Switching culture to 100%?

[Toshiro126]

At the moment, I am trying to win a cultural victory on Noble with a standard map and seven (whatever the default is) other civs. I am assuming to win that way, at some point you have to push the culture slider up to 100? I know that has appeared as a strategy in some threads, but those threads are often unclear as to WHEN in the game do most players do that? Or maybe they don't push the slider up that high?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[MrCynical]

To be honest I rarely touch this slider even if I'm going for a culture victory. You need to keep up your tech pace to get the wonders and improvements as fast as possible, and you can't afford to burn too much on the culture slider. Once you're in the modern age (and certainly if you've got nothing left but future tech), then yes, push it to 100%..

 

[Toshiro126]

To be honest I rarely touch this slider even if I'm going for a culture victory.

Interesting, MrCynical. I thought that is was a given that the slider had to be used at some point. It would help if I didn't have to push it too 100, so I could keep up with others techs, if purely for defensive reasons.

 

[DaveMcW]

I recommend this article. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=138647

 

[petey]

As the above article says, the best time to do it is after you get Riflemen. There are no more cultural improvements to research at that point and Riflemen can do a good job in defending your cities against any AI that attack you while you're going for the win.

England is a good choice for Cultural Victories because you get the Redcoats instead of the Riflemen, which makes for a stronger defensive unit while you're going for your final culture push.

 

[Toshiro126]

Petey: As the above article says, the best time to do it is after you get Riflemen.

Okay, thanks that is very helpful. Have enough tech to mount a strong defense was my main concern while I tried to finish the game. I was close to winning one game with Cultural but I just got swamped by the other civs on my island. Which were the Japanese, Mongols, and Romans. Not exactly the calmest AIs to have as your neighbors!

 

[Finite Monkey]

The one thing I would add to the Rifelman (Oh and England is great for it) is your realative tech standing. If I'm a little behind or equal I'll go up to Infantry instead and then switch. It makes for a closer game with the space ship, but it gives me more defense. Something to consider.

That article is great though and it will get you through it.

I think you would have to be WAY ahead to get away with not going up to 90-100%.

 

[vbraun]

Switching to 100% culture is a very good idea on future starts.

 

[DaveMcW]

... until the guy who switched to 100% gold uses his newly hired army to wipe you out.

 

[Islandia]

Switching to 100% culture is a very good idea on future starts.

And in a team game with two people running free speech isn't it a +200% culture bonus?

 

[Finite Monkey]

... until the guy who switched to 100% gold uses his newly hired army to wipe you out.

Which is why all of your cities except the magic three produce non-stop riflemen or infantry plus Cannon and/or Artillery. The discussion then becomes about tech leads and what defensive unit will get the job done.

If the person who wants to stop you is ahead in techs they could very well get to tanks or modern armors and make the Culture victory fail. However, if things in the tech race are close the guy switiching to 100% culture will be able to fend you off long enough to win.

And to make it worse, if you are switching to 100% gold to upgrade your military it better be to tanks and modern armor because infantry and artillery vs. infantry and artillery are not going to be enough (all things being relatively equal) to prevent the cultural win.

 

[cleverhandle]

What I've done for the Cultural Victory endgame is slow research dramatically after Riflemen, but not shut it down completely. Leaving science at about 20-30% is usually enough to get to Infantry within 40 turns or so, and that's a big defensive boost. Once I get Infantry, then it's 100% culture from there on out.

 

[Wodan]

I agree with FM & others... at some point you put the slider to 100% culture. Your 3 cities should be topping out each at 750-1000 culture per turn. You have to hold out for 30-40 turns or so, without any more tech increase. Units aren't an issue... your other cities are either churning out your best military units (riflemen & cavalry probably), or else they are producing $.

Who cares if they attack you with a half dozen tanks when you have 50 riflemen?

To me the issue isn't "how can I hold out while my opponents are still increasing tech?" Poo. The issue is "can I get the CV before my opponents build the UN or Spaceship?" Whether or not you can depends on how well you set yourself up, and how well you timed the switchover to 100% culture.

Wodan

 

[vyapti]

What about Democracy? Universal sufferage really helps production when you're loaded with towns, especially if you've sacrificed production for commerce. This along with cash rush really helps get you're big three packed with cathederals.

 

[chewbaccad]

In my one cultural victory, I was surrounded by some of the nastier AIs (who were a bit peeved with me anyways), so the Rifleman strategy wasn't an option. I kept on 80% research and beelined for the Internet starting just before I hit the modern age. I fell behind for a bit, but kept up enough defense to guard my territory. Once I researched Fiber Optics, I put the culture slider to 100%. Once I got the Internet, I instantly got about 7 techs (poor Mr. Nimoy's voice got hoarse) which caught me up enough to coast to the win. It's kinda weird seeing your cities pump out 7-800 culture per turn!

 

[walkerjks]

What about Democracy? Universal sufferage really helps production when you're loaded with towns, especially if you've sacrificed production for commerce. This along with cash rush really helps get you're big three packed with cathederals.

I've toyed with switching pre-Democracy and switching post-Democracy. Getting democracy actually accomplishes two things - you get +1 shield/town, which is usually important since you core 3 cities are usually production poor (sometimes only a couple of mined hills for production) and occasionally downright production awful. In the extreme case, you place a city in a jungled area without hills and you end up with 20 tiles of cottaged grassland. Without democracy (or the Pyramids), that's exactly 1 shield of production (but 160+ commerce, depending on your river situation). You will probably still be building cathedrals until fairly late, so the production is nice. Of course democracy also lets you spend cash to finish cathedrals in your shield-poor cities, which is a nice alternative, particularly if you have a great merchant or two.

The second benefit is with Emancipation. I usually don't use emancipation as my cottages are close enough to towns around 1500 AD. Anything at the village stage is good at that point. But if you need the double cottage growth, you need to move past Liberalism.

The benefit of not getting democracy is being able to skip Constitution and Democracy. That's probably a minimum of 15 turns of research, and it could be more. In general, I figure every 3 turns early I flip the culture switch is 1 turn earlier that I win (since you culture at 1500 AD is far from maximized). The extra production is almost always worth winning 5 turns later.

 

[Toshiro126]

Walkerjks, I just finished reading your A strategy for consistent cultural wins on Monarch thread. Great stuff. Very helpful!

 

[alexti2]

The optimal moment of switching culture to 100% depends on difficulty. At some point in game AI decides that potential benefits from conquering somebody doesn't worth the time spent on it and it concentrates on the space race. That's the moment to go 100% culture (assuming that you've minimally required technologies, such as liberalism). But depending on the difficulty, you'll have different level of techs when AI reaches that turning point.

 

[Cotton_Eyed_Joe]

switcihng to 100% percent science would work better if you don't have a lot of the cultural techs also try and get heaps and heaps of great artists and try and get the early wonders.

 

[Cicer0]

I usually play Catherine when I go for Cultural victories, and I usually switch to 80 culture/10 tech right after researching Military Tradition. Cossacks own almost as much (and in some cases more) than Riflemen and come sooner on the tech tree. If you are going culture you should have Music anyway, so getting MT isn't too difficult. I've actually waged war with people after making the switch using primarily Cossacks. Of course, this is predicated on having horses, so YMMV.

I never go 100% culture because money is just too useful for rushing things in the end game. 80/10 is my standard setting: it gives me enough culture to win, with enough tech that if I boost my non-culture cities to high research I can still advance a bit.