Best way to acquire Culture in BNW?

[Gary King]

Since BNW, getting Culture seems to be a bit more difficult. I play on Immortal difficulty, so getting Wonders for their Culture is mostly out of the question.

What is the best way to acquire Culture? Has anyone done the math on what is most cost-efficient? For now, I usually try and become Allies with Culture City-States, but in my last game, there wasn't a single Cultured City-State at all! So my Culture was pathetic for most of the game. I usually avoid Archaeology because I'm busy going for Dynamite so I can get Artillery to start my first war. But is that the best Tech for fast Culture?

 

[zukenft]

early game, staffing the guilds and creating great works. late game, capturing wonders and great works. archeology will only give you about 50 total culture from landmarks and artifacts; rushing artillery is a viable alternative if there is a wonder hog near you. don't forget to take autocracy

 

[budweiser]

Since BNW, getting Culture seems to be a bit more difficult. I play on Immortal difficulty, so getting Wonders for their Culture is mostly out of the question.

What is the best way to acquire Culture? Has anyone done the math on what is most cost-efficient? For now, I usually try and become Allies with Culture City-States, but in my last game, there wasn't a single Cultured City-State at all! So my Culture was pathetic for most of the game. I usually avoid Archaeology because I'm busy going for Dynamite so I can get Artillery to start my first war. But is that the best Tech for fast Culture?

Have you tried Drama & Poetry before philosophy?

 

[Calouste]

Best way to acquire Culture in BNW is to play Polynesia. Or France. Or Brazil. Japan, Songhai and Siam also have their plusses.

 

[SULOMON]

Best way to acquire Culture in BNW is to play Polynesia. Or France. Or Brazil. Japan, Songhai and Siam also have their plusses.

Siam is great for culture if there are several cultural city states.

 

[ravenmagus]

Best way to acquire Culture in BNW is to play Polynesia. Or France. Or Brazil. Japan, Songhai and Siam also have their plusses.

Those culture improvements generally suck; they're not useful unless you're actually going for CV in the lategame. Working them instead of farms will greatly hinder your early game growth. Japan, at least, doesn't give up anything for it but it's a small bonus for them. (Of course, you could say the same for specialist slots, perhaps.. But Polynesia in particular tends to give up a lot for Maoi chains, and they're not exciting until you're getting Tourism from them.)

The best way to get culture is to create the Guilds early and work their specialist slots, ally Cultural CS, and build wonders. Great Works themselves are nice but the great person special abilities can provide just as much culture as the Great Work (especially the Writer's).

 

[joncnunn]

Since BNW, getting Culture seems to be a bit more difficult. I play on Immortal difficulty, so getting Wonders for their Culture is mostly out of the question.

What is the best way to acquire Culture? Has anyone done the math on what is most cost-efficient? For now, I usually try and become Allies with Culture City-States, but in my last game, there wasn't a single Cultured City-State at all! So my Culture was pathetic for most of the game. I usually avoid Archaeology because I'm busy going for Dynamite so I can get Artillery to start my first war. But is that the best Tech for fast Culture?

In BNW, build and run the darn guilds. Great works are the biggest source of culture.

So that's the three techs that allow those guilds.

 

[ravenmagus]

Great works are the biggest source of culture.

It's a bit of a misconception really. The earliest guild is Writer's, and the Great Writer's special ability, when used at the right time, can easily produce much more culture than you'll ever get from a Great Work. The Artist provides Golden Ages, and beyond just being awesome, Golden Ages provide culture too, and can even amp up a Great Writer's special ability.

That being said, the guilds themselves and the specialist slots being run produces a lot of culture, and the Great Persons are good.

 

[Calouste]

Those culture improvements generally suck; they're not useful unless you're actually going for CV in the lategame. Working them instead of farms will greatly hinder your early game growth. Japan, at least, doesn't give up anything for it but it's a small bonus for them. (Of course, you could say the same for specialist slots, perhaps.. But Polynesia in particular tends to give up a lot for Maoi chains, and they're not exciting until you're getting Tourism from them.)

The best way to get culture is to create the Guilds early and work their specialist slots, ally Cultural CS, and build wonders. Great Works themselves are nice but the great person special abilities can provide just as much culture as the Great Work (especially the Writer's).

First time I've heard someone say that a 2222 tile sucks.

And really, you don't want to work non-fresh water farms until Fertilizer. Even in a Tradition capital I'd rather run a food trade route.

 

[paralistalon]

You can get some really good culture by stacking all your culture stuff in one city. This will usually be your capital. Then get enough artifacts/great works to fulfill the themeing bonus for all those slots in that city and build the Hermatage there (+50% culture) and later a Broadcast Tower (+33% culture). If you can even later get the Sistine Chapel or Sydney Opera House, your culture will skyrocket!

Until then... yeah, my culture is usually lackluster. It's more important to prioritize science early game.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Best way to acquire Culture in BNW is to play Polynesia.

I was once cranking out 1600+ culture with Polynesia. 5 cities, and it was Emperor or Immortal on tiny islands or something like that.

 

[ravenmagus]

First time I've heard someone say that a 2222 tile sucks.

And really, you don't want to work non-fresh water farms until Fertilizer. Even in a Tradition capital I'd rather run a food trade route.

The issue with Brazilwood Camps aren't really the camps itself. It's the fact that to be utilizing them, you've gotta be in jungle, and jungle starts DO suck.

A 2 food/science/culture/gold tile is a great tile. But getting to the point where you can actually work it with a decent capital is a very long road, and it's not going to be an optimal source of culture through the early-midgame. Later on, yeah, that tile's going to rock, especially when you can start getting Tourism from it too.

Edit: To be clear, I'm making these suggestions from the point of view of "what do I need to provide culture throughout the game, and get more social policies" - not necessarily "what will get me to a Cultural Victory".

 

[adcarrymaokai]

A 2 food/science/culture/gold tile is a great tile. But getting to the point where you can actually work it with a decent capital is a very long road, and it's not going to be an optimal source of culture through the early-midgame. Later on, yeah, that tile's going to rock, especially when you can start getting Tourism from it too.

Well, I guess that's where game balance comes in. Late game Brazil can win a game in one Carnival, so in order to balance that they have to be weak early...

 

[joncnunn]

It's a bit of a misconception really. The earliest guild is Writer's, and the Great Writer's special ability, when used at the right time, can easily produce much more culture than you'll ever get from a Great Work. The Artist provides Golden Ages, and beyond just being awesome, Golden Ages provide culture too, and can even amp up a Great Writer's special ability.

That being said, the guilds themselves and the specialist slots being run produces a lot of culture, and the Great Persons are good.

Writer:
Early writers producing great works of writing also cause any late game writers used to culture bomb more culture.

Also a little culture for a long time really helps for defensive purposes compared to none at all until 8 turns following beginning of hosting the Olympics since you'd want the protection before then.

Artist:
In early game getting an extra GA won't increase culture much because your base is so low.

 

[ravenmagus]

Writer:
Early writers producing great works of writing also cause any late game writers used to culture bomb more culture.

Also a little culture for a long time really helps for defensive purposes compared to none at all until 8 turns following beginning of hosting the Olympics since you'd want the protection before then.

Artist:
In early game getting an extra GA won't increase culture much because your base is so low.

You can save those writers to BE a late game culture bomb (or a post-Worlds Fair Culture bomb, which usually comes along long before tourism defense matters much). I'll admit the difference between works and GA for artists is much closer, but then you can still save them for some truly glorious late game GA's. Both of those can be saved up for a more impactful time to use their special abilities - unlike the Great Musicians, which are set when they are created and you don't want to spawn any early on unless you want the Works.

(Personally, I actually do like Great Works, but then I like CV as a whole and you really need those Works for the tourism.)