Cultural Alliances

[Archon_Wing]

So the problem with these is that your opponent getting culture from trade routes and also getting a portion of your culture may slow down a cultural victory. So are these worth forming? Or maybe use them to just reach certain civics faster and change?

 

[MaryKB]

I find cultural alliances are nice when you're planning to settle near someone far away from your territory, and you don't want to worry about losing your colonies to rebellion before you can get them established.

 

[jddods]

Or you set a trap, get your ally to settle near you and then can the alliance and flip his cities for fun.

 

[Midgardsormr]

Form the alliance with a culturally weak opponent. It will boost the number of tourists they have available that are easy for you to then attract—only the culture leader's tourist production is a threat to your victory.

 

[Leucarum]

Getting a cultural alliance with eleanor gives me a warm, safe feeling.

It is definitely the alliance I am most wary of forming in case the AI forward settles me.

That said, given the propensity of the AI to settle anywhere they can late game, in one game I made one with Wilhemina, she procceded to build outposts on every isolated fringe of my empire. She had the decency to look annoyed when I didn't renew the cultural alliance and allowed all her cities to flip over to me

 

[acluewithout]

I think Alliances might actually be for defending against particular Victory types, rather than helping you win them.

So, Cultural Alliances help you and another Civ defend against a third Civ’s culture victory. A Military alliance helps you defend against Domination Victories.

So, if you’re not going for a Culture Victory, the a Cultural Alliance might be a good move.

 

[Hans Castorp]

I think Alliances might actually be for defending against particular Victory types, rather than helping you win them.

So, Cultural Alliances help you and another Civ defend against a third Civ’s culture victory. A Military alliance helps you defend against Domination Victories.

So, if you’re not going for a Culture Victory, the a Cultural Alliance might be a good move.

Agreed. For Cultural Victory, the most useful alliance is Research alliance, since you can use it to keep up on science even when pushing hard on civics.

 

[leandrombraz]

It's definitely worth forming. The AI won't get a significant amount of culture from it. The AI usually don't have a lot of cities, therefore don't have a lot of trade routes and it's unlikely that they will send all to your cities, if any, so most of the culture they will get on your alliance will come from your trade routes, which isn't a lot (1 culture per trade route). You also need to consider that just because the AI didn't do a cultural alliance with you, it doesn't mean they won't do a cultural alliance, so by avoiding an alliance you're hurting yourself without actually preventing the AI from having a cultural alliance, quite the opposite, if you're not one of the members of the Alliance, another AI is. When you make an alliance, you prevent that leader from making that same alliance with another leader, which might mean one less AI with a cultural alliance.

Meanwhile, the tier 2 cultural alliance is amazing for cultural since it give you more great people points on your districts. Send a trade route to your cultural alliance from every city with a theater square for a significant boost.You can also make the alliance with a leader that isn't doing well culturally. Even if the culture the AI get from the alliance was significant, it's only a problem if your ally is the leader with highest domestic tourists count. If you're boosting a leader that isn't doing well, the extra culture they are getting won't change how much visiting tourists you need since it won't be enough to set them as the leader with highest domestic tourists count.

The only significant culture bonus from alliance is the tier 3 bonus but that come too late to matter and also give you a tourism boost. As I just explained, it won't be a problem if your ally isn't the leader with more domestic tourists, so even if you get to that tier 3, you can prevent it from hurting you just by making an alliance with a leader with low culture.

 

[Brutus2]

I just finished a game going for Culture victory. I had Elenor as a neighbor so I thought I was being smart signing a Culture alliance with her to prevent losing any cities. However she was the civ with most domestic tourists that I needed to beat. It didn’t occur to me that she was sharing a portion of my culture and my tourism output thus making it harder for me to win. Once i noticed that and switched her to a different alliance, victory came quickly. Lesson learned.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Keep in mind that the Level 2 bonus for Cultural is by far the largest of any Alliance type.

Level 2 Science is worth about 20 sci/turn. Not bad, about the value of a weaker Econ policy card, but in a key area.
Level 2 Military is worth less than a Military policy slot.
Level 2 Religion is roughly comparable to an Econ policy slot.
Level 2 Econ is comparable to a Diplo Policy slot, if you partner is doing well.
Level 2 Cultural's GPP is equivalent to multiple wild card slots.

Just 3 trade routes from your favorite pop 10 cities is up to +12 raw GPP. (Art guys counted as a combined 1, otherwise more there)

For people pursuing a CV, the added GPP is very likely to increase net endgame Tourism more than any Level 3 Culture/Tourism shortcoming.

 

[kb27787]

Keep in mind that the Level 2 bonus for Cultural is by far the largest of any Alliance type.

Level 2 Science is worth about 20 sci/turn. Not bad, about the value of a weaker Econ policy card, but in a key area.
Level 2 Military is worth less than a Military policy slot.
Level 2 Religion is roughly comparable to an Econ policy slot.
Level 2 Econ is comparable to a Diplo Policy slot, if you partner is doing well.
Level 2 Cultural's GPP is equivalent to multiple wild card slots.

Just 3 trade routes from your favorite pop 10 cities is up to +12 raw GPP. (Art guys counted as a combined 1, otherwise more there)

For people pursuing a CV, the added GPP is very likely to increase net endgame Tourism more than any Level 3 Culture/Tourism shortcoming.

I can confirm this... Cultural alliances help a lot more than they hurt CV.

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[Artuero]

Just an FYI/clarification because I tested it today. The cultural alliance level 2 GPP bonus is great, but you only get one boost per city. So best to spread the trade routes to your ally among all of your cities, one each, for the maximum boost.

 

[Civ Chemist]

In culture games I generally try to avoid alliances alltogehter as the last thing I want in those games is being dragged into joint wars when my ally is being attacked (losing a potential +50% tourism modifier from open borders and trade route). If I form alliances it's only with civs that are friendly with all other civs, thus being relatively safe from any future war declarations.
And regarding culture alliances specifically, as long as it is not with one of the stronger culture civs, they shouldn't slow down your CV.