Pillaging culture

[Raiki]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but if it has I haven't seen it.

I was just rewatching the PAX demo video, and I noticed that when Attila captured an Ethiopian city during the demonstration of the new naval AI, 50 culture was pillaged in addition to the normal gold.

For verification: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueEPWvjSWAw Pillaging of the city starts at 8:57ish.

Have we heard anything at all about this change? If not, do you think this is a new automatic feature of capturing a city, or is it based on wonders/social policies/relative culture levels?

Personally, I hope it's based on relative culture. Not only does it make sense to get more culture from a civilization with drastically more than you have, but it would let civilizations focused on warmongering grab an extra few SPs along the way, from beating up their more cultured neighbors.

Discuss.

Edited: Broken link.

~R~

 

[JFD]

I believe it is an affect of a Social Policy. I tried to find the info that said this in the forums, but couldn't, so I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Camikaze]

IIRC (I think it was in a video, maybe the same one you mention, where it was moused over), that's the impact of the Autocracy opener.

Edit: see here.

 

[JFD]

IIRC (I think it was in a video, maybe the same one you mention, where it was moused over), that's the impact of the Autocracy opener.

Edit: see here.

Exactly what I was trying to look for. Hopefully they've generally enhanced Autocracy to rival Freedom and Order.

 

[Raiki]

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Here I was thinking I'd found something new.

Anyway, onward and upward.

Ten culture per point of culture the city produced, huh? Unless they've changed culture outputs or required culture levels, that could pretty easily mean a free policy when you capture your local culture/wonder spammer's capital.

This seems like it could be a good way to keep up the culture flow for Monty, or anyone who took Honor. Combine that with spy tech-stealing, and the added happiness you can get from religion and warmongers pretty much have their other concerns taken care of. All they absolutely have to build to get by is a few buildings and units.

~R~

 

[Scarpa]

Wow I hadn't noticed this change in Autocracy. It will really help keep you from stalling out on policies if you take Police State and annex a bunch of cities.

 

[Camikaze]

Yeah, it does seem a great boost for Autocracy, and would certainly enhance the warmonger cultural victory strategy.

 

[Raiki]

Yeah, it does seem a great boost for Autocracy, and would certainly enhance the warmonger cultural victory strategy.

Oh please, we know there's no such thing as a warmonger cultural victory. Civilizations are like lays chips. I bet you can't eat just one.

On a slightly more serious note, has anyone ever actually pulled one of these off? Even as Monty? Seems like if you start warmongering, you could have every city in the world puppeted before you'd even come close to a cultural victory.

~R~

 

[Camikaze]

Yeah, it's probably the best way to go cultural, actually, because those puppets will pump out a ton of culture for you without increasing the cost of social policies. I've always preferred playing peacefully if I'm going cultural, specifically for that reason; once you're on a roll, why stop and settle for cultural? But if you're playing on a level where wars are more difficult, then it may not be quite the same. Killing off your own continent and holding it would require a lot less an investment than subsequently launching an intercontinental invasion.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I've done it as Monty. It needs a certain type of map. Continents is ideal, you can conquer all your neighbors on your own continent, puppet the hell out of them (could take the city states too, that's fun) then turtle up that continent and let the other side of the world do what they're gonna do. Once the conquering is over this strategy is not exactly exciting anymore but it certainly can work and feels good to pull it off.

 

[Raiki]

Okay, fair enough. I only rarely seem to be playing on continents, so maybe that's why I've never managed. Maybe I'll try one when G&K comes out and I can pick up the beefy new "Here have a couple free policies" policy.

~R~

 

[Gucumatz]

Yea its going to make autocracy much more desirable. Getting anywhere from 1000-4000 culture from pillaging a capital for basically a free policy (which sounds like was removed from piety) at least allows a warmonger to annex more of his/her cities and still get policies.

I could imagine sniping cities as well though. If you are on your own continent, selectively raid cities for culture and then sell back to owners (for gold etc, or keep a few for cultural puppets) then declare war again later. Could be culture war farming if isolated

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've done it as Monty. It needs a certain type of map. Continents is ideal, you can conquer all your neighbors on your own continent, puppet the hell out of them (could take the city states too, that's fun) then turtle up that continent and let the other side of the world do what they're gonna do. Once the conquering is over this strategy is not exactly exciting anymore but it certainly can work and feels good to pull it off.

I just did that as the Danes last week. It was a bit more challenging.