Many thanks to Victoria for providing a great nuts and bolts guide to culture wins. In addition, she is responsible for suggesting I build early theaters which is a key part of this strategy.
In this article, I will sketch out a strategy to win a peaceful cultural by turn 250 (or before). Turn 250 is a bit arbitrary, but it is where I consistently finish and it's early enough that religious or space AI victory is highly unlikely (even on deity) This was developed over the course of 20+ at Emperor, Immortal, and Deity difficulty levels using a variety of civs. My fastest win is turn 162. My slowest go to around turn 250. Typical immortal games where I get to pick the opponents run turn 200 to 220. After I won my first cultural win, I started to ask myself "is this or that bit of conventional wisdom really necessary" for virtually every aspect that is taken for granted as best strategy. In many cases, the answer was "no" and wins became faster as I simplified things.
A few highlights:
Speed - Standard, though this should work (with win turn scaled accordingly) at any speed. Numbers in this article are based on standard speed.
Civ - Any. Obviously some civs have specific bonuses that help with cultural wins. But I've become convinced that you can win a cultural victory by turn 250 with no civ bonuses at all.
Oponents - Any, though if you want fastest wins, you should leave out Kongo and Russia (due to them sucking up great people) and any civ that tends to go for culture as a priority (America, Greece, and China come to mind).
Difficulty - Any. As this is peaceful, the biggest challenge at higher difficulties is deterring attacks and grabbing enough space for 10 decent cities (though I've won with as few as 6). I do tend to reroll starts where I am too crowded by a neghboring civ at the start. Alternatively, you can go the non-peaceful route and bash your close neighbor in the ancient era.
Map - Any.
Map Size - Standard and larger. Smaller maps have the risk of the AI winning a religious victory.
Wonders - None (unless you're China)
Religion - None (unless you're Russia or Arabia)
Spies - None
Districts – Campus and theater, primarily. Commerce and harbors when there's nothing else to build. Situationally entertainment. Industrial or encampments almost never get built.
I'm assuming readers already understand the value of building at least 3 early slingers and how to defend themselves.
OK, so how is it done? In short, you want to expand wide fairly quickly. By “wide”, I mean lots of cities, not necessarily spaced out – with cities that end the game in the size 5 to 10 range mostly with 2 districts each, they can be crowded and there is no reason to avoid settling as close as 4 spaces away.
Other than the first builder, I generally don't build any more early builders. I might purchase some, as needed to take advantage of resources. I almost always purchase the first trader.
Pick divine spark as your pantheon. I can see the argument for something like dance of the aurora (combined with Jesuit education) if playing Russia, but divine spark should be the default in most cases.
Science is worth more than culture (culture will catch up once great writers start appearing), so early focus should be on science. As a result, the first 2 to 4 cities that have appropriate campus adjacency bonuses (+2 or more) get campuses first. You don't necessarily have to follow this up with libraries yet, but get two campuses to both get the boost for recorded history and to take advantage of the natural philosophy civic. These campus cities get a theater as the second district. Every other city gets theater as the first district.
At least some cities should build an ampitheater immediately after the theater district. Basically, you want book slots available whenever great writers are recruited.
When feudalism is finished, I build an average of 1 builder/city. These are used to pick up any additional luxuries that have come into my borders and to mine hills and lumber mill river forests. This essentially sets me up for high enough production to knock out the museums, archaeologists, and (some) broadcast centers. This is also a good time to review city population placement. Since I don't tend to build granaries, or irrigate much farmland, many cities are stuck at 5, 6, or 7 population. That's ok, but it does mean you should shift priorites to production over population growth as higher food production is destroyed by the housing shortages anyway. .
Every city should be building an archaeology museum when the civic is complete. Every town with a complete archaeology museum should be building an archaeologist when the civc is complete. In most cases, I like to buy my first archaeologist in a lower production city to get an earlier jump on getting a themed museum. Build broadcast museums post-radio. There are gaps between finishing a theater building and the next item becoming available. Use these turns to build traders (if routes are available), finish libraries and universities, build commercial districts or harbors, or do Campus Research or Theater Square projects (campus research is almost always better re-computers). Post-broadcast center, build whatever makes the most sense, though the game should be about over anyway.
I typically build (or buy) 1 art museum, typically in a low production city, but sometimes 0 (if I have few cities or never got a relic to fill the capitol slot) or rarely more than one. What to do with all those great artists? Use the art to trade for any books you missed out on (or to get a stolen book back). You can also occasionally get somewhat insane gpt deals for great art. Trading a painting for, effectively, 1000 gold is a good deal. That's getting an archaeologist out in the field 15 turns earlier than if you had to build it or half a broadcast center (or a settler + builder to chop a theater district if you find yourself short on cities late in the game). If I end up theming an art museum, great, but mostly the museum is for placing and trading art.
If you find yourself gold rich late in the game, consider buying a complete city. 4000 gold will get you city all the way through the archaeologist. 650 gold for a settler + 350 gold for a builder to chop 3 forests for the theater district + 500 gold for an ampitheater + 1000 gold for an archaeology museum + 1500 gold for an archaeologist gets you 2 more book slots (16 base tourism) and another themed (any additional museum after the first 6 or so is likelyk to be a themed museum after moving some artifacts around) archeological museum (27 base tourism). For 1500 gold less, you can buy the city with an art museum instead if you have kept great people around who can theme an art museum. You can repeat this as many times as you have gold for. It doesn't matter if this city doesnt grow or has terrible production – it's a straight gold for tourism swap.
Research priorities are pretty straight-forward, though there is some tweaking of order in order to maximize boosts, but, in general, it:
Writing -> Machinery -> Radio -> Computers while picking up printing somewhere in there (earlier if you have the boost, immediately after computers if you don't). Archery comes when appropriate as well. You'll miss lots of boosts, particularly in top part of the tree. That's ok. Computers is expensive without a boost, but you can still have it by turn 170 or so if you follow the campus strategy and prioritze science over culture on the cards.
Civics is a bit more complex, as exact order often depends on availability of boosts, but in general:
Drama & Poetry -> Political Philosophy -> Feudalism (possibly picking up Recorded History first) -> Exploration/Humanism (in either order) -> Natural History -> Humanism (occasionally reversed Natural History) -> Opera & Ballet/Cultural Heritage (in either order) -> Suffrage (only if you get this in time to boost computers) -> Space Race -> Social Media -> whatever makes sense (this has been, in the past, suffrage, globalization for production boosts, or reformed church to match my government up with most of the AI, etc). As with science, boosts will be missed, particularly with commerce (medieval faires, guilds, and mercantilism) when you prioritize theater districts over commercial. The extra culture from earlier great writers should make up for not getting these boosts.
Early on, once you have a pantheon, use the cards that boost production most (whether units or settlers or general hammers). As the game moves on, generally use the cards that maximize science + culture (with a slight nod to science). Gold is secondary. These could be adjacency cards, or district building bonuses or trade bonuses or the suzerain bonus card. It's highly situational. For a brief time post-feudalism, get those extra builder charges. Once computers is hit, replace the science cards with tourism cards. As the tourism civics are hit, replace any remaining culture cards with gold cards.
City states are pretty straight-forward as well. Focus on science over culture over commerce. Stockholm is worth fighting over, while generally nothing else is. Some games I am suzerain of a single CS (Stockholm), while others I have 5 or so. Use the Raj (+2 everything per suzerain) appropriately (which many games means not using it at all as other cards provide more science and.or culture).
Government is Chiefdom → Classical Republic → Merchant Republic → whatever (whatever matches up with the most civs – Sometimes it's sticking with Merchant Republic, sometimes it is changing to Democracy, and sometimes it is (ugh) Theocracy).
The way I used to play was science and commerce first, and then culture (no later than the second district anywhere). Trade routes are nice. There's a lot of flexibility in determining whether you need food or production (internal routes) or gold/culture/science (external routes). I estimate that abandoning early commercial districts for early theater saves me 10 turns or so off the win time. Yes, I no longer have trade routes with everyone. Sometimes, I end the game with 3 trade routes total. I find the tradeoff worthwhile if I know I am going for culture from turn 1. If you want to hedge your bets on victory condition, building commercial districts in the non-campus cities first is probably wiser (but slightly slower).
In this article, I will sketch out a strategy to win a peaceful cultural by turn 250 (or before). Turn 250 is a bit arbitrary, but it is where I consistently finish and it's early enough that religious or space AI victory is highly unlikely (even on deity) This was developed over the course of 20+ at Emperor, Immortal, and Deity difficulty levels using a variety of civs. My fastest win is turn 162. My slowest go to around turn 250. Typical immortal games where I get to pick the opponents run turn 200 to 220. After I won my first cultural win, I started to ask myself "is this or that bit of conventional wisdom really necessary" for virtually every aspect that is taken for granted as best strategy. In many cases, the answer was "no" and wins became faster as I simplified things.
A few highlights:
Speed - Standard, though this should work (with win turn scaled accordingly) at any speed. Numbers in this article are based on standard speed.
Civ - Any. Obviously some civs have specific bonuses that help with cultural wins. But I've become convinced that you can win a cultural victory by turn 250 with no civ bonuses at all.
Oponents - Any, though if you want fastest wins, you should leave out Kongo and Russia (due to them sucking up great people) and any civ that tends to go for culture as a priority (America, Greece, and China come to mind).
Difficulty - Any. As this is peaceful, the biggest challenge at higher difficulties is deterring attacks and grabbing enough space for 10 decent cities (though I've won with as few as 6). I do tend to reroll starts where I am too crowded by a neghboring civ at the start. Alternatively, you can go the non-peaceful route and bash your close neighbor in the ancient era.
Map - Any.
Map Size - Standard and larger. Smaller maps have the risk of the AI winning a religious victory.
Wonders - None (unless you're China)
Religion - None (unless you're Russia or Arabia)
Spies - None
Districts – Campus and theater, primarily. Commerce and harbors when there's nothing else to build. Situationally entertainment. Industrial or encampments almost never get built.
I'm assuming readers already understand the value of building at least 3 early slingers and how to defend themselves.
OK, so how is it done? In short, you want to expand wide fairly quickly. By “wide”, I mean lots of cities, not necessarily spaced out – with cities that end the game in the size 5 to 10 range mostly with 2 districts each, they can be crowded and there is no reason to avoid settling as close as 4 spaces away.
Other than the first builder, I generally don't build any more early builders. I might purchase some, as needed to take advantage of resources. I almost always purchase the first trader.
Pick divine spark as your pantheon. I can see the argument for something like dance of the aurora (combined with Jesuit education) if playing Russia, but divine spark should be the default in most cases.
Science is worth more than culture (culture will catch up once great writers start appearing), so early focus should be on science. As a result, the first 2 to 4 cities that have appropriate campus adjacency bonuses (+2 or more) get campuses first. You don't necessarily have to follow this up with libraries yet, but get two campuses to both get the boost for recorded history and to take advantage of the natural philosophy civic. These campus cities get a theater as the second district. Every other city gets theater as the first district.
At least some cities should build an ampitheater immediately after the theater district. Basically, you want book slots available whenever great writers are recruited.
When feudalism is finished, I build an average of 1 builder/city. These are used to pick up any additional luxuries that have come into my borders and to mine hills and lumber mill river forests. This essentially sets me up for high enough production to knock out the museums, archaeologists, and (some) broadcast centers. This is also a good time to review city population placement. Since I don't tend to build granaries, or irrigate much farmland, many cities are stuck at 5, 6, or 7 population. That's ok, but it does mean you should shift priorites to production over population growth as higher food production is destroyed by the housing shortages anyway. .
Every city should be building an archaeology museum when the civic is complete. Every town with a complete archaeology museum should be building an archaeologist when the civc is complete. In most cases, I like to buy my first archaeologist in a lower production city to get an earlier jump on getting a themed museum. Build broadcast museums post-radio. There are gaps between finishing a theater building and the next item becoming available. Use these turns to build traders (if routes are available), finish libraries and universities, build commercial districts or harbors, or do Campus Research or Theater Square projects (campus research is almost always better re-computers). Post-broadcast center, build whatever makes the most sense, though the game should be about over anyway.
I typically build (or buy) 1 art museum, typically in a low production city, but sometimes 0 (if I have few cities or never got a relic to fill the capitol slot) or rarely more than one. What to do with all those great artists? Use the art to trade for any books you missed out on (or to get a stolen book back). You can also occasionally get somewhat insane gpt deals for great art. Trading a painting for, effectively, 1000 gold is a good deal. That's getting an archaeologist out in the field 15 turns earlier than if you had to build it or half a broadcast center (or a settler + builder to chop a theater district if you find yourself short on cities late in the game). If I end up theming an art museum, great, but mostly the museum is for placing and trading art.
If you find yourself gold rich late in the game, consider buying a complete city. 4000 gold will get you city all the way through the archaeologist. 650 gold for a settler + 350 gold for a builder to chop 3 forests for the theater district + 500 gold for an ampitheater + 1000 gold for an archaeology museum + 1500 gold for an archaeologist gets you 2 more book slots (16 base tourism) and another themed (any additional museum after the first 6 or so is likelyk to be a themed museum after moving some artifacts around) archeological museum (27 base tourism). For 1500 gold less, you can buy the city with an art museum instead if you have kept great people around who can theme an art museum. You can repeat this as many times as you have gold for. It doesn't matter if this city doesnt grow or has terrible production – it's a straight gold for tourism swap.
Research priorities are pretty straight-forward, though there is some tweaking of order in order to maximize boosts, but, in general, it:
Writing -> Machinery -> Radio -> Computers while picking up printing somewhere in there (earlier if you have the boost, immediately after computers if you don't). Archery comes when appropriate as well. You'll miss lots of boosts, particularly in top part of the tree. That's ok. Computers is expensive without a boost, but you can still have it by turn 170 or so if you follow the campus strategy and prioritze science over culture on the cards.
Civics is a bit more complex, as exact order often depends on availability of boosts, but in general:
Drama & Poetry -> Political Philosophy -> Feudalism (possibly picking up Recorded History first) -> Exploration/Humanism (in either order) -> Natural History -> Humanism (occasionally reversed Natural History) -> Opera & Ballet/Cultural Heritage (in either order) -> Suffrage (only if you get this in time to boost computers) -> Space Race -> Social Media -> whatever makes sense (this has been, in the past, suffrage, globalization for production boosts, or reformed church to match my government up with most of the AI, etc). As with science, boosts will be missed, particularly with commerce (medieval faires, guilds, and mercantilism) when you prioritize theater districts over commercial. The extra culture from earlier great writers should make up for not getting these boosts.
Early on, once you have a pantheon, use the cards that boost production most (whether units or settlers or general hammers). As the game moves on, generally use the cards that maximize science + culture (with a slight nod to science). Gold is secondary. These could be adjacency cards, or district building bonuses or trade bonuses or the suzerain bonus card. It's highly situational. For a brief time post-feudalism, get those extra builder charges. Once computers is hit, replace the science cards with tourism cards. As the tourism civics are hit, replace any remaining culture cards with gold cards.
City states are pretty straight-forward as well. Focus on science over culture over commerce. Stockholm is worth fighting over, while generally nothing else is. Some games I am suzerain of a single CS (Stockholm), while others I have 5 or so. Use the Raj (+2 everything per suzerain) appropriately (which many games means not using it at all as other cards provide more science and.or culture).
Government is Chiefdom → Classical Republic → Merchant Republic → whatever (whatever matches up with the most civs – Sometimes it's sticking with Merchant Republic, sometimes it is changing to Democracy, and sometimes it is (ugh) Theocracy).
The way I used to play was science and commerce first, and then culture (no later than the second district anywhere). Trade routes are nice. There's a lot of flexibility in determining whether you need food or production (internal routes) or gold/culture/science (external routes). I estimate that abandoning early commercial districts for early theater saves me 10 turns or so off the win time. Yes, I no longer have trade routes with everyone. Sometimes, I end the game with 3 trade routes total. I find the tradeoff worthwhile if I know I am going for culture from turn 1. If you want to hedge your bets on victory condition, building commercial districts in the non-campus cities first is probably wiser (but slightly slower).
