Help on a Massive Puppet cultural Strategy?

[ShahJahanII]

Could some of the higher-level players give me some tips on how to attempt this?
Basically what I want to do is achieve a cultural victory by puppeting tons of cities.
I plan to play on Prince and win as early as possible.
I would assume Songhai France (maybe Rome and Egypt too) would be the best civs to play as.
How should I approach this?
How to deal with unhappiness?
How to focus on culture and Military at the same time?
Any help is appreciated.

 

[NotSure]

It's fairly easy as Egypt. I did one on Emporer/sandstorm/continents a couple of months ago. Fun game. The burial tomb is very helpful. I took the standard Liberty, Piety, Freedom, Tradition route but chose Commerce as the 5th policy because I had a lot of coastal cities. My starts are almost always like Tabernak's sword rush strat (been using some variation of it since he posted it as a "production focus" strat months ago). My only problem was no iron, but on everything up to about Immortal (for me at least) I can roll a civ for their iron with spears & range (chariot archers with Egypt). I give the CA siege as soon as I can and they are still useful for taking cities as knights.

 

[ezbutton]

If you're trying to do a culture game with lots of puppet cities then policies are going to make or break you. Liberty is probably one of the most important policies because it provides alot of happiness through meritocracy and reformation does help if you end up annexing a few cities to keep happiness afloat. Honor is also good for puppet cities simply because puppet cities prioritize gold and defensive buildings first meaning markets and walls. So the last policy in honor is a huge boon in happiness. Plus garrisoned units can provide extra happiness and culture which is nice if you take over a fresh city and want that resource a little quicker but its out of your reach.

Ironically some of the most entertaining culture games I had were with a warmongering Gandhi, the UB with the honor policy have great synergy. But Montezuma is probably the best simply because his UA does make a difference in those types of games. Nothing is nicer when your upgraded jag warriors take down 4-5 units and fetch you hundreds of culture points a turn and heal while they're at it.

 

[avdale]

Well the most effective way to play culture is going tall with 1-2 cities but you could win the way you're suggesting. General problem is that all culture buildings are autorazed in captured cities so all those puppets will be outputting very little culture per turn. I would suggest Songhai for this going for a a mandekalu rush. Liberty as your first policy tree, build 6-8 horsemen/chariot archers, use the free GP from liberty as a Great Scientist to bulb Chivalry and steamroll your continent. This works because Songhai's UA makes conquest much simpler, Mandekalu Cav are very strong when rushed and Puppets will prioritize Mud-Pyramid Mosques because they are your UB giving more culture.

So basically found 2-3 cities, get horses, rush to madekalu cav, use your UA to fund your conquest while you make culture buildings in your actual cities, puppet your continent, sit back and culture spam.

 

[NotSure]

Spreading out to four cities as quick as possible seems like the best strategy. Representation will bring the penalty down enough to make more cities better (if all cities have maxed culture production). The puppets don't really generate game-changing culture. Some of them will even skip monuments and build burial tombs or MPMs as the only culture building. What the puppets do best is bring in some gold for RA & military.

 

[FromBirth]

If you're trying to do a culture game with lots of puppet cities then policies are going to make or break you. Liberty is probably one of the most important policies because it provides alot of happiness through meritocracy and reformation does help if you end up annexing a few cities to keep happiness afloat. Honor is also good for puppet cities simply because puppet cities prioritize gold and defensive buildings first meaning markets and walls. So the last policy in honor is a huge boon in happiness. Plus garrisoned units can provide extra happiness and culture which is nice if you take over a fresh city and want that resource a little quicker but its out of your reach.

Ironically some of the most entertaining culture games I had were with a warmongering Gandhi, the UB with the honor policy have great synergy. But Montezuma is probably the best simply because his UA does make a difference in those types of games. Nothing is nicer when your upgraded jag warriors take down 4-5 units and fetch you hundreds of culture points a turn and heal while they're at it.

I had an enjoyable and successful game doing this as france but I agree that Monty is great when he gets rolling. One extra point, garrison all cities with scouts so that your troops can keep attacking and you are still getting the happiness and culture from that honour policy.

 

[Rex_Mundi]

I would start out with the right side of honor, and then go piety as soon as possible.
Finish Piety. Then finish Honor.

At this point your puppets can get happiness from garisons, monuments, temples, walls... in addition to regular happiness buildings.

After this I would go for tradition. Try to time the free culture buildings with opera houses to finish the hermitage early, and for the honor synergy with free garison.

All the while try to grab as many puppets as your happiness can support.

Of the finnishing trees I would consider:
Patronidge because you will have massive traderoute income, that can fuel alot of cultural allies.
Comerce because you will have a large empire, loads of roads and excess luxuries.

But every policy tree will give you something. Consider your cities, the map and your opponents.

Songhai is great with this setup, you can get alot of puppets using their unique knights, and alot of culture using their unique temples.

 

[RedRover57]

Liberty - Honor - Piety - Freedom - Tradition works well. Lots of policies that synergize well for happiness and culture in large puppet empires.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Happiness Is key so
Liberty, Honor, Piety are all Important.

After that
Freedom/Order.. Order gives better happiness, Freedom is good if you will be making Landmarks in your core city (Autocracy not really useful)
Patronage... extra happy/extra GA
Commerce... discount on buying buildings/units in your core cities and some extra happy
Tradition..useful for 4 free buildings and Oligarchy.

Make sure you are removing farms and putting TP on hammer tiles to slow the growth/increase productivity of the Puppets

 

[ShahJahanII]

Thanks a lot!
I will start a game as either the Songhai (Mandekalu rush) or French (either a 4 city swordsmen rush or longswordsmen rush).
Keep and advice coming, this thread could help tons of civers.

 

[Syailendra]

One tip, you'll need to have your core cities as production houses, your core cities will be your only source of units n wonders.
So riverside plains or grass are not first choice.