How to infuence other Civs

[Tony.Uk]

Playing as Napoleon on King, I have the most culture and tourism by far, and yet no influence on any other civ, most on Order ideology as myself. I am also the most literate and yet it is 2040 and I am struggling to get the last spaceship part. I used to win fairly easily on King but only if I war-mongered and had at least 12 cities.

This time I decided to play with fewer cities. just one DOW taking 2 cities giving me 7 in total, hoping to get a culture victory, but obviously this has not worked. I have been
well into happiness most of the game, now 66. (Tradition Policy). Production in 3 cities is very high.

It takes ages to build spaceship parts and to get the tech. Has something changed in the last 3 months as now I am struggling even on King level(This time Mediteranean Map), I must be missing something. Going for National College too early seems to result in missing out on one city place. Maybe I should build 4 cities and then go for NC?
As usual you almost get one runaway civ in an far away place with plenty of room for expansion, in this case Ethiopia and he has influenced 3 civs and he has less tourism and culture than me. I have opened my borders with nearly all civs so my culture will spread more easy. Otherwise I do not know what I am doing wrong. Playing the game with little or no warmongering does not appear to be a good idea. I was hoping to move up to Emperor but not on this basis. Tried to upload save file but apparently it is too big!

 

[Tony.Uk]

Managed to win a science victory by 2044 but only because I had one scientist and 2 engineers
capable of hurrying spaceship parts. I have over 400 culture and influenced only 1 civ. I am not happy at all with this.

If I am ever to move up to Emperor level I need to win a lot earlier. But how? The only other option
I have is to warmonger.

 

[Novalia]

For CV You have to pay attention to all the modifiers such as having open borders, trade routes, shared religion. That's probably the main reason your influence stalled. In the tourism screen look at the column with all the +/- % values.

 

[Tony.Uk]

For CV You have to pay attention to all the modifiers such as having open borders, trade routes, shared religion. That's probably the main reason your influence stalled. In the tourism screen look at the column with all the +/- % values.

Ok, most are +25% due to Open borders., there is one -34% on Freedom Ideology.
What other factors are available to increase the modifier above 25%? I have not looked
at this very closely.

Thanks

Note: I found the answer in Carls Guide under Culture and Tourism. I traded too much with
City states.

 

[Catalytic]

1) Culture victories are easier the fewer cities you have because there is a penalty that gets added for each city you have to the total number of culture you need for your next policies. You want to go with 4-6 cities max (puppets don't count, so as long as you're not annexing, warmonger away).

2) Culture is fine and dandy, but Tourism is what you're really after. Culture's the "defense" in that it protects you from other civs becoming influential. Tourism's the "offense" and what wins games.

3) Look for those modifiers.

Open Borders, Have a Trade Route, and Shared Religion are all +25% Tourism modifiers
One of the late Aesthetics SP boosts it to +40% for each of those

4) Use religion as a springboard. There are a few Religion effects that modify Tourism. Most are weak, but there's one that's abusable by going wide (+2 Tourism per city or something similar). Otherwise, religion's main use is to pour SPs into your bank so you can max out growth and culture modifiers.

5) Wonders. Renaissance opens a truckload of key wonders all of which you want: Louvre, Uffizi, Sistine Chapel, Globe Theater, Leaning Tower of Pisa. La Alhambra is another one (Medieval Age) to look for as well for it's 20% Culture boost. It's nice, but not essential. Later, you want to shoot for Broadway, Eiffel Tower, Cristo Redentor, and Syndey Opera House as well.

6) Culture victory is great person dependent so settle on rivers or lakesides. Build Gardens. Remember that all multiplicative bonuses are best when stacked in a single city (like your capital).

7) I never burn a Great Writer, Artist, or Musician for anything but a great work. The two exceptions I have are 1) burning a Great Artist for a Golden Age during a World's Fair win to stack that 20% bonus in before the culture doubling effect and 2) burning a Great Musician (or several) during an International Games win for 2x effective concert tours to finish the game.

8) Be sure you're stacking great works properly for those extra bonuses. Even moreso with the Aesthetics finisher which doubles these bonuses.

 

[Tony.Uk]

Thanks for that. I presume sharing your religion means creating a Great prophet in order to spread it?

 

[Browd]

Sharing a religion just means you have the same religion (either his religion or yours) in a majority of each of your cities.