Monuments vs. Libraries?

[Anysense]

Granary is almost always top priority, then lighthouse (if there is sea food available). Everything else is situational. The most difficult part is to weigh opportunity costs, as they, to say the least, are not obvious.

 

[DrCron]

Are Cultural Victories mostly about running the slider at 100% culture then?

Yup. And generating as many great artists as possible (and cathedrals for extra culture... It's a completely different type of game).

Also, what are the general "must have" buildings in cities?

Apart from granaries I tend to build libraries almost everywhere for culture and science. But a city that doesn't have much commerce and is not close to the border it might not need it, so in the end you have to evaluate the map. On island maps lighthouses are a must have. If you are ORG courthouses tend to pay their price, but if you don't have that trait they aren't always needed. Even barracks don't need to be everywhere. It really depends on the game.

 

[Tatran]

Yup. And generating as many great artists as possible (and cathedrals for extra culture... It's a completely different type of game).

No, it's not. Generating base culture as much as possible with some multipliers is enough to win.

 

[Fish Man]

No, it's not. Generating base culture as much as possible with some multipliers is enough to win.

Maybe, but on deity you often don't have that type of time or the luxury of founding a corporation.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Are Cultural Victories mostly about running the slider at 100% culture then?

Also, what are the general "must have" buildings in cities? I've been trying to improve my game to higher levels by going Monument (if needed), Granary, Barracks, then units until forges, with cities that have a few villages or river tiles getting libraries* (in a recent Byzantium Emperor game, I had a city with no river tiles but a large amount of grassland which I almost exclusively cottaged. It was a coastal city as well, but mostly it was grassland with one copper and no other resources).

*- Also built them in cities with cultural border pressure, which is where I also built theaters, though I'm not sure if that was a good idea. Also, since I ended up building cottages in most of my cities, most of my cities ended up getting libraries.

IMO the only must have building is granary. I think a lot of the time you're better off building wealth.

You should only build monuments when you're absolutely forced to. Unless you're creative, you should try to get at least one good tile adjacent to the city itself, since immediate growth early game is more important than picking the best spot. This can often save you the bother of researching mysticism for a bit. Though I guess if your civ starts with it, and you settled on a plains hill, then it wouldn't hurt. Later on, you will get passive culture from religion and this becomes less of an issue. Spiritual people can whip temples easily.

The exception is when you are competing against someone else for tiles. Then it may be worth dumping culture in.

Forges and barracks are nice, but for obvious reasons they are only good for cities that will be good at producing units. And ironically, libraries would be nice if we had the trait that makes them cheaper.... but then creative doesn't have this issue typically.

Later in the game in captured cities I tend to throw a theater in though I am not really sure if that's worth it.

 

[DrCron]

No, it's not. Generating base culture as much as possible with some multipliers is enough to win.

Your screenshot is from 1965 AD, on Deity the AI will always win before that date. If you have a peaceful map and play for cultural victory since 1 AD (which is, as I said, a very different type of game), you can easily win around 1700 AD.

On a normal game there's hardly ever a reason to build a cathedral (or pagoda, mosque...), being first to music is still nice but not such a huge priority, and the great library (which you shouldn't build if going for cultural win) is one of the best wonders in the game. So yeah, it's a different type of game.

 

[Fish Man]

Your screenshot is from 1965 AD, on Deity the AI will always win before that date. If you have a peaceful map and play for cultural victory since 1 AD (which is, as I said, a very different type of game), you can easily win around 1700 AD.

On a normal game there's hardly ever a reason to build a cathedral (or pagoda, mosque...), being first to music is still nice but not such a huge priority, and the great library (which you shouldn't build if going for cultural win) is one of the best wonders in the game. So yeah, it's a different type of game.

Yeah, as stated by my post before, I agree.

Still, though, why is GL so important? 2 free scientists doesn't seem like that big of a deal; even at a good bureau cap, they both give about 10-12 beakers total mid-game, maybe double that with rep (though by rep you're pretty close to obsoleting GL, and probably already have at least a 500-ish beaker-per-turn empire). So, is it for the GPP? Or something else I'm not aware of?

 

[lymond]

for the gpp, and ideally you build it in your gp farm/ne city

 

[DrCron]

why is GL so important?

Yup, as Lymond said, its GPP generation is pretty good. Which is also, by the way, the reason why you shouldn't build it if going for a cultural victory.

 

[Kallikrates]

The point with the great library is to get it fairly early so it helps with the scientists who bulb education (and maybe another tech or two). It does not obsolete that early. If on normal speed I get the library around 0 AD (earlier, if possible, but according to the typical wonder dates someone collected one is fairly safe with such a date on immortal). Then typically around 1000 liberate MT and attack with cuirassiers. Only after this war and one or two AI less capped I go for Scientific method, so the Great library "works" from around 0 to around 1300 or later.
If possible the Great Library should not be build in the capital if it can became a cottaged bureaucracy capital. But on some maps one simply does not get a (second) high food city early enough and has to build the GLib in the Capital, if at all. Again, especially on maps with not so much food the two extra scientists matter. If one has lots of food one can run Caste and simply have a few more scientists in the city with the NE.
(But one thing I learned on this forum is that one should not rely to much on ANY wonder. It might sometimes be a good exercise to play a game and not build any Great wonder to see that it is possible without.)