Txurce
Deity
I played the b6 version of India in my second attempt ever for a cultural victory. Based on my starting position, I decided to build three cities after a NC start. Bouncing back and forth between Tradition and Liberty, I got a free temple and rushed Stonehenge, but forgot about the HE and built it late.
My approach was based on my recent Science games build up pop and science, with Sanitation System the first builds everywhere, while building culture buildings ahead of science ones. I beelined for all of the culture checkpoints, but the only buildings I rushed were the Broadcast Towers and factories (for a second war with France).
I was on a continent with France, Spain and Siam. France was already at war with both, but DoWd on my one War Elephant, and attacked my ally Genoa. I lost Genoa, and then Spain piled on. The downside of this is that I had to delay building the Sistine Chapel, and ultimately lost it by a few turns.
The upside was that I got favorable peace terms out of Spain, retook Genoa, and then convinced Napoleon to surrender after taking one of his cities. I could have kept it as a puppet, but sold it back to him (one of my favorite ploys) for over 3200g. This set me up as a caravel made contact with the rest of the world to corner all of the Cultural CS for the rest of the game.
I also Friended all of the Maritimes (apart from Genoa) but filling every single specialist slot kept my pop totals from absolutely exploding. I dont know whether additional specialists kept my Great Artist numbers down low, because I wound up with only 3 or 4 until near the finish. The end came before I could build the Sydney Opera House, because my cities (sizes 27, 27 and 23 at the end) were pumping out over 660 culture points per turn. That worked out to one SP every 3 turns for the second half of the game. I won in 245 turns.
The final odd note is that I skipped the Piety tree altogether. I didnt build a single colosseum, and felt I didnt need the additional happiness. As a result, though, I didnt get the bonus-policy SP. Instead I filled in Tradition, Liberty, Freedom (no GP in Democracy), Patronage, Commerce and Rationalism.
All in all, an unusual approach to a Cultural win, that resulted in a surprisingly early finish.
My approach was based on my recent Science games build up pop and science, with Sanitation System the first builds everywhere, while building culture buildings ahead of science ones. I beelined for all of the culture checkpoints, but the only buildings I rushed were the Broadcast Towers and factories (for a second war with France).
I was on a continent with France, Spain and Siam. France was already at war with both, but DoWd on my one War Elephant, and attacked my ally Genoa. I lost Genoa, and then Spain piled on. The downside of this is that I had to delay building the Sistine Chapel, and ultimately lost it by a few turns.
The upside was that I got favorable peace terms out of Spain, retook Genoa, and then convinced Napoleon to surrender after taking one of his cities. I could have kept it as a puppet, but sold it back to him (one of my favorite ploys) for over 3200g. This set me up as a caravel made contact with the rest of the world to corner all of the Cultural CS for the rest of the game.
I also Friended all of the Maritimes (apart from Genoa) but filling every single specialist slot kept my pop totals from absolutely exploding. I dont know whether additional specialists kept my Great Artist numbers down low, because I wound up with only 3 or 4 until near the finish. The end came before I could build the Sydney Opera House, because my cities (sizes 27, 27 and 23 at the end) were pumping out over 660 culture points per turn. That worked out to one SP every 3 turns for the second half of the game. I won in 245 turns.
The final odd note is that I skipped the Piety tree altogether. I didnt build a single colosseum, and felt I didnt need the additional happiness. As a result, though, I didnt get the bonus-policy SP. Instead I filled in Tradition, Liberty, Freedom (no GP in Democracy), Patronage, Commerce and Rationalism.
All in all, an unusual approach to a Cultural win, that resulted in a surprisingly early finish.