Cultural Victory in Warlords?

[Swein Forkbeard]

Who might be the best leader for a cultural victory in Warlords?

I think Gandhi is good for the job.

 

[shadow2k]

That's who I used the one time I bothered trying it. I think the common thing to do was for people to use a Financial Civ, turn off research, and jack up the culture slider. I never liked that recipe because you had were left very weak and being everyone's doormat...something I refused to be. I did it without using the slider at all on Monarch with Ghandi. Finished in 1811 with all three cities hitting legendary on the same turn, with one GA left over.

He's Philosophical, which lets you get a ton of GA's, and half price Uni's. You also get Spiritual, which of course gives half price temples, but also allows you to switch in and out of civics...especially useful to go between Caste for the GA's, and Slavery to get your buildings up. And of course, you start with Myst, so you can snag an early religion of your own.

 

[Cam_H]

My best Cultural victory on Warlords was with with Ramesses.

I think there's a lot more to do with starting position and neighbours rather than leader traits alone, but a combination of two of; Philosophical, Financial, Spiritual, or Industrious at least i.m.h.o. put you on a good path.

[Edit] Found it! (Attached)

[/Edit]

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I will often go with Ghandi for cultural victory, but would like to hear other good alternatives.

 

[KMadCandy]

i won cultural on warlords as huayna, kinda by accident, not aiming for it until very late in the game. so i teched way longer and didn't do the slider thing like usual. i did a little early warring north on my continent, and america was down south. i never opened borders with the US and i settled a city near their capitol to block them quite early, cultured it up to pressure them. much later on i realized i could hit legendary with that city and my two first if i put effort into it, so i did, and voila.

i go philo if i'm aiming for culture so fin/ind was weird. i did most of it without the slider. that was my first not being philosophical, most of the culture was just built up over time from developing that city on purpose to pressure him, then catching up the others that weren't that far behind since they were my first two. i had no GP farm for a very long time, and then when i did set one up, it wasn't for GAs until really late. completely different than the standard strategy guides for aiming for cultural from the start.

some folks use huayna for cultural on purpose, an early war to get good city spots and the terrace is awesome, the +2 from creative minus the cheap buildings without wasting a trait. i don't use the actual creative trait for cultural, ever. spiritual does rock tho.

have you read about this one? bizarre variant on cultural play ... winning by domination in Always Peace. just a thought if you like culture and want a change sometime. i did my own game that way and it was really fun. atm i'm aiming for a TIME victory, but i have all conditions enabled (for HoF), so i'm doing reverse culture flipping. if a city is in danger of flipping to me, i put MY troops in it to take away the chance to revolt, taking advantage of the fact that the formula only looks at quantity and quality and not whose troops they are, since i don't want to trigger domination.

end of my rambling about culture for the moment.

 

[Buntaro]

I did it with Isabella. I wanted to try a many-religions gambit, and I didn't want to deal with her, so I played her. She tends to found religions, and launch petty, vindictive religious wars that don't even do her any good.

It went quite well. I founded 4, and had a fifth wander in. I had exactly room for 9 decent cities on my starting land. So, the 3 most suitable of the 4 holy cities each got 5 temples, 5 monastaries and 5 Cathedral level buildings along with their other culture producing buildings. That gave me (with Eifle tower)a 4x culture rate in 2 of the 3, and a 5x rate in the one with the hermitage. I didn't bother with broadway, rock&roll or hollywood. The half-price temples really help when you build 5 in every city you have.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Cultural Victory vote so far

Gandhi: 3
Ramesses II: 1
Huayna Capac: 1
Isabella: 1

Please do as before, okay. (Explain your victory)

I'm surprised nobody is saying Louis XIV, Hatshepsut, or Elizabeth!

 

[bassist2119]

First off, howdy all! I've been absent for about 4 months, so most of you won't remember me... Incessant, illogical bashing of the SE in favor of CE... Ring a bell?

...because you had were left very weak and being everyone's doormat...something I refused to be.

That's why I like Alex for culture. Then again, I like him for all victories! Philo gives such a good boost for the aforementioned reasons, but an early, awesome UU let's you kick @$$ and take names right off the bat for a good, healthy start. As far as UB's go, there's only one that gives a flatrate +3 culture otherwise unavailable, and Lex's got it. As if that weren't enough, he nets an extra happiness from the UB to help with city caps, and can support DOUBLE the elective artists as anyone else for the majority of the game - Most can only support two from the theater, he gets four, which means an extra 8 culture, 12 with Sistine, essentially an extra GOOD culture World wonder in each of the three culture cities. Furthermore, those two extra artists make an extra 6 GA points - no wait... TWELVE GA points as he's PHILO!
And oh yeah, Alex is NOBODY'S doormat...

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Cultural Victory Vote so far:

Gandhi(Spiritual/Philosophical): 3
Ramesses II(Spiritual/Industrious): 1
Huayna Capac(Financial/Industrious): 1
Isabella(Spiritual/Expansive): 1
Alexander(Aggressive/Philosophical)confused: 1

Weird stuff is going on here. Still nobody thinking about leaders like Louis XIV, Hatshepsut, Elizabeth when it comes to a cultural victory. Instead members think up of WEIRD leaders for this victory like Isabella eek and Alexander eek: ).

 

[Sryth]

My vote would also have to go for Ramesses.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Gandhi: 3
Ramesses II: 2
Huayna Capac: 1
Isabella: 1
Alexander: 1

I'm surprised there's still only one financial leader in the list!

 

[KMadCandy]

I'm surprised there's still only one financial leader in the list!

and he's only on there since he was my cultural win in warlords, but i didn't start out that way haha. so it wasn't the cotttage up and then slide thing that won me the game.

 

[Galileo44]

My best was with Liz, so you can take her off of your "why haven't they been picked yet" list.

 

[carl corey]

I've had two Cultural victories post-patch on Monarch. Both were very religious oriented, one with Saladin (founded three religions, captured two holy cities from Issy, razed one) and one with Peter when I ended up on a huge continent but with the whole center-south to myself. Again, I founded three religions and spread a fourth. I never fought a war in the Peter one, never adopted a religion (to keep my 4 neighbors happy with me and angry with their religiously different neighbors).

I'm not saying any of them is perfect for Cultural victory, it largely depends on the circumstances. But they do have specific advantages. Spiritual + Mysticism leads to an early religion, probably cultivating some friends of the same religion to allow you to expand peacefully or to help you with your wars. More religions, temples, monasteries, it's all pretty straight forward.

With Philosophical on the other hand you can go for Great Artists late in the game, or Great Scientists early to found Taoism, get Liberalism first (Free Speech & Free Religion). Peter's Expansive trait also helped me get bigger cities since happiness wasn't a problem.

If I'd have to vote for "more suited" leaders, I'd say Gandhi (pretty obvious why already), Ragnar (Industrious helps with wonders that also give lots of culture, UB gets you Great Prophets for religions) or Hatty (Creative is pretty obvious - cheap Libraries & Theatres). The Egyptians are also very good for early war, so you might even get lucky and get another holy city early on, or just expand enough to get a territory that will allow you to keep up with the AIs while going for cultural.

Don't dismiss the others, and also take into account if what you aim for is even possible. No use being very cultured and getting overrun by Montezuma...

 

[dragomaster]

I just don't get the hang of cutural victories. don't know how to do. once i tryed it with Gandhi. i't started good, grabed hindism and confuianism with oracel slingshoot. After that barbs came and destoyed every single land inprovment. got jamed in, only had two citys, at 100% science rate i still had +17 gold per turn. lanched an attack against bismark, it whent bad and I gave up.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Gandhi: 3
Ramesses II: 2
Huayna Capac: 1
Isabella: 1
Alexander: 1
Elizabeth: 1
Saladin: 1?
Peter: 1?

Carlcorey, please vote for ONE leader.

It looks like these are the routes for a cultural victory.

Just remember that this Warlords only.

Great People (mostly Artists)
Wonders
The Culture Slider
Religion
Culture+Defense (Alexander's case)

 

[carl corey]

Edit: in response to dragomaster

The key is to play like any other game, just try to get something going for culture: religions are very good, wonders are ok too (even national ones like Hermitage and Globe Theatre - excellent), late Great Artists with Philo trait. But don't center the early game around that.

I mean, sure, you've got a religion, but that doesn't mean you have to spend all the time building missionaries, temples and monasteries. Build them where needed (temples for happiness, monasteries in science cities) and leave the rest for later. This means you'll still have some production oriented cities that will spawn military units for defense and maybe for a quick war to secure more land, or to cripple an aggressive neighbor.

With Industrious just go for the wonders complementing your early game depending on your other trait and add more only after you're really comfortable from a diplomatic point of view. Nothing says "come and get me" like a few cities full of wonders combined with a low power rating. Sistine Chapel sounds ok, but if you're going for cottages or you're not Philosophical you probably won't use too enough specialists to make it worth it.

If Philosophical, I still think Great Scientists as early Great Persons are the way to go. You can get Great Artists later. Don't be afraid to run Caste System & Artists instead of Emancipation to finish up the game. But that comes really late, so there's not much that should change in your early game.

 

[carl corey]

Swein Forkbeard, if you want only one I'd say Ramesses. Gandhi comes in a very close second. (had one cultural win with him pre-patch but used a now outdated gambit to get tons of wonders, which leads him more toward a Ramesses style of game).

Edit: Just to add. I really don't think there's only "one" greatest cultural leader, and I think you can also easily fail even with Gandhi or Ramesses given the wrong circumstances. But since it's your thread and your rules, you have my vote in the previous paragraph.

 

[Lidjis]

I'll add another vote here for Huayna.

He's got
Industrial- Wonders are worth alot of culture, especially once multiplied

Financial- For jacking up that culture slider. More money also helps you rush-buy temples in crappy cities after you get US.

Mysticism- an early religion (or two) is very helpful. financial also helps you get these

Terrace- get them up for 4 extra cpt over other leaders

Quechua- Rush the guy that founded buddhism and you'll have all the space and religion you need. You may never have to war again.

 

[The-Hawk]

I think if you check the HOF tables for higher levels (emperor, immortal, deity) you'll find most of the wins are with financial leaders. I would assume this would hold true for warlords or vanilla.