Culture Bombs

[analyst]

Has anyone used their Great Artists to make last minute territory grabs?
I find that saving a few of those up, creating a new city, and then having the artist create a great work in the city immediately is a GREAT strategy. I was astounded at just how big my city borders got from litterally 0 culture to 4000 culture in the blink of an eye.

I almost felt bad for ripping all of that territory from the (relatively close) AI cities.

It's also great to use when you're conquering a city on the border of another AI territory - it helps ensure that they don't just slip a few settlers in to the culture void that develops after you conquer the city. Now if you could just do something about the 4 or so turns of resistance

 

[ainwood]

Yep - its a great strategy. Can be useful for nabbing resources off them too.

ALso - the higher culture increases the defence of the city.

 

[Khaim]

If you're conquering someone, it's probably better to just drop the bomb in the newly-taken city. It should quell the resistence immediately, as well as give you huge borders and defense bonuses.

 

[Trexpack]

Been playin through my first game. On continent with 2 other civs. Friends with Mussa(sp?), who is on the other side of the continent, and poor little Isabella of Spain is caught between us. I managed to pop 2 great artists and I put them both in my closest border city with spain, popped great works from each. Tis a thing of beauty. Its a classic squeeze play and one of her cities is in revolt already. If I get another great artist, you guessed it, BOOM!

 

[Uty]

I've been trying to get a cultural victory so I rig my civilization not to get any great people before I have theatres (i.e. wait for a later religion) and I use the artists in my three "main" cities.

 

[huang di]

Do you notice if the AI gets upset at culture bombs? I've only noticed the "our close borders" -1 reaction, but nothing else. Does getting a city to riot/flip cause any extra ill-will?

 

[kromm20]

NO it dosn't cause any ill will as I have had a border city flip to me before. when it did I was a little concerned because I was trying to keep a good relation with that civ(for the time being, LOL). NO negatives appeared as a result.
I haven't set myslef up to test this yet, but I read in the manual that newly captured cities still in resistance cannot gain culture until it is quelled. If you culture bomb a city in resistance, does it work? Curious....

 

[elderotter]

The aztec have a city in my territory - completed surrounded. This city was growing - a few culture bombs and wonders stopped that that city has only 1 tile now..the one it sits on. It had a revolution too but didnt come over to my side.

 

[Stuporstar]

This tactic is awesome. I had two of my best cities on the borders with Saladin and just culture bombed the hell out of them. I used all my great artists and built most of my wonders in those two cities. By the time I got to needing coal, the only one on my continent was right on the edge of his territory. His city flipped a few turns later. I got the coal, and a pretty decent city too.

It probably also helps that I have emancipation and he doesn't.

I wonder if you can culture flip a barbarian city.

 

[CornMaster]

Since I don't have the game yet...

Does the AI uses these culture bombs?
Because if they do...then I think I'll hate the feature because it would rot to loose a bunch of new cities so easily. And if they don't....well then it's completely unfair that I can do something so powerful that they can't.

All and all...I dislike culture flipping anyway....so I'll probably not like this feature.

 

[Tribulus]

Since I don't have the game yet...

Does the AI uses these culture bombs?
Because if they do...then I think I'll hate the feature because it would rot to loose a bunch of new cities so easily. And if they don't....well then it's completely unfair that I can do something so powerful that they can't.

All and all...I dislike culture flipping anyway....so I'll probably not like this feature.

Luckily you can turn this feature off if you don't like it.

 

[Shillen]

It's really hard to flip anything but trash cities. This is a screenshot from my recent Prince game:

Those Roman cities were like that for the vast majority of the game (hundreds of turns) and never flipped.

 

[ritterpa]

Question:

Does having higher culture help, even if that higher culture doesn't result in a border increase? So if a city is like 5000/10000, and you culture bomb it to 9000, does that itself make the other city more likely to flip, or does it only help when the borders actually expand?

 

[DesertWolf]

If you're conquering someone, it's probably better to just drop the bomb in the newly-taken city. It should quell the resistence immediately, as well as give you huge borders and defense bonuses.

thats a good strategy, i currently use myself in a war - i conquer big cities and drop immediatelly a culture bomb to get rid of the anarchy and beeing able to produce immediatelly new units for defence/attack

somehow converting doesn't work (one of my conquered cities, where i haven't done tat tactics due to lac of great artists, is totally surrounded by another civilization and also one other british city is enclosed by two of mine for quite some time and have still the original nationality)

 

[Jaca]

I haven't set myslef up to test this yet, but I read in the manual that newly captured cities still in resistance cannot gain culture until it is quelled. If you culture bomb a city in resistance, does it work? Curious....

Haven't got the game yet myself, but this seems like a good comment to me! I would find it unnatural if you can't build anything nor creating culture in a city that is still in resistance, but you could activate the Great Artist to create a great work and solve it all at once.

Regards,
Jaca

 

[Khaim]

Since I don't have the game yet...

Does the AI uses these culture bombs?
Because if they do...then I think I'll hate the feature because it would rot to loose a bunch of new cities so easily. And if they don't....well then it's completely unfair that I can do something so powerful that they can't.

All and all...I dislike culture flipping anyway....so I'll probably not like this feature.

I'm pretty sure the AI will use them, although I doubt it'll use them effectively.

Also note that it's really really hard to flip cities now. Anything above about 500 culture is pretty much impossible to flip; see the screenshot above for an example. It will cause unhappiness issues, though.

 

[basickillr]

The AI uses them. I watched a Great Artist cross my empire and go to a city I had just culture bombed with a great artist and was limited to one tile. AI sent in a great artist and did the same thing right back.

It is really only useful early to early midgame, by about 1000 4000 culture did not move the boundaries of many of the citys I used it it in.

 

[Nilrim]

I'm pretty sure the AI will use them, although I doubt it'll use them effectively.

Also note that it's really really hard to flip cities now. Anything above about 500 culture is pretty much impossible to flip; see the screenshot above for an example. It will cause unhappiness issues, though.

Is there any sure way of knowing the culture level of the AI city? So you know not to waste a bomb on them

 

[Varelse]

If you hover your mouse over a rival's city you can see what percentage of their population belongs to that civ. For example, you put your mouse over Berlin and let it hover, after a second it will say "100% German" or "43% German". The lower that number is, the weaker its culture and the more influence your own culture can have over the city. Those are the cities you want to use the culture bomb near.

 

[Brutus2]

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.