Catherine/France (Mag) [22]
Cleopatra/Egypt [22]
Cyrus/Persia [19]
Gitarja/Indonesia [14]
Gorgo/Greece [15]
Hojo Tokimune/Japan [15]
Jayavarman/Khmer [6]
Kristina/Sweden [24]
Kupe/Maori [20]
Mansa Musa/Mali [1]
Menelik/Ethiopia [22]
Mvemba a Nzinga/Kongo [16]
Pedro/Brazil [15] (18-1) - You have to get the GP first before their bonus kicks in. Rainforest start may be good for growth and production, but it slows down being able to place districts right away. Having to go for Bronze Working can mess up optimizing the district discount mechanism, slowing down a Culture win. Slower movement means it takes longer to settle early cities, to get improvements up, etc. A good Culture civ, sure, but Brazil has its flaws. I also think Rome is better and can win a Culture game faster.
Pericles/Greece [22]
Peter/Russia [25]
Qin Shi Huang/China [25]
Teddy Roosevelt/America (BM) [22]
Trajan/Rome [7] (6 +1) - The early Culture and the removal of the opportunity cost of having to build / buy a Monument is much, MUCH stronger than a lot of people realize. Rome will get to all the key early civics first and often be able to get the first 4 Classical GWs (if Russia is not in the game). Who cares if they don’t have UI that generate Culture at Flight when they have a 9K+ Tourism cushion with each civ from early GWoWs and can build Seaside reports / National Parks / etc. 30+ turns earlier than other civs. See below for detailed explanation.
Wilfrid Laurier/Canada [22]
Detailed Rome explanation (Warning - LONG). Above you should be an adequate tldr if you just want to skip.
Though I recognize that Rome is probably going to lose out to more obvious Culture civs likes Sweden or Kongo, I’m going to make the argument that Rome is definitely a top tier Culture civ, even if they don’t have bonuses that initially look like they contribute directly to a Culture win (I’m a firm believer they are a Top 5 overall civ). In fact, they can get some of the fastest Culture wins, if you know how to optimize their abilities and Civics / build order in the early-to-mid game. If the point of the game is to win before anyone else can, who cares if the Film Studio doubles your Tourism if you already lost the game before you can build enough of them to matter.
I have always believed that Trajan’s Column is one of the best abilities in the game, even if it is also one of the most boring. It removes the opportunity cost of building or buying a Monument. This is no small matter. I’ve seen it occasionally mentioned over the years that the free Monuments aren’t that great because they are only 60 Production / 240 Gold each. “I can just buy a Monument”. That may be true mid-to-late game. In the early game, this Production / Gold is critical. Instead of putting it towards a Monument, you put it towards military units or builders / settlers. This a strong advantage.
Furthermore, the culture from the free Monuments PROPELS you through the early civics. All else being equal, you will get to Craftsmanship (for Agoge), Early Empire (for Colonization and usually your first governor promotion, which should almost always go towards Magnus), and Political Philosophy (for Classical Republic, or Oligarchy if you want to do a little early warring to get more cities before switching to a more peaceful build required by a Culture win) before any other civ, in addition to always getting to Code and Laws in 7 turns, i.e. - normally twice as fast as other civs (normally means you can plug in Urban Planning right away, though God King is a good option now to try for an early Pantheon given the nerf to City State first envoy; haven’t tested it as much, given Urban Planning was almost always the better option previously). I have found myself 25-30 turns ahead of where I would be development wise playing as another civ during the early game with an army twice as large. For example, I am at Political Philosophy around turn 40-45 when it normally takes me around turn 60-70.
The early Culture from Turn 1, which increases with each new city you found, also means Rome is building its domestic tourists right away, increasing the amount of Tourists needed by other civs trying for their own Culture win.
Now here’s why getting early Agoge and Colonzation is important and the free Monuments make Rome one of the best Culture civs. During the early game (first 60-70 turns) you should be making military units and Settlers, with the odd builder here and there. The settlers are obvious because you want more cities. More cities = more yields in general for all civs, but with Rome this is enhanced because you get +2 Culture per turn other civs don’t (as well as technically saving on 60 Production / 240 Gold). The military units are important because even if you don’t want to use them to capture other cities and instead try for a peaceful Culture win (however, that is not optimizing Rome’s bonus), you run the risk of being attacked (more so at higher difficulties). With the Culture victory path, a lot of players focus too much on building infrastructure in the early game. “Why build an army when I can build the Oracle?”. Well, if you’re my neighbor and I am Rome, I’m going to take that city with the Oracle you were kind enough to build for me.
Because Rome gets the Production cards for these earlier than any other other civ (all else being equal), they will be pumping out these units sooner. In particular, once you gain access to both, you should be using both at the same time, forgoing Urban Planning, and only producing these type of units. Don’t worry about Districts yet, as you should still be beelining for Drama & Poetry (more on this below). In fact, use the gold you’ve saved from not buying a Monument to buy a builder to chop more military units or a settler in your Magnus city. This how you maximize Rome’s bonuses.
Not only will you be getting getting Settlers to found your own cities (and more free Monuments), you will often have a larger army than your nearest neighbor (or a matching army on Deity). This means you might be able to capture 2 - 6 additional cities, depending on the situation (and game difficulty). While the general rule of thumb is you should try to have a city for every 10-15 turns that passes in the early game, as Rome, I found that I have 1.5 - 2 cities at the same rate. More cities means more overall yields and more locations to place districts early, especially Theater Squares, locking their price.
Speaking of Theater Squares, most importantly for a fast Culture win as a Rome, you can prioritize getting Drama & Poetry with the Culture from the free Monuments by around Turn 35 to build TS before almost anyone else can. This should not be underestimated. I’ve played a lot of games as Rome, Japan, and Greece. Though Japan and Greece can build TS in 50% of the time, because Rome can get there before Japan and Greece - Pericles (their 5% Culture per suzerainty won’t be in effect yet), on average I’ve found that a Rome can finish its first 3-5 TS before either, especially if you beeline TS and lock their price in cheap (Greece - Gorgo can occasionally match culture, but it’s more variable and potentially riskier at higher difficulties, given the advantages the AI has in combat during the early game on Deity ... you might find yourself losing units in trying to get that Culture). This means Rome is getting Tourism from Great Works of Writing before anyone else can and will often get most, if not all, of the first 4 Great Writers that cost 60 GPP.
(The key hurdle to this is if you get Russia in your game, as they’ll tend to get the first and maybe even the second Great Writer. Though you won’t get the benefit of having all four 60 GPP Great Writers, you’ll still be getting Tourism faster than early civs. Even a Russia will only have room for one Great Work of Writing initially while you will have more spots by prioritizing TS and Amphitheaters.)
Yes, Great Works of Writing were nerfed compared to Vanilla and R&F. However, they are still some of the earliest source of Tourism. Additionally, they provide even more Culture yields, something most other early sources of Tourism don’t (save for the occasional Wonder, i.e. - Pyramids). This means you are adding to your defense against another civ’s Tourism.
Once you get your 3-5 TS, you can then build other districts, often taking advantage of the district discount mechanism, if you haven’t captured other cities with Campus or Holy Site districts already.
Now, some people might think this will put you behind in Science, given that you are prioritizing TS over Campuses. However, remember that Rome is swimming in early Culture. As mentioned earlier, they can get the TS super early, often around Turn 35 if beelined correctly and you’ve managed to settle 2 additional cities in the meantime. Thus, you really aren’t that far behind building Campuses. In fact, if you wait for the 3-5 TS you are building to finish, you can use the district discount mechanism to build them cheaply. Additionally, you can always just use your larger army to capture a city with a Campus.
If you do the above, you will have snowballed to the lead as Rome. This means you can get the key late game civics and techs that help with a Culture win earlier than all other civs as well, even out competing civs who start getting monster yields in the mid-to late game.
I haven’t even mentioned the benefit of the free roads. It removes the opportunity cost of deciding whether you want a Domestic trade route to get internal roads in your empire. Instead, you can start trading with other civs right away, boosting your Tourism from the early GWoWs, which you should have already gotten by the time you get your 2nd or 3rd GW, if you beelined TS properly.
Now, if you are worried that sending international trade routes means your cities won’t grow as fast, don’t worry, you have Baths to work around that problem. The increased housing compensates to to an extent for the Food from domestic trade routes. Additionally, the Baths normally allow to Rome have larger cities the mid-to-late game, allowing you to be more productive. The +2 adjacency to IZs is also helpful, and though not to the extent of Germany, Japan, or the Netherlands, means Rome can actually have fairly high Production cities. This is helped by the fact that Baths are dirt cheap.
Ironically, Rome’s arguably most iconic bonus (and their second most powerful after the free Monuments), the Legion, is admittedly the least useful for a Culture win. Though it should absolutely be used to capture cities in the early game (as mentioned earlier, more cities = more yields), after Classical, you shouldn’t be doing too much warring, even though Legions are often still usable in Medieval and sometimes early Renaissance. Legions are more useful if you are going Domination or even Science (to harass other civs so that they can’t just boom).
Recognizing that this is long, hopefully this explains why I think Rome is a strong contender for a Culture victory, given that sometimes just saying “Early culture means Rome can snowball” leaves out a lot of details on just how powerful that simple phrase actually is.
