How do I amass enough culture during SV to get Globalization?

[slavaskii]

So, I think I’ve managed to get my SV down to a relatively consistent level and respectable science output for what I’m doing (around turn 265, 800-900 science). I go all peaceful as Brazil, settle about 12 cities. Reyna or Moksha buy Spaceport (religious game bonkers for Brazil) turn 190-200, build projects in capital while one other city hard-builds a spaceport and the others run research grants. Rush missions with Great Scientists if they’re available, and when the accelerator parts unlock, I chop the rainforests and win within 10 turns.

My problem is this: by the time I finish Mars Mission, I’m screwed with having to research almost all the remaining techs, as the accelerating projects are often at the end. Last game, I wasted over 20 turns on this part alone! But while my science per turn of 800-900 isn’t bad, this could be dramatically more if I managed to get Globalization... or anywhere near it. I always use the Moon Landing boost to propel me from around Nationalism to Communism, as my culture per turn is only 100. Being able to drop the Globalization card that gives me 5% for each suzerainty I have would be revolutionary and make the Future Era a breeze. I’ve often heard people say the majority of your science will come from this specific policy, but I don’t think I’ve ever managed to reach it.

How am I supposed to amass 200+ culture when going for a SV in order to get Globalization? I build 2-3 theatre squares and the buildings inside, but I’m always hopelessly behind. I can’t build any more unless I ignore some crucial campuses. I just feel like culture buildings are such low priority, but there must be something I’m missing if people can successful manage both.

Are there some policies I should be running, wonders maybe? With religious Brazil I went Work Ethic but struggled with the follower belief, is there something with religion that could help me? Must I really build monuments first? Thanks in advance, I’ve been struggling with this for a while.

 

[Buktu]

You should have a monument in every city. (Ofc you want alot of cities, basically as much as you can get, lots of these points get better with more cities).
Get a cultural alliance and trade with this particular ally for more culture.
Get one of the culture beliefs for your religon.
If you have some IZs and Mausoleum (this provides some culture as well) you can go fir Da Vinci (+3 culture per workshop, +6 with mausoleum).
Get the colosseum if possible. You should be able to get 2 +4 or even higher theater squares next to it as well.
Use the policy card that adds 1 culture to every international trade route (and ofc get lots of them).
Get Pingala with the culture promotion in a high pop city.
Get lots of people in your empire since every pop is 0,3 on its own.
Get Kilwa (you want this anyway) and suzerain 2 culture CS, preferrably something like Nan Madol, Antananarivo, Kumasi or Ayutthaya.
Buy great works if you have the money and slots left.
Make sure to get as much inspirations as possible.

Ofc there are other ways as well like play a civ with a bonus to culture, pick a pantheon for culture or add some modes (SS is especially good for this with the voidsingers) but that leads to another game.

(I left out the Estadio do Maracana since it comes to late to make a difference here, same for Cokkective Activism.)

 

[Planktonic]

Eh... I'm no expert, still trying to figure out how to max my science and culture myself, but in my last two games it was the Moon Landing that propelled me straight to Globalization. I don't know how much difference it makes, but I read somewhere that you should make every city convert to Campus Research grants the turn before the Moon Landing, to maximize the amount of science you're generating, so as to maximize the amount of culture the Moon Landing will get you. In my last two games I did this and the Moon Landing gave me two full civics in one turn each, plus some more culture overflow, and got me directly to Globalization.

 

[Vargas1]

I second pretty much everything @Buktu said. The city-states in particular are huge - any one of those mentioned can give you a dramatic culture increase from their suzerain benefit. If you're playing a continent-style map (or even better, fractal/islands), Nan Madol can give you incredible culture - every coastal city with a harbor automatically nets you +6 culture (city center, monument, harbor), plus population, plus any other districts built on the coast.

I'll also add, that as Brazil, if you run the carnival project early in one city you should be able to grab at least a handful of early writers, which can give a steady boost to culture (plus getting the GP points back once you get one helps you keep gaining them).

Colosseum should be a no-brainer - you're playing one of the few civs that has an incentive to build a (cheaper) entertainment complex early, so scope out a good location early on and plan around where you will place it. Even without perfect planning, it's not tough to get 5 cities within range (often more), which can provide a big culture boost in the mid-game.

 

[Siddharth Venkatesh]

I suspect the easiest way for you to increase your cultural output, and one that requires the minimal extra effort, is to settle more cities. There is basically no penalty for extra settlements, and each extra city means an extra monument, an extra theatre square, and likely an extra amphitheater + museum. With 2 cultural city states at 3 envoys (a conservative estimate), each city is a base culture increase of 12 + adjacency + 0.3* pop (usually not hard to get to 10). Settle 15 extra cities and chop them to 7 pop (for Campus + Theater + Trade route district, the only 3 districts you need in a science victory) and you suddenly have 225 extra base culture. On top of this, you get 15 extra trade routes that you can send to a cultural ally (economic ally will often be better but you can pick) or a city state vassal with Kumasi bonus.

15 more cities may seem excessive, and honestly, you can get to globalization even on 12 cities. I don't like micromanaging too many cities so I end up with a max of 20 usually. But getting to at least 20 will likely make your life a lot easier.

You should also gold purchase Amphitheaters and Museums once you have enough envoys to make them at least 4/6 culture respectively imo. Hard build them if there's nothing else to do but you should be trading externally around this point so your GPT should be high. They add up, that's 10 extra culture per city. 100 culture per turn is very low for 12 cities.

Perhaps another point is district priorities. In the vast majority of cities after your initial few settles, your priority should be trade route district and campus in some order, then theater. Trade routes are the strongest bonus you can get, centralized trade routes post-democracy are better production than any other source in the game. You will need industrial zones in some cities to power the research labs, but you don't need them for production, just power. Perhaps you are not prioritizing theaters enough considering you only build 2-3 of them. They are the third most important district in a science victory. Every city with 7+ pop aside from your IZ cities and the Colosseum city should have a theater eventually (which will ideally hit 10+ pop and be able to still build a theater). You don't need to build them asap, but once you have envoys in cultural city states or some wonders for adjacencies, they become really valuable.

Culture is also a snowball in this game. As with science, a lot of your cultural yields come from envoys. The faster you get early culture, the faster you get more envoys and can get your double culture suzerainity for Kilwa, along with the 3 envoy marks in every cultural city state on the map. Moreoever, Nan Madol, Kumasi, Antananarivo can provide obscene amounts of culture. In the early-mid game of a science victory, culture is way more important than science, so focus on getting monuments up everywhere before anything else. Prioritize Colosseum highly, and plan your cities so it hits at least 6. Make sure you get Kilwa early, don't delay it, the yields it provides are huge.

There's one other nice culture source that has become available recently: Preserves. Preserves don't work for every civ, but if you have a specific civ with an affinity towards high appeal, like Bull Moose, or a civ that has some special benefit like the Inca that can work mountains, you can get a large amount of culture by adding the preserve into your district list for the core cities. Preserves Pachacuti is really strong.

 

[hhhhhh]

Is it deity game?

First of all, you should settle more cities (by chopping in the Gov. Plaza city with Ancestral Hall). 15-16 should be better. Each city give you a chance to do 60 production -> 2 culture per turn (monument). Early game that's basically it. If you can chop Pyramids, do it. That's another 2 cultures.

Early mid-game sources include pantheon (if you have plantations or pastures) and religious beliefs (there are several, Choral music would be great if you can get it, but if you cannot, there are something else).

Mid-late game you will have to build some theater squares, if you plan well you can gain a lot from adjacencies. Some wonders, Forbidden city and Kilwa Kisiwani are also great sources.

Make sure you take advantage of some great city states, e.g. Nan Madol, Antananarivo, Kumasi and Rapa Nui.

 

[History_Guy]

So, I think I’ve managed to get my SV down to a relatively consistent level and respectable science output for what I’m doing (around turn 265, 800-900 science). I go all peaceful as Brazil, settle about 12 cities. Reyna or Moksha buy Spaceport (religious game bonkers for Brazil) turn 190-200, build projects in capital while one other city hard-builds a spaceport and the others run research grants. Rush missions with Great Scientists if they’re available, and when the accelerator parts unlock, I chop the rainforests and win within 10 turns.

My problem is this: by the time I finish Mars Mission, I’m screwed with having to research almost all the remaining techs, as the accelerating projects are often at the end. Last game, I wasted over 20 turns on this part alone! But while my science per turn of 800-900 isn’t bad, this could be dramatically more if I managed to get Globalization... or anywhere near it. I always use the Moon Landing boost to propel me from around Nationalism to Communism, as my culture per turn is only 100. Being able to drop the Globalization card that gives me 5% for each suzerainty I have would be revolutionary and make the Future Era a breeze. I’ve often heard people say the majority of your science will come from this specific policy, but I don’t think I’ve ever managed to reach it.

How am I supposed to amass 200+ culture when going for a SV in order to get Globalization? I build 2-3 theatre squares and the buildings inside, but I’m always hopelessly behind. I can’t build any more unless I ignore some crucial campuses. I just feel like culture buildings are such low priority, but there must be something I’m missing if people can successful manage both.

Are there some policies I should be running, wonders maybe? With religious Brazil I went Work Ethic but struggled with the follower belief, is there something with religion that could help me? Must I really build monuments first? Thanks in advance, I’ve been struggling with this for a while.

Check out Civtrader6 on YouTube. It’s a bit old, so I would suggest getting a religion to pair with culture. You should be able to shave around 50 turns off of the SV. #sciencethroughculture

 

[Victoria]

around turn 265, 800-900 science

Too low too late, sounds like you need to refine your early game.

How am I supposed to amass 200+ culture when going for a SV in order to get Globalization?

There are 2 choices
On an average game moon landing is the best choice and the more science you can produce for the turn you trigger it the better your culture push will be.
If you have a great culture civ or get a great culture CS you can use you can push directly for it but you certainly do not get there early in a standard game.
Regardless of which strategy you use you really have to get used to your eureka and inspiration choices and planning. So much of a science game is planning, it is detrimental to play fast (like I do) because you often miss things.

to give you an idea, I measure for T100 having
Tier 2 government
At least 100 science per turn
At least 10 cities, ideally 13-15.
I have settled at least one ‘chop city’ to help with the moon landing.
I have Kilwa at least laid down if not chopped in.
I have an idea where Big Ben may go if I want it and an idea what other industrial wonder I want to chop
I have some idea when I will get to rocketry and where my culture will be at that stage, if it is not high enough it is now I need to push culture a bit harder

so you see from the above a lot of planning (that’s not all of it) and a lot of concentration on rocketry and globalisation, especially on what inspirations and eurekas I need.