Guide to Cultural Victory

[Fried Egg]

I have Conquests and play at Regent level.

I have won at all victory types besides Cultural. Therefore, I would really like to win a game in this way. The problem is I don't really know how best to go about it.

Is it just a matter of having a large empire, building all the city improvements that give you culture as soon as possible and building as many wonders as possible?

 

[Twonky]

I guess you´re planning on 100k (which is definitly different from 20k). If so, you´re right with what you said. The basic plan is to expand your empire to the domination limit asap by all means. ICS your country and build library, temple, uni, cath, collosseum. Wonders are nice to have (esp. Pyramids, ToA etc.) but not necessary in terms of culture.
Edit: link to war academy article

20k is a completely different approach, where you´ll want to build any kind of culture-building in your 20k-city asap, naturally including many wonders. Helping the dedicated city by joining in workers is a widely used tactic here.

 

[Fried Egg]

I don't know what you mean by 100k or 20k...? Also, what does ICS stand for?

 

[Twonky]

Oh, sorry for being imprecise.
100k stands for winning by total empire culture derived from all of your cities. The limit for that is (depending on mapsize) 100,000 culture-points.
20k is the victory condition where one of your cities gathers more than 20,000 culture points.
These two represent the two alternative ways of winning by culture.

ICS= Infinite City Sprawl. That plainly means: build as many cities as possible (CxCxC).

 

[Fried Egg]

Thanks...

 

[Steve2000]

Often (At least on Regent) it is possible to win a 100k cultural victory without trying too hard. If you have a temple, library, cathedral, and university in all your core cities, and at least a temple in most others, and a few well time wonders you can easily win by culture if you don't care how long it takes. As long as you don't accidentally trigger domination, the culture will just pour in. I usually play on Monarch, but when I played on regent I had to actively tell myself not to build temples if I was going for some other victory condition otherwise I would accidentally win by 100k culture.

 

[Fried Egg]

I am having a stab at a cultural victory right now. I chose the French on a standard continental map with random opponents. Luckilly, I started alone on a large continent and quickly colonised it all before anyone else came along trying to settle it.

I have been holding back on my science, just keeping pace with the opposition, using the money saved to rush build cultural buildings in my outlying areas.

It's about 1700's and I'm in the latter half of the industrial age and my culture is about 48,000 at the moment. I'm wondering whether I've got enough cities or whether I'm going to expand my empire by going to war with someone...? Or perhaps I'm on course already...?

 

[Twonky]

Why did you pick the French? Iirc, they are IND and COM. For a 100k you would go easier with SCI and or REL for the discount on cultural buildings.
To see whether your on course can be done by using CivAssist or a similar program, as those calculate the estimated winning date for you. If you don´t use those, you can check yourself by dividing the culure points still need by the cultural points you´re making per turn. Remember you need twice the culure of the next best civ in order to win.
Anyways, good luck with your game.

 

[Fried Egg]

Twonky

Why did you pick the French? Iirc, they are IND and COM. For a 100k you would go easier with SCI and or REL for the discount on cultural buildings.

Perhaps you're right. But I thought enhanced production, increased commerce and lower corruption would more than make up for not having cheaper buildings...Maybe I was wrong...

Remember you need twice the culure of the next best civ in order to win.

Hmmm...I didn't realise that. Is it possible to find out the culture levels of my opponents? If there's anyone else doing too well, I may need to attack them...

So far, all my opponents are apparently "Impressed" with my culture...but they are not in "Awe" yet...perhaps I'm not doing as well as I should be by now...

Anyways, good luck with your game.

thanks!

 

[namliaM]

Twonky

Hmmm...I didn't realise that. Is it possible to find out the culture levels of my opponents? If there's anyone else doing too well, I may need to attack them...

You can check the compitition in the victory screen. It will show the nearest culture hoggers...

Also, if you have not allready done so, did you go CxC? And did you expand beyond "your" continent?

 

[Fried Egg]

namliaM

You can check the compitition in the victory screen. It will show the nearest culture hoggers...

How do you get to the victory screen?

Also, if you have not allready done so, did you go CxC?

I don't know what you mean?

And did you expand beyond "your" continent?

I found two islands outside of my continent and fully colonised them both. By the time I had found other land masses, they were already fully colonised... Although my computer opponents are far more tightly packed against each other therefore I have more cities by far than any other nation.

 

[namliaM]

Victory screen => One of the F Keys I think it is F7 or F8. Or click on the small V button on the lower hand side of your normal screen. You can see it in below (re-used to conserve server space!) screeny

CxC CxxC CxxxC CxxxxC as in city spacing where C = city and x is workable/empty/non city tile. CxC will maximize the number of citys you can place on any given space. More citys mean more culture buildings means 100K quicker.
If the worker in above pic was a city, that would be CxC. If the Warrior were a city, thats CxxC

Also from the victory screen have a look at who controls the most land (% and other than you) and try to trim them down a bit (or a lot). Territory = city + Expanded borders => Culture. More city's, possibly more culture buildings = more culture = Competitor.

Same for big wonder builders. Wonders mean Culture (and possibly quite some) if you can capture them (or even build them yourself) it will save you having yet more compitition.....

 

[Fried Egg]

I am not using CxC spacing but I have spaced my cities as closely as possible without overlapping their workable areas.

 

[Twonky]

I have to say that it is not considered to be optimal by advanced players to place your cities this far apart. A little overlapping works in your favor most of the time, and it definitly does so on a 100k attempt. I´d like to introduce you to Ginger Ale´s article on City Placement , which sums up the different approaches. I hope you take this as constructive criticism, after all, you can of course play your style if you like it better.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Fried Egg, winning via culture is my favorite method of victory, and I would be glad to analyze your current save game if you post it here.

To make it easier on yourself for next go round, I would definitely go with a Civ that is either religious or scientific, since you get those respective cultural buildings for half price. In fact, you would really enjoy playing as the Babylonians, as they are both religious AND scientific. I think they would definitely be the tribe to use in order to achieve a cultural victory painlessly. A couple of other tribes that would be nice are Korea or Greece. They are both scientific, and you would be able to enjoy their commercial trait, just as you did while playing as the French.

Again, post your savegame file here if you like. I'll be glad to help you win your current (and future) games via culture.

 

[Fried Egg]

Twonky

I have to say that it is not considered to be optimal by advanced players to place your cities this far apart. A little overlapping works in your favor most of the time, and it definitly does so on a 100k attempt. I´d like to introduce you to Ginger Ale´s article on City Placement , which sums up the different approaches. I hope you take this as constructive criticism, after all, you can of course play your style if you like it better.

Thanks, I will have a read of that article. I have always assumed in the past (before comming here) that no overlap was preferable. But I guess I can see that I may have been wrong to assume it.

JonathanValjean

Fried Egg, winning via culture is my favorite method of victory, and I would be glad to analyze your current save game if you post it here.

Unfortunately, it's quite tricky for me to do that since I only play at home but my internet access is at work.

After looking at the victory screen, I noticed that England was my nearest rival for culture at 32K. I was a bit worried that I wasn't further ahead than I was. So, I planned an invasion in order to seize some of his cities (including some wonders), delay is cultural growth and increase mine.

I assembled a suitable attack force, declared war, and took my first three cities in quick succession. However, England managed to drag most of the computer opponents into the war against me. Thereby grinding my attack down to a halt and harrassing my coasts with fleets of men-o-war's and others.

Right now, my culture's on 65K and England's on 40K. I think I just want to capture a couple more of their cities (including London) and then I'll be happy...I think.

 

[brennan]

If you are coming to the end of industrial, aim for Computers>Miniaturisation as soon as you enter Modern, and aim to build the Internet. It gives you a free Research Lab in every city, worth 2 culture per turn (cpt), regardless of whether the prerequisite buildings (libs/unis) are present. IOW it gives you 2cpt/city.

With regard to city placements, many advanced players will expect the game to be over, by domination or conquest, before your cities can build hospitals, so they aim for a denser packing of cities, so that each city only has around 12 tiles to work - the limit that can be worked until hospitals become available. This benefits them by allowing them to squeeze more cities in a given space so that they can work every tile in their empire for maximum efficiency.

 

[namliaM]

Unfortunately, it's quite tricky for me to do that since I only play at home but my internet access is at work.

Hmzzzzz, I never ever ever use the internet while at work

After looking at the victory screen, I noticed that England was my nearest rival for culture at 32K. I was a bit worried that I wasn't further ahead than I was. So, I planned an invasion in order to seize some of his cities (including some wonders), delay is cultural growth and increase mine.

Captured wonders do not build culture for you, but once captured they dont produce (double) culture for your opponent either. Tho you can build temples and stuff in them captured towns which will produce culture.

I assembled a suitable attack force, declared war, and took my first three cities in quick succession. However, England managed to drag most of the computer opponents into the war against me. Thereby grinding my attack down to a halt and harrassing my coasts with fleets of men-o-war's and others.

Drag others in agains England.... before they get brought in on you....

 

[brennan]

Hmzzzzz, I never ever ever use the internet while at work

lol.

I am not at work, I am not posting on CFC.

Honest.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Fried Egg,

I was just wanting to see how your game turned out. Let us know.