Great artist + Great General

[Alphard]

In the current multi-player game I am playing with my friend I built Louvre and got 2 Great Artists. Now, when I built the wonder in my idle city I was thinking about just using them for Golden Ages but how about this...

Make an invasion onto the enemy's landmass, culture-bomb the beachhead and use a great general to set up a citadel? This should make it much harder for the enemy to push you back.

Citadels dont work on enemy land, right? But they SHOULD work inside your cultural borders, even if it is disconnected from the rest of your empire? Would such a set-up work and how useful do you think it would be?

 

[wurstburst]

I believe the GA has to be adjacent to your cultural borders to culture bomb. So you can't just light him up in a random place.

Which is sad, because that would be awesome.

 

[Alphard]

I believe the GA has to be adjacent to your cultural borders to culture bomb. So you can't just light him up in a random place.

Which is sad, because that would be awesome.

... Well, another golden age it is then

 

[Snoopaloop]

You could go take 1 city on the enemies continent first, then use the 2 culture bombs and citadel idea to keep the newly acquired city safe. But if you plan the attack well enough (bring defenders for the counter-attack) you shouldn't have to waste either of the artists or general.

 

[factorial]

Well, if you take the city, the culture bomb is kind of pointless since you'd already have land to build a citadel on. Also, you can't culture bomb back to back, you have to wait several turns in between. Honestly, the culture bomb is one of the more disappointing game mechanics. At best it can get you 5 tiles, and that situation is extremely rare. It can't take cities, you can't chain a bunch of them to cripple someone, you can't use it to steal some land without a relation hit, you use it to establish a beachhead like the OP wanted, you really can't do anything interesting with it at all. I used one in each of my first two games, but unless the mechanic is changed I doubt I'll ever use one again.

 

[robvollman]

Why not build a landmark? At no maintenance cost you can get extra culture every turn. Unless it's already quite late in the game they can be quite useful.

As for great generals, with the exception of very rare key choke points, I use them to give me units bonuses in combat.

(* Sometimes, when I lose out on a Wonder by a single turn, I'll reload a previous save file, use a great general for a Golden Age, and the extra production will help me win the race. I'm such a cheater ...).

 

[Danceofmasks]

I pretty much only culture bomb to steal CS luxury.
I like building the landmark, though.
It's certainly not as effective as the bonuses from golden age, but it looks neat on the map.

Also, if landmarks can be put anywhere, I'm going to try planting one on an oasis.
Can't make any improvements, eh?

 

[SnuggilyD]

I believe the GA has to be adjacent to your cultural borders to culture bomb. So you can't just light him up in a random place.

Which is sad, because that would be awesome.

Actually, from my experience it has to be inside your own cultural borders to use the culture bomb.

In a game of mine I was fighting a nearby neighbor wanted to extend my borders so I could take advantage of the all the combat bonuses I have for fighting in my own territory. (cultural victory try, so its all about defense).

I moved my artist one hex outside of my territory onto an enemy hex, but it wouldn't let me bomb. I had to move back into my territory, so the bomb only effected two hexes.

 

[Dermo]

Actually, from my experience it has to be inside your own cultural borders to use the culture bomb.

In a game of mine I was fighting a nearby neighbor wanted to extend my borders so I could take advantage of the all the combat bonuses I have for fighting in my own territory. (cultural victory try, so its all about defense).

I moved my artist one hex outside of my territory onto an enemy hex, but it wouldn't let me bomb. I had to move back into my territory, so the bomb only effected two hexes.

It can be outside your cultural borders but,
1. Must be adjacent to your cultural borders, and
2. Must then be in neutral territory.

Has anyone tried a culture bomb with an embarked GA?

 

[Snoopaloop]

Actually, from my experience it has to be inside your own cultural borders to use the culture bomb.

In a game of mine I was fighting a nearby neighbor wanted to extend my borders so I could take advantage of the all the combat bonuses I have for fighting in my own territory. (cultural victory try, so its all about defense).

I moved my artist one hex outside of my territory onto an enemy hex, but it wouldn't let me bomb. I had to move back into my territory, so the bomb only effected two hexes.

You can culture bomb 1 hex outside your boarders as long as that tile's not owned by an AI.

EDIT: a bit to slow responding...

 

[SnuggilyD]

Ah, gotcha. Ok that makes a little more sense.

Seemed pretty limiting that it would have to be within your own borders.

 

[dublos]

<snip>

Has anyone tried a culture bomb with an embarked GA?

Yep.. works just fine.. used it to get to oil that was outside of my third ring.

 

[Llandru]

Has anyone tried a culture bomb with an embarked GA?

GAs can culture bomb while embarked.

 

[Carl5872]

You could also try putting a settler right next to his boarders so your culture is butting up against him, then culture bomb, then move in the citidel.

 

[sleepingbear]

I can just see the discussions at Allied HQ prior to D-Day:

Ok, as soon as the beach head is secured, Duke Ellington and his band will go ashore and play a three-night concert series. Then General Patton will move in, and be executed to create a large fortified base of operations.

 

[Dermo]

I can just see the discussions at Allied HQ prior to D-Day:

Ok, as soon as the beach head is secured, Duke Ellington and his band will go ashore and play a three-night concert series. Then General Patton will move in, and be executed to create a large fortified base of operations.

I remember that, it was called 'Operation Cotton Club' the Allies had to scrap the plan beacuse the Duke wa already booked for the 6th.

 

[Zachriel]

It can be outside your cultural borders but,
1. Must be adjacent to your cultural borders, and
2. Must then be in neutral territory.

Has anyone tried a culture bomb with an embarked GA?

Yes, and it illustrates the original post. Immortal. Rome was on another continent, and as the Americans, we had early established a beachhead near Rome, a lovely little town called San Francisco. It was defended by a bottleneck, but Rome was too strong and San Francisco fell to the Roman Legions.

Later in history, we liberated San Francisco and destroyed many Roman armies attempting to cross the isthmus, with brutal naval battles and bombardments on both sides of the bottleneck. War is Hell.

Then a Great Artist was born.

With two Great Generals in reserve, we embarked our Great Artist and moved it towards the isthmus. We culture bombed in neutral water next to the isthmus, yet with only one tile between it and Rome. The new culture boundaries touched Rome itself and our Great General quickly planted a Citadel on the isthmus. Artillery made quick work of the Roman Infantry, and of Rome itself.

The people of San Francisco were forever safe.

 

[sleepingbear]

Seems to me a culture bomb should not work vs a civ you are at war with. As the results are just plain silly, as the above post illustrates.

 

[eric_]

Heh...I don't think that's silly, I think it's awesome! Taken on the whole, it was a protracted, long term problem where nobody could get a decisive edge until the GA provided a foothold. Good work Zachriel

 

[Licinia Eudoxia]

Yeah, I mostly use culture bombs to grab resources that belong to city-states or are out of reach of a city, but actually, I have used the Citadel + Culture Bomb thing once.

It's not as effective because as someone mentioned, you have to be adjacent to your own territory.

But I bought tiles to 'poke out' to the edge of Germany's borders, then culture bombed, then built a citadel near a couple of Bismarck's cities, and built a fort next to that Citadel.

Chu-ko-nu and Longswordsmen sat inside that citadel and fort with a Chinese Great General, and chewed up a bajillion landsknecht. It was a wonderful battle. But yeah, not very practical, just sort of goofy.