cultural victory for dummies

[guare]

well, the "dummie" in fact is me. i can play as warmonger in the easy levels, but i just cant win by culture and UN. Yes, im noob, but im greatly improving after i found civfanatics.com.

anyway:

whats the best way to reach a cultural victory (using the 'one city cultural points' and the 'whole empire cultural points')?

can i reach it without building ANY wonders?

AND:

even when i trade with everyone, everybody (especially those arabs ) is annoeyd or furious towards me. and i didnt lay a finger on them. how??

btw, im playing civ gold ed. (that PTW stuff)

 

[Twonky]

Have you visited the War Academy yet? It contains articles about all victory conditions, as well as information about AI attitude and reputation.

In general a 20k victory is about getting as much culture buildings (including wonders of course) as possible in a city as soon as possible, a 100k victory is about getting as many towns as possible and rushing a lot of culture buildings in them afterwards.
For a UN victory it is important to play nice with the AI and gift them lots of stuff before the elections.

 

[Fried Egg]

Some say that Feudalism is a good government for attaining 100K culture victory...

 

[Virtual Alex]

WHat is the main argument for that?

 

[gmaharriet]

WHat is the main argument for that?

Feudalism uses pop-rushing, rather than cash-rushing. It also has higher unit support for towns (pop 1-6) than it does for cities (pop 7-12) or metros (pop 12+). Since you generally win a 100k culture game by taking as much land as possible, ICSing with hundreds of small towns and using your citizens to rush temples, libs, caths, unis and colosseums, you need a fairly large military to take enough land, but your towns stay small because you keep killing your citizens to produce buildings.

Here's a link to a 100k succession game that will give you an idea of how it works. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=154563

About the only thing that makes Feudalism better than Despotism (besides the unit support) is you don't have the despotism penalty for irrigating grassland, so it's easier to make your population grow faster.

BTW, I don't recommend going for a 100k culture win unless you really, really, REALLY enjoy micromanaging.

 

[Virtual Alex]

Makes sense.

 

[jb1964]

BTW, I don't recommend going for a 100k culture win unless you really, really, REALLY enjoy micromanaging.

I started up a game w/ the intent to go for a 100k win and after I stuffed my territory w/ cities, rushed temples and libs, and then just focused on building wonders and pre-building others I finally got the the point where I decided that the other AI's didn't deserve to bask in the glory of my culture so I killed them all.

 

[guare]

so, a 20k victory is impossible without wonders?

 

[Pentium]

Yes, theoretically impossible. IIRC, if you had all culture-producing buildings in 4000 BC, you still wouldn't get to 20k before 2050 AD.

 

[Fried Egg]

gmaharriet

BTW, I don't recommend going for a 100k culture win unless you really, really, REALLY enjoy micromanaging.

I disagree. Well, I suppose it depends on what level you intend to win at. But I've got a 100K culture victory at monarch level without managing the moods of my citizens. It's not too difficult.

My general strategy involves first picking a civ that is religous or scientific (or both). Then initially concentrating on rapid expansion with maximised research. Get to Polytheism ASAP so you can build the temple of artemis (to get a free temple in each city).

Once I've got to Theology, put the science slider down to zero and use all your money to rush libraries, coleseums and cathedrals as quickly as possible. Stopping research before you get to Education keeps your temple of artemis from expiring for longer but once all your cities have all available cultural improvements, time to resume maximum research until you've got Education. Halt research again whilst you rush out temples and universities. Then, once again, resume research.

From there, you just concentrate on getting any wonders you can, maybe expanding your empire militarilly where possible and wait for the cultural victory to arrive. If you didn't get enough cities early on, you might find yourself getting into the late game. If so, make a beeline for the Miniturisation and build the internet to get a free reasearch centre in each city. That should finish it off for you.

 

[gmaharriet]

gmaharriet

I disagree. Well, I suppose it depends on what level you intend to win at. But I've got a 100K culture victory at monarch level without managing the moods of my citizens. It's not too difficult.

My general strategy involves first picking a civ that is religous or scientific (or both).

You may be right. Seems like the Babs would be ideal.

Our Succession Game team decided to go for a challenge using the Mongols at Emperor...no discounts on religious or scientific improvements...and only 2 lux on our continent. We also did "no research", which added tech challenge. Managing happiness while whipping our citizens was a huge factor, but we did win.

I guess there are enough variables you can choose from to make it play out in many different ways, and some amount of luck involved in who your opponents are and the availability of lux. Maybe I'll try it again some day.

 

[Fried Egg]

I don't think that having religious or scientific traits are necessary. Other traits can help indirectly. Industrious is generally helpful whatever you're trying to do. Agricultural helps you expand quickly. Militaristic can also help you expand your territory (at the expense of others). Commercial could give you more gold for rushing your cultural buildings. Seafaring less useful (unless you're on an island map). And you never know with expansionist...

 

[garyg]

Seafaring could be useful because your capital is on the coast, giving you access to build more wonders. Especially useful for 20k.

 

[Keshik]

In the 100K game, you have to watch your opponents because you don't get the victory until you surpass 100K culture AND it's twice the culture of the next highest opponent. So, just like real life, it takes some aggression to win in culture.

In the 20K city game, you really don't have to think about opponents' culture, except to possibly prevent them from getting a wonder you need.

 

[pol1]

some other traits than rel or sci are helpful
once or twice i won, to my surprise, culturally on emp without going for it, i mean with china and some others. all were 100K, i haven't tried 20K victory.

but then i built many buildings which now i exchange for units and play more aggresively

 

[AutomatedTeller]

yup - you definitely have to build wonders to win a 20K game - great or small.

 

[Desertsnow]

You may be right. Seems like the Babs would be ideal.

Of course; half-cost temples at the get-go, and half-cost libraries from the mid-ancient age, and half-cost cathedrals and universities eventually.

Most of my 100k victories have been with the Egyptians or the Celts, though, and I didn't need ICS. Most of my 20k games were with the Celts, though in one very recent Egyptian game I had 13 Wonders and all basic cultural improvements in Thebes, and was pulling in ninety-some culture per turn, but chickened out and called a UN vote, for fear that someone would win the space race before I hit the threshold. Cowardly I suppose.

Edit: PS: I tried to upload the demographics report as an attachment but it seems that I can't. 13 Wonders in Thebes: Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Great Library, Sun Tzu, Sistine Chapel, Universal Suffrage, Copernicus, Shakespeare, Hoover Dam, T of E, UN, Manhattan Project, Knights Templar--plus Colossus in Memphis, which was ranked fourth.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

with F10, you can check other space ships and see who has what built and wait until they are close.

You certainly don't need to ICS to win 100K - in fact, some insane people have won 100K games with 5 cities!! which is 5 20K cities!! Which is just insane.

To get a very fast date in a 100K, you pretty much need to ICS.

 

[vorlon_mi]

To get a very fast date in a 100K, you pretty much need to ICS.

The "fast date" is the operative phrase. If you don't mind winning 100K
in the late 1800s or 1900s, then you don't need to ICS, pop-rush, or
massively micromanage.

100K is compound interest -- structures built early pay dividends later on.
With either Religious or Scientific, you have a half-price building that
can be built in the ancient ages. Expand rapidly in the early game,
and get to republic. Focus on your 8 or 10 best cities, and be sure that
each gets a cultural building before 1 AD, using cash rushing.
Fight wars as you need to, to obtain resources and luxuries. One or two
great wonders, even the military ones, produce culture; you get some
culture from the FP, Heroic Epic, and Military Academy, if you're planning
lots of warmongering.
During peace, I tend to build one cultural building in captured cities
that are not flip risks by partial cash-rushing. Get one shield,
cash-rush a worker and switch back to lib/temple. Next turn, switch to
a 20-shield unit or bldg, rush it for 36 gold, then back to lib/temple.
Repeat, and you get a culture producing building in 3 or 4 turns.
Those pay dividends, too.
You don't get a great finish date, but you can get the 100K victory.
I've done it with the Babylonians, Japanese, Persians, and Egyptians.
Use the histogram to see if any of the AI is building up culture,
so that it might be approaching half of your culture. Then target its
big culture cities