Tips for Cultural Victory?

[mrmonkey]

I only ever did Conquest victories in Civ IV. I'm giving a Cultural victory a shot right now in Civ V as the French. Anyone have any suggestions or tips on how best to achieve this? I'm playing on lowly Warlord so it's not like losing is likely . But I wanted to play on Warlord so as to move up to something more difficult next game and do a Cultural victory again.

 

[AlienFromBeyond]

Puppet cities are your friend. You still get the culture from them, but don't increase the cost for social policies. I believe 4 is the most cities you should be personally controlling before it starts actually increasing the time between social policies. I recommend a hammer heavy city for various wonders, and to build that Utopia Project quickly once you unlock it.

 

[ButSam]

I just did a culture victory, did some things right and some things wrong, here are my thoughts on what I'd do:

Policies:
* Tradition (for the 33% bonus to Wonders early on b/c a lot of wonders help toward Culture victory)
* Piety (and by extension, NOT rationalism) for all of the massive bonuses, capstone being 2 free social policies
* Patronage (b/c city-state stuff goes a lot further, and getting free great people eventually from that bonus is huge)
* Freedom (for policy discount and culture boost; thanks Bhavv for the reminder of where this comes from)

The other one is flexible. Once you pick one path stick with it though since completing 5 entirely is a tall order, no detours.

Wonders:

Any wonder that either boosts your culture or reduces culture cost of social policies. Sistine Chapel and Cristo Redentor are two huge ones, but I know there are tons that I just can't think of off the top of my head. May also want Great Wall even though it is unrelated b/c it will help a lot if AI declares war on you, but that is a nicety not a necessity.

Try to spread at least one wonder per city. There is a policy that increases culture quite a bit in any city w/ a wonder.

Buildings:

Temple, Monument early -- this is a good use for gold to buy 'em up. Workshops and other production boosts as well.

Focus:

Production of course, but also gold to buy buildings and units you have no time to build. Build it up fast.

Diplomacy:

Stay non-provocative but strong. Befriend city-states when you get to that point by accomplishing as many quests as possible. (Don't pay gold until after you get a couple of Patronage promotions...at least the first one...but also start at 20 and gold goes further are great civics.) If possible, befriend a military city-state as well so you keep up your defenses.

That's not comprehensive but at least gives some thoughts. Good luck!

 

[bhavv]

Policies:
* Tradition (for the 33% bonus to Wonders early on b/c a lot of wonders help toward Culture victory)
* Piety (and by extension, NOT rationalism) for all of the massive bonuses, capstone being 2 free social policies
* Patronage (b/c city-state stuff goes a lot further, and getting free great people eventually from that bonus is huge)

And freedom to double culture in wonder cites, and reduce the cost of new policies by 25%.

For the last one, either commerce or order is fine.

 

[ButSam]

And freedom to double culture in wonder cites, and reduce the cost of new policies by 25%.

For the last one, either commerce or order is fine.

Absolutely right; I couldn't recall where the culture boost per wonder city came from, but I edited my above post to incorporate your info; thanks for the reminder

 

[WaKKO151]

I just won a cultural victory with a one city challenge using Siam. Didn't do anything special really except build alot of cultural buildings and wonders. I kept a small elite fighting force of Elephants(2), Warrior------>infantry(2) and one ranged.

Stayed Proactivly friendly the whole game with other civs only signing PoS against Warmongering nations. I sell all my luxary and strategic resources to other civs for as much as I can to pay for as many cultural CSs as possible.

CSs are as follows.
1 mil
1 food
2 cult

If you can afford more then go for it but the 1 food is priority followed by 1 cult then 1 mil then as many other cults as you can afford. Gift any units that are gifted to you back to the mil city state or del them for cash and make sure the mil CS is close otherwise its pointless.

Bottomline is one city = cheap policys and less overall maintence.

I didn't but you might want to shop around for a nice start or use legendary start.

Diffuculty level i used was Prince

 

[WaKKO151]

Puppet cities are your friend. You still get the culture from them, but don't increase the cost for social policies. I believe 4 is the most cities you should be personally controlling before it starts actually increasing the time between social policies. I recommend a hammer heavy city for various wonders, and to build that Utopia Project quickly once you unlock it.

looks like 20-30% increase for each city you own. Not sure about puppets.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Production is a big part of the late-stage cultural victory, since the Utopia Project requires so much to build. I haven't tried it yet, but in future playthroughs I'd keep a Great Engineer in reserve to hurry it along.

 

[DalekDavros]

Also, don't neglect the marble-nearby bonus for the wonder city.

looks like 20-30% increase for each city you own. Not sure about puppets.

As far as I can tell, it's 30%, but its additive in number of cities (so, three cities means (1+(3-1)*0.3)=160% cost, and not (1.3)^(3-1)=169%).

 

[DalekDavros]

Production is a big part of the late-stage cultural victory, since the Utopia Project requires so much to build. I haven't tried it yet, but in future playthroughs I'd keep a Great Engineer in reserve to hurry it along.

Projects can't be hurried, only buildings/wonders.