Faster culture wins?

[Cicer0]

I've got culture wins down on Prince difficulty pretty well, but they always seem to happen in the 1950-1980 time frame. I'd really like to be able to get them quicker. Is it possible to get faster culture wins, or am I doing something wrong?

I'm currently using Catherine, switching to about 50% culture after getting Liberalism, and to 90-100% culture after getting Radio (for Eiffel Tower). Should I be managing my tech/culture balance differently?

I also try to found Christianity early to guarantee myself the Sistine Chapel, is that a mistake? Since my cities end up with quite a few artist specialists in them anyway, I figure the extra culture helps a lot, but am I placing too much emphasis on that one wonder?

I also tend to go for Pacifism as early as possible, specialize one city with GA wonders/artists and try to pump out great artists. It seems to work well, but is there anything I could be doing to work that aspect of the strategy better? Maybe switch to Elizabeth as a leader? (bleh, I hate having to worry about Stonehenge though)

Advice appreciated!

 

[Grogs]

Lots of good info to be found in this strategy article:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=138647

 

[eewallace]

Are you setting your 3 core cities to producing "culture" whenever they aren't producing a wonder or a culture-producing building? This works if you have them centralized and can build a ring of protective cities around them to defend them.

 

[walkerjks]

When you get a game to Liberalism/Printing Press/Gunpowder/Military Tradition, try stopping there, without continuing on to Radio. Liberalism is a must (+100% culture), and Nationalism and Priting Press should be so close by that time that there is no reason not to get them. Gunpowder and Military Tradition are requirements to survive late (though consider Chemistry if you don't have horses).

Also, trade when you can for stuff you need. If I shoot for liberalism, I'll trade to backfill the pre-reqs for printing press. I often get music through trade. I'll trade for gunpowder when I can. And then I will trade along the banking/guilds/economics path for the nice buildings and extra trade route from free trade. I don't alway get to economics, but that is ok.

Stopping at Lib/PP/powder/MT usually happens soemwhere between 1350 and 1550 on Emperor. Then I switch to 80-90% culture. It seems weird to just quit researching this early, but give it a try sometime. The game becomes about your ability to prevent wars through managing relations and fighting wars that are often cossacks/catapults vs. better stuff. But you can fight off tanks with cossacks, as long as they don't show up with multiple stacks of doom.

The late wonders (and broadcast towers) are very helpful if you get them, but wasteful if you don't snag the wonders. It isn't worth working your way to the modern era only to get stuck with broadcast towers. Plus, if people are beating you to Mass Media and Radio, they'll probably build a space ship before you can get a culture win anyway.

I simply don't know about the Sistine Chapel. It's an ok wonder, and certainly makes the late game decision of "coastal space versus artist specialist" far easier. The incremental culture from specialists is good to have, the culture from the Chapel is good to have, and if you found Christianity, the culture from that is good to have. Assuming that founding Christianity doesn't give you any extra religions (say it simply displaces something that would have spread to you anyway), then late game (when you have all the bonuses your going to get), across your 3 culture cities, you could be loooking at an extra 80 or so culture/turn. Perhaps over the course of the game something like 8,000 to 12,000 extra culture. That's a pretty good payoff, which I think I need to look at more closely in my games.

The downside is what you are not researching in order to get to Theology quickly.

The one wonder I do really like to go for early (if I am on the coast) is The Great Lighthouse. This provides a noticeable science boost early (so by the time I am racing for Liberalism, it will have paid off the sailing/masonry diversion) and a nice culture boost late. 2 extra +8 trade routes in each my core 3 cities is worth around +150 culture/turn late.

Pacifism as early as you are ready for it makes sense.

I like Catherine more in most games and only play Elizabeth when I know I am going to be alone on an island (Archipelago or custom island) games. I just build obelisks, rather than worry about Stonehenge. In that case, the combination of the Philosophical trait and starting with fishing is a nice bonus.

One more quick thought - make sure your cottages get developed earlier. They won't be towns yet when if you go all culture in 1500, but they can be closer if you use a couple of cities that overlap your core cities to "work" the cottage tiles while the core cities grow into a size where they can work all the cottage tiles themselves.

 

[Shillen]

They should always have something to build. Are you getting like 6 religions in your cities and building all the cathedrals? You should be able to win culturally in the mid 1800s at least.

 

[Cicer0]

Thanks for the feedback. I took some of the advice from this thread and the linked thread, and pulled off a 1944 culture victory on Prince. With some practice I think I can get it lower. In this game I actually did the opposite, I stayed at 80% science/10% culture all the way through Democracy, then switched over. I think I might try the other way next time just to see if it goes any better.

As for getting religions spread to me, that last game I only had 1 religion spread to me (Taoism). The other two I had I founded (Christianity & Islam). This despite having open borders with most of the AI opponents. Is there some way to 'encourage' them to spread religion to me? Are they more likely to spread religion if relations are better? Obviously playing high culture/low research, it won't be easy for me to just go out and take over a city with different religions to spread them to myself.

 

[walkerjks]

Open borders and cities with 0 religions is the best way (though I have seen natural spread with a single pre-existing religion before). Open borders also allows the AI to do a missionary wave. They are rare, but I've seen the AI do it to me before, and I am always thankful.

So your best bet to get a new religion after they have all been founded is to found a brand new city and do nothing with it. Some religion will spread to it, it's just luck on which one.

This is a completed untested strategy, but I would place the city either right next to an AI border. If the "wrong" religion showed up, I'd just go ahead and gift the city to one of the AI civs. They will like you for it and you'll probably get it back late when it flips (perhaps with a different religion...).

The other advice - don't get too hung up with religions. You only have time to build so many temples and cathedrals anyway. You can win with 6 cities and 2 religions. Yeah, that's only 4 total cathedrals. But 4 cathedrals (4x+50%), The Hermitage (1x+100%), and Free Speech (+100% everywhere) puts you at +200% culture in all 3 cities. That is typically enough to generate 1400 or so culture/turn between the 3 cities if you pick good city sites and get the cottages rolling. It doesn't really compare to the really gawdy totals you can get if you flip the switch late after running for Broadway/RockNRoll/Hollywood (I've seen 1400+ culture/turn in a single city), but by starting the climb earlier, you more than offset the lower per turn end.

 

[Draetor24]

I got a culture victory once with the French guy (Creative/Industrialism) in 1940's on Noble once. Now the real challenge is getting a culture victory on Deity when the AI get spaceships at 1500!

 

[flytyer]

Good stuff on this thread. By switching to 100% culture after discovering liberalism cut almost 100 years off of my previous best times!

 

[Kevin Nash]

Yeah the key is switching your cultural slider to 90% when you get the last tech that you absolutely have to have. For me this is rifling.

Obviously Liberalism is crucial here. I also try to get Democracy to get Representation.

Right now I've been doing Cultural Wins with Elizabeth because the Redcoats are really good until the end of the game when my opponent is attacking me with high tech units. Because I rely on Redcoats rifling is also important.

Once I get rifling I basically flip culture as high as I can put it and give up on science altogether.

My culture cities build culture at this point (or culture buildings or wonders) and my produciton cities build Redcoats (or Ironclads / Frigates if coastal) to defend until I win. I might get a few more techs at this point (chemistry gets frigates right? steam power for ironclads? Those are really helpful) but only through trades.