Need Advice in Religious Game

I'm playing as the Malinese on Prince. I started the game wanting to get as many religions as possible for the end game and perhaps go for a cultural victory (something I've never done before).

Now, it's 1640 and I haven't boosted my Cultural output by one per cent during the whole game. Is it too late for a cultural victory? My three best cities are at 10,000-12,000 cultural points.

George Washington has a slight tech lead over me and looks like the situation will continue that way. He has the bigger empire and better traits. He also benefits from the Prince bonus.

I founded five religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I also captured the Taoist holy city from the English. I have built only a Christian cathedral (can I only build cathedrals of my state religion?). The Confucian city has been razed, apparently by the Incans.

Now. I've just researched Nationalism, Rifling and Chemistry (not Astronomy). Should I stop here, save on tech and boost my Culture? Or should I just forget the thought about a cultural victory, try to get somebody (like Montezuma) to wage war against the Americans and win in the way I've always won: via Space Race.

My civics are Representation, as I have only seven cities, Free Speech, Caste System, Free Market and Organized Religion (I need to build a lot at the moment, but I'm looking for an opening to switch to Pacifism or Free Religion).

 

your timing is good and you can win by culture quite easily i would say. Well it depends of the tech lead Washington has of course.
You should build, in your three cities, all the cathedrals for all the religion existing in your empire. Make a lot of great artist through caste system and switch your slider to 100% culture.
Be sure to have a city (not one the three cultural ones) producing riflemen and grenadier so that you keep a good army. You will fall behind in tech but it's okay if you have a lot of riflemen you can wage a defensive war agains infantry.
Thanks to all your artists specialists you should get great artist, use them for culture bombing your three cities.
Once your cities do not have any more cultural buildings to build, make them produce culture. Maximize food to get as many specialist as possible and that's it!

 

I'd say you are in a good position. You can build cathedrals of any religion, but you need 3 (sometimes 4?) temples of that religion for each cathedral first. (Mouse over the grayed cathedral and check how many temples you need before you can build that cathedral.) Build temples everywhere, then cathedrals in your 3 cultural cities. It might be a good idea to develop Democracy and switch to Universal Suffrage, so you can rush buy buildings. Set the sliders to 100% gold first, rush buy everything cultural in the cultural cities, then set the culture to maximum.

Also, try to get military tradition if you have a chance (and horses, of course.) Enough cavalry makes it a lot easier to protect yourself.

After you set the culture to maximum, check which one of the 3 cities produces less culture. You can even calculate remaining turns. Set it to build culture. The rest can build military for a while. You are going to need plenty of military, cavalry is the best. After that, switch most of the cities to wealth (one or two weakest cultural cities, to culture) and try to set the cultural slider to 100%.

 

Calvary are a good idea from a military point of view. Your going to start losing the tech race, so you will have to face infantry with what you got. Infantry get no bonus against calvary. Also with flanking II, calvary can have a 50% withdrawal rate, which is good to have when you expect to lose engagements. So with superior numbers and cannons you can stop a technologically advanced enemy.

 

OK! Thanks for the advice. I think I will research Military Tradition and then start building my Cultural empire and hope that I survive the turmoil ahead.

George Washington isn't that far ahead of me, just a tech and a few turns. He is still behind me in Victory Points, but his empire really blossomed all of a sudden in the Renaissance period (probably through tech trading with the other continents, the git), so it can't take far before he catches up. However, nowhere in the world is there another nation as powerful or as advanced as mine or George's, so we do have a nice lead. That makes America my only real enemy at the moment.

Luckily my neighbours, Huyana and George, are good Christians like my Malinese, so there's a chance I can get a Defence Pact with one of them. Hopefully this will be the Americans, with whom I have been trading and warring against Victoria. So there's a chance I won't be attacked by the most powerful nation until perhaps the end game. I don't trust the Incans that much, and I'm fairly certain Victoria will try again, but she's still far behind us in tech.

 

Go for an alliance with washington If u 2 can keep the leed (and keep good relations) you can get a permenant alliance and dominate.