Culture Bombs

[PSXfile]

This is a great way to take over other cities if you're not much of a warmonger like myself. I've never seen the AI get upset about losing a city like this. And yes you can culture flip barbarian cities, I did it in one of my games.

 

[eewallace]

I've also had good luck using this technique when I wanted a peaceful victory. Using a few well-placed great artists, I flipped two cities that were right in the middle of a long, narrow civilization, effectively dividing that civ in half. Because I had closed borders, it never managed to recover and ceased to be any threat in the game. And the leader never even got mad about it!

It also is useful for taking over later-game barbarian cities that are fortified. Even if they are significantly advanced barbarians, they don't seem to have much culture, and will happily flip if there is a cultured city nearby.

 

[majk-iii]

Not just simply any-city-taking.... but you can acctually KILL other civs just by beeing culturally strong.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=144280

 

[Skanderbeg]

I wonder if you can culture flip a barbarian city.

Yes, it is possible to flip barbarien cities!

In one of my last games, I (Chinese) had a city with German boders in the north and a barbarian city in the south. I got German culture pressure on this cities, causing some tiles changing to Germany. I was afraid that I would loose my only stone ressource to Germany.

In this time, I got a Great Artist from discovering music , and dropped him as a culture bomb in my city.
The next turn, the barbarian city in the south flipped to me.

 

[GinandTonic]

when you discover a largish island in the age of discovery send the artist over with a sttler and grab all the newfound goodies.

 

[WaxonWaxov]

when you discover a largish island in the age of discovery send the artist over with a sttler and grab all the newfound goodies.

Yea, I do that when colonizing the "new World" in a terra game.

I usually send two galleons holding a Settler, two defensive units, two workers, and a great artist. It's amazing how quickly that new city will be a major player in your empire.

 

[Mon Mauler]

Are you sure that culture bombing can't provoke your neighbor into declaring war on you. I've had a couple situations where I didn't have very good relations with one of my neighbors, and I used a culture bomb in a city close to their border. Immediately afterwords, they declared war on me.

If it wasn't the culture bomb that antagonized the hostilities, then I must've captured a resource that they needed in the process. I was too busy trying to get solidify my defenses to try and figure out why they declared on me.

 

[Blazer6]

I have a habit of using it to isolate foreign troops during a 10 turn peace. They can't use them and disband while I send a wave to the capitol.

 

[GinandTonic]

flip improves relations. things get tense with cultural "despute" and with the flip the pressure drops.

 

[Andygal]

I had a city belonging to one of my allies flip. Funny thing was I'd been trying to get another one to flip earlier in the game but it never did. I didn't expect the flip at that point lol.

The AI didn't seem to give a damn.

 

[walkerjks]

flip improves relations. things get tense with cultural "despute" and with the flip the pressure drops.

Agreed. They don't like borders being close. They don't like the first revolution in their city. But once a city actually flips, relations actually improve.

 

[Steve2000]

I can confirm both how hard it is to flip a city and how useless culture bomb is in the late game. In my last game I had two enemy cities completly surrounded by my culture and they both had my religion. Not only did they never flip but they managed to push my culture back a bit and regain tiles.

Also I tried using a culture bomb in a city that I had captured late in the game. After taking the city it was completly surrounded by the culture of the original owner who still had big cities nearby. I just wanted to push his borders back a bit so I could have some tiles to work. After using the bomb I was still completly surrounded by his culture.

Exactly. Are you saying this is bad or good? Your first point does not seem like a problem to me. It is a good feature of the game that an old established city with 1000s of culture will not just flip. It is bad enough for those cities that they cannot work the surrounding tiles at all!

For your second point -I just want to add: The point of that particular use of the culture bomb is to end resistance quickly and create a culture defense bonus so the city doesn't get retaken. When your army moves on and takes the next city you will see your borders quickly expand!

 

[WaxonWaxov]

Are you sure that culture bombing can't provoke your neighbor into declaring war on you. I've had a couple situations where I didn't have very good relations with one of my neighbors, and I used a culture bomb in a city close to their border. Immediately afterwords, they declared war on me.

If it wasn't the culture bomb that antagonized the hostilities, then I must've captured a resource that they needed in the process. I was too busy trying to get solidify my defenses to try and figure out why they declared on me.

Well, I had the same thing happen to me. Then I loaded a save just a couple of turns before the culture bomb. I then did NOT culture bomb and they still declared war in the same turn.