Best/Fav Civ for Culture Victory in BNW?

[ezbutton]

I love playing the culture game in Civ 5 and its normally the victory I aim for due to the challenge and the mixing and matching of themes and all that. I've only played a few games and won even fewer via culture. I was wondering what everyone like to play for culture victory since I've only won it with India and Spain prob two civs that aren't ideal for it but still good nonetheless.

I've tried Brazil but the start bias is SO damn weak for the early game that I rarely ever get to the late game with them when they would probably become tourism juggernauts. ATM I think France is one of the best because of the double theming bonus and prob one of the best civs to do a wide culture victory because of the UA. Thoughts?

 

[Psychoward]

In all of the culture games I went for, Diplomatic was always an option before I got influential with everyone. I feel like culture games take way too long. That being said, the most successful one I had was with 4 city Poland.

 

[Teaf]

Best I'd say is Brazil. If you can get a good start you'll be laughing. If you can pull a Liberty start, head to Chichen Itza and pop a GE to complete it from the Liberty finisher you'll be all set. Venice are excellent as they can get a trade route with everyone whilst still feeding their own cities with food and production. France is nice and easy to use as they are not start location dependant and their UA combined with Aesthetics is fantastic.

I also find Babylon and Korea to be good, even though they are built for science. You can get through techs much faster and have a better chance at those crucial wonders, also you can reach hotels and airports faster.

 

[Rob5000]

Poly is also good for culture - those Moais really stack up if you fill up your coasts with them. Plus, you can dominate the WC easily since you start with embarkation and meet all the civs - just beeline Printing Press.

 

[Xandinho]

I think Brazil. Brazil is really weak at the beginning of the game, but from the industrial age it becomes a cultural power, you just build buildings to place the artwork, as well as some wonders like Chichen Itza, Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Uffizi

 

[Makavcio]

For cultural victory, pick a religious civilization. Make sure to be the 1st one to fund a religion, pick mosques and cathedrals for your bonuses ans +2 religion per foreign city. With appropriate reformation belief, you'll be pumping huge amount of tourism even before industrial era. Finish aesthetics, go for international games and BANG! - you've won cultural race in industrial times. The only condition for this path is a lack of strong cultural defenders in the game or early vanquish of them.

 

[Zilkin]

Brazil is without a doubt the best culture civ now. Jungle bias can make for a hard start, but once you get going nothing is going to stop you.

 

[cairnsy44]

In all of the culture games I went for, Diplomatic was always an option before I got influential with everyone. I feel like culture games take way too long. That being said, the most successful one I had was with 4 city Poland.

I have actually had the opposite happen. As Portugal, I was going for a diplo win, but got culture first. My current game as France, my initial target VC was culture, but then I met Brazil, who was getting all the wonders I was not (I still had more). They had a LOT of culture, so I worked the $$ and CS for a backup plan. But my crazy theme bonuses have me crushing everyone with culture now and I faith popped a GMusician at the same time I got one naturally. They just blasted Brazil on tour. The French Invasion....
Should have culture wrapped up in a few turns, now.
I also got a culture win with Poland. It really is a fun way to go. May have to try Brazil next.

 

[Scott Jegg]

Brazil is without a doubt the best culture civ now. Jungle bias can make for a hard start, but once you get going nothing is going to stop you.

It's strong, but if Napoleon is on top of his game, taking out other civs and wonderspamming, he can be hard to catch.

 

[ezbutton]

I've actually started testing out Brazil a bit more and I was wondering is it worthwhile to start wars when I get his UU or better to just stockpile my happiness for golden ages?

 

[Cyanfunk]

Best is Brazil with Chichen Itza.

 

[Scott Jegg]

I've actually started testing out Brazil a bit more and I was wondering is it worthwhile to start wars when I get his UU or better to just stockpile my happiness for golden ages?

I think you get about 25 points for each kill towards a golden age, so it can be good to invite a neighbour onto you and mow them down in your own territory if you weren't friendly with them in the first place.

 

[Xandinho]

I've actually started testing out Brazil a bit more and I was wondering is it worthwhile to start wars when I get his UU or better to just stockpile my happiness for golden ages?

I think you better declare war only to steal cultural wonders and tourist (Eiffel Tower)
Try as much as possible get into the golden age (Carnival)

 

[Psychoward]

When playing Brazil, what do you guys do with early Great Artists? Some people said they wait until they get more tourism, but that can be a long time... Also the problem I have with playing Brazil is that usually a good chunk of base tourism comes from pieces of art, but if you're playing as them it's harder to get that because you'll be popping Great Artists for golden ages.

 

[Heart Break Kid]

Had a great culture game with Ethiopia. Having a dominating Religion certainly helps. Gives an extra 25% bonus, and obv gives you a of faith to buy great people with.

 

[Bandersnatching]

I've played through a number of partial BNW games, but the only one I've finished so far is a France Cultural victory on Earth, Standard size and speed, Emperor, Legendary start.
France is really great fun with the changes they've made to the civ. The UA is more interesting and the UI is really good too - just super useful all around, I was building Chateaus everywhere I could and pumping gold and culture from my cities, which became even more OP when converted into Tourism late game.
I've tried Brazil a few times, with my most recent also being the most successful. Random map but otherwise same as the above game, my start location sucked so I moved the settler and warrior around for a few turns and finally settled Rio on T4 - flat plains coastal river, three bananas and a citrus in the immediate ring, a cow, pearls and swampy sugar in the second ring, another cow, banana, sugar and two fish in the third ring. Certainly the poorest production start I've ever played but I was still able to get Parthenon and Chichen Itza down a little while after T100. Hilariously I had six of my fourteen citizens slumming around the city to add production to build Chichen Itza; Rio produced sooooo much food that with all of that it was still getting +5 per turn and that was literally the only way to add production. Didn't even have the HG. That game in particular got derailed when super-expansive France took out Mongolia, settled the continent, declared war on Venice (which was very close to Rio, so there were two extremely large city-states with lots of wonders and nothing else right next to each other...), then declared war on me after I paid Napoleon to make peace with Venice (so I could snipe it with a musketman). Long story made longer, at this point in the game I'm giving up because I went down the completely wrong tech path, have conquered Paris and much of France but am at war with the Zulu, and losing culturally to China, Polynesia AND super-rex Shoshone. I got backstabbed by all three of my 'friends' that game...
Still, 50-turn Golden Ages are the best thing ever.
In all that I forgot to say: Brazilwood Camps with Sacred Path, Acoustics and University during Golden Ages are amazing, probably also the best thing ever. There were a lot of best things ever that game. 2 food, 2 science, 3 gold and 3 culture. Just wow.

 

[ezbutton]

I would say get enough Great Artists to compile the theming bonus for all the wonders. For museums I would just throw in artifacts for the half bonus or try and make a swap for the full bonus. Otherwise I think you should just keep buying and using Great Artists for the Golden Ages. I managed to get a pretty decent timing down and victory at turn 320ish (I think or 1940AD on standard) but I messed up by not using more artists for golden ages and never passing the World Fair or International Games had I passed either of those resolutions I think I could have definitely finished before turn 300.

In all that I forgot to say: Brazilwood Camps with Sacred Path, Acoustics and University during Golden Ages are amazing, probably also the best thing ever. There were a lot of best things ever that game. 2 food, 2 science, 3 gold and 3 culture. Just wow.

Yeah those make for some beastly tiles, 8 total yield during a golden age makes mini natural wonders all over the place.

 

[Crustierpie]

Brazil hands down. Go freedom for longer golden ages, 34% tourism boost and foreign legion which upgrade into 6 free Pracinha. Work like hell to grab international games start a golden age and enjoy 234+% tourism boost. After which faith buy all the great musicians and call it a day.

 

[Muskie]

France is good for Culture, but it is tourism that wins cultural victory. I think a lot is dependent on what AI you are playing against. I generate a lot of Culture but always seem to win diplomatically before I dominate the last holdout Civ.

I'm still refining my cultural victory strategy but I do think Babylon is a contender, I prefer Babylon over Korea. I'm trying the Inca they just 'work'. The Inca can do anything, one of the best all around Civs in my oppinion. Polynesia is also very strong and with their UI helping with tourism I plan to try them next, but I almost feel like I'm cheating when I play Polynesia as they are so good.

Austria also seems like cheating, you can just buy/marry your way to victory.

I want to try on a bigger map, I play on a small map as my computer is old and slow, but I think people neglect map size too often when claiming they have the best strategy/civ/opening etc. I think Liberty may be more viable on bigger maps, Piety too. Whereas on cramped maps Tradition seems the way to go.

It takes so much time and effort to win culturally. I don't have time and energy to test all my ideas.

 

[Bandersnatching]

Polynesia is also very strong and with their UI helping with tourism I plan to try them next, but I almost feel like I'm cheating when I play Polynesia as they are so good.

As a big fan of Polynesia since getting the game, I can't tell you how happy it makes me feel to see that people are finally experiencing it as a good/powerful civ. I haven't tried them out yet in BNW but all of this hype about how good Moai are for Tourism is giving me a lot of hope for them.
Having played as France and Brazil, it does seem like the culture-boosting UI's are quite good in BNW. Moai have the smallest base culture bonus, but the largest possible end bonus. In your experience would you say that their variability and generally lower power is made up for by the high outliers that you can get with the right tile setups?