Opinions on Cultural Victory

[BenitoChavez]

As I see it, there are two main strategies to CV.
1) Generate a bunch of science, grab the necessary techs before everyone else, build the necessary wonders and infrastructure, build archeologists and grab artifacts, rush to the internet, and spam Great Musicians at the cultural leader.
2) Generate a large/powerful military and conquer the wonders and great works you need, wipe out the cultural powerhouses, and generate as much "domestic" tourism via strat 1 that you can.

Obviously you can also do a mix of the two. But to me it seems like CV is pretty much SV or domination with a couple extra requirements tacked on. Since the endgame is usually pretty tedious and going straight science or domination is faster/easier, CV just doesn't hold any real appeal to me. What does everyone else think? Does CV add something novel or is just an extension of science/domination?

 

[Fredgerd]

Its definitely the hardest victory type to learn. Took me forever to get my first CV on BNW. I think its less and extension of SV and more a matter of knowing what tech order to use. CV tends to want a heavy leaning to the top half of the tree and you can basically ignore most of the bottom half from Modern Era and onward, and even the industrial era to some degree. Science is important, but good city placement, winning religious proliferation battles and getting the right diplomacy stuff passed is also very important. Warmongering can have a role but you have to be really careful because it can screw you over if you don't have a strong hand for the other elements of the strategy, since you will find yourself unable to get open borders with any civ.

Really its the victory type that requires the most micro management and attention to detail. In terms of appeal I really enjoy managing my art collection and seeing all the cool great works I've collected. I feel like archeology yealds could be more diverse and interesting though (seriously where are the dinosaurs). Personally I find science to be the most boring victory type. Still feels very Vanilla.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

It is another peaceful way to win the game. As a builder I approve.

However, unlike science it requires more early game choises - and is thus, at least imho, far more interesting. Science victory basicially means: rush hubble, bulb all the tech with scientists asap and build/buy the space parts. With culture on the other hand, you have a lot of options for early game investments that will pay off over time: wonders, specialists, archaeology.

 

[reddishrecue]

Most cultural victories are much easier with wonders and improvements because hotels and airports double tourism.

 

[chazzycat]

I like CV a lot, it's my favorite VC nowadays. There are lots of little things to manage that make it interesting for me. Competition for critical wonders is usually pretty high so it's exciting to try and nab them. You have to plan ahead to get the proper theming bonuses. There's the whole archaeology minigame. The world congress resolutions like world fair add a very interesting element. Plus if you are going for culture you get a lot of policies, which just makes everything better.

 

[pvtjava]

I'm with those who like the new CV. It is so satisfying when you pop that Work that seals a theming bonus for the building you just finished one turn before hitting the next era. Awesome! I do wish that Sacred Sites would get nerfed, though. Edit: I doubt Sacred Sites would be effective against a human opponent with any thought toward culture.

 

[redwings1340]

I really like the idea behind the new culture victory. Still a little unsure about how to play to get it, but I like the combination of the peaceful and competitive natures of the victory.

 

[pvtjava]

I like CV a lot, it's my favorite VC nowadays. There are lots of little things to manage that make it interesting for me. Competition for critical wonders is usually pretty high so it's exciting to try and nab them. You have to plan ahead to get the proper theming bonuses. There's the whole archaeology minigame. The world congress resolutions like world fair add a very interesting element. Plus if you are going for culture you get a lot of policies, which just makes everything better.

I sometimes feel like World Congress is a burden that I have to endure. The building projects' bonuses are awesome but they are quite a strain on an already tight build order. Depending on difficulty, you either are going to be hard-pressed to win, (and you really don't want to give a deity AI 100% culture for 20 turns), or you're going to do all or most of the work. I usually propose these with reluctance, especially World's Fair. International Games is necessary on higher levels to win though. On Prince and below, Hotels are enough if you have good theming, finish Aesthetics and sometimes Eiffel Tower.

 

[reddishrecue]

The cultural victory has 2 ways, offensive and defensive. Offensive culture uses tourism while defensive culture uses the vanilla culture. Cultural victory isn't that exciting since ais usually end up warmongering with each other or takes up all the good wonders.

 

[Brettapod]

Cultural Victory needs an earlier commitment to it than the other VCs. You can muster out late game science, diplo, and domination victories even if that wasn't your plan early on. With culture, you need to commit to generating Writers and Artists early.

 

[chazzycat]

I sometimes feel like World Congress is a burden that I have to endure. The building projects' bonuses are awesome but they are quite a strain on an already tight build order. Depending on difficulty, you either are going to be hard-pressed to win, (and you really don't want to give a deity AI 100% culture for 20 turns), or you're going to do all or most of the work. I usually propose these with reluctance, especially World's Fair. International Games is necessary on higher levels to win though. On Prince and below, Hotels are enough if you have good theming, finish Aesthetics and sometimes Eiffel Tower.

ahh, well I play on immortal. Deity is another story, sadly you cannot count on winning them. That's one of the main reasons I don't play deity, because I enjoy the world fair resolutions a lot.

 

[sendos]

Cultural Victory needs an earlier commitment to it than the other VCs. You can muster out late game science, diplo, and domination victories even if that wasn't your plan early on. With culture, you need to commit to generating Writers and Artists early.

This, or consider using piety to get sacred sites, which is ideal for a wide cultural victory.

 

[MattZed]

I often have games where I don't even get sailing until the Atomic/ Information Era. Every tech on the top of the tree is another tech that doesn't help for Education, Industrialization, Scientific Theory, Radio, or Plastics. Unfortunately, this means I don't get two key cultural techs, Archeology and Refrigeration, until later. Can't say Aesthetics is my cup of tea, either; every policy spent there is a policy not spent in Rationalism/Commerce/Patronage.

It's not that cultural victories are bad, they're just not my style. (my default win is usually an XCOM victory)

 

[pvtjava]

ahh, well I play on immortal. Deity is another story, sadly you cannot count on winning them. That's one of the main reasons I don't play deity, because I enjoy the world fair resolutions a lot.

Yeah, CVs on deity are really tough. I usually play on Prince just to have fun and build whatever I want. Sometime the projects get in the way of the Wonders I'm wanting. But most times I do WF anyway just to plow through the policies. In the recent Morocco/Warlord challenge I was able to win WF with second city only. Based on the rankings I've seen I should be able to do this on Prince too. 2000+ hours played and that was one of the first games I really considered building multiple Wonders outside the Capitol. Usually I'm focused on making my Capitol as awesome as possible and the other cities are just there for support, but with production trade routes the others can become viable candidates for Wonder production.

 

[Helmling]

I find it hard to do, though. With 22 civs I just never get there. I'll be influential over most of the others, but anywhere from 4 to 6 of the other civs are strong enough to hang onto their own culture despite huge "revolutionary wave" penalties from the awesome allure of my utopian society.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so. My advantage is huge (even though I never swap--I find that boring), but just not enough on a globe that crowded.

 

[MattZed]

I find it hard to do, though. With 22 civs I just never get there. I'll be influential over most of the others, but anywhere from 4 to 6 of the other civs are strong enough to hang onto their own culture despite huge "revolutionary wave" penalties from the awesome allure of my utopian society.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so. My advantage is huge (even though I never swap--I find that boring), but just not enough on a globe that crowded.

Larger maps = Science victory that much more attractive.

 

[Helmling]

Larger maps = Science victory that much more attractive.

I love playing as Greece, just cause I love Greece. It also means, though, that I can waltz into diplomatic victory pretty much at will.

 

[calyth]

Most cultural victories are much easier with wonders and improvements because hotels and airports double tourism.

Tack on a World Religion, which IIRC boost the holy city tourism output. Most holy cities are the capitals, where you'd be pumping out lots of tourism.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Wonders aren't acctually that important really for CV, the really big things are Archeology, and if you can get it, Culture improvements.

Basicly archeology rush and having alot of space for all artefacts will allow you a pretty easy way to win, conquest of Culture Civs will help alot to.

 

[Autoclave]

Cultural victory = possibility to experience all the best that CiV has to offer: Domination, Diplomacy, Religion, Science. All these can be used as tools for cultural victory and this is why out of my 30+ wins, most of them a cultural (I only got 2 domination, 1 science and 1 diplomatic).