Turn 258 Cultural Victory in 1735 AD with Score 609 (Nero).
61 Great Works, 70 slots for Great Works.
How many cities did you capture or settle?
15 cities total, 3 of them were settled cities taken from the enemy, and somewhere around 3-5 of the Russian-settled cities came from stolen settlers (all but one of these stolen settlers was unguarded).
What did you prioritize for research and policies?
I initially went for Bronze Working after getting Animal Husbandry, as I wanted to destroy Cleopatra who was near. My initial plan was to wipe out each AI and leave only one AI with a few cities left so my cultural victory would be really rapid. But the 40ish defense of many AI cities proved too difficult for my archers and chariots to take down, even with the aid of catapults, etc. So I focused thereafter on cultural techs, specifically Computers (beelined), followed by Radio (for Seaside Resorts) and Steel (for Eiffel Tower, so I can spam even more Seaside Resorts on the coastlines of the home continent). I went for Computers due to the doubling of tourism, but I'm unsure if that was the wisest choice, as I went for Computers without a boost to it (I did have a boost for Radio from a Great Scientist however).
For policies, I went for Political Philosophy like every Civ VI player likely does (except for Greece, who can beeline the +2 Great Prophet point policy). Then Humanism for the Art/Archaeology museums, Natural History for the archaeologists, Opera and Theater detour for Bolshoi Ballet, Mass Media, Conservation. Space Race's triple music tourism policy seemed useful so I grabbed that as victory was near.
Did You get the first religion?
No, but as Russia gets a unique holy district I figured I'd go for a religion. It is also to be noted that having a Holy City means you get 8 tourism fairly early on in the game. My religion was 3rd or 4th out of the 5 religions I think, and I chose the Cathedral building for the Religious Art slots. This was helpful as tons of otherwise useless Great Artists generating Religious Art actually had a place to slot their work.
How much warring did you do?
Quite a bit initially, with Cleopatra's capital falling, but she settled a new one right before that near the jungle of Mohenjo Daro. I let her live thereafter, though I was careful to settle ALL the land near me so she couldn't take away coastal space that otherwise could be used for Seaside Resorts. I did steal a settler from Tomyris after she unwisely sent an unguarded settler near the Natural Wonder (Torre something) which I had settled near. I then stayed peaceful, warring only when Phillip, Gorgo, Frederick and Cleopatra later declared war on me.
Were City-States helpful?
Mohenjo Daro was a great early ally to not have to worry about housing with (and my city in the southeast, whose name I forget, had no access to water, but with Mohenjo Daro counted as if next to a river, which was great). I allied with Carthage early on to speed production of archers to kill Cleopatra with, but then never spent delegates on them again. I found the other city-states too late, though I did put many delegates into Geneva to try and speed my science path to Radio and Steel, and also Brussels to try and construct the Eiffel Tower faster (it didn't really help as I didn't have enough delegates to become suzerain of Brussels). Kandy was useless. Found it way too late, and they don't give you relics for natural wonders you already discovered, to my knowledge.
Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Gorgo of Greece was a HUGE cultural obstacle to my win, and when she got around 200 domestic tourists I seriously considered wiping her out with ranged and melee naval units. I had scouted her out and she appeared to only have 3 cities. But the time it took for one of my coastal cities to create even ONE privateer (something like 40 turns) made me reconsider (though I did create the privateer later on anyway, and I upgraded it to a submarine for the attached save game to war with Egypt). I did convert 2 of her 3 cities to my religion to try and lose out the negative modifier to tourism for not being of the same religion. But this later proved useless because France became the cultural rival to Russia.
An interesting surprise occurred when Gilgamesh and Phillip II declared war on me after I settled cities near the Natural Wonder. They all said I was a warmonger and blahblah. I took one city from Phillip (Toledo) which later proved a fruitful area for Seaside Resorts. Gilgamesh never sent a single unit, and I made regular peace with him. All this warring made Gorgo like me, and I got open borders and a delegation with her for the tourism boosts, She also was helpful as a source to sell my extra luxuries to (and trade luxuries with). I thought all was set.
But later on, I was shocked to see Catherine de Medici overtook Gorgo as the huge domestic tourists master, which was a big surprise. I think in the end I had to overcome 237 domestic French tourists, which was alarming.
At this time Gorgo decided she didn't like me (she said I was going bankrupt, and that I wasn't fighting (which was true)). Gorgo then DOWed me and sent not even one unit. Weirdly her apostles were hanging around nearby regardless, so I killed them.
Another interesting surprise occurred when the beaten (and puny) Cleopatra befriended Frederick, and both declared war on me despite having fewer units and less advanced units at that. Frederick made peace with me, but Cleopatra did not (in the attached save I was in the process of crushing her--I note that the submarine alone can take down almost half her city's defenses, which is ridiculously imbalanced).
Did you enjoy the game?
I did. I was initially worried I would hate this game, since I had little idea how to do a Cultural Game, but a useful Civ VI Cultural Victory guide (linked by a helpful contributor in the Game of the Month 6 Announcement thread) really helped me understand what to aim for, and made the game more exciting. I still had frustrating moments where I realized I had not settled a sleeping Great Musician's work in a Broadcast Center for several turns, losing out on a faster win. I also had frustration when I realized the Great Engineer that unlocked the Computers boost would not come in time for me, so that Policy slot with +2 Great Engineer points was simply wasted. I should have stuck to Great Artists. Another source of frustration was not having any slots for the Great Music early on in the game, when the Lavra and Theater Square bonuses generated lots of Great Musicians for Russia. The Great Musicians sat uselessly for millenia.
After getting the Computers tech for double tourism, I was worried the game would be a dull "Press Next Turn 40 times" end-game affair (as it still is in Civ V), but the rush to settle the Seaside Resorts as fast as possible after the Eiffel Tower made me focus on calculating how quickly each city could create a worker and have it on the coast by the time the Eiffel Tower was finished, which made things *for a brief moment* almost as dynamic as the nail-biting Civ IV cultural victories (on Prince or higher difficulty anyway).
It is strange how the culture game in Civ VI is rather lacking in complexity though, even for Russia, whose lavra faith and Great Artist generation *should* mean they have a key cultural advantage. Russia played little differently for me, though I did have faith for Naturalists to create two National Parks (it didn't generate much tourism though). Wonders generate less tourism than Great Works and are generally not worth building (I bit the bullet and constructed the Bolshoi Ballet since I was annoyed at how little space there was for Great Music in this game), Great Artists sit uselessly due to the sheer lack of space for their work, tourism does nothing but help a Cultural Victory (it doesn't flip cities as in V, and culture doesn't flip cities as in IV). The key combo is Eiffel Tower to boost tile appeal so you can build Seaside Resorts in almost every coastal space you own, Cristo Redentor to double the Seaside Resorts' tourism, and Computers to double tourism thereafter. Some useful policies exist, but they don't seem as gamechanging as Seaside Resorts, at least on a coastal map.
Spread the word thru peace and love, or conversion by the sword?
I don't understand. This wasn't a religious game.
But I'll play with it--I wanted to spread mighty Russia's borders and cultural dominance using the sword, but after almost wiping out Egypt and waging war on Scythia to take a settler that unwisely wandered near me unguarded, I ended up waging war only when people declared on me.
