For Brazil, use Great Artists for Golden Ages or Great Works for Cultural Victory?

[Gary King]

Can someone suggest a rule of thumb for when to use Great Artists for Golden Ages (which provide +50% for producing Great Artists/Musicians/Writers) or "settling" them to produce a Great Work? Should I start by filling up all my Great Work of Art slots first before using Golden Ages?

For instance, I heard a great rule of thumb for Great Scientists, where you should generally settle them before discovering Scientific Method, then save them and bulb them after that.

 

[anthropophage]

What I do is, make and trade GWs prior to hotels, burn them for GAs afterwards.

 

[Resipsa]

The problem with Rule of Thumb on CVs is that there is no standard its highly variable; I burn all of them (after the first 1 or 2) on golden ages but I play Brazil aggressively and take GW from other cultures and use golden ages to double the output.

 

[Gary King]

So when you say you play Brazil aggressively, I'm guessing you go to war with other Civs, especially targeting the ones that have the most great works in one city, or certain wonders, etc.?

For instance I was going to build Uffizi, but I waited a few turns because I was building Archaeologists, and because no one else had chosen Aesthetics. But a few dozen or so turns later, Gandhi builds the Uffizi. I checked, and he was on Aesthetics: 2. I guess this would lead to war in some Cultural Victory games? (This is my first Cultural victory game; I'm just trying to give it a shot.)

 

[joncnunn]

Well the thing about Brazil is that you really only need 1 Carnival to win cultural victory, but you want it to overlap with your hosting of the Olympics games as much as possible (double tourism + Caraval = massive tourism)

Which basically means all natural GAs along with the free one from one of the Aesthetics policies go towards Art works. (Time that one for Uffizni which needs 3 of the same era)
And since you'll be completing the tree for the double theming bonuses; you just faith buy a Great Artist as soon as you start hosting the games and use that one for the Carnival.

And basically what everybody does to allow them to win a cultural victory at all will speed up Brazil's cultural victory.

 

[Gary King]

Okay thanks for all the tips guys. I just won with Brazil on Emperor on turn 315, which is pretty decent in my opinion. I usually win Diplomacy and Space around the same time, so I don't think it's too shabby at all.

It's my first attempt at Culture ever, so I'm happy with it. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, too. For instance, like you said, some of the Works have to be from the same Civ and Era, but I burned some GPs in different eras, so that screwed me, but only a bit.

I can't imagine how "easy" it was to win with Culture. I guess that's what BNW is trying to introduce, to make it a more viable option? It's a pretty fun way to play, I guess.

I had a decent army the entire game so I was never involved in any wars, either, so that's good. Having to keep track of my Tourism modifiers on each Civ can be a pain though (Do I still have Open Borders on this Civ? Have they chosen an Ideology yet, and is it the same as mine? Do I have Trade Routes going to this Civ or not?)

The most fun part was, like you said, Faith buying some GP near the end. However, I saved up four GAs (and ended up only using one before the game ended), so I Faith-bought two Great Musicians to Tourism spam the two remaining Civs, and I won the game easily that way. Brazil is definitely the way to go if you want to go Culture, I guess! I suppose France is the other popular alternative?

 

[Memoryjar]

I make great works until I fit all theming bonus. After, they are for golden age.

On Emperor, you can win without Internet and Olympic games, if I'm correct. You just need to make one or two concerts (sometimes three with GM from Broadway) to end the game.
Uffizi is good, but Louvre is better. If you miss Uffizi, you still have Ermitage theming bonus. Also, Eiffel Tower and Sydney can be yours.
Key buldings are Airport and Hotel.

Open borders are not so important with Brazil and its UA. After ideologies, it can help to minimize ideo malus. With your culture, Civ with different ideologies than yours will have revolutionary wave and sometimes needs to flip to your Freedom/Autocracy.

 

[reddishrecue]

You could use the same rule for great works of music which is making the great works of music sooner than saving the great musician with little concert tour output for later when you have a lot of tourism.

 

[Memoryjar]

I don't stock GM. I build musicians guild only when my tourism is at its highest point. It's two powerful musician in 15-20 turns.

 

[joncnunn]

Okay thanks for all the tips guys. I just won with Brazil on Emperor on turn 315, which is pretty decent in my opinion. I usually win Diplomacy and Space around the same time, so I don't think it's too shabby at all.

It's my first attempt at Culture ever, so I'm happy with it. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, too. For instance, like you said, some of the Works have to be from the same Civ and Era, but I burned some GPs in different eras, so that screwed me, but only a bit.

I suppose France is the other popular alternative?

A bit on the slow side for Brazil, but as you said, it was your first cultural win ever, so not that bad.
France is the one that's competing for fastest cultural win, but there are several civs that have minor advantages to culture; and also the same civs that are really good at science have an indirect culture bonus as well.