Pyramids or GL in Cultral Victory game

[Archbob]

So I'm playing emperor.

I was wondering for a Cultral Victory, would you go for Pyramids or GL.
Pyramids get you that Great engineer which is an instant wonder.
However, GL combined with a philosophical leader is a GPP farm easily(because of the 2 free specialists it gives you) and if built in your main city, gives you a big science boost for the same reason.

What do you guys think?

 

[OTAKUjbski]

I play on Monarch.

I vote Pyramids.

I like to make my GP farm a Great Artist farm. Running Representation allows me to do that and still get the I need to keep at least some semblance of tech parity.

-- my 2

 

[Archbob]

I can see that, but the 2 great scientists means you can research alot faster to Liberalism.

I'm going to try GL, I've done pyramids several times I can't get liberal until like 1500

 

[DaveMcW]

Every time you generate a great scientist, God kills a great artist.

Please, think of the artists.

 

[Cam_H]

May as well make it 4 ... I'm with OTAKUjbski on this one.

I've just played a cultural game where I was popping the bulk of my s from two cities - one of which was where I put The Great Library. This severely contaminated my pool with Great Scientist influence, and slowed my finish date significantly. This was a game where my tech'-ing stopped at Rifling-Democracy and Great Scientists were about the last thing I wanted to pop ... maybe if heading for Corporations and late game Culture WoWs this concern might be lessened. If you feel you need The Great Library, I'd suggest to keep it away from cities destined to pop a lot of s.

 

[Archbob]

Well, I'm in a game where I got Pyramids, Parthenon, The itza, and the Chapel so in terms of wonders I'm doing well, but Its like 800AD and I'm still like 40 turns away from Philosophy, so the research is severaly screwing me. Plus Motezuma is so war-happy all the time.

I got the cultral victory on Monarch without much of a struggle, Emperor is next to impossible.


I'm playing on a hug map in Marathon mode BTW. My leader traits are spiritual and philosophical.

 

[InFlux5]

Sounds like you're focusing too much on Wonders, not enough on religion.

 

[Archbob]

On emperor, I can found 1 religion, 2 at best, so I end up usually with one or two holy cities.

 

[Killroyan]

I don't mind the pollution of 1 legendary city with the scientists. 3 scientists can still generate 3 acadamies who also make a little culture. But also speeds up the research considerably (lets you even pop philosophy). Faster research also means faster acces to wonders. But to have 1 city only generate GS is not so good.

 

[Archbob]

I like to concentrate all my wonders in 1 city generally. I know, it may sound dumb but I can pop Great people once every 15 turns or so for quite a while. And usually it breaks down to:

10% Great Engineer
30% Great Scientist
60% Great artist

Has anyone founded more than 2 religions in Emperor, that was my best. Someone usually beats me to the third one and I can't go too long without essential techs like Animal Husbandry.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

3's my record for religions on emperor.

Oracle theology, scientist lightbulb philosophy, self research divine right.

I always do the first one, but not always the second or third and it is quite rare for me to do both in the same game.

 

[brianb1974]

If you can get pyramids first, why shouldn't you also be able to get GL later?

 

[oyzar]

Great library is horrible if going for cultural if your not going to research past sci meth(most of the time you shouldn't come close...). As for religions getting budism, confuncanism and taoism shouldn't be too hard. You don't actually need to found any religions though... Just get 3+ religions spread to you. Holy cities aren't worth that much and you certainly don't want any shrines... Get a great artist farm with some artists wonders globe theater and national epic and just run as many artists there as possible(caste and pacifism is a good idea).

Pyramids might sometimes be a good idea if you have stone as it allow you to switch to universal suffrage without researching democracy and hence rushbuy to speed up cathedrals and their prereqs.

Seriously though there are written a ton of stuff on cultural victories. Most of the higher level ones agree that generating almost exclusively artists is by far the best choice.

Cottages and culture bombing is the way to go for cultural.. Wonders are nice but clrealy not essential..

 

[The Rook]

Has anyone founded more than 2 religions in Emperor, that was my best. Someone usually beats me to the third one and I can't go too long without essential techs like Animal Husbandry.

If you have an Industrious leader you could found Confucianism with a Col Oracle slingshot. This will nearly always work at Emperor, it also puts you on track for Taoism. If you build SH with Oracle you are guaranteed an early Prophet, so you could bulb Theology, you even have a shot at Divine Right later.

I founded 4 religions in my recent Immortal game with HC using the described method. My position was isolated, so I knew I was going for a cultural win from early on. I built SH, Oracle, AP, UoS, Spiral, Sis and Taj in the capital. I cottage spammed two river cities for the 2nd and 3rd legendary candidates. There was a convenient triple food source water city that I used as an artist farm with NE. By the time I discovered Liberalism, my cottaged cities had nowhere near finished their cathedrals (lack of copper didn't help). So I ended up teching to Radio for ET, Broadway and R&R, and used the free resources to trade for seafood, as I founded Sushi. When I FINALLY threw my economy into culture I was generating near 1500 culture per turn in each city, so the game was over in a couple of dozen turns.

I must confess it was a very weird game, and I would not suggest that founding 4 religions on Immortal is normal or desirable. Most of the leaders on the map turned out to be warmongers (Monty, Brennus, Isabella, Sury), and this slowed down the pace of things, so I ended the game with a massive tech lead, and top of the scoreboard. If my rivals were Financial tech whores the situation could have been more difficult.

 

[Archbob]

What do you do if they declare war on you? I suspect since your running pacifism and going culture, you aren't building too many units.

 

[The Rook]

What do you do if they declare war on you? I suspect since your running pacifism and going culture, you aren't building too many units.

Pacifism is nice, but not essential civic, if you can keep a dangerous neighbour sweet by running something else it might be better to do that. Normally I run OR for most of the game to help build those numerous culture buildings required. By the time I am running Pacifism (if I run it), I'm normally building lots of units in anticipation of a final assault. After I have built all the essential culture buildings, there are plenty of hammers free for cranking out units and wealth to support them.

 

[Abegweit]

Every time you generate a great scientist, God kills a great artist.

Dave says in a sentence what it takes us mortals to say in a page. Succinct. To the point. And so true.

 

[TeraHammer]

I usually build the GL in my commerce capital, and have another GP farm for great artists.