We will want a good core of puppet cities. At some point, though, we might want to sow salt and let various AIs come in and compete, so we have more units to kill and cities to raze, so we can get more culture. That makes sense, right? Burn and pillage our way to Utopia?!?
I like puppeting Hanoi. Sidon may well get the same fate. If we can reach that barb camp by Oslo, though, I'd be pretty tempted to go out and get it. Free (essentially) influence with a city-state isn't something to sneeze at. And a maritime one to boot? It would benefit our puppets, too, IIRC.
Barracks and Heroic Epic would be good in Tenochtitlan, too. That 15% strength upgrade isn't something we want to ignore.
To be clear, we get the culture benefit from all unit kills, not just those from jaguars. Jaguars are good in jungles, so we can use that, but they're not entirely necessary for culture.
As for great artist spots, I suppose we can build buildings that provide them, but we shouldn't actively be using those specialist slots. If our puppets produce great artists, well, we can use them for whatever. Same with city-states that might gift us great artists (possible with the right social policies). We can use those however we like.
Wonders which happen to provide more than one culture are OK, as long as culture isn't their sole purpose. Stonehenge is out. The National Wonder that doubles culture in a city (once you have a monument in every city) is out. Hanging Gardens and regular Gardens are OK, because they serve many purposes.
I'm still on the fence about the wonder that creates two great artists. That's quite a ways in our future, though.
Arathorn
I like puppeting Hanoi. Sidon may well get the same fate. If we can reach that barb camp by Oslo, though, I'd be pretty tempted to go out and get it. Free (essentially) influence with a city-state isn't something to sneeze at. And a maritime one to boot? It would benefit our puppets, too, IIRC.
Barracks and Heroic Epic would be good in Tenochtitlan, too. That 15% strength upgrade isn't something we want to ignore.
To be clear, we get the culture benefit from all unit kills, not just those from jaguars. Jaguars are good in jungles, so we can use that, but they're not entirely necessary for culture.
As for great artist spots, I suppose we can build buildings that provide them, but we shouldn't actively be using those specialist slots. If our puppets produce great artists, well, we can use them for whatever. Same with city-states that might gift us great artists (possible with the right social policies). We can use those however we like.
Wonders which happen to provide more than one culture are OK, as long as culture isn't their sole purpose. Stonehenge is out. The National Wonder that doubles culture in a city (once you have a monument in every city) is out. Hanging Gardens and regular Gardens are OK, because they serve many purposes.
I'm still on the fence about the wonder that creates two great artists. That's quite a ways in our future, though.
Arathorn
when killing an enemy unit.
We need a good source of puppets. 
