Wang Kon here is my favorite cultural leader.
On Noble I take a random leader.
On Prince I choose Wang Kon.
Once I am comfortable with winning regularly winning at Prince with Wang Kon then I will start choosing random leaders on Prince.
Starts with Mysticism - speeds up the race to COL for courthouse production plus maximizes the odds of getting 2 starting religions (I beeline COL at the beginning of the game for courthouses and for the religion which invariably gets started in a non-capital city for +5 culture a turn plus a missionary for +1 culture a turn for a third city).
Protective - Archer and Gunpowder units get bonuses, allowing me extra ability to defend against the inevitable attacks from whichever civilization is the designated "attack the human player" civ.
Financial - keeps me up in the tech race.
I play at quick speed (I prefer faster games).
I generally do not turn the cultural slider up until I have around 20k out of the 25k culture points needed for victory in all three culture cities. The exact time that I switch is usually dependant upon when I get my last military tech, with all cities cranking out military units the last moves of the game.
Well actually the game for me is about 3 phases: initially build cities and deal with corruption issues, then build science and culture buildings, then build military. My time of biggest vulnerability is right as I am getting to Gunpowder. After I get COL/Alphabet/Monarchy I get the worker techs and Drama/Music, and then I beeline to Paper and to Liberalism through the religious line, building as many buildings as I can get a way with, and then when I get to Gunpowder I start building as much military as possible, sprinkling extra culture/science buildings along the way once the military buildup commences.
I've learned how to postpone enemy civ attacks until after I've built up my military - well on Noble I most often have a completely peaceful game. It's easier and safer to be generous to civs when you are ahead of them in tech. In fact on Noble I will often gift "safe" techs to neighboring civs when I have a tech lead. On Prince I am often left with the options of either giving them a tech I would prefer them not to have - or no tech gift options at all.
