehenge right off the bat pretty much guarrantees you to get Christianity and you can start to build a strategy based on that religion plus your wonders. Augustus can do this too. I tried it last night as practice, but didnt finish it.
I'd say any industriuos leader is strong on monarch because you can run much of the table using a wonder economy. Keep in mind that building stonehenge right off the bat pretty much guarrantees you to get Christianity and you can start to build a strategy based on that religion plus your wonders. Augustus can do this too. I tried it last night as practice, but didnt finish it.
I think there are really two distinct styles of cultural victory...
1) Beeline liberalism, cottage your 3 culture cities, turn culture up. Other cities will run specialists; possibly artists for culture bombs although I'm also fond of getting to Democracy and putting a heavy emphasis on espionage.
This approach is the faster one and has the additional benefit of completely eradicating happiness concerns. However, incidental commerce (including trade) is wasted in the non-legendary cities and one is open to attacks from technologically superior opponents.
2) Have artists in the legendary cities, have any type of economy otherwise. These games typically last until the modern age for me and involve culture corporations. Nowhere near as fast, but less risky.
Recommended Wonderspammers:
1) Huayna Capac
Quechua Rush if boxed in, otherwise you can play entirely peacefully (only need 6 or 9 cities).
Hybrid Economy (cottages in the big 3, specialists elsewhere)
Bonus: Granary gives culture.
2) Augustus Caesar
IMP allows one to wonderspam without neglecting expansion. Praetorians are powerful enough that the top 3 cities can be reserved for artsy stuff without giving up a powerful and large empire. The Forum will come in quite handy, both for general economy and winning more quickly.
Note: Qin Shi Huang is also an excellent choice.
Recommended leader without wonderspam:
Gandhi. Without a focus on wonders, a strong emphasis on religion certainly helps; starting with Mysticism and cheaper temples will certainly come in useful.
Spiritual is also an excellent diplomatic tool when working with a small and backwards empire (which you usually will be when trying to go for a quick cultural win).
1) Beeline liberalism, cottage your 3 culture cities, turn culture up. Other cities will run specialists; possibly artists for culture bombs although I'm also fond of getting to Democracy and putting a heavy emphasis on espionage.
This approach is the faster one and has the additional benefit of completely eradicating happiness concerns. However, incidental commerce (including trade) is wasted in the non-legendary cities and one is open to attacks from technologically superior opponents.
2) Have artists in the legendary cities, have any type of economy otherwise. These games typically last until the modern age for me and involve culture corporations. Nowhere near as fast, but less risky.
Recommended Wonderspammers:
1) Huayna Capac
Quechua Rush if boxed in, otherwise you can play entirely peacefully (only need 6 or 9 cities).
Hybrid Economy (cottages in the big 3, specialists elsewhere)
Bonus: Granary gives culture.
2) Augustus Caesar
IMP allows one to wonderspam without neglecting expansion. Praetorians are powerful enough that the top 3 cities can be reserved for artsy stuff without giving up a powerful and large empire. The Forum will come in quite handy, both for general economy and winning more quickly.
Note: Qin Shi Huang is also an excellent choice.
Recommended leader without wonderspam:
Gandhi. Without a focus on wonders, a strong emphasis on religion certainly helps; starting with Mysticism and cheaper temples will certainly come in useful.
Spiritual is also an excellent diplomatic tool when working with a small and backwards empire (which you usually will be when trying to go for a quick cultural win).
Rubbaduck
Artificial waterfowl
Stonehenge in Ethiopia is badass.
